Someone else's feet

Abstract

Our Life was a succession of quiet days spent placidly inside thick wall of phlegmatic indifference. We lived in a strange state of imprisonment, entirely cut off from the outside, yet we had no thought of escaping nor the least enthusiasm for news of the outside. You could say that, for us, the outside world just didn't exist. Inside our wall, we lived quite fully and cheerfully.     

“A strange job”

Abstract

I was heading toward the clock tower along the broad pavement leading to Tokyo University Hospital and had reached the intersection where the view suddenly opens up to a wide vista, when I heard a lot of dogs barking. The sound came from somewhere near a building under construction, its steel framework jutting up against the sky behind the swaying tops of the saplings lining the avenue. Each time the wind shifted, the sound of the dogs swelled violently as if the terrible clamor were rising to the sky itself. Then the sounds would trail off, the echoes lingering persistently in the distance. Every time I'd walk along this road, head bent, shoulders hunched forward, I'd strain my ears as I came to the intersection, half-expecting to hear the dogs, although there were many times I never heard them at all. But anyway, it wasn't because these howling dogs aroused any particular concern in me.     

Political Islam at the crossroads: From hegemony to co-existence

Politically, Turkey constitutes an unusual case where Islamists have been allowed to share power, as a dominant partner in a coalition government, in a broadly open and a strongly secularist political environment. Hence, it provides an interesting context in which to investigate the complex issue concerning the relationship between Islamism and liberal democracy. This article investigates the processes leading to the transformation of Islamists in Turkey from 'moderate fundamentalists' to a milder and more liberal posture in the recent period and attempts to assess the consequences of this phenomenon for the future of the democratic order. A major objective is to highlight some of the paradoxical developments encountered in the process, attempting to consolidate democracy in the current international order within the parameters of neo-liberal globalization.     

Nitrate and Nitrite Determination in Gunshot Residue Samples by Capillary Electrophoresis in Acidic Run Buffer,

Simultaneous determination of nitrate and nitrite in gunshot residue has been conducted by capillary electrophoresis using an acidic run buffer (pH 3.5). In previously developed capillary electrophoretic methods, alkaline pH separation buffers were used where nitrite and nitrate possess similar electrophoretic mobility. In this study, the electroosmotic flow has been reversed by using low pH running buffer without any additives. As a result of reversing the electroosmotic flow, very fast analysis has been actualized, well‐defined and separated ion peaks emerge in less than 4 min. Besides, the limit of detection was improved by employing large volume sample stacking. Limit of detection values were 6.7 and 4.3 μM for nitrate and nitrite, respectively. In traditional procedure, mechanical agitation is employed for extraction, while in this work the extraction efficiency of ultrasound mixing for 30 min was found sufficient. The proposed method was successfully applied to authentic gunshot residue samples.     

Trichobezoar in Vagina: Assessment for Child Sexual Abuse and Diagnostic Result of Forensic Science

Vaginal discharge and bleeding in children require a through and thoughtful evaluation to diagnose the underlying problem including infections, sexual abuse, and vaginal foreign bodies. We report a 6‐year‐old girl presenting with bloody vaginal discharge, carefully evaluated for sexual abuse, and finally diagnosed as a vaginal foreign body after vaginoscopy. A rolling hair ball was extracted from the vagina and was diagnosed as trichobezoar pathologically without any endo–ecto‐mesodermal residual tissue. The hair ball was genetically detected and diagnosed to belong herself by containing no foreign structure. Child sexual abuse was ruled out by forensic interview at CAC and report of forensic science that reported genetic structure belonging to the child. Medicolegal assessment helped in final diagnosis to exclude child sexual abuse.     

Austerity is Strangling Europe

Because they have failed to address the fundamental economic imbalances within Europe obscured by the single currency, each effort by European leaders so far to resolve the euro crisis has only deepened it. Without a decisive move toward fiscal and political union, accompanied by policies that push productivity and competitiveness toward convergence while closing the democratic deficit, the Eurozone will disintegrate. To discuss the way forward, the Nicolas Berggruen Institute's Council on the Future of Europe met in Rome on May 28 with Italian Prime Minister Mario Monti. In this section we publish the contributions from that meeting by the former European leaders, scholars and Nobel laureates who are members of the Council.     

Exposure to School Bullying and Psychological Health in Young Adulthood: A Prospective 10-Year Follow-Up Study

Being bullied at school is strongly related to psychological health complaints at the same time point. Studies have also found long-term associations, but few have combined a prospective design with children’s own reports on bullying, and conducted gender-specific analyses. The present study assesses health consequences in young adulthood of self-reported victimization in adolescence using data from Child-LNU in 2000 and the follow-up in 2010 (including 63% of the original sample, n = 813). At ages 10–18 a clear cross-sectional association was found for both girls and boys. Among girls, exposure to bullying also predicted psychological complaints 10 years later, at ages 20–28 (OR = 2.86). This association was not explained by socioeconomic circumstances, neither in adolescence nor in young adulthood. Instead, it can partly be understood as victimization, among adolescent girls, being associated with negative self-image and psychological health as well as with deficits in social resources more generally.     

MARKETIZED MENTALITY,COMPETITIVE/EGOISTIC SCHOOL CULTURE,AND DELINQUENT ATTITUDES AND BEHAVIOR: AN APPLICATION OF INSTITUTIONAL ANOMIE THEORY*

We analyze the individual‐level and school‐level determinants of delinquency through the lens of a macro‐sociological theory of crime—institutional anomie theory (IAT). The concept of a “marketized mentality” is introduced as a predictor of students’ delinquency, along with an egoistic/competitive school culture—a feature of the school community. Five hypotheses pertaining to the readiness to use violence and self‐reported delinquency were assessed using multilevel modeling with data from a survey in Germany for 4,150 students clustered in 69 schools. The results largely meet theoretical expectations. The measure of marketized mentality exhibits robust relationships with both forms of delinquency at the individual level, and an egoistic/competitive school culture helps explain variation in levels of these forms of delinquency across schools. Also consistent with expectations, the anti‐social effects of marketized mentality are accentuated for both the readiness to use violence and committing instrumentally motivated property offenses as a competitive/egoistic school climate increases. The results of our analyses reveal that bringing in concepts of IAT can appreciably enhance understanding of the characteristics of students and features of communal school organization that are conducive to youthful offending.