Postmortem dental radiography

Comparison of postmortem and antemortem dental radiographic films or digital images is a common procedure for establishing identity of human remains. This article describes some problems with producing postmortem dental radiographs in a medical examiner setting and gives methods for circumventing these difficulties. Resection of the jaws, when permitted, significantly simplifies the postmortem radiographic technique. When producing an actual postmortem panoramic dental radiograph (orthopantomogram) from a dry skull, stabilization of the specimen for exposure by the moving beam source may be accomplished simply by placing the specimen upside down on an anthropologist's skull ring. Image "burnout" in the anterior segment, which results from absence of the tissues of the neck, may be avoided by appropriate placement of radiodense objects such as "zippered" plastic bags filled with water or other fluid material, freezer gel packs, or a block of self-polymerizing acrylic. These methods may increase future postmortem dental radiography efficiency.     

"Homicide by heart attack" revisited

The sudden death of a person caused by an arrhythmia that is induced by physical and/or emotional stress provoked by the criminal activity of another person is sometimes referred to as "homicide by heart attack." Published criteria for such an event relate to situations where no physical contact occurs between the perpetrator and the victim. Situations involving physical contact, but with absence of lethal injuries, are frequently treated is a similar fashion by forensic pathologists. Herein, we propose a set of modified criteria, which include cases where physical contact has occurred. Five examples of so-called "homicide by heart attack" are presented, including a 40-year-old man who was struck in the head with a wooden statue, a 74-year-old man who was punched in the jaw by a robber, a 66-year-old woman who was started awake by a home-intruder, a 67-year-old woman who struggled with a would-be purse-snatcher in a parking lot, and a 52-year-old man who was in a physical altercation with a younger man. In each instance, autopsy revealed the presence of severe, underlying heart disease, as well as absence of lethal injuries. In each case, investigative information was such that the emotional and/or physical stress associated with the criminal activity of another individual was deemed contributory to the death. The presumed mechanism of death in each case was a cardiac dysrhythmia related to underlying heart disease, but initiated by the emotional and/or physical stress.     

A novel method of automated skull registration for forensic facial approximation

Modern forensic facial reconstruction techniques are based on an understanding of skeletal variation and tissue depths. These techniques rely upon a skilled practitioner interpreting limited data. To (i) increase the amount of data available and (ii) lessen the subjective interpretation, we use medical imaging and statistical techniques. We introduce a software tool, reality enhancement/facial approximation by computational estimation (RE/FACE) for computer-based forensic facial reconstruction. The tool applies innovative computer-based techniques to a database of human head computed tomography (CT) scans in order to derive a statistical approximation of the soft tissue structure of a questioned skull. A core component of this tool is an algorithm for removing the variation in facial structure due to skeletal variation. This method uses models derived from the CT scans and does not require manual measurement or placement of landmarks. It does not require tissue-depth tables, can be tailored to specific racial categories by adding CT scans, and removes much of the subjectivity of manual reconstructions.     

Mr Cameron's New Language Initiative for Muslim Women: Lessons in Policy Implementation

As the government announces a programme to teach Muslim women to speak English, this article examines how such a policy can be implemented successfully, arguing that lessons can be drawn from both academic research, especially that carried out with Muslim women themselves, and previous successful policy application. It focuses on two projects carried out in the recent past for the Learning and Skills Council (LSC) and Jobcentre Plus, and outlines the key factors that led to their success. The LSC project involved one of the largest in‐depth surveys of Muslim women's attitudes towards work, and their views on life in Britain, that has ever been undertaken. The Jobcentre Plus project was a highly successful and innovative employment training initiative for ethnic minority women piloted in Sheffield, the very kind of ‘targeted’ approach that Mr Cameron has claimed his government's new language initiative will be.     

The Messenger Overwhelming the Message: Ideological Cues and Perceptions of Bias in Television News

Survey research has demonstrated that citizens perceive ideological bias in television news, specifically with regard to CNN and Fox News Channel (FNC), which allegedly represent the liberal and conservative viewpoint, respectively. In this paper I argue that attaching the CNN and FNC labels to news stories sends an ideological cue to the viewer regarding the content of the story. Utilizing an experimental design that allows manipulation of the network attribution of actual FNC and CNN content, I am able to demonstrate that the CNN and FNC labels function as ideological signals to the viewer, with this signal being most pronounced among ideologues whose views are supposedly at odds with those attributed to the network.

Assessing nation-state-sponsored cyberattacks using aspects of Situational Crime Prevention

Research Summary

This study utilized a quantitative analysis of 246 cyberattack incidents reported in the Extremist CyberCrime Database to identify significant predictors of nation-state-sponsored cyberattacks relative to those performed by non-nation-state-sponsored ideological actors. Clarke and Newman's Situational Crime Prevention framework for terrorism was used to identify differential opportunities to successfully affect targets on the basis of tools, weapons, and the ability to access targets in online settings. The analysis noted nation-state-sponsored attacks were less likely to use high-visibility attack methods and more likely to utilize attack methods leading to data breaches. In addition, they were more likely to target state governments and military entities relative to ideological actors.

Policy Implications

Nation-state attacks are more difficult to identify or mitigate while in process, requiring a more robust national cybersecurity policy framework to be implemented that moves beyond current practices. There is a need to better utilize all aspects of government, from legislation to grant funding, in order to deter cyberattacks from continuing into the future.