Postmortem measurements of thyroid hormones in blood and vitreous humor combined with histology.

The aim of this study was to investigate whether clinical reference premortem values can be used to assess postmortem concentrations of thyroxine, triiodothyronine, and thyroid stimulating hormone (TSH), to compare the postmortem concentrations in blood and vitreous humor, and to study the possibility of diagnosing hyperthyroidism by comparing thyroid histologic appearance and postmortem hormone values. Biochemical analyses of free thyroxine (FT4), free triiodothyronine (FT3), and TSH in femoral blood and vitreous humor were made in 38 cases. In 40 cases, the hormones and thyroid histologic appearance were studied; 22 had no significant pathologic changes, and 18 showed focal hyperplasia of the follicular epithelium. A positive correlation was seen between the femoral blood and vitreous humor concentrations of FT4 (R = 0.66) but not between the corresponding concentrations of FT3 and TSH. A positive correlation was also seen between FT3 and FT4 in femoral blood (R = 0.74). In cases with normal thyroid histologic appearance, 58% were found to have FT4 values >24 pmol/L (clinical reference interval 9-24 pmol/L), mean value 27.5 +/- 9.4 pmol/L), which did not differ from the FT4 values in the cases with hyperplasia, 31.6 +/- 15 pmol/L. Only 5% of the T3 measurements in the group with normal histologic appearance were >9 pmol/L (clinical reference interval 3-9 pmol/L). The mean value of FT3 in cases with normal histologic appearance was 3.4 +/- 1.3 pmol/L, and in the group with hyperplasia 8.6 +/- 6.1 pmol/L. The difference was statistically significant P < .005). It is concluded that postmortem values of FT3 and FT4 in femoral blood are fairly comparable to premortem clinical reference values, but the upper normal limit, especially for T4, has to be adjusted upward. Analysis of vitreous humor cannot be used post mortem to assess thyroid function. Histologically, hyperplastic changes correlate well with elevated FT3 in femoral blood.     

Writing On: Robert Creeley's The Death of Venus

This is a piece which explores how the reading of a poem, in being mediated both by the reading of other poems and by a certain experience of reading as such, involves the constitution of a layered, non-unified, field of readings. This revised version was published online in August 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

关于促进欠发达地区人才流动的思考

人才是一个国家经济和社会发展的重要战略资源,更是经济欠发达地区摆脱贫困、实现跨越式发展的关键。人才流动无论是在国家之间还是地区之间,都是加快人力资本积累进而促进经济社会发展的一个重要机制,是市场经济发展客观规律的必然要求。本文分析了欠发达地区人才流动的重要性及影响人才流动的不利因素,提出了促进欠发达地区人才流动的建议,即以经济结构转变吸引人才,以高质量社会服务水平支持人才流动,以政府政策导向引导人才流动。     

Assessing the Impact of Alternative Voting Technologies on Multi-Party Elections: Design Features,Heuristic Processing and Voter Choice

This paper analyzes the influence of alternative voting technologies on electoral outcomes in multi-party systems. Using data from a field experiment conducted during the 2005 legislative election in Argentina, we examine the role of information effects associated with alternative voting devices on the support for the competing parties. We find that differences in the type of information displayed and how it was presented across devices favored some parties to the detriment of others. The impact of voting technologies was found to be larger than in two-party systems, and could lead to changes in election results. We conclude that authorities in countries moving to adopt new voting systems should carefully take the potential partisan advantages induced by different technologies into account when evaluating their implementation.     

Beyond the Workhouse: Regulating Vagrancy in Goa, India

Although homelessness is extensive in India, there has been little research on the rural dimension. This study examines the social and legal regulation of homelessness in India, focusing on the rural areas and providing a case-study of Goa. The term 'vagrancy' is used in the title of the paper in order to reflect the nature of legislation which criminalizes the vagrant individual perhaps more than other forms of homelessness. Historically, British Raj legislation on Criminal Tribes and vagrancy is contrasted with the Portuguese religious charitable perspective adopted in Goa. This is complemented by a contemporary case-study of the regulation of homelessness in the state of Goa. Goa is described as the place where the 'new India' and the 'old India' meet, with affluent tourists (both Indian and Western) encountering the 'old India' of poverty and homelessness among the migrant workers who service the tourist industry. Particular reference is made to the case of the Lamani??defined as a gypsy group??who are often constructed as the main cause of social ills within the state. This historical and socio-legal analysis is complemented by reference to fieldwork conducted in Goa.     

Alkoholmissbrauch allein kein Grund für eine Sachwalterbestellung

Psychische Krankheit und geistige Behinderung (§ 273 Abs 1 ABGB) sind Rechtsbegriffe, die nicht mit medizinischen Definitionen übereinstimmen müssen, die aber auch nicht v?llig losgel?st von medizinischen Regeln und Erfahrungss?tzen zu interpretieren sind. Der Missbrauch von Alkohol (allein) ist kein Grund für eine Sachwalterbestellung, sofern damit nicht eine psychische Krankheit oder geistige Behinderung zum Ausdruck kommt oder dessen Folge ist. Das kann etwa dann der Fall sein, wenn die Suchtkrankheit bereits zu schweren Hirnsch?digungen geführt hat. Dass alkoholkranken Personen in gewissem Ma?e die Einsicht in ihre Suchterkrankung und insofern die Kritikf?higkeit fehlt, ist für derartige Krankheitsf?lle wohl eine geradezu typische Begleiterscheinung und per se ebenfalls keine geistige oder psychische Beeintr?chtigung mit Krankheitswert.     

Talking Law in Times of Reform: Paradoxes of Legal Entitlement in Cameroon

Based on ethnographic fieldwork carried out between 2003 and 2005, this article examines how legality is constructed in present‐day Adamaoua Province, Cameroon. Focusing on an instance of a process locally referred to as la concertation, I analyze how state officials and cattle traders gather to discuss the practical fate of law. As a heightened moment of suspended enforcement, la concertation is productive for both officials, who work out the limits of their respective spheres of authority and imagine a trade based on business norms and practices that severely limit the scope of regulatory action, and traders, who manage to stave off the increased scrutiny that income tax law presupposes, while asserting their concern for the integrity and consistency of the law.