Review of the Evidence Supporting the Medical and Legal Use of NeuroQuant® in Patients with Traumatic Brain Injury

Decades of research have shown that the brain atrophies after traumatic brain injury (TBI). However, multiple practical issues made it difficult to detect brain atrophy in individual patients with mild to moderate TBI. This situation improved by 2007 with the FDA approval of NeuroQuant®, a commercially available, computer-automated software program for measuring MRI brain volume in human subjects. Several peer-reviewed scientific studies have supported the reliability and validity of NeuroQuant®. This review addresses whether NeuroQuant® meets the Daubert standard for admissibility in court cases involving persons with TBI. The review finds that NeuroQuant® is an objective, reliable, and practical means of measuring brain volume and therefore can be an important tool for measuring the effects of TBI on brain volume in clinical or medicolegal settings.     

Book reviews

Datenhandbuch zur Geschichte des Deutschen Bundestages 1949 bis 1999. Edited by Peter Schindler. 3 Volumes. Baden‐Baden: Nomos, 1999. DM 98.

Finanzverfassung und Föderalismus in Deutschland und Europa. Edited by Thiess Buttner. Baden‐Baden: Nomos, 2000. DM 48 pb.

Krise und Reform des Föderalismus. Edited by Reinhard C. Meier‐Walser and Gerhard Hirscher. Munich: Olzog, 1999. DM 24.80.

Hinter den Kulissen von Regierungsbündnissen. Koalitionspolilik in Bund, Ländern und Gemeinden. Edited by Roland Sturm and Sabine Kropp. Baden‐Baden: Nomos, 1999. DM 74.

Austria — Out of the Shadow of the Past. By Anton Pelinka. Oxford: Westview Press, 1998.

Austria. World Bibliographical Series. Revised edition. Volume 66. By Michael Mitchell. Oxford: Clio Press, 1999.

The Official Concept of the Nation in the Former GDR. By Joanna McKay. Hants/Vermont: Ashgate, 1998.

NATO and the Future of European Security. By Sean Kay. Rowman and Littlefield, 1998.

Linguistics and the Third Reich: Mother‐Tongue Fascism and the Science of Language. By Christopher M. Hutton. Routledge Studies in the History of Linguistics. London and New York: Routledge, 1999.

The Language of the Third Reich. LTI ‐ Lingua Tertii Imperii. A Philologist's Notebook. By Victor Klemperer. Translated by Martin Brady. London and New Brunswick: The Athlone Press, 2000.

German Studies. Old and New Challenges. Undergraduate Programmes in the United Kingdom and the Republic of Ireland. Edited by Peter Rolf Lutzeier. Berne: Peter Lang, 1998 (German Linguistic and Cultural Studies, vol. 1).

EU Enlargement and its Macroeconomic Effects in Eastern Europe. Currencies, Prices, Investment and Competitiveness. By Hubert Gabrisch and Rüdiger Pohl. Basingstoke: Macmillan, 1999.

Welfare States in Transition. East and West. By Irwin Collier, Herwig Roggemann, Oliver Scholz and Horst Tomann. Basingstoke: Macmillan, 1999.

Economic Transition in Hungary and East Germany. Gradualism and Shock Therapy in Catch‐up Development. By Johannes Stephan. Basingstoke: Macmillan, 1999.

Doing Business with Germany. Edited by Jonathan Reuvid and Roderick Millar (consultant eds.). In association with German‐British Chamber of Industry and Commerce, PricewaterhouseCoopers and Eversheds. Business Lawyers in Europe. London: Kogan Page, 2nd edn. 1999. Reprinted 2000.

The German Skills Machine: Sustaining Comparative Advantage in a Global Economy. Edited by Pepper D. Culpepper and David Finegold. Berghahn Books, 1999.

Reconstructing Education. By Rosalind M.O. Pritchard. New York and Oxford: Berghahn Books, 1999.

In a Cold Crater: Cultural and Intellectual Life in Berlin, 1945–1948. By Wolfgang Schivelbusch. Translated by Kelly Barry. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1998.

The Longman Companion to Germany Since 1945. By Adrian Webb. London: Longman, 1998.

Ausgewcihlte Aspekte des Transformationsprozesses im Cesundheitswesen der neuen Bundeslander. Edited by Viola Schubert‐Lehnhardt, Christel Gibas and Birgit Möbest. Berlin: Trafo Verlag, 1998.

Lebensbedingungen, Lebensgestaltung und Lebensinn von älteren Frauen in Deutschland und Europa. Edited by Viola Schubert‐Lehnhardt. Berlin: Trafo Verlag, 2000.     

Between Hermes and Themis: An Empirical Study of the Contemporary Judiciary in Singapore

Drawing upon interviews in 1995 and 1998 and analyses of judicial appointments from 1975–1998, the article offers a new explanation of judicial-executive relations in Singapore. It attempts to explain how the judiciary in Singapore actually functions, partly by using the concept of the core executive to locate the judiciary more accurately within its political context. The study demonstrates that the judicial system has been hegenomized by a number of political and bureaucratic strategies, and interprets its role in terms of the overall goals of the political executive. The lower judiciary is an amateur judiciary and forms part of the executive government. Despite this, the contemporary superior judiciary is not wholly a creature of the political executive, as is often postulated, but rather the result of a compromise which balances the need for a reputable judiciary with the requirement by the political executive for the judicial system to assist with the control of political opposition. This negotiated balance is qualitatively different from the relationship that characterized that between the Lee Kuan Yew governments and their Supreme Courts until 1991 and reflects the maturing of hegemonic control strategies under Goh Chok Tong. The analysis was completed in 1999.     

Why a jail or prison sentence is increasingly like a death sentence

Because of current conditions inside American jails and prisons, a sentence to a correctional facility routinely compromises the health, safety, and life of inmates. Four environmental factors can make a jail and prison sentence appear like a death sentence: poor health care, unsanitary living conditions, high levels of violence, and an increased number of people with chronic diseases living in close proximity. Thus, a de facto death penalty, the most controversial sanction of the criminal justice system, is the result for some inmates, and a misapplication of the criminal law is thus achieved. In order to present this argument, the author reviews research which increases the likelihood that a person will die behind bars.     

Los Angeles Urban processes: The tension among myths,high expectations,and minimal satisfaction

20th Century Los Angeles: Power, Promotion, and Social Conflict. Edited by Norman M. Klein and Martin J. Schiesl. Claremont, CA: Regina Books, 1990. Pp.240. $12.95.

City of Quartz: Excavating the Future in Los Angeles. By Mike Davis. Verso, 1990. Pp.462. £19.95 hb, £8.99 pb.

Los Angeles: Capital of the Third World. By David Rieff. New York: Cape, 1992. Pp.270. £17.99.

Sex, Death and God in L.A.. Edited by David Reid. New York: Pantheon, 1992. Pp.356. $23.