Autonomy and the competent patient's right to refuse life-prolonging medical treatment--again

This article discusses the recent decision of the Court of Appeal of the United Kingdom in Re B (Adult: Refusal of Medical Treatment) [2002] 2 All ER 449, which confirmed the common law right of a competent patient to refuse medical treatment, even though exercise of the right would (and later did) result in the patient's own death. Re B indicates that if a competent refusal is not respected, health professionals and hospitals face the prospect of awards of damages being made against them for unlawful trespass.     

Simultaneous,Sequential, Elimination,and Wildcard: A Comparison of Lineup Procedures

This study compared four lineup procedures: the simultaneous, sequential, elimination, and wildcard. Two hundred and sixty-nine university students (M = 20.17 years) watched a mock, videotaped crime. Then, following a brief delay, they viewed a 6-person target-present or -absent lineup using one of the four lineup procedures. For target-present lineups, correct identification rates for the four lineup procedures were comparable. In contrast, for target-absent lineups, the correct rejection rate was higher using the elimination lineup procedure compared to the wildcard and simultaneous lineup procedures. Remaining comparisons between lineup procedures found no significant differences. Also diagnosticity ratios were similar across the four procedures.     

Section 8 Renters in the Phoenix,Arizona, Foreclosure Crisis: Implications for Poverty Deconcentration

How the recent U.S. foreclosure crisis affected federal housing mobility programs has not been well studied. This article explores the crisis’s impact on low-income renters receiving Section 8 vouchers in Phoenix, Arizona. We find that (a) 8% of voucher holders lived in homes that underwent foreclosure, (b) they were in comparably affluent neighborhoods, and (c) most eventually moved after foreclosure. Yet, those who moved after foreclosure were not overtly disadvantaged in the housing market. This unexpected finding may be explained by the opening up of new housing opportunities for voucher holders as foreclosures in more affluent areas were converted to rentals. Overall, this research suggests that the foreclosure crisis did not adversely affect the Section 8 program’s goal of deconcentrating poverty in Phoenix and may have even advanced it—a dynamic potentially occurring in other formerly booming and economically distressed Sunbelt regions.     

The Influence of Latinisms on the Quality of the Judgments of Polish Courts

International Journal for the Semiotics of Law - Revue internationale de Sémiotique juridique - This article addresses the issue of linguistic phenomena which, as a legacy of the centuries-old...     

Evaluation of the one-step Lumicyano™ used in the visualisation of fingermarks on fabrics

This study consisted of three parts to evaluate the performance of Lumicyano? on a variety of fabrics. One part assessed the impact of dye percentage (8%, 9% and 10%) on visualisation of fingermark detail and luminescent brightness in split grab marks. A 9% dye produced the highest quality detail of grab impressions with least interference from background fluorescence. The second part investigated the optimal relative humidity (RH, 75–84%) for certain fabric types using Lumicyano on split, six-series depletion fingermarks. It was concluded that the recommended RH of 80% remained the ideal cyanoacrylate fuming environment. The final and third part of this study determined the impact of sequential addition of Basic Yellow 40 (BY40) on Lumicyano compared to traditional cyanoacrylate (CA) followed with BY40 application. Results from this study demonstrated that Lumicyano on its own developed fingermarks with superior quality to Lumicyano with sequential addition of BY40 or traditional cyanoacrylate followed by BY40. Inclusion of more fabrics, donors and longer ageing periods should be explored in future studies to determine what frameworks are best for certain types of fabrics.     

Community Engagement and Cultural Building Projects

This study explores whether community engagement efforts among nonprofit arts organizations pursuing major building projects are effective mechanisms for generating support from other organizations. Specifically, the study analyzes the degree to which context—such as the perceptions of the goals of community engagement efforts, competitive environment, and institutional characteristics—affect managers' perceptions of community engagement strategies. The study uses data on thirteen different cultural building projects in counties across the United States between 1994 and 2008 coupled with data on 444 arts organizations in the same county. The results of this study indicate that managers of nonprofit arts organizations perceive other organizations' community engagement efforts differently based on their own perceptions of the goals of those efforts, their own organization's competitive status, and perhaps even the age of their organization.