Shining a light on the grey zones of gender construction: breast surgery in France and Italy

This article analyses the areas of overlap between cosmetic surgery and reconstructive surgery, using the examples of both female and male breast surgery, and shows that these areas of overlap are sites of the construction of gendered bodies. The data are drawn from two pieces of research: the first based on 17 in-depth interviews with Italian cosmetic surgeons and the second based on 99 interviews with breast cancer patients and medical oncological professionals conducted in France and Italy. The primary data are supplemented by an analysis of the medical literature. ‘Too small’ female breasts (micromastia) and male gynecomastia (male fatty breast tissue) are pathologised by the surgeons and the medical literature, and a surgical intervention is presented as a way to heal this pathology. The pathologisation of healthy breasts goes along with the aestheticisation of oncological breast surgery. The interventions performed during a post-mastectomy breast reconstruction are guided by normative ideas of how a female body should be. The gender norms inscribed in this surgery practice can however be contested by patients: they can ask for a breast reconstruction while refusing all forms of ‘enhancement’.     

Forensic DNA against wildlife poaching: Identification of a serial wolf killing in Italy

The recent expansion of the Italian wolf population through the Apennine and western Alps, after centuries of contractions, is causing conflicts with human activities leading to a rise in poaching or illegal killings. Here we show how molecular population genetics has been used to identify a suspect serial wolf killer. We analysed DNA extracted from a necklace made of ten presumed wolf canine teeth, confiscated in 2008 to a man living in the northern Italian Apennine (Liguria Region). Individual genotypes were determined using 12 unlinked autosomal microsatellites (STRs), mtDNA control-region sequences, a male-specific ZFX/ZFY restriction-site and three Y-linked STRs. Results indicate that the teeth belonged to six different individuals (three males and three females), which were assigned to the Italian wolf population with p > 0.90 by Bayesian procedures. One of these genotypes matched with the genetic profile of a male wolf previously found-dead and already non-invasively sampled in the same area. Another genotype matched with that of a female wolf non-invasively sampled twice in the same area 1 year before. These data are being used as forensic genetic evidence in the ongoing criminal trial against the suspect serial wolf killer.     

Revising the declaration of Helsinki: ethics vs economics or the fallacy of urgency

Constant vigilance is required to ensure that the rights of volunteers in clinical trials are protected, particularly in developing countries. In this presentation to the XIII International AIDS Conference (abstract ThOrE651), Dirceu B Greco, of the Federal University of Minas Gerais in Brazil, describes the debate that has raged over the proposed changes to the Declaration of Helsinki, particularly with respect to access to medical care for trial volunteers and to the use of placebos in the control arms of the trials. The presentation argues: (1) that all trial volunteers should have access to the best diagnostic, preventive, and therapeutic methods, regardless of the standard of care in the countries where the trials are taking place; (2) that large efficacy trials of vaccines and drugs should be done first in countries where the best diagnostic, preventive, and therapeutic methods are available; and (3) that the costs of providing care and prevention services should be considered an integral part of the cost of the trials. The presentation explains how a partnership between activists, scientists, ethicists, and medical associations was effective in resisting pressures to lower the ethical standards for clinic trials. The presentation concludes that the gains made by this partnership constitute an important step in the struggle to provide universal access to education and health.     

Early Childhood Predictors of Teen Dating Violence Involvement at Age 17

The distal relationship between risk factors in childhood and subsequent dating violence in late adolescence has not often been explored using longitudinal data. This study aims to shed light on the problem of dating violence by examining children’s backgrounds at age 7 and the link to the future involvement in dating violence at age 17 using the first and seventh waves of the Zurich Project on the Social Development from Childhood to Adulthood (z-proso, n?=?644). The sample consists of 644 multiethnic adolescents (57.14% female, M?=?17.47, SD?=?0.37), mainly Swiss-born (90%), though more than half of their parents (60%) were born in another country. A latent class analysis was applied to identify three different profiles (a) zero (or minimal) involvement in teen dating violence, (b) perpetrators/victims of controlling behaviors, and (c) perpetrators/victims of controlling behaviors and of physical violence. Participants who were corporally punished and/or victims of bullying at age 7 were significantly more likely to belong to the controlling and physical violence profile than children in the non-violent class. These results suggest a certain chronicity of the effects of violent experiences in early childhood on the patterns of romantic relationships at 17 years old.

     

The Role of Fantasy in a Serial Sexual Offender: A Brief Review of the Literature and a Case Report

Abstract: Extensive research has attempted to elucidate the role of fantasy in sexual offending. In this paper, the authors summarize the main results of the literature, especially the contents, themes, dynamics, etiopathogenesis, and potential functions of fantasy in sexual offending. Further, the authors analyze the case of a serial sexual offender who assaulted 39 women. The forensic‐psychiatric assessment revealed that his fantasies of forced sex, sexual coercion, and dominance, which were linked to narcissistic personality organization and functioning, were the primary drive mechanism in his crimes, because he imagined himself in the role of the aggressor, identified with the power associated with the role of perpetrator, and was sexually aroused by such images of omnipotent control of the victim. In conclusions, the authors suggest that fantasies of sexual aggression, coercion, and dominance of women may stimulate grandiosity and omnipotence and, in a minority of cases, may lead to sexual offending.     

Evaluating and comparing entrepreneurial ecosystems using SMAA and SMAA-S

The Journal of Technology Transfer - This paper focuses on the entrepreneurial ecosystem as a set of interdependent and coordinated factors in a territory enabling entrepreneurship. To date,...     

A singular case of murder-suicide committed with a homemade firearm

The authors illustrate a peculiar case of murder-suicide committed with a homemade firearm loaded with 12-gauge cartridges (buckshot). The structure and function of this handcrafted firearm were simple but effective: an iron tube did duty as a barrel in this primitive firearm. The cartridges (modified by winding sticky tape around the external surface of the base) were inserted down one end of the tube (serving as the breech). A second iron tube with a larger diameter (so as to be able to run over each of the preloaded barrels) and with a jutting, cone-shaped metal wedge soldered to the base, was used as a rudimental firing pin. After loading the "barrel" with the modified cartridge, the gunman would ram the "firing pin" tube violently down to fire the shot. Autopsy of the woman's body showed the presence of 3 gunshot wounds caused by buckshot, while the man had a single buckshot wound in the head. Subsequent ballistic investigations enabled reconstruction of the event (typical of murder-suicide) and the functioning of the firearm, demonstrating its lethal nature, remarkably easy handling, and simplicity of production.     

Between social and organic norms: reading Canguilhem and ‘somatization’

Contemporary accounts of somatization tend to imply that the 'biological' and the 'social' are competing and mutually contradictory epistemological perspectives. This situation ismirrored by the alternative between biomedical objectivism and sociological relativism in accounting for the reality (or, indeed, the non-reality) of this phenomenon as a pathological condition. This paper reads the debate on somatization through Canguilhem's writings. Cnaguilhem's vitalism sees the 'social' and the 'organic' as perspectives pertinent to the living subject, before and beyond being perspectives of the subject of knowledge. As such, they do not represent mutually exclusive choices but rather norms that interact in and through their difference, bearing on the quality of life as healthy or pathological. On this basis, the paper offers an account of how the reality of somatization might be envisaged so as to avoid the implications of both positivism and relativism.