Modification of the Marmarou and Foda model of diffuse axonal injury (DAI) improves percentage survival of rats at 24 h and increases the amount of DAI identified

More than two decades ago, Marmarou published a valid model for producing diffuse axonal injury (DAI) in rats. Since then, both mild and severe injuries have been obtained by researchers using the original method and a weight of 450 g. However, the diffuse brain injuries produced in rats were only similar to those seen in humans when the rats sustained severe brain injuries. In these cases, rat mortality in the original article was around 50%, and the cause of death was prolonged apnea post-impact. Rat survival after impact is critical for studying the progression of DAI. In order to explain the cause of death in human victims with cranial trauma who do not show gross brain injury, testing for the presence of DAI is essential. Thus, in order to minimize local and cervical injuries to increase rat survival, attention should be paid to the following aspects: a wider head protector disc should be used, the head of the rat should be elevated at the time of impact, and the foam bed should be soft enough to allow the movement caused by acceleration. With our modified method, rat survival increased by 30% compared to the original model (80% versus 50%). Moreover, 85.7% of rats demonstrated DAI after 24 h of survival. With these modifications, injuries appear in the same locations as in humans; thus, the method is suitable for the study of traumatic DAI in humans.     

The utility of histology in assessing the cause of death in medico-legal autopsies in selected trauma deaths: Suspension-, immersion-, fire-, and traffic-related

The goal of a medico-legal autopsy is primarily to determine the cause and manner of death. To this end, the pathologist often uses auxiliary analyses, including histology. However, the utility of routine histology in all medico-legal autopsies is unknown. Earlier studies on the utility of routine histology have shown inconsistent effects, with some studies recommending it and others rejecting it. To study the degree to which histology informs on the underlying cause of death, we sent autopsy reports from suspension-, immersion-, fire-, and traffic-related deaths to senior board-certified forensic pathologists and had them assess the cause of death, first without knowledge of the histological findings and then with knowledge thereof. Fifty cases were identified in each of four subgroups: fire-, immersion-, suspension-, and traffic-related deaths. The autopsy reports were anonymized, and the histological findings and conclusions were removed. Two board-certified forensic pathologists independently reviewed the reports in each subgroup and assessed the manner and underlying cause of death (including their certainty of this assessment on a five-level scale) with and without access to histological findings. The probability of changing the underlying cause of death posthistology was low in all study groups. There was a slight increase in the degree of certainty posthistology in cases where the underlying cause of death was not changed, but only when the antehistology certainty was low. Our results suggest that histology does not meaningfully inform on the underlying cause of death in suspension-, immersion-, fire-, and traffic-related deaths except when antehistology certainty is low.     

Detection of human chorionic gonadotropin (HCG) in fabric urine stains older than five years

Human chorionic gonadotropin (HCG) is used in clinical medicine as a particularly important indicator to determine pregnancy. In this study, it was necessary to determine whether the urine spots on car seat fabric from a murder 5 years previously were from a pregnant woman. The HCG in the dried urine spot on a car seat was detected using an immunochromatography kit. It was found that the HCG in urine can be detected for much longer periods of time than the previously reported period of approximately 6 months.     

Can the Pivotal mechanism induce truth-telling? An experimental study

In this paper we use a laboratory experiment toexamine the Pivotal mechanism when applied to a binarydecision on a public project of a fixed size. Wefirst point out that the well-known incentivecompatibility of the Pivotal mechanism is true only in aweak sense; There are always strategies otherthan truth-telling that do no worse for a subject thantruth-telling, in any particular set of circumstances.This weakness of the incentive compatibility ofthe Pivotal mechanism makes it difficult for subjects tounderstand that truth-telling is the unique dominantstrategy for the mechanism, unless they havecomprehensive understanding of the payoff structure,with the result that subjects often do not play thedominant strategy. We suggest that this tendency todepart from the dominant strategy can be overcome byproviding subjects with more information about the payoffstructure. We controlled the level of informationprovision in the laboratory and verified that thestrategies used are closer to the dominant strategywhen more information is provided. Under noinformation provision conditions were outcomes poor,but under ``wide'' provision conditions, in which eachsubject experienced a variety of true personalvaluations of the project, departure from thedominant strategy was smaller in magnitude, and under``deep'' provision conditions, in which detailed payofftables were available to each subject, the rate of useof the dominant strategy increased significantly.     

US Technological Competition with China: The Military,Industrial and Digital Network Dimensions

The US approach toward China shifted from engagement to competition, and it has coincided with the near-simultaneous breakthrough of advanced technologies in a whole host of areas ranging from artificial intelligence to synthetic biology. As a result, the United States is competing with China to apply these advanced technologies for military and industrial purposes, and, at the same time, competing in third countries over dominance in digital network infrastructure. The current article will illustrate Chinese efforts and US countermeasures that are unfolding in the form of military technological competition, industrial technological competition, and the digital network competition in order to argue that the US shift toward competition is not only about Chinese discriminatory and unreasonable acts, policies and practices related to technology transfer and cyber intrusions, but a contest for supremacy over the next generation of military, economic and information/data dominance that could impact the relative legitimacy of political and socio-economic system of the two states.     

Fatal hemorrhage from a periumbilical wound: Stabbing or hemorrhage from a caput medusae?

Varices are the main clinical manifestation of portal hypertension, and their bleeding is the predominant cause of mortality from this condition. Periumbilical varices are known as “caput medusae.” Reports of their bleeding are rare, with only three fatal cases described in the literature. The antemortem diagnosis is relatively simple, while the postmortem diagnosis is more complex. This paper is the first report of fatal hemorrhage from a caput medusae for which the diagnosis was made postmortem, thanks to a complete diagnostic process including scene and circumstances, medical history, and autopsy with detailed histology. The circumstantial analysis showed the presence of a large amount of blood at the scene, blood which originated from a small abdominal wound; an analysis of the subject's clinical data reported that he was affected by portal hypertension. The autopsy revealed some dilated and convoluted veins in the subcutaneous tissue of the umbilical region; a fistula between these veins and the abdominal wound was detected. The histological study confirmed the presence of periumbilical varices, one of them ruptured and connected with the overlying skin. The cause of death was attributed to a massive hemorrhage generated by a periumbilical varix in a patient affected by portal hypertension.     

3D forensic facial approximation: Implementation protocol in a forensic activity

The primary objective of this paper is to report on the successful implementation of forensic facial approximation in a real case in the forensic context. A three‐dimensional (3D) facial approximation protocol of the skull was performed with free software, applying techniques in a virtual environment that have already been consolidated in the literature. The skull was scanned with the photogrammetry technique, the digital replica was imported in the Blender software (Blender Foundation, Amsterdam) and individualized model sketches of the face were traced with the MakeHuman software (MakeHuman Org) according to the anthropological profile of the victim. The face created was imported in Blender, where it was adapted, modeled, and sculpted on the 3D skull and its soft tissue markers, using an American open‐source application of the technique in the digital environment. The face created in a virtual environment was recognized and legal identification procedures were started, resulting in the more agile delivery of the disappeared body to its next of kin. It is therefore concluded that facial approximation may not be a primary method of human identification, but it can be satisfactorily applied in the forensic field as an individual recognition resource. It has great value in narrowing the search, reducing the number of alleged victims, and leading to identification tests, therefore significantly reducing the number of genetic DNA (deoxyribonucleic acid) tests—which are considered costly for the State or Federation—and consequently reducing the waiting time before delivery of the body to its family.     

Primary intimal sarcoma of the pulmonary artery misdiagnosed as pulmonary thromboembolism: A case confirmed at medicolegal autopsy

Misdiagnosed PAS confirmed at medicolegal autopsy Pulmonary artery sarcoma (PAS) is a rare disease and usually indistinguishable from acute or chronic thromboembolic disease of the pulmonary arteries. We present a case of pulmonary artery sarcoma in a 54‐year‐old male, who was clinically misdiagnosed as pulmonary thromboembolism. The patient died of disease; however, the actual diagnosis of PAS was made after a medicolegal autopsy. PAS can be a diagnostic challenge for both clinicians and pathologists. In an autopsy case with a clinical suspicion of pulmonary thromboembolism, if there is an abnormal gross appearance in the pulmonary artery, the forensic pathologist should have a high index of suspicion of PAS, which should be ruled out by a histopathologic examination.