Unusual findings in a death caused by a car fire

Witnesses detected a burning car in the parking lot next to a discotheque in the early morning hours. After the fire had been extinguished, the charred body of the 23-year-old car owner was found in the driver's seat. The young man had been a guest of the discotheque the previous night and consumed plenty of alcoholic drinks. The traces left by the fire on the car suggested that the fire had started in the passenger compartment. At autopsy, greyish-brown discoloration and induration of the mucosa of the respiratory tract were found in addition to massive aspiration of soot and signs of soot swallowing. The macroscopic and histological findings pointed to a chemical burn of the airways probably caused by chlorine gases developing when the covering of the passenger compartment was burning. Chemical burns due to inhalation, aspiration and swallowing of soot are all signs of vitality, so that a smoldering fire must have gone on for a while inside the car with the windows closed. The most probable cause of the fire is that clothing or textile material in the car was set on fire by a burning cigarette.     

Infant death scene investigation and the assessment of potential risk factors for asphyxia: a review of 209 sudden unexpected infant deaths

At the Wayne County Medical Examiner Office (WCMEO) in Detroit, Michigan, from 2001 to 2004, thorough scene investigations were performed on 209 sudden and unexpected infant deaths, ages 3 days to 12 months. The 209 cases were reviewed to assess the position of the infant at the time of discovery and identify potential risk factors for asphyxia including bed sharing, witnessed overlay, wedging, strangulation, prone position, obstruction of the nose and mouth, coverage of the head by bedding and sleeping on a couch. Overall, one or more potential risk factors were identified in 178 of 209 cases (85.2%). The increasing awareness of infant positions at death has led to a dramatic reduction in the diagnosis of sudden infant death syndrome at the WCMEO. This study suggests that asphyxia plays a greater role in many sudden infant deaths than has been historically attributed to it.     

An unusual case of thermal injuries with a hot glue gun: Deliberate self-harm or maltreatment?

Assessing injuries in forensic medicine casework, examiners are often confronted with the question of self-infliction versus third parties' influence, respectively, deliberate self-harm versus maltreatment. We report the case of a 40-year-old male who presented with numerous partially healed thermal injuries of different age. These burns were shaped like capital letters and little circles, which were arranged in lines in a regular form. The lesions were found on the whole body with exclusion of face, genitals, hands and feet. Furthermore, four bitemarks at the right shoulder were noted. Investigations revealed that the man had been abused by his 25-year-old wife (presumably a borderline personality disorder patient) for at least 1 year. In addition to another series of abuses, the woman may have inflicted the shaped burns with a hot glue gun as punishment for breaking certain "rules" she had established. When assessing injuries of patients in forensic medicine, several considerations regarding etiology have to be taken into account. In principle, the victim's testimony, the anamnesis, the police investigation results and the findings from the forensic physical examination have to be balanced against each other. The injury pattern in the present case showed contradictory single characteristics both of deliberate self-harm and of maltreatment. After forensic analysis, it was assessed as injuries inflicted by an assistant with the patient's consent.     

Lessons from the Past: Reassessing the Interwar Disciplinary History of International Relations

This article reconstructs the interwar discourse of international relations among American political scientists and seeks to challenge the orthodox view that the scholarship of this period was essentially idealist in nature. It aims to make a contribution to the growing body of literature devoted to examining the institutional history of international relations. My purpose is to demonstrate that the conventional label of idealism that has been attached to the interwar period of international relations scholarship seriously misrepresents the actual character of the conversation that was being directed toward understanding international politics. By carefully reconstructing the internal discourse of the field, many of the field's long forgotten individuals and ideas are brought back to life. The article concludes by highlighting some of the lessons that the interwar discourse offers to the study of international relations today and argues that this period cannot be construed as idealist.     

Die Bedeutung institutionalistischer Ansätze für das Verständnis von Organisations- und Managementprozessen in multinationalen Unternehmen

Es ist auffällig, dass sich die sozialwissenschaftlich orientierte Organisationsforschung nur sehr wenig und theoretisch recht einseitig mit Multinationalen Unternehmen (MNU) als Organisationen beschäftigt. Organisationstheoretische Erklärungsmodelle, die das Verhalten in und von Organisationen jenseits technischer und ökonomischer Unternehmensumwelten erklären, sind daher eher rar und erst seit kurzem in einschlägigen Forschungsarbeiten zu finden. Ziel dieses Beitrages ist, die jüngere und vorwiegend englischsprachige Diskussion über den Einfluss von Institutionen und unterschiedlichen lokalen Rationalitäten auf Organisations- und Managementprozesse in MNU aufzuarbeiten. Im Folgenden werden die Grundlagen, wesentlichen Ansätze, Kernaussagen und Konsequenzen des europäischen und amerikanischen Institutionalismus dargestellt. Insbesondere wird der Beitrag die Bedeutung, aber auch Grenzen dieser beiden Ansätze für die Analyse von Veränderungsprozessen in Multinationalen Unternehmen skizzieren und evaluieren. Im Vergleich zum noch dominanten ?evolutionären Paradigma“ in der internationalen Managementforschung wird hier das alternative Erklärungspotenzial von sozialwissenschaftlichen Institutionentheorien herausgestellt und anhand von vier verschiedenen Aspekten diskutiert: dem Einfluss des Heimatlandes, der Macht und der Autonomie von Tochtergesellschaften sowie der Entstehung transnationaler sozialer Räume.     

About morphological findings in fatal railway collisions

The autopsy findings in fatal cases of railway collisions of the Bonn Institute of Legal Medicine in 1992-1999 were investigated and compared to the statements in the investigation files of the public prosecutor with regard to classification as accident or suicide as well as with regard to type and speed of collision. Of the 38 deaths, 10 were hit in an upright position, 11 fatal collisions affected persons lying outside the track and 13 were hit and overrun lying inside the track. According to the investigation classification 21 persons committed suicide (56%), while 10 died in an accident (26%). Our survey confirmed the leading role of being over-rolled in a lying position as an indication for suicides, while in accidents the upright hit was most important. With exception of the persons primarily affected between the rails in upright position and over-rolled consecutively an unequivocal assignment of injury patterns to the hit categories was possible. In cases of persons being primarily over-rolled in a lying position especially the criteria (i) opening of body cavities, (ii) organ injuries and (iii) loss of parts of the body allowed for careful conclusion on hit, respectively, overrunning speed.