Fear and anxiety at the basis of adolescent externalizing and internalizing behaviors: a case study

Juvenile delinquency is rarely associated with success in psychotherapeutic treatment. Up until now, few data have been recorded regarding possible overlaps or common features of conduct disorders with anxiety disorders. This case report of a delinquent adolescent's presenting an obsessive-compulsive disorder discusses possible underlying common features of externalizing and internalizing disorders, mainly in terms of fear and anxiety regulation. The successful psychotherapy is discussed with regard to efficient psychological assessment and treatment of delinquent adolescents, and it underlies the importance of detailed analysis of psychopathology in cases of juvenile delinquency.     

Fiscal restraint and the political economy of EMU

While the principle of delegation has become well established on the national level for monetary policy, fiscal policies remain in the hands of policy makers depending on rent-seeking interest groups. We argue that the Maastricht Treaty provides a unique international commitment that enables governments to follow restrictive fiscal policies by attributing their negative side-effects to Europe, and to implement austerity measures despite rising unemployment or a decline in growth. Hence, the popularity of the European idea is instrumented to enforce fiscal discipline. The paper outlines the political economy framework and presents new econometric evidence.     

Previously Unreported Complication of Coronary Artery Bypass Grafting: Suture Rupture Resulting in Patient's Death

Traditionally, the manner of death in most hospital autopsy cases is natural, in which death is due to the natural course of disease or reasonably anticipated outcomes of medical interventions. Some cases fall into a potential gray zone between natural and accident, including rare or unanticipated outcomes of medical interventions. We present a case of a patient postcoronary artery bypass graft. Autopsy revealed the proximal anastomosis of the aorta‐to‐first‐diagonal‐coronary‐artery‐to‐second‐obtuse‐marginal‐artery graft was detached from the aorta. A broken suture was present at the disconnected anastomosis, with intact knots but was broken along its length. In‐hospital mortality rates of CABG range from 1% to 3%, with several autopsy studies identifying surgical complications as the cause of death in one‐third of perioperative deaths. No publications were found that described suture rupture as directly relating to the cause of death. This case report describes a previously unreported complication of coronary artery bypass grafting.     

Evaluation of a semi-automated, magnetic bead-based DNA extraction method for genetic fingerprinting of forensic casework samples

In order to cope with the demanding workload for DNA profiling of forensic casework samples a concept for a semi-automated processing system was developed at the Landeskriminalamt (Office of Criminal Investigation) Baden-Württemberg, Germany [K. Vollack, et al., Implementation of a semi-automated processing system for DNA profiling of forensic casework samples, this issue]. The applied magnetic bead extraction method is based on ChargeSwitch^® Technology (CST) from Invitrogen and was established on a liquid handling workstation Freedom EVO^® 150 from Tecan.