Pathological Features of Fatal Crocodile Attacks in Northern Australia, 2005–2014

Eleven deaths from crocodile attacks in the Northern Territory, Australia were reviewed. The male:female ratio was 8:3; age range—10–62 years, average 29.4 years. Four children were included (one boy and three girls, aged 10, 11, and two at 12 years), and there were seven aboriginal victims (64%). The attacks were witnessed in eight cases with the victims swimming in freshwater N = 5, standing on a river bank N = 1, fishing in fresh water N = 1, or diving in the sea N = 1. At autopsy, several distinct patterns of injury were observed ranging from complete traumatic disruption of the body with only incomplete remains for examination (N = 5), to crushing of the head with fractures of the skull (N = 4), crushing of the chest with fractures of the ribs and sternum (N = 2), and avulsion of limbs (N = 4). In one case, there was decapitation. Autopsy evaluations were complicated by decomposition and loss of body parts.     

Beyond Taphonomy: Exploring Craniometric Variation Among Anatomical Material

Anatomical crania are occasionally encountered in forensic anthropology laboratories when that material is mistaken for forensically significant human remains. Using craniometric analyses and statistical measures of sample homogeneity, we determine whether anatomical material can be described as a single, homogenous group or as a diverse mix of populations. Twenty‐one interlandmark distances were collected from 85 anatomical preparations. Distance measures were calculated between all pairs using a pooled within‐sample variance/covariance matrix and then subjected to a Defrise‐Gussenhoven test between each paired distance to test whether each pair was drawn randomly from the same population. In the Defrise‐Gussenhoven analysis, twenty‐two percent (n = 66) of the 300 pairwise combinations were significant at the 0.05 level or below. The level of homogeneity suggests a majority of that material originated from the subcontinent of India or West Asia. Therefore, anatomical material can be viewed as a moderately homogenous group, but with a shared taphonomic history.     

Intimate Partner Violence Related Stress and the Coping Experiences of Survivors: “There’s Only So Much a Person Can Handle”

Intimate partner violence (IPV) is a prevalent problem associated with multiple negative outcomes for survivors’ well-being. Coping has emerged as an important construct in understanding the association between IPV and survivors’ well-being. Research is needed to better understand the contextual complexity of IPV as a stressor, determine if IPV is a unique stressor, and document survivors’ coping experiences. This article reports findings of a qualitative study with 25 female survivors and 6 service providers. Analysis of interview data shows 3 key themes: (a) coping strategies used by survivors; (b) challenges and barriers to coping with IPV; and (c) IPV as a unique stressor. Despite multiple challenges and barriers to coping with IPV, survivors use multiple, varied strategies to cope with their experiences of abuse. However, given the context and nature of IPV, violent victimization is a distinct stressor with unique barriers that often require IPV-specific coping strategies.     

Parenting and Safety Program for System-Involved Female Survivors of Intimate Partner Violence: A Qualitative Follow-up Study

This article reports findings from a qualitative follow-up investigation of a mandated parenting and safety program for system-involved female IPV survivors. Participants were contacted 12 months or more after program completion and invited to participate in individual interviews. The interviews focused on the longer-term life changes survivors attributed to the program. Data were collected from 38 survivors. Qualitative analysis determined 4 key themes: relationship changes (e.g., most women were no longer with abusive partners), parenting changes (e.g., improved communication and discipline strategies), personal life changes (e.g., improved help-seeking and self-esteem), and new or ongoing challenges (e.g., financial stress). Overall, findings suggest that tailored, mandated programming — when positive and empowering — may lead to some longer-term beneficial outcomes.     

The right to be forgotten – private law enforcement

Private law enforcement of the right to be forgotten should be considered in light of the general characteristics of private law. This highlights advantages and limitations, and underlines the need to explicate the actual interests involved in the right to be forgotten. As case law and real-life examples show, enforcement is mostly feasible but may be costly. The right to be forgotten is most effective against large, bona fide corporations. This analysis provides a more realistic view of the possibilities of private law enforcement of newly proclaimed rights.     

Mosaic: recovering surviving census records and reconstructing the familial history of Europe

In recent years, there has been a marked increase in the demand for global data on historical family systems, both in the social sciences and in the humanities. Until lately, however, scholars interested in historical global family variation had to rely on simplified and often ahistorical world-scale classifications of family systems by world geographic regions. This article communicates Mosaic to the scholarly community – one of the largest infrastructural projects in the history of historical demography and family sociology. The article provides a brief history of the project, a discussion of the main issues involved in creating the database (including sampling and representativeness), and Mosaic's data structure and coverage. In the remainder of the article, the authors provide an overview of methodological and research opportunities that the project can offer to scholars, showing how the most pertinent problems of historical family demography can be tackled in more systematic ways than previously.     

Sexual Harassment Litigation: a Road to Re-victimization or Recovery?

Various aspects of the judicial process have been hypothesized as damaging to sexual harassment plaintiffs, though limited research has been conducted that actually examines this hypothesis. We examined data from a large sample of women who participated in a class action lawsuit alleging workplace sexual harassment and discrimination (n?=?1218) and another sample of similarly situated women who opted out of litigation (n?=?465, non-litigants). We then followed the litigants for 5 years. This study takes an initial look at some of the variables theorized to play a role in the psychological outcomes of both harassment and subsequent litigation. Both the severity of harassment and participation/persistence in the litigation process were related to psychological outcomes at each of three assessments across a 5-year period; the frequency and severity of harassment, as well as plaintiffs’ cognitive appraisals of their situation, appeared to have the strongest relationship to psychological harm. Results of multivariate analysis of covariance (MANCOVA) revealed that participation and persistence in litigation played a consistent role in psychological outcomes across time, over and above the impact of harassment itself. However, litigation did not appear to be the cause of psychological outcomes as posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) symptomatology, in particular, was the result of the original harassment experience.     

治理河流污染的制度激励悖论分析

为了治理日益加剧的河流污染,从中央到地方都相应出台了各种激励措施,但是这些措施并未起到显著效果,却形成了制度激励悖论。排污企业与地方政府在经历了新政策出台初的短暂扰动后,恢复原有均衡。要打破这一均衡,必须改变博弈各方的收益结构、可选策略集以及信息结构等,才有望建立符合科学发展观的最优均衡。     

A study on ten short tandem repeat systems: African immigrant and Spanish population data

This work presents the results obtained from a genetic–population study for the D1S1656 system in the population of Southwest Spain (Huelva, Cádiz and Sevilla), Spaniards of Caucasian origin from North Africa (Ceuta), as well as in the black Central West African and Moroccan immigrant populations in Spain. The results of a study of the autochtonous population of the Canary Islands (n=138), and immigrant Central West African populations in Spain (n=132), obtained for nine short tandem repeat (STR) loci (D3S1358, VWA, FGA, D8S1179, D21S11, D18S51, D5S818, D13S317, D7S820), as well as the amelogenin locus, all contained in Profiler Plus™ (Perkin-Elmer) PCR amplification kits, are also presented. Except for the FGA and VWA data on immigrant Central West African populations in Spain, no deviations from the Hardy–Weinberg equilibrium were detected.