Extensive Petechiae in Attempted Self-Strangulation

Abstract:  A 29-year-old Korean man reported to have been robbed, bound, and gagged by a stranger in his apartment. Clinical findings included extensive petechiae to his face and tramline patterned abrasions and ligature furrows to his neck and face as well as his wrists. Initially, no other leads in the investigation existed and a robbery was assumed to have taken place. The man eventually confessed to fabricating the story and to having self-induced the ligature marks by subluxating his jaw at the temporomandibular joint and hooking the rope closest to the back of his neck on the corner of table. The man demonstrated this unsuspected ability to law enforcement officers. As a motive for his unconventional behavior, he confessed to engaging in autoaggressive behavior as punishment for "losing face" after his ex-girlfriend terminated her pregnancy. This case demonstrates that petechiae due to neck compression also may occur in the living and are due to vascular compression and not lethal hypoxia.     

Modern Interpretations of Sustainable Development

Early interpretations of sustainable development based on weak sustainability address neither the limits to the earth's resilience nor our failure to curb consumption. Given the challenges facing the earth today, especially climate change, a much more meaningful instrument is required and a new ethic based on the ecological carrying capacity of the Earth. The article examines the impact of those early interpretations before exploring the importance of ecological sustainability as the moral and (potentially fundamental) legal principle underpinning the concept of sustainable development. It examines the influence of the climate change agenda before examining the mechanisms available to make this ethic operational. Sustainable development has the capacity to set meaningful objectives, duties and rules, and provide boundaries for decision making, as reflected in recent legislation. Enhancing ecological sustainability through improving supply and impact is relatively easy for governments, businesses, and individuals; reducing consumption is much harder, and will require strong leadership.     

Europ?ische und nationale Regulierung der Bioenergie und ihrer ?kologisch-sozialen Ambivalenzen

Europ?isches und deutsches Recht setzen neuerdings stark auf eine ausgebaute Biomassenutzung zur Strom-, W?rme- und Treibstoffgewinnung. Die Biomassenutzung weist eine Reihe ?kologisch- sozialer Vor-, aber auch Nachteile auf. Das bisherige, aber auch das zur Verabschiedung anstehende neue europ?ische und deutsche Bioenergierecht l?st diese nicht immer hinreichend auf. Nachhaltigkeitskriterienkataloge k?nnen diese Rolle auch strukturell nur begrenzt übernehmen, unter anderem weil sie die n?tige Komplexit?t nicht abbilden, Verlagerungseffekte nicht vermeiden und bestimmte zentrale Aspekte (etwa das Weltern?hrungsproblem) erst gar nicht abbilden k?nnen; und wenn, dann müssten die Kataloge über die aktuellen EU-Vorschl?ge hinausgehen. Wirkungsvoller für die Bioenergienutzung selbst wie auch in der Energiepolitik insgesamt w?re aber eine einschneidende Energieeffizienzpolitik – die den Gesamtverbrauch senken und damit die ?kologisch-sozialen Ambivalenzen überschaubarer machen würden, wenn langfristig die erneuerbaren Energien 100% der Versorgung in einer “kohlenstofffreien Wirtschaft” übernehmen. In Verbindung mit der Analyse der Ambivalenzen bietet der vorliegende Beitrag zugleich einen kurzen überblick über das Bioenergierecht.     

Likelihood Ratios for Deep Neural Networks in Face Comparison

In this study, we aim to compare the performance of systems and forensic facial comparison experts in terms of likelihood ratio computation to assess the potential of the machine to support the human expert in the courtroom. In forensics, transparency in the methods is essential. Consequently, state-of-the-art free software was preferred over commercial software. Three different open-source automated systems chosen for their availability and clarity were as follows: OpenFace, SeetaFace, and FaceNet; all three based on convolutional neural networks that return a distance (OpenFace, FaceNet) or similarity (SeetaFace). The returned distance or similarity is converted to a likelihood ratio using three different distribution fits: parametric fit Weibull distribution, nonparametric fit kernel density estimation, and isotonic regression with pool adjacent violators algorithm. The results show that with low-quality frontal images, automated systems have better performance to detect nonmatches than investigators: 100% of precision and specificity in confusion matrix against 89% and 86% obtained by investigators, but with good quality images forensic experts have better results. The rank correlation between investigators and software is around 80%. We conclude that the software can assist in reporting officers as it can do faster and more reliable comparisons with full-frontal images, which can help the forensic expert in casework.     

School-based services for youth with prior police contact: a randomized controlled trial

Journal of Experimental Criminology - We present results from a randomized controlled trial of a school-based intervention that provided services to youth with prior police contact. The...     

A Pilot Study on the Diagnosis of Fatal Electrocution by the Detection of Myocardial Microhemorrhages

In electrocutions, death may be caused by alterations in the heart conduction system provoking ventricular fibrillation. This study aims to identify histological cardiac markers of high- and low-voltage electrocution. Two groups of decedents were evaluated: group A included 14 fatalities caused by high- or low-voltage electrocution and group B (control) included 14 fatalities due to other traumatic or disease causes. Myocardial sampling with microscopic examination was performed on all the hearts using the hematoxylin and eosin and Masson's trichrome stains to investigate morphological characteristics that could indicate the damage caused by high- and low-voltage electrocutions. Interstitial myocardial hemorrhagic infiltration was the only differentiating finding, which was shown only in high-voltage electrocution. This pathological finding has not been previously reported, and it may be specific to high-voltage electrocution deaths. Further studies are warranted.     

Analysis of Frontal Sinuses for Personal Identification in a Chinese Sample Using a New Code Number

The study of frontal sinuses for personal identification is a considered approach in the forensic field. In Yoshino's system, the frontal sinus patterns of a given person were formulated as a code number (codY) obtained by arranging the class numbers in each classification item. The aim of this work was to use a new code number (codC) with eight digits that includes other two continuous variables obtained as ratios SOR₁ (left frontal sinus area/left orbit area) and SOR₂ (right frontal sinus area/right orbit area), comparing the results with that of Yoshino. Digital radiographic images of the skulls of 150 Chinese people were analyzed. Spearman's partial correlation coefficients were evaluated between variables characterizing frontal sinus patterns. We used a maximum-weight dependence tree for statistical analysis. Results demonstrated that codC significantly reduced the probability of having the same personal code number compared with codY. Our scientific approach results valid for personal identification purposes.     

Social services to claim legitimacy: comparing autocracies’ performance

ABSTRACT

Autocrats cannot rule by repression and co-optation alone, and need to instil some sense of legitimacy in the populace. Lacking democratic legitimacy, and being in shortage of other identity-based sources of diffuse support, legitimation claims in post-Cold War autocracies increasingly rests on rulers’ ability to achieve concrete outcomes, including the improvement of citizen living conditions. However, autocracies differ from each other, and different institutional arrangements could influence a leader’s ability to deliver social services, and chase performance-based legitimation. Accordingly, this article compares the social service performance of different post-Cold War authoritarian regimes. The analysis demonstrates that so-called electoral autocracies outperform single-party and military regimes, although they show a capacity to provide for their citizens that is similar to hereditary regimes. These findings suggest that the legitimacy returns of introducing semi-competitive and participatory institutions could grow exponentially. Besides procedural legitimacy, these institutions could help rulers pursue legitimation through social services.     

Personal Identity Development in Hispanic Immigrant Adolescents: Links with Positive Psychosocial Functioning,Depressive Symptoms,and Externalizing Problems

The present study was designed to examine trajectories of personal identity coherence and confusion among Hispanic recent-immigrant adolescents, as well as the effects of these trajectories on psychosocial and risk-taking outcomes. Personal identity is extremely important in anchoring young immigrants during a time of acute cultural change. A sample of 302 recently immigrated (5 years or less in the United States at baseline) Hispanic adolescents (M_age?=?14.51 years at baseline; SD?=?0.88 years, range 14–17) from Miami and Los Angeles (47?% girls) completed measures of personal identity coherence and confusion at the first five waves of a six-wave longitudinal study; and reported on positive psychosocial functioning, depressive symptoms, and externalizing problems at baseline and at Time 6. Results indicated that identity coherence increased linearly across time, but that there were no significant changes in confusion over time and no individual differences in confusion trajectories. Higher baseline levels of, and improvements in, coherence predicted higher levels of self-esteem, optimism, and prosocial behavior at the final study timepoint. Higher baseline levels of confusion predicted lower self-esteem, greater depressive symptoms, more aggressive behavior, and more rule breaking at the final study timepoint. These results are discussed in terms of the importance of personal identity for Hispanic immigrant adolescents, and in terms of implications for intervention.     

Drone Warfare in Counterterrorism and Normative Change: US Policy and the Politics of International Law

The use of Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) or drones in counterterrorism has changed the face of warfare and is challenging international law on a number of levels. This article assesses some of those challenges in the context of the Obama administration’s justifications to use drones for targeted killing. It focuses on the US as a norm entrepreneur that purposefully works to alter prevalent norms related to the use of drones in counterterrorism efforts. The article analyses normative developments and the meaning-in-use of existing legal provisions that are invoked to justify US policy in this area. By focusing on norm entrepreneurs, this article moves away from purely structural accounts of normative change towards a stronger emphasis on actors and the role of agency. Rather than understanding US drone policy as violating international law, this article argues that the Obama administration was acting as a norm entrepreneur in its counterterrorism efforts, aiming to change the meaning of a number of international legal concepts to justify its policy decisions.