Proximal End Root Morphology Characteristics in Antemortem Anagen Head Hairs

The proximal end morphology of antemortem anagen head hair was compared with the characteristics documented to occur in postmortem hairs. Antemortem anagen and telogen head hairs (N = 967) were recovered following exposure to seven environments. Root morphology characteristics consistent with those reported in postmortem hairs were observed in 66 (14%) hairs exposed to a water, normal saline, outdoor soil, or indoor shower environment. Thirty‐three anagen hairs (7%) exhibited a root band at the proximal end. The mean distance from the root tip to the onset of the root band ranged from 0.23 to 0.7 mm, depending on the environment. The mean distance from the root tip to the onset of the root band was 0.46 mm, with a mean band length of 0.44 mm. The results illustrate the need to better characterize postmortem banding through quantitative measurements, including the range for root tip to band distance and the overall band length.     

The Effect of School Dropout on Verbal Ability in Adulthood: A Propensity Score Matching Approach

Compared to high school graduates, adolescents who drop out of school are more likely to have a range of negative outcomes, including lower verbal capacities; however, the true nature of this association is not well-understood. Dropping out of school could have an important effect on reducing verbal skills, or the link between dropping out of school and diminished verbal skills could be a spurious association that is the result of unmeasured confounding variables. The current study tested these two competing perspectives by using propensity-score-matching (PSM) to unpack the association between school dropout and verbal skills among 7,317 respondents from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health (51% female, 49% male; 62% Caucasian, 38% minority). The results of the PSM models indicated a small yet meaningful statistically significant effect of dropout on verbal skills in adulthood even after taking into account a range of confounders. We conclude by discussing the implications of our results.     

Correlates of law enforcement suicide in the United States: a comparison with Army and Firefighter suicides using data from the National Violent Death Reporting System

Law Enforcement (LE) officers are considered to be at elevated risk of suicide. This study explored variables associated with LE suicide and the extent they differentiated LE suicides from those within similar occupations considered at risk – Army and Firefighters. Using a public health database of violent deaths, the US National Violent Death Reporting System (NVDRS), the prevalence of and association between seven suicide variables (treatment for a mental health condition, Post Traumatic Stress disorder diagnosis, alcohol and substance abuse, job problems, intimate partner problems) and suicide within LE, Army and Firefighters was computed. Method of suicide and demographic characteristics were also identified. All of the suicide variables were associated with suicide in the three occupation groups. LE suicides were differentiated from Army and Firefighter suicides by being more strongly associated with job problems and suicide by females was more common. Implications for suicide prevention strategies within LE are discussed.     

News media influences on public views of sentencing

Opinion polls in Canada, the United States, Great Britain, Australia, and elsewhere suggest that most members of the public would like their criminal courts to be harsher. Does media coverage of criminal sentencing contribute to a preference for harsher sentencing? Most people derive their information about sentencing from the news media and content analyses of news stories in Canada and the United States demonstrate that crimes of violence and sentences of imprisonment are overrepresented. Moreover, the news media provide little systematic information about the sentencing process or its underlying principles. This article reports the results of three studies examining the effects of media coverage on public opinion about sentencing. Subjects who read actual newspaper stories about sentencing that appeared in Canadian newspapers rated most reported sentences as too lenient. However, the specific account they read influenced their leniency judgments. Furthermore, in one experiment, participants assigned to read a newspaper account of a sentencing decision supported harsher sentences than participants who read a summary of actual court documents from the sentencing hearing.     

Ground penetrating radar surveys to locate 1918 Spanish flu victims in permafrost

The "Spanish Flu" killed over 40 million people worldwide in 1918. Archival records helped us identify seven men who died of influenza in 1918 and were interred in Longyearbyen, Svalbard, Norway, 1,300 km from the North Pole. Ground Penetrating Radar (GPR) was used successfully, in a high-resolution field survey mode, to locate a large excavation with seven coffins, near the existing seven grave markers. The GPR indicated that the ground was disturbed to 2 m depth and was frozen below 1 m. Subsequent excavation showed that: a) the GPR located the position of the graves accurately, b) the coffins were buried less than 1 m deep, and c) that the frozen ground was 1.2 m deep where the coffins were located. The GPR assisted in planning the exhumation, safely and economically, under the high degree of containment required. Virologic and bacteriologic investigations on recovered tissues may give us an opportunity to isolate and identify the micro-organisms involved in the 1918 influenza and expand our knowledge on the pathogenesis of influenza.     

Demythologising the Czech opposition agreement

For many observers of the Czech political scene, 8 July 1998 was confirmation of their worst fears. It was then, two weeks after parliamentary elections, that the largest party in parliament, the Czech Social Democratic Party (CˇSSD), announced that it had signed what came to be known as the ‘opposition agreement’ with the Civic Democratic Party (ODS), the second largest party in parliament. The agreement stated that ODS would allow CˇSSD to govern alone as a minority government. In return, ODS would receive a number of parliamentary posts and the two parties would together adopt several constitutional amendments. The reaction of Czech political scientists and commentators was almost unanimously negative. President Va´clav Havel called the alliance ‘unholy’. The head of the Christian Democratic Union (KDU-CˇSL), Josef Lux, believed the agreement to be unconstitutional and vowed to contest it in court. Commentators even likened it to the communist-era national front governments. More specific criticisms focused on its negative consequences for stability, democracy and the fate of important social and economic reforms. Even at the end of its four-year run, political observers remained almost as negatively disposed to the agreement as they were at the start.     

Access to health care: what a difference shades of color make

Professor Majette's timely article examines an age-old problem: the effect of race and ethnicity on a patient's receipt of health care. Her article analyzes some of the major health care access issues, with a focus on barriers confronting African Americans, Asians, Hispanics, and Native Americans. Some of the barriers include inability to pay, cultural insensitivity, a shortage of health care providers, and discrimination. She also examines some of the unsuccessful legal solutions and remedies designed to eliminate these barriers. Given the complexity of the access barriers encountered by people of color, Professor Majette concludes that only an interdisciplinary approach can eliminate them. Her proposed approach requires business, legal, and medical professionals to collaborate in developing a health care system that meets the needs of aracially and ethnically diverse population.     

Shifting Priorities: Congressional Incentives and the Homeland Security Granting Process

Small states receive more homeland security grant money per capita than large states because of the structure of representation and decision making in Congress. Beyond per capita allocations, the homeland security granting process affects the structure of state and local emergency management agencies, shifting priorities away from natural and technological disasters toward counterterrorism. I suggest using competitive grants, increasing the salience of the granting process, and changing the institutional setting in order to rationalize the granting process.