Sudden death from asthma

Deaths from asthma investigated by the Department of Forensic Medicine, The Gade Institute, University of Bergen during the period 1977-1986 were recorded. There were 11 cases with information in the police report of the use of pressurised bronchodilating aerosols prior to death. Seven of the victims were found with the aerosol in the hand or close by the body. Overdosage due to excessive inhalation were suspected in several of the victims. The possibility of side effects due to overuse is discussed. Other mechanisms of death are also discussed.     

Toxicological Analysis of Opiates from Alternative Matrices Collected from an Exhumed Body

In this case study, the body of a 45‐year‐old man was exhumed after 1 year at the request of the public prosecutor to assess whether the death was caused by drug consumption. Toxicological analyses were performed on several matrices, including liver, kidney, and the alternative matrices hair and teeth. The systematic toxicological analysis (STA), which consisted of basic and acid liquid/liquid extraction and gas chromatography–mass spectrometry (GC‐MS) analysis, showed the presence of opiates in each of the matrices analyzed. Subsequently, to confirm and quantify the presence of opioids, samples of each of the matrices were subjected to solid‐phase extraction and specific GC‐MS analysis. The case presented demonstrates the possibility of drug detection in an exhumed body that has been buried for 1 year, despite the problems of quantitative interpretation of the data, and that toxicological results could be useful along with other forensic evidence.     

麦考密克论融贯

麦考密克对规范性融贯和描述性融贯的区分，启示我们在司法裁判或证立过程中不但要重视规范要素的融贯、而且要重视事实要素的融贯，规范性融贯与描述性融贯密不可分，法律方法领域不应忽视对证据融贯性要求的研究。努力在法律体系内确保价值融贯的原则论证方式，不仅是对司法证立的一种形式要求，而且含有正当性要求，它把司法行为限制在合法范围内，在约束法官判决主观因素的同时，增加了司法行为的机动性。     

Single source DNA profile recovery from single cells isolated from skin and fabric from touch DNA mixtures in mock physical assaults

The ability to obtain DNA profiles from trace biological evidence is routinely demonstrated with so-called ‘touch DNA evidence’, which is generally perceived to be the result of DNA obtained from shed skin cells transferred from a donor's hands to an object or person during direct physical contact. Current methods for the recovery of trace DNA employ swabs or adhesive tape to sample an area of interest. While of practical utility, such ‘blind-swabbing’ approaches will necessarily co-sample cellular material from the different individuals whose cells are present on the item, even though the individuals' cells are principally located in topographically dispersed, but distinct, locations on the item. Thus the act of swabbing itself artifactually creates some of the DNA mixtures encountered in touch DNA samples. In some instances involving transient contact between an assailant and victim, the victim's DNA may be found in such significant excess as to preclude the detection and typing of the perpetrator's DNA. In order to circumvent the challenges with standard recovery and analysis methods for touch DNA evidence, we reported previously the development of a ‘smart analysis’ single cell recovery and DNA analysis method that results in enhanced genetic analysis of touch DNA evidence. Here we use the smart single cell analysis method to recover probative single source profiles from individual and agglomerated cells from various touched objects and clothing items belonging to known donors. We then use the same approach for the detection of single source male donor DNA in simulated physical contact/assault mixture samples (i.e. male ‘assailant’ grabbing the wrist, neck or clothing from the female ‘victim’, or being in transient contact with bedding from the ‘victim’). DNA profiles attributable to the male or female known donors were obtained from 31% and 35% of the single and agglomerated bio-particles (putative cells) tested. The known male donor ‘assailant’ DNA profile was identified in the cell sampling from every mixture type tested. The results of this work demonstrate the efficacy of an alternative strategy to recover single source perpetrator DNA profiles in physical contact/assault cases involving trace perpetrator/victim cellular admixtures.     

中国北方汉族和南方黎族RHCE基因分型

目的建立应用PCR技术进行RHCE基因分型的方法。方法应用序列特异性引物PCR技术(PCR-SSP)检测200例中国北方汉族、南方黎族个体的RHCE基因型,同时对5例亲子鉴定样品进行检测。结果2个民族个体RHCE基因分型结果与血清学分型结果完全一致;其中中国北方汉族RH基因型频率分布为RHCCEE1例,RHCCEe3例,RHCCee88例,RHCcEE4例,RHCcEe20例,RHCcee54例,RHccEE1例,RHccEe22例,RHccee7例;中国南方黎族RH基因型频率分布为RHCCEE2例,RHCCEe2例,RHCCee106例,RHCcEE7例,RHCcEe62例,RHCcee10例,RHccEE3例,RHccEe8例。亲子鉴定样品RHCE基因型检测结果与13个STR位点联合鉴定结论一致。结论PCR-SSP技术能准确判断中国北方汉族和南方黎族个体的RHCE基因型。     

Academic Emigration from Russia

More than two years have passed since the promulgation of the RSFSR Code on Marriage and the Family. This is sufficient time in which to draw certain conclusions about how the new provisions in the laws on marriage and the family are applied in practice.     

Sourcing from China: stopping the IP leaks from your clients' supply chain

Legal context: It is no secret that IP in China is a challenge. However, commercialactivity in or with China is now predictable enough that companiescan, and should, plan for it by taking control of their supplychain. This requires a combination of legal and practical measures.This article sets out some of these steps. Key points: In order to minimize the risks of IP leakage their supply chainsin China, there are three key stages of protection: (i) Pre-sourcing;(ii) Negotiating strong contracts with suppliers; and (iii)Managing the relationship with your supply chain. Practical significance: If your clients do business in China or source products fromhere and cannot answer the following questions, their IP isat risk of infringement. They need to take steps to proactivelymanage their supply chain.

• Do your clients know which factoryis producing their products?How many links are in your clientssupply chain, each one increasingthe chances for IP infringement?
• Do your clients' agreements with their suppliers adequatelyprotect their IP?
• Have your clients taken steps to prevent‘midnight productionruns’ and ‘backdoor sales’by their suppliers?
• How is the IP being provided to them?Do your clients need togive them everything for production?
• What steps have been taken post-production to ensure thatyourclients' suppliers don't continue to manufacture theirproducts?

     

Lessons from Tuskegee: What Law Enforcement Can Learn from the History of Bioethics

Though Black lives continue to be lost during encounters with law enforcement, we remain far from a policy solution. While leading presidential candidates fail to offer concrete proposals, the recommendations of Campaign Zero appear to have found little traction. Furthermore, we are far from understanding the causes of the disproportionate use of violence against minorities. Faced with a growing crisis, law enforcement would do well to consider professions that have taken successful steps to outgrown their history of racial violence. The medical community’s response to the Tuskegee syphilis experiment is particularly instructive. Much as the medical community responded to a crisis of racial violence by fundamentally reconceptualizing the role of the physician, the time has come for a new ethics of policing that will reshape our understanding of the role of law enforcement.     

船舶油污损害数额的诉讼认定

船舶油污损害数额的认定存在困难,对此可以损害额酌定制度来解决.从比较法的视角并结合中国现行相关立法、制度及司法实践,对损害额酌定制度如何应用于船舶油污损害赔偿诉讼做了探讨.认为:损害额酌定兼具证明标准降低和自由裁量双重性质,能适用于诸多船舶油污损害赔偿请求权;法院在酌定损害数额时应当综合考虑所排放油类的数量及品质、受污染的海域范围及其污染程度、油污事故与损害之间的因果关系、责任人的偿付能力等因素,并注意规约法院的诉讼行为和切实保障当事人的程序利益,以使酌定的损害数额尽量客观化、合理化.     

The Fall from Grace

The processing of white collar offenders by the criminal justice system has been a subject of much controversy in criminology and criminal justice studies. In particular, debate has centered on whether these offenders are more or less stigmatized by indictment, conviction, and sentencing than ordinary offenders. Utilizing a sample of white collar offenders, the effects of conviction and sentencing on the loss of occupational status by offenders are explored. The data indicate that loss of occupational status, as a nonlegal consequence of conviction, is not spread evenly through the offender population. Professionals and those employed in the public sector or in licensed occupations are much more likely to lose occupational status than private businessmen or those employed by private businesses.     

Innovating from big science research

Increasing scientific knowledge demands technological breakthroughs beyond industrial innovation activity. Using this as a basic motivation for R&D collaboration between industry and big science, the paper reports a systematic approach to exploit the technological treasures embedded in experimental basic research. Based on a systematic technology breakdown and mapping of each technological trajectory with possible application areas, the method enables one to direct joint efforts on the most prominent research topics. Yet, to achieve this active partners are needed to enter the innovative conversion process to turn scientific ambitions into commercial products. Some industrial companies practicing active R&D strategy have realized this, and the paper outlines some cases where the product innovation, is not the only motivation to enter big science collaboration. Putting all this together, and knowing the severe financial and political pressures the major scientific research labs are facing, the paper defines the practical procedures needed to initiate the process which eventually leads to better technological return from fundamental research.     

Insulation from Labelling

Deviants have been shown to vary in their reaction to labeling. Some accept societal rejection and proceed to self-label, while others are seemingly reconciled to their behavior. In this study, 72 heroin addicts in treatment were interviewed to determine their reaction to labeling. It was argued that their acceptance or rejection of labels would be affected by the defense mechanisms that they employed, the degree of formal/informal labelling that they experienced, and their background characteristics. The data were analyzed using multiple regression. Neutralization (externalization of blame) and politicization of the drug problem were found to be effective defenses in minimizing respondent self-rejection. There was also evidence that formal labelling was less severe in certain treatment environments. Those enrolled in the more medicalized treatment programs (methadone maintenance) were less inclined to self-rejection. Finally, black users were found to be better able to resist self-labelling than whites; however, no gender differences emerged.     

News from Venezuela

A Venezuelan court has ordered a university to stop requiring HIV testing for admission, while shortly thereafter the Venezuelan Ministry of Health and Social Development authorized obligatory HIV screening of pregnant women.     

Death from Nitrous Oxide

Nitrous oxide is an inflammable gas that gives no smell or taste. It has a history of abuse as long as its clinical use, and deaths, although rare, have been reported. We describe two cases of accidental deaths related to voluntary inhalation of nitrous oxide, both found dead with a gas mask covering the face. In an attempt to find an explanation to why the victims did not react properly to oncoming hypoxia, we performed experiments where a test person was allowed to breath in a closed system, with or without nitrous oxide added. Vital signs and gas concentrations as well as subjective symptoms were recorded. The experiments indicated that the explanation to the fact that neither of the descendents had reacted to oncoming hypoxia and hypercapnia was due to the inhalation of nitrous oxide. This study raises the question whether nitrous oxide really should be easily, commercially available.     

Biomechanical conditions of developing injuries sustained from falling from a height

Evaluation of the height from which human fell from his/her tissue and organ injuries is discussed. The authors of available publications paid the principal attention to estimation of the height from which the victim fell without consideration for the kinetic energy of the body, which depends not only on the height from which the victim fell, but on his/her body weight as well. Primary external and primary internal injuries are distinguished, which are determined by the area of contusion during landing; secondary contact injuries which form during inertial movement of the body after the first contusion, and injuries due to negative acceleration during contusion when landing (so-called signs of total body concussion) are also distinguished. The totality of all listed injuries helps estimate the total kinetic energy at the moment of contusion and determine the height of falling, with due consideration for anthropometric characteristics of the victim.     

Decision pathways from crisis

Crisis simulation is by definition an exercise in cognitive structuring. It is argued that this automatically entails a search for heuristics and organizational decisions which might render complex, highly interactive social and technological situations comprehensible, hopefully amenable to being programmed and, ultimately, controlled. In this paper, a cognitive analysis is presented of alternative paths available to an organization that is in a crisis state to move away from crisis back to more routine modes of operation. Cognitive mapping of plausible post-crisis decision-paths results in a multi-path scheme that enables one to comprehend, even assess, the erratic development of political and socio-technological events in a post-crisis period. The specific example that is used to illustrate the applicability of such a multi-path scheme concerns the revival of NASA following the Space Shuttle disaster. In contrasting the cognitive opportunities in post-crisis situations with the cognitive failures implicit in pre-crisis settings, the multi-path simulation technique enables a more sophisticated understanding of the dynamics of crisis development.     

Lessons from Cukurova

The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below. Key points

• The recent decision of the High Court of the BritishVirgin Islands in Alfa v Cukurova has caused a stir among lawyersserving the international financial markets based in London.
• Thedecision concerns the meaning of ‘appropriation’.Appropriation is a new remedy for collateral takers introducedby the Financial Collateral Arrangements (No. 2) Regulations2003, which implement the Financial Collateral Directive.
• Thedecision holds that effective appropriation requires the collateraltaker to take over from the collateral giver the ability todeal with the collateral as its own.
• In Cukurova, where anequitable mortgage was taken over directly held shares, thisrequired that the collateral taker become the registered ownerof the shares.
• The decision was appealed to the BVI Court ofAppeal in late January 2008 and may go further. In the meantime,this article provides an overview of the decision and considersits wider significance.