Spatial and Temporal Analyses of Terrorist Incidents in Iraq, 2004–2006

Terrorist incidents are not random in space or time. Understanding the current spatial and temporal patterns of terrorist incidents, as well as predicting future trends, is vital for effective counterterrorist efforts. This article focuses on terrorist incidents in Iraq, which are defined here as attacks, both successful and unsuccessful, in order to detect patterns in the establishment of terrorist activity spaces. Using Geographic Information Science (GISc), this project carries out a series of spatial and temporal cluster identification analyses on recent terrorist incidents in Iraq.     

Personal identification from human remains by mitochondrial DNA sequencing

The authors report four cases in which severely damaged human remains were identified by mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) sequencing. Degraded DNA was extracted from highly adipoceratous tissues using the phenol-chloroform method and polymerase chain reaction amplified for sequencing of two hypervariable regions, hypervariable region 1 and hypervariable region 2, of mitochondrial DNA. They also sequenced these regions of blood samples that were obtained from the presumptive mother or sister of the human remains. The sequencing results were compared with each other and with the Anderson's sequence. It was concluded from the sequence data that a lower part of a body in case 1 and some organs in case 2 were from the same woman, and a human head in case 3 and a female body in case 4 were from the relative of a presumptive mother and a sister, respectively.     

Vomit identification by a pepsin assay using a fibrin blue-agarose gel plate.

Reported is a simple and reliable method for identifying the presence of gastric fluid in forensic samples by an assay that reveals the pepsin activity. These samples are usually vomit found at the scene of a crime, either in fresh form or as a dried stain on clothing. The pepsin within the sample is assayed for its proteolytic activity which is revealed in a fibrin blue-agarose gel plate, as a result of an enzymatic reactivity that takes the form of a concentric, blue, translucent ring around the tested sample. Apart from being able to determine the pepsin content of fresh or recent forensic samples, this method has also achieved positive reactions in aged gastric fluid stains that were kept at room temperature. No body fluids other than the gastric fluid and no proteolytic enzymes other than pepsin show a positive reaction with the use of this method. This method has an additional advantage, in that the enzymatic activity seen on the gel plate can be photographed and the gel plate, on drying, can also be preserved as evidence.     

Legitimation of the Lao People’s Revolutionary Party: Socialism,Chintanakan Mai (New Thinking) and Reform

ABSTRACT

To date, scholars of authoritarianism have paid much attention to the use of democratic institutions in dictatorships to mitigate threats from both internal and external ruling elites, to co-opt and divide opposition and to solve commitment problems among the ruling elite. However, there have been no in-depth studies of legitimacy in an authoritarian regime. In communist states, opposition and dissent are addressed not through co-optation but exclusion. By contrast, communist parties attach great value for their survival to obtaining legitimacy from the masses. This article argues that the Lao People’s Revolutionary Party (LPRP) has endeavoured to acquire legitimacy since the foundation of the regime through a dialogical configuration of economic reform and socialist ideology. Economic reform and ideological legitimisation always go together, interacting with each other: economic reform requires ideological modification, and ideology defines the framework of reform. In Laos, this paradoxical configuration is necessary for the LPRP to maintain legitimacy while concurrently pursuing an ideal of socialism and reality of economic reform. In making this argument, this article reassesses the nature and significance of chintanakan mai (new thinking), which was not a formal reform policy, as often assumed, but a temporary slogan for promoting economic reforms.     

An Autopsy Case of Acute Massive Hematochezia Caused by Superior Mesenteric Vein Thrombosis: A First Report in Forensic Medicine

Superior mesenteric vein thrombosis (SMVT) is an uncommon cause of intestinal ischemia and massive gastrointestinal bleeding. This report describes a man with alcoholic liver cirrhosis, who died of massive hematochezia due to SMVT. A medicolegal autopsy disclosed a thrombus at the superior mesenteric vein and hemorrhagic infarction of the bowel wall, an area also within the territory of the superior mesenteric vein. Liver cirrhosis, an enlarged spleen, and esophageal varices without rupture were also observed, but ulcers and variceal bleeding were not. Other organs showed no significant findings. His blood alcohol level was 0.14% w/v. Thus, this man died from severe hematochezia associated with SMVT due to liver cirrhosis and alcohol dehydration, which can lead to coagulopathy and rapid progress of thrombus formation. This is the first report on an alternate cause for massive gastrointestinal hemorrhage with a cirrhotic patient in a forensic autopsy.     

Lessons Learned from Autopsying an Unidentified Body with Iodine‐125 Seeds Implanted for Prostate Brachytherapy

We report here lessons learned from an autopsy case involving radioactive materials. We performed an autopsy of an unidentified mummified man with no available medical history whom from imaging findings we suspected had received radioactive seed implants for prostate brachytherapy. We returned the excised prostate and seeds to the body. A few days later, the body was identified by DNA matching and cremated. According to the man's medical record, he had undergone iodine‐125 seeds implantation for prostate cancer 11 months earlier. We should have removed the radioactive seeds from the body to prevent radiation exposure to the bereaved family and/or environmental pollution due to cremation. Surprisingly, one seed was found in the stored prostate specimen. Forensic experts should be cognizant of the risk of both radiation exposure in the autopsy room and environmental pollution. We must remain abreast of the latest advances in medicine.     

An autopsy case of intraoperative death due to pulmonary fat embolism—possibly caused by release of tourniquet after multiple muscle-release and tenotomy of the bilateral lower limbs

We report a case of a juvenile male with muscle rigidity caused by cerebral palsy who experienced intraoperative sudden death due to pulmonary fat embolism after multiple muscle-release and tenotomy of the bilateral lower limbs. Data were obtained through review of the surgical and anesthesia records, as well as from autopsy and histopathological examination. All surgical procedures were performed within the same operation, beginning with the right lower limb and then proceeding with the left lower limb, with application of a pneumatic tourniquet to avoid intraoperative hemorrhage. Slight changes in the hemodynamics were noticed after release of the right tourniquet. Further, sudden onset of hypotension, severe bradycardia, and a marked decrease in percutaneously monitored oxygen saturation occurred just after release of the left tourniquet when the left limb was raised for casting. The patient died despite immediate and vigorous cardiopulmonary resuscitation. At autopsy performed 20 h after death, examination of the lungs revealed a pale surface, slight edema, and obvious fat droplets in the vessels at the cut surfaces. Histopathological examination with fat staining was notable for the presence of pulmonary fat embolism. These results suggest that restoration of venous return after removal of the tourniquet combined with massive fat embolism from dead spaces was the likely cause of death.