Theoretical consideration of female sexual predator serial killers in the United States

Sexual predators represent the embodiment of the cultural definition of serial killing. In considering the female sexual predator serial killer, a review of the limited literature found a clear distinction between women acting alone versus in partnership. Several theories offered to explain the behavior of women in teams include shared psychotic disorder, Stockholm syndrome, posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), battered woman syndrome, and gender role socialization. Analysis of each with specific case examples found that gender role socialization appeared to be the most inclusive, explaining the participation of women in teams, as well as providing insight into both the criminal justice system and overall societal responses to female serial killers, as well as violent women more generally. The analysis concludes by describing the implications of the above speculations within the realms of prevention, treatment, and research, specifically concluding that women can commit willful violence and that low base rates should not impede attempts to understand and prevent such violence.     

Thirty-seven degrees frigid: US-chilean relations and the spectre of polar arrivistes, 1950-59

After its 1948 proposal to internationalize Antarctica had been rejected, the United States accepted the Chilean Escudero Plan as a necessiry for avoiding further political disputes among the seven nations that had balked at the proposal's call to renounce their sovereign rights. US and Chilean officials proceeded to discuss revisions that might enhance the Escudero Plan's acceptabiliry to the other nations, all of which shared the goal of excluding the Soviet Union. Before there had been any substantial progress, the 1957-58 International Geophysical Year legitimated the USSRs presence in the far south, and already tense US-Chilean relations entered a phase of heightened apprehensiveness. This article explores the diplomatic and contextual nuances of this bilateral interaction that proved central in bringing the Antarctic Treary of 1959 to fruition.     

Testing eyewitness memory

This study identifies a memory-testing procedure that is relatively resistant to the documented effects of suggestibility on eyewitness memory. Most studies on suggestibility have used averbal recognition memory test in which the alternative test items are sentences, each to be verified as true or false regarding an originally viewedvisual sequence. In this study, participants were tested with either the verbal recognition memory test typical of studies demonstrating the eyewitness suggestibility effect or a visual recognition memory test. The typical eyewitness suggestibility effect resulted in the verbal test condition. However, with the visual recognition memory test, the hit rates did not significantly differ between the control and misled conditions. Thus, in testing memory for a visual event, a visual recognition memory test is more resistant to the influences of suggestibility than is a verbal test. These results suggest that the original item is preserved in memory, not overwritten by the misleading information. Accordingly, with a visual recognition memory test, the original information is more likely to be recovered with a visual recognition memory test than with a verbal one.     

Deterrence by Presence to Effective Response: Japan's Shift Southward

Over the past fifteen years, a quiet strategic shift has occurred in Japan. During the cold war era, Japan's defense was oriented towards the Soviet threat north of Hokkaido. However, under the very real threat of North Korean aggression, the less tangible threat of terrorism, and the perceived need to participate more fully in international peacekeeping activities, Japan has changed the characteristics of its armed forces. Additionally, an increasingly self-confident China is testing Japan's resolve in the waters surrounding Japan, simultaneously speaking of cooperative development while laying claim to a swathe of Japanese territory and waters. An apparently ambivalent United States, in relative decline, watches these proceedings. Japan has reoriented its defense posture to face south, towards the East China Sea, trying to shape Chinese behavior and hedge against future Chinese adventurism. However, with a tangible recommitment of American attention to East Asia and a firm, public, American stand on behalf of Japan's territorial integrity, future conflict can be deterred.     

Primary breast lymphoma with sudden death

Primary breast lymphoma is a rare form of extranodal lymphoma. B cells constitute the most common type involving the breast. T cells represents only 3%. Even though lymphomas have a high predilection to metastasize to the heart, there are no specific clinical or radiological findings, and most of the cases are diagnosed at autopsy. We discuss the case of a 49-year-old woman with primary breast lymphoma who presented with sudden death. Autopsy revealed a primary T-cell lymphoma of the breast with tumoral infiltration of the atrioventricular node and transmural myocardial permeation with focal necrosis.     

Researching safety and cost-effectiveness in the life cycle of nanomedicine

Nanotechnology is rapidly emerging as a transformational influence on many industry sectors. This is particularly true of medicines and medical devices. This article argues that, as policy interest in devising an appropriate regulatory framework for nanotherapeutics escalates, it will be important for public health to ensure that a broad life-cycle approach to both safety and cost-effectiveness is adopted. It charts some of the most important issues likely to be faced and begins to map how they can best be addressed.