Genetic variation of 23 STR loci in a Northeast Colombian population (department of Santander)

The most efficient markers to solve filiation cases are the STRs, including complex cases that require the analysis of a greater number of markers. In this study samples from 123 unrelated individuals from the department of Santander (northeast Colombia) were typed for 23 autosomal STRs included in VeriFiler express kit (Thermo Fisher Scientific),and their allele frequencies and parameters of forensic relevance were determined. Results demonstrate independence within and between the loci analyzed, and the accumulate power of exclusion for the full set of markers was high (99.9996%), as well as the match probability, which was 1 in 8.77E + 29. Therefore, this northeast Colombian population database can be used in forensic to estimate the frequency of the genetic profile using of a multiple locus including in this DNA kit.     

Historical and contemporary views of social control,race, crime,and justice

This volume is a special issue commemorating Black History Month in the United States. The five papers contained in the volume address a wide variety of issues in the area of race, crime, and justice.     

Tension, compression, and shear: directions, stresses, and outcomes of health care cost control

"Control" of health care costs is often portrayed as a struggle between external, "natural" forces pushing costs up and individuals, groups, and societies trying to resist the inevitable. This picture is false. Control includes strenuous efforts by some to raise costs, and by others to resist those increases, and/or to transfer costs to someone else. But all such forces originate in the purposes and interests of individuals and groups. Health care cost control is a struggle among conflicting interests over the priorities of a society, and claims of "inevitability" are simply part of the political rhetoric of that struggle. International experience supports certain conclusions. First, there is no basis for the claim that limits on expenditure growth must threaten the health of (some members of) a society. Second, there is a substantial variety of experience with cost control. Failure in the United States is often presented as evidence of the impossibility of control, but most other countries have succeeded. Finally, control requires the direct confrontation of interests, with substantial build-up of stress. Advocates of expansion are more successful if they can transform compressive forces into efforts to shift the burden onto someone else. Pressures from providers in every country for "privatization" and/or payment by users reflect this recognition of economic interest.     

Organ weight effects of drowning and asphyxiation on the lungs,liver, brain,heart, kidneys,and spleen

An examination of the organ weights associated with victims of drowning, asphyxiation and trauma was undertaken to determine (a) the effects of asphyxiation compared to a trauma group, and in turn, (b) the effects of drowning compared to an asphyxiation group. Included in the study were 217 drowning deaths, 166 pure asphyxiation deaths and 381 trauma deaths. The effects of asphyxiation (compared to trauma) resulted in elevated mean organ weights for the lungs, liver, kidneys and spleen (with mean increases of 17.8, 10.5, 10.3 and 23.4%, respectively). Effects of drowning (compared to asphyxiation) resulted in elevated mean organ weights only with the lungs and kidneys (with mean increases of 30.0 and 4.4%, respectively). Only the mean heart and brain weight remained constant across all experimental groups. A picture of drowning is suggested in which elevated lung and kidney weights are the result of both asphyxiation and the aspiration of water that occurs with drowning, whereas elevated spleen and liver weights in drowning victims are associated with only the effects of asphyxiation. In addition, the common autopsy finding of a small, anemic spleen in drowning, rather than caused by some pathophysiological mechanism of death, is hypothesized to be a postmortem phenomenon.     

Comparative study of postmortem barbiturates, methadone, and morphine in vitreous humor, blood, and tissue

With the introduction of radioimmunoassay (RIA) techniques, it has become toxicologically possible to determine drug concentrations in postmortem vitreous humor. This study demonstrates and confirms this toxicological feasibility. In 49 medical examiner's drug related cases, postmortem tissue levels of morphine, barbiturates, and methadone were compared to the vitreous humor.     

Ironies of Crime, Control, and Criminology

Irony is a kind of communication in which shared knowledge about a particular context is formed as a counter-intuitive statement with hidden meaning. Irony is important because it branches the tree of knowledge and balances morality. This paper reviews the definition and value of irony; examines ironic works on crime and control; proposes an irony of criminology: it can be studied with science and thereby improved; draws on this idea to provide a method-based theory of theory and findings; and concludes by discussing implications for future work in reflexive criminology.     

Freedom of Expression,Autonomy, and Defamation

Law and Philosophy -     

Organ weight effects of drowning and asphyxiation on the lungs, liver, brain, heart, kidneys, and spleen

An examination of the organ weights associated with victims of drowning, asphyxiation and trauma was undertaken to determine (a) the effects of asphyxiation compared to a trauma group, and in turn, (b) the effects of drowning compared to an asphyxiation group. Included in the study were 217 drowning deaths, 166 pure asphyxiation deaths and 381 trauma deaths. The effects of asphyxiation (compared to trauma) resulted in elevated mean organ weights for the lungs, liver, kidneys and spleen (with mean increases of 17.8, 10.5, 10.3 and 23.4%, respectively). Effects of drowning (compared to asphyxiation) resulted in elevated mean organ weights only with the lungs and kidneys (with mean increases of 30.0 and 4.4%, respectively). Only the mean heart and brain weight remained constant across all experimental groups. A picture of drowning is suggested in which elevated lung and kidney weights are the result of both asphyxiation and the aspiration of water that occurs with drowning, whereas elevated spleen and liver weights in drowning victims are associated with only the effects of asphyxiation. In addition, the common autopsy finding of a small, anemic spleen in drowning, rather than caused by some pathophysiological mechanism of death, is hypothesized to be a postmortem phenomenon.