Influence of electricity on post-mortal body temperature

In a case of suicidal application of electricity differences between the rectal temperature of the body and the suspected time of death were observed.In order to answer the question whether an electric current from hand to hand over >30 min led to a rise in body temperature FEM-based computer simulations and animal experiments were carried out. Both resulted in a warming of the soft parts in the arm without warming the body core. Thus a temperature-based estimation of the time since death can also be used in cases with electricity as the cause of death. Besides, in the animal experiment we found a spontaneous rise in the body core temperature even without application of electricity which may be a reason for the typical temperature plateau after death.     

From fiddle factors to networks of collusion: Charting the waters of small business crime

Small business crime has been largely ignored in American criminology; studies of nontraditional crime have focused mainly on corporate crime or on the misdeeds of employees pursuing personal gain. This paper calls for criminologists to redirect their efforts toward the systematic study of small business crime. In particular, it advocates in-depth qualitative studies that explore small business culture and opportunity structures, and that examine the networks of collusion that subvert the legitimate economy. The paper concludes with illustrations from an own story currently being shared with the author by a small businessman who participated for five years in an urban crime network that infiltrated the redistributive economy.     

Ideology, class and the National Health Service

Since the start of the British National Health Service, disputes between the government and the medical profession have become formalized battles with well-recognized rules. But between 1974 and 1976 the consensus underlying the conflict was challenged by the Labour Government's policy on private practice and pay beds. This paper examines the course of the conflict and analyzes the factors underlying the eruption of this issue. It draws attention to the role of the trade-unions in activating the Labour Party's latent ideological commitment on private practice. Although the issue appears to conform to a class-conflict model, this simple symmetry becomes blurred on closer analysis. In conclusion the paper argues that while socio-structural factors extrinsic to the health service explain the appearance of private practice on the political agenda, it is factors endogenous to the NHS which explain the outcome of the dispute. In turn, however, these endogenous factors have little to do with the fact that the NHS is delivering a commodity called "health." Instead, what is important is that the NHS is a complex organization and, as such, depends on the co-operation of a variety of groups--ranging from the medical profession to laundry workers. The analysis, therefore, concludes that the power of the medical profession derives not from its elite status but from its position as an organized group in a complex industry.