Excursions Through Emptiness: Interwar Travel Writing on Northern Australia

During the interwar years, Australians grew increasingly anxious about their sparsely populated north. They had moral qualms about leaving land idle; they felt uneasy about international criticism of their lacklustre efforts in the tropics; they feared a stronger, more resolute nation might rob them of their under-utilised heritage. While anxieties intensified, there was an efflorescence of travel writing on northern Australia, as cars and aeroplanes made this part of the continent a little more accessible. Like other travel writers, those on northern Australia in the interwar years did not confine their narratives to what they did and what they saw. They commented on the burning questions of the day: on what the future of the north might hold and whether Australia’s northern lands could sustain a prolific white population. This article explores a range of representations of northern Australia in the travel literature published between the two world wars, with particular attention to the varied assessments of Australia’s tropical environments and the racial misgivings that disconcerted attempts to envisage an all-white north.     

A Novel Method for Removing a Spinal Cord with Attached Cervical Ganglia from a Pediatric Decedent

A diagnosis of child abuse is dependent on a comprehensive and accurate assessment of injury in the context of a thorough investigation. However, signatures of trauma are often subtle and interpretation can be very difficult. Recently, researchers have refocused their attention from the head to the neck in search of traumatic signatures of abusive head trauma. HCIFS has developed a technique to remove the cervical spinal cord with the ganglia attached that is less destructive and more time and cost efficient than alternative methods previously published. Once removed, the dorsal nerve roots and ganglia are evaluated for the presence of hemorrhage. The authors performed a small pilot study using the novel method to evaluate 20 decedents with a history of blunt force trauma and eight without a traumatic history. Fifteen of the traumatic deaths and two of the nontraumatic deaths were found to have dorsal nerve root and/or ganglia hemorrhage.     

The utility of histology in assessing the cause of death in medico-legal autopsies in selected trauma deaths: Suspension-, immersion-, fire-, and traffic-related

The goal of a medico-legal autopsy is primarily to determine the cause and manner of death. To this end, the pathologist often uses auxiliary analyses, including histology. However, the utility of routine histology in all medico-legal autopsies is unknown. Earlier studies on the utility of routine histology have shown inconsistent effects, with some studies recommending it and others rejecting it. To study the degree to which histology informs on the underlying cause of death, we sent autopsy reports from suspension-, immersion-, fire-, and traffic-related deaths to senior board-certified forensic pathologists and had them assess the cause of death, first without knowledge of the histological findings and then with knowledge thereof. Fifty cases were identified in each of four subgroups: fire-, immersion-, suspension-, and traffic-related deaths. The autopsy reports were anonymized, and the histological findings and conclusions were removed. Two board-certified forensic pathologists independently reviewed the reports in each subgroup and assessed the manner and underlying cause of death (including their certainty of this assessment on a five-level scale) with and without access to histological findings. The probability of changing the underlying cause of death posthistology was low in all study groups. There was a slight increase in the degree of certainty posthistology in cases where the underlying cause of death was not changed, but only when the antehistology certainty was low. Our results suggest that histology does not meaningfully inform on the underlying cause of death in suspension-, immersion-, fire-, and traffic-related deaths except when antehistology certainty is low.     

When Juveniles Commit Sexual Offenses: Considerations and Recommendations for Judges

Considering sexual offenders’ impact on victims, families, and communities, one cannot understate the importance of utilizing evidence‐based dispositions with juvenile offenders adjudicated for sexual offenses. This proves difficult, however, as the body of literature regarding juvenile sexual offenders is complex and often misunderstood. Research on how juvenile sexual offenders experience – broadly construed – the juvenile justice process is particularly sparse. The research that is available about juvenile sexual offender treatment, recidivism, and outcomes in general tends to be mixed as to the best way to deal with this distinctly stigmatized population. Thus, the purpose of this review article is primarily educational in that we summarize the highlights of current research and thinking in regards to juvenile sexual offenders with which judges should be familiar, and subsequently offer practice recommendations. The ultimate goal in offering and applying these recommendations in juvenile court settings is to help alleviate potential collateral consequences, increase positive long‐term outcomes for juveniles, and increase public safety.     

Validation studies in forensic odontology – Part 1: Accuracy of radiographic matching

As part of a series of studies aimed at validating techniques in forensic odontology, this study aimed to validate the accuracy of ante-mortem (AM)/postmortem (PM) radiographic matching by dentists and forensic odontologists. This study used a web-based interface with 50 pairs of AM and PM radiographs from real casework, at varying degrees of difficulty. Participants were shown both radiographs as a pair and initially asked to decide if they represented the same individual using a yes/no binary choice forced-decision. Participants were asked to assess their level of confidence in their decision, and to make a conclusion using one of the ABFO (American Board of Forensic Odontology), INTERPOL (International Criminal Police Organisation) and DVISys? (DVI System International, Plass Data Software) identification scale degrees. The mean false-positive rate using the binary choice scale was 12%. Overall accuracy was 89% using this model, however, 13% of participants scored below 80%. Only 25% of participants accurately answered yes or no > 90% of the time, with no individual making the correct yes/no decision for all 50 pairs of radiographs. Non-odontologists (lay participants) scored poorly, with a mean accuracy of only 60%. Use of the graded ABFO, DVISYS and INTERPOL scales resulted in general improvements in performance, with the false-positive and false-negative rates falling to approximately 2% overall. Inter-examiner agreement in assigning scale degrees was good (ICC = 0.64), however there was little correlation between confidence and both accuracy or agreement among practitioners. These results suggest that use of a non-binary scale is supported over a match/non-match call as it reduces the frequency of false positives and negatives. The use of the terms “possible” and “insufficient information” in the same scale appears to create confusion, reducing inter-examiner agreement. The lack of agreement between higher-performing and lower-performing groups suggests that there is an inconsistency in the cognitive processes used to determine similarity between radiographs.     

Determinants of turnover intentions among Chinese off farm migrants

This study examines the determinants of turnover intentions of off farm migrant workers, using data collected from China’s Jiangsu Province. Turnover intention is posited to be a function of demographic/human capital characteristics, job characteristics and job satisfaction. We find that higher levels of education have a positive effect on reported turnover intentions, while higher income and job satisfaction have a negative effect on turnover intentions. To the extent turnover intentions represent a good proxy for actual turnover, the results can be viewed as providing reliable predictors of job mobility among off farm migrant workers at a time when there is a growing shortage of such workers in China’s coastal provinces.

Archetypal Terrorist Events in the United States

This research presents a typology of terrorist events rather than the more common typologies of terrorist groups and ideologies. Archetypal analysis, a quantitative methodology to identify pure types, was used with data in START's Global Terrorism Database to identify archetypal attacks in the United States. A set of seven archetypal events was identified including abortion bombings, poisonings, Aryan hate, hostage-taking, fire/bomb for damage, assassination, and the catastrophic Big Bad. These archetypes may be useful for training and exercising for events with additional potential value for developing theory of terrorist events.     

Why Give it Away When You Need it Yourself? Understanding Public Support for Foreign Aid in China

In this study we examine the determinants of public support for foreign aid in China. We find that while political ideology and sense of national identity are the most important determinants of support for foreign aid, several demographic characteristics, such as age, gender and income, are also important. We also find that those living in the lower income western provinces and in provinces with higher poverty rates express less support for giving foreign aid. We draw policy implications from the findings for better targeting engagement strategies designed to garner support for foreign aid.