The incidence of overdissipation in rent-seeking contests

Tullock's analysis of rent seeking and overdissipation is reconsidered. We show that, while equilibrium strategies do not permit overdissipation in expectation, for particular realizations of players' mixed strategies the total amount spent competing for rents can exceed the value of the prize. We also show that the cross-sectional incidence of overdissipation in the perfectly discriminating contest ranges from 0.50 to 0.44 as the number of players increases from two to infinity. Thus, even though the original analysis of overdissipation is flawed, there are instances in which rent-seekers spend more than the prize is worth.     

Potential definition of the time of death from autolytic myocardial cells: a morphometric study

Morphometric methods and transmission electron microscopy were used to quantify modifications occurring in the mitochondria of dog myocardium during the first four hours of autolysis. Myocardial fragments were obtained from the outer free wall of the left ventricle, during anesthesia (control-zero) and at 15, 45, 120, and 240 min after cardiac arrest, maintaining the heart "in situ" at 22 degrees C. During the 240 min of autolysis, the main parameters evaluated showed: (a) a decrease in the number of mitochondria from 0.31 to 0.12 per micron 3 of cytoplasm. The decrease over the first 45 min reached 50% of the initial value; (b) an increase in mitochondrial volume, three times greater after the first 45 min (from 0.92 to 2.68 micron 3) and four times greater after 240 min (from 0.92 to 3.79 micron 3); (c) an increase in mitochondrial outer membrane surface area from 5.51 to 12.54 micron 2; (d) an increase in the surface area of individual mitochondria inner membrane and cristae from 27.60 to 56.96 micron 2. The progressive nature of the alterations and the difference in the numerically expressed values allow correlation with the time of somatic death. The authors emphasize the need for further studies in order to complement the present study.     

Editors' Note

Note

Editors' Note     

Electoral participation in the Netherlands: Individual and contextual influences

Abstract Research into electoral participation has produced two traditions, one focusing mainly on individual level explanations while the second concentrates primarily on aggregate level explanations. By bringing these two research approaches together, we are not only able to explain individual electoral participation more thoroughly, but we also gain additional insight into the influence of aggregate level characteristics on individual behavior. We combine eight National Election Studies held in the Netherlands between 1971 and 1994 enabling us to study variation on the individual and the contextual (aggregate) level, including interactions between these two levels. Findings show that the addition of contextual characteristics form a significant improvement to an individual level model predicting electoral participation. Findings also confirm our expectation that the influence of individual characteristics such as education or political interest is dependent upon contextual characteristics describing for instance the salience of the election.     

Analytical problems with putrefaction in a fatal case involving ergotamine and pentazocine

A 29-year-old male drug addict was found dead at the bottom of a staircase. Analysis of the acid-hydrolized blood showed the presence of pentazocine and two characteristic compounds that contained L-phenylalanine and D-proline, linked together by peptide bounds. It was shown that the latter two components could emanate from the peptide part of ergotamine under the conditions used. It seemed likely that, at the time of analysis, pentazocine and ergotamine were present at concentrations far above therapeutic values. A third component in the blood could not be identified.     

Past the saturation point: Why voters switch from mainstream to niche parties and vice-versa

When do voters switch from mainstream to niche parties and vice-versa? To understand these switches, we focus on the saturation of the party system. We theorize that when a party system is oversaturated – i.e. when a higher effective number of parties contests elections than predicted based on socio-political contextual characteristics (the system's ‘carrying capacity’) – it becomes increasingly likely that: (1) mainstream party voters defect to niche parties; and (2) niche party voters refrain from switching to mainstream parties. Based on vote-switching patterns in 15 countries and 53 elections, we find that oversaturation increases shifts from mainstream to niche parties. Further analyses show that this holds for shifts from mainstream to radical left and right parties, but not for shifts to green parties. This has important consequences for research on vote switching, the electoral consequences of policy differentiation and the competition between niche and mainstream parties.