Indigenous Australia and health rights

Over the last decade, there has been a significant shift in public policy in relation to indigenous Australians. The new policy frameworks have been marked by an antipathy towards a policy discourse based on a human rights framework. This has also been associated with a shift from an approach based on "self-determination" to one founded on the idea of "mutual obligation". This article describes these developments in detail and considers the implications for human rights discourse.     

The Influence of Clothing and Wrapping on Carcass Decomposition and Arthropod Succession During the Warmer Seasons in Central South Africa*

Abstract: The influence of clothing and wrapping on carcass decomposition and arthropod succession was investigated to provide data to enable estimated postmortem interval in homicide investigations. Six pig carcasses, Sus scrofa, were divided into three sample groups, each with a clothed carcass wrapped and a carcass wrapped with no clothes. Two more carcasses, one with no clothes or wrapping, the other with clothes and no wrapping were used as controls. The clothed or wrapped carcasses had larger visible maggot masses, which moved more freely and these carcasses took longer to dry out. The blow fly maggot masses were dominated by Chrysomya marginalis and Chrysomya albiceps. Oviposition occurred simultaneously on all carcasses. High temperatures in one case caused significant maggot mortality. The Coleoptera community was dominated by Silphidae, Thanathopilus micans larvae, Dermestidae, Dermestes maculatus adults and larvae, and Cleridae, Necrobia rufipes.     

The Optimized Summed Scored Attributes Method for the Classification of U.S. Blacks and Whites: A Validation Study

Recently, Hefner and Ousley (2014) introduced the optimized summed scored attributes (OSSA) method that maximizes between‐group differences in U.S. black and white populations by dichotomizing six cranial morphoscopic trait scores. This study tests OSSA using an independent skeletal sample (Hamann‐Todd, n = 208) and positively identified forensic cases (Mercyhurst University, n = 28, and New York City Office of Chief Medical Examiner, n = 38). An evaluation of trait frequencies suggests shifting the heuristically selected sectioning point separating U.S. black and white populations from ≤ 3 to ≤ 4. We found a total correct classification of 73.0% (B = 50.9%, W = 89.2%) using the originally suggested sectioning point of ≤3, while the total correct classification increases to 79.2% (B = 80.2%, W = 78.5%) with a modified sectioning point of ≤4. With the increased total correct classification and reduced classification bias between ancestry groups, we suggest the modified sectioning point of ≤4 be used when assessing ancestry in forensic unknowns.     

Service quality and the optimum number of members in intermunicipal cooperation: The case of emergency primary care services in Norway

Intermunicipal cooperation (IMC) is often used as a mean to reap scale benefits. Most studies on the effects of IMC focus on cost savings, while service quality is overlooked. In this study, the focus is set on input quality in a service characterized by high asset specificity and need for redundancy: emergency primary care. We analyze how mode of governance affect performance by (1) measuring whether IMC versus single-municipal production affects input quality and (2) identifying optimum scale of operation; effect of the number of participants in the cooperation on input quality. The findings indicate that cooperation weakens the input quality of medical workforce, but that this negative effect is balanced out as the number of participants increases, indicating that cooperation needs to reach a certain size to achieve optimum scale of operation. Concerning equipment, both cooperation in general and an increasing number of participants decrease the input quality.     

Europeans and their money: Explaining public support for the common European currency

Abstract. Using public opinion surveys conducted in the member states of the European Union, this paper seeks to provide a systematic understanding of public support for the EMU project and European–level monetary policy authority. We develop models of support for EU monetary policy that incorporate a utilitarian component and elements of multilevel governance that is emerging within the EU. These models are tested at the aggregate level of survey respondents. The results show that variations in attitudes to the common currency are driven by collectively–based considerations of the costs and benefits associated with the common currency project as well as the interaction of European–level politics and the domestic politics of the member states.     

Wench Tactics? Openings in Conditions of Closure

Picking up the question of what FLaK might be, this editorial considers the relationship between openness and closure in feminist legal studies. How do we draw on feminist struggles for openness in common resources, from security to knowledge, as we inhabit a compromised space in commercial publishing? We think about this first in relation to the content of this issue: on image-based abuse continuums, asylum struggles, trials of protestors, customary justice, and not-so-timely reparations. Our thoughts take us through the different ways that openness and closure work in struggles against violence, cruel welcomes, and re-arrangements of code and custom. Secondly, we share some reflections on methodological openness and closure as the roundtable conversation on asylum, and the interview with Riles, remind us of #FLaK2016 and its method of scattering sources as we think about how best to mix knowledges. Thirdly, prompted by the FLaK kitchen table conversations on openness, publishing and ‘getting the word out’, we respond to Kember’s call to ‘open up open access’. We explain the different current arrangements for opening up FLS content and how green open access, the sharedit initiative, author request and publisher discretion present alternatives to gold open access. Finally drawing on Franklin and Spade, we show how there are a range of ‘wench tactics’—adapting gifts, stalling and resting—which we deploy as academic editors who are trying to have an impact on the access, use and circulation of our journal, even though we do not own the journal we edit. These wench tactics are alternatives to the more obvious or reported tactic of resignation, or withdrawing academic labour from editing and reviewing altogether. They help us think about brewing editorial time, what ambivalence over our 25th birthday might mean, and how to inhabit painful places. In this, we respond in our own impure, compromised way to da Silva’s call not to forget the native and slave as we do FLaK, and repurpose shrapnel, in our common commitments.     

The Effects of Tulsa's Pre‐K Program on Middle School Student Performance

As states have upgraded their commitment to pre‐K education over the past two decades, questions have arisen. Critics argue that program effects are likely to fade out or disappear over time, while supporters contend that program effects are likely to persist under certain conditions. Using data from Tulsa Public Schools, three neighboring school districts, and the state of Oklahoma, and propensity score weighting, we estimate the effects of Tulsa's universal, school‐based pre‐K program on multiple measures of academic progress for middle school students. We find enduring effects on math achievement test scores, enrollment in honors courses, and grade retention for students as a whole, and similar effects for certain subgroups. We conclude that some positive effects of a high‐quality pre‐K program are discernible as late as middle school.     

A Small Population Study on Friction Skin Ridges: Differences in Ridge Widths Between Latent and Inked Fingerprints

Morphological changes in the width of latent fingermark ridges occur naturally over time. This could be used to examine the aging process of latents and eventually estimate time of deposition. In a crime context, it is common practice to compare a questioned (aged) fingermark with a database of known (inked) prints. Therefore, in the absence of fresh fingermarks for aging purposes, it is of interest to reveal correlations between these two categories of fingerprints with regard to the widths of their ridges. The present study explores correlations of ridge widths between flat and rolled inked prints with latent fingermarks visualized with carbon black (CB) and titanium dioxide (TiO₂)-based powders among a small population of ten donors. Results revealed consistent differences between the ridge widths of latent and inked prints as well as flat and rolled impressions. Latent fingermarks visualized with CB and TiO₂ powders showed ridges with comparable widths.