Evaluation of the Postmortem Glucose and Glycogen Levels in Hepatic,Renal, Muscle,and Brain Tissues: Is It Possible to Estimate Postmortem Interval Using These Parameters?

The aim of our study was to investigate the postmortem levels of glucose and glycogen in hepatic, renal, muscle, and brain tissues and then examine the changes in those levels that could be useful for estimating postmortem interval. We established an animal model. Seventy female BALB/c albino mice were used in this study. After being sacrificed, the mice were randomly divided into six groups according to time elapsed since death (Group 1: 0 h; Group 2: 12 h; Group 3: 24 h; Group 4: 36 h; Group 5: 48 h; and Group 6: 60 h). Glucose levels were significantly different between groups for all tissues studied. Slope of the change per unit time was higher for the hepatic glucose levels. Based on these results, it is possible to estimate postmortem interval using postmortem glucose levels in hepatic tissue. Tissue‐specific assessment may contribute valuable information to postmortem interval studies.     

Global Collective Memory: Conceptual Difficulties of an Appealing Idea

The idea of “collective memory” has attracted substantial attention since Maurice Halbwachs’ path-breaking work in the 1920s. Recently we have started to notice references, at an increasing pace, to a global(ised) version of collective memory. This essay argues that “global collective memory”, especially in light of Halbwachs’ original understanding, is not a particularly strong or promising concept. First, the essay discusses three kinds of memory, namely individual, organisational, and institutional, and juxtaposes them with the idea of collective memory. Then it turns more specifically to a discussion of the global scale, and suggests that the intricate connections between these different types acquire a new degree of complexity when transposed to the global level due to the questions of politics and identity. The essay suggests further that a global memory, conceptualised with reference to its institutional rather than collective characteristics, may well be in the making.     

Legal Pluralism,Gendered Discourses,and Hybridity in Land‐titling Practices in Cambodia

This article describes and analyses the tensions, ambivalence, and hybridity that prevail in the nexus between discourses of gender and the legal pluralism of the new, formalized, and customary ways of handling land titles. Based on empirical research in Cambodia, it reveals a number of mechanisms, challenges, and inconsistencies in the practice of land‐titling. Foremost, the practice of titling seems to be highly informed by local discourses of marriage, family, gender, and age, which all affect to whom land is assigned; this leaves a hybrid construction in the nexus between statutory law and customary practices. The article departs from this observation and adds three contributions – on a theoretical level – to existing research: by incorporating the dimensions of discourse analysis and legal hybridity, by linking the concept of legal pluralism to the process of hybridization, and by introducing the notion of hybridity of implementation as a supplement to hybridity of law.     

Intimate Partner Violence in Turkey: The Turkish Intimate Partner Violence Attitude Scale-Revised

This study documents psychometrics of the Turkish version of Intimate Partner Violence Attitude Scale-Revised (IPVAS-R; Fincham et al. in Psychological Assessment, 20, 260–269, 2008). Dating college students (n=280) from four universities completed Turkish versions of the IPVAS-R, Multidimensional Measure of Emotional Abuse, Physical Assault of Conflict Tactics Scale - Revised, and Ambivalent Sexism Inventory. Confirmatory factor analysis supported the three factor structure of the IPVAS-R, albeit with an item change from the Abuse to the Control factor, due to the cultural nuances. This factor structure was cross validated with a second independent sample of 205 dating college students. Convergent validity and satisfactory internal consistency were also reported. The IPVAS-R was found to be a psychometrically sound measure to gauge attitudes toward psychological and physical dating aggression among college students outside of North America.     

An Examination of the Reciprocal Relationships Between Adolescents’ Aggressive Behaviors and Their Perceptions of Parental Nurturance

This study examined reciprocal relationships between adolescents’ perceptions of parental nurturance and two types of adolescent aggressive behaviors (indirect and direct aggression) using a transactional model. Three waves of longitudinal data were drawn from the Canadian National Longitudinal Survey of Children and Youth. The sample included 1,416 (735 female) adolescents who were 10- and 11-year-olds at Time 1 and became 14-and 15-year-olds at Time 3. The findings failed to support reciprocal effects, but confirmed parental effects at different ages for girls and boys. For girls, perceptions of parental nurturance at age 10 were negatively associated with both indirect and direct aggression at age 12. For boys, perceptions of parental nurturance at age 12 were negatively associated with both aggressive behaviors at age 14. Future research should continue to investigate reciprocal effects in parent-adolescent relationships to identify developmental periods where the effect of adolescents’ or their parents’ behavior may be stronger.     

Forearm bones and sexual variation in Turkish population

Forensic anthropologists are aware that there are considerable differences between human populations and therefore develop study models for each skeletal population. The purpose of this study was to analyze forearm bones obtained from forensic settings in Turkey. The sample consists of 42 males and 38 females with an average age of 40 and 36 years, respectively. Numerous measurements were taken from the radius and ulna including lengths (in millimeters), midshaft diameters, and epiphyseal breadths (0.01 mm). Individuals with any anomaly and pathology were not included in the investigation. A stepwise analysis, when applied to individual bones, selected only length and midshaft transverse dimension in the radius and length only in the ulna. When the length was excluded from the statistic, head diameter and distal breadth of the radius and distal minimum head and midshaft anteroposterior diameters of the ulna provided the best predicting functions. Classification results were 92% for the radius and 91% for the ulna. For the incomplete bones, the accuracy rates were about 92% and 83%, respectively. In conclusion, a sex determination was made, in different rates of accuracy, in the human skeleton. Correct assessment can vary among populations. Dimorphism in our region forearm bones is greater than American whites. This supported the hypothesis that human variation is diverse, and population difference should be taken into account when osteometric standards are applied to others. Further studies are needed to understand why the forearm is more dimorphic in Turks.     

Delegation and Institutional Design in Health‐Care Rationing

The delegation of decision‐making powers to nonmajoritarian, independent agencies has become a significant phenomenon in more and more policy areas. One of these is the health‐care sector, where decisions on the range of services covered within public systems have, in most developed countries, been delegated to specialized bodies. This article offers an analytical framework that seeks to grasp the empirical variety and complexity of delegative processes and appointed institutions. The framework is used to describe decision‐making processes and institutions in six countries: Austria, Germany, Norway, Sweden, New Zealand, and the United Kingdom. We find that, although constrained by preexisting institutional structures and traditions, delegators enjoy a considerable degree of discretion in their institutional design choices and engage in strategic design and redesign of appointed bodies.