Anomalies of the human chest plate area. Radiographic findings in a large autopsy population

Anomalies of the sternal rib ends and costal cartilages, sternal foramina, and epi(supra)sternal bones from a large, modern autopsy population have been described. Rib abnormalities (duplications, fusions, and spurs) were found in 55 of 2,016 plastron roentgenograms, sternal foramina were found in 135, and episternal bones were found in 51. Sternal foramina were significantly more common in blacks than in whites and episternal bones more common in whites than blacks; rib anomalies had no recognizable racial predilection. Rib anomalies were almost three times more common in males than females, whereas episternal bones were only slightly more common in males. Sternal foramina had no sex predilection. Episternal bones were slightly more often unilateral than bilateral and, when unilateral, were twice as often located on the left. While none of the malformations studied appeared to be of clinical significance, they are of potential forensic value in individual identification.     

The meaning of strategy in the public sector

Strategic management remains under-theorised in the public sector, because the issues it raises straddle three distinct but related fields of analysis—the political, the policy-related and the managerial. At the theoretical level, making progress requires teasing out all three potential dimensions of the term. In the practical sense, there is a need to define a roomier organisational 'space' (and time frame) within which strategy can be formulated.
The article argues for a more ambitious conceptualisation of the place of strategic thinking in the public sector, one that combines the agency's need to sustain its position in its bureaucratic and political environment, with the 'strategic conversation' that is needed to link the political and the bureaucratic executives.     

AUSTRALIAN PUBLIC POLICY AND THE PROBLEM OF FRAGMENTATION

Abstract: Politics matters in policy. In particular, the way in which a society organises its structures for bargaining affects the extent to which it is able to solve the general problem of "externalities" resulting from private choice. Two "ideal type" societies, the corporatist and the pluralist, are contrasted. It is suggested that the apparently superior economic performance of corporatist societies may be due to the fact that they have more efficient means of making collective choices than do pluralist societies. It is argued that, as a society which is best described as fragmented rather than pluralist or corporatist, Australia may be missing out on the advantages offered by well-structured bargaining. In particular, it may be possible significantly to improve decision-making practices by means of an Accord between business and government which promotes policy-related trade-offs within an agreed general framework.     

The effects of family planning effort and development on fertility: An intervening variables framework

To pinpoint the intervening variable that transmit the impacts of development and family planning effort on fertility, a modified proximate determinants model was applied to data from 59 developing countries. The intermediate variable included level of exposure to sexual intercourse (the percentage of women 20-24 years old in a union), deliberate marital fertility control (the percentage of married women of reproductive age who were using contraception), and natural marital fertility (operationalized as average per capita calorie consumption). The regression equations indicated that both social development and family planning effort can influence fertility levels substantially through their association with higher levels of contraceptive use. Interestingly, the direct effects of family planning and social development on the crude birth rate became insignificant when the intermediate variables were included in the same equation. Path analysis revealed that social development has an indirect effect of -0.083 via its influence on marriage patterns and of -0.316 due to its effect on contraceptive usage. Family planning has a lesser indirect impact on fertility (-0.487), and -0.111 of this effect reflects program effort's dependence on the level of social development. Economic development is positively linked to fertility, and future research should assess whether this factor is partially counterbalancing the fertility-reducing impact of social development and family planning programs. Although this analysis confirms that delayed marriage and widespread adoption of contraception are key intervening variables, they cannot influence fertility in societies where there are social or cultural impediments to such changes.     

AIDS and murder

This study examined whether mental health professionals would differentiate, in terms of confidentiality and a duty to protect, persons with AIDS (PWAs) who refused to inform their partners from persons with homicidal intent. Six hundred professionals were randomly assigned one of four hypothetical therapy vignettes. In each vignette, the client had either AIDS or homicidal intent. The relationship of the client to the third party was either heterosexual or homosexual. PWAs were rated as being significantly more dangerous than persons with homicidal intent. Persons with homicidal intent were significantly more likely to receive increased intervention and their partners were significantly more likely to be warned. PWAs were rated significantly more negatively on most adjective rating scales.This research was completed while the first author was a doctoral candidate at the University of Virginia. This study does not reflect, in any way, the opinions or endorsement of the Alaska Area Native Health service, the Indian Health Service, or DHHS. The authors gratefully acknowledge the contributions of Steve Nock, Joe Allen, Eric Turkheimer, Cathy Crosby, Michael Arthur, and the Philadelphia Child Guidance Clinic in this endeavor.     

Consensus on validation of forensic voice comparison

Since the 1960s, there have been calls for forensic voice comparison to be empirically validated under casework conditions. Since around 2000, there have been an increasing number of researchers and practitioners who conduct forensic-voice-comparison research and casework within the likelihood-ratio framework. In recent years, this community of researchers and practitioners has made substantial progress toward validation under casework conditions becoming a standard part of practice: Procedures for conducting validation have been developed, along with graphics and metrics for representing the results, and an increasing number of papers are being published that include empirical validation of forensic-voice-comparison systems under conditions reflecting casework conditions. An outstanding question, however, is: In the context of a case, given the results of an empirical validation of a forensic-voice-comparison system, how can one decide whether the system is good enough for its output to be used in court? This paper provides a statement of consensus developed in response to this question. Contributors included individuals who had knowledge and experience of validating forensic-voice-comparison systems in research and/or casework contexts, and individuals who had actually presented validation results to courts. They also included individuals who could bring a legal perspective on these matters, and individuals with knowledge and experience of validation in forensic science more broadly. We provide recommendations on what practitioners should do when conducting evaluations and validations, and what they should present to the court. Although our focus is explicitly on forensic voice comparison, we hope that this contribution will be of interest to an audience concerned with validation in forensic science more broadly. Although not written specifically for a legal audience, we hope that this contribution will still be of interest to lawyers.