Recent Assault Research Articles

Infective Endocarditis in an Intravenous Drug User Leading to Myocardial Rupture and Hemopericardium.

Infective endocarditis (IE) is an infectious disorder of the innermost lining of the heart that can be fatal if left untreated. Infective endocarditis can spread beyond the endocardium into the myocardium and cause arrhythmias and myocardial wall rupture. Individuals with a history of intravenous drug use are at increased risk of developing IE and are at higher risk of dying, given their limited access to health care and adherence to treatment. A medicolegal autopsy was performed on a 30-year-old woman with a history of intravenous drug use and recent assault after a hospital admission during which she did not survive resuscitation. The cause of death was found to be myocardial rupture in the setting of transmural IE. Postmortem imaging showed hemopericardium which was identified grossly with valvular vegetations in the heart. A ventricular wall defect along with transmural abscess formation was identified. Perimortem toxicology was positive for fentanyl, methamphetamine, and benzoylecgonine, a metabolite of cocaine. Postmortem blood cultures were positive for coagulase-negative Staphylococci, Staphylococcus aureus, Candida tropicalis, and Viridians group Streptococci. Postmortem tissue cultures taken from the heart was positive for Candida glabrata and Streptococcus mitis. The decedent had significant risk factors for IE, such as intravenous drug use and a prior admission to hospital for IE. The organisms identified on culture are in-keeping with the gross findings of IE and the terminal event of myocardial rupture was likely the result of tissue damage resulting from IE.

Latina/o/x Critical Race Theory (LatCrit) in Social Work Praxis

We propose that the profession is theoretically at a point of convergence between CRT and LatCrit. Both theories are united in the production of knowledge to dismantle oppression. This article provides a brief review of CRT and a comprehensive understanding of LatCrit as a starting point for critical social work education perspectives. We discuss implications for social work education by broadening the racial discourse to include Latinas/os/x and suggest critical solutions and adaptations to current social work pedagogy to better prepare students to enter the social work field and respond to this growing population. We provide recommendations for reevaluating social work and find an exit from the loop of “band-aid” interventions that lack a fundamental basis for addressing the underlying causes of trauma, stress, and racism. We provide concrete examples for incorporating LatCrit into social work education, practice. We close by calling on the professions leading organizations, NASW and CSWE, to release statements addressing the recent assault on CRT (and LatCrit by way of its extension of CRT) and join other social work organizations in condemning the unfair attacks on CRT if social work is committed to the Grand Challenge to Eliminate Racism.

Light Weight CNN based Robust Image Watermarking Scheme for Security

In recent years, digital watermarking has improved the accuracy and resistance of watermarked images against many assaults, such as various noises and random dosage characteristics. Because, based on the most recent assault, all existing watermarking research techniques have an acceptable level of resistance. The deep learning approach is one of the most remarkable methods for guaranteeing maximal resistance in the watermarking system's digital image processing. In the digital watermarking technique, a smaller amount of calculation time with high robustness has recently become a difficult challenge. In this research study, the light weight convolution neural network (LW-CNN) technique is introduced and implemented for the digital watermarking scheme, which has more resilience than any other standard approaches. Because of the LW-CNN framework's feature selection, the calculation time has been reduced. Furthermore, we have demonstrated the robustness of two distinct assaults, collusion and geometric type. This research work has reduced the calculation time and made the system more resistant to current assaults.

Wednesday, January 6, 2021

A commentary on the recent assault on the United States Capitol on January 6, 2021, in which the author situates the attack in the longer history of white supremacy, Christian nationalism, patriarchy, and unfettered capitalism.

Canadian Doctors for Protection from Guns: how physicians contributed to policy change

Physicians played a key role in advancing Canada's recent assault weapons ban. Indeed, after announcing the ban in May 2020, the Trudeau government thanked Dr. Najma Ahmed and the group...

Review: Architecture, Liberty and Civic Order: Architectural Theories from Vitruvius to Jefferson and Beyond, by Carroll William Westfall

Review: <i>Architecture, Liberty and Civic Order: Architectural Theories from Vitruvius to Jefferson and Beyond</i>, by Carroll William Westfall

Integrating motherhood and employment: A 22-year analysis investigating impacts of US workplace breastfeeding policy.

The United States has one of the lowest exclusive breastfeeding rates among high-income countries. Most experts agree that there is a lack of mother-friendly workplace policies compared to other countries. Since 1995, 25 states have implemented workplace breastfeeding legislation allowing mothers to express and store breast milk in the workplace. There is heterogeneity in policy enforceability where 17 states have weak enforceability while eight states have strict enforceability and require employers to offer provisions to breastfeed at the workplace. Using difference-in-differences methods, we examine the impact of this policy on state-level breastfeeding rates and assess how that impact differs with policy enforceability. We use data from the Centers for Disease Control on breastfeeding, supplementing with socio-economic data from the Panel Study of Income Dynamics, Current Population Survey, the US Census Bureau and several other datasets over 22 years from 1990 to 2011. We find that states with legislation experienced a 2.3-percentage point increase in breastfeeding rates compared to states without legislation while states with weak enforceability experienced a 3.1-percentage point increase compared to states without legislation. We also find that policies do not start to have an impact until 1–2 years after they were signed into law. Considering the recent assault on breastfeeding from the current administration, our study is a timely and important contribution that strengthens the evidence base for the health benefits of workplace breastfeeding policies.

Depressive Symptoms Following Recent Sexual Assault: The Role of Drug and Alcohol Use, Acute Stress, and Assault Characteristics.

Sexual assault is a common traumatic experience that can have a wide-ranging impact on psychological functioning, including experience of depressive symptoms. Although many studies have examined lifetime rates of depression among those with sexual assault history, less is known regarding risk factors for depressive symptoms following recent sexual assault. The study examined whether drug use history is uniquely related to depressive symptoms following recent assault. N = 65 individuals, 95.4% female; 73.8% White; M(SD)age = 28.89 (10.29), who had recently experienced sexual assault (less than 60 days) and completed a SAMFE (sexual assault medical forensic examination) were interviewed via phone and completed questionnaires regarding depressive and acute/post-traumatic stress symptoms and substance use history. Demographic information as well as information related to the assault was also collected. 68.7% of the sample reported clinically significant levels of depressive symptoms (PHQ-9, Patient Health Questionnaire, scores ⩾ 12). In a linear regression adjusted for acute/post-traumatic stress (b = 0.26, p < .01) and other variables, polydrug use was significantly associated with depressive symptoms (b = 3.26, p = .04). Single-drug use (b = 0.96), physically forced sexual assault (b = -1.11), victim-perpetrator relationship (b = 0.15), prior sexual assault (b = -1.02), alcohol misuse (b = -0.09), age (b = 0.07), race (b = 2.78), and days since assault (b = -0.02) were not significantly associated with depressive symptoms (all ps > .05). Results highlight the potential role of drug use history in increasing risk of experiencing clinically significant depressive symptoms following recent assault.

Theorizing the Distance Between Erotophobia, Hyper-moralism, and Eroticism: Toward a Black Feminist Theology of Pleasure

ABSTRACTThis article deploys the recent assault of Audrey Stevenson at The Potter’s House, Fort Worth as an entry point to explore the relationship between the sexualization of and violence against Black women and girls in the Black Church. It argues that the incessant sexual shaming and policing of Black women and girls in Black Churches and communities is grounded in erotophobia and hyper-moralism (Black Church and middle-class tactics used for social and representational control), and more, the Black Church’s response to history, specifically North American slavery, rape, breeding, stereotyping, degendering, terror, and broken kinships. What is needed for healing and liberation is not purity codes, sexual silence, governmentality, Black “nuclear” dictates, or sex and gender regimentation, but rather a new social order and economy of freedom that makes the fullness of Black flesh, breath, expression, and interiority, which consequently includes erotic power and articulation, non-negotiable.

Protecting Paintings from Vandalism: updating rapid response procedures at the National Gallery, London

Vandalism at National Gallery Like many public museums, the National Gallery, London, has sustained acts of vandalism to its collection. Archival records dating back to 1863 reveal that patterns of damage mostly involve mechanical damage with fewer non-corrosive substance attacks. In 2011, a further two paintings were defaced with canned spray paint. In total 21 works of art have been damaged. Emergency procedures In response to this most recent assault and awareness of the need to update...

Defining trauma in complex care management: Safety-net providers' perspectives on structural vulnerability and time

In this paper, we delineate how staff of two complex care management (CCM) programs in urban safety net hospitals in the United States understand trauma. We seek to (1) describe how staff in CCM programs talk about trauma in their patients' lives; (2) discuss how trauma concepts allow staff to understand patients’ symptoms, health-related behaviors, and responses to care as results of structural conditions; and (3) delineate the mismatch between long-term needs of patients with histories of trauma and the short-term interventions that CCM programs provide. Observation and interview data gathered between February 2015 and August 2016 indicate that CCM providers define trauma expansively to include individual experiences of violence such as childhood abuse and neglect or recent assault, traumatization in the course of accessing health care and structural violence. Though CCM staff implement elements of trauma-informed care, the short-term design of CCM programs puts pressure on the staff to titrate their efforts, moving patients towards graduation or discharge. Trauma concepts enable clinicians to name structural violence in clinically legitimate language. As such, trauma-informed care and structural competency approaches can complement each other.

Metacognitive inferences from other people's memory performance.

Three studies show that people draw metacognitive inferences about events from how well others remember the event. Given that memory fades over time, detailed accounts of distant events suggest that the event must have been particularly memorable, for example, because it was extreme. Accordingly, participants inferred that a physical assault (Study 1) or a poor restaurant experience (Studies 2-3) were more extreme when they were well remembered one year rather than one week later. These inferences influence behavioral intentions. For example, participants recommended a more severe punishment for a well-remembered distant rather than recent assault (Study 1). These metacognitive inferences are eliminated when people attribute the reporter's good memory to an irrelevant cause (e.g., photographic memory), thus undermining the informational value of memory performance (Study 3). These studies illuminate how people use lay theories of memory to learn from others' memory performance about characteristics of the world. (PsycINFO Database Record

Is Eastern European ‘Double Genocide’ Revisionism Reaching Museums?

In contrast to twentieth-century Holocaust Denial, the most recent assault on the narrative of the genocide of European Jewry has emanated from a sophisticated revisionist model known as Double Genocide, codified in the 2008 Prague Declaration. Positing ‘equality' of Nazi and Soviet crimes, the paradigm’s corollaries sometimes include attempts to rehabilitate perpetrators and discredit survivors. Emanating from pro-Western governments and elites in Eastern Europe in countries with records of high collaboration, the movement has reached out widely to the Holocaust Studies establishment as well as Jewish institutions. It occasionally enjoys the political support of major Western countries in the context of East-West politics, or in the case of Israel, attempts to garner (eastern) European Union support. The empirical effects to date have included demonstrable impact on museums, memorials and exhibits in Eastern Europe and beyond.

"I Know It When I See It": Recent Victimization and Perceptions of Rape.

This study examined various individual differences that influence perceptions of sexual assault (SA), specifically focusing on participants' self-reported recent experiences of rape or sexual coercion. Female college students (N = 214) read 16 short SA encounter vignettes, indicated whether what they read constituted rape, and completed individual difference measures. Results indicated that participants who confirmed a recent history of SA endorsed rape myths to a greater degree, held more adversarial sexual beliefs, reported higher levels of sociosexuality, and were less likely to construct the SA encounters as rape when compared with women who do not report recent SA or coercion. Further analyses showed that these variables interacted to predict rape perception in ambiguous SA vignettes, as identified by the participants. These findings illuminate some of the impacts of SA and coercion on women and provide suggestions for future research to further examine the relationship between recent assault history and perceptions of rape.

A rare autopsy case of traumatic rhabdomyolysis associated with intermittent assault

Traumatic rhabdomyolysis generally occurs after severe blunt trauma and is acute in onset, associated with severe disease, and potentially lethal. Accordingly, diagnosis of traumatic rhabdomyolysis in patients without massive subcutaneous or intramuscular hemorrhage is difficult, especially in the postmortem period, which is limited in terms of the availability of biochemical examination tools and accurate history of illness. To the best of our knowledge, there are no previous reports of death from traumatic rhabdomyolysis among individuals who did not pursue medical consultation. A previously healthy man in his early sixties had been punched and kicked several times in the previous 2months, but he had not gone to a hospital. He suddenly lost consciousness at his workplace approximately 5days after the most recent assault, and cardiopulmonary arrest occurred when the emergency service arrived. He died the same day, and a medicolegal autopsy was performed. Although several sites of minor subcutaneous and muscle hemorrhage were observed, the cause of death was unclear upon macroscopic assessment. Immunohistochemical staining revealed acute renal failure caused by rhabdomyolysis. We herein report a rare case of fatal traumatic rhabdomyolysis, seemingly associated with minor and apparently nonlethal muscle injury.

Sexual Assault Characteristics and Perceptions of Event-Related Distress.

Sexual assault (SA) is a potent psychological stressor, linked to harmful mental health outcomes in both the short- and long-term. Specific assault characteristics can add to the toxicity of SA events. Although research has assessed characteristics of the assault itself (e.g., force, penetration), few studies have examined the larger socioenvironmental context in which SA takes place. This was the purpose of the present study. Young adults ( N = 220; 80% female; 54% current students) reported on their most recent SA during college. Cross-sectional associations were tested via structural equation modeling to determine the contributions of socioenvironmental context and assault characteristics in predicting event-related distress. Socioenvironmental context from the most recent assault included assault setting, intoxication at the time of the assault, perpetrator relationship, and prior consensual sexual experiences with the perpetrator. We also examined assault characteristics, including physical force and penetration. Participants reported how upsetting the most recent assault was (a) at the time it occurred and (b) currently. Results revealed differential patterns for socioenvironmental context and assault characteristics based on the timing of distress (past or present). Notably, many of the socioenvironmental factors showed associations with distress above and beyond the powerful effects of physical force and penetration. These findings have important implications for our understanding of the unique factors that contribute to and maintain psychological distress in sexually victimized young adults.

Acknowledged Versus Unacknowledged Sexual Assault Among College Women

Research suggests that many sexually victimized women do not acknowledge their unwanted sexual experiences as assaults. The majority of the research on this topic has focused on rape acknowledgment; however, this pattern holds true for other forms of sexual assault as well. The present study examined differences among university women with acknowledged, unacknowledged, and no histories of sexual assault. Relevant groups were compared in terms of current psychological distress, the situational factors of the assault, and the labeling of the assault. Similar to studies examining only rape, acknowledged victims of sexual assault reported clearer refusal, the experience of a more forceful assault, and more intense resistance against the perpetrator. Unacknowledged victims were more likely to endorse a prior romantic relationship with their assailant and a more recent assault. The great majority of women who endorsed an unwanted sexual experience also reported they were intoxicated at the time.

“The Ships Must Sail on Time”: Histories of Longshore Workers and Why Their Unions Still Matter

Before dawn on Sunday morning, June 20, 2010, upwards of one thousand people gathered near the Port of Oakland, an industrial, sometimes barren section of west Oakland. They then converged on four gates operated by the Stevedore Services of America, one of the main shipping companies on the US Pacific coast and in the world. The protesters were awaiting the arrival of an Israeli cargo vessel in order to protest Israel's ongoing blockade of the Palestinian residents of Gaza as well as the recent Israeli assault on Turkish vessels in the Mediterranean that had resulted in the deaths of nine civilians, part of an international group sympathetic to the Gaza Palestinians. For hours activists protested, including a chant that referenced both the Wobblies and antiapartheid struggle: “An injury to one is an injury to all, bring down the apartheid wall.” Crucially—and not coincidentally—members of Local 10 of the International Longshore and Warehouse Union (ILWU) refused to cross this picket line, citing safety reasons. After several hours of negotiations, an arbitrator agreed with the ILWU members that the situation could cause harm to the workers, who therefore could not be punished for not unloading the vessel. Subsequently, the Zim (Israeli shipping line) vessel departed from San Francisco Bay, looking to be unloaded in nearby Monterey Bay. Simultaneously, dock unions in Norway, South Africa, Sweden, and Turkey—all members of The International Transport Workers' Federation (ITF)—also announced that they would join the “Boycott against Israel campaign.” These dramatic, militant, and overtly political actions by longshore workers across the globe are not unprecedented—at least for union dockers—though they are almost unheard of in the twenty-first century for other sorts of workers on any continent.

Political Leadership and Social Transformation

We are in the midst of a national decision (some might argue it is a sham, others that the choices are only by degree and not of great substance) on who should be the next President of the United States. Debates on the left vacillate between arguments that it does not matter who is elected since the two parties in this country, Democrat and Republican, represent competing wings of the same ruling strata. Others argue that the differences, however subtle, matter on the margins determining which social policies are implemented and what sort of foreign policies are pursued. In this round of ‘is Obama a progressive’ debates several key issues keep coming up. First, what would happen to the future of the Supreme Court in the coming years? Anyone paying even the slightest attention recognizes that rulings like Citizens United have dramatically altered electoral politics and the role of corporate interests in this latest campaign. Similarly, the recent decision to uphold what has become known as ‘Obamacare’ also had an important impact on society. In other similarly important decisions (or potential decisions) that the US Supreme Court may rule on – the definition of marriage, the legality of efforts to suppress voting, the rollback on reproductive rights and affirmative action legislation, the constitutionality of ‘personhood’ amendments and state laws – there are real concerns about how a conservative majority can fundamentally alter our socio-political landscape. Having control over nominations (we need not digress on the tortured politics of getting a nominee affirmed in the current Senate) is critical if we think this matters. Second, what are the basic economic principles that inform the candidates for office? Clearly, Mitt Romney represents an attempt, financed by major corporate and right-wing backers, to alter the current accord on the role of government more generally and with regard the social safety net in particular. Doubling down on the bankrupt trickle-down policies and an affinity of an Ayan Rand form of extreme capitalism (where each person has an obligation to take care of oneself and society has no obligation to care for anyone) clearly stakes out a vision of society that will inflict great pain on the most needy. At the same time, while we might expect that another term for Barack Obama will avoid the worst of these consequences, it is not difficult to point out that on many levels his has not been a progressive administration but rather one pursuing a center-right agenda. It is the reality that politics in the US has been significantly redefined so that the spectrum has steadily shifted to the right, and the center of the 1960s has now become the hard left edge in this century. We can discuss endlessly, and many do, about the pros and cons for supporting Obama, about whether or not we should cast our vote for a Green Party or Socialist candidate. We can lament the absence of a real workers’ party or a third party alternative (and countries with Socialist, Communist, Green, and Labor Parties represented in electoral politics do not ensure governments that pursue progressive social and economic agendas). We can even argue over whether or not participation in elections even matters. Lenin was clear that one of the key steps to seizing power when mass action is not an option is through bourgeois electoral politics. After all, there is a case to be made that over the past three decades, certainly with the election of Ronald Reagan and perhaps as far back as the election of Richard Nixon, the Right has been winning the propaganda campaign. How else can we explain why so many people believe unions (in this country representing only 13 percent of the workforce) have undue political influence and dominate the economy – and it does not take much thought to recognize that the most important unions today, in terms of the potential for political action, are in the public sector, all of which can help explain the recent assault on teacher, first responder, and other public employee unions at all levels. At the same time, leadership does matter. Nixon, the Cold Warrior, was able to blunt Conservative opposition in his overtures and rapprochement with China. Clinton, as the head of a Democratic Party 450818 CRS0010.1177/0896920512464607EditorialCritical Sociology 2012

Sexual violence among host and refugee population in Djohong District, Eastern Cameroon

The following is a population-based survey of the Central African Republic (CAR) female refugee population displaced to rural Djohong District of Eastern Cameroon and associated female Cameroonian host population to characterise the prevalence and circumstances of sexual violence. A population-based, multistage, random cluster survey of 600 female heads of household was conducted during March 2010. Women heads of household were asked about demographics, household economy and assets, level of education and sexual violence experienced by the respondent only. The respondents were asked to describe the circumstances of their recent assault. The lifetime prevalence of sexual violence among Djohong district female heads of household is 35.2% (95% CI 28.7–42.2). Among heads of household who reported a lifetime incident of sexual violence, 64.0% (95% CI 54.3–72.5) suffered sexual violence perpetrated by their husband or partner. Among the host population, 3.9% (95% CI 1.4–10.5) reported sexual violence by armed groups compared to 39.0% (95% CI 25.6–54.2) of female refugee heads of household. Women who knew how to add and subtract were less likely to report sexual violence during their lifetime (OR 0.16, 95% CI 0.08–0.34). Sexual violence is common among refugees and host population in Eastern Cameroon. Most often, perpetrators are partners/husbands or armed groups.