Theoretical consideration of female sexual predator serial killers in the United States

Sexual predators represent the embodiment of the cultural definition of serial killing. In considering the female sexual predator serial killer, a review of the limited literature found a clear distinction between women acting alone versus in partnership. Several theories offered to explain the behavior of women in teams include shared psychotic disorder, Stockholm syndrome, posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), battered woman syndrome, and gender role socialization. Analysis of each with specific case examples found that gender role socialization appeared to be the most inclusive, explaining the participation of women in teams, as well as providing insight into both the criminal justice system and overall societal responses to female serial killers, as well as violent women more generally. The analysis concludes by describing the implications of the above speculations within the realms of prevention, treatment, and research, specifically concluding that women can commit willful violence and that low base rates should not impede attempts to understand and prevent such violence.     

Testing eyewitness memory

This study identifies a memory-testing procedure that is relatively resistant to the documented effects of suggestibility on eyewitness memory. Most studies on suggestibility have used averbal recognition memory test in which the alternative test items are sentences, each to be verified as true or false regarding an originally viewedvisual sequence. In this study, participants were tested with either the verbal recognition memory test typical of studies demonstrating the eyewitness suggestibility effect or a visual recognition memory test. The typical eyewitness suggestibility effect resulted in the verbal test condition. However, with the visual recognition memory test, the hit rates did not significantly differ between the control and misled conditions. Thus, in testing memory for a visual event, a visual recognition memory test is more resistant to the influences of suggestibility than is a verbal test. These results suggest that the original item is preserved in memory, not overwritten by the misleading information. Accordingly, with a visual recognition memory test, the original information is more likely to be recovered with a visual recognition memory test than with a verbal one.     

Primary breast lymphoma with sudden death

Primary breast lymphoma is a rare form of extranodal lymphoma. B cells constitute the most common type involving the breast. T cells represents only 3%. Even though lymphomas have a high predilection to metastasize to the heart, there are no specific clinical or radiological findings, and most of the cases are diagnosed at autopsy. We discuss the case of a 49-year-old woman with primary breast lymphoma who presented with sudden death. Autopsy revealed a primary T-cell lymphoma of the breast with tumoral infiltration of the atrioventricular node and transmural myocardial permeation with focal necrosis.     

Researching safety and cost-effectiveness in the life cycle of nanomedicine

Nanotechnology is rapidly emerging as a transformational influence on many industry sectors. This is particularly true of medicines and medical devices. This article argues that, as policy interest in devising an appropriate regulatory framework for nanotherapeutics escalates, it will be important for public health to ensure that a broad life-cycle approach to both safety and cost-effectiveness is adopted. It charts some of the most important issues likely to be faced and begins to map how they can best be addressed.     

Federal Deficits, Debt and Interest Costs

Current federal government deficits are of a size unprecedented since World War II. While budget surpluses have been infrequent, deficits before 1982 were small enough that the federal debt shrunk in relation to the size of the economy. Now, however, the federal deficit is stuck at about 5 percent of gross national product, and the ratio of federal debt to gross national product (GNP) is growing rapidly. These large deficits are driving up interest rates, hurting American exports, turning the United States into a debtor nation, and causing government interest outlays to spiral. The possibilities are limited for lowering interest costs through directly reducing interest rates or introducing new Treasury debt management strategies. The only way to cage the interest monster is to enact a substantial package of tax increases and cuts in noninterest spending. We list some possible elements of such a package and show how they might be combined to tame the growth of debt.