Civil service reform in the People's Republic of China: case studies of early implementation

The adoption of the civil service system is the most comprehensive reform of the personnel system in the history of the People's Republic of China. The reformers want to establish a highly qualified and professional administrative corps. Elements of the reform include a merit‐based performance evaluation system that rewards good employees and punishes poor ones, open and fair competition in recruitment and promotion to assure the quality of government officials, and a system based on law that provides continuity and consistency for government policies. The article summarizes case studies of implementation challenges such as recruitment, examinations, selection and promotion, performance evaluation, training, job rotation and salary systems. The cases provide snapshots of some of the most difficult issues involved in reforming China's civil service. Copyright © 1999 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Cardiac Ventricular Laceration Due to Child Abuse: Abusive Ventricular Laceration

Traumatic cardiac ventricular ruptures in children are rare. Only a single case of left ventricular rupture due to child abuse has been reported. We report a child who sustained a fatal left ventricular apical rupture. It appeared to have resulted from hydrostatic forces resulting from abusive blunt thoracic injury. That he was being abused was previously missed when he was presented to the emergency department with facial pyoderma. It was not noted that he also had lip and oral mucosal injury, sites not affected by staph toxins. As a result, his underlying, abusive and secondarily infected, facial flow type scald burn was not appreciated. Within a week thereafter his fatal injury occurred, accompanied by extensive and obvious associated abusive injuries. Postmortem high‐detail whole body computed tomography scanning aided the autopsy. Although rare, ventricular rupture from abusive blunt thoracic injury can occur.     

Reanalysis of the Trotter Tibia Quandary and its Continued Effect on Stature Estimation of Past‐Conflict Service Members

Forensic casework from past‐conflicts relies on the corrected historical Trotter data for stature estimation in Fordisc. For roughly 10 years’, stature estimation using this data has produced point estimates for the tibia that are on average 1.25 inches less than the other long bones. This issue was identified after applying the equations derived from Fordisc to the USS Oklahoma commingled assemblage. Reevaluation of Fordisc revealed that a correction factor of 20 mm, instead of 10 mm, was mistakenly applied to the Trotter tibia data. Historical forensic anthropology reports written at the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency were utilized to identify that the overcorrection is isolated to Fordisc 3 with an error rate of 5% of known antemortem statures falling outside of the prediction intervals that relied on the tibia. Further evaluation of the Oklahoma sample indicates the 10 mm correction is still producing point estimates less than the other long bones.     

Surveillance of environmental movements in Canada: critical infrastructure protection and the petro-security apparatus

A convergence of post-9/11 security governance practices and a dependence on extractive economies has resulted in changes to the way Canadian policing agencies classify environmental movements. We detail how the category of ‘critical infrastructure protection’ (CIP) now enables surveillance of environmentalists under the banner of national security. We examine the growth of CIP as a security category, its changing character from the Cold War to the present, and the role of threat entrepreneurs. We demonstrate that CIP networks have institutionalized collaborations between national security agencies and energy corporations, creating a petro-security apparatus that aims to suppress dissent. We conclude with reflections on what surveillance regimes driven by the petro-security apparatus mean for debates about national security and social movements.     

Conducting Veteran Dependency and Indemnity Compensation Exams: Establishing a Nexus Between Mental Health and Death

Forms of financial compensation have been paid to the beneficiaries of deceased service members since the Revolutionary War. In its current version, Dependency and Indemnity Compensation (DIC) is a tax-free monetary benefit paid to eligible survivors of veterans whose death resulted from a service-related disability. Mental health professionals are called upon to provide medico-legal opinions in DIC claims involving questions of whether a veteran’s service-connected mental illness contributed substantially to their death. The U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) does not currently employ training programs, competency standards, or best practice recommendations for these specialized evaluations. This article seeks to fill this gap and provide a resource for mental health professionals providing medical opinions in DIC claims.     

Mitochondrial DNA sequencing of cat hair: an informative forensic tool

Approximately 81.7 million cats are in 37.5 million U.S. households. Shed fur can be criminal evidence because of transfer to victims, suspects, and/or their belongings. To improve cat hairs as forensic evidence, the mtDNA control region from single hairs, with and without root tags, was sequenced. A dataset of a 402-bp control region segment from 174 random-bred cats representing four U.S. geographic areas was generated to determine the informativeness of the mtDNA region. Thirty-two mtDNA mitotypes were observed ranging in frequencies from 0.6-27%. Four common types occurred in all populations. Low heteroplasmy, 1.7%, was determined. Unique mitotypes were found in 18 individuals, 10.3% of the population studied. The calculated discrimination power implied that 8.3 of 10 randomly selected individuals can be excluded by this region. The genetic characteristics of the region and the generated dataset support the use of this cat mtDNA region in forensic applications.     

Intravascular bullet embolism to the right atrium

Bullet embolism is a relatively unusual complication of gunshot wounds. Embolism to the right atrium comprises <5% of all reported intravascular bullet emboli. We report an additional case of bullet embolus to the right atrium of a 0.38-caliber bullet following a gunshot wound to the chest. The intracardiac bullet was recognized radiologically on presentation, but the patient was hemodynamically stable and managed conservatively, with the bullet left in place. The missile remained within the heart without clinical significance for several years and was recovered from the right atrium only at the time of autopsy. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first documented case of a 0.38-caliber bullet which embolized to the right atrium and remained inconsequential for an extended period of time.