Keyhole defect production in tubular bone

Fracture characteristics, reported primarily for the cranium, are valuable indicators of bullet direction. A bullet striking the vault tangentially produces an irregular opening, termed a "keyhole defect." with the circular portion of the defect being the initial point of impact. Identifying this feature in tubular bone (long bone) can also demonstrate bullet direction and the position of the bone at the time of the shooting. This case study involving a tangential shot (i.e., a keyhole fracture) to the humerus demonstrates some of the same fracture mechanics seen in the cranium.     

Literatur

Ohne Zusammenfassung     

Attribution of crime motives biases eyewitnesses’ memory and sentencing decisions

In court, the basic expectation is that eyewitness accounts are solely based on what the witness saw. Research on post-event influences has shown that this is not always the case and memory distortions are quite common. However, potential effects of an eyewitness’ attributions regarding a perpetrator’s crime motives have been widely neglected in this domain. In this paper, we present two experiments (N?=?209) in which eyewitnesses were led to conclude that a perpetrator’s motives for a crime were either dispositional or situational. As expected, misinformation consistent with an eyewitness’ attribution of crime motives was typically falsely recognised as true whereas inconsistent misinformation was correctly rejected. Furthermore, a dispositional vs. situational attribution of crime motives resulted in more severe (mock) sentencing supporting previous research. The findings are discussed in the context of schema-consistent biases and the effect of attributions about character in a legal setting.     

Characterizing the Performance of Pipe Bombs

Pipe bombs of steel or PVC fragment in reproducible patterns when similarly configured. The power of the explosion correlates with number, mass, and size of the fragments recovered, where a large number of small, low‐mass fragments indicate a high‐power event and vice versa. In discussing performance, describing pipe fragmentation pattern by fragment weight distribution mapping (FWDM) or fragment surface area distribution mapping (FSADM) was useful. When fillers detonated, detonation velocities of ~4.4 mm/μs were measured. In such cases, side walls of the pipe were thrown first; the average fragment velocity was ~1000 km/s. In deflagrations, the end cap was first thrown; fragment velocities were only ~240 km/s. Blast overpressures varied; at 10 feet, 2 × 12 inch steel pipes containing ~550 g of detonable mixture produced overpressures of 5–6 psi; similar nondetonating pipes produced less than 2 psi. Maximum fragment throw distances were 250–300 m, with an average of ~100 m.     

Democracy in Spain: Legitimacy, discontent, and disaffection

This article examines changes in perceptions of democracy in Spain over the last two decades. A variety of empirical indicators gleaned from numerous surveys are used to distinguish between democratic legitimacy and political discontent, as well as between this (which includes the well-known indicator of dissatisfaction with the way democracy works) and political disaffection. The article traces the different ways in which these attitudes have evolved in Spain over the last twenty years, and demonstrates that they belong to different dimensions. It also includes the results of two tests showing that these two sets of attitudes are conceptually and empirically distinct: a factor analysis confirms the distinct clustering of the indicators at the, individual level, whilst cohort analysis identifies different patterns of continuity and change across generations. José Ramón Montero is Professor of Political Science at the Universidad Autónoma de Madrid. He obtained his doctorate in Law at the Universidad de Santiago and has taught, at the Universities of Granada, Santiago, Zaragoza, Cádiz and the Universidad Complutense de Madrid. He has been Visiting Professor at the Universities of Harvard, California at Berkeley, and Ohio State University, as well as Secretary and Dean of the School of Law, Universidad de Cádiz, and Deputy Director of the Centro de Investigaciones Sociológicas. Richard Gunther is Professor of Political Science at Ohio State University. He has a Ph.D. in Political Science from the University of California at Berkeley, and is co-Chair of the Subcommittee on Southern Europe of the Social Science Research Council. Mariano Torcal is Assistant Professor of Political Science at the Universidad Autónoma de Madrid. He holds a doctorate from the Universidad Autónoma de Madrid and a Ph.D candidacy in Political Science from the Ohio State University. He has been a Visiting Professor in the Department of Political Science at the Univeristy of Michigan, and Visiting Fellow at the Kellogg Institute for International Studies, Notre Dame University.     

Legal Irritants: Good Faith in British Law or How Unifying Law Ends Up in New Divergencies

Legal transplant is an unsatisfactory metaphor for describing the transfer of legal rules from one legal system to another. Instead, the metaphor of legal irritant better describes the impact on the legal system, and then a distinction between tight and loose coupling between law and its social context better explains the trajectory of social effects. The example of the importation of the civil law concept of good faith into British law illustrates the co-evolving trajectories of the legal system and tightly coupled social systems which instead of furthering harmonisation of laws produces new divergences as their unintended consequences.     

The Berlin morgue of 1886--the 125-year-old morgue of Berlin-Mitte

On 1 March 1886, a new morgue built along the lines of the Paris morgue, was opened in Berlin, Germany. Experts from many European countries were interested in the new building with its modern design and equipment. As the morgue, the Institute of Legal Medicine of the Berlin University accommodated in the same building also acquired international reputation. However, neither the scientific nor the economic achievements of this long-standing institution could prevent the closure of this historic site in Berlin-Mitte after almost 125 years.     

Saddle Pulmonary Embolism with Paradoxical Coronary Artery Embolism through a Patent Foramen Ovale

A 35‐year‐old male patient was found in cardiac arrest in his vehicle, with no apparent injuries after a minor motor vehicle collision. The decedent was found to have a saddle pulmonary embolus with a thromboembolus impacted across a patent foramen ovale and a paradoxical embolism in the circumflex coronary artery, as well as significant clotting in the deep veins of both lower extremities. There were no risk factors in his history to explain the deep venous thrombosis; family history suggested the possibility of an unrecognized clotting disorder.