Diagnosis of Hemorrhagic Stroke in an Exhumed Brain After Three Years of Burial in a Deep Grave

Abstract: We present the forensic neuropathologic analysis of an exhumed decomposed brain following long‐term interment in a 50‐year‐old white woman, who had been buried for 34 months. Next of kin authorized exhumation of the body for an autopsy to determine the cause of death. The embalmed body was anatomically intact and revealed decompositional changes with mold colonies. Internal viscera showed intact histomorphology. The brain revealed diffuse congestive swelling and extracellular edema with dissecting parenchymal hemorrhage and hematoma originating from the left putamen and thalamus and extending to the left lateral ventricle. Excitotoxic neuronal injury as well as penumbric parenchymal changes was noted. Cause of death was determined to be a hypertensive cerebral parenchymal hemorrhage. This case and our previously reported case are sentinel cases, which should encourage and guide the forensic neuropathologic work‐up and investigation of causes of death in spite of long‐term burial in deep graves.     

Evaluation of Police Training on LGBTQ Issues: Knowledge,Interpersonal Apprehension,and Self-Efficacy

The present study evaluates outcomes of a five-hour training session to prepare law enforcement personnel (LEP) to work effectively with LGBTQ individuals and communities. The training was developed collaboratively with the local police department, an LGBTQ community organization, a group of diversity trainers, and the researchers. Approximately 120 LEP participated in the training, and 81 completed pre- and post-test assessments of knowledge, self-efficacy, and interpersonal comfort with LGBTQ people. Paired-sample t-tests demonstrated significant increases in knowledge and confidence in using LGBTQ-affirming tactics on the job. No significant differences were found in participants’ comfort in working with LGBTQ community members. Implications for LEP training on LGBTQ issues and research in assessing LEP for behavioral and affective change are discussed.     

Majority Party Change and Committee Jurisdictions in State Legislatures

Committee jurisdictions are important in legislative organization, but the reorganization of jurisdictions has received scant attention, particularly in state legislatures, where the fluidity of committee organization allows us to examine rationales for change. In this article, I examine whether new majorities use jurisdiction reorganization for agenda‐control purposes. Examining 39 state legislatures between 2003 and 2012, I test whether committee patterns are less stable in legislative sessions under new majorities and the extent to which reorganization reflects party priorities. I find that new majority parties eliminate committees that reflect the other party's policy priorities and create committees that reflect their priorities.     

Fighting antisemitism with numbers in early twentieth-century Britain

ABSTRACT

In the 1920s and 1930s, the Jewish Health Organization of Great Britain (JHOGB) and its president, Redcliffe Nathan Salaman, championed the collection and analysis of demographic data about the Anglo-Jewish community as a way to counter rising antisemitism. In this article, Endelman discusses the belief in the ability of statistical research to undermine lies and distortions about the Jews of Britain that rested on untested Enlightenment assumptions about human nature and the sources of human behaviours and sentiments. While the JHOGB’s faith in statistical research as a bulwark of counter-propaganda never faltered, and while it obtained funding for a handful of projects, it failed to convince the leaders of Anglo-Jewry of the necessity to create and support a permanent statistical bureau. With the onset of the Second World War, the organization ceased its work, as more pressing communal priorities, especially caring for refugees from Nazism, rose to the fore.     

Unresponsive and Unpersuaded: The Unintended Consequences of a Voter Persuasion Effort

To date, field experiments on campaign tactics have focused overwhelmingly on mobilization and voter turnout, with far more limited attention to persuasion and vote choice. In this paper, we analyze a field experiment with 56,000 Wisconsin voters designed to measure the persuasive effects of canvassing, phone calls, and mailings during the 2008 presidential election. Focusing on the canvassing treatment, we find that persuasive appeals had two unintended consequences. First, they reduced responsiveness to a follow-up survey among infrequent voters, a substantively meaningful behavioral response that has the potential to induce bias in estimates of persuasion effects as well. Second, the persuasive appeals possibly reduced candidate support and almost certainly did not increase it. This counterintuitive finding is reinforced by multiple statistical methods and suggests that contact by a political campaign may engender a backlash.     

Why do some international institutions contain strong dispute settlement provisions? New evidence from preferential trade agreements

To understand why some international institutions have stronger dispute settlement mechanisms (DSMs) than others, we investigate the dispute settlement provisions of nearly 600 preferential trade agreements (PTAs), which possess several desirable case-selection features and are evoked more than is realized. We broaden the study of dispute settlement design beyond “legalization” and instead reorient theorizing around a multi-faceted conceptualization of the strength of DSMs. We posit that strong DSMs are first and foremost a rational response to features of agreements that require stronger dispute settlement, such as depth and large memberships. Multivariate empirical tests using a new data set on PTA design confirm these expectations and reveal that depth – the amount of policy change specified in an agreement – is the most powerful and consistent predictor of DSM strength, providing empirical support to a long-posited but controversial conjecture. Yet power also plays a sizeable role, since agreements among asymmetric members are more likely to have strong DSMs due to their mutual appeal, as are those involving the United States. Important regional differences also emerge, as PTAs across the Americas are designed with strong dispute settlement, as are Asian PTAs, which contradicts the conventional wisdom about Asian values and legalization. Our findings demonstrate that rationalism explains much of international institutional design, yet it can be enhanced by also incorporating power-based and regional explanations.     

The Role of Interface Shape on the Impact Characteristics and Cranial Fracture Patterns Using the Immature Porcine Head Model, ,

The forensic literature suggests that when adolescents fall onto edged and pointed surfaces, depressed fractures can occur at low energy levels. This study documents impact biomechanics and fracture characteristics of infant porcine skulls dropped onto flat, curved, edged, and focal surfaces. Results showed that the energy needed for fracture initiation was nearly four times higher against a flat surface than against the other surfaces. While characteristic measures of fracture such as number and length of fractures did not vary with impact surface shape, the fracture patterns did depend on impact surface shape. While experimental impacts against the flat surface produced linear fractures initiating at sutural boundaries peripheral to the point of impact (POI), more focal impacts produced depressed fractures initiating at the POI. The study supported case‐based forensic literature suggesting cranial fracture patterns depend on impact surface shape and that fracture initiation energy is lower for more focal impacts.