Technology and the legal discourse of fetal autonomy

The relationship between society, medicine, and the law is multi-faceted and complex. This Article examines the process of, and the influences on, the construction of fetal personhood in the legal discourses in American and Commonwealth case law and statutes. It demonstrates how the physical and visual separation of the fetus, as made possible by medical advances, has influenced the development of legal doctrine relating to the rights of the fetus.     

Validation of the use of a commercially available kit for the identification of prostate specific antigen (PSA) in semen stains

PSA is currently being used to detect and monitor quantitatively the development of prostate cancer by serum levels of PSA and has also been found to be present in high concentrations in semen. Elegantly simple, sensitive, and reproducible methods have been developed for analysis of the presence of PSA, including the Tandem-E PSA Immunoenzymetric Assay. The most common procedures for the forensic identification of semen have focused on the microscopic detection of sperm, acid phosphatase activity, and immunoelectrophoretic methods for the detection of PSA. Although these methods have been used for many years, there are problems associated with each method. The Tandem-E PSA Immunoenzymetric Assay detected PSA in 100% of the forensic casework fabric samples, 80% of the forensic casework vaginal swabs and 100% of the vasectomized individuals tested. The cut-off value was determined to be 1.77 ng/mL. These results indicate that this method can be used to identify the presence of semen in forensically significant specimens.     

Pacemaker/defibrillator evaluation at Los Angeles County Department of Coroner*

Pacemakers and implantable cardioverter-defibrillators (ICDs) are implanted medical devices for the treatment of cardiac arrhythmias. These devices are now commonly encountered in the postmortem situation. The Los Angeles County Department of the Coroner uses the services of a cardiac electrophysiology consultant to interrogate pacemakers and ICDs, producing a detailed picture of the cardiac events recorded by the device. We have used this method to evaluate 20 cases where the ICD or pacemaker provided significant information. We report four forensic cases to illustrate the different applications of pacemaker interrogation and its contribution in forensic investigation. This technique was used to establish identification of the decedent, to determine the cause and time of death, and to determine whether device malfunction could have played a role in the death. We conclude that detailed evaluation of the pacemaker or ICD in selected cases may provide essential information to the forensic pathologist.     

Attrition in the RAND Health Insurance Experiment: a response to Nyman

In a prior article in this journal, John Nyman argues that the effect on health care use and spending found in the RAND Health Insurance Experiment is an artifact of greater voluntary attrition in the cost-sharing plans relative to the free care plan. Specifically, he speculates that those in the cost-sharing plans, when faced with a hospitalization, withdrew. His argument is implausible because (1) families facing a hospitalization would be worse off financially by withdrawing; (2) a large number of observational studies find a similar effect of cost sharing on use; (3) those who left did not differ in their utilization prior to leaving; (4) if there had been no attrition and cost sharing did not reduce hospitalization rates, each adult in each family that withdrew would have had to have been hospitalized once each year for the duration of time they would otherwise have been in the experiment, an implausibly high rate; (5) there are benign explanations for the higher attrition in the cost-sharing plans. Finally, we obtained follow-up health-status data on the great majority of those who left prematurely. We found the health-status findings were insensitive to the inclusion of the attrition cases.     

Subaortic Pseudoaneurysm of the Left Ventricle Complicating Staphyloccal Endocarditis*

Abstract: Subaortic pseudoaneurysms are rare but can be a cause of sudden death in young individuals. This case report involves a 20‐year‐old Vietnamese male who died suddenly from rupture of a subaortic pseudoaneurysm with resultant hemopericardium with tamponade. He had a history of bicuspid aortic valve with recent but healed Staphylococcal endocarditis. A review of the literature reveals few similar cases and enlightens the association between aortic bicuspid valve, endocarditis, and subvalvular aortic aneurysm. The pathogenesis as well as recent studies that identified aneurysm predisposing genes in patients with bicuspid aortic valve will be discussed.     

Did the “Road to the White House Run Through” Letterman? Chris Christie,Letterman, and Other-Disparaging Versus Self-Deprecating Humor

In this article we present the results of an experiment designed to disentangle the effects late-night talk show viewership have on presidential candidate evaluations. Respondents in one condition viewed a short video clip of David Letterman humorously disparaging New Jersey Governor Chris Christie, thought by many at the time to be considering a run for the presidency in 2016. Those in a second condition saw a short clip of Christie engaging in self-deprecating humor while appearing as a guest on Letterman's program. Compared with respondents in a control condition, those in the other-disparaging humor condition had lower evaluations of Christie and reported a lower likelihood of voting for him in 2016, while those in the self-deprecating humor condition had higher evaluations of him and expressed a greater likelihood of voting for him. The research has practical implications for modern campaigns and also serves to clarify some of the seemingly contradictory findings of earlier political humor effects research.     

In search of a leftist democratic imaginary: what can theories of populism tell us?

It might seem that Herbert Marcuse was right: leftist politics can no longer avoid the challenge of devising its own positive normative grounds. The neoliberal political rationality that is now hegemonic must be taken on by a new imaginary: radical, leftist and democratic. This article explores what major theories about new populism have to offer to a radical leftist attempt to reinvent itself. The regeneration of populist movements across the globe appears to offer signposts to guide a new radical politics. Yet I argue that populism is no ideologically empty mobilizing strategy able to be harnessed to all manner of political purposes. Embedded in its demagogic form are key presumptions about the character of democratic justification that collude with a neoliberal political project. Theories of new populism help us to shed light, instead, on the challenges that face the Left in its own self-reconstitution amidst liberal democratic crisis. Circumspection concerning the ideological load that is carried by a populist rendering of democratic politics needs to be united with an insight into how the rise of populism itself issues a warning about aspects of a social democratic past that cannot be reclaimed unchanged.     

Exploring the Link Between Being Bullied and Adolescent Substance Use

Although research suggests that bullied adolescents may respond to victimization with substance use, much of this prior work has been cross-sectional. Using longitudinal data from a community-based sample, we examine the impact of early bullying victimization on the initiation of substance use in adolescence after considering the potential influence of selection effects using propensity score matching. After matching, there were moderate differences between victims of bullying and control students for cigarette smoking and alcohol use, which was limited to those exposed to higher levels of bullying. Being bullied in childhood appears to have only minor effects on the onset of adolescent substance use in this sample.