Fatality management in mass casualty incidents

Medical involvement in mass casualty incidents requires proper planning and preparedness. In disaster situations, legal aspects concerning the dead add to the general problem of a lack of time, place and resources to maintain routine working conditions, and demand authority and competence. The aspects of planning the recovery of the dead, transportation and morgue facilities, establishment of cause of death, identification, and the final disposition of the dead are discussed. The implementation of forensic mass fatality teams is felt to be the right answer for a better planning and coordination.     

The effect of ASEM on European foreign policies

This paper argues the Asia-Europe Meeting (ASEM) interregional process has had a great influence on the European partners, in fact, much greater than so far acknowledged. It gives an overview of the adaptation of European partners foreign policies towards East Asia as seen in the creation or modification of their overall strategies. It then presents in more detail the selected case studies of Spain and Sweden. The findings show that most EU partners have indeed have considered the ASEM process a useful route to advance their interests towards East Asia, and that six have created or upgraded comprehensive strategies. The two in-depth country analyses (Sweden and Spain) further substantiate the claim that the ASEM process has had an important effect on European partners. It is expected that this trend will continue.Paper presented at the 5th Pan-European Conference of the European Consortium for Political Researchs Standing group on International Relations, Den Hague, Netherlands, 9–11 September 2004.     

Kyoto,Europe?—An Economic Evaluation of the European Emission Trading Directive

To meet its obligations accepted in the Kyoto Protocol cost effectively, the European Union introduces a scheme of Greenhouse Gas Allowance Trading for its member states. This paper evaluates the cost effectiveness, ecological accuracy and dynamic incentives of this approach.The EU-emissions trading constitutes an important shift in the paradigm of environmental policy, from command and control to a market based approach. Still, the EU-system does not fully realize the economic potential of the transferable discharge permit policy. Especially, the limited scope of trading regarding geography, pollutants, sectors and activities reduces the quality of the system. Moreover, the EU-Directive is unspecific in many respects and it leaves many decisions defining the rules of the game to the individual member state. Uncertainty and heterogeneity increase transaction cost and thereby hamper the effectiveness of the system.JEL Classification: Q54, Q58, K32     

Judicial Career Incentives and Court Performance: An Empirical Study of the German Labour Courts of Appeal

This paper examines how the organization of a civil-law judiciary—the German labour court system—shapes court performance. It is argued that civil-law judiciaries can be considered as internal labour markets in which the main incentive derives from career opportunities. Resulting hypotheses are tested on data for nine German Labour Courts of Appeal (Landesarbeitsgerichte) over the period 1980–1998. Two performance measures are computed: the confirmation rate and a productivity measure. The confirmation rate captures how often decisions are upheld in an appeal at the Federal Labour Court. Court productivity is measured by a score derived via data envelopment analysis (DEA) and includes as outputs the number of finished cases and the number of published decisions. Regression analyses show: Courts employing more judges with a Ph.D. are more productive, but write decisions that are less often confirmed by the Federal Labour Court. Courts employing judges with higher ex ante promotion probabilities are less productive and write decisions that are less often confirmed.JEL Classification: J45, K31, M12     

Veit Ludwig von Seckendorff’s “Fürsten Stat” and the Duchy of Saxe-Gotha

This paper deals with the formation of the territorial state in Gotha during the time in which Veit Ludwig von Seckendorff was involved, starting in 1640, and with the relations between the theoretical explanations of the state in Seckendorff’s book “Teutscher Fürsten Stat,” first published in 1656, and his political environment in Gotha. It shows that Seckendorff’s maxims often corresponded to real politics there. But at the same time, there were grave differences in such fundamental issues as the personal regimen of the prince and the organization of the administration or the financing of the court.     

Whistleblower protection: is Africa ready?

The article critically examines propositions driving the exportation of western whistleblower concepts into the developing world. 1

1 The full definition used in the article is that whistleblowing is an act of ethical reporting by concerned citizen, totally or predominantly motivated by the public interest, who initiate of their own free will an open disclosure about significant wrongdoing to a person or agency capable of investigating the disclosure, and who suffers accordingly. This definition was developed in the course of the Queensland Whistleblower Study, Australia's largest inquiry into whistleblowers. Whistleblowing is a different reporting mode to that used by informants, hot line users, witnesses, public interest denunciators, and disclosures in confidence (De Maria, 1994; De Maria & Jan, 1994; De Maria, 1999, pp. 24–35). Africa, throughout the article means sub‐Saharan Africa. Abridged versions of this paper were presented to the 4th National Business Ethics Conference, Zanzibar, 1 September 2004 and a staff seminar in the School of Sociology, University of Johannesburg, 25 August 2004.

Specifically it attacks the prevailing view that public interest disclosure is somehow a culture‐free, or at least a culture‐muted phenomenon, governed by a set of rules and conventions detached from local histories and practices. The article concludes that this exportation is in the spirit of neo‐colonialism and issues a note of warning about the dangers of dispersing western conceived forms of corruption reporting to Africa. Copyright © 2005 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Rupture of liver cell adenoma with fatal massive hemoperitoneum resulting from minor road accident

Blunt abdominal trauma can cause rapid death resulting from serious injuries of internal organs. The liver is commonly involved and may show tearing, usually in its upper surface, resulting in hemoperitoneum eventually leading to death. Minor trauma implies serious liver damage only when previous pathologic changes causing enlargement of the organ are present. The case of a 25-year-old woman who died as a consequence of a minor road accident is reported. At autopsy, the body showed no external injuries, the only relevant finding being a massive hemoperitoneum from the rupture of an unusually large liver cell adenoma. Liver cell adenomas carry a serious risk of spontaneous rupture, which may result in the death of the patient. The occurrence of the rupture after a minor blunt abdominal trauma is highly unusual.     

Online reference database of European Y-chromosomal short tandem repeat (STR) haplotypes

The reference database of highly informative Y-chromosomal short tandem repeat (STR) haplotypes (YHRD), available online at http://ystr.charite.de, represents the largest collection of male-specific genetic profiles currently available for European populations. By September 2000, YHRD contained 4688 9-locus (so-called "minimal") haplotypes, 40% of which have been extended further to include two additional loci. Establishment of YHRD has been facilitated by the joint efforts of 31 forensic and anthropological institutions. All contributing laboratories have agreed to standardize their Y-STR haplotyping protocols and to participate in a quality assurance exercise prior to the inclusion of any data. In view of its collaborative character, and in order to put YHRD to its intended use, viz. the support of forensic caseworkers in their routine decision-making process, the database has been made publicly available via the Internet in February 2000. Online searches for complete or partial Y-STR haplotypes from evidentiary or non-probative material can be performed on a non-commercial basis, and yield observed haplotype counts as well as extrapolated population frequency estimates. In addition, the YHRD website provides information about the quality control test, genotyping protocols, haplotype formats and informativity, population genetic analysis, literature references, and a list of contact addresses of the contributing laboratories.     

Heterogeneity of Girls’ Consensual Popularity: Academic and Interpersonal Behavioral Profiles

The present study explored the heterogeneous nature of popularity by investigating subgroups of popular girls (N = 365) in their first year of secondary school (mean age  =  13.05). Cluster analysis revealed the presence of five subgroups based upon sociometric popularity (i.e., those considered likeable by peers) and consensual popularity (i.e., those considered popular by peers), and academic behavioral indices. Two of these groups contained girls who were all nominated as “popular” by classmates, yet the girls in one group displayed very positive academic behaviors (Popular Studious); girls in the other popular group displayed extreme antiacademic behaviors (Popular Disengaged). The remaining groups were Average Popular, Unpopular Disengaged, and Unpopular Studious. External validating measures confirmed the existence of the subgroups, that is, Popular Studious girls were judged by classmates to behave in a prosocial fashion, whereas Popular Disengaged girls exhibited many antisocial behaviors, and were often nominated as bullies. Unpopular Studious girls were often nominated as victims. These findings confirmed the hypothesis that consensual popularity is a heterogeneous concept, and that antiacademic and antisocial girls may still be among the most consensually popular students in secondary schools.Lecturer at the Department of Educational Sciences, University of Amsterdam, Wibautstraat 4, 1091 GM Amsterdam, The Netherlands. His interests include the academic and social behavioral correlates of consensual popularity in adolescence.Associate Professor and Head of Developmental Division, Department of Psychology, University of Connecticut. His interests include peer relations, social behavior, and social cognition in middle childhood and early adolescence.