Defendant's previous history and mock sentencing

Six hundred forty-four undergraduates served as mock judges in sentencing male or female defendants convicted of homicide, child molestation, embezzlement, fraudulent issuance of checks, heroin possession, and consensual homosexuality. Defendants had a reported history of psychiatric hospitalization, imprisonment, or neither hospitalization nor incarceration. Results indicated: (1) those defendants with a mental health history were more likely to be accorded a disposition that involved mandatory health treatment; (2) dispositions of persons with a mental health history tended to be more restrictive than those of defendants with neither a mental health nor criminal history; and (3) sex of defendant of mock judge influenced sentencing disposition only in child molestation cases.     

Relationships of ultrasonic backscatter with ultrasonic attenuation, sound speed and bone mineral density in human calcaneus

Ultrasonic attenuation and sound speed have been investigated in trabecular bone by numerous authors. Ultrasonic backscatter has received much less attention. To investigate relationships among these three ultrasonic parameters and bone mineral density (BMD), 30 defatted human calcanei were investigated in vitro. Normalized broadband ultrasonic attenuation (nBUA), sound speed (SOS), and logarithm of ultrasonic backscatter coefficient (LBC) were measured. Bone mineral density was assessed using single-beam dual energy x-ray absorptiometry (DEXA). The correlation coefficients of least squares linear regressions of the three individual ultrasound (US) parameters with BMD were 0.84 (nBUA), 0.84 (SOS) and 0.79 (LBC). The 95% confidence intervals for the correlation coefficients were 0. 69-0.92 (nBUA), 0.68-0.92 (SOS) and 0.60-0.90 (LBC). The correlations among pairs of US variables ranged from 0.63-0.79. Variations in nBUA accounted for r(2) = 62% of the variations in LBC. Variations in SOS accounted for r(2) = 40% of the variations in LBC. These results suggest that ultrasonic backscattering properties may contain substantial information not already contained in nBUA and SOS. A multiple regression model including all three US variables was somewhat more predictive of BMD than a model including only nBUA and SOS.     

Design and current status of the longitudinal study of astronaut health

BACKGROUND: Information has been collected regarding the immediate physiological effects of spaceflight on humans. However, little is yet known regarding long-term effects. The purpose of this paper is to describe the Longitudinal Study of Astronaut Health (LSAH) and report current mortality data. METHODS: All astronauts selected for the United States Space Program are followed from selection throughout their lifetime or until the end of the study. Comparisons are ground-based Johnson Space Center (JSC) employees matched to the astronauts at a 3:1 ratio by sex-specific age and body mass index. They are followed in the same manner as astronauts. Morbidity and mortality data are obtained from medical records supplemented with study questionnaires. Checks for death certificates are made to ascertain death of participants who miss routine examinations. RESULTS: Current cause-specific mortality rates for astronauts selected from 1959 through 1991 are not statistically different from rates for comparison participants for cardiovascular (p = 0.8112), cancer (p = 0.2382), or other disease (p = 0.5040) mortality. Astronauts have a significantly higher mortality rate due to accidents and injuries (p < 0.0001). CONCLUSIONS: Astronauts have a similar risk of death due to chronic diseases as ground-based participants, but are at greater risk for occupational-related accidental death.     

To have or to be: ways of caregiving identified during recovery from the earthquake disaster in Taiwan

The aim of this article is to report the results of therapy sessions conducted with survivors of an earthquake that struck Luku Township in Nantou County, central Taiwan, in September 1999. The sessions explored survivors' feelings, interactions, and interpretations of the crisis, as well as their roles in post-earthquake relief efforts. The participants were teachers and administrators from four primary schools. The results indicated three distinct forms of caring, namely: encumbered caring, connected caring, and reflected caring. The findings were used to construct a framework for caregiver self-monitoring. They also suggest that therapy groups provide an inner space that self-regulates the frustrations arising from this type of experience, for both caregivers and survivors. The intrasubjective and intersubjective dialogues within the groups are essentially reflective practices for improving services and generating new knowledge about medical ethics.     

Medical students' encounters with the cadaver: A poetic response

For the past four years, the Human Values in Medicine program at the Northeastern Ohio Universities College of Medicine has sponsored the William Carlos Williams Poetry Competition for medical students (U. S. only). With over 1700 entries from hundreds of students representing nearly every medical school in the U.S., the competition has been highly successful. The pervasive themes expressed in the poetry have included personal experiences and relationships outside of medicine, the medical school experience, nature, and the physician-patient encounter. Within this last theme, I found dozens of poems on the medical student's encounter with the cadaver.

This paper examines what the medical student-poets wrote about that experience. The texts of the twenty poems each fell into one of the following categories: the attempt of the student to know the cadaver as a person, the medical secrets students discovered through dissection, and the intimate relationship between student and cadaver.

Discussion and excerpts from the poetry which illuminate each category are found in the following narrative.