Can computed tomography replace or supplement autopsy?

Postmortem computed tomography (PMCT) has been integrated into the practice of many forensic pathologists. To evaluate the utility of PMCT in supplementing and/or supplanting medicolegal autopsy, we conducted a prospective double-blind comparison of abnormal findings reported by the autopsy pathologist with those reported by a radiologist reviewing the PMCT. We reviewed 890 cases: 167 with blunt force injury (BFI), 63 with pediatric trauma (under 5 years), 203 firearm injuries, and 457 drug poisoning deaths. Autopsy and radiology reports were coded using the Abbreviated Injury Scale and abnormal findings and cause of death (COD) were compared for congruence in consensus conferences with novel pathologists and radiologists. Overall sensitivity for recognizing abnormal findings was 71% for PMCT and 74.6% for autopsy. Sensitivities for PMCT/autopsy were 74%/73.1% for BFI, 61.5%/71.4% for pediatric trauma, 84.9%/83.7% for firearm injuries, and 56.5%/66.4% for drug poisoning deaths. COD assigned by reviewing PMCT/autopsy was correct in 88%/95.8% of BFI cases, 99%/99.5% of firearm fatalities, 82.5%/98.5% of pediatric trauma deaths, and 84%/100% of drug poisoning deaths of individuals younger than 50. Both autopsy and PMCT were imperfect in recognizing injuries. However, both methods identified the most important findings and are sufficient to establish COD in cases of BFI, pediatric trauma, firearm injuries and drug poisoning in individuals younger than 50. Ideally, all forensic pathologists would have access to a CT scanner and a consulting radiologist. This would allow a flexible approach that meets the diagnostic needs of each case and best serves decedents' families and other stakeholders.     

Law and the media

I would like to thank Margaret Andersen, Dan Slater, and Ron Roesch for their helpful comments on an earlier version of this essay.     

‘Moving in place’: Drought and poverty dynamics in South Wollo,Ethiopia

This article discusses the impact of drought on poverty dynamics in the South Wollo area of northeastern Ethiopia. Using both survey and anthropological/qualitative data covering a six-year period, the paper assesses which households were able to hold on to assets and recover from the 1999–2000 drought and which were not. It suggests that while the incidence of poverty changed very little during 1997 to 2003 despite the occurrence of a major drought, the fortunes of the poorest improved, but not enough to keep them from poverty. The study concludes by asking how current policies affect patterns of poverty and inequality and what might be done to improve welfare in South Wollo.     

Computer analysis of house of commons’ division lists, 1861–1936: A report on current research

SUMMARY

No parliamentary assemblies (Cortes) were held between 1665 and 1700 in the Crown of Castile. In view of this institutional pause, not yet sufficiently well explained historiographically, the questions assailing us are: who held the representation of the kingdom during this time, and how was the exaction of taxes-the millones (tax on basic products), donations, and so on-carried out in political practice, as their levying had to be agreed on in the Cortes.

The answer to the first question is that it was the cabildos (local assemblies or oligarchical municipal assemblies) of the cities with a vote in the Cortes, which legitimately represented the kingdom. It should be remembered that before 1665, during the time when the Parliament was summoned, the cabildos retained the decisive vote, whereas the members of the Cortes meeting in them could only exercise an advisory vote. The reply to the second question obliges us to study the institutional relationship of both a Diputacón de las Cortes (a Deputation of the Cortes) and the Commission of Millones with the cabildos concerning the collection of the levies of the millones and donations.

As well as defining political representation in the early modern era, the thesis of this article is to demonstrate that the cabildos of the Castilian cities with votes in the Cortes, regardless of whether the Cortes were held or not, were the real representatives of the kingdom and the administrators of the treasury in the second half of the seventeenth century. Thus, in Castile too, the government of society was implemented by both the king and the kingdom in accordance with the juridical-institutional criterion, widespread in Western Europe, of the dominium politicum et regale (as described by John Fortescue, Helmut Koenigsberger et al.).