Literary reviews

Thinly‐veiled autobiography

The Enigma of Arrival. V S Naipaul, London: Viking. 1987. 318pp. £10.95hb

Unmasking Mexico

The Good Conscience. Carlos Fuentes, London: André Deutsch. 1986. 148pp. £8.95hb/£3.95pb

A Change of Skin. Carlos Fuentes, London: André Deutsch. 1986. 462pp. £6.95pb

The Old Gringo. Carlos Fuentes, London: André Deutsch. 1986. 199pp. £8.95

Alternative realities: novels from Brazil

Dona Flor and Her Two Husbands. Jorge Amado, London: Serpent's Tail. 1986. 553pp

High Art. Rubem Fonseca, London: William Collins Sons. 1987. 345pp. £9.95

Maíra. Darcy Ribeiro, London: Picador, Pan Books, 1985. 353pp. £3.50

Perceptions of Nicaragua

To Bury Our Fathers. Sergio Ramirez, London: Readers International. 1984. 253pp. £5.95pb

Stories. Sergio Ramirez, London: Readers International. 1986. 118pp. £3.95pb

The Jaguar Smile: A Nicaraguan Journey. Salman Rushdie, London: Picador. 1987. 171pp. £2.95pb

The double yoke: women's writing from the Third World

Other Fires: Stories from the Women of Latin America. Edited by Alberto Manguel, London: Picador. 1986. 222pp. £3.50pb

Unheard Words: Women and Literature in Africa, The Arab World, Asia, the Caribbean and Latin America. Edited by Mineke Schipper, London and New York: Allison and Busby. 1985. 288pp. £4.95pb

A Double Colonization: Colonial and Post‐Colonial Women's Writing. Edited by Kirsten Hoist Petersen & Anna Rutherford London: Dangaroo Press. 1986. 188pp. £15.95hb/£8.95pb

Future landscapes

A Sport of Nature. Nadine Gordimer, London: Jonathan Cape. 1987. 396pp. £10.95hb

A Land Apart: A South African Reader. Edited by André Brink and J M Coetzee, London: Faber and Faber. 1986. 256pp. £9.50hb

Satires of class and power

Out of India. Ruth Prawer Jhabvala, London: John Murray. 1987. 288pp. £10.95hb

Rich Like Us. Nayantara Sahgal, London: Hodder and Stoughton. 1987. 268pp. £3.95pb

The oil of acceptance

Talkative Man. R K Narayan, London: William Heinemann. 1986. 123pp. £7.95hb

Occupied Palestine: the writer as eyewitness

The Secret Life of Saeed: The Pessoptimist. Emile Habiby, London: Zed. 1985. 169pp. £9.95hb/£3.95pb

Wild Thorns. Sahar Khalifeh, London: Al Saqi. 1985. 207pp. £3.95pb

Poetry and politics

Modern Poetry of the Arab World. Translated and edited by Abdullah al‐Udhari, London: Penguin. 1986. 154pp. £3.95pb

Spanning Muslim Literature

The Worlds of Muslim Imagination. Edited by Alamgir Hashmi, Islamabad: Gulmohar. 1986. 270pp. $12.95hb

Pakistani Literature. Edited by Alamgir Hashmi, Islamabad: Gulmohar. 1987. 107pp. $10.00hb     

Report of the Law Reform Commission of Tanzania on Congestion in Prisons

Since its formal inauguration in the year 2006, the Caribbean Court of Justice (CCJ) has arguably shown itself to be quite capable of effectively dispensing with its overarching aims of consistency, coherence and legal certainty in the process of adjudication. Indeed, through the adoption of a teleological approach to the construction of the Revised Treaty of Chaguramas, the CCJ has positioned itself as a major operational component in the new Caribbean legal order, serving, as the European Court of Justice as well as several domestic courts have done, to ensure transparency and accountability. The court’s relatively nuanced purpose-driven approach has arguably been the single biggest contributing factor to the region’s quickly evolving ‘indigenous jurisprudence’. Nevertheless, some of the court’s most recent original jurisdiction decisions reveal a growing trend towards judicial restraint. The varying degrees to which the CCJ has adopted a teleological approach to the interpretation of the Revised Treaty of Chaguramas, the concomitant effects of this important development as well as the challenges which invariably arise in this connection are the subject of this article.     

Selective detection of trace nitroaromatic, nitramine, and nitrate ester explosive residues using a three-step fluorimetric sensing process: a tandem turn-off, turn-on sensor

Detection of trace quantities of explosive residues plays a key role in military, civilian, and counter-terrorism applications. To advance explosives sensor technology, current methods will need to become cheaper and portable while maintaining sensitivity and selectivity. The detection of common explosives including trinitrotoluene (TNT), cyclotrimethylenetrinitramine, cyclotetramethylene-tetranitramine, pentaerythritol tetranitrate, 2,4,6-trinitrophenyl-N-methylnitramine, and trinitroglycerin may be carried out using a three-step process combining "turn-off" and "turn-on" fluorimetric sensing. This process first detects nitroaromatic explosives by their quenching of green luminescence of polymetalloles (lambda em approximately 400-510 nm). The second step places down a thin film of 2,3-diaminonaphthalene (DAN) while "erasing" the polymetallole luminescence. The final step completes the reaction of the nitramines and/or nitrate esters with DAN resulting in the formation of a blue luminescent traizole complex (lambda(em) = 450 nm) providing a "turn-on" response for nitramine and nitrate ester-based explosives. Detection limits as low as 2 ng are observed. Solid-state detection of production line explosives demonstrates the applicability of this method to real world situations. This method offers a sensitive and selective detection process for a diverse group of the most common high explosives used in military and terrorist applications today.     

Mission impossible? Assessing the veracity of a mental health problem as result of a road traffic accident: a preliminary review of UK experts’ practices

The number of people claiming for personal injury after being involved in a road traffic accident (RTA) in the UK continues to soar. In April 2015, the UK Government intervened to implement measures aimed at reducing the prevalence of fraud within such personal injury claims. However, these reforms did not include claims for mental disorder that arise because of a RTA despite being responsible for substantially larger payouts in comparison with claims for whiplash. The present study examines the assessment practice for detecting fraudulent claims of this nature using a mixed methods survey analysing UK medico-legal professionals’ assessment methodologies (N = 37). The findings suggest comprehensively that assessment practices in this field are idiosyncratic. The findings evidence limitations in all aspects of the assessment process from medico-legal assessors being asked to undertake examinations without the presence of medical records to 44% of examiners being unaware of the three types of malingering. The article concludes with recommendations for improving both assessments and the assessment process for assessing RTA claimants in the UK.     

Forensic Radiology Pitfalls: CT Imaging in Gunshot Wounds of the Head

Computed tomography (CT) imaging is increasingly used in emergency departments and trauma services and is being offered as a supplemental tool with autopsy in coroner's and medical examiner's offices throughout the United States. The availability of CT images in lieu of traditional X‐rays for medicolegal autopsies may lead to misinterpretation of images for forensic pathologists who are not familiar with these types of images. Forensic pathologists must become familiar with CT imaging, the basis of CT image formation and how to interpret CT images appropriately. We highlight potential pitfalls of CT image interpretation through two cases of fatal gunshot wounds of the head. Antemortem CT imaging available at the time of autopsy led to discrepancy between the initial image findings and the autopsy due to inexperienced manipulation of the images. With appropriate understanding of CT image interpretation and manipulation, forensic personnel should be able to avoid most sources of misinterpretation.     

Intergenerational Transmission of Violence: the Influence of Self-Appraisals,Mental Disorders and Substance Abuse

Although research has demonstrated connections between experiencing abuse as a child and being in a violent relationship as an adult, the specific mechanisms through which this transmission occurs are unclear. The purpose of this study was to identify the relationship between certain personal factors (self-appraisals and mental/substance use disorders) and experiencing violence as an adult. Data from the National Comorbidity Survey (NCS) 1990–1992 were utilized. Respondents who reported experiencing childhood abuse or victimization and were in a current intimate partnership (N = 590) were selected for analysis. Multivariate logistic regression indicated that low self-esteem, past year PTSD, and past year alcohol dependence were significantly associated with intimate partner violence after controlling for other self-appraisals and mental disorders.