Defects in medical care delivery to patients with lung and breast cancer undergoing radiotherapy

Patients aged 55 and 63 years received extracorporeal 30 and 40 Gy gamma-therapy for lung cancer, respectively. Two and 60 days after irradiation, respectively, the patients developed arrosive pulmonary hemorrhage with lethal outcomes. Forensic medical examination in both cases has detected acute radiation pneumonitis with impairment of pulmonary artery endothelium that provoked hemorrhage. The literature review covers acute and chronic lesions of the lungs in radiotherapy of lung and breast tumors.     

Statistical Inference and Forensic Evidence: Evaluating a Bullet Lead Match

This experiment tested the ability of undergraduate mock jurors (N=295) to draw appropriate conclusions from statistical data on the diagnostic value of forensic evidence. Jurors read a summary of a homicide trial in which the key evidence was a bullet lead "match" that was either highly diagnostic, non-diagnostic, or of unknown diagnostic value. There was also a control condition in which the forensic "match" was not presented. The results indicate that jurors as a group used the statistics appropriately to distinguish diagnostic from non-diagnostic forensic evidence, giving considerable weight to the former and little or no weight to the latter. However, this effect was attributable to responses of a subset of jurors who expressed confidence in their ability to use statistical data. Jurors who lacked confidence in their statistical ability failed to distinguish highly diagnostic from non-diagnostic forensic evidence; they gave no weight to the forensic evidence regardless of its diagnostic value. Confident jurors also gave more weight to evidence of unknown diagnostic value. Theoretical and legal implications are discussed.     

Unsuspected central nervous system gummas in a case of "cerebral infarct" associated with cocaine use

A 54-year-old African-American male was hospitalized with a left "cerebrovascular accident," altered mental status, agitation, rhabdomyolysis, and hypernatremia. Laboratory tests found cocaine in his system and a positive RPR (rapid plasmin reagin test). A CAT (computed axial tomography) scan without contrast taken 8 days prior to his death showed a left middle cerebral artery infarct, with edema and mass effect, and a 1-cm midline shift to the right. He underwent symptomatic treatment, eventually suffered cardiopulmonary arrest and multiorgan failure, and expired 8 days after admission. The left cerebral lesion diagnosed clinically as a cerebral infarct was actually determined to be a syphilitic gumma on postmortem neuropathologic examination. Neurosyphilis, although rare, should be considered in the differential diagnosis of space-occupying lesions in the brain because cases of syphilis continue to occur both sporadically and as an opportunistic infection associated with acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS) and because neurosyphilis is treatable.     

解读《治安管理处罚法》中的治安调解

《治安管理处罚法》对治安调解作出了新的规定,如何正确理解该规定,如情节轻重的判断、民事赔偿的解决、何谓打架斗殴等,是公安机关适用治安调解必须要明确的关键问题。     

From Iron Bowl to Iron Stomach

A few decades ago, Iron Bowl referred to not having to go hungry in China if you were employed by the Agovernment. The government gave you a job that secured the filling of one's rice bowl. This concept and practice did create loyalty, as the times were hard. China has moved far past those times to become the     

The politics of indigenous land rights Brazil

Brazilian indigenous rights policy has been exclusionary. As a result indigenous people and their supporters have mobilised and politicised indigenous issues. Politicisation led to inclusion of indigenous rights in the 1988 Constitution. Nevertheless, evidence suggests that this process led to a retrenchment of interests opposed to indigenous rights. This analysis compares the asymmetric access to the policy‐formation process granted to political and economic interests and indigenous people. The argument is that democratisation has yet to open the policy‐making process to disenfranchised groups such as indigenous people. To illustrate the argument evidence of setbacks to indigenous land rights is examined.     

Can Turkey's state–religion relationship serve as a role model for emerging Arab regimes? A critical assessment

One of the most pressing issues facing Arab societies, in view of the large-scale political transitions taking place in the Middle East, is the status of religion in the state. In this regard, Turkey, a Muslim democratic state, is often offered as a model to follow. The current piece demonstrates that despite the seeming appeal of the Turkish model, it is inadequate for Middle Eastern societies, in which religion plays a significant social role and is a core ingredient of individual and collective identity. This is because the foundations of the Turkish model were artificially imported from the Western experience, and forced from above onto the Turkish populace without much-needed contextual adjustment. This assertion is true not only for the original state-religion model in Turkey, but also for its modified present-day version, which bears to a large extent the burdens of the past. The article concludes by outlining some points that might serve emergent Arab democracies aiming to design a constructive and authentic model of religion and the state.