Adipocere: what is known after over two centuries of research

This paper reviews over two centuries of research focusing on various issues relating to adipocere. Adipocere is a crumbly, soap-like postmortem product that forms from soft tissue in a variety of environments. The timing of the formation and degradation of adipocere depends largely on the environmental circumstances. Once formed, adipocere can persist for hundreds of years, acting as a preservative. In this way, some define it as a process of mummification. This type of persistence can be useful in a forensic context as it can preserve evidence. Sustained interest in adipocere prompted many investigations into the composition and conditions of formation. More recent investigations, aided by technological advances, build upon the knowledge gained from prior studies as well as delve into the chemical composition of adipocere. This in turn provides new information on detection and documentation of constituent substances.     

Conditions for complex innovations: evidence from public organizations

The Journal of Technology Transfer - Despite the growing interest in understanding innovative activities, an important limitation of the current literature on innovation—both public and...     

Implementing Equal Justice for Parents in Washington: A Dual Approach

In many states, legal representation for parents of dependent children is inadequate and can be a source of delays in securing permanency for children and unnecessarily protracted court proceedings. Often, such parents also face barriers to accessing services and independent evaluators. These issues are being addressed in the state of Washington through two approaches. The first is a successful enhanced legal representation program that has substantially improved case outcomes. The second is a statewide committee using innovative means to examine systemic responses to the challenges of the Adoption and Safe Families Act.     

Police systems and systems thinking: An interpretive approach to understanding complexity

To start a dialog with police and criminal psychologists concerning systems theory and policing, the authors are presenting the following paper. This paper shares their thinking about systems theory as it might apply to policing. The paper draws upon specific examples from one of the twenty largest police departments in the United States. These examples include: race relations, domestic violence legislation, financing, and developing specialized units. The authors present some of the major concepts associated with systems thinking. They selected—context, valid information, relationships, shared meaning, attractors and agents. In addition, there are recommendations for future direction of dialog and research. Authors' Note: A. Steven Dietz, Ph.D., is an Instructor with Texas State University at San Marcos in the Department of Criminal Justice. Oscar Mink, Ed.D., was Professor of Adult and Human Resources Development Leadership at the University of Texas at Austin until his death in September of 2004. He was licensed as a psychologist in both Texas and New York. He authored or co-authored 14 books and over 200 articles, monographs, and psychological assessment instruments. He founded a correctional counseling institute program at West Virginia University as a visible part of the Division of Clinical Studies that he directed. He had 14 years direct work experience in various aspects of criminal justice at the Federal, State and community level. Dr. Mink consulted with the Austin Police Department on issues related to executive coaching and organizational development.     

Procedural goods in a democracy: How one is treated versus what one gets

There are four classes of procedural goods, each of which is an appropriate ground for answering the question: “Is this a fair procedure?” (i) It is unfair not to treat a person with dignity; the dignity goods are self-respect, personal control, and an understanding of the procedures that determine relevant outcomes. (ii) It is unfair to impose upon a person heavy (net) costs, such as overburdened cognitive capacities and high information costs, excessively painful interpersonal conflict, threats beyond those inherent in the situation, and humiliation. (iii) It is unfair to disregard (but not necessarily to violate) the person's own sense of justice, the codes of honor and practice of his own group and culture. And, of course, (iv) it is unfair to use a procedure that does not have the highest probability of achieving distributive or retributive justice. Few of the standard articles of democratic theory (e.g., liberty, equal treatment before the law, rights, and sharing of power) offer sufficient protections for the first three of these procedural goods.     

Implementing robotics technology: A case study in organizational learning

A visionary manager will occasionally encounter a “wave-of-the-future” technology that can change the manufacturing process. Since such technologies are relatively unknown to others in the organization, its implementation can make or break its success. New Process Gear (NPG) plant, a division of New Venture Gear, Inc., has experienced this scenario with its robotics installation. This field study examines several robotics installations at NPG, starting with the earliest installation and proceeding through its latest installation of a complete robotics system. Through this experience, five areas emerged as necessary for successful new technology adoption: opportunity identification, high-quality equipment, supplier competence, training, and teamwork. By examining the robotics implementation process through various installations over time, several important lessons can be gleaned about new technology implementation that may be applicable to other technology applications.     

Juvenile arrest rates for burglary: A routine activities approach

Juveniles comprise a substantial portion of the offenders arrested for burglary in the United States each year. Using a Hierarchical Multivariate Linear Model, the current research examines juvenile burglars, by gender, utilizing a routine activities approach. This analysis was performed using data on the thirty five largest cities in Texas, between 1990 and 2004. Increased incidents of juvenile arrests for burglary, in both genders, occurred where there were high levels of poverty and low levels of female headed households. Juvenile males appeared to be arrested more for burglary in areas where there were high levels of unemployment and non-white individuals, while juvenile females were arrested for burglary in places where there were higher numbers of males between the ages of 19 and 24 years. Results suggest that the current measures of routine activities theory better explains variation in juvenile male arrests for burglary.     

From research to policy: Preventing residential burglary through a systems approach

This paper isolates crime prevention policy implications which stem from a series of interrelated environmental studies of residential burglaries. A number of crime prevention strategies are developed using a systems approach. It is argued that changes made to the environments of individuals, groups, communities, organizations, and society can achieve lower risks of residential burglary victimization.     

Sourcing explosives: A multi-isotope approach

Although explosives are easily identified with current instrumental techniques, it is generally impossible to distinguish between sources of the same substance. To alleviate this difficulty, we present a multi-stable isotope (δ¹³C, δ¹⁵N, δ¹⁸O, δD) approach for appraising the possibility of discriminating explosives. The results from 30 distinct PETN, TNT and ANFO samples show that the different families of explosives are clearly differentiated by both their specific isotope signatures and their combination with corresponding element concentrations. Coupling two or more of the studied isotope systematics yields an even more precise differentiation on the basis of their raw-material origin and/or manufacturing process.     

Expert systems for medical diagnosis: A study in technology transfer

Expert systems continue to evolve for specific applications in medical diagnosis. This is necessary because the influx of new information is so massive that the expert systems must be specialized. The research methodology for this study was based on the usage patterns of expert systems in clinical pathology with data obtained at 94 US medical schools from 202 medical-school-based clinical pathologists. The study showed the link between the use of expert systems in medical schools and within the professional medical community. Initial education in medical schools and ongoing communications through residency programs, post-doctoral fellowships and clinical usage at university hospitals with the goal of technology transfer between medical schools and physicians, seem to represent the future for this valuable diagnostic technique.