A fatality involving metaxalone

A case is presented of a 54-year-old white female found dead in a secured apartment. Postmortem toxicologic analysis of the heart blood identified acetaminophen (97 mg/L), citalopram (0.4 mg/L), gabapentin (24 mg/L) and metaxalone (21 mg/L). The metaxalone concentration is within the range of previously reported fatalities involving metaxalone. The medical examiner ruled that the cause of death was metaxalone and gabapentin intoxication and the manner of death was suicide.     

The Impact of School Mental Health Services on Out-of-School Suspension Rates

The current study investigated whether the presence of school-based mental health clinicians in an urban school district was associated with reduced out-of-school suspension rates. Forty one elementary schools with expanded school mental health (ESMH) programs were compared to 41 schools without ESMH programs. Correlational analyses revealed associations between suspension outcomes and several school-level demographic variables including school attendance rate, percent of students in poverty, and percent of nonwhite students in the school. After controlling for these variables, however, results of stepwise linear regressions demonstrated no significant differences between ESMH and non-ESMH schools on suspension outcomes. Results of the current study suggest that the presence of ESMH clinicians will not necessarily impact suspension rates in an elementary school. Targeted and well-implemented approaches to address behaviors that lead to suspension, or school- and system-level policies to provide alternatives to suspensions, will likely be a better route to achieving this outcome.     

Lists and Lotteries: Rationing in the Housing Choice Voucher Program

This article investigates how the Housing Choice Voucher (HCV) program rations subsidies. HCV is the largest low-income housing assistance program in the United States. Despite the program’s size, millions of HCV-eligible households go without subsidy each year. Because the demand for support exceeds the supply of subsidies, HCV assistance is rationed through several mechanisms. These mechanisms and their relationship with the HCV system from both the client and administrator perspectives will be discussed. Implications of HCV rationing will also be discussed.     

Arthur Fadden: A Political Silhouette

Arthur Fadden: A Political Silhouette. By Tracey M. Arklay (North Melbourne: Australian Scholarly Publishing, 2014), pp. xiii + 240, AU$39.95 (pb).     

Discredited Fascism: the New Guard after 1932*

In large part Australian interwar fascism has been studied in isolation. The present article compares and contrasts the New Guard with kindred movements in Europe during the 1930s. Using the conceptual model of “generic fascism” developed by Roger Griffin, its principal concern is to explain why, in the “era of fascism”, with many factors encouraging the growth of authoritarian movements to replace parliamentary democracy, the New Guard proved to be so manifestly unsuccessful.     

Renal Tubular Epithelial Vacuoles—A Marker for Both Hyperlipidemia and Ketoacidosis at Autopsy

Review of 15 cases of nephrotic syndrome found that eight had significant hyperlipidemia with serum cholesterol levels ranging between 10.59 and 18.60 mmol/L (mean 12.88) and serum triglyceride levels between 2.30 and 9.92 mmol/L (mean 4.58); all of these cases displayed basal lipid vacuolization. Seven of the 15 study cases had normal–mild hyperlipidemia with serum cholesterol levels ranging between 4.71 and 7.54 mmol/L (mean 6.02) and serum triglyceride levels between 0.65 and 4.1 mmol/L (mean 1.57). Six of the seven cases had basal lipid vacuoles (86%). Of these, five cases were hyperlipidemic and one case had borderline hyperlipidemia with a serum cholesterol level of 4.71 mmol/L. Although hyperlipidemia was associated with renal tubular epithelial vacuolization, the vacuoles appeared morphologically different to those found in ketoacidosis. This study has shown that while hyperlipidemia in isolation may result in basal lipid vacuolization within renal tubular epithelial cells, the phenotype differs from that observed in ketoacidosis.