Preliminary Report Of Investigation Research Articles

Intra-familiar homicides: From 2006 to 2021 in the judicial district of Milan

IntroductionThe present research aims at analyzing criminological and medico-legal characteristics of intra-familiar homicides occurred in two major Italian cities (Milano and Monza) from the beginning of 2006 to the end of 2021. MethodsCases were identified using the Institutional database of the Institute of Legal Medicine of Milan, where all the autopsies of victims were performed. Data about these cases were obtained from autopsies findings, preliminary investigation reports, local papers and victim relatives’ interviews.In this period 11,480 autopsies were performed: 392 were homicides and, among these, 94 were confirmed as intra-familiar homicides (as a result of 84 events).Cases were classified according to the classic definition of intimate partner violence (referring only to an intra-familiar context), parricides, filicides, fratricides, familicides and grannicides.Age, sex, nationality and risk factors of the victims and perpetrators, as well as methods of murder were registered for each case. Only in some cases, motives for murder were known. ResultsThe most frequent type of intra-familiar homicides was intimate partner violence (41.5%), followed by parricides (16%, mainly matricides), filicides (10.7%) and fratricides (6.4%). 9.6% of the total number of events were familicides.Risk factors were frequently involved, in particular among perpetrators and in the group of parricides, while among siblicides they showed minimal relevance. Overall, psychiatric pathologies were the main risk factors involved (at least 23.8%), unlike extrafamiliar homicides, where previous criminal report or involvement in illicit traffics are frequently reported among perpetrators. This finding enlightens the difficulties of caring for a relative with a mental disorder, who can become dangerous for the domestic caregiver.Furthermore, the high number of physical illness and the advanced age of victims points out the tragical consequences of the lack of social support system for these categories of people. Methodsof murder were mainly cold steel (30–31.9%) and firearms (21–22.3%). However choking/manual ligature (9–9.6%), blunt force trauma inflicted using objects found on the scenario or bare handed (16–17%) and combined methods (11–11.7%) were frequently represented confirming the expected high level of impulsivity related to this kind of crime.

The preliminary report of investigation: Using mask for cardiopulmonary exercise testing in Chinese children may result misinterpretation and misdiagnosis

Objective: Observe the increased anatomical dead space of the mask, summarize the law of exercise induced oscillatory breathing (EIOB) in the results of CPET's new 9 figure, and analyze its incidence and age groups that are prone to oscillatory breathing. Methods: After signed the informed consent form by guardian, 501 children from pre-school to middle-school, aged 3~14 year, performed Harbor-UCLA standard protocol CPET with strict quality control in the CPET laboratory of Liaocheng Children's Hospital since 2014. CPET data was interpreted second by second from the breath by breath collection, averaged by 10s and then display by 9 plots. We analyzed the trends, pattern, incidence and age difference for EIOB and gas leakage. Results: The incidence of EIOB was the highest in the 3 to 6-year-old group, which was 42%. The 7 to 10-year-old group was 29.4% and the 11- to 14-year-old group was 29.9%. The three groups were tested by chi-square (x2=7.512), and the difference was statistically significant (P<0.05). 14 out of 508 children had air leakage during CPET, the incidence rate was 2.7%. Conclusion: The phenomenon of oscillatory breathing (OB) in children may be caused by the increased anatomical dead space of the mask, and it is not caused by disease. To improve the quality of CPET and to reduce clinical misdiagnosis, it is recommended to use a mouthpiece to decrease the dead space rather than the musk.

Epidemiological study of adverse events following immunization in under 5 year children

Background:The present study was conducted to study the socioeconomic and the demographic profile of children reporting with adverse events following immunization (AEFI) along with the determinants associated with AEFIs, based on investigation of each case and to assess the proportion of programmatic errors linked with AEFI cases.Materials and Methods:Record-based cross–sectional study conducted among sample of 118 cases of AEFI were reported. The case reports of all AEFI cases were procured and analyzed to identify factors associated with reported AEFI. The questionnaires related with preliminary investigation reports (PIRs) including forensic evidence of death cases were analyzed. Percentage analysis of data was done by proportions, measures of central tendencies, and Chi-square test.Results:Most of the cases reported were between 0 and 3 months of age constituting 39%. AEFI was seen more in male child than female. more than half of cases of AEFI were recorded following immunization with OPV/DPT/HBV together (66.94%). Most common AEFI reported were convulsion (68.64 %) and fever (58.47%) followed by local swelling at site of injection (11.86%). More than half of the cases of AEFI occurred within 12 hours of immunization (61.88%). Birth weight of most cases of AEFI were in the range between 2 and 2.4 kg (44.06%), followed by range between 2.5 and 2.9 kg (32.20%), the mean of birth weight was 2.51 kg.Conclusion:Convulsion was the most commonly reported AEFI, majority of AEFI occur within 12 h of immunization. Most of the AEFI were recorded following immunization with OPV/DPT/HBV together.

Cycle Life Study of Li-Ion Batteries With an Aging-Level-Based Charging Method

This study presents a preliminary investigation report on an aging-level-based (ALB) charging strategy that is possible to extend the battery lifespan by varying the charge current according to the state of health of a cell as opposed to the standard constant-current constant-voltage (CC-CV) and a four-stage constant current (4SCC) methods. Experimental tests have been carried out, which employed Sanyo UR14500P lithium-ion batteries in the cylindrical shape with a nominal voltage of 3.7 V and a rated capacity of 840 mAh. The results demonstrate that the ALB charging strategy with a CC charge profile is able to slow down the cell capacity fade by 3.84% compared with the standard CC charging method after 120 cycles, which increases the lifetime of 40 cycles to 50 cycles. Besides, the ALB charging strategy with a 4SCC charge profile is able to slow down the cell capacity fade by 2.55% compared with the standard 4SCC charging method after 100 cycles, which prolongs the lifetime of 30 cycles to 40 cycles. Nevertheless, the ALB charging strategy with both the CC and 4SCC charge profiles has much longer charging time than those with the standard charging method, and the charging time increases by 22.5% and 10.71%, respectively.

Hydrogen blast led to deaths at silicone plant

Leaking and uncontained hydrogen led to an explosion this past May that killed four workers and seriously injured a fifth at AB Specialty Silicones in Waukegan, Illinois, according to a preliminary investigation report released Dec. 18, 2019, by the US Chemical Safety and Hazard Investigation Board (CSB). The hydrogen explosion took place in an area where the company was making a silicon hydride emulsion called EM 652, according to the CSB. EM 652 and a raw material used to make it, a methylhydrogen polysiloxane copolymer called XL10, can produce explosive amounts of hydrogen gas under certain conditions, the CSB says. The EM 652 was held in a tank that was neither sealed nor vented to a safe location. The building was also not equipped with functioning detectors for hydrogen or other flammable gases. While the building filled with flammable vapors, the workers attempted to open the emulsion area to outside

Identifying Persons Who Inject Drugs in Medical Examiner Data in Maricopa County, AZ

ObjectiveTo determine whether data from the Office of the Medical Examiner are useful for conducting injection drug use surveillance in Maricopa County, Arizona, and to describe the characteristics of decedents who died from a drug overdose, were investigated by the county’s medical examiner, and had an indication of injection drug use.IntroductionThe rate of drug overdose deaths in the United States has increased steadily since 2000. Injection drug use, a practice associated with infectious disease transmission, has likely increased along with this upward trend in drug overdoses. Injection drug use surveillance is difficult to conduct at a public health department because there are no specific Internal Classification of Diseases codes to identify this risk behavior in hospital discharge or vital registration data. Maricopa County Department of Public Health Office of Epidemiology aimed to identify indications of injection drug use within data from the Office of the Medical ExaminerMethodsThe Office of Epidemiology receives toxicology results for deaths which were ruled by the Maricopa County’s medical examiner as substance use related, also referred to as overdose deaths. We explored data from decedents who were investigated by the Maricopa County’s medical examiner between 7/1/2016-6/30/2017, had a cause of death from a drug overdose, and screened positive for at least one commonly injected drug (i.e., opioids - general, heroin, methamphetamine, or cocaine). To narrow our search for indications of injection drug use, we requested preliminary investigation reports and medical examiner reports for a random sample of reports (10% from each drug class) from the Office of the Medical Examiner. Preliminary investigation reports, produced by a scene investigator, included the decedent’s medical history, risk factors, circumstances of death, circumstances of death discovery, and scene characteristics. Medical examiner reports included toxicology screen results, autopsy findings, and the cause of death. The Office of the Medical Examiner provided these reports to the Office of Epidemiology in portable document format (PDF) for this analysis. We built a query to identify keywords related to injection drug use (e.g. inject, syringe, needle) and injection injuries (e.g. cellulitis, abscess). We used PDF XChangeViewer’s Optical Character Recognition (OCR) function to convert the PDF reports to text data and used Python’s String and Collections modules to parse text data for occurrences of keywords within the reports. Reports that included at least one keyword were manually reviewed and classified as probable or ruled out for injection drug use, and characteristics of those with a probable indication of injection drug use were described.ResultsDuring the period of interest, 1,127 deaths were caused by drug overdose, of which 930 decedents screened positive for opioids (N=673, 59.7% of drug overdose deaths), heroin (358, 38.5%), methamphetamine (445, 39.5%), and/or cocaine (100, 11%). Indications of injection drug use were identified within 48 (32.7%) of the 147 preliminary investigation and medical examiner reports that were reviewed (Table). Common indicators of injection drug use included: history of drug use as a reported risk factor; presence of prescription drugs, illicit drugs, or drug paraphernalia at the scene; body position at the scene; and injuries associated with needle use identified during the autopsy. The most common terms that indicated injection drug use were “syringe”, “intravenous”, “needle”, and “inject”. Among persons who had an indication of injection drug use, 85.4% were male, 52.1% were between the ages of 20 and 39 years, and 85.4% were white.ConclusionsData from the Office of the Medical Examiner’s preliminary investigation and medical examiner reports provided rich context for understating the underlying risk factors and circumstances that contributed to drug overdose deaths. Injection drug use paraphernalia found at the scene of death and injuries found during autopsy were well-documented in these reports, which helped us quantify the proportion of decedents who died from overdose that may have injected drugs, by drug class. We were able to describe basic characteristics of this sample, which were consistent with previously published reports describing people who inject drugs. This surveillance method has limitations, however. Decedents reviewed by a medical examiner represent a subset of the drug using population, and findings may not be generalized to the full population. Other data sources and analytical methods must be employed to accurately estimate the number of people who inject drugs in Maricopa County and to describe their characteristics and experiences.

A Preliminary Investigation Report on Using Probabilistic Fiber Tractography to Track Human Auditory Pathways

Diffusion tensor imaging is currently the only noninvasive way to map subcortical white matter tractography. Radiologists and neurologists often fail to reconstruct the complex auditory pathways when applying the most commonly used approach, deterministic fiber tracking, as this method is limited in spatial and angular resolution. A different fiber-tracking method involving a probabilistic approach could partly compensate for these limitations. We investigated efficiency and potential usefulness of probabilistic fiber tracking in depicting human auditory pathways in healthy individuals and patients with unilateral vestibular schwannoma (VS). Eight healthy volunteers and 14 patients with unilateral VS underwent diffusion tensor imaging. Probabilistic fiber tracking of the auditory pathways for each subject was carried out using FSL software. Tracking rate, reliability of results, fiber volume, fiber length, and fractional anisotropy values were considered in assessing reliability and sensitivity of this method. Fiber length and fiber volume were analyzed separately for the healthy group and VS group. Good tracking sensitivity and consistency were shown in healthy subjects and patients with VS. For fiber length, the 8 healthy subjects exhibited significant between-sides differences, whereas the 14 patients with VS showed no such difference. For fiber volume, there was a statistically significant difference between groups, as the patients with VS displayed a smaller fiber volume on the nontumor side. Fractional anisotropy values revealed no significant autologous or between-group differences. These results match results of previous anatomic and neurologic studies. The auditory pathway can be depicted well by probabilistic fiber tracking. This method can compensate in part for weaknesses of the widely used deterministic tractography approach in depicting fine and complicated subcortical fibers.

Aging acceptance of elderly and Decision-making concerning medical care and a future life of needed long-term care period and the end-of-life. - Preliminary investigation report 1-

Aging acceptance of elderly and Decision-making concerning medical care and a future life of needed long-term care period and the end-of-life. - Preliminary investigation report 1-

Phytoremediation of cyanide containing steel industrial wastewater by Eichhornia crassipes

ABSTRACTWater pollution has become one of the serious problems of today's civilization. Free cyanide and complex cyanide, including HCN and CN− is the most reactive and toxic substance of all industrial pollutants. R&D, Tata Steel preliminary investigation reports have established that cyanide in the blast furnace (BF) blows down water above permissible limit. Presently, chemical treatment has been applied to attenuate the cyanide level 0.2 ppm (permissible limit of free cyanide as per environmental norms). From the economic point of view, phytoremediation could be an attractive technology in dealing with this dangerous pollutant. Cyanide BF blow down water could possibly be removed by the water hyacinth because of its high biomass production, and tolerance to cyanide (CN). This investigation is related to the study of the potential of water hyacinth on the cyanide ion pollutant removal from BF water using cost-effective biological technology—Phytoremediation. The experimental results have shown that about 95% removal of cyanide from blast furnace water could be achieved by water hyacinth in 3 days in 6 L and also in 100 L water. Water hyacinth is also effective for reducing biochemical oxygen demand (BOD) and chemical oxygen demand (COD). This aquatic plant is also capable of reducing ammonia, TDS, and hardness of water.

Fire Structural Response of the Plasco Building: A Preliminary Investigation Report

The fire-induced collapse of the 16-story Plasco building in Tehran city in January 2017 caused many deaths and serious injuries. This paper investigates the structural response of the building during that fire to understand how the building became unstable. As documented, the fire initiated on the tenth floor, and then involved stories 11–14 through a vertically traveling fire. As the occupancy type of the building had changed over time, the analysis was performed based on an estimated fire load density of 1900 MJ/m2 on the day of the catastrophe. The results showed that the structure was able to resist the applied loads when the fire remained within stories 10 and 11. When the fire involved stories 10–14, however, the structure began to fail, starting with the failure of the ceiling trusses. The results also indicated that as the columns were protected by a layer of masonry, they were able to tolerate their applied loads. The analysis was also re-performed based on a fire load density of 511 MJ/m2, which is the fire load recommended by most fire codes for a similar occupancy type. The results showed that no structural failure would have occurred under that fire load. This study indicates that changing the occupancy type of a building without adopting proper mitigation strategies can be catastrophic.

Explicit and Implicit Components of the Emotional Processing in Non-organic Vision Loss: Behavioral Evidence About the Role of Fear in Functional Blindness.

Non-organic vision loss (NOVL), a functional partial or global vision loss, might be considered a manifestation of conversion disorder. The few previous studies focused on investigating the relationship between cerebral activity and subjective symptoms in NOVL; however, the emotional processing is still neglected. In the present case-controls study, we investigated the capability of two individuals diagnosed with NOVL to recognize implicitly the emotions of fear and anger; this was assessed through a facial emotion recognition task based on the redundant target effect. In addition, the level of alexithymia was measured by asking them to judge explicitly their ability to identify and describe emotions. Both individuals showed selective difficulties in recognizing the emotion of fear when their performance was contrasted with a matched control sample; they also mislabeled other emotional stimuli, judging them as fearful, when they were not. However, they did not report alexithymia when measured using a standard questionnaire. This preliminary investigation reports a mismatch between the implicit (i.e., the behavior in the experimental paradigm) and the explicit (i.e., the subjective evaluation of one’s own emotional capability) components of the emotional processing in NOVL. Moreover, fear seems to represent a critical emotion in this condition, as has been reported in other psychiatric disorders. However, possible difficulties in the emotional processing of fear would emerge only when they are inferred from an implicit behavior, instead of a subjective evaluation of one’s own emotional processing capability.

A Preliminary Report of Investigations on the 18th-Century Pillar Dollar Wreck, Biscayne Bay, Florida, USA

A Preliminary Report of Investigations on the 18th-Century Pillar Dollar Wreck, Biscayne Bay, Florida, USA

Effects of topographic and geological features on building damage caused by 2015.4.25 Mw7.8 Gorkha earthquake in Nepal: a preliminary investigation report

The 2015.4.25 Gorkha earthquake affected about eight million people in Nepal. Most injuries and loss of life were due to building collapse and damage. This work aims to investigate the topographical and geological effects on the severe damage caused by this earthquake. In one-week field investigation in the earthquake-affected areas, several severely damaged areas with different topographic and geological features were surveyed, as well as the site of Kaligandaki River landslide dam failure. Some general tendency related to the building damage and landslide dam failure was obtained. Through the field investigation, it was found that geological and geomorphological characteristics of a site, combined with the structure feature of the building, such as the short column effect, amplified the seismic vibration and caused severe building collapse and damages, i.e., 1) For buildings on flat area consisting of lacustrine deposit or diluvial deposit, resonance effect might be the main reason, while for the buildings on the top of hills or narrow ridges, topographic effect and sometimes, short column effect should take the main responsibility; 2) For buildings located on the gentle slopes or landslides, the settlement in the infill side caused by the strong seismic vibration can be the main reason; 3) Besides of the building failure on lacustrine deposit, failure patterns in three types of topographic and geological features, i.e., narrow ridges formed by landslides, diluvial deposits and alluvial fans, and landslides, were proposed as the possible mechanism of the building damage caused by the earthquake. For landslide dam failure, it was found that landslide dam could easily breach or collapse, when the landslide-dam-deposits were fine.

Crime and Context

Through analyzing school shooting threats, this article exemplifies how new information and communication technologies (ICTs) associate with crime and their investigation. The empirical data set consists of the preliminary investigation reports of Finnish school shooting threats (n=40) investigated as crimes during 2010. A descriptive classification focusing on the suspects’ age, gender, and the police investigations of threats was conducted. It was found that ICT and conventional threats differentiated to a small degree from each other; however, police reacted more strictly to ICT threats. To explain this finding, a more elaborate qualitative analysis was conducted, focusing on threat details and motivation, ending in a data-driven typology of the threats. Despite the similarities, it was found that ICT threats were more often deliberate while conventional threats were more often impulsive. However, the deliberateness connected with intention to fulfill the threatened act was presented in only one single case, while in the remaining cases, the suspects’ intention was to gain something personally. This difference might have been one of the reasons for the stricter reaction by the police. To further test this, future research on the role of ICT in school shooting threats and other crimes is encouraged.

Rheological Behaviour of Dehydrated Castor Oil Epoxy (Dcoe) Blend with Polymethylmethacrylate (Pmma)

Blending of sustainable resource based polymers with synthetic polymers can be used to design biodegradable and biocompatible materials that hold immense potential for their application as green packaging materials. Since the molar mass of sustainable resource based polymers is lower than the synthetic polymers, they are likely to form heterogeneous blends with low compatibility. Therefore, it is significant to theoretically predict the compatibility of such so as to determine at what composition and temperature, these blends can be compatible. The present preliminary investigation reports the rheological characteristics of highly concentrated blend solutions (8 wt%) of dehydrated castor oil epoxy blend (DCOE) with polymethylmethacrylate (PMMA) at various compositions and temperatures to theoretically predict the miscibility of this blend in the solid phase. The obtained values were compared with the experimental results obtained from viscosity and ultrasonic velocity measurements.

Effects of surfactants on microwave-assisted solid-state intercalation of poly(carbazole) in Bentonite

The present preliminary investigation reports, for the first time, the effects of typical cationic and anionic surfactants on the microwave-assisted solid-state intercalation and polymerization of carbazole (Cz) in the basal spacings of Bentonite. The intercalation of cetyl pyridinium chloride (CPCl), a cationic surfactant, and naphthalene sulfonic acid (NSA), an anionic surfactant, in Bentonite was carried out at two loadings—25 and 50 wt%—using microwave irradiation. The in situ polymerization of Cz was successfully carried out into the surfactant-modified galleries of Bentonite. This was confirmed by Gel permeation chromatography (GPC). The intercalation of poly(carbazole) (PCz) was confirmed by FT-IR, UV–Visible, and XRD analyses. Although polymerization was carried out in the solid-state, the UV–Visible spectra revealed the doped state of PCz and the presence of a charge carrier tail. The XRD studies showed that the increase in the height of the galleries was higher in case of Bentonite/CPCl/PCz nanocomposites as compared to Bentonite/NSA/PCz nanocomposites. It also revealed different orientations of the two surfactants in the galleries of the clay. The average particle size of Bentonite/CPCl/PCz (1:0.25:0.25) and (1:0.5:0.5) nanocomposites was found to be in the range of 25–35 and 50–60 nm, respectively. The Bentonite/NSA/PCz (1:0.25:0.25) and (1:0.5:0.5) nanocomposites showed the average particle size in the range of 20–30 nm and 40–50 nm, respectively. The results revealed that both cationic and anionic surfactants strongly influenced the morphology of Bentonite/PCz nanocomposites. The difference in the mechanisms of solid-state intercalation of PCz in the presence of these surfactants has been proposed.

Effect of solid state intercalation conditions in controlling the self-assembled nanostructured polycarbazole–montmorillonite nanocomposites synthesized by mechano-chemical and microwave-assisted techniques

The present preliminary investigation reports a comparative study of the rapid intercalation of polycarbazole (PCz) in montmorillonite (MMT) via mechano-chemical and microwave (MW) assisted reaction techniques in the solid state. The intercalation with both the techniques was carried out using loadings of carbazole in MMT in the ratio MMT:carbazole monomer (1:0.25 wt.% and 1:0.5 wt.%). Microwave-assisted intercalation produced discrete as well as self-assembled nanoparticles of uniform size as confirmed by TEM, while the mechano-chemical method resulted in randomly distributed irregular shaped spherical particles forming dense aggregates. Microwave-assisted (MW) intercalation thus proved to be a reliable, fast, as well as efficient technique for the production of self-assembled nanostructures via solid state intercalation. Although the mechanism of formation of self-assembled nanoparticles under MW irradiation is not entirely understood, factors responsible for the control of the particle size and its homogeneous distribution are: uniform heating at molecular level and precise temperature control.

Hederns försvarare. Den rättsliga hanteringen av ett hedersmord

In this article, we analyse the judicial handling of the murder of Sara in Umeål996. As point of departure, we use the verdicts from the district court and court of appeal, together with the preliminary investigation reports. In our analysis, we see connections between different forms of violence (e g threats, physical violence), violence used by different men (e g brothers, fathers, uncles), directed against different women (e g sisters, mothers). We also analyse the violence in a cultural context of honour. Our analysis of violence in its context and focus on the connections mentioned, points towards a comprehensive perspective. This perspective enables an analysis of the honour killing of Sara, showing how a collective of men, with reference to the honour of the family, use different forms ofviolence against several female relatives. In our interpretation, the perspective used in the judicial handling of the case is quite another. Here, the acts of violence are separated anddemarcated, and through this, disconnected from their context. Because of such fragmentising understanding, the action of the men ends up outside the judicial understanding of violence, and its perpetrators are found not guilty. A comprehensive perspective, however, may correspond to women's experience of violence and look after women's interests.

Preliminary investigation report on the landslide hazards on the upstream basin of Naka River, Tokushima Prefecture, triggered by the Typhoon No.10, 2004

Preliminary investigation report on the landslide hazards on the upstream basin of Naka River, Tokushima Prefecture, triggered by the Typhoon No.10, 2004

A preliminary study of cadmium mass fractionation in lunar soils

Abstract This preliminary investigation reports evidence of linear mass fractionation in Cd in lunar soil samples. The isotopic and elemental abundance of cadmium in five lunar samples has been measured with high precision using thermal ionization mass spectrometry and the stable isotope dilution technique respectively. Although both positive and negative mass fractionation for Cd have been identified in meteorites, this is the first time that Cd isotope fractionation has been observed in lunar materials. Three of the four lunar soil samples analyzed gave positive (in the sense that the heavy isotopes of Cd are enriched with respect to a laboratory standard) mass fractionation, ranging in magnitude from 0.34 to 0.63% per mass unit. Cadmium is a volatile element and its elemental abundance in these fractionated lunar soil samples ranges from 57 to 112 ng/g as compared to the solar system abundance of 686 ng/g. There is a possible inverse correlation between the magnitude of the mass fractionation and the concentrations for the same samples. The fourth lunar soil sample, which has a Cd concentration approximately 11 times greater than the mean of the other soil samples, gave zero mass fractionation. The fifth sample is an orange-colored glass spherule which gave a small negative mass fractionation. Volatilization by micrometeorite impact and ion sputtering are both likely to have contributed to the mass fractionation observed in these lunar soils. It is also possible that redeposition of isotopically fractionated Cd may have been a factor in the magnitude of the observed effect.