The influence of loss of blood and alcohol intoxication on early vital wound reactions (author's transl)]

The influence of loss of blood and alcohol intoxication on wound reactions in the first 12 hours after incisions into the skin of the back of guinea pigs was examined. As the most important result we found differences in the cellular and zymohistochemical reactions: while begin and progression of the dermal leucocytosis were not influenced, the parallel running activation of different structure bound enzymes was significantly delayed and decreased. Considering the first result and the haematogenous origin of the leucocytes there is reason to believe that in the hierarchy of the biological control circuit-at least in guinea pigs-the local reflex hyperaemia of the wound area certainly is primary to the dermal vasoconstriction during collapse. The animals with haemorrhagic shock showed a retardation in the liberation of histamine and serotonin. This decrease of the local mediators of the stromae dissociation is considered the reason of the impaired initial enzyme activities in the mesenchymal tissue.     

The organization of influence on the EC's common agriculturalpolicy: A network approach

The common agricultural policy of the EC with its market regulations is decided at EC level by a multilevel system of government, in which the Commission and the parliamentary parties of the European Parliament play the supranational role and the national ministries of agriculture act as parts of the intergovernmental system of the Council of Ministers. National interest groups have thereby three major access routes to the EC system, first through their national governments, or second indirectly, transmitted by their European peak organizations, or third directly to the supranational EC actors. The network approach is applied to study empirically the densities of access through these various routes. The links between actors in the agricultural policy domain are conceptualized as links for the exchange of resources, the most important resource of a policy domain being the final control of policy decisions. The political actors of the governance system originally hold full control of this valuable resource which they exchange for influence resources possessed by the interest groups, as public support or expert knowledge. Empirically, answers to the network questions depend on the type of resource and the viewpoint of the interviewed actors. An index is developed which indicates the resource flows between actors and the distribution of equilibrium control of policy decisions. It is shown that the national ministers of agriculture depend very much on the support and expertise of their national farmers' lobby, whereas the Commission relies more on contacts within the political sector itself. Multilevel systems need a lot of political coordination, so that the political actors within such systems, especially at the supranational level, seem to deal first of all with each other and not so much with the demand side of politics, compared to the national ministers of agriculture.     

Homicides--the sociodemographic background of the offender and the behavioral symptoms

The authors examined 261 forensic-psychiatric reports to determine whether persons convicted of criminal homicide differed from persons convicted of other crimes with regard to personal biography, sociodemographic milieu, and character traits. Both groups were found to come from similarly disadvantaged social backgrounds. Murderers could not be distinguished on the basis of biographical data alone. The parameters found to be distinctive of murderers were: site of the crime, criminal-victim relationship, motive for the act, intoxication at the time of the crime, and the perpetrator's opinion regarding the purpose and intent of the homicide. The present findings confirm some of the results obtained by other authors on this topic.     

Allelic distribution of nine short tandem repeat (STR), HLA-DQA1, and polymarker loci in an Omani sample population

Allele frequency distributions of nine short tandem repeat (STR) loci, D3S1358, vWA, FGA, D8S1179, D21S11, D18S51, D5S818, D7S820, and D13S317, HLA-DQA1 and polymarker (PM) loci were studied in a sample population from Sultanate of Oman, Middle East. Blood samples were collected from 162 unrelated individuals. For all STR, HLA-DQA1 and PM loci, no deviations from Hardy-Weinberg equilibrium, based on the exact test, were observed. The most discriminating loci were D18S51 (PD=0.966) and FGA (PD=0.964), while the least informative locus is GYPA (PD=0.585). The allele frequency data may be useful in forensic case work.     

Reconstrudive significance of stretch mark tears of the skin

Stretchmark-like tears of the inguinal region are commonly referred to as typical lesions in pedestrian accidents when the victim is run over by a motorcar. These lesions can also be observed when a pedestrian is hit by a vehicle while being in an upright position. Stretchmark-like tears are due to hyperextension or excessive abduction of the hip joint. Characteristic morphological features are variable numbers of equally superficial and parallel tears of the skin following the skin's cleavage lines. Drivers of two-wheeled vehicles may exhibit inguinal stretchmark-like tears when they hit an obstacle with their bent knee, suffering excessive abduction of the hip joint. Finally, stretchmark-like tears are described in victims of collisions with railed vehicles, of aircraft crashes and--very rarely--in severely injured car passengers.     

Fatal child neglect in East Germany 1 January 1985 to 2 October 1990. Results of a multicenter study

No reliable data are available on cases of lethal child neglect in the area of the former German Democratic Republic. In a multicenter study we therefore examined the police and court records for such cases occurring in the period 1 January 1985 to 2 October 1990 in the entire area of the former German Democratic Republic. RESULTS: A total of 9 cases were reported to the study center. This does not include undetected cases, whose number, though indeterminate, is probably small due to the general obligation to perform autopsies on all children dying before their 16 birthday. Just over half of all victims were less than one year old, the oldest was 3 1/2 years old. Starvation and severe dehydration were by far the most common causes of death; in half of cases these occurred in combination with hypothermia. Most often mother killed their children by neglect, either alone or together with the victim's father. In the majority of cases no close bond existed between the parents and the child. Seventy percent of the perpetrators were chronic alcoholics. All 10 of the perpetrators were sentenced to imprisonment for periods ranging from one year to life long. Mitigating circumstances were presented at the sentencing phase of the trial on behalf of 20% of those convicted. The experience of legal medical and pathological institutes in the former German Democratic Republic underscores the need to perform an autopsy on all deceased infants and young children. Only this can ensure that no cases of lethal child neglect are overlooked.