Increased adrenaline to noradrenaline ratio is a superior indicator of antemortem hypothermia compared with separate catecholamine concentrations

The significance of urinary catecholamines and small gastric mucosal bleedings, Wischnewsky's spots, in postmortem diagnosis of hypothermia deaths was evaluated. Autopsy cases (n=358) were divided into hypothermia, suspected hypothermia, and control groups. The catecholamine levels did not correlate with the length of the postmortem period. The adrenaline to noradrenaline ratio was most effective in detecting hypothermia (68.9% sensitivity, 78.1% specificity). The median adrenaline concentrations were significantly higher in hypothermia than in control groups. The control group containing mostly sudden cardiac deaths with no cold exposure had a noradrenaline level comparable to the hypothermia groups. The sensitivity and specificity of determining Wischnewsky's spots in hypothermia deaths were 63.9% and 88.3%, respectively. The adrenaline to noradrenaline ratio is more suitable in proving antemortem cold stress than either of these independently, and its diagnostic value is comparable to that of Wischnewsky's spots.     

论刑事诉讼的北美模式

发现案件的客观真实是刑事诉讼所追求的首要和主要目的,法庭审判选择哪种诉讼模式取决于其是否能够实现客观真实.在这方面北美国家纯粹的对抗制表现出严重缺陷,由陪审团进行审判甚至会加深这些缺陷.在北美刑事诉讼中占据支配地位的辩诉交易制度,由于取消了以公开和言词审理为中心的庭审方式,使得刑事诉讼脱离了其所追求的客观真实目的,而转向仅仅证明谁能在诉讼中取胜.这不仅在理论上破坏了北美刑事诉讼的公正性,而且导致了刑事诉讼实践中的根本改变.但是,正是辩诉交易存在的这些可疑却很有诱惑力的影响,使得北美的刑事诉讼模式对于欧洲当代的刑事诉讼改革有着如此大的吸引力.     

Sentences by Mexican Indian Peasants

Much of the existing literature on the replacement of sharecropping by wage labour in the cotton South during the post‐Depression era tends to focus on developments internal to the United States and to the South as a region. As such, it fails to provide a more global analysis which takes into account the fact that Southern cotton production was integrally tied to a world economy. This article addresses these shortcomings by examining how changes in the class structure of Southern cotton production had an impact on both foreign cotton production and the rise of the man‐made fibre industries between 1930 and 1950. This analysis attempts to avoid some of the major criticisms levelled against dependency theories and world‐system approaches, while showing how a global approach provides a more complete understanding of the relationships between the internal and external socio‐conomic factors which contributed to this historical transformation.     

Book reviews

The paper discusses two well-organized Nordic gender conferences—one in Bergen and one in Gothenburg—which, however, were remarkably different in character. While the local Norwegian conference opened windows to the world outside the Global North, the windows were kept only ajar at the national Swedish meeting.     

Intergenerational Transmission of Party Affiliation Within Political Families

Political Behavior - We investigate the intergenerational transmission of political-party affiliation within families with at least two politicians. We use Swedish registry data that covers all...     

Politics and policy of Artificial Intelligence

While recent discussions about Artificial Intelligence (AI) as one of the most powerful technologies of our times tend to portray it as a predominantly technical issue, it also has major social, political and cultural implications. So far these have been mostly studied from ethical, legal and economic perspectives, while politics and policy have received less attention. To address this gap, this special issue brings together nine research articles to advance the studies of politics and policy of AI by identifying emerging themes and setting out future research agenda. Diverse but complementary contributions in this special issue speak to five overarching themes: understanding the AI as co-shaped by technology and politics; highlighting the role of ideas in AI politics and policy; examining the distribution of power; interrogating the relationship between novel technology and continuity in politics and policy; and exploring interactions among developments at local, national, regional and global levels. This special issue demonstrates that AI policy is not an apolitical field that can be dealt with just by relying on knowledge and expertise but requires an open debate among alternative views, ideas, values and interests.     

The negative relationships between employee resilience and ambiguity,complexity, and inter-agency collaboration

Employee resilience (ER) is often needed to face demands inherent in public sector work. Some types of demands, however, may hinder its development, rather than provide the type of challenging adversity from which resilience can develop. Public sector job demands have been a long-standing issue for public workplaces and employees but are also growing in salience as organisations face an increasingly variable, uncertain, complex, and ambiguous environment. Drawing on the Job Demands–Resources model and the challenge/hindrance stress literature, this multi-level study of Aotearoa New Zealand civil servants (n = 11,533) in 65 public sector organisations shows that ER is negatively affected by demands such as job insecurity, unclear job and organisational goals, and inter-agency collaboration. However, organisational resource constraints are positively associated with ER. This study identifies core PA job and organisational demands that hinder ER and offers practical implications and suggestions for further research.

Points for practitioners

• Job role ambiguity, job insecurity, unclear organisational goals, and inter-agency collaboration are common job and organisational demands in public sector workplaces.
• For employees, these demands are stressors that employees do not feel they control, and may therefore hinder employee resilience: the ability to learn, adapt, and leverage networks in the face of challenges.
• Surprisingly, resource constraints, where employees have to ‘do more with less’, might help employees develop ER.
• While inter-agency collaboration has potentially many benefits, it appears to have negative spillover effects on employees unaware of it or not involved in it.
• To encourage ER, agencies should clarify both organisational and job goals, and assure job security, control, competency development, and supervisor support.