Ethanol formation in unadulterated postmortem tissues

During the investigation of aviation accidents, postmortem samples obtained from fatal accident victims are submitted to the FAA's Civil Aerospace Medical Institute (CAMI) for toxicological analysis. During toxicological evaluations, ethanol analysis is performed on all cases. Many species of bacteria, yeast, and fungi have the ability to produce ethanol and other volatile organic compounds in postmortem specimens. The potential for postmortem ethanol formation complicates the interpretation of ethanol-positive results from accident victims. Therefore, the prevention of ethanol formation at all steps following specimen collection is a priority. Sodium fluoride is the most commonly used preservative for postmortem specimens. Several studies have been published detailing the effectiveness of sodium fluoride for the prevention of ethanol formation in blood and urine specimens; however, our laboratory receives blood or urine in approximately 70% of cases. Thus, we frequently rely on tissue specimens for ethanol analysis. The postmortem tissue specimens received by our laboratory have generally been subjected to severe trauma and may have been exposed to numerous microbial species capable of ethanol production. With this in mind, we designed an experiment utilizing unadulterated tissue specimens obtained from aviation accident victims to determine the effectiveness of sodium fluoride at various storage temperatures for the prevention of microbial ethanol formation. We found that without preservative, specimens stored at 4 degrees C for 96 h showed an increase in ethanol concentration ranging from 22 to 75 mg/hg (average 42 +/- 15 mg/hg). At 25 degrees C, these same specimens showed an increase ranging from 19 to 84 mg/hg (average 45 +/- 22 mg/hg). With the addition of 1.00% sodium fluoride, there was no significant increase in ethanol concentration at either temperature.     

Differentiation of Antemortem and Postmortem Appendicular Fractures Using Magnetic Resonance Imaging Signal Intensity Changes in Bone and Soft Tissues,

Intraosseous T1-weighted (T1W) and short-tau inversion recovery (STIR) magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) signal intensity changes—so-called bone marrow edema—may be able to differentiate antemortem and postmortem fractures in human forensic imaging. The primary objective of this study was to investigate this hypothesis using an animal model. Three juvenile Landrace pigs were anesthetized and underwent MRI of both tibiae and both radii using a 1.5 T magnet. T1W, T2-weighted (T2W), STIR, and T2* sequences were included. Antemortem fractures were induced in both tibiae and postmortem fractures in both radii, and MRI was repeated. Two board-certified radiologists blinded to fracture group jointly evaluated the images for intraosseous and soft tissue signal intensity changes. Sensitivity (Se) and specificity (Sp) in identifying antemortem fractures were calculated based on intraosseous, soft tissue, and combined intraosseous and soft tissue signal intensity changes. Intraosseous and soft tissue signal intensity changes, when present, were hyperintense in all sequences. Intraosseous hyperintensity in T1W and T2W sequences yielded Sp of 100% for antemortem fractures. Regardless of sequence, soft tissue hyperintensity was comparatively more sensitive than intraosseous hyperintensity. Sensitivity for each sequence could be maximized by assessment of soft tissue and intraosseous hyperintense signals together; for the T1W sequence, such assessment optimized diagnostic utility yielding a Se of 100% and Sp of 83%. In summary, MRI—particularly the T1W sequence—can differentiate antemortem and postmortem fractures and may be a useful adjunct to the forensic analyses of fractures.     

Student-to-Student Abuse in the Indian Residential Schools in Canada: Setting the Stage for Further Understanding

The Indian residential school system in Canada was established to assimilate Aboriginal children into mainstream society by removing the “Indian within them.” In the past 20 years survivors of the schools have come forward with stories of physical and sexual abuse perpetrated against them by staff. However, what is significantly less spoken of is the abuse which occurred between students. The Aboriginal Healing Foundation recently held a small gathering of survivors, Elders, advocates, and researchers to discuss ways to bring this issue into the open. This article comes out of the discussions held at the gathering. Within the article we offer a conceptualization of the dynamics and processes of student to student abuse within the Indian residential schools in Canada with the hope that it will encourage a deeper discussion of this issue.     

Book reviews

The following books are reviewed.

Kateryn parr: the making of a queen, SUSAN E. JAMES, 1999 Aldershot: Ashgate. 480 pp., ISBN 1 84014 683 4, £47.50

Mary Queen of Scots: romance and nation JAYNE ELIZABETH LEWIS, 1998 London: Routledge. 260 pp., ISBN 0 415 11480 2, hardback, £45; ISBN 0 415 11481 0, paperback, £15.99

Exile: a memoir of 1939 BRONKA SCHNEIDER, 1998 (Erika Bourguignon & Barbara Hill Rigney, Eds) Columbus: Ohio State University Press. xxi + 132 pp., ISBN 0 8142 0808 8

Speeches and Trials of the Militant Suffragettes: the Women's Social and Political Union, 1903-18 CHERYL R. JORGENSEN-EARP, 1999 Cranbury, NJ: Associated University Presses. 400 pp., ISBN 0 8386 3788 4, hardback, £38.00

Women in Britain since 1900 SUE BRULEY, 1999 Basingstoke: Macmillan. vii + 227 pp., ISBN 0 333 61838 6

Working Out Gender: perspectives from labour history MARGARET WALSH (Ed.), 1999 Aldershot: Ashgate. xi + 235 pp., ISBN 0 7546 0058 0

The Contest for Social Science: relations and representations of gender and class EILEEN YEO, 1996 London: Rivers Oram Press. xx + 396 pp., ISBN 1 85489 068 9, £30

Girls and Women, Men and Boys: gender in Taradale, 1886-1930 CAROLINE DALEY, 1999 Auckland: Auckland University Press, viii + 216 pp., ISBN 1 86940 211 1, NZ$39.95

Politics and Society: the Journals of Lady Knightley of Fawsley, 1885-1913 PETER GORDON (Ed.), 1999 Northampton: Northamptonshire Record Society. x + 535 pp., ISBN 0 901275 61 1, hardback, £20

Reading Witchcraft: stories of early English witches MARION GIBSON, 1999 London: Routledge. 242 pp., ISBN 0 415 20646 4, £14.99

Music and Gender PIRKKO MOISALA & BEVERLEY DIAMOND (Eds), 2000 Urbana: University of Illinois Press. xiii + 376 pp., ISBN 0 252 06865 3, $24.95

Parrot Pie for Breakfast: an anthology of women pioneers JANE ROBINSON, 1999 Oxford: Oxford University Press. xiv +177 pp., ISBN 0 19 288020 9, paperback, £8.99

Gender and Power in Britain, 1640-1990 SUSAN KINGSLEY KENT, 1999 London: Routledge. xii + 364 pp., ISBN 0 415 14742 5, £14.99

The Diary of Elizabeth Richards 1798-1825: from the Wexford Rebellion to family life in The Netherlands MARIE DE JONG-IJSSELSTEIN (Ed., with an Introduction by Kevin Whelan), 1999 Hilversum: Verloren. 171 pp., ISBN 90 6550 169 X, Fl. 35.26/Euro 16.00

Lady Mary Wortley Montagu: comet of the Enlightenment ISOBEL GRUNDY, 1999 Oxford: Oxford University Press. xxiii + 680 pp., ISBN 1 19 811280 0, £30

Defining the Victorian Nation: class, race, gender and the Reform Act of 1867 CATHERINE HALL, KEITH MCCLELLAND & JANE RENDALL, 2000 Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. xiii + 303 pp., ISBN 0 521 57653 9     

Missed Opportunities and New Risks: Penal Policy in England and Wales in the Past Twenty‐Five Years

This paper discusses trends in criminal justice and penal policy over the past twenty‐five years. This period has been characterised as a time of penal populism, which originated in the failure of the 1991 Criminal Justice Act, and the competition between the main political parties to be ‘tough on crime’. However, this is not the only trend to be found in penal policy. There has continued to be a strong undertow of support for rehabilitation and community penalties, including restorative justice. There has been pressure from the left as much as the right to take domestic violence, sexual offences against women and children, and hate crimes more seriously. There have been pressures to meet performance targets—which gradually transformed into calls to build the legitimacy of the justice system. Finally, there have been pressures to privatise criminal justice agencies. These various impulses have sometimes amplified and sometimes counteracted the pressures towards tough penal policy. If the period of intense penal populism ran from 1993 to 2007, inertia in the system has ensured that there have been no significant attempts to row back from tough policies, and to reassert the values of penal parsimony. Given that money has been tight since 2007 and crime has continued to fall, this must amount to a lost opportunity of significant proportions.     

RETHINKING URBAN COMPETITIVENESS,COHESION AND GOVERNANCE

RETHINKING URBAN COMPETITIVENESS, COHESION AND GOVERNANCE
Nick Buck, Ian Gordon, Alan Harding and Ivan Turok (eds)
Palgrave Macmillan, 2005, 317 pp., £19.99 (pb) ISBN: 1403906807     

Globalization is What We Make of It: Contemporary Globalization Theory and the Future Construction of Global Interconnection

There are four perennial questions that preoccupy globalization theory. For those who write about globalization, there is a constant attempt to discover what globalization is, when it may have started, what benefits and burdens it offers for global cohabitation and whether globalization is ultimately a good thing or a bad thing. The purpose of this article is to review several new works in contemporary globalization theory and to assess what new answers they offer to these questions. Through this examination it will be argued that although these recent works provide significant improvements to former discussions on globalization, they still tend to lack an obvious insight. Namely, they fail to highlight fully the fact that whatever globalization is, it is as important to think normatively about directing its future as it is to understand its past. In other words, globalization is entirely what we make of it, both in how we cognitively come to understand it, but also in how we decide to shape its future.