Recent Iowa trends in sudden unexpected infant deaths: the importance of public health collaboration with medical examiners' offices

During the winter in 2008, Iowa experienced an increase in sudden unexplained infant deaths (SUIDs). SUIDs and infectious causes of infant deaths generally average 3 monthly (SD = 1.0) in Iowa. However, in January 2008, 9 infant deaths were reported to the Iowa Department of Public Health and the Iowa Office of the State Medical Examiner. Between January and March of 2008, joint investigation of 22 SUIDs was conducted. The investigations required the involvement of multiple medical examiners from various jurisdictions, testing for pathogens at the University Hygienic Laboratory, epidemiologic support from the Iowa Department of Public Health, and consultation with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The preliminary hypotheses for the increase in the infant mortality included viral respiratory disease and/or possible novel respiratory viral infections being the cause. Collaboration between public health and the medical examiner offices resulted in timely assessment of the cases. While no single causative agent was responsible for the increase seen in the number of infant deaths, respiratory pathogens played a role in the deaths of 15 of 22 children.     

iGovernment: A new perspective on the future of government digitisation

Innovative use of ICT applications is rapidly becoming a cornerstone of modern government policy in every area of service, care and control. Looking beyond the individual applications and layers of digitisation, we find a hodgepodge of information flows running within and between the various public authorities, policy domains, and crossing the public/private boundary. This has consequences for the relation between government and citizens. Step by step, decision by decision, the everyday work of government is changing ‘the rules of the game’ and giving rise to “information Government” (iGovernment), without this being based on any overall strategic agenda or awareness among political decision-makers. This article places this development in a new framework and suggests a perspective on a necessary paradigm shift.     

Rüstungsaltlasten in deutschen Küstengew?ssern – v?lkerrechtliche Bergungs- und Sanierungspflichten

“Nervengas auf dem Meeresgrund” oder “Gefahr aus der Tiefe”. Solche und ?hnliche Titel kennzeichnen Ver?ffentlichungen zum Thema Rüstungsaltlasten in Nord- und Ostsee. Dies ist ein Zeichen der immer noch hohen Brisanz dieses Themas. In jüngster Vergangenheit sorgte die Verifikation der Verklappung von ca. 90 t Tabun-Granaten südlich von Helgoland für Aufsehen. Fakt ist, dass sich erhebliche Mengen Weltkriegsmunition in Nord- und Ostsee befinden. Leider mangelt es bisher nicht nur an einer Aufkl?rung des von den Rüstungsaltlasten ausgehenden Risikos seitens der Naturwissenschaft, sondern auch an einer rechtswissenschaftlichen Aufkl?rung eventuell bestehender Bergungs- und Sanierungspflichten. Im folgenden Beitrag werden einige einschl?gige v?lkerrechtliche Vertr?ge mit Schwerpunktsetzung im Seerecht auf das Vorliegen entsprechender Pflichten geprüft und gezeigt, dass Pflichten zur Bergung der Altmunition bestehen.     

Flexibilisierung des Schutzgebietsnetzes Natura 2000 vor dem Hintergrund des Klimawandels

Das Thema Klimawandel und Naturschutz geh?rt derzeit zu den zentralen Gegenst?nden der politischen und wissenschaftlichen Umweltdiskussion. Sowohl für Juristen als auch für Naturwissenschaftler verschiedener Fachrichtungen stellt das Thema eine besondere Herausforderung dar. In den folgenden Er?rterungen geht es vor allem um die Fragen, welches Instrumentarium das geltende europ?ische Recht zum Schutzgebietsnetz Natura 2000 bereith?lt, um klimabedingten Arealverschiebungen von Tier- und Pflanzenarten Rechnung tragen zu k?nnen, und wie dieses Instrumentarium de lege ferenda optimiert werden kann. Die Bearbeitung der Fragen erfolgt auf der Grundlage rechts- und naturwissenschaftlicher Kooperation.     

The New Ghana

Mr. Dennis Austin, of the Institute of Commonwealth Studies,London University, gave the address that follows at a jointmeeting of the Royal African Society and the Royal Common-wealthSociety on November 5, 1959. Mr. David Williams, editor of "WestAfrica‘, ’, took the chair.     

"Insuring" the continued solvency of pharmaceutical companies in the face of product liability class actions

Costly product liability lawsuits continue to plague the pharmaceutical industry, and insurance to cover these losses is severely inadequate. Furthermore, questionable regulation of drugs exists once a pharmaceutical has passed FDA approval. This article describes a plan that uses a capitalistic, rather than a governmental, approach to solve both the insurance and the quality control problems. Although the proposed plan has never been used to insure pharmaceutical companies, different permutations of it have been used to insure other litigation-prone industries. Success from the proposed insurance entity results from the combined knowledge of scientists and actuaries to provide both protection from product liability lawsuits for the pharmaceutical industry and enhanced post-market surveillance of pharmaceuticals.     

Global and Neighborhood Attitudes Toward the Police: Differentiation by Race,Ethnicity and Type of Contact

This study focused on a series of hypotheses regarding residents’ attitudes toward the police: (1) residents’ attitudes toward the police are better represented by a two-dimensional model that differentiates global perceptions of the police from assessments of the police in the respondents’ neighborhood; (2) the structure of residents’ attitudes toward the police is different for Whites, African Americans, and Latinos; (3) direct experiences with the police in the respondents’ neighborhood will be more strongly associated with the respondents’ assessment of police in their neighborhood than global perceptions of the police; and (4) the influence of direct experiences with the police will be stronger for African Americans and Latinos than for Whites. Results based on structural equation modeling offer strong support for the need to differentiate between global and neighborhood perceptions of the police. The underlining measurement structure of attitudes toward the police was similar for Whites, African Americans, and Latinos. However, the relationship between global and neighborhood attitudes was stronger for African Americans and Latinos. Negative contact with the police was associated with both negative global and neighborhood assessments of the police. Non-negative contact was associated with positive neighborhood perceptions of the police; however, only when it occurred within the neighborhood. The influence of direct experiences with the police (both inside and outside the neighborhood) was similar for Whites, African Americans, and Latinos.     

Decompositional odor analysis database

This study, conducted at the University of Tennessee's Anthropological Research Facility (ARF), describes the establishment of the Decompositional Odor Analysis (DOA) Database for the purpose of developing a man-portable, chemical sensor capable of detecting clandestine burial sites of human remains, thereby mimicking canine olfaction. This "living" database currently spans the first year and a half of burial, providing identification, chemical trends and semi-quantitation of chemicals liberated below, above and at the surface of graves 1.5 to 3.5 ft deep (0.45 to 1.0 m) for four individuals. Triple sorbent traps (TSTs) were used to collect air samples in the field and revealed eight major classes of chemicals containing 424 specific volatile compounds associated with burial decomposition. This research is the first step toward identification of an "odor signature" unique to human decomposition with projected ramifications on cadaver dog training procedures and in the development of field portable analytical instruments which can be used to locate human remains buried in shallow graves.     

Developmental validation of a single-tube amplification of the 13 CODIS STR loci, D2S1338, D19S433, and amelogenin: the AmpFlSTR Identifiler PCR Amplification Kit

Analysis of length polymorphism at short tandem repeat (STR) loci utilizing the polymerase chain reaction (PCR) process has proven to be an ideal assay for human identification purposes. The short length of STR loci coupled with the amplification of target sequence through PCR allows for a robust, sensitive, and specific assay for highly polymorphic markers. A multiplex containing fifteen STR loci plus the gender-determining locus Amelogenin was developed to provide a single amplification/detection of all CODIS (Combined DNA Index System) STR loci (CSF1PO, D3S1358, D5S818, D7S820, D8S1179, D13S317, D16S539, D18S51, D21S11, FGA, TH01, TPOX, and vWA) as well as two internationally-accepted STRs (D2S1338 and D19S433). By incorporating five-dye fragment analysis technology and non-nucleotide linkers, previously optimized AmpFlSTR kit primer sequences have been maintained. This kit has been developed in accordance with the standards of the forensic community as defined by the DNA Advisory Board. Validation studies were performed to include developmental validation, and the results support the use of the AmpFlSTR Identifiler PCR Amplification Kit for human identity and parentage testing.