Anthropological measurement of lower limb and foot bones using multi-detector computed tomography

Anthropological examination of defleshed bones is the gold standard for osteological measurement in forensic practice. However, multi-detector computed tomography (MDCT) offers the opportunity of three-dimensional imaging of skeletal elements, allowing measurement of bones in any plane without defleshing. We present our experiences of the examination of 15 human lower limbs in different states of decomposition using MDCT. We present our method of imaging and radiological measurement of the bones including sex assessment. The radiological measurements were undertaken by three professional groups--anthropology, radiology, and forensic pathology--both at the site of scanning and at a remote site. The results were compared to anthropological oestological assessment of the defleshed bones. We discuss the limitations of this technique and the potential applications of our observations. We introduce the concept of remote radiological anthropological measurement of bones, so-called tele-anthro-radiology and the role that this could play in providing the facility for standardization of protocols, international peer review and quality assurance schemes.     

Limits to a cyber-threat

This paper reveals the limits to representing cyberspace as a threat. In contrast to more conventional threats, the suggestion is that the not-immediately-apparent consequences of a cyber-attack make it largely reliant on official practices of representation. Exploring the implications of this reliance, the paper outlines how attributing meaning and culpability – always contested practices – are amplified in the potential absence of a readily apparent attack. Given these limits, does the cyber-threat then require a different lexicon of danger to both educate and engender a sense of caution? Examining the discursive construction of the cyber-threat, the paper demonstrates how this threat draws upon an established economy of danger – likening it to warfare and terrorism – but also suggests a limit to these representations. Specifically, by engaging post-structuralist literature the paper illustrates that these limits are best understood through an appreciation of the performative and the constitutive ‘lack’ in signification. It thus concludes that the value of the cyber-threat is not determined by transparently representing a cyber-attack. Rather, it is drawn from processes of hyper-securitization and through the establishment of institutions like the NATO Center of Excellence in Cooperative Cyber Defense that retroactively bring into existence the very object it purports to defend against.     

Immigrant parents’ everyday encounters with exclusion and public space mobilities: ‘Some type of force field’

This paper explores everyday feelings of exclusion experienced by Western immigrant parents of preschool aged children in public park playgrounds in Tokyo. These parental feelings of exclusion and unbelonging arose from negative encounters with the majority population where children's visible bodily differences led to unintegrated play. The paper argues that this sense of exclusion is socially problematic as immigrant parents feel negative emotions when using public playgrounds, turn away from local public space mobilities towards online play dates with their countries of origin, and focus more on private home centred play through a style of self-segregation as coping techniques.     

Governing multi-level governance: comparing domain dynamics in German Land-local relationships and prisons

While the notion of governance has received considerable scholarly attention, much less is known about change, and its sources, across modes of governance within respective policy domains. This article explores these neglected issues in two policy domains characterized by multi-level governance characteristics: Land (state)-local relationships in the domain of building administration and relationships governing the prisons domain in Germany. It does so in three steps. First, the article explores governance and considers endogenous and exogenous sources of change. Second, it discusses the institutional arrangements in the two domains and analyses modes of governance and their change. Third, the article compares the different dynamics of change and links these findings to wider debates regarding change across and within modes of governance. The analysis of the two domains suggests that 'hunting around' effects (i.e. permanent instability) are less prominent than suggested by cultural theory, while external pressures for change are filtered by the preferences of the actors within the respective domains.