Case report of sudden death after a blow to the back of the neck.

A 13-year-old girl experienced a fall during gym class that caused immediate unresponsiveness and death. The lone witness reported that the decedent lost her balance as she approached a hurdle and fell, striking her head on a crossbar of the hurdle near the ground. Autopsy revealed no external injury. Internal injury that could be demonstrated anatomically was confined to a contusion within the right semicapitis muscle at the base of the skull. In the absence of an anatomic cause of death, possible explanations of the death include a cardiac dysrhythmia, a vasovagal stimulus, and diffuse axonal injury caused by a concussive force to the junction of the medulla and spinal cord. Animal studies have shown that severe concussion can cause death via profound autonomic dysfunction without leaving anatomic evidence of injury, and that the essential component of concussion is an element of rotational injury to the brain. The authors believe that the blow to the neck caused this death by the transmission of a concussive force through the reticular activating system. The prompt work of police in distinguishing the lone witness from several people in the area who thought they knew what had happened was essential for diagnosis. On reaching our conclusions, the authors notified first the family, then the superintendent of the school system, and finally the news media. The authors told each party in turn that they would be contacting the others.     

Has Basismo Disappeared?1

Abstract – In Brazil basismo has evolved from a libertarian discourse encouraged by the Church to a more institutionalised activity centred on local and international NGOs, with their increasingly managerial priorities.     

Attaining participatory objectives: Citizen information and training needs

In this article the authors examine three interrelated elements of citizen participation: participatory objectives, participation techniques, and citizen information and training needs. Four objectives of citizen participation are identified, and techniques are then categorized according to their most appropriate objective. Each objective and its associate techniques are examined in terms of participant training and information needs. The intent is to illustrate the relationship between participatory objectives and techniques and that training and information relevant to the techniques selected is necessary.     

Patterns of workplace supervisor support desired by abused women

The purpose of this study was to understand differences in patterns of supervisor support desired by female victims of intimate partner violence (IPV) and to examine whether the pattern of support desired at work is reflective of a woman's stage of change in the abusive relationship, IPV-related work interference, and IPV-related job reprimands or job loss. We conducted interviews in Spanish or English with adult women working in low-income jobs who had been physically or sexually abused by an intimate partner/ ex-partner in the past year ( N = 133). Cluster analysis revealed three distinct clusters that form a hierarchy of type of support wanted: those who desired limited support; those who desired confidential, time-off, and emotional support; and those who desired support in wide variety of ways from their supervisor. The clusters appeared to reflect stages of behavior change in an abusive relationship. Specifically, the limited-support cluster may represent an early precontemplation stage, with women reporting the least interference with work. The support-in-every-way cluster may represent later stages of change, in which women are breaking away from the abusive partner and report the greatest interference with work. Women in the confidential-, time-off-, and emotional-support cluster are in a transition stage in which they are considering change and are exploring options in their abusive relationship. Understanding the hierarchy of the type of support desired, and its relationship to stages of change in the abusive relationship and work interference, may provide a strong foundation for developing appropriate and effective workplace interventions to guide supervisors in providing support to women experiencing IPV.     

Government expenditure on public order and safety,economic growth and private investment: Empirical evidence from the United States

The analysis begins by using annual data for the US from 1959 to 2003 to examine the macroeconomic relationship between government expenditure on public order and safety, output and investment. In practice, total spending on public order and safety is divided up into four categories (police force, fire service, law courts and prison service) so in the second part of the analysis we test for Granger causality between output, investment and each category of spending. But the division of aggregate spending may give rise to trade-offs/complementarities so in the final part of the analysis Granger causality tests are used to investigate this issue. Among other things, the results suggest that changes in output Granger cause changes in total spending on public order and safety. In particular, when total spending is disaggregated the findings suggest that changes in output Granger cause changes in spending on the police force and the law courts.