Decapitation due to early post-mortem canine gnawing

A 53-year-old male was found dead in his home. The deceased's head, almost totally skeletonized, was lying at a distance of about 150 cm from the thorax inlet. The other occupant of the flat was a mongrel sheepdog. The autopsy conducted for the inquest established extensive damage to soft tissue in the head, neck and chest. The second to sixth cervical vertebrae were missing. The seventh cervical vertebra and the right first rib displayed bone lesions. The tissue injuries were attributed in the diagnosis to post-mortem canine gnawing. Cause of death was given as intermittent haemorrhaging of the gastro-intestinal tract from oesophageal varices in a status of hepatic cirrhosis. There was no indication that death had been caused by another party. About two days were estimated to have elapsed since death. Attention is drawn to this doubtless rare instance of total decapitation of the deceased with displacement of the head caused by a dog during the early post-mortem period.     

Adhesive tape on the face--criminalistic aspects

Under forensic differential diagnostic aspects postmortem findings of adhesive tape in the face suggest either suicide, an autoerotic accident or homicide, in which case the adhesive tape could have been used for sealing the mouth or as a means to commit the homicide itself. 9 autopsy cases are described as examples with this constellation and discussed under criminological aspects.     

Capacity for physical action in traumatically-induced epidural hemorrhage

Authors report the case of a 55-year-old man with a nearly normal capacity to act for appr. 48 hours following epidural hematoma due to a blunt trauma of the head with skull fracture. The man was amnestic for the period of time since the trauma. According to the computertomographic findings, the cause for the mild clinical symptoms was a pre-existent atrophy of the brain.     

The probability of casting a decisive vote: The effects of a caucus

We study the effects of caucus formation upon a voting process with the aid of a Pólya-Eggenberger probability model. The model contains a parameter interpretable as cohesiveness between voters in a voting body. We examine relationships among members' voting power, satisfaction, and group cohesiveness. We also explore the likelihood of a distortion of opinion resulting from the caucus.     

Politics, Economics and the Measurement of Power

To what extent is political power fundamentally different from or, alternatively, comparable to economic power? While it is true that the basic institutions of democratic political life - the electoral arena and the sovereign representative assembly - differ from such capitalist economic institutions as the market and the joint-stock company, the logic of the power game which takes place in both settings is quite similar. In both institutions power will be a function of the capacity to enter decisive coalitions with other players: individuals, political parties, stockholders or groups of stockholders. Power indices may therefore be employed in order to reveal aspects of the strategic gaming that takes place both in representative assemblies and at yearly stockholders' meetings. This article discusses and compares various quantitative measures of voting power in the two kinds of voting bodies.     

Cannibalistically intended homicide following a media report

Inspired by media reports on the cannibalistically motivated homicide in Rotenburg (German state of Hesse), a man in Berlin with homosexual tendencies decided to realize his longstanding fantasies of slaughtering someone. He killed another homosexual man and dismembered his victim, while the motive changed from an offensive and necrophile to a defensive dismemberment of the body. The parallels between the two homicides are presented and discussed.     

The unintended consequence of doorstep consumer protection: surprise,reciprocation, and consistency

Cooling-off periods are universally employed in doorstep selling regimes. Paired with a right for consumers to withdraw from the contract, this legal instrument seeks to protect consumers against superior skilled and knowledgeable sellers thus restoring the balance of interests. According to prior literature, cooling-off periods also serve an economic function by moderating the abuse of market power, by mitigating problems of hidden characteristics, and by promoting consumer choice. If their drawbacks—mainly the creation of consumer moral hazard and shifting of risk to the seller—can be contained, cooling-off periods are hence supposed to yield efficiency gains. By thinking out of this box, the present paper showcases that cooling-off periods also establish the perverse incentive for the seller to increase consumer compliance to a level which outlasts the cooling-off period. I argue that inevitably occurring psychological factors and transaction costs from the cooling-off regime amplify each other, thus creating a hard-lock status-quo bias. Based on behavioural insights and transaction cost theory, I predict that an inefficiently high number of consumers will enter into a doorstep contract and that, at the same time, the number of cancelled contracts will be inefficiently low. Consequently, I propose to change the default inherent in current cooling-off regimes from presumed consent to presumed withdrawal in order to debias consumers’ withdrawal decision.     

China–Africa Cooperation: promises,practice and prospects

Chinese engagement in African states has increased tremendously over the last decade, much in line with Chinese globalisation strategies and supported by state encouragement and financial support. The size and potential of China as a world power leads to the level of expectations the country faces from the developing world. However, some elements of these expectations are also created through political discourses which emphasise differences with Western countries. The types of promises that the Chinese leadership makes to create such enthusiastic welcome amongst African political leaders are linked closely to the discourse on South–South cooperation. Albeit different from Western development assistance promises and parallel attempts to produce moderate expectations, the current discourse is thus partly sowing the seeds for future disappointment. This article takes a closer look at the discussions around South–South cooperation in China–Africa relations and at key rhetorical features (‘mutual benefit’; ‘non-interference’) and at the practice of this cooperation. It concludes that the Chinese discourse is creating large public expectations in African countries and while China delivers on many projects, its impact on development is less certain. The overall development success of this strategy builds on longer-term success and is implicitly linked to the occurrence of more reforms in Africa. Chinese policy thus ‘bets on the future’ in their foreign relations with Africa; the success of this strategy is dependent on political circumstances among the partners that are largely beyond Chinese control. In a number of cases, it can thus be expected that currently up-beat political rhetoric is going to meet obstacles that will require adjustments in a discourse that, in its current form, might undermine Chinese credibility if not the core elements of South–South cooperation altogether.