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This paper examines student-faculty communication by email and the lack of clear guidelines that leads to misuse of email in student-faculty interaction, whereby status-incongruent pragmatic markers are employed, resulting in impoliteness and inappropriateness. The main objective is to bridge the gap in research on other than requestive speech acts in this particular type of e-interaction, taking into account various pragmatic markers and cultural determinants of the subjects' email communication styles. The main purpose of the study was to determine whether and to what degree the use of pragmatic markers by students is congruent with the English netiquette in this specific domain. Moreover, the aim was to investigate the relation of the usage of speech acts and pragmatic markers by students to politeness, as well as to cross-culturally compare the data obtained. The research questions were as follows: Which pragmatic markers distinguish students of different nationalities and in different university settings? What are other than requestive purposes for which students deploy email communication? Which pragmatic markers, in general, are associated with student-faculty email? Is there a correlation between the three countries represented in the corpus and (im)politeness based on the data found in all the emails? What are the implications of the study for computer-mediated language learning? The corpus consisted of 1,200 student-faculty emails written in an academic domain by university students from a German university, a Saudi Arabian university, and two Japanese universities (400 emails per country). The research method employed was of mixed qualitative-quantitative nature, with the focus on pragmatic analysis of speech acts with their illocutionary force and functions, as well as on their impact on the receiver (perlocution). It was determined that the impolite acts occurred most frequently in the corpus. This shows that students appear not to be aware of the role their email messages play in creating an impression on faculty and that structured instruction in email writing is required to improve the situation. The lack of pragmatic competence was found in all three groups of students, independent of the proficiency level and seniority; whereby explicit course guidance in email writing and its netiquette had a clear positive effect on the student-faculty interaction in terms of appropriateness and the level of politeness.

In recent years, early childhood education and care have gained increasing public attention. This has led to an expansion of education and care programmes. Yet, little is known about how parents use different options of education and care. Take, for example, kin care, paid caregivers and out-of-kindergarten activities. Drawing on social reproduction theory, we argue that parents organise their children's lives depending on their social class. In addition, we hypothesise that immigrant status plays a role in how parents set up their children's education and care. We use logit regression models to analyse the education and care arrangements of n?=?2400 parents with 3-5?year-olds in Germany. The findings show that parents from the middle and upper classes make more use of "enrichment activities" than lower and working class parents. When it comes to the influence of immigrant status and to informal care arrangements, the findings add to a more complex picture.

Various components of body image were measured to assess body image disturbances in patients with obesity. To overcome limitations of previous studies, a photo distortion technique and a biological motion distortion device were included to assess static and dynamic aspects of body image. Questionnaires assessed cognitive-affective aspects, bodily attitudes, and eating behavior. Patients with obesity and a binge eating disorder (OBE, n = 15) were compared with patients with obesity only (ONB; n = 15), to determine the nature of any differences in body image disturbances. Both groups had high levels of body image disturbances with cognitive-affective deficits. Binge eating disorder (BED) participants also had perceptual difficulties (static only). Both groups reported high importance of weight and shape for self-esteem. There were some significant differences between the groups suggesting that a comorbid BED causes further aggravation. Body image interventions in obesity treatment may be warranted. (Contains 2 tables and 1 figure.)

The article presents the theoretical premises and preliminary results of a collaborative research project on the socioeconomic aspects of education, known as EDUCARE and hosted at the University of Frankfurt am Main, Germany. Theoretical approaches mentioned include the concept of symbolic capital developed by French sociologist Pierre Bourdieu and discourse analysis following the ideas of French social theorist Michel Foucault. Empirical topics discussed include the health risks of socioeconomically disadvantage children, the effect of poverty on educational opportunity, and political debates about these issues in Germany.

In 1998 the Federal Criminal Police Office of Germany (BKA) established a central genetic database of offenders and suspects to facilitate comparisons with biological samples from future criminal offences. The five obligatory short tandem repeat (STR) loci in this database (TH01, SE33, vWA, FGA and D21S11) were co-amplified in a new PCR pentaplex analysing system together with the sex-specific locus amelogenin. Due to overlapping fragment sizes, amplification products were fluorescent dye-labelled with different colours, separated by electrophoresis and detected directly using the ABI PRISM 310 Genetic Analyzer. Reproducible and reliable results were obtained from as low as 125 pg template DNA, indicating high specificity and sensitivity of the assay. Environmental studies and enzymatic digest with DNase I revealed an excellent stability of the pentaplex system with typeable results even in cases of partially degraded DNA. Complete and reproducible DNA typing was possible in blood-stain mixtures with the minor component as low as 10%. Mean stutter peak intensities were analysed for all loci and ranged from 2.7 +/- 0.8% (TH01) to 10.6 +/- 1.6% (vWA) of the main signal intensity. Allele frequencies were determined in a North Bavarian population sample (n = 121). The combination of five systems resulted in a mean exclusion chance of 99.86% and a power of discrimination of 99.999996%. No deviation from Hardy-Weinberg equilibrium could be found.

Unlabelled: Up to now reliable data were available on cases of lethal child neglect in the area of the Federal Republic of Germany prior to reunification (the former West Germany). In a multicenter study we therefore examined the police and court records for such cases occurring in the period from 1 January 1985 to 2 October 1990 in nearly the entire area of Federal Republic of Germany., Results: The study center received information on 19 cases of lethal child neglect. Extrapolated to all institutes of legal medicine, this corresponds to 20 cases and thus 3.5 cases a year in the whole of West Germany in the period studied. There is to be added a dark-field which cannot be limited more precisely. However, the cases of fatal child neglect might have occurred much more seldom than fatal child abuse caused by use of physical violence. Slightly more than half the victims were younger than 1 year, the oldest one was 7 10/12 years old. Most frequently the children died of starvation and thirst. Mostly the mothers/nursing mothers killed the child alone or together with the victim's father/stepfather. In the majority of the cases there was not a close affection between parents and child. Nearly 30% female/male perpetrators suffered from chronic alcohol abuse. Only 15 (= 56%) of 27 female/male perpetrators were sentenced to imprisonment (period between 7 months on probation and 10 years). Mitigation circumstances existed for nearly half the persons sentenced to imprisonment. It is true that child neglect is a rarer crime, but the experts of legal medicine always have to indicate errors made during the external inspection of the corpse (among others failures to see indications of neglect).

Unlabelled: No reliable data are available on cases of lethal child abuse (by active force) in the area of Federal Republic of Germany prior to reunification (the former West Germany). In a multicenter study we therefore examined the police and court records for such cases occurring in the period 1 January 1985 to 2 October 1990 in nearly the entire area of Federal Republic of Germany., Results: The study center received information on 58 cases of lethal child abuse. Extrapolated to all institutes of legal medicine, this corresponds to 62 cases in all of West Germany in the period studied. An approximately equal number of unreported cases should be added to this figure. Including unreported cases, at least 20 cases of lethal child abuse occurred per year; thus only one in every two cases ever came to light. Almost two thirds of the victims were younger than one year old. At autopsy 59% exhibited signs of repeated abuse at autopsy. By far the most common cause of death was direct impact from a blunt object, usually to the head. Mostly, the male person to whom the victim relates most closely (father, stepfather, partner of the mother) has killed the child. Twenty-one of the 74 persons charged saw the charges against them dropped or were acquitted due to lack of evidence; 51 received sentences ranging from one year probation to life. In the remaining two cases the outcome of the trial was unknown. Signs of abuse were readily apparent at autopsy in almost all cases. The high number of unreported cases underscores the need to educate medical students and practicing physicians to be on the look-out for signs of abuse and argues for an increase in the rate of autopsy.

Frequency data for nine short tandem repeat (STR) loci were collected from 130 unrelated Caucasians from North Bavaria using the AmpFlSTR Profiler multiplex system. The loci D3S1358, vWA, FGA, TH01, TPOX, CSF1PO, D5S818, D13S317, D7S820 and the sex test amelogenin were investigated. Allele frequencies, rates of heterozygosity and the discrimination power of the combined systems were calculated by statistical analysis. Except for D5S818 all loci met Hardy-Weinberg expectations.

A total of 21 suicides by fire (16 males and 5 females) were investigated. In at least 18 of the 21 cases, flammable liquids were used as accelerants leading to severe and extensive burns. The determination of carboxyhemoglobin concentrations revealed comparatively low levels of between 3 and 30 per cent in suicides committed in the open whereas four out of five deceased found dead in gutted cars showed carbon monoxide saturations ranging from 34 to 87 per cent. In 18 cases (86%) soot was detectable in the airways even in cases with slightly elevated carboxyhemoglobin concentrations, indicating the importance of a careful examination of the airways at autopsy for the detection of vital signs.

In cases of death at work an exact examination of the circumstances of death is necessary in particular with regard to financial consequences for the deceased's relatives or insurances. Autopsy and further-reaching tests like blood alcohol determination or toxicological analysis serve as a basis for such an examination. The practical importance of this problem is indicated by 368 cases of death at work found in the autopsy material of the Munich Department of Legal Medicine in the years 1990-1994 (86 cases of natural death, 24 suicides, 4 homicides, 2 drug intoxications and 252 accidents; fatalities occurring on the way to work were not included). Accidents at building sites, in agriculture or traffic accidents were the most common fatalities leading predominantly to severe head injury as a cause of death. Possible measures of prophylaxis are discussed.

Self-injection of toxic substances is a rare method of suicide. Since only case reports exist in the forensic literature, an evaluation of the autopsy reports of the Munich Department of Legal Medicine in the period 1976-1994 was performed including 36 suicides and seven homicides due to injection of toxic agents. The majority of the decreased were physicians nurses or, in cases of homicidal intoxication relatives. The commonly used substances were anaesthetic drugs.

A total of 638 drug death autopsy cases in southern Bavaria from 1981 to 1992 were analysed, including epidemiological and toxicological investigations. The rate of HIV infections decreased during the last few years. Cocaine does not (yet) play a major role. Suicide rates are high. Heroin intoxications are the most frequent cause of death, mostly in combination with other drugs and alcohol. In 1992 we observed a sharp increase of the number of deaths associated with dihydrocodeine abuse. This seems to be a local phenomenon and has to be explained by uncritical and uncontrolled prescription of large amounts of this opiate by individual physicians.