An experimental study of powder tattooing of the skin.

Test firings were conducted on specially prepared live rabbits to determine the approximate maximum ranges at which powder tattooing occurs for different forms of gunpowder. For .38 caliber, powder tattooing from cartridges loaded with flake powder disappears at a range of 18 to 24 in. (0.4 to 0.6 m). Powder tattooing with flattened ball powder extends to 36 in. (0.9 m), while that due to ball powder extends to 48 in. (1.2m) of range. In .22 caliber, powder tattooing was observed out to 24 in. (0.6 m) with flake powder and 18 in. (0.4 m) with flattened ball. Attempts to reproduce the animal powder tattoo patterns on paper revealed that the paper patterns are consistent with skin tattoo patterns only up to 18 in (0.4 m) of range.     

The Design and Implementation of Cross-Sector Collaborations: Propositions from the Literature

People who want to tackle tough social problems and achieve beneficial community outcomes are beginning to understand that multiple sectors of a democratic society—business, nonprofits and philanthropies, the media, the community, and government—must collaborate to deal effectively and humanely with the challenges. This article focuses on cross-sector collaboration that is required to remedy complex public problems. Based on an extensive review of the literature on collaboration, the article presents a propositional inventory organized around the initial conditions affecting collaboration formation, process, structural and governance components, constraints and contingencies, outcomes, and accountability issues.     

The resistible rise of preventive medicine

The politics of preventive health care have changed dramatically in the last fifteen years. In the late 1960s and early 1970s, prevention was the motherhood issue of health care reform. With only the slightest glimmer of controversy, vaccination, promotion of lifestyle changes, mass screening, and safety regulation all became widely accepted strategies for improving health and reducing medical expenditures. By the mid-1980s, the dark side of each strategy became visible. Vaccinations can cause serious and permanent injuries; lifestyle factors are being used to raise insurance premiums, to deny eligibility for disability insurance benefits, and to deny employment. Screening is similarly used to deny employment, and new technologies for prenatal screening have raised fears of stigma and selective abortion among racial, handicapped, and antiabortion groups. Occupational safety regulation is increasingly focused on excluding the "high-risk" individual from jobs. In the absence of social protections from these economic and social harms, citizens have used tort and civil rights litigation to resist preventive health measures.