Methyl tert‐Butyl Ether (MTBE) Detected in Abnormally High Concentrations in Postmortem Blood and Urine from Two Persons Found Dead Inside a Car Containing a Gasoline Spill

Two deep frozen persons, a female and a male, were found dead in a car. There had been an explosive fire inside the car which had extinguished itself. On the floor inside the car were large pools of liquid which smelled of gasoline. The autopsy findings and routine toxicological analyses could not explain the cause of death. Carboxyhemoglobin levels in the blood samples were <10%. Analysis with a headspace gas chromatography revealed methyl tert‐butyl ether (MTBE) concentrations of 185 mg/L (female victim) and 115 mg/L (male victim) in peripheral blood. The urine MTBE concentrations were 150 mg/L and 256 mg/L, respectively. MTBE is a synthetic chemical which is added to gasoline as a fuel oxygenate. Gasoline poisoning is likely to be the cause of the death in these two cases, and MTBE can be a suitable marker of gasoline exposure, when other volatile components have vaporized.     

Determining security level in forensic psychiatry: a tug of war between the DUNDRUM toolkit and the HoNOS-Secure

ABSTRACT

Criteria to determine in which level of security forensic patients should receive treatment are currently non-existent in Belgium. Research regarding the assessment of security level is minimal, and limited instruments are available. This study investigated the instruments that measure the need for security level: DUNDRUM-1 and the HoNOS-Secure. The psychometric properties of the DUNDRUM-1, DUNDRUM-2 and the HoNOS-Secure were investigated.

A random selection was made of 100 male forensic patients in prison. The DUNDRUM-1, DUNDRUM-2 and the HoNOS-Secure were scored retrospectively. A subsample of the files was rated by four researchers (n?=?38). Comparisons were made with the security level as decided by the court.

The DUNDRUM-1 achieved excellent inter-rater reliability, and the HoNOS-Secure and DUNDRUM-2 got a moderate score. The internal consistency was highest for DUNDRUM-1 followed by the HoNOS-Secure and was low for the DUNDRUM-2. Both the DUNDRUM-1 and the HoNOS-Secure predicted allocations by the court to high security.

The DUNDRUM-1 outperforms the HoNOS-Secure on psychometric properties and provides clear instructions with regard to the assessment of the security level. Training seems to be important for scoring the DUNDRUM-1. The current study provided more evidence for the applicability of the DUNDRUM-1 in Belgian settings with regard to determining the need for security.     

The Evolution of Malcolm Fraser's China Policy

This article explores the evolution of Malcolm Fraser's views on China. While Gough Whitlam is fondly remembered as a trailblazer for normalizing Australia‐China relations, Fraser was a pioneer in rendering a sense of bipartisanship in Australia's China policy. Fraser was not initially a Sino‐enthusiast, however. He came from a background of staunch anti‐Communism and throughout the 1950s and 1960s believed that China posed a major threat to stability in the Asia‐Pacific. The Liberal Party fiercely opposed the Whitlam government's decision to normalise diplomatic relations with China in 1972. Following the Whitlam dismissal in 1975, Fraser became Prime Minister and, in what seemed to be an abrupt departure from the Liberal Party's position, thoroughly embraced relations with China. As Leader of the Opposition, Whitlam called out the hypocrisy of the Liberal Party's radical policy shift. This study examines the domestic and international dynamics that shaped Fraser's views on China and ultimate adoption of a successful China policy. This is the untold story of a crucial turning point in Australia‐China relations under the leadership of a conservative government, in which a strong relationship with China became a cornerstone of bipartisan Australian foreign policy.     

Traumatic dissection of the vertebral artery in a toddler following a short fall

Spontaneous subarachnoid haemorrhage (SAH) in children is uncommon, but is sometimes seen after rupture of aneurysms, and in different disorders. Traumatic SAH is common after serious accidental head injury, but is also reported after child abuse with vigorous shaking. To avoid unnecessary accusations of innocent care givers, it is important not to misinterpret the findings as abusive head trauma in small children with SAH. In the presented case, a nearly two-year-old girl was brought to the hospital after a fall witnessed by her father. The girl was unconscious, with elevated intracranial pressure, SAH and bilateral retinal haemorrhage (RH). She was pronounced dead after 9h. Premortem angiography revealed a dissection of the right vertebral artery, and postmortem examination revealed a traumatic lesion deep in the neck, at the base of the skull. Cerebral edema, in combination with SAH and RH, is highly suggestive of abusive head trauma. However, no external lesions, no skeletal lesions, especially no long bone metaphyseal lesions, or subdural haematomas occurring at the same time as SAH, were found. There was no report of previous child abuse in the family. Based on the radiological and postmortem findings, we believe that an accidental fall caused a blunt force trauma with a subsequent dissection of the right vertebral artery. To our knowledge, accidental tear of one of the vertebral arteries, leading to SAH in a toddler, has previously not been described. Child abuse is an important exclusion diagnosis with serious legal implications.     

Families with Daughters,Families with Sons: Different Challenges for Family Relationships and Marital Satisfaction?

In a longitudinal study, the links between family relations and marital relations were examined in families with early adolescent children. Over the course of 4 years, 128 mother–father–adolescent triads were investigated annually. They completed questionnaires assessing family climate and marital relationships. Longitudinal analyses revealed that the initially large discrepancies between adolescents' and their parents' perceptions of family cohesion, support, and expressiveness decreased significantly over time. As adolescents approached late adolescence, however, the family members' perceptions of a lowered family closeness increasingly converged. Families with sons experienced stronger emotional distancing than families with daughters. However, the emphasis on adolescent independence was highly similar in families with daughters and sons, as was the extent to which rules and organization determined family life. Mothers and fathers did not depict their marital relationships as particularly critical during their children's early adolescent years. Moreover, in families with daughters, husbands and wives did not experience more marital conflict than in families with sons. The consistent associations revealed between marital communication, family closeness, and the opportunity for personal growth within the family suggest a bilateral focus for the study of parent–adolescent relationships.     

The Association Between Parental Rearing Dimensions and Adolescent Psychopathology: A Cross-Cultural Study

Research on parental rearing dimensions faced ethnocentric criticism for mainly focusing on adolescents in Western industrialized countries. Over the past decade, the phenomenon of anxious parenting, so called “helicopter parenting”, gained attention in popular media as well as scholarly publications in addition to support and psychological control. Whether these parenting dimensions, which were associated with different health outcomes in adolescents, were only occurring in the Western world or are visible cross-culturally, has not been sufficiently studied. Therefore, it is unclear whether these links exist also for adolescents from other parts of the world. Additionally, the involvement of fathers in child rearing continues to be neglected in adolescent psychopathology research. The current cross-cultural study tested the association of maternal and paternal rearing dimensions with youth internalizing and externalizing psychopathology in a sample of 2415 adolescents (56% female, 15.33 years, SD?=?0.61) from eight countries (Argentina, France, Germany, Greece, Pakistan, Peru, Poland, and Turkey). Hierarchical regression models showed that internalizing symptomatology was associated with mothers’ support, psychological control, and anxious rearing as well as fathers’ psychological control up and above predictors like country and mother’s level of education. For predicting externalizing symptomatology, mother’s anxious rearing, mother’s psychological control, and father’s support as well as father’s psychological control were significant up and above adolescents’ gender, standard of living, and country. To conclude, across countries, anxious rearing and psychological control experienced from both parents were substantially linked with adolescent mental health.

     

Validity and reliability of the VRAG in a forensic psychiatric medium security population in Flanders

Since the development of the Violence Risk Appraisal Guide (VRAG), one of the most widely used actuarial risk assessment instruments, numerous replication studies have shown its usefulness in predicting (violent) recidivism among various offender populations. It is not clear, however, whether these findings can be generalized to forensic psychiatric patients admitted to a medium security forensic psychiatric unit in the Flemish part of Belgium. Therefore, the main aim of this study was to test the predictive validity and reliability of the VRAG in a sample of 191 Flemish medium security patients. The mean follow-up period was 2.4 years. Contrary to the expectations, the VRAG was unable to significantly predict any kind of outcome. Possible explanations are discussed and further research with the VRAG in Flanders, and its recently revised version, is recommended.