Use of laser-scanning confocal microscopy in the detection of diagenesis in bone

This research demonstrates the value of laser scanning confocal microscopy (LSCM) as a research tool in osteological studies, and diagenetic studies in particular. LSCM combines properties of light and scanning electron microscopy using laser light to excite fluorophores throughout the z-axis, developing a 3-D image. Using differential staining and selecting for specific wavelengths of light, one can image targeted materials. This research is divided into two parts: visualizing bone structures such as proteins and their decompositional products and visualizing diagenesis. Part one of this study utilized pig bones as a means of testing the overall ability of LSCM to fluoresce bone. Twenty-three samples were imaged, including 13 samples from a decompositional study conducted 5 years previous, and 10 “fresh” samples collected from a commercial butcher. This part of the study determined that protein and organic components of the bone could be fluoresced and diagenetic alteration could be imaged. The second part of the study used human samples as a means of imaging and mapping diagenetic alterations. The second part of the study used 13 samples, including 4 clinical, 7 ancient, and 2 modern controls. The pig study used Basic Fuchsin and SlowFade Gold stains, while the human study used toluidine blue. Images were also taken with unstained elements. The results of the non-human study found that a fresh bone fluoresced differently than that of a 5-year subset, while the results of the human study confirmed these findings and determined that the bone diagenesis can be mapped using LSCM.     

联合国维和人员性犯罪的刑事管辖障碍与改进建议

联合国维和人员性犯罪问题严重侵犯东道国受害者的人权并使联合国声誉受到重创。各管辖主体在对犯罪嫌疑人实际行使刑事管辖权时,存在诸多障碍:维和人员在东道国享有豁免;各国刑法在域外适用上的规定不同和派遣国主观上不愿对本国维和人员性犯罪行使管辖权;维和人员性犯罪难以被认定构成国际罪行;混合法庭须经东道国同意才能成立;维和人员性犯罪是否构成《罗马规约》中规定的国际罪行和受《罗马规约》约束的国家有限。改进建议包括:多方管辖权相互补充;成立对性剥削和性虐待作出快速反应的小组;起草《联合国官员和特派专家刑事责任公约草案》;联合国在东道国设立混合法庭;派遣国在东道国进行实地军事审判等。     

新中国成立初期中国共产党领导政治建设取得的辉煌成就

新中国成立初期,中国共产党带领人民实现了从民族危难到民族独立的转变,并朝着民族复兴的目标阔步向前。在此阶段,我党始终坚守政治性这一根本属性,重视政治建设,于摸索中前进,于前进中总结。在推进新民主主义向社会主义过渡,并建设社会主义的过程中,中国共产党守正创新,领导中国人民逐步建立完善的政治制度体系;解放思想,正确看待社会主义矛盾问题;以人为本,巩固发展社会主义民主与法制;实事求是,坚持确立党和国家的领导制度。     

网络传销犯罪的司法认定逻辑及其修正

基于传销犯罪的诈骗本质以及网络传销所衍生的诸多形式,原有的组织、领导传销活动罪的界定已经无法适应惩治网络传销犯罪的需要,应当基于体系与实践的双重考量,对网络传销犯罪的立法和司法作出相应的调适。组织、领导传销活动罪与集资诈骗罪系交叉竞合关系,两者在量刑上应保持平衡。网络传销犯罪在法益侵害程度方面未必高于传统传销犯罪。司法解释性文件对于网络传销犯罪的认定不应囿于组织内部参与传销活动人员30人三级的标准。网络团队计酬不应当构成犯罪。对于混合型传销,则应当结合"骗取财物"的要件予以全面判断。对为网络传销犯罪提供网络服务的行为,应区分情况适用共同犯罪、非法利用信息网络罪与帮助信息网络犯罪活动罪。对网络传销犯罪作证据综合认定时,应优先客观性证据,确立互联网电子数据的中枢证明作用,修正逐一收集参与传销活动人员的言词证据规则。     

从融合到分立:儿童网络色情信息犯罪的刑事规制

儿童网络色情信息犯罪侵害的法益是"直接层法益"与"间接层法益"双重法益。"直接层法益"为儿童的身心健康权利与以"免受性剥削和性虐待"为核心的被动性的性权利,"直接层法益"为个人法益;"间接层法益"为性道德等社会法益。而成年人网络色情信息犯罪侵害的主要是基于"性的隐秘性"善良性风尚和性道德的社会法益。法益具有立法检视功能和区分功能,客观上需要将儿童网络色情犯罪与成年人网络色情犯罪分离,进而设置独立的刑事规范,并对儿童网络色情信息范围、犯罪行为类型及网络服务提供商的责任重新进行建构。     

以共同育儿为业:跨越儿童抚育的家庭边界——以一个城市社区的“抱团养娃”实践为例

本文聚焦于城市化背景下的"抱团养娃"实践,深入探讨在抚育职责被"家庭化"的当下,抚育实践如何在一定程度上重新跨越"家庭"的边界。以社区共育为基点,妈妈们的努力既从私人层面上为在陌生城市中资源不足的小家庭找到更多社会支持,又在公共层面上带动孩子们以温度和情感重塑社区认同、黏合社会转型带来的制度缝隙,体现出独特的现实意义与支持力量。"以共同育儿为业"背后,是女性试图在既有的结构约束下找到被私人化的抚育照料重担与公共生活之间的连接点,在本研究中体现为共育支持网络的形成、共育友好空间的营造、亲子活动内容的生产和共育文化的建构四个方面。这为思考如何将"社会"重新带回抚育实践中提供了想象,也拓宽了对女性主体性的理解。     

Fatal penetrating abdominal injury by a metallic projectile

Penetrating abdominal injury is often a life-threatening condition, which is mainly associated with inflicted injuries. Fatal self-inflicted sharp force abdominal injuries too have been reported in the literature. Inadvertent penetrating abdominal injuries are a rarity and are caused by sharp objects of low-velocity and often nonmissile-type. A 27-year-old male factory worker was brought dead to the emergency department with an alleged history of sustaining abdominal injury by a sharp metal projectile while working on a metal cutting grinder. Autopsy observations were consistent with the history of inadvertent penetrating injury. Our case reports a fatal missile-type inadvertent sharp force trauma over the abdomen with intestinal perforation, a relatively uncommon scenario in occupational/workplace settings. The present case report describes the significance of the death scene visit and corroborating the medical findings with investigating agencies. This case further emphasizes on the need for adopting proper safety measures at the workplace.     

A novel method for cyanide quantification in human whole blood using ion chromatography with amperometric detection and its application to cyanide intoxication cases

Cyanide is a highly toxic agent that has been frequently used for suicide in South Korea. It is also used in various industrial fields, such as metal plating, in which many accidental cyanide intoxications have occurred. To overcome the disadvantages of conventional cyanide analysis methods, a simple and fast method for the analysis of cyanide in whole blood using ion chromatography (IC) with amperometric detection was developed in this study. Whole blood samples were deproteinized, diluted, and analyzed using an IC–amperometric detection system. The limits of detection and quantitation were 0.1 and 0.2 mg/L, respectively. The method showed good linearity in the range of 0.2 to 50 mg/L with R² > 0.99. The intra- and inter-assay precision and accuracy values were <10%. The established method was successfully applied to analyze whole blood samples from three cyanide intoxication cases.     

A mixed DNA profile controversy revisited

Semaan et al. (J Forensic Res, 2020, 11, 453) discuss a mock case “where eight different individuals [P₁ through P₈] could not be excluded in a mixed DNA analysis. Even though … expert DNA mixture analysis software was used.” Two of these are the true donors. The LRs reported are incorrect due to the incorrect entry of propositions into LRmix Studio. This forced the software to account for most of the alleles as drop-in, resulting in LRs 60–70 orders of magnitude larger than expected. P₁, P₂, P₄, P₅, and P₈ can be manually excluded using peak heights. This has relevance when using LRmix which does not use peak heights. We extend the work using the same two reference genotypes who were the true contributors as Semaan et al. (J Forensic Res, 2020, 11, 453). We simulate three two-donor mixtures with peak heights using these two genotypes and analyze using STRmix?. For the simulated 1:1 mixture, one of the non-donors’ LRs supported him being a contributor when no conditioning was used. When considered in combination with any other potential donors (i.e., with conditioning), this non-donor was correctly eliminated. For the 3:1 mixture, all results correctly supported that the non-donors were not contributors. The low-template 4:1 mixture LRs with no conditioning showed support for all eight profiles as donors. However, the results from pair-wise conditioning showed that only the two ground truth donors had LRs supporting that they were contributors to the mixture. We recommend the use of peak heights and conditioning profiles, as this allows better sensitivity and specificity even when the persons share many alleles.     

Metric forensic anthropology decisions: Reliability and biasability of sectioning-point-based sex estimates

Subjective decisions make human cognitive processes more susceptible to bias and error. Specifically, research indicates that additional context biases forensic anthropologists’ morphological analyses. To address whether metric analyses are also subject to bias, we conducted a pilot study in which 52 experienced osteologists measured a difficult-to-classify human femur, with or without additional contextual information. Using a metric sectioning-point sex-estimation method, participants provided a sex estimate for individual skeletal element(s) and, when given multiple elements, the combined skeletal assemblage. Control group participants (n = 24) measured only the femur. In addition to the femur, bias group participants (n = 28) either measured a female humerus and viewed a female-biasing photograph (n = 14) or measured a male humerus and viewed a male-biasing photograph (n = 14). We explored whether the experts in the different groups would differ in: (1) femoral measurements; (2) femoral sex-estimation conclusions; and (3) final sex-estimation conclusions for the skeletal assemblage. Although the femoral measurements and femoral sex estimates were comparable across groups, the overall sex estimates in the female-biased group were impacted by contextual information—differing from both the control and male-biased groups (p < 0.001). Our results demonstrate that cognitive bias can occur even in metric sex-estimation conclusions. Specifically, this occurred when the metric data and single-element sex estimates were synthesized into an overall estimate. Thus, our results suggest that metric methods are most vulnerable to bias when data are synthesized into an overall conclusion, highlighting the need for bias countermeasures and comprehensive statistical frameworks for synthesizing metric data to mitigate the effects of cognitive bias.