Alcohol loss arising from microbial contamination of drivers' blood specimens

This paper describes the circumstances in which some drivers' blood specimens containing added sodium fluoride (1% w/v concentration) deteriorated as a result of microbial contamination, accompanied by a decrease of alcohol concentration. Strains of the bacteria Serratia marcescens and a Pseudomonas sp. were isolated from the specimens and proven capable of growing at ambient temperature in blood containing sodium fluoride at 1% w/v concentration. They were shown to be active in alcohol degradation in preservatised blood, the activity being dependent on sodium fluoride concentration and storage temperature. Blood diluters were assumed to be a source of microbial cross contamination from one blood specimen to the next. It is recommended that postmortem blood specimens be analysed in separate batches from drivers' specimens when automated blood diluters are used, that the content of fluoride ions be increased to an equivalent of 2% w/v sodium fluoride, and that storage of specimens at temperatures above 4 degrees C be minimised.     

The resistible rise of preventive medicine

The politics of preventive health care have changed dramatically in the last fifteen years. In the late 1960s and early 1970s, prevention was the motherhood issue of health care reform. With only the slightest glimmer of controversy, vaccination, promotion of lifestyle changes, mass screening, and safety regulation all became widely accepted strategies for improving health and reducing medical expenditures. By the mid-1980s, the dark side of each strategy became visible. Vaccinations can cause serious and permanent injuries; lifestyle factors are being used to raise insurance premiums, to deny eligibility for disability insurance benefits, and to deny employment. Screening is similarly used to deny employment, and new technologies for prenatal screening have raised fears of stigma and selective abortion among racial, handicapped, and antiabortion groups. Occupational safety regulation is increasingly focused on excluding the "high-risk" individual from jobs. In the absence of social protections from these economic and social harms, citizens have used tort and civil rights litigation to resist preventive health measures.     

Learning Lessons and Transferring Policy across Time, Space and Disciplines

An area of recent interest in the International Relations and Comparative Politics literature concerns 'policy transfer'. This is a dynamic whereby knowledge about policies, administrative arrangements or institutions is used across time or space in the development of policies, administrative arrangements and institutions elsewhere. Policy transfer is deemed to be on the increase in an era of globalisation. Indeed, some governments and international organisations are proactive in promoting harmonisation and convergence or exporting policy lessons. This paper surveys the state of the burgeoning literature, identifies some methodological issues in studying policy transfer, and outlines some additional routes of research.     

Characteristics of firearms and gunshot wounds as markers of suicide.

Data from a total of 1,200 cases that the Medical Examiner of Dallas County, Texas, ruled as suicide with a firearm have been compared with the results of forensic laboratory examinations and tests; 75% are with handguns and 25% are with long guns. The incidence of suicides by gender yields 82% males and 18% females, with the most common entrance site being the head. With regard to racial distribution of persons committing suicide, > 88% are white in the study population group, which is 76% white. Data are presented for the incidence of blood detected inside and on the muzzle end of the barrel of the firearm, and for the persistence of blood inside the barrel even after the weapon was discharged to obtain test bullets. The analysis of handwipings for primer residues shows that "positive" results are obtained for approximately 50% of the revolvers and approximately 32% of the pistols when the caliber is > 22. Other projects such as transfer of gunshot residues to the hand by simply handling the weapon, the incidence of single-contact wounds in homicide versus suicide cases, and the percent of positive identification of bullets with weapons submitted are described.