Comparison of injuries caused by the pistols Tokarev, Makarov and Glock 19 at firing distances of 10, 15 and 25cm

Firings at cloth targets and at human skin from autopsy material were performed from the pistols 7.62 mm Tokarev (TT), 9 mm Makarov (PM) and 9 x 19 mm Glock 19 with common ammunition. The differences were in the soot deposit pattern, the degree of scorching of the synthetic fibres on the edges of the entrance hole and in the findings of the soot and the gunpowder particles. The results were similar on the cloth and on the skin targets. In the case of the TT and the PM, the soot deposit patterns reminded of a blossom or shafts of rays or fans, or the bullet wipe had four narrow and four wide sections regarding the number of lands and grooves. The TT left a large amount of soot and many gunpowder particles and caused the melting of the synthetic fibres on the edges of the entrance hole, producing a defect of the material 0.1-0.3 cm in diameter and defects of textile fibres around the entrance hole. In the skin the TT caused many intraepithelial tears, folds of the epidermis and recesses of the epidermis containing soot. Firings from the PM and the Glock 19 caused the melting only of the ends of individual synthetic fibres on the edges of the entrance hole. The PM left a large amount of soot and only a few gunpowder particles. The Glock 19 gave the least soot and the greatest number of gunpowder particles and also caused tears and recesses in the epidermis. Only in the case of the Glock 19, hexagonal or polygonal zones were seen in the soot deposit pattern. The differences in the soot pattern were more distinct at the firing distance of 10 cm. By increasing the distance from 10 to 15 cm, the intensity of soot diminished and began to disappear at 25cm, but remained more visible in the case of the TT. The gunpowder particles could be found in the epidermis and deeper in both layers of the dermis at all distances fired from the TT and the Glock 19. In the case of firings from the PM, at the distance 10 cm some of the gunpowder particles had penetrated into the dermis and most of them were in the upper layer of the dermis. At the firing distance of 15 and 25 cm, the gunpowder particles were only on and in the stratum corneum.     

British Women Missionaries in Nineteenth‐Century China

There were only a few women among the first Protestant missionaries to settle in China, and most were married, yet by the end of the nineteenth century, the majority of missionaries were women, many of them single. This article focusses on British women missionaries, discussing their motivation for going so far at a time when women were supposed to be confined to the world of home and the family. It looks at their lives in China, the role models they presented to Chinese women, and their own rather conservative views of what their influence should be.     

The Impact of Elections on Cooperation: Evidence from a Lab‐in‐the‐Field Experiment in Uganda

Communities often rely on sanctioning to induce public goods contributions. Past studies focus on how external agencies or peer sanctioning induce cooperation. In this article, we focus instead on the role played by centralized authorities, internal to the community. Combining “lab‐in‐the‐field” experiments with observational data on 1,541 Ugandan farmers from 50 communities, we demonstrate the positive effect of internal centralized sanctioning authorities on cooperative behavior. We also show that the size of this effect depends on the political process by which authority is granted: subjects electing leaders contribute more to public goods than subjects who were assigned leaders through a lottery. To test the ecological validity of our findings, we relate farmers’ behavior in the experiment to their level of cooperation in their community organization. We show that deference to authority in the controlled setting predicts cooperative behavior in the farmers’ natural environment, in which they face a similar social dilemma.     

Social perceptions on genomics in four Latin American countries. Ethical-legal implications]

The authors analyze under an ethical and legal perspective the consequences and anxieties generated by the human genome project in the population of four Latin American countries: Argentine, Chile, México and Perú, through bibliographical analysis and interviews done to biomedical researches, lawyers and legislators, students and lay civilians.     

Participatory risk assessment: a new approach for safer food in vulnerable African communities

Women play the major role in food supply in developing countries, but too often their ability to feed their families properly is compromised; the result is high levels of food-borne disease and consequent limited access to higher-value markets. We argue that risk-based approaches – current best practice for managing food safety in developed countries – require adaptation to the difficult context of informal markets. We suggest participatory research and gender analysis as boundary-spanning mechanisms, bringing communities and food-safety implementers together to analyse food-safety problems and develop workable solutions. Examples show how these methodologies can contribute to operationalising risk-based approaches in urban settings and to the development of a new approach to assessing and managing food safety in poor countries, which we call ‘participatory risk analysis’.     

Fatal traffic injuries among children and adolescents in three cities (capital Budapest, Vilnius, and Tallinn)

Motor vehicle accidental injuries are a frequent cause of death among young children and adolescents. The goal of this study was to compare patterns of injury between three capitals (Budapest, Vilnius, and Tallinn). Information on 190 fatal traffic accidents (69 pedestrians, 14 bicyclists, and 107 motor vehicle occupants) between 2002 and 2006 was collected from databases of medico-legal autopsies. The role of victims in accidents, the location of injuries, cause of death, survival period, and blood alcohol levels were evaluated. One-hundred and forty-one (74%) victims had a passive role in traffic as pedestrians, passengers in cars, or public transport. In victims who died at the scene, the rate of head injury was higher than in cases who received medical treatment (odds ratio = 2.58, CI = 1.2-5.55, p = 0.0127). These results underline the importance of postmortem studies to examine the pathomechanism of fatal traffic accidental injuries and to provide information for the prevention of road traffic accidents against children and adolescents.     

A survey of paint flakes on the clothing of persons suspected of involvement in crime

A survey was undertaken to determine the background level of paint flakes on the clothing of persons suspected of involvement in crime. The debris from 100 garments submitted for casework examination was studied and paint flakes recovered where present. Seventy two percent of garments bore one or more flakes. A total of 703 flakes were recovered; size, topcoat colour, and number and colour of any under-layers were recorded for each. The distribution of paint flakes on clothing surfaces and in pockets was also noted. Results were compared with the previously published survey of Pearson, May and Dabbs (1971). This survey provides scientists with an updated data set for reference when considering the strength of paint evidence.     

The Implications of Endemic Corruption for State Legitimacy in Developing Nations: an Empirical Exploration of the Nigerian Case

There is an extensive literature on the ramifications of corruption for economic growth, as well as for democracy. Largely unexplored, however, is how corruption works to lessen government legitimacy and empower violent anti-state movements. In this article, the perception of corruption in Nigeria is considered. Noting that Nigeria must suppress the violent extremist group Boko Haram in order to continue to govern the nation, the connections between Nigerian perceptions of corruption and support for the movement are treated. Until this research, however, there existed no empirical evaluation of this relationship. Using analysis of a survey of over 10,000 Nigerians accomplished in 2012 and 2013, we show that issues of state illegitimacy and endemic corruption have contributed to Nigeria’s present security crisis by fomenting support for non-state violent actors.     

Religiosity and Rebellion in Nigeria: Considering Boko Haram in the Radical Tradition

Testing social movement theory positing that radical organizations are ideologically driven at their core, but are supported by civilians who are driven by social factors, this research interrogates the disparity between radical group ideology and supporter belief set in the context of present-day Nigeria. Content analysis of randomly selected Boko Haram publications establishes the high, and increasing, levels of religiosity exhibited by the violent social movement itself. In contrast, a large-N survey of Nigerians conducted in 2012 and 2013 shows that high levels of religiosity do not significantly predict willingness to justify violence, commitment to non-state violent actors, or positive attitude toward Boko Haram among Nigerians as a whole, but rather the opposite. Given these findings, Boko Haram may be better understood within the tradition of radical extremist movements across the ideological spectrum, even while it frames its struggle as that of a distinctly religious movement.     

Rethinking the urban and rural divide in Latino labor,recreation, and activism in West Michigan, 1940s–1970s

During the 1940s–1970s, Latino labor experiences could not be confined to either urban and industrial or rural and agricultural settings. Unlike large metropolises, Grand Rapids, Michigan is a mid-sized, Midwest city wherein the urban center and industrial labor opportunities are located within thirty miles of agricultural areas. I argue that Latinos in West Michigan used both rural and urban areas for labor to meet their economic and social needs. Due to the gendered realities of labor from the 1940s to the 1970s, women played an instrumental role in planning and executing the movement of their families between spaces. In turn, this community’s activism was not limited to the boundaries of urban or rural space. This research shows how Latinos etched out an economic and social survival in places wherein they are not the majority or have a plethora of resources. As the Latino diaspora spreads into areas in the southern United States, we can look to how Latinos in Grand Rapids and the Midwest lived and worked to better understand the lived experiences of twenty-first century Latinos.