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.     

Criteria of personal identification by the hyoid bone

We studied 16 sizes of the hyoid bone (HB) from 158 corpses of known gender, Russians, who had died at the age over 15 years by the K. Miller et al program (1998) and 205 back projection electroroentgenograms of the neck of patients of the traumatological hospital in the town of Kirov. HB skeletization was made by the enzymatic drug enzyme. SPSS package and multidimentional statistics (regression and discriminant analyses) were used for data processing. It was established that HB is an informative object of forensic medical personal identification allowing determination of the body length and gender as well as anatomical, x-ray and osteometric individual features. Precision of human body length diagnosis by HB is 6.71-7.26 cm. Therefore, this method should be used in combination with the diagnosis by long tubular bones. Diagnosis of human gender by osteometric signs of HB based on one-dimentional discriminant analysis is feasible in 80-85%, based on canonical discriminant analysis--in 91.1% cases. The method of anatomic, osteometric and roentgenological assessment of HB individuality can be used in personal identification by intravital x-ray of cervical organs and in traumatic defects of HB. The methods may be applied in forensic medical practice in expert examination of body fragments or isolated bone fragments.     

Iatrogenic deaths following treatment for hypertrophic obstructive cardiomyopathy: case reports and an approach to the autopsy and death certification

Hypertrophic cardiomyopathy (HCM) is a disease process which results in a large, heavy heart, with hypertrophy of the interventricular septum (IVS) and left ventricle. HCM accounts for a significant number of cases of sudden cardiac death each year, most infamously in young athletes. The prevalence of the disease has increased over the past several years due to advances in clinical diagnosis and molecular genetic studies. Over this same period, new forms of treatment also have emerged. One such treatment is alcohol septal ablation (ASA). ASA is a procedure performed by a cardiologist, via cardiac catheterization, by injecting pure ethanol into selected arteries which supply the IVS, resulting in a targeted myocardial infarction. This infarct then retracts and forms a scar, decreasing the outflow obstruction and improving the patient's clinical symptoms.The authors report 2 cases of death following ASA treatment of HCM. The first, a 56-year-old male, had his ASA procedure 10 days prior to death. The second decedent, a 76-year-old female, had her procedure only 30 hours before death. These case reports are followed by a discussion about HCM, including pathology, treatments, and treatment-related pathology, before closing with a discussion about death certification in the cases presented and therapy-related deaths in general.     

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.     

Reliability of the methods applied to assess age minority in living subjects around 18 years old. A survey on a Moroccan origin population

We present a review of a population of 114 immigrant Moroccan males for which an age estimation was requested. The subjects' real chronological age was confirmed by the Moroccan Embassy in Spain. The confirmed age range was between 13 and 25, with an average age of 18.1 years and a standard deviation of 2.03. The following tests were performed to arrive at the forensic estimation of age: general physical examination, carpus X-ray (Greulich and Pyle method) and dental orthopantomography to determine the degree of maturity of the third inferior molars (Demirjian's method). Carpus X-ray (skeletal age) was the most useful method, followed by Demirjian's method (dental age), as prediction factors of a chronological age of over or under 18. The combination of skeletal and dental age variables represented a significant improvement in the prediction of the chronological age of the subjects in this population, reducing the number of ethically unacceptable test errors to a minimum.     

An end to a rumour

Mardin, is a city in the southeastern part of Turkey where people from different cultures and religions have been living together peacefully for centuries. The province hosted many valuable historical constructions representing different civilizations. Kasimiye Medresse, one of the most important educational centers of its times, has a sacred value for people in Mardin. The reason is that the stain on the wall of Kasimiye Medresse is considered to be Sultan Kasim's blood. Our study aims to analyze if the stain in question is blood. Serological tests are performed by using "Kastle-Meyer" and "Luminol" reactives on the scrapped samples taken from stained and unstained parts of the wall. At the end of the analysis, the stain is turned out to be a dye made of herbal roots ending the rumour of centuries.     

Desperately seeking donors: the 'saviour sibling' decision in Quintavalle v Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority (UK)

The recent House of Lords decision in Quintavalle v Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority has raised difficult and complex issues regarding the extent to which embryo selection and reproductive technology can be used as a means of rectifying genetic disorders and treating critically ill children. This comment outlines the facts of Quintavalle and explores how the House of Lords approached the legal, ethical and policy issues that arose out of the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority's (UK) decision to allow reproductive and embryo technology to be used to produce a 'saviour sibling' whose tissue could be used to save the life of a critically ill child. Particular attention will be given to the implications of the decision in Quintavalle for Australian family and medical law and policy. As part of this focus, the comment explores the current Australian legislative and policy framework regarding the use of genetic and reproductive technology as a mechanism through which to assist critically ill siblings. It is argued that the present Australian framework would appear to impose significant limits on the medical uses of genetic technology and, in this context, would seem to reflect many of the principles that were articulated by the House of Lords in Quintavalle.