Forensic value of pattern and particle transfers from deployed automotive airbag contact

Many automobile manufacturers began installing airbags on the driver's side in the late 1980's. Passenger side airbags followed in the early 1990's. Most airbags use a solid-propellant type of material that produces a hot gas to inflate the airbags. The gas in the driver side airbag leaves the inflator at a temperature as hot as 600 degrees C. The hot gas escapes through the vent holes after deployment, but it can also leak through the stitching seams in the front and singe a pattern on the occupant's clothing characteristic of the seam pattern. The singe patterns from the driver and passenger side airbags will be different. Cornstarch, which is used as a lubricant in some driver side airbags, can transfer to the driver's shirt. Hairs, fibers and make-up can transfer from the driver or passenger to the surface of the deployed airbags. Two cases are presented, illustrating singe patterns and particle transfers, and how they helped determine who a driver or passenger were.     

Assessment of edema fluid distribution in the brain

The technique is proposed allowing quantitation of brain edema and typing of liquor distribution in different parts of brain tissue. In combination with other assays this test can determine a variant of tanatogenesis, detect cause of death and duration of the terminal period. The method application is illustrated by the study of brain hydration in mechanical strangulation asphyxia. It is shown that this death is associated with hypohydration of cerebral structures, especially pronounced in the cortical compartments.     

Estimation of shooting distance for a pneumatic gun MP-654 K loaded with small lead shots

The experimental material has shown possibility of definition of shooting distance and some technical characteristics of the barrel of the pneumatic gun loaded with shots.     

Assessment of unfavorable outcomes of dental care provoked by the patient

Some causes of ineffective dental care because of the patient's negligence were analyzed. In 16 cases the patients ignored recommendations of the dentist and missed visits to the doctor. As a result, the patients developed complications leading to esthetic dissatisfaction, prolonged treatment, repeated prosthetic management.     

A preliminary study on findings of psychopathy and affective disorders in adult sex offenders

The construct of psychopathy has often been considered mutually exclusive to the presence of genuine depressive or anxiety symptomotology. This article addresses the hypothesized reasons for this dichotomous relationship. In this study, 68 civilly committed adult male sex offenders were evaluated using a variety of psychological measures to determine if psychopathic individuals in this group would demonstrate clinically significant affective symptoms. Results indicate that the men in this sample endorsed high rates of psychopathy on the PCL-R, with 42% of these expressing concurrent symptoms of depression and 26% manifesting symptoms of an anxiety disorder. Relationships between affective symptoms and PCL-R factor scores and qualitative differences between these constructs in child molesters and rapists are also discussed.     

The who, what, and why of risk adjustment: a technology on the cusp of adoption

Risk adjustment (RA) consists of a series of techniques that account for the health status of patients when predicting or explaining costs of health care for defined populations or for evaluating retrospectively the performance of providers who care for them. Although the federal government seems to have settled on an approach to RA for Medicare Advantage programs, adoption and implementation of RA techniques elsewhere have proceeded much more slowly than was anticipated. This article examines factors affecting the adoption and use of RA outside the Medicare program using case studies in six U.S. health care markets (Baltimore, Seattle, Denver, Cleveland, Phoenix, and Atlanta) as of 2001. We found that for purchasing decisions, RA was used exclusively by public agencies. In the private sector, use of risk adjustment was uncommon and scattered and assumed informal and unexpected forms. The most common private sector use of RA was by health plans, which occasionally employed RA in negotiations with purchasers or to allocate resources internally among providers. The article uses classic technology diffusion theory to explain the adoption and use of RA in these six markets and derives lessons for health policy generally and for the future of RA in particular. For health policy generally, the differing experiences of public and private actors with RA serve as markers of the divergent paths that public and private health care sectors are pursuing with respect to managed care and risk sharing. For the future of RA in particular, its history suggests the need for health service researchers to consider barriers to use adoption and new analytic technologies as they develop them.     

Obesity, courts, and the new politics of public health

Health care politics are changing. They increasingly focus not on avowedly public projects (such as building the health care infrastructure) but on regulating private behavior. Examples include tobacco, obesity, abortion, drug abuse, the right to die, and even a patient's relationship with his or her managed care organization. Regulating private behavior introduces a distinctive policy process; it alters the way we introduce (or frame) political issues and shifts many important decisions from the legislatures to the courts. In this article, we illustrate the politics of private regulation by following a dramatic case, obesity, through the political process. We describe how obesity evolved from a private matter to a political issue. We then assess how different political institutions have responded and conclude that courts will continue to take the leading role.     

Carbon monoxide-related deaths in a metropolitan county in the USA: an 11-year study

Carbon monoxide (CO) poisoning as a cause of death is well documented in industrialized countries. The objective of this study was to compare demographic data in deaths due to accidents (in fires) and suicides in the same population between 1988 and 1998. Furthermore, the potential effect of a community wide education effort regarding safety in the home was assessed. Postmortem reports were reviewed for all deaths examined at the Office of the Cuyahoga County Coroner in Cleveland, OH, USA. During the study period, there were 209 accidental deaths due to fires in the home (6.5% of all accidents in the home) and 182 CO deaths by suicide (9.8% of all suicides). Demographic characteristics of the two groups differed: while males represented the majority of cases in both groups (55% of accidents, 70% suicides), race specific death rates were higher for whites than blacks (18/100,000 white, 3/100,000 black) in suicides compared with 29/100,000 deaths for blacks and 11/100,000 for whites in accidental cases. Fire deaths were prevalent in the young (0-9 years) and old (>60) whereas in the suicide group the age specific death rate was highest for those over 70 years. The majority of fire deaths occurred in the city of Cleveland but suicides were prevalent in the suburbs. More fire deaths occurred in December than any other month whereas more suicides occurred in April. In 1992, there was a community wide effort to provide free smoke detectors to residents in Cleveland. In 1992, there were 4.2/100,000 fire deaths in the city. This decreased to 0.6/100,000 in 1996, increased to 1.2/100,000 in 1997 followed by a decrease to 0.8/100,000 in 1998. This suggested that the program may have aided in decreasing these types of deaths. Deaths due to fires in the suburbs were <1/100,000 throughout the study period.