Autopsy Reenactment – A Useful Technique in the Evaluation of Adhesive Tape Asphyxia

A 19‐year‐old woman was found dead with her face and head wrapped in plastic adhesive tape in a cupboard beside an opened helium cylinder. Despite the alleged presence of a suicide message on a social networking website, the unusual circumstances raised the possibility at the time of autopsy of either accidental death from sexual asphyxia or homicide. A carefully monitored reenactment demonstrated, however, that the type of commercial adhesive tape that had been used did not cause complete airway obstruction and that it was possible to wrap a considerable length of tape around the head and neck with the breath held. All of the features at autopsy were, therefore, compatible with self‐infliction. Asphyxial death was attributed to the combined effects of smothering from tape and anoxia from helium, an extremely rare combination in young females.     

The Menzies Government,the American Alliance and the Cuban Missile Crisis

This paper questions the traditional view of the Australian‐American relationship: that Australian dependency entailed unequivocal support for American foreign policy. It uses a particular Cold War event — the Cuban Missile Crisis — to examine the extent to which the reaction of the Australian government conformed to the general perception of immediate and absolute endorsement of the Kennedy administration's position. The paper will argue that the actual response of the Menzies government, as distinct from its public pronouncements, was constrained rather than unconditional, considered rather than reflexive, and shaped by strategic calculations of Australian interests.     

The Accuracy of Auditors' and Layered Voice Analysis (LVA) Operators' Judgments of Truth and Deception During Police Questioning*

The purpose of this study was to determine if auditors could identify truthful and deceptive persons in a sample (n = 74) of audio recordings used to assess the effectiveness of layered voice analysis (LVA). The LVA employs an automated algorithm to detect deception, but it was not effective here. There were 31 truthful and 43 deceptive persons in the sample and two LVA operators averaged 48% correct decisions on truth‐tellers and 25% on deceivers. Subsequent to the LVA analysis the recordings were audited by three interviewers, each independently rendering a decision of truthful or deceptive and indicating their confidence. Auditors' judgments averaged 68% correct decisions on truth‐tellers and 71% on deceivers. Auditors' detection rates, generally, exceeded chance and there was significantly (p < 0.05) greater confidence on correct than incorrect judgments of deceivers but not on truth‐tellers. These results suggest that the success reported for LVA analysis may be due to operator's judgment.     

On the status of thelex posterior derogating rule

Liverpool Law Review -     

Becoming better health care providers: outcomes of a primary care service-learning project in medical school

Medical educators have begun to embrace service-learning as a method for teaching medical students to be more socially responsible, patient-oriented practitioners. However, research documenting the learning outcomes of service-learning in medical education is limited. In this paper, written documents generated through evaluation of a mandatory, structured community service-learning experience were analyzed qualitatively to discover the diverse learning outcomes among 24 students who participated in the experience. Preliminary findings indicate that students developed skills and attitudes directly related to competencies of concern in most U.S. medical programs. These preliminary findings may help other programs articulate learning outcomes for their service-learning programs. Further, these preliminary findings may stimulate more systematic research (qualitative and quantitative) in this area.