Post-mortem changes of the middle ear: multislice computed tomography study

Six dry skulls were studied by multislice computed tomography (MSCT). They had not previously been prepared, and were natural skeletonized remains. All had been found in the soil. Examination focused on the temporal bones and the ear structures. In all cases, either disruption of the ossicular chain or absence of some ossicular bones were noted. The authors concluded that the fragile ossicles were disrupted in the post-mortem state, and were not indicative of ante-mortem pathology. These observations illustrate the ability of MSCT to visualize taphonomic changes. To further illustrate these findings, we present the results of MSCT performed on an exhumed body. The left ossicular bones were missing and the right ossicular chain was disrupted. With the development of forensic radiology, structures as tiny as the ossicles can be examined. However, the radiologist who performs post-mortem imaging must be familiar with taphonomic changes to avoid interpretation as ante-mortem or peri-mortem traumatic injuries. This could potentially have considerable judicial impact, especially in the study of exhumed bodies.     

Reversal sign on ante- and postmortem brain imaging in a newborn: report of one case

A 16-day-old female newborn was admitted to the emergency department after cardiopulmonary arrest. Total-body radiographs and non-enhanced CT of the brain showed fracture of the right clavicle, pericerebral hemorrhage and brain damage with reversal sign. The infant died on the day of her hospital admission. Because child abuse was suspected, a medicolegal autopsy was ordered by the legal authorities. Prior to autopsy, total-body MRI and CT were performed. Results of the ante- and postmortem investigations were compared with each other and then with the autopsy findings. Postmortem brain imaging showed persistence of the reversal sign. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first case describing hypoxic ischemic damage of the brain parenchyma on antemortem CT and persisting on postmortem imaging in a child abuse case.     

Social Media and (Counter) Terrorist Finance: A Fund-Raising and Disruption Tool

Abstract

The proliferation of social media has created a terrorist finance vulnerability due to the ease with which propaganda can be spread, promoting fund-raising for a certain cause. Social media companies recognize the importance of preventing violent extremist and terrorist content, but less attention is paid to their fund-raising role. As well as presenting a threat, the movement of terrorist fund-raising activities online creates a disruption opportunity. This article argues that social media companies need to display greater awareness of their vulnerability to supporting terrorist financing and greater collaboration with law enforcement and financial institutions to strengthen the integrity of the system against abuse.     

Women in the shadow war: gender,class and MI5 in the Second World War

During the Second World War, the women employed in Britain’s secret Security Service (MI5) far outnumbered their male colleagues, with a ratio of twelve women for every five men. Their numbers grew rapidly over the course of the war and by 1941 stood at over 800. Despite the vast influx of female labour into the agency, attitudes towards the role of women in intelligence, be it as wartime workers or as secret agents, demonstrated remarkable continuity with those of the interwar period. Women were near universally restricted to subordinate roles; typically of clerical and secretarial nature in the case of office staff. Similarly, internal attitudes regarding those traits which produced the best agents and intelligence officers, shaped by wider understandings of both masculinity and social status, demonstrated considerable resilience. Drawing upon declassified official records, this article argues that MI5’s wartime experiences did little to alter the agency’s attitudes to gender.     

Originary Synaesthesia

This paper reflects on Iris van der Tuin's reading of the connections between microagressions and contemporary feminist theory. In particular, I address van der Tuin's discussion of echolocation and mirror-touch synaesthesia as empirical instances of the material, ontological complexity of individuation. For van der Tuin, recent findings in the science of perception rework our understanding of microagressions beyond its routinely atomistic logic and the subject/object divide that underpins it. Importantly, echolocation's and mirror-touch synaesthesia's confounding of the interplay between biology and environment also offers interesting insights into the epistemological and methodological question of how to 'measure' or know an imperceptive sort of experience like microagressions.     

Charles Tilly's Understanding of Contentious Politics: A Social Interactive Perspective for Social Science

[Stinchcombe's essay on my work] gives you jaz and science at the same time. I don't know whether to call his work “jazzy science” or “scientific jazz”. Maybe it doesn't matter. In real life, after all, smart human beings follow more than one road from past to future     

National Judges,Community Judges: Invitation to a Journey through the Looking‐glass—On the Need for Jurisdictions to Rethink the Inter‐systemic Relations beyond the Hierarchical Principle

The historical conflict between the European Court of Justice (ECJ) and the national constitutional courts regarding primacy is a misunderstanding. In going through the looking‐glass, we can understand that, on the contrary, the ECJ and the national constitutional courts adopt comparable solutions in their treatment of legal pluralism, and that they see the negation of pluralism as essential for the survival of their own legal orders. Therefore, these judges must be offered a new theoretical context to help them reconcile their role as supreme guardian with the taking into account of the pluralist context. Finally, practical proposals must be made to give judges the instruments and techniques that are capable of reflecting this plural structure.