Race, religion, and informed consent--lessons from social science.

That minority patients have not figured at all in the literature about informed consent is an egregious omission which this article begins to repair. Moreover, the article demonstrates that by addressing identifiable harms which informed consent law now causes to racial, religious, and ethnic minority patients, the law may also better address many of the concerns legal commentators have been discussing for years with only majority patients in mind. Ironically, the solution to the discrimination felt by the excluded members of society may turn out to provide the remedy for the informed consent doctrine as a whole.     

On meaningful questions: a two-trace transfer problem

This paper describes a solution to the problem of interpreting scientific evidence in the case where a control sample from a single suspect is found to be of the same type as one of two items of trace evidence at a crime scene. While such problems have been mentioned in the literature it appears that the interpretation derived here is novel. The solution is intuitively reasonable but it gives rise to a corollary which is counter-intuitive. For illustrative purposes the discussion is based on blood evidence but the underlying principles apply to all types of transfer evidence.     

Suicidal gunshot to the nape from a small-bore rifle

A 55-year-old man was found dead on the bed lying on his side in a pool of blood with a bullet entrance hole in the nape. Behind his body, a semi-automatic rifle Remington Nylon, cal. .22 LR, was detected. As the gunshot entrance site was rather unusual for suicide, a forensic autopsy was performed, which showed a contact shot to the nape with the bullet path running upward to the left frontal area. The man had been treated with citalopram for delusional depression, so that a suicidal act seemed plausible, and the autopsy and criminalistic findings were also compatible with this assumption. A remarkable fact of the present case is that a long firearm had been used. Reports on suicidal shots to the nape are comparatively rare in the medicolegal literature and usually refer to pistols or revolvers.     

Police cynicism: What we know from the Niederhoffer scale

The Niederhoffer cynicism scale has been applied to many samples of police officers. Sometimes the scale itself has been the focus of attention; other times the correlates of cynicism have been the principal concern. This article reviews the police cynicism literature, describing the kinds of analyses undertaken and the generalizations apparent in the literature, and it draws several conclusions regarding police cynicism. The primary conclusion is that measurement of cynicism using the Niederhoffer scale is highly suspect; hence, the veracity of conclusions founded on the cynicism scale are questionable.     

Estimating production gains from international cooperation: Evidence from countries along the Belt and Road

Economic Change and Restructuring - The pros and cons of economic cooperation and integration have often been debated in the literature. Trade theory suggests that national economies could benefit...     

Biparietal Thinning: Accidental Death by a Fall from Standing Height

Biparietal thinning resulting in bilateral and symmetrical resorption and loss of thickness of the parietal bones is an uncommon to rare condition in the anthropological and clinical literature. This enigmatic condition of unknown etiology was first reported in the 18th century and has been variously described as a nonmetric trait, anatomical variant, anomaly, and pathology. Biparietal thinning presents grossly and radiographically as oval‐shaped depressions in 0.25–0.8% and 0.4–0.5% of individuals and with a higher frequency in females over the age of 60 years. A review of the literature revealed only one example of cranial trauma associated with biparietal thinning and none of fatal trauma associated with this condition. This case reports a rare example of fatal trauma in an elderly man that resulted from a backward fall from a standing height and highlights the increased risk of craniocerebral trauma in individuals with this condition.     

Death from minor head trauma and alcohol

Sudden death in association with minor or otherwise insignificant head injury is increasingly being recognised in the forensic medical literature. While the exact mechanism of the cardiorespiratory arrest that appears to occur in these cases is unclear, a number of mechanisms have been postulated. Animal studies have provided evidence that alcohol can be associated with an increased period of apnoea following minor physical brain injury and cardiac changes have also been identified. The limited information in the community about the risk of alcohol in association with minor head injury causing death may be relevant in homicide cases where this issue is raised.     

The Precautionary Principle as a Device for Greater Environmental Protection: Lessons from EC Courts

Given that the precautionary principle has never been defined in the EC Treaty, the EC jurisdictions have been playing a key role in determining the status as well as the scope of that principle. Although scholars have hitherto been paying heed to the case law on food safety, the literature has become a little thinner when one considers environmental case law. This article attempts to set the scene to explain how the precautionary principle can be invoked in different judiciary procedures at the EU level.     

Whistle While You Work: Job Satisfaction and Retirement from the U.S. House

Abstract: The literature analyzing the effects of job satisfaction on congressional retirement has been inconclusive. The problem with this literature is its reliance on indirect measures of job satisfaction. We use a direct measure of job satisfaction to demonstrate that job satisfaction does have a significant independent effect on congressional retirement. The findings imply that the indirect measures of job satisfaction measure frustration as opposed to job dissatisfaction, a conceptually different variable. The fact that members' job satisfaction affects their career length suggests that a Congress that keeps its members happy will have greater retention and will, presumably, keep its best members.     

Illuminating the health and safety of luminol

Luminol is a reagent that is used to enhance areas of non-visible bloodstaining and it is one of the most sensitive of such reagents available to the forensic scientist. However, its use, particularly within the UK and some other European countries, has been limited, predominantly due to concerns about the health and safety of the reagent. This paper reviews the literature currently available regarding the health and safety of luminol, and in the authors' view demonstrates that there are no significant health and safety concerns with the preparation of luminol solution and its application at the crime scene or in the laboratory, providing suitable precautions are taken.     

Dynamics of latent fingerprints: The effect of physical factors on quality of ninhydrin developed prints — A preliminary study

The conditions under which latent fingerprints are deposited affect the process of development that can be used to effectively recover these marks. The conditions which can play a part include environmental conditions, the type of surface on which latents are deposited, the ability of the donor to deposit fingerprints, contact time, force of contact with the object etc. Very little previous work is available in the scientific literature addressing these conditions and therefore, an attempt has been made in this present study to assess the effect of some of these criteria and their effect on the ability of ninhydrin to develop the marks. Latent fingerprints from good and bad donors were obtained on paper with variable pressure under controlled conditions. Laboratory prepared 1% ninhydrin solution was used to visualise the prints.     

Spinouts from academic institutions: a literature review with suggestions for further research

This paper provides a comprehensive literature review of the phenomenon of spinouts from academic institutions. We systematically identified spinout papers in key management journals, categorised the literature and critically synthesised the findings. We present the findings of each literature stream in turn and also identify inconsistencies and directions for further research. We conclude that while the early literature has been mainly atheoretical and focused on describing the phenomenon, a core group of recent studies were theory-driven.

wizard clean up在混合斑DNA检验中的应用

目的建立一种快速、简单、有效的混合斑DNA检验方法。方法在100例检案中,利用wizardcleanup直接对精子消化液进行纯化浓缩。采用profilerplus试剂盒进行复合扩增,产物经ABI310基因分析仪检测。结果从混合斑中成功获得精斑10个STR位点的DNA分型。结论wizardcleanup处理混合斑,能有效去除女性成份,得到精斑DNA进行分型。     

Deployment stressors of the Iraq War: insights from the mainstream media

A comprehensive understanding of the stressors of the Iraq War is needed to ensure appropriate postdeployment assessments and to inform empirical inquiries. Yet we are unaware of any published studies that address the range of stressors experienced by this cohort. Thus, in the present study, we report the results of an interpretive literature review of mainstream media reports published from the beginning of the Iraq War in March 2003 to March 2005. This literature revealed a combination of stressors associated with traditional combat, insurgency warfare, and peacekeeping operations. The increasing deployment of National Guard/Reservist personnel, older soldiers, and women highlights additional stressors associated with sexual harassment and assault, preparedness and training, and life and family disruptions. This is a cause for concern as war-zone stressors have been implicated in postdeployment health outcomes, including intimate partner violence and child maltreatment, immediate physical and mental health, and long-term adjustment.     

Factors associated with desistance from violence in prison: an exploratory study

Desistance from crime has been of increasing interest within criminal justice literature, but desistance from offending behaviour whilst in custodial environments has not yet been investigated. Violence within prison establishments continues to be a significant problem; therefore, this study investigated the factors that are associated with desistance from custodial violence in 63 UK Category C adult male prisoners with a record of violence in prison. Participants completed measures of eight social and subjective factors associated with desistance in community samples. Those who had desisted from prison violence for 12 months or more showed greater levels of pro-social attitudes, agency and resilience than those who persisted in violence. Agency independently predicted desistance and this was particularly the case for younger offenders. Internal shifts appeared to be supported by a positive work environment. It is concluded that in custody an internal shift in perspective is especially important for desistance, and that this can be supported by the social environment. Opportunities to intervene may be greater in younger prisoners. It is recommended that current initiatives in developing agency and positive social interaction, such as Psychologically Informed Planned Environments, are further developed.     

Minimising corruption: Applying lessons from the crime prevention literature

This article explores how the criminology literature, particularly the literature on crime prevention, might supplement current efforts to minimise corruption. It seeks to identify and apply approaches to offenders and offending to the problem of minimising corruption. In summary, this article demonstrates that the crime prevention literature does have a number of applications for those interested in minimising corruption. In general terms, this literature advocates, amongst other things, taking an informed approach to corruption minimisation by developing an understanding of the process of engaging in corrupt conduct. Exploring the offender's perspective and considering different types of corruption separately are two strategies suggested to facilitate understanding the factors which underlie corrupt conduct. In this way those seeking to minimise corruption would be better placed to identify how and where to intervene to optimise the likelihood of prevention and hence be able to tailor prevention techniques to individual types of corruption. Six specific lessons from the crime prevention literature and their applications are illustrated in this article. This current article is intended to promote discussion of potential strategies for combating corruption by the growing numbers of people interested in this challenge. This revised version was published online in July 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

Determination of paraquat from formalin-fixed tissue

In this paper, a sulfuric acid digestion method and a clean-up technique by using cation exchange resin followed by XAD-2 resin has been developed for the determination of paraquat from formalin-fixed tissue at the submicrograms per gram level. Formalin-fixed tissue is dissolved by hot sulfuric acid, then paraquat is isolated and purified with cation exchange chromatography. The eluted paraquat forms an ion-pair with sodium dodecyl sulfate, it is then adsorbed on XAD-2 resin. Paraquat is eluted, extracted and reduced with solvent mixtures, NaCl solution and dithionite reagent, respectively. The calibration graphs of zero-order and second-derivative spectroscopy are linear in the range of 0.01-5.0 mg/kg. The relative standard deviation was less than 5% and the detection limit was 0.02 mg/kg based on 0.5-g samples. The sensitivity of the proposed method could be increased by using larger sample sizes. The method was precise and gave a quantitative recovery of paraquat spiked into formalin-fixed liver homogenates (78%). The proposed method has been satisfactorily applied to the determination of paraquat in the formalin-fixed tissues of suspected poisoned cases. It has been shown to be of great value in the field of forensic toxicology especially when formalin-fixed tissue only is available.     

Income transfers,entrepreneurial effort,and the Coase theorem: The case for efficiency reconsidered

The Coase theorem asserts that private bargaining can overcome the difficulties posed by an externality situation and lead to a first-best allocative solution. For such idealized efficiency to be achieved, however, it is generally recognized that certain very special conditions must be met—including the assumption of zero transaction costs. In opposition to this view, the paper argues that the special simplifying conditions usually specified in the literature are not sufficient. Unless stringent supplementary conditions are introduced, private bargaining will not bring about a first-best solution. Indeed, if the standard assumptions are met but the supplementary conditions of the paper are not, government intervention in the externality case can be expected to produce a solution that is Pareto superior to the one generated by private bargaining.     

Public Rewards and Innovation Policy: Lessons from the Eighteenth and Early Nineteenth Centuries

There has been renewed interest in recent years in using prizes and rewards to promote innovation. History has played a central role in public debates in the UK about the merits of such interventions, with the Longitude Prize 2014 being self‐consciously modelled on its eighteenth century precursor. Similarly, historical case studies have been used extensively in the scholarly literature in this area. However, it is striking that there has been little engagement with parliament's role generally in rewarding inventors in the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries and how this formed part of a broader system of rewards. The article explores how this system operated and demonstrates that it formed an established part of the legal landscape for many decades. It considers the extent to which a more complete understanding of the historical use of prizes and rewards during the key period of Britain's industrialisation might inform current debates.     

Death from pool chlorine--an unusual case

A tank truck containing bulk pool chlorinating solution overturned. A man was trapped beneath the truck, and a ruptured seam in the tank released a continuous flow of sodium hypochlorite over him. He survived for 10 min as the caustic solution extensively eroded soft tissue exposed to the chemical flow.