Status Competition and Territorial Aggression: Evidence from the Scramble for Africa

When are states willing to engage in behaviors of little material or strategic value in order to assert their status? This article demonstrates that states are more likely to engage in acts of status assertion if their international standing has been called into question. Such status-challenged states seek opportunities to demonstrate their capabilities as well as their intention to maintain their current status. Status assertions often challenge the status and security of other states, leading these states to engage in more frequent acts of aggression. Evidence for these claims comes from detailed analysis of the Scramble for Africa at the end of the nineteenth century. France and Germany adopted expansionary policies in Africa because their great power status had been called into question. These policy shifts directly led Italy and Britain to adopt expansionary policies, leading to the eventual conquest of 95 percent of the African continent.     

Validation of the Seratec® SeraQuant™ for the quantitation of prostate-specific antigen levels on immunochromatographic membranes

Abstract: Use of immunochromatographic membranes for the detection of prostate‐specific antigen (PSA) has become commonplace in forensic laboratories. Experiments were designed to test the newly developed Seratec^® SeraQuant? for accuracy, precision, and consistency in the quantitation of PSA. PSA standards were diluted with buffers and run on the instruments. Values obtained were examined for accuracy (was the correct value obtained?) and precision (were multiple sample values consistent?). To test for variation between instruments, large volumes of diluted PSA standard were run repeatedly on six units and the values obtained were plotted against the known PSA values to obtain a standard curve for each instrument. Fifty membranes having negative or weak positive results were then run on the six units, and the adjusted values were recorded and compared. Results of these experiments indicate that the instruments are accurate and precise in the quantitation of low levels of PSA.     

Thrombotic thrombocytopenic purpura causing sudden, unexpected death--a series of eight patients

Eight patients were presented to the medical examiner after dying suddenly and unexpectedly from thrombotic thrombocytopenic purpura. Compared with patients who die after prolonged hospitalization and treatment, these patients showed fewer neurologic symptoms and correspondingly fewer or no microthrombi within the brain. Only four of eight subjects developed fever, which further contributed to misdiagnosis. The differences in clinical presentation between our cases and most published series is striking and may be explained by shorter duration and no treatment. Each case contained the characteristic histology of thrombotic thrombocytopenic purpura. Ischemic injury to the heart and conduction system was the most likely mechanism of sudden death. Included in this series is a patient with acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS) diagnosed at autopsy, a concurrence that is now appearing more frequently in the medical literature.     

The Social Security Administration's Disability Service Improvement process

Reprinted here in its entirety is Commissioner Jo Anne B. Barnhart's statement of June 15, 2006, to the Subcommittee on Social Security of the House Committee on Ways and Means. In her statement, Commissioner Barnhart outlines the improved disability determination process and how the changes to the process were decided. The key elements are collectively referred to as the Disability Service Improvement (DSI) and represent the most significant changes in the Social Security Administration's 50-year history of determining disability for workers seeking Social Security Disability Insurance benefits. Commissioner Barnhart's statement underscores that while the need for change in the disability determination process was clear, both she and SSA staff listened carefully to all points of view in the decisionmaking process. The end product of this outreach effort and deliberative process is the final rule that was published on March 31, 2006. The new procedures outlined in the final rule will take advantage of the new electronic disability claims system, or eDib, and will shorten times to make disability decisions and will allow benefits to be paid sooner to people who are clearly disabled. Key elements include a new Medical and Vocational Expert System to improve the quality and availability of such expertise at all levels of adjudication, review of state agency determinations by a Federal Reviewing Official to ensure more accurate and consistent decisionmaking earlier in the process, and a newly created Decision Review Board to identify and correct decisional errors and to identify quality issues at all levels. Two improvements underlying the new process at all levels include better documentation of the record and more effective quality feedback loops for continuous improvement. Read Commissioner Barnhart's statement for a further explanation of DSI, how the changes were decided, and her plans for implementation.     

Foreign fame is not enough to confer US trade mark rights

On appeal from the Southern District of New York, the SecondCircuit affirmed the award of summary judgment against ITC'strade mark infringement, unfair competition, and false advertisingclaims under state and federal law, holding that the famousmarks doctrine was not incorporated by Congress into the LanhamAct and thus not a federally protected right.     

Unusual deaths associated with polyphagia

Perversion of appetite may be manifest in either qualitative (pica), quantitative (polyphagia), or combined derangements of eating. Ingested materials are capable of serving as dangerous physical agents through interference with normal cardiac and/or respiratory function. Since the mechanisms of injury are similar to those that might occur as a result of violence or serious natural disease, a thorough investigation of the history and circumstances immediately preceding the final event is warranted in addition to a complete autopsy. Three cases of asphyxia of unusual etiology are presented along with a rationale regarding the mechanisms believed to be involved. In case 1, sudden subdiaphragmatic viscus expansion with resultant lung volume displacement and impediment of venous return from the lower half of the body are believed to have been operative. In cases 2 and 3, both asphyxial loci are infraglottic. The common denominator in all of these fatalities is the physical impairment of vital air exchange as a complication of an abnormal eating pattern.