Comparison of ethanol concentrations in right cardiac blood, left cardiac blood and peripheral blood in a series of 30 cases

The aim of this study was to compare ethanol concentrations in right cardiac blood, left cardiac blood and peripheral blood. Samples were taken from a series of 30 medicolegal autopsies. Ethanol was measured by headspace GC-FID. In each case, the degree of putrefaction, chest or abdominal injury, and/or regurgitation of gastric contents into the airways were noted. Our results show that there exists in certain cases a marked increase in ethanol concentration in left cardiac blood compared with right cardiac blood and peripheral blood. In these cases, we observed (i) a high concentration of ethanol in the gastric contents and (ii) regurgitation of gastric contents into the airways. The authors discuss the post-mortem redistribution mechanisms which could explain these results and stress the value of sampling right cardiac blood at autopsy.     

Duplications of the Y-chromosome specific loci P25 and 92R7 and forensic implications

In the present study, we demonstrate that two commonly used Y-chromosome single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs), P25 and 92R7, are paralogous sequence variants (PSVs) originating from segmental duplications and that at least one of the sequence variants in each group of loci is polymorphic. Several methodologies were used in order to detect the SNP alleles and the PSVs of the loci. All results obtained with the various typing techniques supported the conclusion. The allele distributions of the binary markers were analysed in more than 600 males with seven different haplogroups. For P25, the ancestral allele C was found in several samples from different haplogroups. The derived allele A was always present with an additional C variant. Haplogroup P was defined by the derived allele A at the 92R7 locus. However, the ancestral allele G was always associated with an A variant due to the duplication.     

Y-chromosome STR haplotypes in the Canary Islands population (Spain)

Haplotype frequencies of eight Y-chromosome STR loci (DYS19, DYS389I, DYS389II, DYS390, DYS391, DYS392, DYS393 and DYS385) were determined from a sample of 285 unrelated males from Canary Islands.     

WHY PROHIBIT DONATIONS BETWEEN HUSBAND AND WIFE IN MEDIEVAL EUROPE?

Between the end of the eleventh century and the beginning of the twelfth century, following the rediscovery of Roman law in the West, the first Bolognese commentators stuck to the Roman principle prohibiting donations between spouses. Authors commented over and over again upon fragments of the writings of Roman jurists Paul and Ulpian that were integrated into the Digest of Emperor Justinian. According to these jurists of the Classical Age, fears of despoliation between spouses, of negligence in the children’s education and of marriage becoming venal were the main reasons found. Medieval canon law takes the subject of donations between spouses very seriously. Laurent of Spain (? 1248), in the Glossa Palatina, worries about donations of cosmetics, which are seen as luxury enhancing. In Liber Extra (1234), a decretal signed by Gregory IX took up the subject, confirming the opinions expressed by Paul and Ulpian by expressing hostility to such donations on the basis of public morality. Following the Fourth Lateran Council (1215), a new literary form appeared: confession - or casuistic - manuals. In these aspects, the subject of gifts between spouses is closely assimilated to the question of sin, especially of luxury. Continental Europe’s common law (ius commune) shows similar spirit in that respect. Italian statutory laws, in conformity with the separatist spirit of Roman law, forbade them without distinction. They were outlawed in English law by unitas carnis which presides over conjugal relations. According to Jean Boutillier (1395), the author of La Somme rural, a famous French interpreter of law, donations between spouses are generally regarded as a result of fear, complacency or luxury, and so should be forbidden. The common theme between Roman or Canon law and different common laws is the upholding of a certain public morality and the control of couples as the mainstay of their respective families.     

The New Personal Influence: How Our Facebook Friends Influence the News We Read

Has the introduction of social media into the information landscape changed the heuristics individuals use when selecting news? Social media allow users to easily share and endorse political content. These features facilitate personal influence, possibly increasing the salience of partisan information, making users more likely to read endorsed content. To test this possibility, I utilize snowball sampling to conduct a survey experiment featuring mock Facebook News Feeds. These feeds contain different levels of social media activity attributed to different sources, varying from fictional individuals to subjects’ own friends and family members. I find that online endorsements and discussions serve as heuristics when deciding which content to consume, outweighing partisan selectivity. This effect is only significant when the activity comes from friends or family members, as social influence attributed to fictional individuals has no effect on information selectivity.     

The Party Paradox: a Comment Nicolas van de Walle (Cornell) February 20, 2018

ABSTRACT

This article analyzes several stylized facts and implications concerning intra-party violence developed in the other articles of this special issue on intra-party violence in African electoral systems. It then turns more specifically to the implications of intra-party violence for democratic consolidation in the region, and argues that paradoxically, though parties are centrally important to democratic politics, the degree to which they are internally inclusive and participatory may not have much importance, or may indeed undermine democracy. Though they are perhaps the key actor on the path to a consolidated democracy, they tend to work best when they themselves are not internally democratic.     

‘Fragile States’: introducing a political concept

The special issue ‘Fragile States: A Political Concept’ investigates the emergence, dissemination and reception of the notion of ‘state fragility’. It analyses the process of conceptualisation, examining how the ‘fragile states’ concept was framed by policy makers to describe reality in accordance with their priorities in the fields of development and security. The contributors to the issue investigate the instrumental use of the ‘state fragility’ label in the legitimisation of Western policy interventions in countries facing violence and profound poverty. They also emphasise the agency of actors ‘on the receiving end’, describing how the elites and governments in so-called ‘fragile states’ have incorporated and reinterpreted the concept to fit their own political agendas. A first set of articles examines the role played by the World Bank, the oecd, the European Union and the g7+ coalition of ‘fragile states’ in the transnational diffusion of the concept, which is understood as a critical element in the new discourse on international aid and security. A second set of papers employs three case studies (Sudan, Indonesia and Uganda) to explore the processes of appropriation, reinterpretation and the strategic use of the ‘fragile state’ concept.