Controversial Cases Research Articles

Comparison Between Ventricular and Spinal Infusion Tests in Suspected Normal Pressure Hydrocephalus.

Idiopathic normal pressure hydrocephalus (iNPH) is an often-overlooked or misdiagnosed brain disorder characterized by overt ventriculomegaly and associated with gait disturbances, cognitive impairment, and urinary incontinence. If correctly diagnosed, it is considered the only form of dementia treatable with surgery, namely through a ventriculoperitoneal or ventriculoatrial shunt with programmable valves.Among the 856 spinal and ventricular infusion tests performed from 2001 to 2017 at our institution, we analyzed 106 cases selected for suspected normotensive hydrocephalus. In all cases, Intracranial Elastance Index (IEI) and outflow resistance (Rout) values were calculated: 52 of these patients underwent Spinal Katzman Test (SKT), and the remaining 54 underwent an intraventricular infusion test (IVKT). Of the 40 patients in the SKT group with pathological elastance (71%), 17 also had a Rout >12mmHg and 23 a Rout <12mmHg. Of the 50 patients in the IVKT group with pathological elastance (92%), 38 also had a Rout >12mmHg and 12 a Rout <12mmHg.IVKT and SKT to date represent two useful tools in the diagnosis of normal pressure hydrocephalus. Despite being more invasive, IVKT, including both the intracranial elastance index (IEI) and Rout analysis, could be considered more reliable than SKT and therefore could be reserved for the most controversial cases.

Psychoanalytic psychology, sleep medicine, and the law: Scientifically reviewing Oscar Pistorius’ culpable homicide/ murder conviction

In parasomnias (sleep disorders), parts of the brain are alert, functioning well, but other regions are not awake, not functioning. These mixed sleep/wake states compromise mental processes in ways that can be surprising, and sometimes dangerous to self and/or others. Possible parasomnia should be considered in relation to all violent, perplexing events that occur after individuals fall asleep. Increased familiarity with the scientific study of dreaming and sleep disorders augments mental health and legal practitioners’ capacity to comprehend and assist. Expert testimony from these scientific fields can shift judicial focus from inappropriate punishment toward treatment and prevention, bringing enlightened justice, understanding, and relief to all parties. This article re-examines the controversial case of Olympic athlete, Oscar Pistorius, who killed his girlfriend, Reeva Steenkamp, during an episode of sudden arousal from sleep. Both the bail magistrate and the judge underscored major elements that made no sense in Pistorius’ narrative. When these crucial anomalies are approached with knowledge of dreaming and parasomnia, they become comprehensible, meaningful, and potentially transformative with respect to judicial outcome. Invaluable insights from these scientific fields were not considered during Pistorius’ trial. If they had been contemplated and found credible, the accused might have been found not criminally responsible. This possible miscarriage of justice might be reversed via appeal based upon these scientific principles. Sleep medicine and psychoanalytic psychology have made major judicial contributions. These disciplines are indispensable for understanding perplexing legal cases. Without expert opinion from these scientific fields, miscarriages of justice may occur. Familiarity with these research findings is crucial for legal and mental health professionals.2 This article reviews a well-known, controversial case through these empirical lenses. The strong possibility that parasomnia (sleep disorder) severely impaired this defendant’s important cognitive processing capacity is presented. In such cases, non-pathological criminal incapacity (therefore acquittal) must be seriously considered in courts’ efforts to achieve optimal justice.

Interpreting Ratification

For two centuries, constitutional interpreters have relied on statements from the ratification debates—especially The Federalist—as persuasive authority in constitutional interpretation. This reliance, which has only increased with the rise of public-meaning originalism, mistakes Federalist campaign literature and oratory for objective and disinterested constitutional interpretation, and mistakenly dismisses the interpretations of Anti-Federalists as irrelevant. Focusing on the debate over enumerated powers, this article challenges the unfounded assumptions of Federalist objectivity and Anti-Federalist irrelevance and models the historical method necessary to interpret the ratification debates rigorously. More specifically, the article advances three central claims. First, the probable insincerity of much Federalist advocacy—including The Federalist—significantly undercuts its authority as evidence of a determinate original public meaning. Second, Anti-Federalist advocacy opposing ratification is much more probative evidence of original public meaning than has generally been recognized. Third, the most prominent arguments for privileging Federalist over Anti-Federalist advocacy are internally flawed and historically unfounded. More important, none of those arguments can be squared with the tenets of public-meaning originalism. All of this significantly undermines a principled originalist case for limiting federal power. It also calls into question the resolving power of originalism as a practical method for deciding controversial cases. Both of these implications would represent seismic shifts in U.S. constitutional law.

Claiming the city: Muslim faith-based activism as ‘lived citizenship’ in Georgia

ABSTRACT This contribution draws attention to faith-based activism as ‘lived citizenship’ among Georgian Muslims in Georgia. A controversial case of the construction of a mosque in multi-religious Batumi is not an isolated episode confined to the city, but goes back to a much longer dispute over Georgianness among Georgian Muslims and should be located in a wider, global perspective. An emerging regional metropolis in Georgia offers fruitful arenas for the study of the dynamics of religious activism in those domains where religion is viewed as a new source of national heritage, and where legal frameworks (i.e. laws on religious freedom) for minorities and their participation are not yet elaborated, or are constantly being negotiated and contested. This anthropologically informed study demonstrates the increasing visibility of the voices of religious minority groups and the growth of public expression of Muslim life in Georgia. It reflects this minority group’s expectation of achieving a mutual ‘sense of belonging’, and their tactics of lived citizenship and of participation in contemporary Georgia.

Стилистическая квалификация слова в академическом толковом словаре

The article discusses problems of lexicographic stylistics, such as the necessity of reflecting speech phenomena as language ones, the limitations of the lexicographer’s tools for choosing a particular stylistic mark, as well as the diffusion, subjectivity, and inconsistency of criteria for stylistic marks. When making decisions about the stylistic properties of a lexical unit, lexicographers may be guided by the following: 1) the tradition established by authoritative predecessor dictionaries; 2) their ownlanguage intuition; 3) formal indicators of stylistic membership (e.g., stylistically colored suffixes); 4) citation materials. Each of these instruments has its own drawbacks and limitations. The paper analyzes controversial cases of stylistic qualification of words in academic explanatory dictionaries, starting from the “Explanatory Dictionary of the Russian Language” edited by D. N. Ushakov, which are associated with both the underdevelopment of stylistic theory for lexicographic practice and the objective complexity of formalizing stylistic categories (using the example of words: koldobina‘pothole’, razdevalka‘changing room’, razdeval'nya‘undressing room’, otmyvaniye deneg‘laundering (of money)’).

The UK Supreme Court’s Miller II: Keeping the Court out of politics’ way?

Abstract In recent years, the legitimacy of the United Kingdom’s Supreme Court has come under increasing pressure, with critics accusing the Court of unduly entering the domain of “politics.” Using the September 2019 Miller/Cherry “prorogation” judgment as a case study, this article analyzes the tension underpinning the criticisms. In particular, it makes two theoretical claims. First, three normative worries guide attempts to distance adjudicative judgment from the political sphere. Courts should not disrespect settled law (the “lawmaking worry”), interfere with the autonomy of politics (“the interventionism worry”), or answer political questions (“non-justiciability worry”). Second, though all three worries represent coherent norms in the abstract, in deeply controversial cases like Miller/Cherry, those norms fail to be of independent help. Attempts to distinguish the judicial domain from the domain of politics, the article argues, are themselves rooted in ideologically deeply colored definitions and acts of political stance-taking.

Is Symbolic Religious Establishment Permitted Within the European Convention? A Legal, Political, and Pragmatic Perspective

Abstract This article discusses the role of the European Court of Human Rights in regulating the symbolic establishment of religion by the Convention States in their public sphere. The analysis starts from the rather controversial Lautsi decisions and distinguishes three perspectives on such cases. The legal perspective focuses on the way the Court would usually answer a legal question underlying a controversial subject as an interpretation of the Convention and Protocols understood as the living instrument it is today. The political perspective focuses on the preferred solution of the democratic majority in the relevant the Convention State, which is sometimes diametrically opposed to the Court’s assessment. The pragmatic perspective explains how the Court deals with such clashes. In controversial cases, the Court sometimes is critical of the state for violating Convention rights, but remains, as a supranational court, critically dependent on the sufficient support of these states. This implies that the Court is sometimes forced to act pragmatically. To maintain the overall stability of the Convention system of human rights protection, the Court is sometimes required to make legally suboptimal decisions in specific controversial cases.

The use of hydroxychloroquine in pregnancy and its effect on perinatal outcomes in a population with autoimmune abnormalities.

This study was conducted to analyse the medication indications of hydroxychloroquine (HCQ) and to explore the clinical characteristics and perinatal outcomes of pregnancy in women with autoimmune abnormalities. The value of HCQ against placental dysfunction-related pregnancy outcomes in people with autoimmune abnormalities was also explored. ① To collect HCQ application cases during pregnancy who were hospitalized and delivered from 2016 to 2020. The classification and distribution of HCQ indications were analysed. The characteristics of cases and pregnancy outcomes were discussed. ② To include pregnancy combined with autoimmune abnormalities population during the period. Demographic information, clinical characteristics, classification, medication time frame, and pregnancy outcomes were discussed. ① There were 741 cases of HCQ use during pregnancy. Classification by drug indication was as follows: 257 cases (34.68%) had clear indications for autoimmune diseases. There were 359 controversial cases, as follows: 140 (18.89%) cases of antiphospholipid syndrome and 219 (29.55%) cases of autoantibody-positive cases who had no clear drug indication and also used HCQ during pregnancy. No indications were found for 125 cases (16.87%), without autoimmune abnormalities and empirical medication of HCQ during pregnancy. ② In 853 pregnancies with autoimmune abnormalities, women with systemic lupus erythematosus, Sjögren's syndrome, rheumatoid arthritis, and undifferentiated connective tissue disease had clear indications for HCQ. The proportions of HCQ applied during pregnancy were 86.67%, 85.71%, 73.53%, and 75.00%. The start of medication before pregnancy only accounted for 74.44%, 65.31%, 64.71%, and 43.38%. ③ Medication indicated antiphospholipid syndrome and simple autoantibody-positive cases in the controversial population. The proportions of cases in which HCQ was used during pregnancy were 74.47% (140/188) and 64.79% (219/338). Application of HCQ during pregnancy significantly reduced pre-eclampsia (19.8% vs. 8.91%, P < 0.001), early-onset pre-eclampsia (7.78% vs. 2.51%, P = 0.007), and pregnancy loss during the middle and late pregnancy stages (2.99% vs. 0.56%, P = 0.036) in this controversial population. Empirical, over-indicated, or even no indications usage of HCQ in pregnancy is common. The strength of standardized and specialist management are needed in populations with clear HCQ indications. HCQ-indicated controversial population should avoid overdiagnosis and guard against the potential risks of combined anticoagulation and glucocorticoid therapy. The incidence of placental dysfunction diseases in people with autoimmune abnormalities increases. HCQ application may alleviate the incidence of adverse pregnancy outcomes in this population. Key Points •The incidence of placental dysfunction diseases in people with autoimmune abnormalities increases. •Our work have discovered the unique value of HCQ in improving placental dysfunction diseases in autoimmune abnormal cases, not just in AID such as SLE, SS, UTCD, and RA. •HCQ is a potential drug option for autoimmune abnormalities to improve placental function, by providing synergistic prevention and treatment of these disorders, not just single target of antispasmodic, anti-hypertensive, and circulatory improvement. •Empirical, over-indicated, or even no indications usage of HCQ in pregnancy is common. However, the strength of standardized and specialist management are needed in populations with clear HCQ indications.

Settling Water Disputes through International Investment Arbitration: When and by What Standards?

Abstract The development of water law as environmental law may trigger disputes over investment projects, which could find their way to international investment arbitration. Consequently, domestic water law and administration can be subjected to international scrutiny. This article analyses relevant investment treaty provisions and cases concerning water resources management to examine (i) when water disputes can be submitted to investment arbitration and (ii) what standards tribunals have applied to settle them. It demonstrates that water disputes over investment projects can widely be covered by investment treaties, but they do not automatically turn water resources into legally protected commodities. Investment arbitration is commonly used by foreign investors to challenge the legality of water-related measures adopted by host States under an applicable investment treaty, it can also be used to enforce domestic environmental law. In most controversial cases, arbitral tribunals applied reasoned decision-making and regulatory coherence as emerging global regulatory standards.

Electron correlations rule the phonon-driven instability in single-layer TiSe2

We investigate the controversial case of charge-density-wave (CDW) order in single layer 1T-TiSe$_2$ by employing the density functional perturbation theory with on-site Hubbard interactions. The results emphasize the crucial role of electron correlations via Hubbard corrections in order to capture the accurate electronic structure, low- and high-temperature limits of the CDW phonon mode, and temperature-charge phase diagram. We show, in close agreement with the experiments, that total phase diagram consists of both commensurate and incommensurate CDW regions, where the latter coincide with the superconductive phase and might be instrumental for its formation. In addition to the established roles of quantum lattice fluctuations and excitonic interactions, our analysis emphasizes the overlooked crucial role of the momentum dependent electron-phonon coupling and electron correlations for the CDW phase transition in single layer TiSe$_2$.

German Colonists on River Milky Waters of Taurida Province in First Third of 19th Century

The information from the materials of the General Land Survey of the Russian Empire in the first third of the 19th century about the German colonies based on the territory of the Melitopol district of the Tauride province is analyzed in the article. The relevance of the study is due to the great interest in the resettlement policy pursued by the Russian Empire in this region at the end of the 18th — the first third of the 19th centuries, as well as in the processes of settlement and development of new territories and the participation of foreign colonists in them. The novelty of the study lies in the involvement of previously unused “Economic notes on the plans of the General survey, field notes of land surveyors and controversial cases” as sources on the history of German colonists. Based on them, the author studies the features of the economic structure of the settlements of German colonists, the structure of their land. Particular attention is paid to the dispute between the Mennonites and the Dukhobors about the boundaries of possessions, during which the true location of the Molochnaya River bed was clarified. The consideration of the case shows that disputes over the boundaries of land plots were of a fundamental nature and reached the highest authorities. Until the 1830s, there were still unresolved issues related to land management and surveying of the German-speaking colonies.

An Early Catalog of Planet-hosting Multiple-star Systems of Order Three and Higher

We present a catalog (status 2022 July 1) of triple and higher-order systems identified containing exoplanets based on data from the literature, including various analyses. We explore statistical properties of the systems with a focus on both the stars and the planets. So far, about 30 triple systems and one to three quadruple systems, including (mildly) controversial cases, have been found. The total number of planets is close to 40. All planet-hosting triple-star systems are highly hierarchic, consisting of a quasi-binary complemented by a distant stellar component, which is in orbit about the common center of mass. Furthermore, the quadruple systems are in fact pairs of close binaries (“double–doubles”), with one binary harboring a planet. For the different types of star–planet systems, we introduce a template for the classifications of planetary orbital configurations in correspondence to the hierarchy of the system and the planetary host. The data show that almost all stars are main-sequence stars, as expected. However, the stellar primaries tend to be more massive (i.e., corresponding to spectral types A, F, and G) than expected from single-star statistics, a finding also valid for stellar secondaries but less pronounced. Tertiary stellar components are almost exclusively low-mass stars of spectral type M. Almost all planets have been discovered based on either the Radial Velocity method or the Transit method. Both gas giants (the dominant type) and terrestrial planets (including super-Earths) have been identified. We anticipate the expansion of this database in the light of future planetary search missions.

Application of organic petrography as a forensic tool in environmental studies to investigate the source of coal pollution on beaches in Gijón (Northern Spain)

Coal is one of the oldest and most widespread pollutants of natural environments such as marine coastal areas. The sources of this pollution are varied and mainly anthropogenic, one of which is handling coal in marine coal terminals and in bulk seaports. In coastal environments, there is also accidental coal pollution caused by accidents such as shipwrecks or sinking of bulk carriers and barges operating in port areas. One case of coal pollution is the beaches in Gijón on the Cantabrian coast in the north of Spain, which are intermittently covered to varying degrees by carbonaceous materials. To the north of Gijón there is a bulk seaport, El Musel, the largest bulk seaport in Spain where millions of tons of coal and other carbonaceous materials are handled annually. In January 1986 the Castillo de Salas bulk carrier sank with 100,000 tons of coal off the beaches of Gijón. For >34 years the true origin of the coal staining the beaches has been the subject of controversy at all levels of society. The aim of this study was to determine the main source of coal pollutants on the beaches. To that end, organic petrography was used to determine the mixtures of coal and other carbonaceous materials in sediments. The results indicate that the El Musel seaport is quantitatively the main source of coal pollution on the beaches and that coal from the sunken vessel reaches the beaches only during significant storms, heavy waves, and strong tides, which are common on the Cantabrian coast. Organic petrography emerged as a powerful forensic tool that can be applied to environmental investigations to determine the source of coal pollution, which is especially important in controversial cases.

A study of morphological changes in the mandible associated with sexual dimorphism: a digital panoramic study

BACKGROUND: In forensic anthropology, osteological remains are widely used to assess various characteristics of a person, which helps in establishing the identity of the deceased or serves as additional evidence in controversial cases.&#x0D; AIMS: The study aimed to measure, compare and distinguish the gender-related changes in the mandible among dentate of different age groups on digital panoramic radiographic images and to evaluate their reliability in sex determination that might serve as evidence in forensics.&#x0D; MATERIALS AND METHODS: Digital panoramic images were obtained for 420 patients, which included 210 males and 210 females. Various parameters such as gonial angle, condylar length, ramus length, cortical bone thickness and ramal notch width were measured and evaluated. The data obtained was subjected to descriptive statistical analysis and two-way ANOVA test.&#x0D; RESULTS: Comparison between gender groups showed statistically significant differences in all parameters with p 0.05 except the ramal notch width. The mean value of all parameters, was found to be comparatively higher in males. Among the groups, gonial angle and ramus length were found to be higher on right side, but in ramal notch width it was higher on left. The condylar length among males showed greater value on right side, and females showed greater value on left side. The cortical bone thickness among males depicted greater value on left side, and females depicted greater value on right side. Thus, all parameters except the ramal notch width were found to be reliable in sex determination.&#x0D; CONCLUSION: It was found that males had greater value when compared to females. Hence, this study recommends the use of these parameters for the purpose of sex determination.

A new classification option for NSAID hypersensitivity: Kalyoncu classification.

The European Network for Drug Allergy (ENDA) proposed a consensus document for hypersensitivity reactions to nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) in 2011. A subgroup of patients with NSAIDs-exacerbated respiratory disease (NERD) develop urticaria/angioedema type reactions in response to NSAIDs. The Kalyoncu classification might be a novel option to classify patients with NSAID hypersensitivity (NH). In this study, we compare the ENDA and the Kalyoncu classifications. This study enrolled a total of 196 patients. NH reaction types were categorized as asthma, rhinitis, urticaria/angioedema and anaphylaxis. Based on the reaction history and oral provocation test findings, patients were grouped according to ENDA and Kalyoncu classifications. The mean age of the 196 patients was 40.32±13.28 years, and 130 (66.3%) of them were female. Under the ENDA and Kalyoncu classifications, the most common NH subgroups were NERD (32%), and isolated NH (34.2%), the least prevalent NH subgroups were single NSAID-induced delayed reactions (SNIDR) (1.5%), and pseudo Samter's syndrome (11.7%). Our research revealed that the Kalyoncu classification is more descriptive of patients with NERD exhibiting urticaria/angioedema-type reactions. It also provides future risk assessment for development of NERD. For controversial cases, the Kalyoncu classification can be utilized as a new complimentary option alone or in conjunction with ENDA classification.

Brain death as a moral definition and an act of love: the tale of Moon, Nehviel and Fate.

The vital status of people with a destroyed brain is one of the most discussed topics in medical literature. According to the current legal narrative, people whose brain is destroyed are dead. Nevertheless, a clear biological rationale to support with certainty such a narrative is still lacking. The purported rationale of the "the brain as the central integrator of the body" has proven to be biologically untenable. Persons with a destroyed brain can be maintained viable for long periods of time, showing clear signs of good biological integration. This fact stirs up a continuous seething of heated discussions among scholars, and generates uncertainty among lay people, loss of trust towards the medical community, and highly controversial cases in the media. To try to settle this unresolved situation, we propose a moral narrative, according to which people whose brain is destroyed should be considered as dead. Defining those people as biologically dead is impossible. Their clinical condition is neither life nor death; it is something in between, an artifice created by modern medicine. Yet, we can well state that the irreversible loss of all brain functions is a clinically and scientifically useful point of no return in the process of dying which can guide sound decisions. Through a personal reinterpretation of the myth of Orpheus and Eurydice, we would like to show that the choice to consider people with a destroyed brain as dead is a sound moral decision and an act of love.

Bail-in credibility: evidence from emerging markets

PurposeSome controversial cases of bail-in in the emerging countries have raised the question about whether for those countries to have in place a regulation for the bail-in is appropriate or not. To assess appropriateness, this paper investigates bail-in credibility among investors, as crucial condition for the credibility’s smooth implementation, by measuring the yield spread between bailinable and non-bailinable bonds.Design/methodology/approachThe authors compare the yield spread of banks located in emerging countries that have in place a framework for the bail-in to the comparable yield spread measured for banks located in emerging countries without such framework. The comparison permits to detect whether there is a significant difference between the two spreads, which would suggest that bail-in regulation has been deemed credible by market participants where enforced, or not, which in this case would signal a problem of credibility.FindingsThe authors' results point out a significantly higher yield spread for banks located in emerging countries that have adopted a framework for the bail-in of creditors. Bail-in regulation has, therefore, being deemed credible in the adopting emerging countries, thus ensuring a crucial condition for bail-in regulation's smooth application. The authors also point out bank size and country's gross domestic product (GDP) growth as crucial moderators of bail-in expectations of market participants that can guide the implementation of bail-in rules in emerging countries.Originality/valueThis paper contributes to the literature on the credibility of bail-in with a new perspective from the emerging countries.

Unveiling the rationale of soft hate speech in multimodal artefacts

This article sets out to outline a methodological framework that enables us to unravel the underlying reasoning of covert hatred (i.e. soft hate speech), through an examination of the ways in which this is realised and, moreover, argumentatively justified in multimodal artefacts of the mainstream press. It focuses on a controversial case study – the release of the Italian hostage Silvia Romano – and how it was covered on the front pages of two right-wing Italian newspapers. It draws on the premises of multimodal critical discourse studies (MCDS), proposing a micro-level cross-fertilisation of a social semiotic discourse–analytical perspective for the analysis of multimodal meaning(s), realised on newspaper front pages, with the Argumentum Model of Topics (AMT), which focuses on the analysis of argumentative inferences that stem from multimodal representational meaning(s).

Decolonizing German and European History at the Museum by Katrin Sieg

Reviewed by: Decolonizing German and European History at the Museum by Katrin Sieg Sol Izquierdo de la Viña Decolonizing German and European History at the Museum. By Katrin Sieg. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 2021. Pp. 326 + 16 illustrations. Cloth $80. Paper $34.95. ISBN 9780472075102. Given the museum's historical alliance with the European colonial project, it has long been the target of anti-racist and decolonial interventions. Following major efforts by activists, curatorial proposals have emerged to challenge museums so as to bring the crimes of colonialism into public debate and urge for reparations. In Decolonizing German and European History at the Museum, Katrin Sieg examines the process in which museums review the colonial past, confront its continuities and work towards healing. The book meticulously surveys the crucial decolonial work initiated by activists, academics, and artists, which has prompted the actions of bigger institutions. By developing a wide theoretical apparatus and analyzing decisive exhibitions, it sheds light on a process still in progress. Approaching the issue from a background in theater studies, Sieg presents the museum as a stage on which to choreograph revisited narratives of European history. By including in its parcours the visitors' bodies, its rooms facilitate the performative experience of mourning and encourage a utopian anti-imperial future. Her position is nevertheless shrewd regarding the troubles and complex steps involved in decolonizing museums. She recognizes the burdens facing historic museums given their role as instruments of imperial powers that scientifically justified and publicly presented racism, and she acknowledges Europe's difficulties in detaching itself from this "colonial gaze." Therefore, besides the need to scrutinize this institution and its forms of representation, she argues that a decolonization process requires deep institutional and structural transformations. The book begins with an introductory chapter that presents a historical overview as well as vertebral concepts for decolonial theories. Sieg deepens the "labor of mourning", as formulated by Paul Gilroy, arguing that it is needed to overcome colonial melancholia as well as retraumatization, and thus essential to healing colonial wounds. Through a survey of key post/decolonial literature, her study offers an indispensable conceptual framework to comprehend the complex and urgent challenges of decolonization. Moreover, the first portion of the book maps out different critical interventions that ignited the flame of decolonization, thus situating the origins of this process in social movements. Chapter two focuses on ethnology museums that have avoided confronting their colonial legacy, instead reframing themselves as world museums with suspect claims to multiculturalism. One paradigmatic example is the controversial case of the Humboldt Forum in Berlin that exercised a "rebranding of the imperial past as cosmopolitan heritage" (49). Several activist platforms came together and positioned themselves against the expensive architectural project, vehemently [End Page 609] calling for the restitution of human remains and cultural assets guarded in Berlin's ethnological collections. The activists' actions around the Humboldt Forum have been essential to bringing this debate into the public sphere and putting pressure on German institutions. In the same way, the project "Colonialism in a Box" (2011), documented in chapter 3, recounts an intervention at the German History Museum in Berlin. Sieg observes the museum's linear triumphalist narrative, which due to its "colonial aphasia" is unthinkingly aligned with colonial violence. On the contrary, the project "Colonialism in a Box" challenged the narrative by looking at instances of asymmetrical relations with the colonized territories and offering "contrapuntal readings" (Edward Said) of objects in the permanent exhibition. Thus, by documenting pioneering efforts of grassroots activism, often overlooked in academic publications, Sieg's first three chapters elucidate the reasons and goals of the decolonial agenda. As a response to "Colonialism in a Box," the German History Museum developed the exhibition project German Colonialism: Fragments of its Past and Present (2016–2017), which is thoroughly analyzed in the book's central part (chapters 4–6). This section examines singular curatorial strategies and articulates a critical assessment of decolonial practices in museology. Sieg praises the exhibition's focus on Afro-German stories throughout colonial and postcolonial history, its inclusion of the perspectives of Black curators, and avoidance of violent and racist images that perpetuate the dehumanizing colonial gaze. As she states...

The controversial case of Cosimo I de’ Medici (1519-1574): reflections on the interaction between anatomy and art (iconodiagnosis vs misdiagnosis)

A recent study maintains to have identified a case of severe Graves’ disease in the bronze statue of Cosimo I de’ Medici forged by Benevenuto Cellini (between 1545 and 1547). We carefully examined the artistic sources, the medical primary sources and the paleopathological findings with the aim of showing that Cosimo I de’ Medici (1519-1574) was not affected by severe Graves’ disease. The artistic analysis of different statues and portraits of the Grand-Duke of Tuscany confirms the medical interpretation. Cosimo I was thick-necked with a well-developed laryngeal prominence of the thyroid cartilage (Adam’s Apple) and slightly bulging eyes. Plagued by obesity, Cosimo I was affected by DISH (diffuse idiopathic skeletal hyperostosis), chronic malaria, and severe osteoarthritis. The Grand Duke had a stroke on February 18th 1568, aged 49, and suffered from the sequelae for six years. Previous scholars proposed chronic cerebral vasculopathy as a possible diagnosis. We surmise that, as in modern day obese patients with DISH, he had increased risk for cardiovascular morbidity. The presence of a familiar thick-neck and a well-developed Adam’s Apple can be observed in several other members of the Medici family such Giovanni dalle Bande Nere, Cosimo I de’ Medici’s father. The same features can also be found in several other predecessors of Cosimo I such as Piero the Gouty and his sons Lorenzo the Magnificent and Giuliano de’ Medici, Pope Leo X, Giuliano de’ Medici, Duke of Nemours and Lorenzo de’ Medici, Duke of Urbino. This paper shows that the combination of literary, artistic, paleopathological sources is fundamental to correctly assess disease manifestation. A constant interaction between anatomy and art is recommended so to avoid over-interpretation of pathologic conditions in personages of the past.