Reviews

Andrei Kuznetsov, Foreign Investment in Contemporary Russia: Managing Capital Entry. New York: St Martin's Press Inc, 1994. xiv + 188 pp., £45.00

Leslie Dienes, Istvan Dobozi & Marian Radetzki, Energy and Economic Reform in the Former Soviet Union: Implications for Production, Consumption and Exports. London: Macmillan, 1994, xiv + 246 pp., £45.00

Hilary Pilkington, Russia's Youth and its Culture. A Nation's Constructors and Constructed. London: Routledge, 1994, xiv + 358 pp., £40.00 h/b., £12.99 p/b.

Peter Gatrell, Government, Industry and Rearmament in Russia, 1900–1914: the Last Argument of Tsarism. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1994, xx + 399 pp., £55.00 h/b., £19.95 p/b.

Margot Light (ed.), Troubled Friendships: Moscow's Third World Ventures. London: British Academic Press, 1993, vii + 225 pp., £39.50.

Dale F. Eickelman (ed.), Russia's Muslim Frontiers: New Directions in Cross‐cultural Analysis. Bloomington and Indianapolis, IN: Indiana University Press, 1993, ix + 225 pp.

Ljubo Sirc, Criticism of Self‐Management Still Relevant? London: Centre for Research into Communist Economies, 1994, 134 pp., £7.50.

Du?an Pokorný, Efficiency and Justice in the Industrial World: Volume 1. The Failure of the Soviet Experiment. New York, London: M. E. Sharpe, 1993, 297 pp., £53.00.

Linda J. Cook, The Soviet Social Contract and Why it Failed. Welfare Policy and Workers’ Politics from Brezhnev to Yeltsin. Cambridge, MA and London: Harvard University Press, 1994, xiii + 272 pp., £35.95/$53.95.

Henryk Kierzkowski, Marek Okolski & Stanislaw Wellisz (eds), Stabilization and Structural Adjustment in Poland. London: Routledge, 1993, xi + 314 pp., £45.00.

Stephen Whitefield (ed.) The New Institutional Architecture of Eastern Europe. Basingstoke: Macmillan, 1993, ix + 204 pp., £40.00     

Case of Fatal Starvation: Can Stable Isotope Analysis Serve to Support Morphological Diagnosis and Approximate the Length of Starvation?

The diagnosis of death as a result of starvation is established on anthropological measurements, visual appearance of the deceased on external and internal examination, microscopic analysis, laboratory testing, and exclusion of other causes of death. Herein, we present our findings on a case of 95‐year‐old man who died of starvation. After the diagnosis of starvation was established by traditional forensic medicine methods, we have conducted retrospective segmental analysis of stable carbon (δ¹³C) and nitrogen (δ¹⁵N) isotope ratios in hair sample. This method reveals periods of starvation through decrease in δ¹³C and increase in δ¹⁵N along the strand of hair. Our analysis revealed the decrease of 0.6 ‰ in δ¹³C during the last 10–12 weeks prior to death, similar as reported in other investigations. Also, a decrease of 0.7 ‰ in δ¹⁵N during the last 8–10 weeks prior to death was determined that was different than observed in previous studies.     

The Reliability of Chronological Age Determination by Means of Mandibular Third Molar Development in Subjects in Croatia*

Abstract: The aim of this study was to determine the development of the mandibular third molar and its relation to chronological age. The evaluated material consisted of 979 orthopantomograms of patients of Croatian Caucasian origin aged between 5.7 and 14.6 years. Third molar developmental stages were evaluated according to the stages proposed by Nolla. The frequencies of different stages of mineralization and the mean value of the mineralization of the mandibular third molars with regard to age, gender, and size of the mandible were determined and the coefficient of correlation determined between the age of the subject and the stage of development of the mandibular molars. Statistically significant correlation was determined between mineralization of the mandibular third molar and chronological age of the subjects (boys, mandibular left third molar r = 0.779, right third molar r = 0.793; girls, mandibular left third molar r = 0.746, right third molar r = 0.725). It can be concluded that the accuracy of age estimation based on Nolla’s method is applicable for Croatian children.     

Surgical Sutures as a Means of Identifying Human Remains*

Abstract: The Food and Drug Administration does not require surgical sutures to be tracked by manufacturer, physician, or patient; thereby, surgical sutures have been of little use to forensic practitioners who are tasked with establishing a positive identification with biological evidence. This study demonstrates the investigative process used to pinpoint suture manufacturers by presenting a case where surgical sutures were a distinctive characteristic that aided in the positive identification of skeletal remains. The suture’s manufacturer, construction material and structure, size, and medical use was determined by contacting a local surgical suture and orthopedic implant manufacturer and utilizing publicly available manufacturer websites, which provide catalogs and specific product details. This research was one of many lines of evidence used to establish the positive identification of a 47‐year‐old male.