Changing paradigms: Changing interpretations of the public sector in Latin America's economies

Public Choice - This paper attempts to show that over time most economists' view of the role of the state in Latin America's economies has changed considerably. In the 1950s and 1960s state...     

Fatal outcome of poisoning with the benzodiazepines flunitrazepam and diazepam

On a wintry day a 29-year-old woman was found dead beside her car showing head injuries and signs of hypothermia. Several empty packets of sedative and hypnotic drugs were lying inside the car. Toxicological analysis revealed the presence of flunitrazepam (heart blood of the left and right chamber 0.033 mg/L each), norflunitrazepam (left heart blood 0.029 mg/L, right heart blood 0.027 mg/L), 7-amino-flunitrazepam (left heart blood 0.090 mg/L, right heart blood 0.104 mg/L), diazepam (left heart blood 0.395 mg/L, right heart blood 0.386 mg/L), nordazepam (left heart blood 0.112 mg/L, right heart blood 0.115 mg/L) and temazepam (left heart blood 0.034 mg/L, right heart blood 0.033 mg/L). Neither alcohol nor other drugs were found. It was concluded that benzodiazepine intake led to a disturbance of consciousness. Whether the woman died in this situation due to the icy temperature as a result of hypothermia or whether she died or would have died solely due to benzodiazepine overdosage could not be clarified.     

Autoerotic accident by inhalation of propane-butane gas mixture

We present a case of an accidental autoerotic death involving the inhalation of a propane-butane gas mixture, also known as LPG (liquefied petroleum gas). A 19-year-old male was found dead in supine position in his bed in a residential accommodation one day after he was last seen alive. On a personal computer at the end of the bed, a pornographic movie was still running. On his left shoulder, an empty rubber balloon and on the bedside 2 empty "Kisag-Gas" cartridges were found. Toxicologic investigations revealed an intoxication with propane and butane, together with a recent consumption of cannabis. This case report compares the toxicologic findings with other recently published cases, and the theories of the toxic effects are discussed.     

STR analysis of artificially degraded DNA-results of a collaborative European exercise

Degradation of human DNA extracted from forensic stains is, in most cases, the result of a natural process due to the exposure of the stain samples to the environment. Experiences with degraded DNA from casework samples show that every sample may exhibit different properties in this respect, and that it is difficult to systematically assess the performance of routinely used typing systems for the analysis of degraded DNA samples. Using a batch of artificially degraded DNA with an average fragment size of approx. 200 bp a collaborative exercise was carried out among 38 forensic laboratories from 17 European countries. The results were assessed according to correct allele detection, peak height and balance as well as the occurrence of artefacts. A number of common problems were identified based on these results such as strong peak imbalance in heterozygous genotypes for the larger short tandem repeat (STR) fragments after increased PCR cycle numbers, artefact signals and allelic drop-out. Based on the observations, strategies are discussed to overcome these problems. The strategies include careful balancing of the amount of template DNA and the PCR cycle numbers, the reaction volume and the amount of Taq polymerase. Furthermore, a careful evaluation of the results of the fragment analysis and of automated allele calling is necessary to identify the correct alleles and avoid artefacts.     

Literatur

Ohne Zusammenfassung     

Implementation of a robotized real-time PCR setup for the use of the Quantifiler™ Human DNA Quantification Kit

Human DNA quantification occupies a central role within the DNA analytic process of forensic casework samples as DNA quantification results have an important impact on the quality of the short tandem repeat data. Manual processing for the setup of quantification reactions can be time consuming and labor intensive. Therefore automation of quantitative real-time PCR setup was an important component of our DNA-analysis automation concept. Here we show the implementation of a robotized setup for the Quantifiler™ Human DNA Quantification Kit.     

Rechtliche Handlungsmöglichkeiten zur Offenhaltung der Landschaft – am Beispiel Baden-Württembergs

Zusammenfassung  Viele l?ndliche Regionen sind mit einer Ausdehnung der Waldfl?chen konfrontiert. Dies wird vor allem dann als problematisch empfunden, wenn die betroffenen R?ume bereits waldreich sind. Zur Steuerung der Waldzunahmedynamik bieten sich verschiedene rechtliche Instrumente an, deren Potenziale derzeit nicht voll ausgesch?pft werden. Weiterentwicklungsm?glichkeiten bestehen insbesondere im Hinblick auf die Normen zur Aufforstungsgenehmigung. Hier ist ein grunds?tzlicher normativer Paradigmenwechsel denkbar. Neureglungen k?nnten aber auch über die Einrichtung einer Experimentiergesetzgebung zun?chst beispielhaft erprobt werden. Der Beitrag entwickelt zudem einen Leitfaden für die Beurteilung einer “erheblichen Beeintr?chtigung des Landschaftsbilds”, einem bisher nicht ausreichend konkretisierten Versagungsgrund für eine Aufforstungsgenehmigung.     

Internal strategies against corruption: Guidelines for preventing and combating corruption in police authorities

While corruption is not an entirely new phenomenon in Germany, the number of cases suggests that proactive measures should be taken to strengthen prevention and detection. This article proposes a number of measures which, used separately and in combination, aid prevention and detection. It then proposes a wider management approach to dealing with corruption which ranges from general to specific strategies and actions that are intended to prevent corruption, to design out the circumstances in which it may occur and to provide means of detecting areas of risk and vulnerability. The article particularly focuses on police organisations but has applied relevance to all public sector organisations. This revised version was published online in July 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

Implementation of a semi-automated processing system for DNA profiling of forensic casework samples

The concept for a semi-automated processing system for DNA analysis of crime scene samples was developed at the Landeskriminalamt Baden-Württemberg (LKA BW) and comprises the extraction of genomic DNA from human cells by ChargeSwitch^® magnetic bead technology (CST), quantification of purified DNA by real-time PCR, amplification of short tandem repeats (STRs) by PCR and DNA fragment length analysis of STRs by capillary electrophoresis. Three liquid handling workstations from Tecan, a real-time PCR device and a 16-channel capillary electrophoresis (CE) system, both from Applied Biosystems (AB), are linked via laboratory data network. Transmission and management of sample and analysis data is enabled by a Laboratory Information and Management System (LIMS). Suitability for a wide range of stain types, early exclusion of DNA-free samples, barcode sample identification and prevention of cross-contaminations guarantee efficiency and high quality standards.