Procedures and Frequencies of Embalming and Heart Extractions in Modern Period in Brittany. Contribution to the Evolution of Ritual Funerary in Europe.

The evolution of funeral practices from the Middle Ages through the Modern era in Europe is generally seen as a process of secularization. The study, through imaging and autopsy, of two mummies, five lead urns containing hearts, and more than six hundred skeletons of nobles and clergymen from a Renaissance convent in Brittany has led us to reject this view. In addition to exceptional embalming, we observed instances in which hearts alone had been extracted, a phenomenon that had never before been described, and brains alone as well, and instances in which each spouse's heart had been placed on the other's coffin. In some identified cases we were able to establish links between the religious attitudes of given individuals and either ancient Medieval practices or more modern ones generated by the Council of Trent. All of these practices, which were a function of social status, were rooted in religion. They offer no evidence of secularization whatsoever

Penetrating facial injury from angle grinder use: management and prevention

Injuries resulting from the use of angle grinders are numerous. The most common sites injured are the head and face. The high speed disc of angle grinders does not respect anatomical boundaries or structures and thus the injuries produced can be disfiguring, permanently disabling or even fatal. However, aesthetically pleasing results can be achieved with thorough debridement, resection of wound edges and careful layered functional closure after reduction and fixation of facial bone injuries. A series of penetrating facial wounds associated with angle grinder use are presented and the management and prevention of these injuries discussed

Analysis of size and shape differences between ancient and present-day Italian crania using metrics and geometric morphometrics based on multislice computed tomography

The Museum of Human Anatomy in Naples houses a collection of ancient Graeco-Roman crania. The aim of this study was to use multislice computed tomography (MSCT) to evaluate and objectively quantify potential differences in cranial dimensions and shapes between ancient Graeco-Roman crania (n = 36) and modern-day southern Italian crania (n = 35) and then to characterize the cranial changes occurring over more than 2000 years, known as secular change. The authors used traditional metric criteria and morphometric geometry to compare shape differences between the sets of crania. Statistically significant differences in size between the ancient and modern crania included shorter facial length, narrower external palate, smaller minimum cranial breadth, shorter right and left mastoid processes, and wider maximum occipital and nasal breadth. The shape changes from the ancient to modern crania included a global coronal enlargement of the face and cranial diameters, with more anterior projection of the face at the anterior nasal spine, but also posterior projection at the glabella and the nasion. It is not possible to determine whether these differences result exclusively from secular changes in the cranium or from other factors, including a mix of secular change and other unknown factors. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first MSCT-based study to compare ancient Graeco-Roman and modern-day southern Italian crania and to characterize shape and size differences

Development of a method to estimate skeletal age at death in adults using the acetabulum and the auricular surface on a Portuguese population

Aging techniques that use the posterior or middle part of the pelvis are of interest because this part of the body is very resistant to decay. In a preliminary study, acetabular criteria correlated with age were isolated. In a second study, three acetabular criteria and four auricular surface criteria were described and it was demonstrated that it is of interest to associate these criteria. The goal of the present study was to test these criteria in a larger sample and to elaborate a standardized procedure for the use of these criteria. The study concerned 462 os coxae (hip bones) of known age and sex. All of the criteria are correlated with age. Establishing a score allows a better correlation with age with lower intra-/inter-observer variability. Seven categories of overall score corresponding to eight age groups were defined and the probabilities of belonging to an age group depending on the overall score were calculated. The first main advantage of this procedure is that it is still applicable when only some parts of the body remain. The other benefit is its ability to discriminate older people

State recognition for ‘contested languages’: a comparative study of Sardinian and Asturian, 1992–2010

While the idea of a named language as a separate and discrete identity is a political and social construct, in the cases of Sardinian and Asturian doubts over their respective ‘languageness’ have real material consequences, particularly in relation to language policy decisions at the state level. The Asturian example highlights how its lack of official status means that it is either ignored or subjected to repeated challenges to its status as a language variety deserving of recognition and support, reflecting how ‘official language’ in the Spanish context is often understood in practice as synonymous with the theoretically broader category of ‘language’. In contrast, the recent state recognition of Sardinian speakers as a linguistic minority in Italy (Law 482/1999) illustrates how legal recognition served to overcome existing obstacles to the implementation of regional language policy measures. At the same time, the limited subsequent effects of this Law, particularly in the sphere of education, are a reminder of the shortcomings of top-down policies which fail to engage with the local language practices and attitudes of the communities of speakers recognized. The contrastive focus of this article thus acknowledges the continued material consequences of top-down language classification, while highlighting its inadequacies as a language policy mechanism which reinforces artificial distinctions between speech varieties and speakers deserving of recognition

Particularités de l’évaluation des souffrances endurées dans le cadre des expertises en responsabilité médicale

International audienc

Vécu des hommes victimes de violences conjugales : étude qualitative au sein de l’unité médicojudiciaire de Toulouse

International audienc