Bryan S. Turner

Low temperature episodes in development of blowflies: implications for postmortem interval estimation

Abstract.  Traditionally the calculation of accumulated degree days or hours (ADD or ADH) involves the concept of a minimum threshold temperature below which development ceases. Hence in fluctuating conditions, where temperatures drop below this threshold, there may be periods of time when development is taken to be zero. This has important implications when the calculation of postmortem interval (PMI) is based on the ADD or ADH of larval dipterans. Normal development of larvae of the blowflies Calliphora vicina Robineau‐Desvoidy and C. vomitoria L. (Diptera: Calliphoridae) at 20°C was interrupted by cold episodes. The expectation was that total development time would increase by the period at low (therefore no development) temperature but the total ADD or ADH should be the same as non‐cold treated cohorts. The results, however, showed that total ADH for both species decreased linearly with increasing temperature with no evidence of any minimum threshold temperature effect. The increased ADH at low temperatures may be due to either continued but reduced development or a delay in development restarting after the cold episode. Use of ADH in PMI estimations has shortcomings particularly during the winter period where low temperatures are involved or where there are sudden summer cold spells during the development period. As blowfly development progresses from egg to pupa such errors will be compounded.

Experimental validation of forensic evidence: a study of the decomposition of buried pigs in a heavy clay soil.

In a murder investigation, where the victim had been strangled and buried in a shallow grave, there were discrepancies between the post mortem interval (PMI) as estimated from entomological studies and estimations determined from other evidence. This inconsistency provided the impetus for examining the decay process using pig carcasses as analogues for the human cadaver. The pigs were buried in the immediate vicinity of the original burial site in December 1996, which was the month when the victim was purported to have been interred in the previous year. The buried pigs were then monitored for 5 months which, based on the evidence other than the entomological, was the period over which the corpse was thought to have lain in the ground. The pig corpses were disturbed by scavengers in mid April: this was the same time that the human corpse was discovered in the previous year by scavengers. Insects played no role in the decomposition process until the pig carcasses had been exposed by animals. Blowflies, notably Calliphora vomitoria, were attracted to the exposed tissues and laid eggs from which larvae developed. Calliphora vomitoria is a species often used to estimate PMI. This investigation has shown that soil conditions and low seasonal temperatures had preserved the pig carcasses for longer than might be expected. Using the blowfly larvae to estimate PMI would have produced erroneous results had not the burial environment and exhumation history been investigated.

Calliphora vicina larvae grow at different rates on different body tissues.

Compared with the rate on pig’s liver, larval growth of the blowfly, Calliphora vicina is significantly faster by as much as 2 days on lung, kidney, heart or brain tissue. Potentially this has major implications when laboratory growth rates of larvae fed on one food substrate (often liver) are used to calculate the amount of development, and therefore the postmortem interval in a forensic case.

‘Just Crumbling to Bits’? An Exploration of the Body, Ageing, Injury and Career in Classical Ballet Dancers

Ballet is, for reasons that are unclear, a neglected topic in the sociology of the body. Our article works on three levels: firstly, as an account of ex-dancers’‘lived experience’ of embodiment; secondly, as an application of Bourdieu’s theoretical schema; and thirdly, as a philosophically grounded critique of radical social constructionist views of the body.We describe Royal Ballet dancers’ perceptions of their bodies, of ageing, of injury and of their careers.We draw on Bourdieu’s concepts of habitus and cultural capital in our investigation of embodiment. Ageing and injury are potential epiphanies that encourage dancers to reflect on their embodied habitus and their career. We argue that the decline in a dancer’s physical capital undermines radical social constructionist views.This study, although set within the narrow field of dance, illuminates the broader relationships between the body, self, and society.

Epiphanies of embodiment: Injury, identity and the balletic body.

Our ethnography of the balletic body is a contribution to the relatively small corpus of empirical research studies on embodiment in general and on dance as a social practice in particular. In contrast, much of the literature on the sociology of the body is characterized by its theoretical discussion of the nature of the body. We draw upon our fieldwork at the Royal Ballet (London) where we conducted 20 in-depth interviews with ballet staff, and where we also watched ‘the company at work’(in class, rehearsal and performance). We explored the perceptions, of their bodies and dancing careers, of both dancers (n= 9) and ex-dancers (n=11: who are now teachers, administrators and character artists with the company). Furthermore, we especially focused upon the epiphanies of injury and ageing that endanger their balletic vocation, and that may even threaten their personal identity. Although our ethnography of the balletic body is set within the elite and narrow cultural field of dance, we hope that our research is also an appealing and constructive adjunct to discussions on the interactions between self and society; the body and culture; embodiment and identity; and individuals and institutions. Our article is one example of our broader research programme on the embodiment of vulnerability in the arts, medicine and society.

Fractured identities: injury and the balletic body

Social worlds shape human bodies and so it is inevitable that there are strong relationships between the body, professional dance and identity. In this article we draw on Bourdieu’s notions of habitus, and various forms of capital, as the main theoretical framework for our discussion. Our ethnography of the balletic body elicited dancers and ex-dancers’ perceptions of their bodies and sought to reveal some of the facets of their embodied habitus. The sheer physicality of their working lives - of feeling exhausted, sweaty and out of breath - is something dancers (like all athletes) become ‘addicted to’. Ageing and injury can reveal this compulsion to dance and so dancers invariably find it very difficult to, for example, give up class once they retire from the stage; or miss a performance if they have a ‘slight injury’. In other words, the vocational calling to dance is so overwhelming that their balletic body is their identity. In addition, there is an unremitting loop between individual habitus and institutional habitus (the ballet company), which affects both the meaning and management of injury. All our informants at the Royal Ballet (London: n = 20) had suffered dance injuries. The injured, dancing body is perceived as an inevitable part of a career in ballet. Everyone spoke of the improved athleticism of dancers, and of the expansion in facilities to maintain healthy dancers. However, most dancers can expect several major injuries during their careers. Such epiphanies force dancers to confront their embodiment, and their thoughts invariably turn to their body, career and self. Critical injuries threaten to terminate a dancer’s career and so endanger their embodied sense of self. On a more everyday level, dancing and performing with painful, niggling injuries is the norm.

Varieties of habitus and the embodiment of ballet

The overall aim of our research was to produce an ethnography of ballet as a social practice. We draw upon our fieldwork at the Royal Ballet (London) where we conducted 20 in-depth interviews with ballet staff, and observed ‘the company at work’, in class, rehearsal, and performance. We explored dancers’ (n = 9) and ex-dancers’ (who are now administrators, teachers, and character dancers: n = 11) perceptions of their bodies, dancing careers, and the major changes that have occurred in the world of ballet over their professional lives. In this article, we draw upon Pierre Bourdieu’s notions of habitus, physical capital and cultural capital. The main focus of our article is an extended discussion of our threefold distinction between individual habitus, institutional habitus and choreographic habitus. Although our ethnography of the body is set within the elite cultural field of professional classical ballet, we hope that our research adds to debates on the interrelationships between individuals and institutions, the body and society, and on the salience of Bourdieu’s notion of habitus for understandings of the social world.

Characterisation of Wolbachia-like bacteria isolated from the parthenogenetic stored-product pest psocid Liposcelis bostrychophila (Badonnel) (Psocoptera)

Abstract The widespread psocid, Liposcelis bostrychophila, is a stored-product pest of grain and farinaceous foods. Its ubiquity is in part due to its parthenogenetic reproduction which is shown to be the result of the presence of rickettsial bacteria in the ovaries and developing oocytes. Based on similarities in 16S rDNA sequences, the bacteria are identified as Wolbachia -like. There is little difference in these sequences among a number of L. bostrychophila populations from around the UK and there was no correlation with patterns of similarity among the insect 12S rDNA sequences. Treatment with antibiotics and heat reduced or removed the bacterial infections. Rifampicin (1%) produced aposymbiotic psocids within 4 weeks and the egg production in such treated individuals was greatly reduced. Tetracycline and maintenance at a temperature of 37°C reduced the bacterial loads in the oocytes but did not significantly impact egg production. Closely related bisexual psocid species have no detectable 16S rDNA, which supports EM observations, and were unaffected by the antibiotic treatments.

The Distaste of Taste Bourdieu, cultural capital and the Australian postwar elite

This article explores cultural taste through a modification of Bourdieu’s theory of cultural capital, taste and ‘distinction’. Mainly through an in-depth, qualitative study of members of Australia’s postwar elite, it is suggested that the particular group under consideration in this article displayed not highbrow but distinctly middle to lowbrow cultural taste. Members of the Australian elite who took part in this study showed little interest in highbrow cultural activities such as opera, classical ballet and classical literature. We argue that this apparent ‘distaste for taste’ within the Australian elite has to do with the specificity of Australian culture, together with particular generational influences that predisposed members of this generation to challenge the validity of highbrow cultural activities. Thus, the federal structure of Australia’s cultural field and an anti-authoritarian current peculiar to Australia, combined with generational factors, explain the consumption patterns of this strand of elite. By introducing generational analysis into Bourdieu’s theory of taste, a more dynamic explanation that can capture shifts in the cultural taste of the elite is offered.

Impact of paracetamol on Calliphora vicina larval development

This paper demonstrates that blowfly larval development is slightly impacted by paracetamol if present in the rearing foodstuff particularly during days 2–4 of development. Since paracetamol and similar analgesic drugs are involved in a large number of overdose deaths each year this information is of importance where blowfly growth is used to estimate the minimum postmortem interval.