Higher education facing the challenges of the information age

It is claimed that traditional higher education has become obsolete. It was justified as long as knowledge was concentrated in the hands of a few experts and in not-easily accessed libraries. However today, the three pillars of higher education - the production of new knowledge, teaching, and the preservation of knowledge - can easily be and more efficiently replaced by electronic means. One can learn whatever and wherever one wants. This can make the diffusion of knowledge far more affordable, more democratic, and less elitist. However, there are a number of social, psychological and societal factors that need to be taken into consideration, serving as counter-forces to the rush to provide electronic replacements to higher education. These factors cast strong doubts on the true value and efficacy of virtual higher education. The solution may lie neither in the wholesale abolishment of institutions of higher education nor in ignoring the opportunities afforded by novel information technologies, but rather in pursuing differentiation between virtual universities and regular ones such that each will excel in its own way. Similarly, we will have to think of differentiation within our institutions so that we come to harvest the new technological opportunities to improve existing higher education. This revised version was published online in July 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

Pondering personal privacy: a pragmatic approach to the Fourth Amendment protection of privacy in the information age

As technology with surveillance capacities has advanced, the debate over the rights of the citizenry to be free from governmental breaches of personal privacy has intensified. Within the United States, government actions legally challenged as intrusions into personal privacy have been analyzed under the Fourth Amendment, but Supreme Court rulings in such cases lack a clear and consistent rationale. Additionally, while more than a dozen federal privacy statutes have been enacted, each piece of legislation pertains to a specific type of information (e.g. driver’s license information, education records, and financial records). There is no overarching federal legislation which protects the individual’s private affairs from warrantless government inspection. A key issue underlying the scope of the debate and the variation in court decisions and public policies pertinent to invasions of privacy by government agencies is the lack of a clear and cogent definition of ‘privacy.’ By means of a review of the evolution of legal protections of privacy under the Fourth Amendment and a review of the evolution of technology with surveillance applications, it is suggested that there is a need for a sound operational definition of privacy. As a starting point for an informed and pragmatic dialogue on this matter, an operational definition of privacy built upon extant case and statutory law is provided.     

如何正确看待法医骨龄和刑事责任年龄

骨龄又叫骨骼测定年龄,刑法所规定的“刑事责任年龄”为某一个体的“生活年龄”,二者所代表的含义不同,且存在着较大的差异。司法机关直接利用骨龄作为对犯罪嫌疑人定罪量刑的证据判案时常引发不小争议。故此,实现“骨龄”推断到“生活年龄”推断是法医任重而道远的任务。本文分析了二者的差异及原因,并呼吁尽快出台综合评定其个体“生活年龄”的全新标准或规范。     

有组织犯罪特征的构成形态

有组织犯罪是当今社会的一大毒瘤,严重威胁着世界各国社会的稳定和人民的生命财产安全。由于我国有组织犯罪发展过程的复杂性,以及有组织犯罪重新泛滥所处时代的独特性,使得我国有组织犯罪具有鲜明的中国特色和时代烙印,其每一个特征的内部结构都不是单一的,存在着复杂的构成形态。了解和认识有组织犯罪主体、结构、手段、观念、活动领域特征以及空间地域特征等方面的构成形态,有助于我们更好地揭示其运动变化规律和发展趋势。     

Amyloid inclusions in choroid plexus epithelial cells. A simple autopsy method to rapidly obtain information on the age of an unknown dead person

Different methods such as X-ray examination of the skeleton and inspection of the teeth have been described for estimation of the age of an unidentified dead person. These methods are more or less exact but the results will not be available until many days after the autopsy. In the present paper, we present a fairly simple method to obtain information on the age of a deceased using amyloid inclusions in the choroid plexus epithelial cells.     

Central pontine myelosis. Morphology and forensic importance

Central pontine myelinolysis (CPM) evidently occurs more frequently than had been assumed up to now owing to the cases that have been substantiated solely on the basis of pathological anatomy. Its genesis is still unclarified. Computed tomography and magnetic resonance methods allow detection of the foci while the affected person is still alive. They are clearly capable of regression and are not automatically accompanied by a poor prognosis. Since an iatrogenic factor (forced compensation of hyponatremia) is increasingly under discussion as the cause of CPM, the condition also has substantial significance from a forensic point of view. On the basis of a prospective study on CPM confirmed in 100 brains of alcoholics, as well as 4 further cases from the forensic autopsy material, it is shown that hyponatremia is not likely to be the sole triggering factor. The course of the condition in the cases investigated shows that the capacity for action may be preserved up to death (which has occurred for other reasons) in not very pronounced CPM. In questionable violent and other unclear deaths, CPM must also be considered a possible cause of death. The various hypotheses on its etiology in the extensive literature are compared with the findings in our own cases and discussed.     

Blood rights: the body and information privacy

Genetic and other medical technology makes blood, human tissue and other bodily samples an immediate and accessible source of comprehensive personal and health information about individuals. Yet, unlike medical records, bodily samples are not subject to effective privacy protection or other regulation to ensure that individuals have rights to control the collection, use and transfer of such samples. This article examines the existing coverage of privacy legislation, arguments in favour of baseline protection for bodily samples as sources of information and possible approaches to new regulation protecting individual privacy rights in bodily samples.     

Fundamental rights and private enforcement in the digital age

This article addresses the shift inthe paradigm of fundamental rights protection on the Internet. More and morethe enforcement of such rights is being delegated to private Internet operators, and the urgent question is how the task of balancing conflicting rights affects the status of Internet Service Providers (ISPs). The article examines the increasing privatisation of fundamental rights enforcementon the Internet, highlighting the impact of this trend. Following the analysisof recent developments, it argues that the pillars governing ISP liability should not be altered. In particular, the early determination that ISPs should not be presumptively saddled with content monitoring tasks should not be called into question. Therefore, the regulatory pressure on ISPs shouldbe lowered, as the spectre of liability, combined with ISPs' increasing role indeciding the proper balance between conflicting rights, unduly burdens the activity of ISPs and generates incentives to delete even lawful content.     

Development of the femur--implications for age and sex determination

Growth of four variables of the femur (diapyseal length, diaphyseal length plus distal epiphysis, maximum length and vertical diameter of the head) was analyzed by polynomial regression for the purpose of evaluating its significance and capacity for age and sex determination throughout the entire life continuum. Materials included in analysis consisted of 346 specimens ranging from birth to 97 years of age from five documented osteological collections of Western European descent. Linear growth was displayed by each of the four variables. Significant sexual dimorphism was identified in two of the femoral measurements, including maximum length and vertical diameter of the head, from age 15 onward. These results indicate that the two variables may be of use in the determination of sex in sex determination from that age onward. Strong correlation coefficients were identified between femoral size and age for each of the four metric variables. These results indicate that any of the femoral measurements is likely to serve as a useful source to estimate sub-adult age in both archaeological and forensic samples.     

青少年骨龄鉴定及其相关问题

本文综述了骨龄研究和应用历史,以及骨龄评测的新方法和新技术,讨论了骨骼发育的影响因素、骨龄标准时效性、骨龄评测部位选择及法医骨龄鉴定等相关问题。