Rifle wounds: a review of range and location as pertaining to manner of death

Given the prevalence of rimfire and centerfire rifle usage in both suicidal and homicidal cases, there is a paucity of articles in the literature that focus specifically on rifle wounds. Gunshot wounds, in general, have been extensively studied with articles focusing on the types of injuries, weapons used, wound locations and weapon range. We designed a study to examine the characteristics of rifle wounds, including both centerfire and rimfire rifles, especially pertaining to location and range of the wound. All deaths due to rifles examined at the Bexar County Medical Examiner's Office between 1988 and 2004 were reviewed. A total of 509 cases were identified, with 233 suicides and 266 homicides. We found that the average age of suicide victims (41.6 years) tended to be older than that of homicide victims (32.6 years). Suicides tended to be contact wounds to the head whereas homicides most often had multiple wound locations sustained from a distant range. The most common location to the head of suicidal wounds was intraoral whereas homicidal head wounds were more often to the temporoparietal region. We developed odds ratios for assessing the manner of death given a wound location or range; however, we caution that every case should be analyzed based upon it's unique circumstances and not solely its statistical probability.     

Peircean Semeiotic and Legal Practices: Rudimentary and “Rhetorical” Considerations

Too often C. S. Peirce’s theory of signs is used simply as a classificatory scheme rather than primarily as a heuristic framework (that is, a framework designed and modified primarily for the purpose of goading and guiding inquiry in any field in which signifying processes or practices are present). Such deployment of his semeiotic betrays the letter no less than the spirit of Peirce’s writings on signs. In this essay, the author accordingly presents Peirce’s sign theory as a heuristic framework, attending to some of the most important ways that it might serve to facilitate a semeiotic investigation of our legal practices. He pays close attention to the ways the topics of history, formalism, reductionism, and generality become, from a Peircean perspective, salient features of legal studies.

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Diasporan students social entrepreneurship intention: The moderating role of institutional support

The daunting global challenges saddling polities and governments alike have resultantly created a situation whereby governments and corporate civil society have inadvertently reneged on delivering public good and services to citizens. In ensuring and strengthening a public–private actor synergy, with particular emphasis on leveraging acquired knowledge and skills of diaspora‐based students, social entrepreneurship activities could be harnessed to provide sustainable remedies to social challenges such as unemployment, famine amongst others by utilizing social entrepreneurship as a tool. Using the theory of planned behaviour as a theoretical framework, the study elicited data from 322 respondents to empirically investigate determinants of social entrepreneurship intentions of Ghanaian students, with the moderating role of institutional support. Study results revealed that sense of social responsibility and service learning have significant relationship with social entrepreneurship intention. However, social volunteering experience had no significant relationship. Moreover, whereas attitude to social entrepreneurship intention demonstrated a positive relationship, institutional support as a moderator was also revealed to influence the relationship between attitude and social entrepreneurship intention. From the study findings, we discourse on the implications for social entrepreneurship in Ghana to policy makers and stakeholders.     

Ethyl glucuronide: unusual distribution between head hair and pubic hair

Ethyl glucuronide (EtG) is a minor metabolite of ethanol that can be detected in hair. In some specific situations, head hair can be missing, and therefore, alternative anatomical locations of hair are of interest. In this study, paired hair specimens (head hair and pubic hair) from eight social drinkers were analyzed for EtG. Each sample was decontaminated by two dichloromethane bathes (5 ml) for 2 min. After cutting into small pieces, about 50 mg of hair was incubated in 2 ml water in the presence of 10 ng of EtG-d5, used as internal standard and submitted to ultra-sonication for 2 h. The aqueous phase was extracted by SPE using Oasis MAX columns. The hair extract was separated on an ACQUITY BEH HILIC column using a gradient of acetonitrile and formate buffer. Detection was based on two daughter ions: transitions m/z 221-85 and 75 and m/z 226-75 for EtG and the IS, respectively. This laboratory is using a positive cut-off at 50 pg/mg. All eight head hair specimens were negative for EtG at a limit of quantitation fixed at 10 pg/mg. Surprisingly, EtG was identified at high concentrations in pubic hair, in the range 12-1370 pg/mg. It appears, therefore, that it is not possible to document the drinking status of a subject by simply switching from head hair to pubic hair.     

'Mad Cows' and Eurocrats—Community Responses to the BSE Crisis

Abstract: The initial Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy crisis, that is until the imposition of the EU-wide ban on UK beef exports on 27 March 1996, and the failure of the institutions of the EU and Member States to react effectively and efficiently to this developing crisis, brought to light some of the faults in the food safety and animal health part of the EU's system of governance. Responding to criticisms and recommendations made in the aftermath of the initial crisis, particularly by the European Parliament, the EU has embarked on a process of reforming the administrative landscape in this area. This has included the setting-up of a new regulatory agency, the European Food Safety Agency, and a commitment to the more effective use of scientific information. It is submitted that this could lead to the development of new information-based scientific networks that inform and direct EU governance, networks which should contain the European Food Safety Agency at their centre.     

Exploring the Subnational Dimension of Income Inequality: An Analysis of the Relationship Between Inequality and Electoral Turnout in the Developed Countries

This paper offers an exploratory analysis of the subnational dimension of income inequality, using data from the Luxembourg Income Study. The paper undertakes two basic tasks. First, it describes the results of calculations on household-level income data that produce indicators of intra- and inter-household inequality for 191 regions in 12 developed countries for the late 1980s and early 1990s, and for 149 regions in 8 countries for the mid-1990s. Second, the paper demonstrates the value of regional analysis by reexamining the relationship between electoral turnout and income inequality, an important substantive issue which has heretofore been explored almost entirely at the national or individual level but upon which regional-level analysis can shed valuable light.     

Barriers to the strategic adoption of revolutionary manufacturing processes

This research examines the role of strategic barriers to the adoption of revolutionary new manufacturing processes in two American industries—primary textiles and steel. Based on the experiences of these sectors, two general conclusions are reached. First, the factors influencing strategic adoption of revolutionary processes can be classified into three categories: scale, vertical scope, and horizontal scope. Second, different strategic groups experience and encounter different barriers in the adoption of revolutionary technological processes.     

Reviews

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Reviews

Pekka Sutela, Economic Thought and Economic Reform in the Soviet Union. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1991, 197 pp., £30.00 h/b, £10.95 p/b.

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