Unusual Elevator-Related Deaths: A Report of Two Cases

We present two cases of elevator-related deaths that occurred in two different elevators, and deaths were caused by a similar, but unusual, mechanism. An elevator is a platform or compartment housed in a shaft for raising and lowering people or things to different levels. Elevator-related deaths and injuries are rarely reported in the literature. In most of these cases, cause of death was attributed to falls. It seems that most of the elevator accidents may be attributed to factors related to device maintenance inadequacies or even to device malfunctioning. In our cases, both elevator cars were not equipped with full-length inner doors, thus allowing both accidents to occur. Since 2014, the European Union adopted a relative directive, which imposes the need to equip all elevators with such full-length doors. The enforcement of the above-mentioned EU Directive is crucial, in order to prevent similar accidents in the future.     

Identifying Fatal Head Injuries on Postmortem Computed Tomography Using Convolutional Neural Network/Deep Learning: A Feasibility Study

Postmortem computed tomography (PMCT) is a relatively recent advancement in forensic pathology practice that has been increasingly used as an ancillary investigation and screening tool. One area of clinical CT imaging that has garnered a lot of research interest recently is the area of “artificial intelligence” (AI), such as in screening and computer-assisted diagnostics. This feasibility study investigated the application of convolutional neural network, a form of deep learning AI, to PMCT head imaging in differentiating fatal head injury from controls. PMCT images of a transverse section of the head at the level of the frontal sinus from 25 cases of fatal head injury were combined with 25 nonhead-injury controls and divided into training and testing datasets. A convolutional neural network was constructed using Keras and was trained against the training data before being assessed against the testing dataset. The results of this study demonstrated an accuracy of between 70% and 92.5%, with difficulties in recognizing subarachnoid hemorrhage and in distinguishing congested vessels and prominent falx from head injury. These results are promising for potential applications as a screening tool or in computer-assisted diagnostics in the future.     

公务员参加养老保险统一改革的思路——“混合型”统账结合制度下的测算

中国当前的机关事业单位基本养老保险制度对保障退休人员待遇、稳定机关事业单位职工队伍、促进经济社会文化各项事业全面发展发挥了重要作用,但还存在很多问题,如单位保险的性质未变、碎片化倾向严重、政企待遇差过大、财政负担沉重等.提出了中国机关事业单位养老保险制度改革的基本思路和原则,即从新入职的人员开始,逐步把机关事业单位工作人员纳入全国统一的基本养老保险制度,在此基础上建立职业年金,以避免其待遇下降.最后,测算了改革和不改革情况下机关事业单位养老金支出对财政负担的不同影响.测算结果发现,虽然改革初期会增加财政负担,但是到2061年开始将会大大降低财政负担.     

Superannuating the Second Sex: Law, Privatisation and Retirement Income

The privatisation of retirement income through state encouragement of occupational and retail funds affects men and women differently. This is largely because the legal forms adopted in the course of privatisation suppose a 40-year continuous working life, which is mostly a male experience. Although women with different backgrounds of class and race have a variety of employment patterns, on average women spend approximately half the years in the workforce that men do and are paid considerably less. Time-use statistics indicate this is because women are engaged in household production from which retirement income under privatised schemes does not accrue. The result is that low wages are replicated in inadequate retirement incomes, and many women live in poverty in retirement. Arguments from desert, social justice and a vision of citizenship in retirement are made to justify changes to current retirement income policy and its privatising legal forms.     

An unusual case of child head injury by coat hanger*

Traumatic brain injury is the leading cause of morbidity and mortality among children suspected of child abuse. Penetrating cranio-facial injuries are generally rare in the pediatric age group and are caused by both accidental and inflicted mechanisms. We report an unusual case of a 2-year-old female who was admitted to a pediatric emergency room with an industrial stainless steel coat hanger impaled in her skull. Pertinent clinical forensic medicine examination, coupled with home inspection and interviews by the local law enforcement, revealed a horrible episode of domestic violence.     

Dynamic posturography of injured lower limb in postural evoked responseCSCD

Objective: To analyze the balance function of injured lower limb by dynamic posturography. Methods: Using the dynamic posturography instrument, the postural evoked responses of sixty-two normal people and two hundred and fifty-eight people with injured lower limb bones and joints were detected. The test was included sensory organization test (SOT) and adaption test (ADT). The results of two groups were compared by t test. Results: Compared with the normal people, the impaired people had significant statistical differences in balance scores of SOT3-SOT6 and proportion score of dynamic proprioception (P<0.05). There was no obvious decrease in ADT. Conclusion: The balance function of injured lower limb significantly decreases. © 2015 by the Editorial Department of Journal of Forensic Medicine.     

An integrated case formulation approach in forensic practice: the contribution of Occupational Therapy to risk assessment and formulation

Forensic services focus on risk reduction and extol the value of multidisciplinary working. Due to the complex relationship of personality disorder and risk, a multidisciplinary approach to risk assessment, formulation, management and reduction is essential. Occupational Therapists provide a unique perspective; however, current literature pertaining to the contribution of Occupational Therapy is negligible. This paper aims to initiate discussion of the value of Occupational Therapy contributions to risk assessment and formulation with personality disordered offenders. A new approach is described that integrates occupational adaptation and multiple sequential functional analysis to provide a structured framework for Occupational Therapy risk assessment and formulation. A single case report is presented to demonstrate the advantages of the approach for identifying offenders’ strengths and difficulties, predicting risk of reoffending, identifying offence paralleling behaviour and informing and evaluating efficacy of intervention, thereby supporting the aims of forensic practice settings to assess, manage, treat and reduce risk.     

Debunking the myth of a “Traditional” gender gap in the electoral support for Silvio Berlusconi in Italy (1994–2013)

Despite increasing gender realignment in voting behavior of most Western democracies, women are usually believed to have disproportionally supported Silvio Berlusconi's right-wing party in Italy. Using a pooled dataset based on six post-election surveys (one for each general election between 1994 and 2013), we find only spurious evidence for such a traditional gender gap in voting. Going beyond a mere “gender gap” approach, we then look for possible intra-gender differentiation. We find that housewives tend to present those attitudes – voting for the center-right, more leader-oriented –, which were traditionally imputed to “women”. Showing the importance of this “intra-gender occupational gap”, we conclude that heterogeneity among women should be taken more seriously by research that combines gender and electoral studies.     

三种方法计算气胸CT影像的肺萎陷程度比较

目的探讨临床经验法、手工边界勾画法和软件自动分析法在基于CT影像的气胸致肺萎陷程度计算上的优劣,从而推荐一种客观科学高效的肺萎陷程度计算方法。方法通过三种方法分别计算54例气胸患者的肺萎陷百分比,比较三种方法在计算效率、结果的相关性、准确性、稳定性等方面的差异。结果临床经验法、软件自动分析法与目前公认的手工边界勾画法的结果间存在线性相关(P<0.01),软件自动分析法的准确性更高;在5级及3级分类法中,三种方法之间存在显著一致性,软件自动分析法与手工边界勾画法在百分比判定上的一致性更好;单侧气胸的肺萎陷百分比的一致率高于双侧气胸;同时,软件自动分析法在计算结果的高效性、稳定性等方面具有优势。结论软件自动分析法可以解决现有CT影像的肺萎陷程度计算方法中效率低和稳定性欠佳的问题,且具有准确性高、可操作性强的特点,适合在法医临床实践中广泛应用。