Household furniture tip-over deaths of young children

The potential for the injury or death of a child resulting from the tip-over of a piece of household furniture or a domestic appliance has not been previously well recognized. We reviewed nine accidental deaths of young children that resulted from avoidable residential hazards and/or lapses in supervision of the children by their caregivers. The offending household items included televisions, bedroom dressers, a kitchen stove, and a lounge chair. The causes of death were mechanical asphyxia, blunt trauma, and combined blunt head trauma and asphyxia. All of the deaths could have been prevented by appropriate anchoring of the piece of furniture and/or closer supervision of the child. A thorough multidisciplinary investigation is essential in establishing the cause and manner of death in such cases and in identifying risk factors that may aid in the prevention of future childhood deaths.     

Paths to destruction: the lives and crimes of two serial killers

Although research into the phenomenon of serial murder has revealed that serial killers frequently do not fit the initially described paradigm in terms of their physical and psychological profiles, backgrounds, and motives to kill, the media continues to sensationalize the figures of such killers and the investigators who attempt to analyze them on the basis of aspects of their crimes. Although the so-called "typical" profile of the serial murderer has proven accurate in some instances, in many other cases the demographics and behaviors of these killers have deviated widely from the generalized assumptions. This report details two unusual cases in which five and eight murders were committed in upstate New York. The lives and crimes of these offenders illustrate the wide spectrum of variations in the backgrounds, demographics, motivations, and actions witnessed among serial murderers, and highlight the limitations and dangers of profiling based on generalities.     

On the Electoral Relevance of Education Policy in the German Länder

Education policy in Germany experienced a boom throughout the 2000s. Numerous reforms were implemented, quite far-reaching shifts of party programmes occurred, and the scope of institutions with an educational mandate widened considerably. At the same time, Landtag elections came to be seen as less dominated by federal politics. Yet we still know little about education policy's electoral relevance. The present article, following a most-likely design, analyses those five Landtag elections that were held since the reform of federalism in 2006 for which the importance of education policy ought to have been highest. It turns out that even though education is one of the very few policies which the Länder can decide upon autonomously, and despite the recent upsurge of regional factors in determining the outcomes of such second-order elections, nearly all Landtag elections are won or lost on other battlefields.     

Literatur

Ohne Zusammenfassung     

Das einheitliche Bestandverhältnis

Bei Vorliegen eines Bestandverhältnisses und gleichzeitiger oder nachfolgender Inbestandnahme eines weiteren Objektes stellt sich die Frage, ob zwei getrennte Vertragsverhältnisse oder ein einheitliches Bestandverhältnis vorliegen. Diese Frage ist zB für das Vorliegen der Zulässigkeit der Aufkündigung der Objekte relevant, die im Fall eines einheitlichen Bestandverhältnisses im Allgemeinen nur einheitlich erfolgen kann, sowie für die Mietzinsbildung und das Vorliegen des Kündigungsschutzes des MRG. Die Kriterien, die die Rsp für die Beantwortung der Frage, ob ein einheitlicher Vertrag oder zwei gesonderte Verträge vorliegen, aufstellt und welche Rechtsfolgen sich im Einzelfall daraus ergeben, werden hier kurz dargestellt.