Condition Of Anonymity Research Articles

“No Rest for the Wicked”: R.L. Stevenson’s “The Body Snatcher” and the Resisting Corpse of Victorian Resurrectionism

The subversive semantic power of the revenant or reanimated corpse in Victorian literature serves as a crucial indicator of the era’s preoccupation with the body as a cultural domain. Deeply entwined with the uneasy relationship between the advancement of anatomical science and criminality, the body is marked as the site of fraught boundaries imbued with social order and its attendant anxieties. This paper explores the narrative strategies of Stevenson’s short story “The Body Snatcher” (1884) where resurrectionist motifs resist the enforcement of the condition of anonymity that was entailed by anatomical dissection and signal the impossibility of closure through the trope of return of the repressed sub specie of the dissected cadaver. This dual ‘resistance’ culminates in the symbolism of the revenant corpse’s movement, abandoned in its progress towards the future. Stevenson’s story reveals a hermeneutic complexity that intertwines the themes of contamination, ethical collusion, commodification of the dead body through the entanglement of medical practice and narrative opacity. This offers further insights into the Victorian resurrectionist imagination, in the light of that ‘aura’ of the corpse which the regulation of the 1834 New Poor Amendment Act failed to dispel.

Acquittals in the Practice of Ukrainian Judges

The article suggests the results of the study on the experience of Ukrainian judges in passing acquittals. In Ukraine, approximately 0.37 percent of the accused are acquitted. If the general local court passes an acquittal, the chances of such a decision gaining legal force are few, because on average three out of four acquittals are overturned by the appeals court. There is an opinion in the scientific community that judges who previously worked in law enforcement and prosecutors’ offices have an accusatory bias, which is the reason for the small number of acquittals. During the next stage of judicial reform in Ukraine, the legislative body even blocked the access of professionals with work experience in the above-mentioned bodies in order to prevent them from entering the newly created judicial institution – the High Anti-Corruption Court. However, the Ukrainian scientific community has not investigated yet whether such judges really acquit fewer people than their colleagues with other legal experience. Therefore, the work of the Higher Anti-Corruption Court was analyzed, and 262 Ukrainian judges reviewing criminal proceedings were interviewed on the condition of anonymity. The results of the research show that 82 % of judges have no previous experience working on the side of the prosecution. It was also found that most judges, on average, pass 1–5 acquittals during their careers. But a significant group of judges did not acquit people at all. At the same time, most of them are among those who have previous experience working in the bar: as many as 25 percent. However, judges who have previous experience working as investigators – all passed acquittals already during their judicial career. Judges who previously performed the function of criminal prosecution, after changing the type of activity, do not pass a lower number of acquittals than judges who previously performed the function of defense. In addition, there are not many such judges, and therefore, even hypothetically, it is impossible to explain the small number of acquitted persons in the country by their activity. Therefore, the impact of previous experience on the prosecution side is greatly exaggerated. Key words: acquittal, work experience, judge, lawyer, prosecutor, investigator, poll

A Descriptive Statistical Analysis of Electricity Sector Workers’ Ratings of Problems with Electricity Generation in Nigeria

Abstract— In this work we present a descriptive statistical analysis of electricity workers’ ratings of problems with electricity generation in Nigeria. The problems were catalogued from focused group discussions with workers in the electricity sector and were corroborated from existing literature on electricity generation. Willing electricity workers across the country were approached at their break periods by trained interviewers for the data collection. A questionnaire containing a list of problems were administered on electricity workers and they were asked to score the listed problems on a scale of 0 – 10 depending on the severity of the problems. The data were collected on condition of strict anonymity and as such cannot be traced to any individual or company. The data was analysed using IBM SPSS Version 25 and Microsoft Excel. A descriptive statistical analysis is presented with insightful conclusions for stakeholders in the electricity sector who are involved in concerted efforts to find lasting solutions to the plethora of problems facing the electricity sector in Nigeria. From the dataset, the profile of the electricity workers indicate that they are well-informed. The respondent’s perception is that natural disasters is apparently the problem with least severity. The ratings show that the most critical problem is obsolete equipment, followed by maintenance budgets and high cost of production in decreasing order of severity. Ten (10) out of the 14 problems rated in terms of severity had a mean rating >5.0 on a scale of 0 - 10 inclusive. The data for the analysis is available and downloadable in a public repository. Keywords—Data analysis, electricity workers’ ratings, electricity generation, descriptive statistics.

ОСНОВНЫЕ ТРЕНДЫ РЕФОРМЫ ОБРАЗОВАНИЯ В КИТАЙСКОЙ НАРОДНОЙ РЕСПУБЛИКЕ

This article highlights the processes of education reform in the People's Republic of China (PRC) associated with the transition to a new stage of civilizational development, from an industrial to an information digital society. The main purpose of this study is to analyze the new stage of education reform in China. The following methods were used in the article: an empirical research method, such as analysis of open sources, official documents, publications in the state media of the People's Republic of China, as well as expert assessments of scientists from Russia, Singapore, Australia and island China. The method of qualitative analysis – in-depth interview was also applied. It was noted that there is a continuous search for new approaches to education that would be competitive in the global market, but at the same time taking into account national specifics. One of the main documents referred to by the authors in the study is "Opinions on standardization of the development of educational institutions off-campus", published in July-August 2021 from the General Staff of the State Council of the People's Republic of China. These documents were adopted in order to optimize the education system of the People's Republic of China, which was strongly influenced by the COVID-19 pandemic. The main goal of the "Opinions" is the need to improve the quality of school and higher education, as well as the standardization of extracurricular education in the centers of additional education. These measures are aimed at improving the quality of education in the country. The article provides brief reviews of articles by foreign scientists and highlights the main points of the laws with the main excerpts from a number of provisions on the role of teachers in China. The adoption of new reforms in China, as well as the situation with COVID-19 in the world, affected the activities of foreigners working in kindergartens and additional education centers, who remained inside the country during the pandemic. This law imposed a complete ban on the activities of educational institutions, thereby leaving foreigners without a basic source of income abroad. This article presents a number of in-depth interviews with young professionals with experience in teaching foreign languages in China. The interview was conducted on the condition of complete anonymity, all the names in the article have been changed. It was found that the information received from the respondents has a certain value, as it allows us to assess how the reforms in the field of education have affected not only the Chinese themselves, but also foreigners working in China. During the interview, the main conclusions were drawn, presented in the form of graphs and diagrams that allow you to visually assess the results of the study. This article covers the events that have been taking place in China since the summer of 2021 to the present day, this is its scientific novelty, since "Opinions" have introduced a number of significant changes into the Chinese education system that have not yet been fully studied, and their impact on Chinese society has not been fully revealed.

Incomplete‐information games in large populations with anonymity

The paper provides theoretical foundations for models of strategic interdependence under uncertainty that have a continuum of agents and a decomposition of uncertainty into a macro component and an agent‐specific micro component, with a law of large numbers for the latter. This macro–micro decomposition of uncertainty is implied by a condition of exchangeability of agents' types, which holds at the level of the prior if and only if it also holds at the level of agents' beliefs, i.e., posteriors. Under an additional condition of anonymity in payoffs, agents' behaviors are fully determined by their beliefs about the cross‐section distribution of types and other macro variables, and by their beliefs about the cross‐section distribution of other agents' strategies. Any probability distribution over cross‐section distributions of types and other macro variables is compatible with a fully specified belief system, but not every function from types to such probability distributions is compatible with a common prior. The paper gives necessary and sufficient conditions for compatibility of such a function with a common prior.

Comparison of Pipelle and Hysteroscopy with D&C in Postmenopausal Patients

Objective: The aim of the study is to compare the pipelle method and hysteroscopy with D&C in postmenopausal patients Methods: In this prospective study, only those postmenopausal patients with postmenopausal bleeding and/or with a sonographically highly developed endometrium who were referred for hysteroscopy with D&C were included. A total of 92 patients were included in this study. Before each procedure, patients were explicitly informed about the study and gave consent. On the condition of anonymity of personal data (surname and first name, date of birth) and after signing a special informed consent form, the patients were allowed to be included in the study. The study was performed as a double-blind study. The obtained histologies (from pipelle and D&C) were sent separately to the same pathologist. Results: The group with malignant and premalignant findings has a central role in our study. After evaluation of the histologically malignant findings from the pipelle and the D&C, the sensitivity of the pipelle in our study was 82%. Conclusion: Endometrial biopsy is an important step to exclude endometrial carcinoma in postmenopausal bleeding. The aim is to minimize the burden and invasiveness of the procedure while maintaining a high degree of diagnostic certainty to avoid unnecessary invasive surgery. The pipelle sampling can be used as an outpatient method without anaesthesia during routine examination. Our study shows that this method of sampling is a safe, accurate and cost-effective outpatient procedure with high sensitivity for the detection of endometrial carcinoma.

Conceitos goal-derived e a tese da latência semântica

In this article, we investigate the extent to which certain approaches to the concept of concept established in the last decades in the scope of cognitive sciences could pave the way for a reworking of the semantic latency thesis (originally defended by philosophers such as Ernst Cassirer and Owen Barfield). Since the 1980s, Eleanor Rosch, Lakoff & Johnson, Wilson & Sperber, Lawrence Barsalou, among others, have been investigating (each in their own way), the conversational occurrences of linguistic signs articulations that are, at the same time, meaningful and not fixed by a code. We claim that Relevance Theory, on the one hand, with its tripartite concept of concept, and certain branches of Embodied Cognition, on the other, with its multimodal approach to ad hoc concepts, offer us the necessary means for a rehabilitation of the thesis that certain forms of semantic innovation are just “pieces of evidence” of mnemonic access to concepts formed for certain specific purposes (goal-derived), which can be operative in the life of a community in a veiled way, i.e., on condition of anonymity. However, our working hypothesis that the semantic latency thesis can be strengthened in these terms faces the challenge of showing the feasibility of matching the good insights of Wilson and Sperber, in their Relevance Theory, with the simulation model of grounded cognition proposed by Lawrence Barsalou, despite the intellectualist positions taken by the former.

The Commercialization of Genetic Research: A Pilot Study

With the development of molecular genetics, the field of personalized medicine based on genetic data has been growing at a phenomenal pace. Genetic tests can identify health risks, ancestry, and genealogy, as well as the prediction of drug responses. However, very limited research exists about the marketing practices of companies, which promote and sell DNA ancestry and health-related genetic tests directly to the public.Aim. To evaluate the awareness and attitude about genetic testing in the population of a large industrial city in Russia (on the example of Irkutsk).Materials and methods. A total of 305 respondents – 265 of them were students of higher educational institutions of Irkutsk. The study was conducted on condition of anonymity. The questionnaire was available on the Internet on the basis of the Google Forms service. All basic concepts were explained to the participants during the survey.Results. 94.1 % are interested in conducting genetic testing on a commercial basis. Of the total number of survey participants, 72.8 % expressed a desire to undergo the analysis “Hereditary predisposition to diseases”, 61 % – “Monogenic diseases”, 52.1 % – “Ethno”. In addition, out of the total number of respondents surveyed, 36.7 % want to undergo genetic testing for research: features of metabolism and food intolerance “Diet”, 22 % – susceptibility to injuries and speed of recovery of physical form “Sport”, 18 % – to hereditarily determined susceptibility to drugs “Pharmacy”. It follows from the answers that the greatest interest among the surveyed people is the determination of predisposition to cardiovascular diseases – 72.5 %, to Alzheimer’s disease – 48.3 % and diabetes mellitus – 40.3 %.Conclusion. The results obtained indicate an interest in the study of predisposition to cardiovascular and neurodegenerative diseases. There is a high need to analyze the assessment of the clinical usefulness of genetic research, to assess the impact of research results on human behavior and the system of regulation of genetic testing in healthcare in general.

Perception of the general public towards the ethical and legal issues surrounding DNA paternity testing in Lebanon

DNA paternity testing constitutes a challenging area, particularly in Lebanon where there is no existing law to cover the different aspects of the test. This study aimed at exploring the perception of the general public on the various ethical and legal issues surrounding DNA testing, as an initial elementary step towards creating an appropriate legislative framework for paternity testing in Lebanon. Data were collected from 300 Lebanese individuals aged 18 years and above through an online self-reported questionnaire. The majority of the respondents insisted on giving their informed consent prior to DNA testing, regardless who is requesting the test. Around three-quarters of participants think that paternity tests should be carried out in accredited laboratories, and almost all subjects (97.3%) highlighted the importance of creating a Law that regulates paternity tests in Lebanon. In terms of results communication and incidental findings disclosure, 66.3% of participants think that the results should be preferably communicated to the concerned person(s), and 64.0% required the presence of a psychologist. The vast majority of respondents prefer to be notified about misattributed paternity (90.3%) with women being significantly less comfortable with the disclosure than men (86.9% vs. 94.4%; P = 0.0492). Nevertheless, only 23% of individuals think that such results could be reported without prior consent to their family for the sake of beneficence . Moreover, both men and women had comparable perception towards reporting a misattributed paternity and the risk of violence against women (90.3% vs. 93.8%; P = 0.28). Finally, 78.7% of participants accepted the use of residual samples in future genetic analyses, but on condition of anonymity. Our findings shed the light on Lebanese individuals’ perception towards the protective role of the informed consent and the need for a legislative background in terms of privacy, autonomy , confidentiality, rights and guarantees in the context of DNA paternity testing.

Educational environment amid COVID-19 pandemic: new security challenges

Background. of the article is determined by the need to study educational processes and the educational environment in the situation of the COVID-19 pandemic in particular. The objective of the study is to analyze the characteristics of the educational environment determined by the conditions of the COVID-19 pandemic and the requirements of self-isolation and distance learning, as well as psychological threats to the safety of the educational environment in these new conditions. Design A study of to the security of the educational environment in a pandemic was conducted. These threats were identified in an exploratory study in the first month of the self-isolation regime (April 2020). We analyzed information provided by junior psychology university students (n = 31); teachers (n = 19) and psychologists of Moscow schools (n = 6); schoolchildren – pupils of 5–7 grades (n = 76) and parents of schoolchildren (n = 18). All information was collected remotely, provided on condition of anonymity and voluntariness. Discourse processing was carried out by the method of content analysis and thematic analysis with subsequent expert assessment. The chosen methodological plan of qualitative research allowed the use of individual experiences as indicators of mass consciousness for the analysis of collective states. Results. It was revealed that the current situation created by the COVID-19 pandemic significantly changes the concept of «educational environment». The traditional characteristics of the school educational environment are complemented by factors resulting from the process of “expansion” and “shift” of the educational environment, on the one hand from the school environment to the home environment, and on the other hand from the offline format to the online format. The following new perspectives of the educational environment security defined by the situation of self-isolation are highlighted: distance learning; stay in a home environment, diminishing of direct communication; intensification of communication in the network; forced interaction with the immediate environment; the need to coordinate interaction between teachers and parents; the importance of Internet communication; dynamic processes in the family as in a small group, etc. Situations linked to the dynamics of family and interpersonal relationships, health, the physical environment at home, and the online format of the educational process cause the most important emotions in all participants of the educational process during self-isolation. Conclusions. The program of activities of the educational support service in the school environment should be supplemented with experience and new practices of life in isolation. In a situation of «expanded» educational space and distance learning, educational policy is obliged, while leaving school a priority, to take into account the emergence of new priority subjects in the educational environment that require attention.

Incomplete-Information Games in Large Populations with Anonymity

The paper provides theoretical foundations for models of strategic interdependence under uncertainty that have a continuum of agents and a decomposition of uncertainty into a macro component and an agent-specific micro component, with a law of large numbers for the latter. This macro-micro decomposition of uncertainty is implied by a condition of exchangeability of agents' types, which holds at the level of the prior if and only if it also holds at the level of agents' beliefs, i.e., posteriors. Under an additional condition of anonymity in payoffs, agents' behaviours are fully determined by their macro beliefs about the cross-section distribution of types and other macro variables and about the cross-section distribution of other agents' strategies. Any probability distribution over cross-section distributions of types and other macro variables is compatible with a fully specified belief system, but not every macro belief function is compatible with a common prior. The paper gives necessary and sufficient conditions for compatibility of a macro belief function with a common prior.

Psychometrics Anonymous: Does a Transparent Data Sharing Policy Affect Data Collection?

As researchers, we are advised to share our data to improve transparency and increase the reproducibility of experiments. Simultaneously, making data freely accessible can raise ethical questions regarding the participants’ privacy. We first outline the challenges regarding “open data” for researchers in light of the GDPR. Then, we turn to the impact of an open-access data sharing policy on the participants: could the participants’ knowledge about the future use of the data alter the data itself? Through two pre-registered studies (N = 193, collected on campus and N = 543, online participation), we investigate whether disclosing that anonymized data will be publicly shared vs. not shared influences a potential participants’ intention to take part in the study. Using both frequentist and Bayesian analysis, we conclude towards an absence of effect of a difference in data sharing policy on scores in the Big Five questionnaire and social desirability, careless response behavior, and results in the anchoring paradigm. In the second study, a lexicometric analysis of participants’ reactions to openly sharing data reveals a readiness to share data and support transparency under the condition of preserved anonymity. Hence, if anonymity can be ensured, there seems to be no methodological or ethical drawback in transparent and open data sharing policies for many psychological studies.

Incomplete-Information Games in Large Populations with Anonymity

The paper provides theoretical foundations for models of strategic interdependence under uncertainty that have a continuum of agents and a decomposition of uncertainty into a macro component and an agent-specific micro component, with a law of large numbers for the latter. This macro-micro decomposition of uncertainty is implied by a condition of exchangeability of agents' types, which holds at the level of the prior if and only if it also holds at the level of agents' beliefs, i.e., posteriors. Under an additional condition of anonymity in payoffs, agents' behaviours are fully determined by their macro beliefs about the cross-section distribution of types and other macro variables and about the cross-section distribution of other agents' strategies. Any probability distribution over cross-section distributions of types and other macro variables is compatible with a fully specified belief system, but not every macro belief function is compatible with a common prior. The paper gives necessary and sufficient conditions for compatibility of a macro belief function with a common prior.

Народная медицина тувинцев глазами врачей (по материалам опроса врачей и другого медицинского персонала в Республике Тыва и соседних регионах)

Количество обращений пациентов к различным формам традиционных лечебных и профилактических практик в Туве растет и в некоторых случаях конкурирует с медициной западной — биомедициной. Статья посвящена исследованию влияния широко распространенных в Туве различных традиционных лечебных, профилактических и шаманских практик на взаимоотношения врача и пациента. Материалами выступили результаты опроса 2018 г. 22 врачей разных специальностей в Республике Тыва, а также в близлежащих регионах — Республике Хакасия, Алтайском и Красноярском краях. Были собраны мнения о разнообразных формах традиционных лечебных практик и народного целительства, которые распространены в регионах России с сильным этнокультурным компонентом.Врачи соглашались на опрос на условиях анонимности и использовали самые разные термины для обозначения традиционных лечебных и профилактических практик, народного целительства. Все респонденты полагают, что применение альтернативных методов лечения не оправдано, первоочередным считают обращение к врачам. Все они верят в свое дело, в «настоящую» медицину. Причинами обращения пациентов к лекарям врачи называют: отсутствие эффекта от лечения в больницах, низкое качество предоставляемых там медицинских услуг, территориальная недоступность, дороговизна платных услуг, культурные особенности, семейные традиции и воспитание в Туве и близлежащих регионах и пр.Общее отношение к ним у врачей скептическое, хотя отдельные методы, например фитотерапии, медики не отвергают. Даже допускают применение подобных методов для себя и членов своих семей в домашних условиях или в специализированных учреждениях. Существенно отличаются мнения врачей Тувы, которые признают традиции культуры, в том числе и в лечении.

IMPACT OF THE VAT REVERSE-CHARGE MECHANISM ON THE CASH FLOWS OF CONSTRUCTION COMPANIES IN THE SLOVAK REPUBLIC

In 2015, the Slovak Parliament adopted the Law on Amendments to the Law on Value-Added Tax. This law came into force on January 1, 2016. One of the most significant changes was the introduction of a reverse-charge for the provision of construction works. A government statement of its positive influence on the business environment is inconsistent with the two-year experience in the building sector. The main goal of this paper is to establish the reason for the practical effects of the value-added tax reverse-charge mechanism on the construction companies. The hypothesis is that the negative effect on the cash flows of the construction companies increases ‘opportunity costs’ connected to excessive deductions. The paper focuses on evaluating and quantifying such an effect. It presents a comparison of the conditions before and after the adoption of the Act. No. 222/2004 Coll., as amended in 2016 and includes factors that influence costs and cash flows of construction companies. It but does not consider factors related to turnover and the economic situation. The reverse-charge mechanism affects the total of tax owing, the total deductible tax, the total excessive deduction, and the construction companies’ cash flows. In this study, the data from the information system of the Slovak Republic, under the condition of anonymity, are analyzed for the period 2014–2017. The effect of the value-added tax is quantified by way of financial interest expenses. These expenses depend on time limits for the excessive deduction, total of tax owing, and on the excessive deduction amount. Indicators of ‘Financial Burden 1’ and ‘Financial Burden 2’ are calculated. The results show that the Law on Amendments of Value Added Tax has significantly affected the constructions companies since January 2016. The reverse-charge system has not changed the delay in excessive deduction payments to the taxpayer’s bank account. It has changed the amount of excessive deduction expressed through money and the total tax owing. Based on the study results, this change markedly affects the financial burden of construction companies and provides an ‘opportunity cost’ Value Added Tax payers‘ construction company.

配偶子ドナーの匿名性のもとに生まれた子の出自を知る権利の遡及的保障をめぐる課題 オーストラリア・ビクトリア州の事例を中心に

配偶子ドナーの匿名性のもとに生まれた子の出自を知る権利の遡及的保障をめぐる課題 オーストラリア・ビクトリア州の事例を中心に

La construcción de la imagen de las mujeres: net.art y medios de comunicación

El presente trabajo estudia el papel de las mujeres en el movimiento artístico net.art. Se centra en averiguar en qué posición se encuentra la identidad femenina en el soporte artístico más contemporáneo (la red), cómo se crea, se proyecta y se divulga teniendo en cuenta la interactividad del medio y la influencia en el proceso de creación y recepción de la obra. Reflexionando el arte en la red como herramienta de empoderamiento femenina y contraponiéndolo con las posibilidades que ofrecen los medios convencionales. Se distingue el vínculo existente entre imagen y cuerpo en la construcción de la identidad y se extrapola al net.art. Se obtiene así el resultado de creación de la imagen de las mujeres en este movimiento artístico y cómo se proyecta al ciberespacio. Posteriormente, se procede al análisis de la interactividad que tiene el colectivo femenino a través de internet y la importancia que tiene el ciberfeminismo en la identidad de las mujeres. Se concluye que el arte digital, en concreto el net.art, es una herramienta muy importante dentro del colectivo de arte feminista para la construcción y deconstrucción de su imagen, constituyendo una experiencia pionera en la que el medio puede favorecer la igualdad de género. Se ofrece así un espacio de representación en el que el anonimato y/o la ausencia de génerofacilita la existencia de una igualdad de oportunidades en el ámbito artístico.

Behaviour under the condition of anonymity: a visual analysis

Analysing photographs of abandoned hotel rooms, we forensically classify hotel guests who left their rooms into three ideal types. Goffman’s idea of impression management is central for indicating ideal-type specific behavioural motivations. Under the condition of relative anonymity provided in hotel rooms, the audience for which guests manage impressions is either absent or the guests themselves who construct it. In the case of an audience to be seen as relevant it is either an internalised audience, guiding one’s behaviour, or it is a real audience. We demonstrate that it is possible to classify guests according to forensic analysis of the clues that identify their behaviours as (1) authentic, that is independent from an audience; (2) guided internally by an imagined audience; or (3) influenced by the perception of a real audience. The sociological categories of power and status are used to systematically differentiate behaviours of our three ideal-typical classes of hotel guests.

Retraction Statement: Antecedents and Consequences of Gender Swapping in Online Games

This study examines the reasons underlying gender swapping and its impacts on online gaming behavior. While previous studies considered gender swapping to be an abnormal or rare exception in one's self-presentation, this study hypothesized that people swap genders as a rational choice based on practical benefits. An online survey was conducted with 318 male players of MMORPGs in Korea. Players swapped gender in games to gain benefits from other players under the condition of anonymity rather than to represent their own gender identity. Men playing female avatars displayed more socially amiable behaviors conventionally characterized as more feminine. Moreover, players were more willing to purchase virtual goods to decorate their gender swapped avatars, mediated by their emotional attachment to their avatar.

Misses & near misses: Drug administration errors

Background: Mistakes made during administration of drugs to patients can be lethal. In order to analyse these mishaps we need to study the particular circumstances of each accident and define the reasons behind the mistake or lapse. This paper reports the findings of a confidential pilot study designed to highlight the frequency of such unfortunate incidences and formulate recommendations applicable in our society to prevent some of these tragic outcomes. Methods: Sixty doctors and nurses from different hospitals were randomly enquired about the personal knowledge of pharmacological mistakes with which they were either closely associated or they had first hand information of the incident. All data was collected in confidence on condition of anonymity. Results: We discovered 21 instances of drug administration errors. Dispensation of wrong drug to a patient was the commonest mistake discovered. Nurses gave majority of these injections during the night. Half the victims of these mishaps lost their lives. Conclusions: From this confidential inquiry, we have found that tragedies with loss of life are not infrequent in our set up: Typical scenario involved muscle relaxant given instead of narcotic analgesic by a student nurse during the night. When the mistake was not detected in time it frequently ended in tragic loss of life. It is disturbing to note that minimum basic facilities of proper cardiopulmonary resuscitation were not available in some hospitals. Recommendations: Only senior nurses / doctors should give IV injections. Conscious effort should be made to minimise the use of IV medication, drugs should be used only with proper indications when suitable oral alternatives are not feasible. The nurses` training as well as nurse patient ratio needs to be improved. Muscle relaxants should not be available outside operating rooms and critical care units. We need to set up a central confidential data-reporting centre for voluntary (anonymous?) reporting of such mistakes or mishaps so that they could be analysed and concrete preventive measures recommended.