Geräusche von Freizeitanlagen

Nach Erfahrungen des Bayerischen Landesamtes für Umwelt treten in der Praxis Probleme bei der Abgrenzung von Freizeitanlagen gegenüber Sportanlagen auf. Seit Jahren gibt es keine eindeutige und abschließende Zuordnung, trotzdem existieren unterschiedliche Beurteilungsvorschriften. Zur schalltechnischen Beurteilung von Sportanlagen ist die 18. BImSchV (Sportanlagenlärmschutzverordnung) heranzuziehen. Zur schalltechnischen Beurteilung von Freizeitanlagen wird in vielen Bundesländern die vom Länderausschuss für Immissionsschutz erarbeitete Freizeitlärm-Richtlinie empfohlen oder vorgeschrieben. Sie weicht zwar, wie nachfolgende Gegenüberstellung aufzeigt, in Einzelpunkten von der 18. BImSchV deutlich ab. Ein Vergleich der nach beiden Vorschriften ermittelten Endergebnisse für ein und denselben Einzelfall führt aber unter Berücksichtigung aller Beurteilungskriterien oftmals zu einem unbedeutenden Unterschied. Dieser rechtfertigt es nicht, zwei unterschiedliche Vorschriften aufrecht zu erhalten.* Dipl.-Ing. (FH) Andrea Wellhöfer ist Mitarbeiterin im Referat Lärmschutz bei Anlagen und in der Planung des Bayerischen Landesamtes für Umwelt (bis 1. 8. 2005 Landesamt für Umweltschutz).     

Manners of Imagining the real

What counts as evidence? What is accepted as true in court given the evidence admitted? How are subordinated peoples further oppressed in courts because they cannot demonstrate that their experience is fact? Drawing on the confirmation brings for Clarence Thomas as Associate Justice of the Supreme Court and the testimony of Anita Hill in those hearings, the author explores the ways in which representations of sexual violence against women can be seen as not “real.”     

Principles of Autonomy*

Autonomy has two faces, individual autonomy and institutional autonomy. Political systems not only deal with demands for individual freedom, the traditional rights of citizens to freedom of opinion, association and contract. Institutional autonomy is a pervasive property of all kinds of political systems. To international political systems just as to local and regional political systems, autonomy is a basic property. Both types of systems face the difficult task of maintaining stable relations with the nation state, securing an amount of control for the nation state while retaining some autonomy for themselves. The demand of various regions for independence or semiindependence within nation states has been a dominant theme in the politics of the sixties and the seventies. The autonomy of the nation state is its sovereignty. International political systems present a threat to the autonomy of the nation state, while at the same time they may provide mechanisms by means of which other sources of infringements on autonomy may be counteracted. Autonomy is a fundamental political property. A theoretical understanding of autonomy is conducive to the explanation of those aspects of political systems that are related to stability. Such an interpretation may place autonomy in an equilibrium analysis of how demand and supply of autonomy interacts with other basic political properties like influence and control.     

Working with local NGOs: WaterAid's programme in Nepal

This article describes the evolution of WaterAid's programme of work in Nepal, based on the author's experiences while working as WaterAid's Representative Engineer in Nepal from 1987 to 1991. It examines how WaterAid's philosophy of working in partnership with local organisations was actually put into practice. Various problems and constraints are identified and discussed, and certain points are highlighted which may be of general interest to other external support agencies working in similar ways in other countries and sectors. The overall conclusion is that this programme represents a viable methodology for an international NGO to achieve useful results in supporting local NGOs working in development.     

Cause of death in heroin users with low blood morphine concentration

The blood morphine concentrations in cases of heroin-associated fatalities can vary considerably. Currently, a free-morphine concentration of > or = 100 ng/ml in blood is generally considered as potentially fatal. Moreover, it is a common observation that fatal cases of heroin-intoxication with blood morphine concentrations lower than 100 ng/ml occur. This poses the question of how the fatal cases with low blood morphine concentrations can be explained. In the study described here, 62 cases of morphine only intoxications were examined. The fatal cases were divided into two groups according to the free morphine concentrations measured in the blood of the heart (group I: free morphine concentration < 100 ng/ml, n = 21 cases; group II: free morphine concentration > or = 100 ng/ml, n = 41 cases). The two groups were compared as to circumstances of death, as well as to autopsy findings and histopathologic alterations. Overall, infections of the respiratory tract occurred significantly more often in group I (lower morphine concentrations) than in group II. In a second step, the group I cases were analyzed individually to get detailed information on the cause of death. In 19 of the 21 cases the authors could find a plausible explanation for death in combination with low free morphine concentrations in the blood.     

The wild (white) ones: comparing frames of white and black deviance

In this case study, I establish how a racial privilege shields whites from being framed as deviant by using two racially segregated motorcycle rallies as a naturalistic experiment. I conduct a content analysis of reader posts to online newspaper stories about the biker events (which regularly include deviance) and discover the bikers, their behaviors, and the proposed community reactions are framed in nearly opposite ways. Posters attribute a ‘white innocence’ to white bikers, framing them as upper class exemplars of American Individualism who temporarily suspend their morality during the rally by drinking, exposing their nude bodies, and ignoring newly passed laws, banning loud mufflers, and requiring helmets. Posters claim these unpleasant, although non-dangerous forms of deviance can be ignored, overlooked, and even celebrated as defiant acts against authority. The white innocence can appear racially innocuous until compared to the perception of black bikers who engage in similar behaviors at their rally but are framed as underclass criminals who attend the rally to steal and murder. This reveals how a usually unseen privilege shields whites from entanglements with the criminal justice system, as posters also call for further policing of racial minorities.     

A New Index for the MMPI‐2 Test for Detecting Dissimulation in Forensic Evaluations: A Pilot Study

This pilot study is the starting point of a potentially broad research project aimed at identifying new strategies for assessing malingering during forensic evaluations. The forensic group was comprised of 67 males who were seeking some sort of certification (e.g., adoption, child custody, driver's license, issuance of gun permits, etc.); the nonforensic group was comprised of 62 healthy male volunteers. Each participant was administered the MMPI‐2. Statistical analyses were conducted on obtained scores of 48 MMPI‐2 scales. In the first step, parametric statistics were adopted to identify the best combination of MMPI‐2 scales that differentiated the two groups of participants. In the second step, frequency‐based, nonparametric methods were used for diagnostic purposes. Results: A model that utilized the best three predictors (“7‐Pt”, “L,” and “1‐Hs”) was developed and used to calculate the Forensic Evaluation Dissimulation Index (FEDI), which features satisfactory diagnostic accuracy (0.9), sensitivity (0.82), specificity (0.81), and likelihood ratio indices (LR+ = 4.32; LR? = 0.22).