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.     

Lethal small bowel obstruction due to pica

Up to 25% of institutionalized patients with cognitive deficiencies display pica-like behavior, with an estimated annual incidence of small bowel obstruction of 2%. We present a case based on the forensic autopsy of a 41-year-old woman who died as a result of a missed diagnosis of small bowel obstruction after ingesting a foreign body. The case underlines the importance of precaution when treating patients with cognitive deficiency and/or language deficits and gastrointestinal symptoms. In such cases, it is important to employ a liberal threshold for radiological investigations and, if possible, obtain a medical history from a person close to the patient.     

李步云与当代中国法哲学

李步云既是当代中国颇有成就的法理学家和宪法学家 ,又是“新时期”最早“自觉”到“法哲学”的法学家。他是从当代中国法理学和宪法学的“局限性”意识出发 ,而提出其法哲学主张的 ,其法哲学体系是围绕法的唯物论与认识论、法的辩证法与发展观而构筑并加以逻辑展开的 ,是对法理学问题的既深入又超出。为中国法理学研究提供基础、方向和标准 ,是李步云法哲学研究的根本目的所在     

针刺督脉组穴治疗血管性认知障碍临床观察

目的 观察针刺督脉组穴治疗血管性认知障碍（vascular cognitive impairment，VCI）的临床疗效。方法 将51例VCI患者随机分为针刺组（25例）和药物组（26）例，针刺组采用针刺督脉穴位神庭、百会、风府、大椎进行治疗，药物组采用口服多奈哌齐进行治疗。观察并比较治疗前后患者血清血红蛋白（hemoglobin, Hgb）水平及中医证候量表、MMSE量表、Hachinski量表、额叶功能评定量表（frontal assessment battery, FAB）评分。结果 两组治疗前Hgb水平比较，差异无统计学意义(P＞0.05）。两组治疗后Hgb水平均较治疗前显著升高（P＜0.05），且针刺组升高值显著大于药物组（P＜0.05）。两组治疗前中医证候评分比较，差异无统计学意义（P＞0.05）。两组治疗后中医证候评分均较治疗前显著降低（P＜0.05），且针刺组降低值显著大于药物组（P＜0.05）。两组治疗前MMSE、Hachinski、FAB评分比较，差异均无统计学意义（P＞0.05）。与治疗前比较，两组治疗后MMSE、FAB评分均显著增加(P＜0.05)，且针刺组增加值显著大于药物组（P＜0.05）。与治疗前比较，两组治疗后Hachinski评分显著降低（P＜0.05），且针刺组降低值显著大于药物组（P＜0.05）。两组疗效分布比较，差异具有统计学意义（P＜0.05），针刺组疗效优于药物组。结论 针刺督脉组穴可改善VCI患者认知能力，且疗效优于多奈哌齐。     

Young people with cognitive disabilities and overrepresentation in the criminal justice system: service provider perspectives on policing

Young people with cognitive disabilities (YPWCD) are overrepresented as offenders in the criminal justice system. However, most existing research on this topic examines overrepresentation in courts and corrections rather than at the police gatekeeping stage of the criminal justice process. Furthermore, while the views of other groups have been documented, the perspectives of service providers – who often bear witness to YPWCD’s interactions with police – have yet to be examined. This research addresses this gap by analysing qualitative interviews with service providers from Queensland, Australia, using the three most common theoretical explanations for the overrepresentation of PWCD (the susceptibility, differential treatment and psychosocial disadvantage theses) as an analytic framework. A number of implications emerged from the study. There is a need to take a critical and intersectional lens to YPWCD’s experiences, as well as to equip police to work with YPWCD to de-escalate interactions with this group.     

腐败心理的内涵、构成及抑制策略

腐败心理是支配腐败行为人实施腐败行为的复杂心理现象的总称。腐败心理不仅是腐败行为发生的内在动因,其构成要素的组合状况和特点还决定了腐败行为的性质、类型和发生频次。因此,抑制腐败心理的生成,需要培育积极的心理动力结构要素、合理的心理认知结构要素和有效的心理自控结构要素,从源头上构筑起预防腐败行为发生的内在防线。     

经济法主体论纲

现有的法主体理论注重从外延来界定法的主体,这必然会导致法主体的缺损。法主体的认知逻辑可以是:先从本质层面来界定法主体的内涵,再从现象层面来界定法主体的外延,法主体的外延具有相对的开放性。经济法主体研究在遵循上述认知逻辑的基础上,可追问并扬弃经济法的本体论,立足于解析生产方式的变更所导致的人类社会行为和社会关系的变化并抽象出经济法调整的社会关系——增量利益关系。增量利益源于剩余劳动的创造,可将劳动力权人作为经济法主体的内涵,而将自然人和自然人的组合作为经济法主体外延,并进一步对企业、国家、社会中间层等自然人组合的经济法主体属性进行分析。     

Precarity,Cognitive (Non-)Resistance and the Conservative Working Class in China

ABSTRACT

Workers’ resistance is crucial to understanding how the working class respond to the growing labour precarity in post-socialist China. The labour studies literature posits that inequality and volatile capital movements increase workers’ precarity and lead to stronger labour resistance, such as strikes. However, workers’ cognition as an integral part of resistance has been rarely studied. This article examines cognitive resistance by Chinese workers from different tier cities by looking at their social trust, class identity, understanding of policies and class solidarity. Despite capital movements and precarity causing more labour unrest, it does not necessarily lead to a stronger cognitive resistance. While inequality and precarity are greater in the more developed megacities with a shifting capital favourability, workers in megacities display a more conservative cognitive resistance than those from the lower-tier cities. This study of workers’ cognitive resistance provides insight into the future of the Chinese labour movement. It argues that the working class’s current cognitive non-resistance suggests that even if a window of opportunity were to appear in the wall of state oppression, workers are not cognitively prepared to coalesce into a coherent social movement that would bring about transformative changes.     

The role of moral disengagement in the execution process

The present study tested the proposition that disengagement of moral self-sanctions enables prison personnel to carry out the death penalty. Three subgroups of personnel in penitentiaries located in three Southern states were assessed in terms of eight mechanisms of moral disengagement. The personnel included the execution teams that carry out the executions; the support teams that provide solace and emotional support to the families of the victims and the condemned inmate; and prison guards who have no involvement in the execution process. The executioners exhibited the highest level of moral, social, and economic justifications, disavowal of personal responsibility, and dehumanization. The support teams that provide the more humane services disavowed moral disengagement, as did the noninvolved guards but to a lesser degree than the support teams.