Iatrogenic tracheal laceration causing asphyxia

Endotracheal intubation is a simple, rapid, and safe technique that is being used as a standard procedure for airway management. However, airway injury during endotracheal intubation could be a significant source of morbidity or even mortality for patients and a source of liability for physicians as well. We report an unusual case of fatal tracheal occlusion by intraluminal blood clot complicating endotracheal intubation. The patient, a 62-year-old woman, with renovascular hypertension and incipient renal failure was scheduled for renal autotransplantation. The surgery was uneventful but the postoperative course was complicated with a lethal airway obstruction. At autopsy a linear longitudinal tracheal laceration was identified with an intraluminal blood clot obstructing the tracheal lumen. Tracheal laceration as a cause of death is a rare and potentially fatal complication of endotracheal intubation with intratracheal bleeding, clot formation, tracheal occlusion, and subsequent asphyxia.     

Role Effects in Negotiation: The One-Down Phenomenon

Role is a concept that underlies most studies of human behavior in negotiation as subjects take on the roles of buyers and sellers or labor and management contract bargainers, for example Naturalistic studies also focus on such roles as teacher and administrator contract bargainers, hostage takers and hostage negotiators, Palestinian and Israeli peace negotiators, and husbands and wives in divorce mediations. This article examines these role effects and finds consistent patterns across both experimental and naturalistic contexts. Specifically, a "one-down effect" emerges when individuals in lower power roles assume more aggressive negotiation strategies that are significantly less effective in achieving desired outcomes. The article concludes by identifying the theoretical frameworks that might explain these role differences.     

Towards an integrated information society policy in South Africa: an overview of political rhetoric and policy initiatives 1994–2000

Abstract

South Africa is considered one of the few developing countries that has fully embraced the concept of information society and has formulated and implemented policy inititives in order to change society accordingly. By 1995 the theme of the information society started to surface regularly in political discourse and policy documents. Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) and access to ICTs started to have prominence both in policy formulation and implementation. Although there was much talk about a Green Paper/White Paper process on the information society during 1996 and the beginning of 1997, such a policy process never materialised. To date, there is no document defining the government's view of the information society, no policy document outlining an integrated strategy to arrive there and no government department officially responsible for the coordination of policy initiatives. This article sets out to analyse the notion of the information society in South Africa and to analyse the broad evolution of South Africa's information society policy between 1994 and 2000.