THE IMPACT OF THE SPORT OF BICYCLE RIDING ON SAFETY LAW

On Wednesday, a gentleman, who stated he came from Thornhill in Dunfries, was placed at the Gorbels public bar, charged with riding along the pavement on a velocipede to the obstruction of the passage, and with having, by so doing, thrown over a child. … The child who was thrown down had not sustained any injury, and under the circumstances, the offender was only fined 5 shillings. Glasgow Argus, June 9, 1842- arguably the first court decision applying safety law to the bicycle.     

Sudden death due to thrombotic thrombocytopenic purpura

This case studies the clinical, laboratory, and pathologic findings observed in thrombotic thrombocytopenic purpura (TTP). Although TTP is a well-recognized syndrome, it is frequently undetected antemortem and represents a rare cause of sudden death. We recently were involved in a case of TTP in which an 18-year-old woman with no previous history died suddenly. The case was referred to our office for consultation because of a recent history of methamphetamine abuse. We report herewith our approach to the diagnostic workup of TTP and review relevant literature.     

The use of the subculture of violence as mitigation in a capital murder case

This paper examines the role a sociologist in a capital murder case involving a defendant who was black and a victim who was a white on-duty police officer. The author of this paper testified in this specific case and has worked as a sociologist in over 60 capital murder cases. The use of the subculture of violence as mitigation is presented.     

A soft-tissue calcification: differential diagnosis and pathogenesis

An autopsy of a 72-year-old white male revealed a 30.5 x 5.1 cm vertically aligned heterotopic ossification just deep to a 30.5 cm midline abdominal scar. The ossified mass was determined to be a heterotopic ossification or myostitis ossificans (MO) traumatica resulting from an abdominal surgical incision during life. While, MO traumatica is relatively common accounting for roughly 60-75% of patients with soft-tissue ossification, heterotopic ossification of abdominal incisions are relatively rare and thus infrequently reported. This article details the manifestation of this relatively large heterotopic bone and provides a comprehensive review of the literature and pathogenesis of this unusual ossification. A review of the English literature from 1920 to the present produced only a handful of articles for a total of 185 reported cases. All had bone formed within vertical incisions, usually within 1 year of surgery, and 89% were males. Knowledge of this phenomenon and the variable size at presentation is useful to both the autopsy pathologist and the anthropologist in generating a diagnosis for abnormal calcifications.     

Children’s Susceptibility to Misidentifying a Familiar Bystander From a Lineup: When Younger is Better

Children from 5 to 12 years of age (N=779) were shown a videotape where a preschool teacher has money stolen from her wallet. Children were shown a lineup, and for children in the bystander condition, the lineup contained a familiar bystander without the thief. Children in the control condition viewed the same lineup but they had not seen the bystander in the videotape. Among the 11–12-year olds, participants in the bystander condition were significantly more likely than control participants to misidentify the familiar bystander. This effect was not found in children from 5 to 10 years of age. When children in the control condition were shown a lineup that contained the thief without the bystander, the 11–12-year olds were significantly more likely than the younger children to correctly identify the thief. These findings demonstrate that age can both increase and decrease the accuracy of children’s lineup identification accuracy depending on the task at hand and the content of a lineup.     

A study of male veterans' beliefs toward domestic violence in a batterers intervention program

Domestic violence in intimate relationships is a ubiquitous social problem. This study addresses a gap in the research literature on batterers intervention programs with heterosexual male batterers by evaluating whether or not self-reported attitudes about partner abuse and sexist beliefs could be modified over time as a result of participation in a Batterers Intervention Program (BIP). Using the Inventory of Beliefs about Partner Abuse (IBAPA) to measure attitudes toward domestic violence and the Ambivalent Sexism Inventory (ASI) to measure sexist beliefs, results of the study provide empirical support for the notion that participation in BIPs affects the self-reported beliefs about their rights to physically and emotionally abuse their partner. These self-reported scores were adjusted for response bias by the long version of the Marlowe-Crowne Social Desirability Scale (MCD). Response bias and how it is treated in self-report measures with batterers is also discussed.     

Cross-validation of the risk matrix 2000 sexual and violent scales

The predictive accuracy of the newly developed actuarial risk measures Risk Matrix 2000 Sexual/Violence (RMS, RMV) were cross validated and compared with two risk assessment measures (SVR-20 and Static-99) in a sample of sexual (n= 85) and nonsex violent (n= 46) offenders. The sexual offense reconviction rate for the sex offender group was 18% at 10 years follow-up, compared with 2% for the violent offenders. Survival analyses revealed the violent offenders were reconvicted at twice the rate compared to sexual offenders. The RMV significantly predicted violent recidivism in the sex and combined sex/violent offender groups. Although the RMS obtained marginal accuracy in predicting sexual reconviction in the sex offender group, none of the scales significantly predicted sexual reconviction. An item analysis revealed four factors not included in the risk scales that were significantly correlated with sexual and violent reconviction. Combining these factors with Static-99, RMV, and RMS increased the accuracy in predicting sexual reconviction.     

Black soldier fly (Diptera: Stratiomyidae) colonization of pig carrion in south Georgia

The black soldier fly, Hermetia illucens (L.), is thought to colonize corpses 20-30 days postmortem. However, recent observations indicate this might not be true for all cases. Therefore, we conducted a study examining colonization by the black soldier fly and other Diptera on pig carrion in a plowed field in southern Georgia from 20 September through 21 February. Our data indicate black soldier flies could colonize a corpse within the first week after death. Knowing this information could prevent a serious mistake in estimating the time at which a corpse is colonized by this species. This study also represents the first record of Chrysomya rufifacies in Georgia.     

Cor triatriatum sinistrum: a rare congenital cardiac anomaly presenting in an adult with chronic atrial fibrillation

Cor triatriatum is a rare congenital cardiac anomaly in which the left atrium is divided into proximal (dorsal or upper) and distal (ventral or lower) chambers by a fibromuscular septum. The upper chamber receives the pulmonary veins and the lower chamber contains the atrial appendage and the mitral valve. The 2 chambers communicate through a defect in the membrane. Cor triatriatum is often associated with other congenital cardiac anomalies. Most frequently, the upper chamber communicates with the right atrium through a patent foramen ovale or atrial septal defect, and the clinical symptoms simulate anomalous pulmonary venous return. Less commonly, the foramen ovale communicates with the distal chamber and the clinical features mimic mitral stenosis. When cor triatriatum is the only abnormality, the clinical findings are also similar to mitral stenosis with development of pulmonary hypertension and subsequent right ventricular hypertrophy and atrial enlargement. The diagnosis is usually made in infancy or childhood, and the lack of treatment results in death in 75% of patients.We report the case of a woman who presented much later in life. The patient was a 57-year-old female with a clinical history of chronic atrial fibrillation who presented to the emergency department because of a "funny sensation" in her chest, though she denied chest pain, nausea, vomiting, or diaphoresis. EKG revealed atrial fibrillation with a rapid ventricular response and a tachycardic rate of 157. She had a therapeutic level of digoxin, and cardiac enzymes were normal. The patient was admitted and placed on Cardizem drip. Serial EKGs remained normal and heart rate control was achieved. On hospital day 2, the patient became dyspneic and cyanotic. She went into cardiac arrest and died.Autopsy revealed cardiomegaly (610 g) with 4-chamber dilatation. A septum divided the left atrium into 2 chambers. The defect in the dividing membrane measured 1 cm in diameter. No other congenital defects were noted. The large size of the defect in the membrane likely accounted for the late onset of symptoms that allowed this patient to survive into adulthood without previous diagnosis or surgical intervention (which is usually required in childhood).