Coronal cleft vertebra initially suspected as an abusive fracture in an infant

A case of a four-month-old male infant is described who was found unresponsive at home and brought to the emergency room. He lived for four days. During his hospital admission he was diagnosed by radiography with a fracture of the third lumbar vertebra that was presumed abusive in nature. Autopsy examination failed to confirm a fracture. However, a defect in the development of the vertebral bodies was discovered. He was diagnosed with possible failure of the notochord to regress, a condition with no significant sequelae. The cause of death was certified as sudden infant death syndrome after full investigation, and all autopsy studies were negative.     

When Syria was in Egypt’s land: Egyptians cooperate with Syrians,but less with each other

Public Choice - With the number of people fleeing Syria since 2011 exceeding 5 million, and unclear prospects regarding the country’s future, Syrians currently residing outside their homeland...     

Law in Film: Globalizing the Hollywood Courtroom Drama

The courtroom drama is a prominent film genre. Most of the movies in this category are Hollywood productions, dealing with the legal system in the United States of America. What they have in common is that essential parts of their stories take place in court. These movies have a tremendous influence on the public's concept of justice even though very few of them accurately reflect legal reality. Anyone with legal training who watches films of this sort will notice in them all sorts of absurdities which are not thoroughly investigated in this paper. Our concern here is to inquire why even movies that take place in continental Europe follow patterns of the American system and also why certain elements from American movies are repeated over and over again.     

Industrial Relations and Justice Ideologies in the Firm: A Justice-Based Explanation of Works Council Effectiveness

This paper investigates why the effectiveness of works councils varies across firms. Drawing on a large body of literature on justice in organizations, and on the basis of the premise of methodological individualism, we present the groundwork for a justice-based theory of workplace codetermination. The theory focuses on workers' attitudes toward justice in organizations, the structural reasons behind these attitudes, and their consequences for the effectiveness of codetermination. Results from a qualitative employee survey in four German firms provide first empirical support for the theory presented.     

Changing Issue Ownership through Policy Communication

Issue ownership has been an important concept in the analysis of party competition for several decades. Traditionally, issue ownership has been regarded as a stable phenomenon where parties are advantaged by different political issues. However, several recent studies have reported change in voters’ perceptions of parties’ issue ownership. To investigate the changeability of issue ownership and how it can be altered, this article investigates the impact of parties’ communication attempts through a web-based survey in Sweden. Two major political issues are in focus: employment and healthcare. The results show that parties can indeed improve their ownership by communicating on an issue. Indications were also found that the effects decrease as other parties simultaneously communicate on the same issue, and when those who receive the messages are ideologically distant from the party. However, in several cases results are weak. Many important conditionalities therefore remain to be explored in future studies.     

Do Ukrainian Firms Benefit from FDI?

All countries are eager to attract as much foreign direct investments (FDI) as possible. At the same time FDI may have not only positive, but also negative economic effects for receiving countries. Positive effects are associated with technology transfer, efficient allocation of resources, and training of domestic workers. However, the entry of foreign firms could, e.g., lead to a decrease of labor productivity at domestic firms, which is a negative effect. The main purpose of this paper is to estimate direct and indirect effects of FDI. First, we test for direct influence of foreign direct investments on firms’ performance, where the latter is estimated alternatively as labor productivity and as exports. FDI notably increases both labor productivity and export volumes. Second, we look for spillover or indirect effects. There is statistical evidence that the levels of FDI in certain regional industries are associated with higher performance indicators of firms’ not receiving FDI in those same regional industries.     

Procedural justice at German courts as seen by defendants and juvenile prisoners

The article summarizes German research on procedural and distributive justice at criminal courts. The first German field studies addressing these topics are presented. Procedural justice characteristics like neutrality, courtesy, equal consideration of evidence, voice, and fairness of procedural rules are relevant for Germans. A study on juvenile prisoners shows no support for equity theory and some for the Group Value model. Lay assessors receive positive evaluations by juvenile prisoners.