Forensic odontological examinations of alleged torture victims at the University of Copenhagen 1997-2011

Background: Clinical forensic examinations of alleged torture victims have been performed by forensic pathologists at the University of Copenhagen since 1995. In 13.2%/33 of these cases, the examinations were supplemented by a forensic odontological clinical examination. In this study, the forensic odontological cases from the years 1997-2011 are presented and discussed. Methods: This study includes 33 reports from alleged torture victims (4 females, 29 males) who have been examined by a forensic odontologist at the Copenhagen School of Dentistry in the years 1997-2011. The material available consisted of copies of medical forensic reports and the forensic odontological reports including x-rays. Background data, anamnestic data and results of the forensic odontological clinical examinations were registered as well as the conclusion of the clinical examinations. Findings: The forensic odontological clinical examinations were complicated by the presence of unspecific injuries and various degrees of active oral pathology. In 27 of the cases it was concluded that the findings were consistent with the alleged torture, in six of the cases the findings were concluded to be highly consistent with the alleged torture

Dark energy and dark matter from cosmological observations

The present status of our knowledge about the dark matter and dark energy is reviewed. Bounds on the content of cold and hot dark matter from cosmological observations are discussed in some detail. I also review current bounds on the physical properties of dark energy, mainly its equation of state and effective speed of sound.Comment: 12 pages, 4 figures, to appear in Lepton-Photon 2005 proceedings, added figure and typos correcte

Herbivore Impact Versus Host Size Preference: Endophagous Insects on Heracleum mantegazzianum in Its Native Range

Classical biological control is a practice to control alien invasive weeds, but many introduced biological control agents exhibit only a weak negative impact on their targets. One reason is that prerelease impact studies in the natural environment are often difficult to carry out. Heracleum mantegazzianum Sommier and Levier (Apiaceae), which is native to the Caucasus, is a perennial noxious weed introduced into Europe and North America. We examined the impact and host size preference of different endophagous insect guilds in the weed's native range. Instead of the commonly used insect exclosure approach, we estimated plant vigor before and after herbivore attack under natural conditions. Endophagous herbivores were dominated by the weevil species Lixus iridis Olivier, Nastus fausti Reitter, and Otiorhynchus tatarchani Reitter (Coleoptera: Curculionidae), the fly Melanagromyza heracleana Zlobin (Diptera: Agromyzidae), and an unidentified root-boring agromyzid fly species. Most observed insect species exhibited a strong preference for either big or small plants, but none of them caused serious damage within the study period. Occurrence of root-feeding weevils was associated with weak plants, but because of their long larval development, it was not possible to assign this relationship clearly to either feeding damage or host size preference. A comparison with other studies indicated that mature H. mantegazzianum plants are quite tolerant to herbivory. Insects belonging to the feeding guilds studied here will probably not guarantee successful biological control. Further research should focus on earlier stages in the weed's life cycl

Gibt es eine Forschungslogik?: Das Problem wissenschaftstheoretischer Erklärungen

Es ist möglich, zu zeigen, dass die einflussreiche Lehrmeinung über deduktiv-nomologische Erklärungen von Ereignissen nicht haltbar ist. Ein allgemeines und ein singuläres kausales Bedingungsverhältnis zwischen Ereignissen kann nicht als eine Beziehung zwischen den Prämissen und der Konklusion expliziert werden. Werden dagegen nicht-kausale Gesetze in Betracht gezogen, dann ist es möglich, die Eigenschaft eines Gegenstandes durch ein deduktiv-nomologisches Argument zu erklären. Es gibt daher zwei unterschiedliche Arten wissenschaftlicher Erklärungen.It is possible to show that the influential doctrine of deductive-nomological explanations of events fails to be tenable. A general and a singular causal condition of events is not explicable in terms of a relation holding between premises and conclusions. Taking into account non-causal laws the attribute of an object can be explained by means of a deductive-nomological argument. Thus there are two different kinds of scientific explanations

Die behavioristische Fehldeutung der Handlung

Da es nicht möglich ist, durch Verhaltensbeobachtungen festzustellen, ob jemand absichtlich oder unabsichtlich etwas tut oder nicht tut, ist es notwendig, unabhängig von einer behavioristischen Sichtweise die Kriterien für die Annahme von Handlungen und Unterlassungshandlungen herauszuarbeiten und zu zeigen, dass Handlungen und Unterlassungshandlungen nicht mit Ereignissen identifiziert werden können. Da Autoren den Zusammenhang zwischen ‚retten’ und ‚nicht töten’ und ‚nicht retten’ und ‚töten’ falsch interpretiert haben, lässt sich das gegenwärtig vieldiskutierte Problem der negativen Kausalität auflösen.Since it is not possible to maintain in virtue of observable behaviour whether someone intentionally or unintentionally does or does not something, it is necessary apart from a behavioristic view to examine the criteria for actions and omissions and, moreover, to show that actions and omissions cannot be identified with events. As authors have not correctly expounded the connection between ‘saving’ and ‘not killing’ and ‘not saving’ and ‘killing’, the problem presently much discussed about negative causation proves to be dissolved