Klimaschutz durch Meeresdüngung? Zum (Spannungs-)Verh?ltnis zwischen Seev?lkerrecht und Biodiversit?tskonvention

Wissenschaftlich werden derzeit vielf?ltige Ma?nahmen erforscht, um der zunehmenden globalen Klimaerw?rmung Einhalt zu gebieten. Sie werden unter dem Begriff des Geo-Engineering zusammengefasst, zu dem u.a. die Meeresdüngung z?hlt. Durch sie soll das Algenwachstum und damit die Aufnahme von Kohlendioxid angeregt werden, absterbende Algen sollen zum Meeresboden sinken und das gebundene CO₂ dem Meer und folglich auch der Atmosph?re entziehen. Im Folgenden wird der Frage der rechtlichen Zul?ssigkeit der Meeresdüngung am Beispiel des sog. Lohafex- Forschungsvorhabens des Alfred-Wegener-Instituts nachgegangen.     

Some Remarks on Implementation of Community Sanctions and Measures

We must acknowledge, of course, that custody must be available as the ultimate sanction for criminal offending, but it must be an option of last resort. At last, not at least, there must be a realisation of the enormous cost - in economic and particularly in human terms. Therefore, the basic question is: What is the cheapest and at the same time the most effective way of punishment, bearing in mind the failure of strong repressive measures and only a partial success of depenalisation and decriminalisation? The community sanctions and measures seem to be the best solution and they can, to a certain extent, meet the expectation put into them. I am not going to describe the individual alternatives or the way of their implementation in Western Europe or North America. I would like to concentrate on some problems related to their introduction, which are faced in post-totalitarian societies.     

Sex Classification Using the Three‐Dimensional Tibia Form or Shape Including Population Specificity Approach

The aims of this study were to enable geometric morphometric sex classification using tibial proximal and distal sexual dimorphism and to evaluate the secular trend of tibial shape/form from the early 20th century to the present day. The study samples consisted of 61 adult tibias from an early 20th‐century Czech population and 57 three‐dimensional tibias from a 21st‐century population. Discriminant function analysis with cross‐validation was carried out to assess the accuracy of sex classification. Shape analysis revealed significant sex differences in both tibial extremities of the 21st‐century sample and in the proximal tibia of the 20th‐century population. Sex‐based divergence varied between the analyzed samples, raising the issues of population specificity and diachronic change. Classification using tibial form was more successful than using tibial shape. The highest values of correct assignment (91.80% and 88.52%) were found using the form from the early 20th Czech population.     

The “G-local” Dimension of Albanian Organized Crime: Mafias,Strategic Migration and State Repression

This paper elaborates on the relation between globalization, migration, and transnational organized crime. The case selected is on ethnic Albanian organized crime and its migration to Western Europe and the United States. There are a few perspectives on the ability of organized crime to take advantage of globalization in an effort to expand their criminal markets. One view is that criminal groups, similarly to multinational corporations, are taking advantage of globalization and are opening outposts in Western cities. The opposing view is that organized crime groups are highly localized and territorial. This paper tries to answer the following questions: Are Albanian groups operating in the USA and Europe part of the same species originating from Albania and Kosovo? Are these groups coordinated by a central organization in the country of origin that sought opportunity to exploit the process of international integration? The paper concludes that the migration of Albanian organized crime may not be a strategic business choice. Therefore, rather than fitting the stereotype of hypersophisticated international organized crime bureaucracies found in news reports, this study suggests that many Albanian organized crime groups are localized and spontaneously formed. What might appear to be the product of globalizations is, in fact, the consequence of state repression or wars between rival criminal groups. The conclusions are based on a mixed-methods approach, including interviews with experts, Albanian migrants and offenders, and in-depth analysis of court cases.     

Mapping the black box of intraministerial organization: An analytical approach to explore structural diversity below the portfolio level

This article explores the structural diversity of intraministerial organization over time. Based on organization theory, it proposes a generic typology for intraministerial units applicable to any hierarchically structured government organization. We empirically investigate the critical case of the German federal bureaucracy. By classifying its subunits, we analyze the longitudinal development of structural differentiation and its correspondence to denominational variety. The data stem from a novel international dataset, covering all ministries between 1980 and 2015. We find that intraministerial structure differentiates over time, across and within ministries. A stable core of traditional Weberian structure is complemented by structurally innovative intraministerial units. We conclude that the German federal bureaucracy is more diverse than suggested in previous literature. Our findings indicate that less Weberian bureaucracies are at least as structurally diverse and that more reform‐driven bureaucracies will have experienced at least as many changes in structural diversity.     

Fatal traffic injuries among children and adolescents in three cities (capital Budapest, Vilnius, and Tallinn)

Motor vehicle accidental injuries are a frequent cause of death among young children and adolescents. The goal of this study was to compare patterns of injury between three capitals (Budapest, Vilnius, and Tallinn). Information on 190 fatal traffic accidents (69 pedestrians, 14 bicyclists, and 107 motor vehicle occupants) between 2002 and 2006 was collected from databases of medico-legal autopsies. The role of victims in accidents, the location of injuries, cause of death, survival period, and blood alcohol levels were evaluated. One-hundred and forty-one (74%) victims had a passive role in traffic as pedestrians, passengers in cars, or public transport. In victims who died at the scene, the rate of head injury was higher than in cases who received medical treatment (odds ratio = 2.58, CI = 1.2-5.55, p = 0.0127). These results underline the importance of postmortem studies to examine the pathomechanism of fatal traffic accidental injuries and to provide information for the prevention of road traffic accidents against children and adolescents.     

Shoot/No-Shoot Decisions: Dissociation,Judgment, and Assailant/Weapon Characteristics

Shoot/no-shoot decisions in law enforcement are under increasing scrutiny nationwide. However, little research has addressed the ways in which factors related to assailants and weapons influence these decisions. In the present research, images of adult male, adult female, and juvenile (female) assailants presented simulated direct threats to respondents. Assailants were armed with a pistol, a knife, or a glass bottle. Respondents were asked to indicate whether or not they would shoot in the presence of these threats. Respondents also completed the Dissociative Experiences Scale (DES). Tendencies toward dissociation, a process generating a sense of unreality, influenced the performance of males who shot; more dissociated men took more time to fire. However, dissociation did not influence the performance of women. Sex and youth of the assailant had no effects on the shoot/no-shoot performance of either men or women, and oddly, weapon type had no significant effect on women’s performance, although men were more likely to fire on an assailant of either age or sex armed with a gun or knife than a bottle. These results are discussed in terms of relevance for law enforcement training and for juridical proceedings in shoot/no-shoot cases.     

Tongue bite injuries--a diagnostic criterium for death in epileptic seizure?

Bite marks of the tongue are often associated with epileptic seizures, although information about the real frequency of bite marks of the tongue is hard to find. This is also true for their presence in deaths of epileptics or in deaths in general. The purpose of this investigation was to analyze the frequency of bite marks of the tongue in deaths of epileptics in comparison to a control group. Further points of interest were the spectrum of the causes of death recorded, toxicological data as well as the presence and localization of external head injuries. The study group consisted of 105 individuals with a known history of epilepsy, the control group of 107 individuals with sudden cardiac death. Autopsy reports were analyzed retrospectively. In the first group bite marks of the tongue were seen in 21% (in the subgroup "observed death during seizure" even in 64%) and were thus significantly more frequent than in the control group (2%). In 35 cases of the study material an unnatural manner of death was found (trauma, especially craniocerebral trauma, drowning, asphyxia, intoxication) and in 70 cases a natural death was assumed. However, in 41 of these the exact cause of death was not ascertainable. According to the SUDEP criteria (Ficker 2000, Nilsson 1999) 29 of these cases could be categorized as possible or probable SUDEP (sudden unexpected death in epilepsy) with 17 showing bite marks of the tongue. The fact that half of the remaining 12 cases showed bite marks of the tongue suggests at least for these cases that death occurred during the seizure. Head injuries were reported in 41% of the epilepsy group--in the subgroup "observed death during seizure" in 73%. Our investigation did not produce evidence for a higher frequency of bite marks of the tongue in cases in which resuscitation had been attempted. In our experience the presence of fresh bite marks of the tongue--according to histological findings--is a useful signs for the assignment of death to an epileptic seizure and especially for death during acute convulsion.