Early Repolarization,Acute Emotional Stress and Sudden Death

We herein report the case of a 36‐year‐old man who died suddenly after a fight with another man. Forensic investigations included unenhanced computed tomography, postmortem angiography, autopsy, histology, neuropathology, toxicology, and biochemistry and allowed a traumatic cause of death to be excluded. An electrocardiogram recorded some years prior to death revealed the presence of an early repolarization pattern. Based on the results of all investigations, the cause of death was determined to be cardiac arrhythmia and cardiac arrest during an emotionally stressful event associated with physical assault. Direct third party involvement, however, was excluded, and the manner of death was listed as natural. The case was not pursued any further by the public prosecutor.     

The limits of the physician's secrecy duty in risk situations. Special reference to genetics]

This work deals with those conflict situations that arise between the duty of secrecy by health professionals and the interest in safekeeping the life and physical integrity of third parties when dealing with behaviours by the patient, whether intentional or not, that could harm or place in danger those legal goods. The special situations of conflict that could arise in the ambit of genetic diagnosis are dealt as a special problem.     

Building assets to reduce vulnerability: microfinance provision by a rural working people's union in Mexico

Proyecto Tequisquiapan (PT) provides protective microfinance services in a small region of rural Mexico, including, importantly, open access to deposit facilities. The authors report on new research which examined PT's record in enabling people with different degrees of vulnerability to build assets and protect themselves from both sudden shocks and more predictable demands for lump sums of cash. Proyecto Tequisquiapan was found to be relatively more useful for the most vulnerable households. Its successes rely on its small scale and on the commitment of its staff, whose salaries are subsidised, to innovation and experimentation in order to remain relevant to members' changing and differentiated financial lifeworlds. This stands in contrast to the current trend towards large‐scale commercialised microfinance. The World Bank, the authors argue, should take note.     

Exploratory Space–Time Analysis of Burglary Patterns

This paper introduces two new methods for the exploratory analysis of the spatial and temporal dynamics of residential burglary patterns. The first is a conditional spatial Markov chain which considers the extent to which a location??s probability of experiencing a residential burglary in a future period is related to the prevalence of residential burglaries in its surrounding neighborhood in an initial period. The second measure extends this conditional perspective to examine the joint evolution of residential burglary in a location and its surrounding neighborhood. These methods are applied to a case study of residential burglary patterns in Mesa, Arizona over the period October 2005 through December 2009. Strong patterns of spatial clustering of burglary activity are present in each year, and this clustering is found to have an important influence on both the conditional and joint evolution of burglary activity across space and time.     

Methadone determination in puparia and its effect on the development of Lucilia sericata (Diptera, Calliphoridae)

This paper describes a sensitive UPLC-MS/MS method for quantification of methadone and 2-ethylidene-1,5-dimethyl-3,3-diphenylpyrrolidine (EDDP) in single empty puparial case of Lucilia sericata. Larvae were reared on substrates spiked with different concentrations of methadone (0-4 μg/g). Methadone was quantified in puparia reared on high concentrated substrates (0.8-4 μg/g). The major metabolite of methadone (EDDP) was not detected, confirming rapid elimination of metabolites by the larvae before pupation. The effects of methadone on the development of L. sericata were also investigated. No effect on sex ratio was detected. A significant difference was calculated for emerged adults but no trends could be observed. Concerning the developmental curve, a significant difference was observed between control and high methadone concentrations using the Kolmogorov-Smirnov test.     

Male batterers with and without psychopathy: an exploratory study in Spanish prisons

The aim of this study was to analyze the differential profile of male batterers in prison with and without psychopathy. The sample consisted of 162 perpetrators sentenced for a serious offence against their intimate partner. The prevalence of psychopathy or psychopathic traits, established according to the Psychopathy Checklist-Revised, was about 12%. The psychopathic batterers were younger, more impulsive, more suspicious, and less empathetic and had lower self-esteem than nonpsychopathic batterers. However, the psychopathic batterers were not engaged in intimate femicide more often than were the nonpsychopathic batterers. The severity of the crime was similar in both groups, so it may be attributed to other variables (e.g., substance abuse, intoxication at the time of the offence, violence history, jealousy, etc.). Implications of these results for further research and clinical practice are discussed.