Extending the Eros Effect: Sentience,Reality, and Emanation

This article provides three theoretical extensions to George Katsiaficas's understanding of the “eros effect,” which is a concept for explaining mass political awakenings and spontaneous rebellions. Katsiaficas argues that moments of mass revolt ignite the human need for justice and universal solidarity. That solidarity then radiates outward, alluring people into revolt and creating a groundswell of radicalism. Katsiaficas's heuristic is used here as a springboard for further theorizing. To begin, the eros effect is grounded in the sentient body—that is, the body's ability to feel itself and the world in ways that precede and exceed not only perception and language, but any and all oppressive conditions. It is also argued that the sentient body is a reality-creating organism that is inhibited and/or hindered by various oppressive conditions. This tension between creation and oppression produces the conditions of mass revolt. Lastly, the phenomenon of bodily emanation is introduced to explain the magnetic allure of mass rebellion—spontaneous mass revolts emanate a tangible and experiential feeling that attracts people to radical activity. Overall, this philosophy of sentience, reality, and emanation provides a sympathetic extension of Katsiaficas's eros effect.     

Subarachnoid hemorrhage during sexual activity after sildenafil intake: an accidental association?

We report and describe an autopsy case of a man dead for rupture of cerebral artery aneurysm with subsequent subarachnoid hemorrhage after sexual intercourse. Toxicologic analysis demonstrated that he had consumed sildenafil (Viagra). Although subarachnoid hemorrhage has been reported to be associated with sexual intercourse, it is not among the known adverse effects of sildenafil. However, sildenafil has been found to interact with vascular physiology via multiple mechanisms and in most of the vascular districts of the human body. This case provides an example of a very rare association between this drug and a fatal pathologic event and deserves to be added to the existing clinical knowledge about sildenafil and the pathophysiology of the events involved. This knowledge may be helpful in orienting further investigation into the mechanisms of action of sildenafil and their clinical implications.     

Determination of stature from skeletal and skull measurements by CT scan evaluation

The aim of this article is to find a correlation between height and femur/skull measurements through Computed Tomography (CT) scans and derive regression equations for total skeletal height estimation in the Caucasian population. We selected 200 Caucasian patients from March 2010 to July 2011 who had to perform a CT scan for cancer restaging. The mean age is 64.5 years. Both sexes are represented by the same number of persons. Patients have executed a total body CT scan with contrast; once scan accomplished, we measured height through a digital scales. We analyzed CT scans of each patient, obtaining multiplanar reconstruction in sagittal and coronal planes with 1mm of thickness, and we measured 10 diameters of skull and femur. Then we performed a single and a multiple regression analysis considering the three diameters that better correlated with height. The skeletal diameters with the highest correlation coefficients with stature were femur lengths, length of cranial base (Ba-N), and distance from the posterior extremity of the cranial base to the inferior point of the nasal bone (Ba-NB). Although both femur and skull are skeletal segments used for stature estimation, in our sample femur gave stronger correlation with height than skull. h=35.7+1.48·BaN+2.32·BaNB+2.53·FEM and h=3.06·FEM+72.6 are the formulae that provided the most accurate stature assessment using multiple and single regression analysis respectively.     

Nanotechnology for forensic sciences: Analysis of PDMS replica of the case head of spent cartridges by optical microscopy, SEM and AFM for the ballistic identification of individual characteristic features of firearms

A novel application of replica molding to a forensic problem, viz. the accurate reproduction of the case head of gun and rifle cartridges, prior and after been shot, is presented. The fabrication of an arbitrary number of identical copies of the region hit by the firing pin and by the breech face is described. The replicas can be (i) handled without damaging the original evidence, (ii) distributed to different law enforcement agencies for comparison against other evidences found on crime scenes or ballistic tests of seized firearms, (iii) maintained on a file by the laboratories. A detailed analysis of the morphological features of the replicas has been carried out by standard microscopy techniques as well as by advanced microscopy such as scanning probe and scanning electron leading to a quantitative morphological characterization of the case heads down to the nanometer scale. The assignment of the cartridge replicas to the shooting weapon is demonstrated to hold below the micron scale, while it is hindered at the nanometer level both by the manufacturing differences and by eventual modifications occurring on the firing pin.     

Homicide by methane gas

Two cases of sudden death due to myocardial infarction which were associated external injuries on the chest are discussed here. Injuries were in the form of abraded contusions on the anterior part of chest. Both the cases were declared dead on arrival to the casualty section (Accident and Emergencies Department). In these cases, mention of injuries was not made in the inquest report. In both the cases, suspicion of foul play or the trauma induced myocardial infarction were ruled out by inquiring into the incidents by the autopsy surgeon. The cases highlight the importance of detailed history by the autopsy surgeon in cases of sudden death with associated injuries on the front of the chest.     

Trichophyton Mentagrophytes Perforates Hair of Adult Corpses in the Gaseous Period*

Abstract: Despite the substantial literature on mycology, there are still limited reports of the interaction between fungi and human hosts in the postmortem period. Thus, the main goal of this study was to investigate the in vitro perforation test using Trichophyton mentagrophytes on hair from adult corpses in the postmortem period (gaseous period). The protocol was carried out with positive (prepubescent children’s hair) and negative controls (healthy adult hair) as well. One strain of Trichophyton rubrum was also used as a negative perforation control. Perforations were found in all the hair samples from corpses and prepubescent children after 12–14 days exposure to T. mentagrophytes and were absent in the hair samples of healthy adults. Furthermore, hair perforation was not observed with T. rubrum. Our preliminary findings suggest the use of T. mentagrophytes as a potential marker of the death interval in forensic science.     

The effect of social networking sites and absorptive capacity on SMES’ innovation performance

The combination of knowledge and innovation has become a cornerstone among knowledge and labour intensive enterprises. A growing number of enterprises are defined as knowledge intensive entrepreneurship ventures that have been widely studied in relation to their eco-system. However only few research have addressed this phenomenon to enterprises digital eco-system by adopting mainly a qualitatively approach. We point out that the relevance of the digital eco-system focusing on the role of social networking sites in relationship to innovation and knowledge. The use of social networking sites can provide a wealth of information about individuals and their networks, which can be utilised for various business purposes. It enables enterprises to create online communities and share user-created content. Within this context, enterprises actively interact with external actors such as customers, public institutions, and other businesses to acquire and absorb external knowledge, and then generate innovation. To gain insights from the global economy, 215 small to medium enterprises from different sets of global enterprises, both knowledge-intensive (e.g. management consulting, marketing and advertising, ICT and related services, legal and technical services) and labour-intensive (such as high tech and electronics, food and beverage, and consumer durables), were analysed. Via the Partial Least Square-Path Modelling the relationships between social networking sites, absorptive capacity, and innovation performance were measured. Therefore, recommendations are proffered as to what small-medium enterprises should do in order to enhance their innovativeness. The research ends with conclusions and implications to both scholars and practitioners.     

Harmonising national sanctioning administrative law: An alternative to a single capital‐markets supervisor

Since the disclosure in 2009 of the Larosière Report, legislative acts disciplining financial markets have established a set of rules called to form the foundations of a sanctioning administrative law to be enforced by the Member States. Furthermore, the ECtHR and the ECJ, are contributing to apply here the guarantees of the Rome Convention and the Charter of Fundamental Rights. This study, in addition to giving account of such legislation and case‐law, aims to outline the broad principles of this new law, whose purpose is levelling the ‘playing field’ amongst NCAs and fostering supervisory convergence without creating new institutions. Should this ‘experiment’ be successful, and a new way of ‘cooperative federalism’ could emerge at a global level in the Union. Otherwise, further centralisation—which is neither possible nor desirable at this stage—should be expected in future years, with a sort of single supervisory mechanism in securities markets.     

Chronic intoxication by heroin; histopathological effects on seminiferous tubules

Seminiferous tubules from heroin abusers and from rats chronically intoxicated by heroin samples presented a striking reduction in the thickness of the germinal epithelium. Light and electron microscopical studies showed a considerable increase of lipids and phagosomes in Sertoli cells, disorganization of their junction complexes, detachment of immature germ cells which appeared free in the tubular lumen, and formation of giant multinucleate spermatids. These alterations point out that Sertoli cells could be the target element for the toxic effect of heroin samples on the seminiferous epithelium.     

The Underexplored Species: Selective Participation in Direct Democratic Votes

While electoral research usually distinguishes voters from abstainers, in the Swiss direct democratic context one needs to take into account a third category of citizens, the selective voters, who decide anew at each vote whether they will participate or not. This article offers an investigation of this common but under‐researched form of participation. To that end, we take advantage of a unique data‐set linking official turnout data with survey data. Our results show that selective voters constitute the bulk of the electorate. While they form a heterogeneous group in terms of socio‐demographic characteristics, selective voters lean more towards abstainers than towards permanent voters with respect to political variables. We argue that this is not necessarily bad news in terms of democratic theory.