A Molecular Method to Correlate Bloodstains with Wound Site for Crime Scene Reconstruction

Bloodstain pattern analysis to determine the wound‐of‐origin of bloodstains is problematic with nonspecific patterns. In this proof‐of‐concept study, the authors examined a molecular approach to correlate bloodstains with injuries using the rat as a model. Specifically, investigations were conducted on the rat brain marker, rno‐miR‐124‐3p, with the QIAGEN miScript System and real‐time PCR analysis. Rno‐miR‐124‐3p was detected in brain homogenates diluted 100,000 times; in 3‐week‐old, room temperature stored, simulated brain–blood stains; and in bloodstains from head gunshot wounds collected with swabs and subsequently frozen for 9–18 months; however, rno‐miR‐124‐3p was not detected in whole blood. Proof‐of‐principle was demonstrated by the ability to distinguish bloodstains from a gunshot wound to the head versus bloodstains from a gunshot wound to the chest, by the testing of otherwise identical bloodstains from the two patterns for the presence of the marker. The results suggest a viable approach to a longstanding problem in casework.     

Good faith in international transactions

Conclusion Historically, the conception of good faith has been shaped by a variety of forces — political, mercantile and religious among them. Similarly, the CISG also treats the duty of good faith in a holistic manner; rather that attempt to explicitly define the good faith obligation in isolated provisions, the drafters of the CISG marked good faith as an integral and pervasive requirement. The drafters rightly understood that unfair dealing is best recognized in specific factual scenarios; judges and arbitrators will know bad faith when they see it. Thus, the drafters designed a systematic approach to international sales transactions with the assumption that the basic obligations of good faith and fair dealing are understood by the parties. In so doing, they have provided a source of confidence to traders who, due to the nature of the modern international marketplace, must forge their agreements fax-to-fax rather than face-to-face.Law Clerk, Allan Kanner & Associates, New Orleans, Louisiana. B.A., 1989, Georgetown University; J.D. candidate, 1994, Tulane Law School. For their many valuable suggestions, grateful acknowledgement is made to Chris Anderson, Carla Bachechi and Joachim Zekoll.     

An initially unexplained death during prison sentence. Diagnostic verification by atomic absorption spectrometry

The authors report on the death of a 25-year-old man due to electric current in prison, which was not recognized at first. The fatal accident was caused by a self-made electric kettle. The only electrothermal skin lesions were some pinhead-sized electric marks on the left thumb. Careful external inspection of the body in combination with an analysis of the conductor material (aluminium) by means of atomic absorption spectrometry (AAS) revealed the cause of death and the source of accidental electrocution.     

Research, policy, and the National Health Service

The National Health Service is a system designed to bring about a rational use and distribution of resources yet which largely ignores the contribution of the research community. With a relatively closed health policy arena, there are few customers for policy-oriented research. With responsibility for funding research concentrated at the center and responsibility for delivering services at the periphery, the research community finds itself in limbo. In comparison to both the U.S. and Canada, Britain therefore offers an example of research both underfinanced and undervalued. However, research has made some significant contributions in areas where there has been a perceived use for its findings to support service developments. And the changes now being introduced in Britain's NHS are likely to create a new market for research as the system adopts some North American ideas and becomes less consensual and more pluralistic.     

An unusual case of a double casualty during sexual intercourse

Sudden death during sexual activity is generally caused by natural diseases, like coronary sclerosis and myocardial infarction. Only a few case reports describe outer circumstances as responsible for the fatal outcome. This is a case report of a couple that drowned within a car sinking into a river. The extraordinary scenery led to the supposition that sexual intercourse was involved with these fatalities. The victims--a young woman and a young man, both had children, the man was married--kept up an extramarital liaison. Both were reported missing by their relatives days before the corpses could be recovered.     

The Plo as a methodological problem for Israeli researchers, 1985–1993

Israeli academics disagree with respect to the scope of the change that has transpired within the PLO. Proponents of the first approach are convinced that leaders in the PLO mainstream have indeed changed the organization's basic orientation. Advocates of the second orientation, on the other hand, contend that the putative transition does not represent anything more than the potential for real revision of historic objectives. In this article, I outline the broad theoretical framework within which this interpretative argument has taken place. After elaborating the theoretical framework, I propose a methodological direction which differs from the one traced by these two opposite approaches. I claim that an arbitration mechanism that negotiates a middle ground between the fundamental and operative ideology has developed within the PLO. These three dimensions exist within the PLO at one and the same time; and since its crystallization in the mid‐1980s, the middle ground has become the dimension that dominates the PLO's activities.