Stabbed by motorcycle? Reconstruction of an unusual traffic accident

Abstract The reconstruction of traffic accidents involving powered two-wheelers (PTWs) frequently proves to be a challenging task. A case in which a fatal head-on crash of a PTW with a small truck where only minor vehicles damage was observed but resulted in isolated fatal chest trauma is discussed here. External examination of the corpse revealed two lacerations on the back, at the first glance implying sharp trauma. Based on the accident traces, the technical expert assumed an emergency break of the PTW rider resulting in a rotation of the PTW in terms of a wheelie on the front wheel. The first contact between the PTW rider and the tail end of the small truck probably occurred with the upper side of the helmet, and then, the back handle of the PTW caused the stab-like injuries followed by compression of the rider between the small truck or asphalt and the PTW. Based on the few accident traces available, neither a reconstruction of the pre-impact velocity nor a detailed reconstruction of the PTW rider kinematics was possible. However, using an interdisciplinary approach, the principal collision position as well as the injury mechanisms could be reconstructed

The impact of anatomy variation on temperature based time of death estimation

Temperature-based time of death estimation using simulation methods such as the finite element method promise higher accuracy and broader applicability in nonstandard cooling scenarios than established phenomenological methods. Their accuracy depends crucially on the simulation model to capture the actual situation, which in turn hinges on the representation of the corpse’s anatomy in form of computational meshes as well as on the thermodynamic parameters. While inaccuracies in anatomy representation due to coarse mesh resolution are known to have a minor impact on the estimated time of death, the sensitivity with respect to larger differences in the anatomy has so far not been studied. We assess this sensitivity by comparing four independently generated and vastly different anatomical models in terms of the estimated time of death in an identical cooling scenario. In order to isolate the impact of shape variation, the models are scaled to a reference size, and the possible impact of measurement location variation is excluded explicitly by finding measurement locations leading to minimum deviations. The thus obtained lower bound on the impact of anatomy on the estimated time of death shows, that anatomy variations lead to deviations of at least 5–10%

Quality measures for fully automatic CT histogram-based fat estimation on a corpse sample

In a previous article a new algorithm for fully automatic ‘CT histogram based Fat Estimation and quasi-Segmentation’ (CFES) was validated on synthetic data, on a special CT phantom, and tested on one corpse. Usage of said data in FE-modelling for temperature-based death time estimation is the investigation’s number one long-term goal. The article presents CFES’s results on a human corpse sample of size R = 32, evaluating three different performance measures: the τ-value, measuring the ability to differentiate fat from muscle, the anatomical fat-muscle misclassification rate D, and the weighted distance S between the empirical and the theoretical grey-scale value histogram. CFES-performance on the sample was: D = 3.6% for weight exponent α = 1, slightly higher for α ≥ 2 and much higher for α ≤ 0. Investigating τ, S and D on the sample revealed some unexpected results: While large values of τ imply small D-values, rising S implies falling D and there is a positive linear relationship between τ and S. The latter two findings seem to be counter-intuitive. Our Monte Carlo analysis detected a general umbrella type relation between τ and S, which seems to stem from a pivotal problem in fitting Normal mixture distributions

Hemophagocytosis of the Hilar Pulmonary Lymph Nodes Is a More Sensitive Indicator of the Severity of COVID-19 Disease than Bone Marrow Hemophagocytosis

Simple Summary A severe, fatal COVID-19 disease is often associated with the occurrence of hemophagocytosis. Hemophagocytosis is particularly pronounced in the hilar lymph nodes, indicating compartmentalized human host responses to life-threatening infections. Abstract In systemic hyper-inflammation, as in severe COVID-19 disease, there are pronounced disorders of the hematological and lymphatic systems with prognostically relevant hemophagocytosis of the bone marrow. The current work aimed to address the importance of hemophagocytosis in the lymph nodes of patients with severe COVID-19 disease. From 28 patients who died of severe COVID-19 infection, samples of the vertebral bone marrow and lymph nodes from the cervical, hilar, para-aortic, mesenteric and inguinal locations were morphologically and immunohistologically (CD163, CD68, CD61, CD71, CD3, CD20, CD138) examined for the possible presence of hemophagocytosis. In the single-center study at the University Hospital Jena, a total of 191 hemophagocytes were found in the bone marrow and a total of 780 hemophagocytes in the lymph nodes in a standardized area of 21,924 mm 2 per tissue sample. With 370 hemophagocytes, hilar lymph nodes were most frequently affected (370/780; 47.44%; 95%-CI: [43.94, 50.95]), followed by cervical lymph nodes (206/780; 26.41%; 95%-CI: [23.41, 29.59]), para-aortic lymph nodes (125/780; 16.03%; 95%-CI: [13.58, 18.73]) and inguinal/mesenteric lymph nodes (79/780; 10.13%; 95%-CI: [8.155, 12.4]). Based on the standard area (21,924 mm 2 ), the difference in the number of hemophagocytes in the bone marrow and in the hilar lymph nodes was statistically significant ( p < 0.05), while this did not apply to the lymph nodes from the other locations. In fatal COVID-19 disease, hemophagocytosis is particularly found in the hilar lymph nodes and is therefore a better indicator of the severity of the disease than hemophagocytosis in the bone marrow. The findings provide some evidence for the concept of compartmentalized human host responses to life-threatening infections

SARS-CoV-2-assoziierte Todesfälle innerhalb des ersten Jahres der COVID-19-Pandemie: eine Autopsiestudie

Background: COVID-19 now exists for more than 3 years and has caused almost 7 million deaths worldwide. At the beginning of this study only little was known on the patients’ characteristics and comparative autopsy studies are still rare. Material and methods: Between 11 March 2020 and 10 March 2021, 55 consecutive and complete autopsies of individuals who died in association with SARS-CoV‑2 infections were performed shortly after death (median PMI 6.8 h) by the same team. Clinical data were available in 45 of 55 cases. 1st vs. 2nd infection wave cases and male vs. female cases were compared. Results: Thirty-five patients were male (63.6%) 20 were female (36.4%), average age 72.4 years. Seventeen cases (30.9%) could be assigned to the 1st and 38 cases (69.1%) to the 2nd infection wave. Forty-two of the decedents (76.4%) died due to COVID-19. Arterial hypertension, obesity, and cardiac hypertrophy were the most frequent detected comorbidities. Discussion: The present study corroborates previous research data but also reveals new approaches for further comparative studies. Patient-specific personal and general ICU-related risk factors for the development of thromboembolisms oppose the effects of changes in anticoagulant medication.Hintergrund: Seit mehr als 3 Jahren verursachte COVID-19 bislang weltweit fast 7 Mio. Todesfälle. Zu Beginn dieser Studie war vergleichsweise wenig über die Charakteristika dieser Patienten bekannt und vergleichende Obduktionsstudien existieren bislang kaum. Material und Methoden: Zwischen dem 11. März 2020 und dem 10. März 2021 wurden 55 Personen, die im Zusammenhang mit SARS-CoV-2-Infektionen verstarben, von dem selben Team vollständig obduziert. Die Obduktionen wurden kurz nach dem Tod durchgeführt (medianer PMI 6,8 h). In 45 von 55 Fällen waren zudem klinische Daten verfügbar. Verglichen wurden Fälle der ersten und zweiten Infektionswelle sowie männliche und weibliche Patienten. Ergebnisse: 35 Patienten waren männlich (63,6 %) und 20 weiblich (36,4 %); das Durchschnittsalter betrug 72,4 Jahre. 17 Fälle (30,9 %) konnten der ersten und 38 Fälle (69,1 %) der zweiten Infektionswelle zugeordnet werden. 42 Verstorbene (76,4 %) starben direkt an COVID-19. Arterielle Hypertonie, Adipositas und Herzhypertrophie waren die am häufigsten nachgewiesenen Vorerkrankungen. Diskussion: In Bezug auf die Hauptcharakteristika der COVID-19-Todesfälle bestätigen die Ergebnisse der vorliegenden Studie im Wesentlichen bisherige Forschungsdaten, zeigten aber auch neue Ansätze für weitere Vergleichsstudien auf. Patientenspezifische persönliche und allgemeine intensivmedizinische Risikofaktoren für die Entwicklung von Thrombembolien stehen den Auswirkungen einer Änderung der gerinnungshemmenden Medikation entgegen

Incidências de manifestações patológicas causadas por construções nas edificações vizinhas no município de Vitória - ES

O crescimento populacional das cidades resulta no uso e ocupação intensiva do espaço urbano, provocando dessa forma grandes adensamentos. No período de construção ou reforma de edificações, principalmente obras de múltiplos andares, acontecem reclamações dos proprietários de edificações, que se sentem atingidos por efeitos de obra vizinha. Essas ocorrências podem se transformar em manifestações patológicas nas edificações circunvizinhas pré-existentes. O presente trabalho tem o objetivo de detectar a incidência de danos e de manifestações patológicas através de uma pesquisa de casos com laudos de vistorias oficiais registradas no município de Vitória ES, bem como a realização de estudo qualitativo e quantitativo das patologias manifestadas nessas edificações, decorrentes de construções circunvizinhas. Caracteriza-se como pesquisa documental tendo o método da incidência como metodologia. Os resultados apresentados foram: quatro bairros, Jardim da Penha, Jardim Camburi, Praia do Canto e Santa Luiza, somam 56,67% do total de casos pesquisados; o ano com maior número de laudos foi 2007; da natureza das edificações afetadas, 49,09% são unifamiliares; da natureza das obras causadoras, 58,55% são edificações multifamiliares; da legalidade das obras causadoras, 66,66% foram licenciadas junto a Prefeitura; quanto ao tipo de manifestação patológica, verificou-se a presença de fissuras em 47,97% dos casos pesquisados; das patologias pesquisadas, 68,46% surgiram no período de fundação; a fase da fundação que gerou maior incidência de patologias foi o período de cravação de estacas, com 31,57% dos casos. Conclui-se que as legislações, devem ser aperfeiçoadas para prevenir ou até mesmo, num primeiro momento, minimizar estas ocorrências

Service robotics: do you know your new companion? Framing an interdisciplinary technology assessment

Service-Robotic—mainly defined as “non-industrial robotics”—is identified as the next economical success story to be expected after robots have been ubiquitously implemented into industrial production lines. Under the heading of service-robotic, we found a widespread area of applications reaching from robotics in agriculture and in the public transportation system to service robots applied in private homes. We propose for our interdisciplinary perspective of technology assessment to take the human user/worker as common focus. In some cases, the user/worker is the effective subject acting by means of and in cooperation with a service robot; in other cases, the user/worker might become a pure object of the respective robotic system, for example, as a patient in a hospital. In this paper, we present a comprehensive interdisciplinary framework, which allows us to scrutinize some of the most relevant applications of service robotics; we propose to combine technical, economical, legal, philosophical/ethical, and psychological perspectives in order to design a thorough and comprehensive expert-based technology assessment. This allows us to understand the potentials as well as the limits and even the threats connected with the ongoing and the planned implementation of service robots into human lifeworld—particularly of those technical systems displaying increasing grades of autonomy

Optimierung der Risiko- und Krisenkommunikation von Regierungen, Behörden und Organisationen der Gesundheitssicherung – Herausforderungen in lang anhaltenden Krisen am Beispiel der COVID-19-Pandemie [Optimisation of risk and crisis communication of governments, authorities and public health institutions—challenges in long-lasting crises illustrated by the COVID-19 pandemic]

Die COVID-19-Pandemie illustriert die besondere Bedeutung von Risiko- und Krisenkommunikation. Behörden und Politik stehen vor der Herausforderung, in einer dynamischen Lage mit einer Vielzahl von Daten umzugehen, diese zu überprüfen und zielgruppengerecht zu kommunizieren. Verständliche und eindeutige Informationen zu Risiken und Handlungsoptionen tragen maßgeblich zu einer Steigerung der objektiven und subjektiven Sicherheit der Bevölkerung bei. Es besteht daher ein großer Bedarf, die Erfahrungen aus der Pandemie in die Optimierung der Risiko- und Krisenkommunikation einfließen zu lassen. Die Digitalisierung ermöglicht multimodale Arrangements – also die Kombination aus Text, Abbildungen, Grafik, Icons und z. T. Bewegtbilder, Animationen und Ton. Diese spielen auch in der digitalen Risiko- und Krisenkommunikation eine zunehmend wichtigere Rolle. Von Interesse ist, inwiefern das kommunikative Zusammenspiel von Behörden, Medien und weiteren Öffentlichkeitsakteur/-innen in Vorbereitung auf und zur Bewältigung von Krisen angesichts einer komplexen Öffentlichkeit mit Hilfe zielgruppenspezifischer Kommunikation verbessert und wie Rechtssicherheit für die behördliche und mediale Praxis gewährleistet werden kann. Dementsprechend verfolgt der Beitrag 3 Ziele: 1. Er beschreibt die Herausforderungen, vor denen Behörden und mediale Akteur/-innen in der Pandemiekommunikation stehen. 2. Er zeigt, welche Rolle multimodale Arrangements spielen und welcher Forschungsperspektiven es bedarf, um die Komplexität des kommunikativen Krisenhandelns im föderalen System zu erfassen. 3. Er begründet, wie ein interdisziplinärer Forschungsverbund aus Medien‑, Kommunikations- und Rechtswissenschaft Erkenntnisse zum evidenzbasierten Einsatz multimodaler Kommunikation gewinnen kann

Computersimulationen verstehen. Ein Toolkit für interdisziplinär Forschende aus den Geistes- und Sozialwissenschaften

Das Toolkit, eine Art Hand- oder Überblicksbuch soll Geistes-, Sozial- und Kulturwissenschaftlern die Möglichkeit eröffnen, sich auf breiterer Basis und umfassender mit methodischen Aspekten der Computersimulation zu befassen. Kapitel 1 führt in die insbesondere philosophischen Herausforderungen des Hochleistungsrechnens ein. Kapitel 2 bietet eine Übersicht über die grundlegenden methodischen Zugänge. Kapitel 3 führt dann in die Details einer Simulationsmethode hinein, es widmet sich den gleichungsbasierten Simulationen