Deterring gun crime materially using forensic coatings

Surface coatings that can help deter and solve gun crime are described. These nanoengineered coatings have been applied and evaluated on brass cartridge cases, where they increase associative forensic evidence through nanotag donation to the handler and the retention of handler's DNA. In future we expect this approach to be used for other surfaces and conditions.     

EU DEVELOPMENTS IN IP, IT AND TELECOMMUNICATIONS LAW

This is the latest edition of Baker & McKenzie’s column on recent developments in EC law relating to IP, IT and Telecommunications. This article is updated for each edition of this Journal to reflect those developments on a European level which are considered important for practitioners, students and academics in a wide range of information technology, E-commerce, telecommunications and intellectual property areas. It cannot be exhaustive but intends to address the important points. For clarity, developments are not always kept on the table once finalized, readers should revert to earlier issues/academic texts for legislation which is more than six months old. This is a reference guide, and links to outside websites are included where possible. No responsibility is assumed for the accuracy of information contained in these links.     

International Cultural Affairs: A Fourteen Country Survey

Abstract

Alas there has been no serious effort to sponsor research in the field of cultural relations. Because governments and other major bodies concerned with funding cannot see any obvious application or “pay-offs” for such investigations, they simply have not been carried out. (Mitchell 1986)     

Investigation of elderly deaths in nursing homes by the medical examiner over a year

Despite death being one of the most common reasons for discharge from a nursing home, fewer than 1% of nursing home resident deaths are autopsied. To evaluate our role as medical examiner in nursing home deaths, we conducted a retrospective review of all decedents in Jefferson County, Alabama, for the year 2001. Death certificate data indicate that 995 deaths occurred in nursing homes in Jefferson County in 2001. Of those 995 deaths, 119 (12%) were reported to the Jefferson County Coroner/Medical Examiner Office. Jurisdiction was accepted in 5 cases in which the circumstances already made clear that the death was a nonnatural event. In the remaining 96% of nursing home deaths reported to the medical examiner, the statements of the reporting person were taken to be true concerning the expected nature of the death. An independent scene evaluation was provided by a police officer or paramedic in 82% of the cases reported to the medical examiner's office. Elderly individuals, as a group, are expected to die, but the death of a particular elder may or may not be expected. In our jurisdiction, only 12% of all nursing home deaths are reported to our office, and only 4% of reported deaths are actively investigated. Actively investigating each nursing home death would overwhelm the resources currently available to our office. We advocate the study and development of criteria to aid in determining whether the death of an individual elder is sudden and unexpected.     

Affirmative action: What do we know?

An Erratum for this article has been published in Journal of Policy Analysis and Management,26(1), 215.