An unusual case of railway suicide

A rare case of suicide in which the victim had been lying along the railway track in a supine position and with extended extremities is described. The wheels of a train caused longitudinal hemisection with complete evisceration. Epidemiological data on train suicides are given and the relationship between this method of suicide and mental illnesses and consumption of alcohol are discussed.     

Linguistic and visual strategies for portraying immigrants as people deprived of human rights†

The majority of news items on sub-Saharan immigrants in the Spanish press refer to their arrival by jumping the fences of Ceuta or Melilla or landing in small boats at the Spanish coast. The data in this article consist of all the news items published on the arrival of sub-Saharan immigrants in Spain by jumping the fences of Ceuta and Melilla, items that appeared in the digital editions of the two most popular Spanish newspapers, El País and ABC, from 1 January 2012 to 1 January 2015. The principles of critical discourse analysis and visual grammar are used to deconstruct the linguistic and visual portrayal of sub-Saharan immigrants when they try to enter Spain by jumping the fence. This research reveals that the immigrants jumping the fence at Melilla are represented as wild and dangerous. There is no reference to their human rights. The study thus aims to provide a visual analysis of the way in which the arrival of these immigrants is represented visually in two serious newspapers. In this way, the study aims to unveil visual ways of negative representation of immigrants, who are portrayed as dangerous invaders.     

Andalusia at the crossroads of Europeanness: immigration as a performance of coloniality

ABSTRACT

The semantics of cultural diversity, based on the political discourses of immigration as they appear in integration and anti-racist policies in Andalusia, underline the sense of Otherness of immigrant groups. In this article, Castaño, Martínez and Periáñez focus on the most relevant texts in the Planes Integrales para la Inmigración en Andalucía (Comprehensive Plans for Immigration in Andalusia). To date, these texts have formed the most significant discursive framework for representations of the third sector, trade unions and public agencies involved in the management of diversity. The key ideas in the plans revolve around transnational political references in the context of the European Union (EU). They impose a sense of Europeanness on Andalusia that is in opposition to its historical heritage, endogenous diversity and cultural specificity, and thus steer the imaginary of Andalusia's identity towards a Eurocentric idea that enhances the region's peripheral position. Immigration is regarded in the hegemonic media discourse and the social imaginary as a risk and a social problem. Integration policies, despite being couched in anti-racist rhetoric, are specifically targeted at immigrants, further enhancing the idea of Otherness. The notion of interculturality is the leitmotiv of these policies. In practical terms, however, action is limited to empty measures in the field of education. These policies, in sum, neutralize, rather than reinforce, the sense of equality on which interculturality is based. The examination of the intertextuality of Andalusian, Spanish and European discourses reveals the conformity of the discourse of Andalusia's coloniality within the framework of the EU.     

Comparative study of efficiency of dental methods for identification of burn victims in two bus accidents in Spain

This article deals with the usefulness and limitations of dental identification methods of human burn victims of two buses accidents in Spain. The first accident happened in Bailen in 1996 and involved 28 badly burned Spanish victims. In the second, in Illescas in 1997, 8 Japanese and 2 Spanish victims lost their lives. In both accidents, postmortem forensic procedures for identification were used, including external and internal examination, routine photographs, and dental examination. Dental identification was established in 57% of the cases in the Bailen accident and 80% in the Illescas accident. The success rate of dental identification varies considerably depending on the nature of the accident, the nationality and country of residence of the victims, the incidence of dental treatment, the availability of adequate dental records, and the degree of dental injuries. A discussion of procedures and methods for identification recommended when dealing with burn victims is included.     

Public Financial Management Systems and Countries' Governance: A Cross‐Country Study

The objective of this study is to explore whether a relationship exists between public financial management (PFM) systems and expert perceptions of countries' governance in an international cross‐country study. We examine the extent to which variations in accounting, budgeting and auditing practices are associated with governance in a sample of 97 countries that represent different levels of development, analysing the differences between countries classified into factor, efficiency and innovation‐driven economies. Our concept of governance perception includes three dimensions: accountability, government effectiveness and corruption. We find that countries with a higher level of economic development show, on average, more sophisticated PFM systems characterized by the presentation of accrual‐based financial statements, the application of value for money audits and higher budget transparency. When analysing the sub‐samples of countries according to the level of economic development, we find that countries with similar governance perception scores show different patterns of PFM practices, suggesting that there is no one‐size‐fits‐all approach. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Drugs Around the Corner: Domestic Drug Markets and Violence in Colombia and Mexico

Over the past decade, drug consumption has increased in Colombia and Mexico, countries traditionally concerned with drug production and trafficking. Governments and observers have associated this growth with spikes in violence. Drawing on drug consumption surveys and fieldwork in four cities, this study argues that contrary to this perception, there is no automatic connection between domestic drug markets and violence. Violence depends on whether large drug‐trafficking organizations (DTOs) control low‐level street dealers and on whether those DTOs have a market monopoly at the local level. When dealers are independent, violence might be sporadic, but when DTOs control dealers, violence can explode (given competition between DTOs) or implode (if one organization holds a monopoly). Control over dealers provides DTOs not only income but also informants and armed muscle. This article also shows that domestic drug markets are not new, and have grown incrementally in the past two decades.     

Bio-nanoscience and bio-nanotechnology: social and ethical aspects]

This article is an abstract of a conference with the same title presented at the XIII Jornadas sobre Derecho y Genoma Humano and is basically centred in a report for the Royal Society and the Royal Academy of Engineering entitled Nanoscience and Nanotechnology made publicly available July 2004.