Heart valve measurement at autopsy can distinguish cardiac from non-cardiac causes of death

The circumferences of the four intact cardiac valves were measured during 397 coroner's autopsies using an obturator cone to assess the value of this measurement in the postmortem diagnosis of cardiac disease. Valve sizes of cases with cardiac and noncardiac causes of death were compared using logistic regression to assess the effects of confounding variables including sex, age, height, build and the presence of chronic obstructive airways disease. Mitral valve enlargement was found to be significantly associated with cardiac death, as were build, age, and sex. Measurement of the mitral valve at autopsy can help distinguish cardiac from noncardiac causes of death.     

The macro- and micromorphological signs of the edge of stabbing-cutting weapons in skin wounds

110 stab-cut skin wounds in 34 dead bodies as well as 38 stab-cut instruments were studied. Three morphologic types of traces left by blade edges of stab-cut instruments, i.e. puncture, microrupture and microcut, were established. Gross and micromorphology of each of these traces depends on the properties of blade edges of stab-cut instruments.     

Detection of orosomucoid 1 phenotypes in semen and semen stains

Orosomucoid 1 phenotypes were detected in seminal plasma by isoelectric focusing and immunoprinting. The orosomucoid 1 phenotypes in seminal plasma correlated with the types found in the corresponding serum specimens. Semen stains stored for ten days could be typed for orosomucoid 1. The present work revealed that orosomucoid 1 is a useful genetic marker for the medicolegal grouping of semen stains.     

The objective interpretation of histopathological data: an application to the ageing of ovine bruises

Muscle and adipose tissue from a total of 178 experimental bruises inflicted on sheep and aged from 1 to 72 h old were processed for light microscopic examination. Five observed histopathological features of inflammation and repair were scored semiquantitatively on a scale of 1-4 according to their degrees of change from the normal state. These data were evaluated mathematically using a Bayesian probability model designed for the purpose. The model was able to age bruises with an acceptable degree of accuracy only as either 1-20 h or 24-72 h old but within these constraints a degree of confidence in excess of 90% was achieved. The exact performance of the model depended on the nature and number of tissue samples examined but mathematical ageing was superior to interpretative ageing based on personal experience.     

Evaluating Public Sector R&D Programs: The Advanced Technology Program's Investment in Wavelength References for Optical Fiber Communications

Griliches (1958) [Journal of Political Economy,66: 419--431] and Mansfield et al. (1977) [Quarterly Journal of Economics 91: 221--240] pioneered the application of fundamental economic insight to the development of measurements of private and social rates of return to innovative investments. This paper illustrates field-based methods for measuring the social rates of return to innovative investments by the public sector. The case study described herein relates to the development of an improved standard reference material for the measurement of the wavelength of light in an optical fiber network.     

The Entrepreneur as Innovator

Throughout intellectual history as we know it, the entrepreneur has worn many faces and played many roles. One of those roles is innovator. This essay establishes a chronological trace of the entrepreneur as innovator in an effort to place contemporary writings within a proper historical perspective.