Traumatic bilateral vertebral artery dissection

Traumatic vertebral artery dissection is not often seen by forensic pathologists, and cases investigated are scarce in the forensic literature. We present the case of a 40-year-old woman cyclist who was struck by a car while wearing a helmet, and was neurologically near normal immediately thereafter at Emergency. She presented 48 h later with acute right hemiparesis, decreasing level of consciousness, and unsteadiness. CT revealed massive cerebellar infarction. CT angiography was normal. The patient died in coma 7 days after injury and autopsy revealed bilateral edematous cerebellar infarction and bilateral vertebral artery dissection. Rotational neck injury and mural tear in the wall of the Atlantic parts of both vertebral arteries is suggested as the possible mechanism of the arterial injury. Head and neck injuries are reported as a precipitating cause of vertebral artery injury. The possible influence of trauma may be further underestimated if longer intervals between vessel dissection and ischemia occur. The current case illustrates that "talk-and-die" syndrome may be due to occult vertebral artery dissection, possibly bilateral. In forensic cases of delayed death after mild trauma to the head and neck, the vertebral arteries should be examined for the cause of death.     

Help-seeking in a national sample of victimized Latino women: the influence of victimization types

The current study aimed to examine formal and informal help-seeking responses to interpersonal victimization among a national sample of Latino women. In addition, an examination of help-seeking by victimization type was undertaken. Data came from the Sexual Assault Among Latinas (SALAS) study that obtained help-seeking rates among a victimized subsample of Latino women (n = 714; 35.7% of a national sample). Results show a majority (76.6%) of the victimized participants engaged in some form of help-seeking with informal resources (68.9%) more often used than formal (32.5%). Medical attention was the type of formal help-seeking sought most often among victimized women who were injured (34.7%), and parents were the most common source of informal help-seeking (26.6%). However, logistic regression analyses show that help-seeking responses were significantly affected by type of victimization. Latino women who experienced childhood victimization were significantly less likely to engage in formal and informal help-seeking. Latino women who experienced stalking were significantly less likely to engage in formal help-seeking. Victimization with a weapon was significantly related to increased odds of formal help-seeking. Thus, women respond to violence in a way that is shaped by the dynamics of the victimization experience. Practice implications include the need to increase knowledge and availability of formal help-seeking venues.     

Economic incongruities in the European patent system

This article suggests that the consequences of the ??fragmentation?? of the European patent system are more dramatic than the mere prohibitive costs of maintaining a patent in force in many jurisdictions. The prevalence of national jurisdictions, which are highly heterogeneous in their costs and practices, over the validity and enforcement of European patents, induces a high level of uncertainty and an intense managerial complexity which reduce both the effectiveness and the attractiveness of the European patent system in its mission to stimulate innovation.     

Including conflict-affected youth in agri-food chains: agribusiness in northern Uganda

Farming and agribusiness could help employ and reintegrate conflict-affected youth in regions recovering from civil conflict. This study addresses the constraints for youth to engage themselves in agribusiness in the worst conflict-affected regions of northern Uganda. Specifically, it explores to what extent beekeeping and honey business offer viable socio-economic opportunities to formerly displaced youth. Using a value chain approach, the study draws on in-depth interviews with 23 (young) key stakeholders in the honey value chain, document analysis and focus group discussions. The results suggest that apiculture business can create employment for conflict-affected youth in northern Uganda due to the relatively low entry barriers, a young enthused vanguard and higher returns per unit input compared to other agricultural sectors in the region. However in order to succeed, this group requires support from community elders, government and business facilitators, because, due to their age and war background, these youngsters face the common constraints to farming and agribusiness, but at higher degrees of severity.     

Do Women Representatives Regender Legislative Bureaucracy? Assessing the Effect of Representative Sex on Women's Presence among US Congressional Staff

Achieving greater female presence in influential positions is a commonly discussed strategy for gender reform in institutions such as the US Congress. Using theory adapted from research on gender in the workplace, this study examines whether women representatives, as ‘managers’ of congressional offices, alter patterns of gender representation in Congress by hiring and promoting more women staffers compared with men representatives. Cross-sectional logistic regression analyses of staffer sex during the 110th and 111th Congresses (2007–10) reveal a positive relationship between women representatives and female presence on congressional staffs. However, the relationship does not hold with respect to the most influential staff positions. These findings provide only limited support for theories that women representatives act as ‘change agents’ by directly facilitating opportunities for women, and highlight the importance of exploring alternative strategies for empowering women and regendering legislative institutions.     

Quest for the Holy Grail—Is a Unified Approach to the Market Freedoms and European Citizenship Justified?

The case law of the CJEU on the economic free movement of people has departed from the traditional requirement that a nexus must be established between individual free movement and cross‐border economic activity, which has led to an extension of its scope. It is submitted that concerns with the protection of fundamental rights of European citizens are driving this process, and that the CJEU has sought to protect these fundamental rights through the market freedoms in two ways: by arguing that market freedoms are fundamental right themselves, and/or that European Citizenship has changed their normative underpinnings and status. This Article criticises both lines of argument, and defends a third: that the protection of these fundamental rights must be achieved at European level, if at all, through a conception of European Citizenship able to stand on its own.     

Procedural justice,minorities, and religiosity

The current research explores six hypotheses derived from the well-known procedural justice-based model of legitimacy in two different religious groups in Israel, and adds to the model the effect of religiosity on the perceived legitimacy of rules and institutions of social control. Our results, based on data from a representative sample of 1,216 Israeli Jews and Arabs, provide general support for the hypotheses. We found that the social order is perceived as less legitimate by the Arab minority compared with the Jewish majority, and by highly religious members of the Jewish majority compared with those who are less religious.     

LCMS Analysis of Fingerprints,the Amino Acid Profile of 20 Donors

The analysis of amino acids present in fingerprints has been studied several times. In this paper, we report a method for the analysis of amino acids using an fluorenylmethyloxycarbonyl chloride‐derivatization for LC separation and MS detection. We have obtained good results with regard to the calibration curves and the limit of detection and LOQ for the target compounds. The extraction of the amino acids from the substrates used proved to be very efficient. Analysis of the derivatized amino acids enabled us to obtain full amino acid profiles for 20 donors. The intervariability is as expected rather large, with serine as the most abundant constituent, and when examining the total profile of the amino acids per donor, a characteristic pattern can be observed. Some amino acids were not detected in some donors, or fell out of the range of the calibration curve, where others showed a surprisingly high amount of material in the deposition analyses. Further investigations will have to address the intravariability of the amino acid profiles of the fingerprints from donors. By the development of the analytical method and the application to the analysis of fingerprints, we were able to gain insight in the variability of the constituents of fingerprints between the donors.