Postmortem Computed Tomography in Firearm Homicides: A Retrospective Case Series,

Postmortem computed tomography (PMCT) is integrated into the evaluation of decedents in several American medical examiner offices and medicolegal death investigative centers in many other countries. We retrospectively investigated the value of PMCT in a series of firearm homicide cases from a statewide centralized medical examiner’s office that occurred during 2016. Autopsies were performed or supervised by board-certified forensic pathologists who reviewed the PMCT scans prior to autopsy. PMCT scans were re-evaluated by a forensic radiologist blinded to the autopsy findings and scored by body region (head–neck, thoracoabdominal, and extremities). Injury discrepancies were scored using a modified Goldman classification and analyzed with McNemar’s test. We included 60 males and 20 females (median age 31 years, range 3–73). Based on PMCT, 56 (79.1%) cases had injuries relevant to the cause of death in a single body region (24 head–neck region, 32 thoracoabdominal region). Out of these 56 cases, 9 had a missed major diagnosis by PMCT outside that region, including 6 extremity injuries visible during standard external examination. Yet all had evident lethal firearm injury. We showed that PMCT identifies major firearm injuries in homicide victims and excludes injuries related to the cause of death in other regions when a single body region is injured. Although PMCT has a known limited sensitivity for soft tissue and vascular pathology, it can be combined with external examination to potentially reduce or focus dissections in some of these cases depending on the circumstances and medicolegal needs.     

High performance liquid chromatographic determination of alcohols with reference to body distribution of methanol

A method has been developed on reverse phase high performance liquid chromatography for simultaneous determination of methyl, ethyl and isopropyl alcohols under refractive index detection using pure water as the mobile phase. A good separation has been achieved between these alcohols. Detector response was linear with a detection limit of 5 mg/100 ml. Recovery studies were performed by adding known amounts of methyl and ethyl alcohols to blood, lung and liver within the range 80–90%. The reproducibility of the results was always >90%. The quantitative distribution of methyl alcohol in postmortem body tissues and fluids has been reported in three cases of poisoning.     

Factors that Influence Mental Health Stigma Among 8th Grade Adolescents

Unmet mental health need is a significant problem for adolescents. Although stigma is identified as a major barrier to the use of mental health services among youth, there is limited research on this topic. In-depth interviews (n=57) among a sample of 8th grade students in a suburban, mid-Atlantic community portray adolescent mental health attitudes and how these views are shaped. Satisfactory personal experiences with mental health services as well as accurate mental health knowledge contribute to positive mental health attitudes among teens. The anticipation of negative responses towards mental health care-seeking from family members, peers, and school staff are key factors in teens’ comfort and willingness to address mental health concerns. The research provides critical information on the factors that contribute to the development of stigma and emphasizes the need to address stigma in youth mental health education, programs, and treatment plans. Authors are affiliated with the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, Department of Population and Family Health Sciences. Dr. Chandra has a background in adolescent health, and is particularly interested in improving the accessibility and appropriateness of youth mental health services and involving young people in the translation of research into practice. Dr. Minkovitz is interested in improving preventive service delivery, enhancing quality of care, and understanding maternal factors that influence children’s receipt of health care     

Hazards of mattresses, beds and bedding in deaths of infants

Of 52 infants who had died suddenly and were referred to autopsy, nine had lain on adult water beds for the first time; five had died as a result of accidents; two had died on water beds; two were in beds with widely spaced slats; and one had died as a result of strangulation. Three deaths were due to overlying. Three other infants had been placed on sheepskin rugs for the first time and were found dead shortly thereafter. These infants ranged in age from 2 to 9 months, except for a severely mentally retarded nine-year-old with spastic paraplegia. We believe that a general warning should be issued concerning water beds and that soft bedding should not be used for infants. Infants should not be placed unattended or left to sleep on water beds; only beds recommended for infants should be used. Overlying of a young infant is most likely to occur on a water bed, or if the parent is obese or has consumed alcohol.     

Environmental Security and New Middle Powers: The Case of South Korea

This article considers the role of new middle powers in the climate change debate. We focus on the issue of “green growth.” We argue that new middle powers such as South Korea are increasingly proactive in promoting this green growth agenda and, as a result, challenging conventional realist and liberal approaches and expectations to new middle powers. This diplomacy is aiming to bridge states, great and small, by leading to strategic breakthroughs in the current climate change negotiation deadlock. The article discusses South Korea’s green growth initiative and identifies how this initiative affects South Korea’s middle power role in the global environmental debate with respect to its inclusion in the Environment Integrity Group and its initiative the Global Green Growth Institute (GGGI).     

The Accuracy of Handheld Pre‐Arrest Breath Test Instruments as a Predictor of the Evidential Breath Alcohol Test Results

Drunk driving is a serious threat to public safety. All available and appropriate tools for curbing this threat should be employed to their full extent. The handheld pre‐arrest breath test instrument (PBT) is one tool for identifying the alcohol‐impaired driver and enforcing drunk driving legislation. A set of data was evaluated (n = 1779) where the PBT instrument was employed in drunk driving arrests to develop a multivariate predictive model. When maintained and operated by trained personnel, the PBT provides a reasonable estimate of the evidential test result within the relevant forensic range (95% prediction interval:  ± 0.003 g/210 L). ROC analysis shows that a multivariate model for PBT prediction of the evidentiary alcohol concentration above versus below the legal limit of 0.08 g/210 L has excellent performance with an AUC of 0.96. These results would be of value in evidential hearings seeking to admit the PBT results in drunk driving trials.     

Identifying the causes of road traffic accidents in India: An empirical investigation

This study utilizes data for the period 2006–2015 to estimate the determinants of road fatality rates in the Indian states. We employ baseline regression, where the total traffic fatalities, total traffic injuries, rural road fatalities, and urban road fatalities are the functions of human errors in driving, weather conditions, and some control variables. This paper is exclusively focussed upon different sets of human‐driven factors in influencing the road fatality across the Indian states. Our empirical results show that reckless driving, defective motor conditions, bad weather, and reckless driving by bus, truck, and car drivers are found to cause road accidents. We further find that the increase in motorization rates and rash driving are the primary causes behind the road fatalities, and bad weather play a major role in causing road fatalities and injuries in urban areas. However, road fatalities are increasing; still, cases of under reporting, lack of proper road safety regulation, improper investigation procedures, increasing vehicle usages, and higher urbanization have made the matters quite worse in India.     

Foreign direct investment,information and communication technology,trade, and economic growth in the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation countries: An empirical insight

Information and communication technology (ICT) is one of the key sectors promoting economic growth in the present modern era of globalization. It promotes technological advances in global communications as well as production techniques and contributes to economic growth and development. Most of the economic activities, including international trade and foreign direct investment (FDI), are largely dependent on various modern sources of ICT. The objective of this study is to examine the dynamic relationship between FDI, ICT, trade, and per capita gross domestic product growth across the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) developing nations from 2000 to 2017. We have used different panel estimates such as fully modified ordinary least squares, dynamic ordinary least squares, Fisher–Johansen cointegration test, panel autoregressive distributed lag, and Dumitrescu–Hurlin causality. We found existence of unidirectional causality from FDI to ICT and bidirectional causal relationship between trade and ICT. The outcome of our study suggests policy recommendations for improving the standards of ICT, specifically focusing on economic growth, trade openness, and facilitation of foreign investment in the SAARC countries.     

Potency Trends of Δ9‐THC and Other Cannabinoids in Confiscated Cannabis Preparations from 1993 to 2008*

Abstract: The University of Mississippi has a contract with the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) to carry out a variety of research activities dealing with cannabis, including the Potency Monitoring (PM) program, which provides analytical potency data on cannabis preparations confiscated in the United States. This report provides data on 46,211 samples seized and analyzed by gas chromatography‐flame ionization detection (GC‐FID) during 1993–2008. The data showed an upward trend in the mean Δ⁹‐tetrahydrocannabinol (Δ⁹‐THC) content of all confiscated cannabis preparations, which increased from 3.4% in 1993 to 8.8% in 2008. Hashish potencies did not increase consistently during this period; however, the mean yearly potency varied from 2.5–9.2% (1993–2003) to 12.0–29.3% (2004–2008). Hash oil potencies also varied considerably during this period (16.8 ± 16.3%). The increase in cannabis preparation potency is mainly due to the increase in the potency of nondomestic versus domestic samples.