Blood and bone: body mass,gender and health inequality in nineteenth-century British families

In mid-nineteenth-century Britain, a new institution emerged: the modern prison. Some prisons invested in scales. Upon entry, prisoners were measured and personal details documented. These meticulously compiled records afford a new vantage point from which we can peer into the dynamics of the household. Body measurements – height, weight, and body mass (weight adjusted for height) – connect to both patterns of consumption and health risk. Prison data thus speak to both gender and health inequality in the past. The paper juxtaposes a service economy (Wandsworth near London) with a modern manufacturing sector (Paisley near Glasgow) in order to contrast how economic form and opportunities in the market sector shaped relations and outcomes in the household sector. We find that families bargained over the allocation of resources; that bargaining position was influenced by economic value, mediated by maternal sacrifice; that this was an earner bias rather than gender bias; and that new industrial work for women and children supported a more egalitarian distribution that improved everyone's health status via superior heights and heavier weights. We examine Irish immigrants to assess cultural differences in family behaviour. Finally, the paper offers, for the first time, a detailed interpolation of Waaler's health risk for women.     

Animal rights is a social justice issue

The literature on social justice, and social justice movements themselves, routinely ignore nonhuman animals as legitimate subjects of social justice. Yet, as with other social justice movements, the contemporary animal liberation movement has as its focus the elimination of institutional and systemic domination and oppression. In this paper, I explicate the philosophical and theoretical foundations of the contemporary animal rights movement, and situate it within the framework of social justice. I argue that those committed to social justice – to minimizing violence, exploitation, domination, objectification, and oppression – are equally obligated to consider the interests of all sentient beings, not only those of human beings.     

Regulating for responsibility: reputation and social media

The framework brought forward by the United Kingdom's Defamation Act 2013 underlines a traditional hierarchy of expression in which news media are viewed as high-level speech. Although of a different form, social media are a dominant means of expression. The current study explores the rationale for a more robust and forceful discussion of responsibility in speech on social media platforms. The underlying premise here is that speech should be viewed as a qualified good and that a more appropriate paradigm is one found in the phrase ‘freedom to participate’.     

Rural development from the ground up: agro-food initiatives in Tasmania

Concerns about the decline of rural agricultural communities have recently refocused on new economic opportunities available in regional food production. This article analyses three on-the-ground case studies of rural development projects in Tasmania, Australia that aimed to develop new regional food opportunities. It analyses these projects to identify how local food producers can create viable economic alternatives in rural settings. The projects illustrate that the existence of regional food assets alone is not enough to guarantee economic development success: rural producers need connections into relevant knowledge networks if they are to identify and respond to new agro-food market opportunities.     

Typology of State Types: Persistence and Transition

Research on state fragility has seldom examined questions of persistence and transition of states. We develop a sixfold typology of states to examine how key structural features of states evolve and contribute to successful exits from fragility in some cases and persistence in others. Particularly worrisome is the lack of positive transition among the weakest states. Our findings are derived from a minimalist construct of a refined time series data set involving state indicators of authority, legitimacy, and capacity. Case studies of some of the more turbulent examples support our state trajectories. Additionally, changes in legitimacy most often led state transitions into or out of fragility. Implications of intervention policy for transitioning states out of fragility are addressed, and these are given particular focus since fragile states experience at least twice the intensity/incidence of internal armed conflict compared to other states.     

Evaluation of a Visualization Assay for Blood on Forensic Evidence

In forensics, bloodstains on dark fabrics might be invisible for the naked eye. Although several visualization, presumptive, and confirmatory blood tests have been developed, all have one or more disadvantages, especially on DNA analysis. We report here the use of a visualization assay that can visually detect blood drops up to 1/20 dilution. In this assay, the fabric is placed between two wet filter papers and covered by glass surfaces on both sides. Pressure is applied on the glass surfaces in which bloodstains transfer onto the filter papers through capillary forces. Detected stains can be tested with other more sensitive presumptive blood tests performed on the filter paper. Even more, DNA analysis can be performed on the transferred bloodstains. The presented visualization assay is easy to perform, extremely cheap, requires little hands on time, and does not affect bloodstain pattern analysis.     

A Rapid and Efficient Method for Evaluation of Suspect Testimony: Palynological Scanning

A rapid method for evaluating suspect testimony is valuable at any stage in an inquiry and can result in a change of direction in an investigation. Rape cases, in particular, can present problems where a defendant renders DNA analysis redundant by claiming that the claimant consented to have sexual relations. Forensic palynology is valuable in confirming or eliminating locations as being crime scenes, thus checking the testimony of both parties. In contrast to some forensic disciplines, forensic palynology can provide critical information without time-consuming full analysis. Two cases are described where the palynological assemblages from comparator samples of pertinent places were compared with those obtained from clothing of claimants and defendants. The results of rapid microscopical scanning of relevant preparations led to early confessions, thus obviating the need for costly analyses and protracted court proceedings. A third case demonstrates the unbiased nature of this technique where a man, although innocent of any offense, lied about having visited the crime scene for fear of prosecution. This highlights the need for sensitive policing in claims of rape.     

Contribution of Antemortem Computed Tomography Findings to Cause of Death Determination: An Unusual Fatal Stroke

In the case reported here, the antemortem computed tomography scan (CT scan) was essential in the forensic investigation. A 32‐year‐old man was found fully awake with a facial abrasion, after what seemed to be a car accident. He lost consciousness suddenly one hour after initial management. Successive CT scan showed a facial fracture and a metallic foreign body in the carotid canal associated with an occlusion/dissection of the left internal carotid, a pseudoaneurysm, and a carotid‐cavernous fistula. The victim died from a stroke. Autopsy confirmed that the facial abrasion was a gunshot entrance wound, the metallic foreign body being a projectile. Intracranial vascular injuries linked with gunshot wounds are most of the time isolated and due to pelet embolism. The observed vascular injury association has never been described in the existing literature. The CT scan provided a better understanding of the chronology of events that led to death.