Posttraumatic thrombosis of the middle cerebral artery

Posttraumatic cerebral infarction resulting from carotid or cerebral artery occlusion is rare. Traumatic dissection of the carotid artery is the most frequent cause of infarction, whereas posttraumatic thrombosis of the cerebral artery is very rare. The authors describe a case of posttraumatic thrombosis of the left middle cerebral artery. Early in the morning, a 16-year-old boy was found unconscious in the parking lot of a supermarket. He had received fist blows and kicks to the head, face, body, back, and hip during the night. Computed tomography 10 hours after the violence revealed a gross cerebral infarction in the area of the left middle cerebral artery. He died 9 days after the violence. The autopsy revealed a thrombosis in the left middle cerebral artery. Microscopically, granulation tissue in the intima and a rupture of the internal elastic lamina were observed near the beginning of the artery. It was concluded that the blows to the head and face caused a partial rupture in the arterial wall, leading to thrombosis and cerebral infarction.     

Postmortem ophthalmologic examination by endoscopy

Abnormal intraocular findings detected during forensic autopsies have generally been ignored. In this study, we assessed the usefulness of postmortem ophthalmologic examination in 46 cases using an endoscope system with a tip diameter of 0.9 mm. This procedure was performed using a portable system, and only 1 assistant was needed. Furthermore, the procedure required only about 5 minutes for both eyes. Abnormal intraocular findings were seen in 22 (47.8%) of 46 cases. Fundus hemorrhages were observed in 4, and papilledema was observed in 3 of 5 cases of death due to head trauma; besides, it was possible to estimate the interval between head trauma and death based on intraocular findings. Seven of 16 cases of death from asphyxia presented abnormal intraocular findings, including retinal splinter hemorrhages. Fundus hemorrhages were observed in 2 of 3 cases of death by drowning, which, to our knowledge, had never been reported to date.Thus, this procedure proved easy to perform, and it may be useful to detect significant abnormal intraocular findings related to the presumed cause of death during autopsies.     

Thymus and adrenal glands in elder abuse

Endogenous glucocorticoid-induced thymic involution is generally considered to be an important finding for determining child abuse. The present study investigated the weight of the thymus and the adrenal glands in elder abuse cases to identify a potential marker for elder abuse. There was no significant difference in the thymus and the adrenal weight between elder abuse and control cases. However, the elder abuse cases in which the duration of abuse was less than 3 months showed a significant increase in the adrenal weight in comparison to control cases. In such cases, histopathological findings showed a loss of intracellular light granules from the zona fasciculata, which might indicate a loss of cholesterol due to the overproduction of glucocorticoid. These results might imply that the elderly, who were maltreated for less than 3 months, were in the early phase of a long-term stress state during which stress-induced overproduction of glucocorticoid was observed in adrenal glands as indicated by Selye. Our results suggest that an increase in adrenal weight may be a potential marker for elder abuse of relatively short periods, especially less than a few months.     

Reinvigorating the transnational links of sub-national governments between Australia and Japan with special reference to Western Australia–Hyogo sister-state relations

Abstract

The study of transnational links between sub-national governments is a lacuna in the field of international relations yet the issue on inter-sub-national government cooperation has recently gained greater importance at the international level. Since the 1992 Earth Summit recognition of sub-national authorities as key players in global sustainable development strategies, the importance of decentralised cooperation between sub-national governments has been strengthened by a series of international standardisation and domestic incorporation of this principle. Yet our research raises serious questions about the degree to which Australia–Japan twinning of sub-national governments has made progress towards taking responsibility in facing global challenges. Our case study of Western Australia–Hyogo sister-state relationships shows that their 25 year-old cooperation has been suffering from a lack of awareness of the emerging role of sub-national governments. Not surprisingly, national government policy and position has greatly influenced the nature and patterns of their relationships. Australia and Japan twinning, as leading inter-sub-national partnerships in the region, can do more to promote the value of the local dimension in international development cooperation. In light of these challenges, the future of their twinning must lie in a structured long-term commitment for global strategies as well as mutual benefits.     

Sequence polymorphisms at the DXS6789, DXS8377 and DXS101 loci in three Asian populations

Sequence analyses of X-chromosomal short tandem repeats, DXS6789, DXS8377 and DXS101 were performed for representatives of 3 Asian populations: 130 Japanese, 61 Bangladeshi and 89 Indonesian males. At DXS6789, the sequence polymorphism was found in 7 alleles in the Japanese, 3 in the Bangladeshis and 3 in the Indonesians. At DXS8377, the sequence polymorphism was found in 13 alleles in the Japanese, 9 in the Bangladeshis and in all alleles identified in the Indonesians. At DXS101, the sequence polymorphism was found in 7 alleles in the Japanese, 9 in the Bangladeshis and 8 in the Indonesians. Because sequence polymorphisms were found in most of the alleles at the DXS6789, DXS8377 and DXS101 loci, it was concluded that sequencing was essential for identifying the alleles at these loci in all 3 Asian populations.     

Traumatic rupture of the basilar artery: report of two cases and review of the literature

Two cases of traumatic rupture of the basilar artery are reported. In the first case, severe basal subarachnoid hemorrhage (SAH) due to a complete transverse tear of the basilar artery was observed in a 53-year-old restrained male driver who was involved in a head-on collision while intoxicated and drowsy. He lost consciousness shortly after the accident and was admitted to hospital in cardiopulmonary arrest. Intensive resuscitative therapies produced cardiac response, but he died 50 minutes after the accident. The ethanol concentration in his blood and urine was 0.35 and 0.55 mg/ml, respectively. In the second case, SAH due to a similar tear of the basilar artery was observed in a 47-year-old man who received several fist blows to the face while intoxicated. He suddenly lost consciousness after the final blow and was admitted to hospital in cardiopulmonary arrest. Intensive resuscitative therapies produced cardiac response, but he died 6 hours after the event. In these cases, the mechanism of the traumatic rupture of the basilar artery is thought to be overstretching due to hyperextension of the head, and intoxication, drowsiness, or both may have interfered with the decedents' ability to protect themselves; thus, the hyperextension of the head may have been rather forceful.     

Subnational participation in extra-national policy solutions: Kitakyushu City as an intermediate agent in policy coordination

The growing challenges of environment and sustainable development stretch across scales of geographic space and require action at multiple levels of jurisdictions, such as individual level, community level, national level, and global level. Multilevel governance and cross-scale coordination will open up opportunities for a variety of stakeholders to participate in decision-making. While potentially increasing the capacity of governance, the cross-scale and multilevel approaches may face a difficulty in policy coordination created by the plurality of stakeholders and be attended with organizational complexity. This article will examine the potential of subnational participation to make a policy choice, mediated by local governments, to be congruent with global strategies and national mandates in a consistent way. To this end, it will bring a new perspective to Kitakyushu City's experience in Japan as a heuristic test case study. My claim is that subnational actors occupy a strategic position to straddle the division between state and society, between the center and the periphery, and between the domestic and the foreign so they can act as an intermediate agent in reconnecting local action with national policy and turning global strategies into local action for problem solving.     

Anomalous origin of the right coronary artery from the left sinus of Valsalva: report of two cases.

Anomalous origin of the right coronary artery (RCA) from the left sinus of Valsalva (LSV) is rare and has only recently been recognized as a cause of sudden cardiac death in otherwise healthy individuals. In this report, we describe two cases of anomalous origin of the RCA from the LSV. In the first case, a previously healthy 11-year-old girl died suddenly and unexpectedly. An autopsy revealed no abnormalities, except for anomalous origin of the RCA from the LSV. In the second case, a 21-year-old woman died by drowning in a bath, probably after an episode of syncope brought about by anomalous origin of the RCA from the LSV.     

Medicolegal aspects of death of patients with cerebral palsy in Japan

A total of 24 cases of patients who had had cerebral palsy, recorded between 1980 and 1986, in the Annuals of the Medico-Legal Autopsy Cases in Japan, were investigated to determine their ages and causes of death. Fourteen died of illness, four in accidents, and six by murder. Most of those dead of illness had been under the age of 16, and the disease most frequently cited as a cause of death was pneumonia. The four persons who died by accident were over 16 years old. All of the six murder victims were killed by their mother.     

Japanese women in grassroots politics: building a gender-equal society from the bottom up

Abstract

The 1979 UN Convention on the Elimination of all Forms of Discrimination against Women highlights the importance of equal participation of women in public life. Since the early 1960s, women in Japan have voted in elections at significantly higher rates than men. However, Japanese women's equal participation in policy formulation and decision making lags far behind major democracies. Gender equality is stated under the Japanese Constitution, but social practices are far from equal. There are no legal constraints on Japanese women's right to candidacy for public office, but they are far underrepresented in local and national elected assemblies. In 1999 an important landmark in the substantial progress towards gender equality took place when the Japanese government, for the first time, legally denounced the stereotyped division of roles on the basis of gender and described men and women as equal partners. An unprecedented amount of legislation, together with policy changes and organizational reform at the national level were introduced from this state-led initiation. In the same year, women's grassroots groups were rapidly moving beyond the reach of policy, organizational, and legal changes; they successfully conducted a major nationwide campaign for ‘More Women to Assemblies¡’ and increased the number of elected women representatives at the local level at an unprecedented rate. The purpose of this article is to assess the potential of increased women's political voices in Japan, which can be seen as an alternative way of solving the problems of political disengagement in the male-dominated representative democracy. To this end, the article examines the course of watershed events in 1999 towards a gender-equal society in Japan, with special emphasis on the importance of grassroots missions in eliminating barriers to Japanese women's political participation.