Shells and Bones: A Forensic Medicine Study of the Association of Terrestrial Snail Allopeas micra with Buried Human Remains in Brazil

Little is known regarding the scavenger fauna associated with buried human corpses, particularly in clandestine burials. We report the presence of 20 shells of the terrestrial snail Allopeas micra, within hollow bones of human remains buried for 5 years, during the process of collecting DNA material. The fact that a large number of shells of A. micra had been found in the corpse and in the crime scene supports the assumption that there was no attempt to remove the corpse from the area where the crime occurred. Despite this, our observations cannot be used to estimate the postmortem interval because there is no precise knowledge about the development of this species. This is the first record of a terrestrial snail associated with a human corpse and its role in this forensic medicine case.     

Pflegearbeit zwischen Fürsorge und Ökonomie. Längsschnittanalyse eines Klassikers der Pflegeausbildung

Residential care work is currently characterized by two rationalization processes: a professionalization of care and a commodification of health care. From both developments may arise conflicting demands and claims for the caregivers themselves, involving a change in the action guiding basis for orientations and the notions of “good care”. Textbooks are a key foundation for the development of the nursing self-image. Based on a longitudinal qualitative and quantitative content analysis of a classic nursing education textbook a transformation process from rational caring orientations to economic orientations can be shown. This is interpreted as a hybridization of the profession rationality of care, as part of the dual nature of care: on the one hand as a concretely useful rational caring work and on the other hand as a cost-benefit calculated production and exploitation process.     

The 2005 Danish general election: A phase of consolidation

On 18 January 2005, Danish Prime Minister Anders Fogh Rasmussen called for a general election to be held on 8 February 2005, nine months before the deadline for the next election. Political themes are usually cited when calling Danish elections, but this time the calendar was used as an excuse: because of major reforms to the municipal structure, a significant amount of legislation had to be negotiated and settled in the spring, and it was unclear whether this could be done by June, thereby hindering an election in late spring; and an election in September could possibly overshadow the important elections to the new municipal councils (created as a result of the reform) in November. Nevertheless, favourable opinion polls undoubtedly also played a major role when the Prime Minister asked the Danes to renew and extend the mandate of his Liberal–Conservative (aka Venstre–Conservative) coalition government.     

Who wins the most when everybody wins? Predicting candidate performance in an authoritarian election

ABSTRACT

What explains the variation in vote shares received by candidates in single-party authoritarian elections where everybody wins? The scholarly literature has often ignored institutional variations, treated all authoritarian elections as similar, and explained the variation of vote shares as a consequence of clientelism, coercion or electoral fraud. We employ a unique data set for Cuba’s 2013 National Assembly election to show an alternative answer: even in authoritarian regimes, institutional settings shape voters’ behaviour and candidates’ strategies. When the number of candidates on the ballot equals the number of parliamentary seats and yet voters can express some preference among multiple candidates, valence can become a predictor of candidate performance. Voters reward high-quality politicians, but not incumbents or Communist Party members, while candidates have no incentives to actively distinguish themselves and converge toward the general support of the single united slate.     

Attitudes,Perceptions, and Preferences of Individuals from Temuco (Chile) About Denture Marking

Denture marking (DM) helps identify edentulous people with different methods. Analyzing perceptions and attitudes of denture wearers would enable understanding of the practical aspects, an analysis still absent in South America. Fifty‐three individual candidates for removable dentures were instructed on disaster victim identification (DVI) and the usefulness of DM for this purpose. They were physically shown eight DM systems and a questionnaire to which they responded by highlighting preferences in those systems. Although 98.11% did not know that dentures could be marked, only 9.43% denied interest in some type of DM. The 90.57% would mark their dentures with some system, preferring the inclusion of QR codes or a micro SIM card. The proven weaknesses of DVI and propensity for disaster mean this community in Chile is an opportunity to implement DM systems. Obstacles may come not from patients but from their dentists, educational institutions, or a lack of public policies.     

High‐Resolution Melting (HRM) of Hypervariable Mitochondrial DNA Regions for Forensic Science

Forensic strategies commonly are proceeding by analysis of short tandem repeats (STRs); however, new additional strategies have been proposed for forensic science. Thus, this article standardized the high‐resolution melting (HRM) of DNA for forensic analyzes. For HRM, mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) from eight individuals were extracted from mucosa swabs by DNAzol reagent, samples were amplified by PCR and submitted to HRM analysis to identify differences in hypervariable (HV) regions I and II. To confirm HRM, all PCR products were DNA sequencing. The data suggest that is possible discriminate DNA from different samples by HRM curves. Also, uncommon dual‐dissociation was identified in a single PCR product, increasing HRM analyzes by evaluation of melting peaks. Thus, HRM is accurate and useful to screening small differences in HVI and HVII regions from mtDNA and increase the efficiency of laboratory routines based on forensic genetics.