Non-traumatic forensic neuropathology

The practicing Forensic Pathologist is likely to encounter case material in which either the cause of death or a major contribution to the cause of death is underlying damage to or disease of the central nervous system. While it is good practice in many instances to have a working relationship with a Department of Neuropathology, from which advice and practical help can be sought, there may be instances when the Forensic Pathologist needs to proceed on a basis of a working knowledge of Forensic Neuropathology up to and including how to examine the specimen and take tissue blocks for processing and subsequent histological examination. Some of the more common conditions of the central nervous system such as damage consequent to hypoxia-ischaemia, hypoglycemia and epilepsy, the encephalopathies associated with altered sodium concentration, deficiency due to Vitamin B(1) and various neurodegenerative diseases that manifest as dementia and include Alzheimer's disease, cortical Lewy body disease and the prion disorders, are outlined in this article.     

Mapping the nanotechnology enterprise: a multi-indicator analysis of emerging nanodistricts in the US South

Nanotechnology has attracted significant research, funding, and policy activity in recent years in the US and many other countries. Of particular interest are the locational characteristics of this emerging technology. This study examines the emergence of nanotechnology in the US South to explore questions of regional standing and spatial trajectory, using an exploratory multi-indicator approach. Our research employs an array of 10 indicators of knowledge generation, human capital, R&D funding, and patenting, to uncover developments, clusters, and linkages in nanotechnology emergence. Results indicate that although there is nanotechnology activity in every state in the US South, this activity agglomerates in a few locations. One emerging nanodistrict (North Carolina’s Research Triangle) has prior strengths in high technology research and commercialization, especially based on biotechnology; but other districts (e.g., Oak Ridge Tennessee and Atlanta, Georgia) that have strengths in certain aspects of the nanotechnology research ecosystem have weaknesses in commercialization. The study illustrates how multi-indicator approaches can be developed from existing databases, using customized search techniques, and how the insights from multi-indicator measurement can be used to provide insights for research and innovation policy.

Cytomegalovirus-induced pneumonia and myocarditis in three cases of suspected sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS): diagnosis by immunohistochemical techniques and molecularpathologic methods

Immunohistochemical and molecularpathologic techniques have improved the diagnosis of myocarditis as compared with conventional histologic staining methods done according to the Dallas criteria. Additionally, immunohistochemistry and in situ-hybridization are able to demonstrate viral infection, e.g. cytomegaloviruses in salivary glands and lungs, locations both known to be involved in cytomegalovirusinfection. However, in many cases of proved cytomegalovirusinfection the cause of death remains unclear. We report on three children younger than 1-year of age, who died suddenly without prodromal symptoms. Their deaths were attributed to SIDS (sudden infant death syndrome). In situ-hybridization, immunohistochemical (LCA, CD45R0, CD68, MHC-class-II-molecules, E-selectine) and molecularpathologic investigations (PCR), however, suggested that death was caused by a cytomegalovirus-induced pneumonia or myocarditis. In the future, these methods should be used for investigating cases with suspicion of SIDS.     

Book reviews

Ephraim Maisel, The Foreign Office and Foreign Policy 1991–1926 (Brighton: Sussex Academic Press 1994), £35. ISBN 1–898723–04–4.

Timothy P. Maga, The World of Jimmy Carter: U.S. Foreign Policy 1977–1981 (West Haven, CT: University of New Haven Press, 1994). 189 pp. ISBN 0–936385–23–0.

Michael Leifer, Dictionary of the Modern Politics of South‐East Asia (London and New York: Routledge, 1995), xii + 271pp. £45. ISBN 0–415–04219–4.

Christopher C. Harmon and David Tucker (eds.), Statecraft and Power: Essays in Honor of Harold W. Rood (Lanham and London: University Press of America with the National Institute for Public Policy, 1994), 284pp ISBN 0–8191–8718–6.     

Globalization,governance and democracy in post‐communist Romania

Post‐communist transition in Romania has witnessed an accelerated globalization in the country. Global (understood here as supraterritorial) relations have altered many communication networks, forms of organization, production processes, markets, monetary and financial flows, ecological conditions, and patterns of social consciousness. Although the extent of globalization in Romania should not be exaggerated, the recent rapid spread of supraterritoriality has pulled the country out of the preceding era of territorialist politics. The Romanian state can no longer realize its claims to sovereignty and has become oriented to transborder as well as territorial constituencies. At the same time, globalization has stimulated greater involvement of transworld and regional agencies in governance. The rise of supraterritoriality has also encouraged some devolution and some privatization of regulatory authority in Romania. Singly and together, these developments pose substantial challenges for democracy. True, certain transborder initiatives have modestly promoted post‐communist democratization in Romania. On the whole, however, Romanians have obtained insufficient participation, consultation, representation, transparency and accountability in respect of the multi‐layered and fragmented governance that is emerging in the context of globalization.     

Should the EU Protect Democracy and the Rule of Law inside Member States?

Against the background of recent developments in Hungary, the article discusses the question whether the European Union ought to play a role in protecting liberal democracy in Member States. First, it is argued that the EU has the authority to do so, both in a broad normative sense and in a narrower legal sense (though the latter is more likely to be disputed). The article then asks whether the EU has the capacity to establish a supranational militant democracy; here it is argued that at the moment both appropriate legal instruments and plausible political strategies are missing. To remedy this situation, the article proposes a new democracy watchdog, analogous to, but more powerful than, the Venice Commission. Finally, it is asked whether EU interventions would provoke a nationalist backlash. There is insufficient evidence to decide this question, but the danger of such a backlash probably tend to be overestimated.