Head injuries of Roman gladiators

Gladiator remains from a recently unearthed cemetery in ancient Ephesus (Turkey) offer a unique opportunity for proving common theories involving the weaponry and techniques of gladiator fighting based on the evidence supplied by cranial bones. This mass grave is the first of its kind to undergo a thorough osteological and forensic examination.A minimum number of individuals (MNI) analyses revealed that at least 68 individuals. All individuals found turned out to have been males aged between 20 and 30 years, except for one female associated with a female slave gravestone, and one male aged 45–55 years, had been buried in this area of the cemetery. The male mean body height was 168 cm (S.D. = 5 cm), which lies inside the normal range of height for Roman populations at those times.Eleven (16% of MNI) individuals exhibit a total of 16 well-healed antemortal cranial traumata. Five of the 11 individuals showed multiple trauma. Ten (15% of MNI) individuals exhibited a total of 10 perimortal cranial traumata. This is a surprisingly high frequency of deadly head injuries, taking into account that most of the gladiator types wore helmets. A possible explanation could be the frequently reported deathblow technique used by the hammer-carrying death god “Dis Pater”.The gladiator weaponry is well known through historical sources. At least one injury per known type of offensive weapon could be identified, as well as evidence for the most popular, the gladiator trident, which was found to be represented by one perimortem and two antemortem injuries. Overall the reportedly very strict nature of combat rules for gladiator fights could be confirmed by the absence of multiple perimortal traumatized individuals, showing a lack of the excessive violence commonly observed on medieval battle ground victims.This graveyard gives the opportunity to confirm historical aspects and to check the reliability of forensic methods for identification of antemortem, perimortem, or postmortem bone lesions. Typical examples for these kinds of lesions and injuries are presented. The colour of the margins of the traumata proved to be the most distinguishing feature for postmortal lesions.     

The Imprint of Childhood Physical and Emotional Abuse: A Case Study on the Use of EMDR to Address Anxiety and a Lack of Self-Esteem

This article examines the use of Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR) in helping a client address problems with persistent anxiety and a lack of self-esteem. During EMDR treatment, the client explored the dichotomous thinking that had plagued her since childhood, and correspondingly, the role of childhood physical and emotional abuse in her chronic feelings of inadequacy and anxiety. The client experienced significant improvement in her levels of anxiety and problems with self-esteem, both at the end of treatment and at 1-year follow up. Qualitative and quantitative data are utilized in this case study outlining the use of EMDR with a client diagnosed with dysthymic disorder.     

应激相关障碍的损伤程度评定标准之比较与探讨

应激相关障碍的损伤程度评定,因无统一的评定标准,成为司法鉴定中的一个难点和热点。不同专家提出的评定标准中对该类伤害评定为轻微伤、轻伤、或重伤的意见不一,甚至还有对轻伤再分级的,且各家对应激相关障碍的定义亦有差别。本文对有代表性的观点进行比较、分析后,进一步进行探讨并提出见解,认为该类伤害应该属于损伤并应该评定损伤程度。评定必须严格按照《中国精神障碍分类与诊断标准(第三版)》(CCMD-3)进行诊断,按照已有的损伤鉴定标准的原则,根据具体的临床种类、病情程度、病程及预后等综合考量,酌情作出不评定伤情程度,或评定为轻微伤、轻伤或重伤的结论,意在对此问题的解决有所帮助。     

War,Trauma and Salvation――A Review on Shun Medoruma’s Okinawan Novels

Okinawais, Japan’s Hawaii, is known for the blue sea and clear sky, but at the same time it permeates with the pain from the war. As the representative of the new generation of Okinawan writers, Shun Medoruma reconstructs the traumatic memory objectively in his literary writing from an unique perspective, though he had no experiences of the war. He attempts to comprehend the survival and meditate on the pain from fear, and inanity which were generated in the war, and finally to fulfill the salvation of the soul. What Shun Medoruma focuses on is not the war, but the shock to Okinawan people. He shows his ethical concern for the fate of Okinawa, and thinks about the future of Okinawa deeply by understanding the war, trauma and salvation in his novels.     

椎弓崩裂与外伤伤病关系法医学鉴定26例分析

目的阐述椎弓崩裂与外伤之间伤病关系的法医学鉴定要点。方法收集26例椎弓崩裂案例,从年龄、伴随症状、治疗方式、致伤方式等方面讨论此类病例的特点。结果认定外伤与损伤后果之间存在一定因果关系的2例被鉴定人年龄均在50岁以下,致伤方式均为高能量损伤,且均伴有合并伤,2例患者均接受了手术治疗。结论应关注50岁以下中青年外伤后椎弓崩裂与外伤之间的伤病关系分析。对于选择手术治疗者,更需分析两者之间的伤病关系。     

Memory and forgetting: examining the treatment of traumatic historical memory in Grave of the Fireflies and The Wind Rises

Within Japanese popular culture, manga and anime have played a significant role in mediating responses to the outcome of the Pacific War. Miyazaki Hayao's (possibly) final feature-length film, The Wind Rises, has been an important addition to the preceding body of popular media ‘texts’ that raise such themes. This article aims to address the question of how far cinematic animation can reasonably be obliged to follow the kinds of historiographical concerns that inevitably arise when engaging with Japan's militarist past. To answer this question, considerable space is devoted to examining the historical context of what others have done in the post-war period and integrate that commentary into an analysis of how the works of Takahata Isao and Miyazaki Hayao fit amongst a succession of creative works that have been co-opted in the reshaping of historical perceptions of the Japanese at war amongst the Japanese themselves. This will also require some incidental discussion of methodological issues that arise when dealing with such cases as vehicles for understanding transformations in historical consciousness. Ultimately it is argued that Miyazaki does indeed make an important contribution to the commentary on the Japanese war experience, although it must, perhaps unavoidably, be on highly personal terms so far as The Wind Rises is concerned.     

69例男性阴部损伤分析

从致伤原因、致伤工具、损伤类型等方面对69例男性阴部损伤案进行了统计分析．     

Conjuring up the next attack: the future-orientedness of terror and the counterterrorist imagination

Although terrorism is widely understood to be the politically motivated creation of fear by means of violence in a target group, the nature of that fear is seldom explained or even considered. The present article attempts to close that gap by proposing a definition of terror as the apprehension of (more) violence to come. Because every terrorist act is perceived to be part of a potential series, terror is oriented towards the future and involves the imaginary anticipation of prospective events. On the basis of this definition, I will examine the problematical role of counterterrorist discourse. As the statements of public officials and security experts in the run-up to, and during, the “War on Terror” demonstrate, the peculiar dynamic of terror is, seemingly paradoxically, reinforced by counterterrorist rhetoric. With its insistence on the escalatory nature of terrorist violence and its repeated prediction of even worse attacks, counterterrorism contributes to the evocation of terror in the sense proposed here.     

Failings of Trauma‐Specific and Related Psychological Tests in Detecting Post‐Traumatic Stress Disorder in Forensic Settings

Judges and juries tend to be particularly impressed by test data, especially quantitative test data. Psychometric tests specific for assessing the presence of post‐traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) are commonly employed by forensic mental health evaluators. Most of these instruments, however, have been designed to detect PTSD in treatment or research, and not forensic, settings. Those who rely on these measures without adequate awareness of their often significant limits in correctly identifying malingering may induce finders of fact to inordinately confidently accept the presence of PTSD. This article reviews problematic structural and content components of trauma‐specific and related instruments used to evaluate PTSD and discusses the utility of specific techniques liable to be used in forensic settings to “fool” these measures.     

The Erratic Behavior of Lesions in Burnt Bone

This study analyses depressed fractures (by blunt force trauma) and circular full‐thickness injuries (drill injuries and gunshot wounds) in charred bones. Fifty bovine ribs (total 104 lesions) were divided into three groups. The first group consisted in 20 depressed hammer‐produced fractures; in the second one, 60 round drill‐holes were produced (30 circular, 30 semicircular); in the third group, 12 fleshed and 12 skeletonized ribs were hit by 9‐mm bullets. Each specimen was carbonized in an electric oven up to 800°C. Morphological and metric analyses were performed before and after: morphological features were preserved, but depressed fractures showed an increase in their dimensions (p‐value < 0.05); the drilled holes shrunk (p‐value < 0.01); the charring cycle increased the number of fractures in samples with gunshot wounds differently in fleshed and defleshed ribs. This study showed the complex behavior of charred bone, for what concerns the interpretation of trauma and how caution should be applied.