Recreational Sporting Activity Vehicle‐Related Deaths

Deaths occurring in the setting of nonprofessional, vehicle‐related, recreational sporting activities occurring on land or in water during warm or winter months represent a diverse group of cases. These deaths tend to involve scenarios where the participants are purposefully attempting to enjoy themselves prior to experiencing sudden, catastrophic accidents resulting in lethal outcomes. Ultimately, many of the deaths are related to the high speed at which these vehicle‐related activities normally occur. Three broad categories of factors may play contributory roles in death: human factors, vehicle factors, and environmental factors. A series of selected cases are presented, representing examples of varying activity types, involving motorized and nonmotorized vehicles, land and water activities, and warm weather and cold weather environments. For each case, the various human, vehicle and environmental factors believed to be contributory to the accident are considered, and strategies for prevention of these and similar deaths involving recreational sporting vehicles are presented.     

Potentially Lethal Behaviors Associated With Rapid Eye Movement Sleep Behavior Disorder: Review of the Literature and Forensic Implications

Abstract:  Rapid eye movement (REM) sleep behavior disorder (RBD) is characterized by loss of the muscle atonia of REM sleep, with release of complex and violent behaviors that are often attempted dream-enactments. This study reviewed the literature on RBD with regard to potentially lethal behavior. A total of 39–41 clinical cases of RBD associated with potentially lethal behaviors to self and/or others were found, involving a child and adults of all age groups, that manifested as choking/headlock ( n  = 22–24), defenestration/near-defenestration ( n  = 7), and diving from bed ( n  = 10). A total of 80.8% ( n  = 21) were males; 19.2% ( n  = 5) were females; mean age was 65.6 ± (SD) 13.8 years (range: 27–81 years, and a child). (Gender/age data were not listed in the remaining cases.) An etiologic association of RBD with a neurologic disorder (or with pharmacotherapy of psychiatric disorders, n  = 4) was present in 21–23 patients. Thus, RBD carries well-documented, potential forensic consequences during RBD episodes that could possibly have been misinterpreted as suicidal or homicidal behavior.     

That Old-Time Religion: Efficiency, Benchmarking, and Productivity

Books Reviewed:
M. Berman, Productivity in Public and Nonprofit Organizations: Strategies and Techniques
Patricia Keehley, Steven Medlin, Sue MacBride, and Laura Longmire, Benchmarking for Best Practices in the Public Sector: Achieving Performance Breakthroughs in Federal, State and Local Agencies
David N. Ammons, Municipal Benchmarks: Assessing Local Performance and Establishing Community Standards     

Public–private partnerships (PPPs) in local services: risk-sharing and private delivery of water services in Spain

Local governments are increasingly utilising the public–private partnership (PPP) model as a means of organising service delivery in the public–private domain. This article examines the experiences with construction and operation of 131 PPP wastewater treatment plants in the region of Aragon, Spain. The study highlights how an inadequate management of construction risk and unsuitable transfer of demand and revenue risk resulted in significant time delays in execution of the PPP projects. The research also shows how the involvement of public bodies at local, regional and national level further added to the complexity of implementing the projects. The findings contribute to the literature on local service delivery and provide insights regarding risk transfer in long-term PPP contracts for the delivery of local services in general and water services in particular.     

Militarizing civilians in Singapore: preparing for ‘Crisis’ within a calibrated nationalism1

The Singaporean polity has created the ‘militarized civilian’. This policy phenomenon beckons the question: How is this cross-fertilization carried out in Singapore's civil–military relations? Militarization is in the first sense meant to inculcate a calibrated dual personality within the civilian whereby being an effective soldier requires indulging in simulated military suffering as a badge of pride; at the same time, the citizen soldier has to believe that military and civilian values are perfectly interchangeable and contribute equally to the maintenance of peace. In a second sense, militarization is equally about permanently ritualizing sacrifices for a communitarian defence. We argue that while mostly successful, militarization also produces the tension arising from the need to appear pugnaciously vigilant while avoiding the casualties that must logically arise from heightened simulated combat. This tension is explained through two dimensions of ongoing crises: the parameters of a politically dramatized National Service ritual; and the constant propaganda of geopolitical dangers threatening the Republic.     

The Long Arm of Community: The Influence of Childhood Community Contexts Across the Early Life Course

This study examines the longitudinal effects of childhood community contexts on young adult outcomes. The study uses a sample of 14,000 adolescents (52% female) derived from the 1990 US Census and the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health (Addhealth). The study examines whether community and family environments exert separate and/or joint long-term influences on young adult achievement and depression. We found both direct and indirect long-term influences of childhood community adversity on young adult educational attainment. The indirect influences of childhood community adversity operated through family and individual-level factors. The long-term influence of childhood community adversity on young adult depression was only indirect. Overall, community influences on young adult achievement outcomes were mediated by family context and by the adolescents’ adjustments and transitions, including adolescent depression, school adjustment, and disruptive transitional events. The moderating effect of childhood community adversity suggests that the protective effects of family resources on young adult outcomes dissipate significantly in extremely adverse neighborhoods. The findings demonstrate the importance of integrating multiple theoretical perspectives for longitudinal research to capture pathways of community influence on adolescent developmental and young adulthood outcomes.     

Making the Sky Relevant to Battle Strategy: Counterinsurgency and the Prospects of Air Power in Nigeria

One of the most important roles in counterinsurgency (COIN) is to maintain adequate security presence to protect lives and properties of the affected population and restore law and order in the society. Accordingly, the state of affairs in Nigeria's COIN theater has been affected by the quantity and quality of security presence, most especially the ability of the operatives to gather timely and relevant information and mobilize for prompt response. Although the roles of the ground operatives have dominated public attention, the local air force and the complementary air powers have affected the security situations with the level of their presence or absence in the sky for intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance; firepower; and transportation in the theater. This study examines the relevance of security presence to achieve the objective of COIN and the prospects of air power in this arrangement in Nigeria and the Lake Chad region.