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Fingermarks used in forensic investigation are biometric elements widely utilized in identification thanks to their unique and classifiable characteristics. Despite numerous studies investigating fingermark development on different surfaces, few studies have addressed the skin surface of deceased individuals, given the challenging nature of this substrate. This study investigated the transfer and development of fingermarks on human skin that had been systematically deposited over the forehead, neck, and wrist. Additionally, gender, age, and the time elapsed since deposition were issued as additional factors impacting fingermark development. Therefore, we prepared a study setting representing a crime scene by modelling the scene and then utilized 400 fingermarks. The marks transferred to thermal paper were developed by applying ThermaNin and magnetic black fingermark powder as fingermark development methods and then photographed. They were then evaluated for their suitability for identification via scoring and statistical analysis. The results indicated that 36% of all marks obtained from the skin of living persons and 66% of those from skin surfaces of dead bodies received the highest score and were assessed as suitable for identification. Despite the negative effect of increased time since deposition, it was revealed that the ThermaNin method yielded better results than magnetic black fingermark powder. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Early this year the European Parliament, the Council and the Commission proclaimed that everyone should be able to determine their digital legacy, and decide what happens with their personal accounts and information that concerns them after their death, a declaration that paves the way for post mortem protection of personal data at the EU level. The paper discusses the digital legacy in view of the respect owed to the dead and assesses the challenges that may arise from consecrating a right to digital legacy for businesses that process personal data of deceased persons. The article argues that the effectiveness of the right to decide what happens with personal data after death is - at least from a civil law perspective - an expression of the respect due to the dead as to their memory. It also contends that a future regulation should cover the situation when the deceased persons did not determine what happens with their data. Furthermore, the paper highlights the importance of technical and organisational measures to be implemented by all businesses that sooner or later are going to process information that concerns the living after their death. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The use of knowledge graph analysis for chronic disease nursing based on visualization technology and literature big data is an unexplored area of research in this field of study. To uncover research hotspots and developmental trends in the field of chronic disease nursing, and to provide a scholarly reference, we employed mathematical and statistical methods along with CiteSpace literature visualization analysis software for quantitative analysis of extensive literature data from the Web of Science Core Collection. We examined aspects such as publication trends, journals, author collaborations, research institutions, national and regional distributions, keyword co-occurrence, clustering, time zones, emergence, literature co-citations, and more. These analyses identified the current hotspots and future directions for research. Notably, scholars' interest in chronic disease nursing exhibited a consistent upward trajectory. In particular, the field of artificial intelligence technology application in nursing yielded 3, 610 published papers in 141 journals with more than or equal to 10 published papers on the topic, accounting for 58.41% of the total number of published papers in this field of study. Furthermore, the top three publishers were the "Journal of Clinical Nursing," "Journal of Advanced Nursing," and "BMC Health Services Research." Among authors, Hu, Frank B., Willett, Walter C., and Rimm, Eric B., ranked as the top three, and 12 authors had more than 10 publications. The most active research institutions included Harvard University, Harvard Medical School, Brigham & Women's Hospital, University of California System, University of London, US Department of Veterans Affairs, Veterans Health Administration (VHA), Harvard T. H. Chan School of Public Health, University of Sydney, and the University of Toronto. The United States, Australia, England, China, Canada, Netherlands, Spain, Italy, Sweden, and Germany emerged as the leading countries in terms of research output, while emerging hotspots encompassed topics such as incidence, rheumatoid arthritis, qualitative research, burnout, kidney transplantation, critical illness, COVID-19, Sars-COV-2, public health, and the well-being of medical staff. These findings present valuable insights for prospective research endeavors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The question of whether it is appropriate to attribute authorship to deceased individuals of original studies in the biomedical literature is contentious. Authorship guidelines utilized by journals do not provide a clear consensus framework that is binding on those in the field. To guide and inform the implementation of authorship frameworks it would be useful to understand the extent of the practice in the scientific literature, but studies that have systematically quantified the prevalence of this phenomenon in the biomedical literature have not been performed to date. To address this issue, we quantified the prevalence of publications by deceased authors in the biomedical literature from the period 1990–2020. We screened 2,601,457 peer-reviewed papers from the full text Europe PubMed Central database. We applied natural language processing, stringent filtering and manual curation to identify a final set of 1,439 deceased authors. We then determined these authors published a total of 38,907 papers over their careers with 5,477 published after death. The number of deceased publications has been growing rapidly, a 146-fold increase since the year 2000. This rate of increase was still significant when accounting for the growing total number of publications and pool of authors. We found that more than 50% of deceased author papers were first submitted after the death of the author and that over 60% of these papers failed to acknowledge the deceased authors status. Most deceased authors published less than 10 papers after death but a small pool of 30 authors published significantly more. A pool of 266 authors published more than 90% of their total publications after death. Our analysis indicates that the attribution of deceased authorship in the literature is not an occasional occurrence but a burgeoning trend. A consensus framework to address authorship by deceased scientists is warranted. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Necrophilia is a paraphilia in which the offender finds sexual gratification in having sex with the dead. Most nations and jurisdictions have laws against this practice. According to a report from Legal Services India, currently, cases of Necrophilia in India are being referred to under the provisions of Section 297 and Section 377. There hasn't been much research done in that field. History and several case studies indicate that this is exceedingly destructive, not just for the person with the disorder but also for society as a whole. The focus of the current research project is to describe and investigate the problem of sexual encounters with corpses and their social repercussions. The paper explores conceivable motives for having sex with the deceased. Additionally, how such drives can impact the psychological forensic evaluation of criminals who have had sex with corpses. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The reality of death is attested by everyday experiences in all human societies. Whilst death is a universal phenomenon, the rites associated with dying, death and funeral differ from society to society. The Akan community of Ghana performs many rites from the time that one’s death is imminent till the final funeral rites are performed, and even afterward. One such rite is the presentation of Adesiedeɛ (burial items). Whilst there are many publications about Akan funeral rites, Adesiedeɛ has not received any significant scholarly attention. This study was, therefore, conducted to examine adesiedeɛ rite from an Akan socio-religious perspective. It is an empirical research that collected data through participant observations, field surveys and interviews. The paper argued that Akan funeral rituals associated with laying-in-state and burying of the corpse are deeply rooted in the Akan belief in ancestors and the desire of the living Akan to maintain a good relationship with the supernatural. The paper found a close correlation between the Akan socio-economic and religious worldview and the rite of presenting Adesiedeɛ. The research contributes to studies on Akan cultural and primal religion. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the 1990s, a notable trend in contemporary Chinese art was the use of human corpses as material for installation art. These works were called derivative and societally harmful by critics and have been dismissed as anomalous in more recent scholarship. This paper will demonstrate that the use of corpses was the continuation of a a decade-long attempt to free art from a perceived unhealthy relationship with society through ridding the human body of ideological meaning. I argue that the use of dead bodies marks a metaphorical end to this preoccupation within the contemporary Chinese art world and paved the way for a fundamental shift in the way artists approached society as a whole. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Azania: Archaeological Research in Africa is the property of Routledge and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Scholars have extensively studied the spiritual and cultural interpretations of the afterlife. This paper builds on these works by exploring how the afterlife can be discussed as a 'place' meriting geographical discussion. To do so, I consider how the afterlife is spatialized drawing on the 'trialetic' interactions described in Henri Lefebvre's work. This is done in the context of Singaporean Chinese beliefs that place emphasis on ritualistic remembrance. Firstly, the emotive‐affective aspects of remembrance imbued into material practices produce spaces of representation that prolong the deceased's 'presence'. At the same time, the Singapore state exercises significant regulation of these practices. While common understandings of the afterlife relate to spirits and culture, the analysis charts how in Singapore's case, the spatialization of the afterlife becomes a contested politicized process. Conceptualizations of the afterlife are not statically enshrined in cultural beliefs but evolve with changing times. This paper thus elaborates Lefebvre's spatial triad to examine networks of prescription, alteration, and negotiation, whereby the afterlife is a dynamically produced space charged with power relations among various actors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This qualitative research is a critical analysis of news media reports, political debates, and political and family behaviours to interrogate the centrality of death, corpses, funeral and mortuary rituals in African politics by using the death of Zimbabwe's former President, Robert Mugabe as a case study. At death, it became clear what a polarizing and yet unifying figure Mugabe was. His dead body became a contested political asset. The paper explores how Mugabe's family resisted President Mnangagwa's attempts at gaining control of Mugabe's dead body for political expediency after he disposed of him in a military coup in 2017. The paper concludes that, true to Mugabe's wife's assertions that he will rule Zimbabwe from the grave, Mugabe, as a dead man, caused some considerable political tensions between his family and ruling magnifying the coup architects' legitimacy challenges and his power in Zimbabwean politics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Dental identification of deceased individual is a core task in the forensic dentistry. The accurate recording of clinical procedures has become more important over the time because of the increasing trends of lawsuits worldwide. Advances in imaging, root canal anatomy and restorative materials have been consistently emerging in present research and practice. Hence, the purpose of this paper is to provide an update on interrelationship between restorative dentistry and forensic personal identification. Aim: To observe the effects of predetermined incineration temperatures (400 and 800) on unrestored and restored teeth with different restorative materials, and its effect on length of tooth and volume of the pulp under Stereomicroscope and CBCT. Materials and Methods: 48 extracted premolar teeth were divided into 2 groups based on predetermined temperatures and subdivided into 4 subgroups based on restorative material used. Subgroup i- Unrestored teeth, Subgroup ii- class I Amalgam restoration, Subgroup iii- class I Amalgomer restoration and Subgroup iv- class I Cention restoration. The Antemortem and postmortem records were compared using Stereomicroscope and CBCT. Results: Teeth exposed to incineration at different temperatures will be analyzed under Stereomicroscope and CBCT. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper provides a brief introduction to Chinese posthumous names. This name system is based on the opposition between positive and negative evaluations of the deceased. It was employed as a means for negotiating legitimacy and shaping the historical record. This article also provides information on the "Order of Posthumous Names Explained", a chapter of the Neglected Zhou Scriptures. This chapter is a canonical source for the study of Chinese posthumous names. It is commonly seen by scholars as an ancient onomasticon used to assign posthumous names. This paper argues that, in its present form, this chapter is a complex medieval compilation of multiple earlier sources. This paper counters the narrow interpretation of onomasticons of Chinese posthumous names as manuals for assigning names to the deceased. Instead, it postulates that onomasticons of posthumous names were also used as aids in the interpretation of history. They provided meaningful moralistic interpretations for the posthumous names attested in historical sources. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the treatment of deposed emperors, defeated usurpers, and other political malcontents in Late Antiquity. During the period, such individuals, or their corpses, were occasionally displayed before the public in some of the major cities of the Roman Empire. While this phenomenon has attracted comparatively little attention in the historiography, this paper demonstrates that it can tell us much about late antique society. By studying these displays in detail, it explores the traditions and practices from which they emerged, how their nature and functions evolved over time, and the extent to which they affected the empire's inhabitants. Ultimately, the paper argues that their development during the period reflects a more autocratic political culture but one which still valued and solicited popular participation in the legitimization of power. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines Ben Fountain's Billy Lynn's Long Halftime Walk (2012) and Sinan Antoon's The Corpse Washer (2013) in terms of their representations of Americans and Iraqis in the context of the 2003 Iraq War. It aims to investigate and compare the novels' approaches to the lives/deaths of Americans and Iraqis, drawing on Judith Butler's claim that people in the West conceive of and deal with the lives/deaths of these non-Westerners differently. The lives of Westerners are made the most valuable at the expense of the safety and security of those outside these geographies. The analysis is made in two paradigms: 'Western lives' and 'non-Western lives'. While Fountain's novel focuses primarily on American soldiers, who are presented as the ultimate victims of the war, Antoon's provides a counter-narrative that challenges Fountain's argument and provides Iraqi characters with extended narrative spaces to recount their grievances. In Fountain's work, American deaths are thoroughly mourned at the expense of Iraqi deaths. Antoon's narrative, on the other hand, mourns these ungrievable souls and reclaims their ignored value. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Many taboos and a high resistance to change are the hallmark of posthumous rituals and customs among all Slavic peoples, which has helped maintain their archaic nature. According to Slavic beliefs, in the otherworld, the souls of the deceased who were kind-hearted during their lifetime join the group of their ancestors who guard the living, providing them with prosperity and fertility. In return, living descendants had an obligation to periodically organize commemorations for the deceased, invoke memories of them, and make (food) offerings meant for the salvation of their souls. On the other hand, Slavs believed that the deceased who died prematurely or violently, or those who were dishonourable throughout their lives, became "the revenant deceased" or "the impure deceased" and could bring harm, sickness, and death to the living. For these reasons, people tended to prepare all of the dead—particularly the ones whose souls could potentially become members of the "impure" group—adequately for the funeral and to see their souls off from this world following traditional rites. This research is based on the presupposition that, among folk beliefs, customs, and rituals regarding the deceased (and their souls), there is a substratum whose archaic nature reaches back to the period when Slavic peoples lived together. These are folk beliefs and customs which appear in all three groups of Slavic peoples but are not related to any of the predominant religions, primarily Christianity, nor did they emerge under the influences of those religions. The sources used in the research include a published ethnographic corpus of data and scientific papers on posthumous rites among the Slavs. Also taken into account were archaeological, historical, and linguistic sources. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper shows the results of the analysis on the first systematic dataset of flood episodes referred to the entire Pyrenees massif, named PIRAGUA_flood, which covers the period 1981-2015 (available at http://hdl.handle.net/10261/270351). First, the structure of the database is detailed, so that it can be reproduced anywhere else in the world adapting to the specific nature of each situation. Subsequently, the paper addresses the spatial and temporal distribution of flood episodes and events (including trends) that affected the Pyrenees regions of Spain (Catalonia, Aragon, Navarre, the Basque Country), France (Nouvelle Acquitaine, Occitanie) and Andorra, as well as the massif as a whole, for a given period of time. In the case of the Spanish regions, it was also possible to analyse the compensation paid out made by the Spanish Insurance Compensation Consortium, and the number of deceased. The weather types associated with flood episodes were also classified based on sea level pressure and 500 hPa geopotential height from ERA5. The results show 181 flood events and 154 fatalities, some of which affected more than one region. In the Spanish part of the Pyrenees, between 1996 and 2015, there were a total compensation payout amounting to €142.5 million2015. The eastern part of the area records more flood events than the western one, being Catalonia the community that registered the highest number of events, followed by Andorra and Occitanie. Associated weather types are dominated by southern component flow over the Pyrenees region, with a thalweg on the Iberian Peninsula and a depression in the vicinity, either in the Atlantic or in the Mediterranean. In terms of the entire massif, there is a slight positive trend of 0.84 events/decade, driven by the evolution of ordinary and extraordinary floods, but not significant at 95%. At a regional level, flood behaviour is more heterogeneous, although not significant for the most part. Nouvelle Acquitanie is the only region that shows a positive and significant trend of 0.34 events/decade. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In dealing with human corpses, notions of dignity play a decisive role, especially within legal texts that regulate a corpse's handling. However, it is quite unclear how the claim "Treat human corpses with dignity!" should be understood and justified. Drawing upon examples and problems from forensic medicine, this paper explores three possible lines of interpreting such demands: (a) positions that closely link the dignity of the human corpse to the dignity of the former living persons and (b) accounts that derive the dignity of the dead from consequentialist considerations. We argue that both lines heavily rely on contestable metaphysical claims and therefore propose an alternative account for the dignity of the dead. Our proposal (c) focuses on action-guiding attitudes and the symbolic value of the dead. Such a conception allows for a variety of morally appropriate groundings of individual attitudes. It avoids metaphysically troublesome premises and, at the same time, allows to classify certain actions and manners of acting as clearly inappropriate and blameworthy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Rivista di Teologia dell'Evangelizzazione is the property of Centro Editoriale Dehoniano and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

In El-Salamuni tombs of the Greaco-Roman period, the judgment court was a traditional scene, the deceased were often led by various gods, who introduced him to Osiris, or Sokar-Osiris. The article studies samples of the scenes show leading the deceased by a deity either in the court of the judgment, or in the processions, and invented the various deities who act this funerary role. Remarkably, procession-scenes of various male or female deities present offerings to Osiris or Sokar-Osiris is also a characteristic representation in these tombs. At the rear of these processions, the deceased was always following a human deity, holding his hand in order to introduce him to Osiris. The paper recognizes for the various gods who guide the deceased to the court, as well as tries to investigate and answer for the character of the usual and the unknown deity who leads him in these unpublished processions' scenes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Books are complex objects. They have an undeniable material dimension, because they are artifacts characterized by a refined technology that has evolved over the centuries, and at the same time, they are vectors of intellectual products, consisting of the work(s) that they convey. However, books may also have a third dimension, since they embody the sacrality of a cult, belong to a performing rite, are offered to god(s) for the salvation of a soul, etc. Therefore, they incorporate an intrinsic sacredness for the simple reasons that they contain certain texts and are used on certain occasions to perform a certain rite. This paper explores the sacred aspect of Coptic codices and their third dimension, analyzing in particular the special case of books buried with a deceased person. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article presents the discussion on bioarcheologists and forensic anthropologists. Topics include relating to bioarcheology education and training and research on archeological human remains in university, museum, and commercial contexts; and no ethics committee in place at the home institution or museum where the remains being curated.

There is a growing number of new digital technologies mediating the experiences of grief and the continuing bonds between the bereaved and their loved ones following death. One of the most recent technological developments is the "griefbot". Based on the digital footprint of the deceased, griefbots allow two-way communication between mourners and the digital version of the dead through a conversational interface or chat. This paper explores the mediational role that griefbots might have in the grieving process vis-à-vis that of other digital technologies, such as social media services or digital memorials on the Internet. After briefly reviewing the new possibilities offered by the Internet in the way people relate with the dead, we delve into the particularities of griefbots, focusing on the two-way communication afforded by this technology and the sense of simulation derived from the virtual interaction between the living and the dead. Discussion leads us to emphasize that, while both the Internet and griefbots bring about a significant spatial and temporal expansion to the grief experience –affording a more direct way to communicate with the dead anywhere and at any time– they differ in that, unlike the socially shared virtual space between mourners and loved ones in most digital memorials, griefbots imply a private conversational space between the mourner and the deceased person. The paper concludes by pointing to some ethical issues that griefbots, as a profit-oriented afterlife industry, might raise for both mourners and the dead in our increasingly digital societies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper analyzes the institutions and regulations that govern the transnational movement of dead bodies in contemporary Europe. With the extension of free movement across the European Union and the subsequent expansion of transnational employment, tourism, and retirement, the repatriation of corpses from one member state to another lies in an ambiguous regulatory space. In exploring how dead bodies move between EU member states, and how their movements are regulated within transnational and national systems, the paper pays particular attention to the legacies and continued relevance of mid-century international agreements. Section 1 contextualises the issue of the transportation of mortal remains, discusses our broader theoretical background, and explains our research methods. Section 2 provides an historical overview of the foundational international regulations governing the repatriation of corpses: the 1937 Berlin Agreement and the 1973 Strasbourg Agreement. In Section 3, we present a comprehensive review of the discussion of repatriation of EU citizens between EU countries that occurred in the European Parliament and Commission between 2000 and 2018. In so doing, we focus on the ways in which understanding institutional action and inaction provides a lens on the operation of supranational competency development and its limits, and on the complex ways in which institutional arrangements are interwound within national, international, and transnational practices. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Radovi Zavoda za znanstveni rad Varazdin is the property of Institute for Scientific Work in Varazdin, Croatian Academy of Sciences & Arts and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Humans have likely been attempting to communicate with entities believed to exist, such as the divine, sacred beings, and deceased people, since the dawn of time. Across cultures and countries, many believe that interaction with the immaterial world is not only possible but a frequent experience. Most religious traditions across the globe focus many rituals and activities around prayer to an entity deemed divine or sacred. Additionally, many people–religious, agnostic, and atheists alike–report communication with their departed loved ones. During highly stressful times associated with natural disasters, war, pandemics, and other threats to human life, the frequency and intensity of these activities and associated experiences substantially increase. Although this very human phenomenon seems to be universal, the empirical literature on the topic within psychology is thin. This paper discussed the topic and reviews what we know from the professional literature about how people perceive communication with these unseen entities. It highlights the perceptual and social cognition evidence and discussed the role of attribution theory, which might help us understand the beliefs, motivations, and practices of those engaged with communication with the unseen. Empirical laboratory research with mediums is discussed as well, examining the evidence for communication with the deceased. Final reflections and suggestions for future research are also offered. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Boletín de la Asociación Española de Entomología is the property of Asociacion Espanola de Entomologia and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

The goal of this paper is to defend animalism from the remnant person problem. Specifically, I argue that animalism is consistent with the view that one could become a remnant person in virtue of psychological continuity. For this argument, I show that the dilemma for the remnant person parallels the dilemma animalists use when they argue that one could become a human vegetable or corpse. I then argue that animalists who claim that psychological continuity is not necessary for our persistence through time should say that biological continuity is not necessary either. This implies that psychological continuity is sufficient, though not necessary, for personal identity over time in some cases. Finally, I show how my argument points animalists toward anti-criterialism and defend it from a fission problem. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Forensic Science & Technology is the property of Institute of Forensic Science, Ministry of Public Security and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of Forensic Science & Technology is the property of Institute of Forensic Science, Ministry of Public Security and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Luigi Russolo's Intonarumori together with his manifesto L'arte dei rumori (1913) marked a break with the art of clear signification. From here on, noise and dispersed sounds replaced the concept of music reverberating the harmony of the spheres by propelling the quandaries of immanence contingent on palpable resonance performing the differential relational manner of heterogeneous existence. This somatic turn is central to Jean-Luc Nancy's Listening, where he proposes listening as a tangible fundamental resonance rumbling the corpse sonore. This paper elaborates on the move from the art of music to the plurality of rhythmic worlds. Nancy's proposition of sonorous existence demonstrates two movements, one that retreats from hearing the Pythagorean musical-arithmetical cosmos exhibited in Robert Fludd's Monochord, the other plays the singular plural pulsations of dispersed creation performed by Michael Snow's Tap. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Alustath is the property of Republic of Iraq Ministry of Higher Education & Scientific Research (MOHESR) and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Human tragedy could be summed up a single word—death. One first encounters it through the death of others, and then everyone faces it for themselves. The Christian faith confronts humanity's final foe head on, delivering sustained hope amidst the sorrow and despair of impending death. This paper will first address the central role of the resurrection of the dead in First Corinthians. Second, the paper will present Paul's retort to several challenges raised against the notion of the resurrection. Finally, the paper will attempt to systematize the means by which Paul proves the resurrection of the dead. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Using genetic tests on deceased patients’ samples for diagnostic purposes affects the family members' health and lives but raises some ethical issues in today’s practice of medicine and research. In this paper, we address a common ethical dilemma of clinicians regarding whether to perform genetic tests on a deceased patient’s sample upon a request from first-degree relatives against the patient's wishes in the last days of life. In this paper, a real case scenario is presented that echoes the abovementioned ethical challenge. Reviewing the genetic basis of the case, the ethical arguments for and against the reuse of genetic material in a clinical context are discussed. An ethico-legal analysis of the case is proposed based on Islamic medical ethics resources. As reusing stored samples of expired patients without their consent also challenges the researchers in the field of genetics, a debate is included on the post-mortem use of genetic data and samples for research. Finally, defining the special features of the presented case and positive benefit-risk ratio, it is concluded that reusing the patient's sample may be justified if the first-degree family members insist on genetic testing and are comprehensively informed about the benefits and harms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Islamic world has been confronted with many challenges in recent history such as situations of violence, armed conflict, global pandemic and natural disasters. One of the many catastrophic consequences of such events are the findings of numerous unidentified bodies. Is the identification of dead bodies a legal obligation under both Islamic law and International Humanitarian Law (IHL) or is it merely a moral duty to help grieving family members? The purpose of this research is first, to give an overview of the Islamic law principles governing the identification of the dead. Second, to illustrate those principles with current examples of humanitarian challenges in the Islamic world. Third, to compare those Islamic law principles to IHL rules applicable in armed conflicts and demonstrate that both IHL and Islamic Law aim to end the suffering of families of missing persons. This research demonstrates that both Islamic law and IHL have rules which aim to protect the dignity and respect of dead bodies and they complement each other in contexts of armed conflicts or other situations of violence. By identifying the similarities and complementarities of both bodies of law this research paper contributes to expanding the legal framework which can be promoted and used by humanitarians to protect families of the dead and end their suffering by obtaining information on the fate and whereabouts of their loved ones. In cases of mismanagement of the dead, in Muslim contexts, resulting in the burial of unidentified bodies, humanitarians should discuss with religious authorities and raise the various principles of Islamic law described in this paper such as the prohibition of collective graves and cremation and the exceptions made in practice for the exhumation of dead bodies. International scholars should also underscore the importance of storing information on the deceased before burying them and of participating in the development of forensic science in Islamic countries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper deals with the stela of 'In-ḥeret-N...kht and his wife, now preserved in the British Museum London. This stela was found in Naga-ed-Dêr, Sohag, Upper Egypt and dated depending on the typological study of (Brovarski, E. The inscribed material of the first intermediate period from Naga-ed-Dêr) and other studies. The artistic features, such as the style of the pose of the deceased with his wife, the clothes, the ornaments, the shape of the offering table and the offerings on it and its arrangement, as well as the distinctive features of the hieroglyphic writing illustrated a scene such as the formula of ḥtp di nsw and its difference from the end of old kingdom and the first intermediate period to the middle kingdom. It was also dated from the titles of the deceased and his wife. Moreover, the present research paper provides a stylistic study of this stela of 'In-ḥeret-N...kht and paleographical and philological comments on its texts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Journal of The Iraqi University is the property of Republic of Iraq Ministry of Higher Education & Scientific Research (MOHESR) and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

This paper introduces a new learning-based approach for approximately solving the Kidney-Exchange Problem (KEP), an NP-hard problem on graphs. The KEP consists of, given a pool of kidney donors and patients waiting for kidney donations, optimally selecting a set of donations to optimize the quantity and quality of transplants performed while respecting a set of constraints about the arrangement of these donations. The proposed technique consists of two major steps: the first is a Graph Neural Network (GNN) trained without supervision; the second is a deterministic non-learned search heuristic that uses the output of the GNN to find a valid solution. To allow for comparisons, we also implemented and tested an exact solution method using integer programming, two greedy search heuristics without the machine learning module, and the GNN alone without a heuristic. We analyze and compare the methods and conclude that the learning-based two-stage approach is the best solution quality, outputting approximate solutions on average 1.1 times more valuable than the ones from the deterministic heuristic alone. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Values that accompany generic health measures are typically anchored at 1 = full health and 0 = dead. Some health states may then be considered 'worse than dead' (WTD) and assigned negative values, which causes fundamental measurement problems. In this paper, we challenge the assumption that anchoring values at 'dead = 0' is necessary for quality‐adjusted life year (QALY) estimation. We summarise the role of 'dead' in health state valuation and consider three critical questions: (i) whether the measurement properties of health state values require 'dead'; (ii) whether 'dead' needs to be valued relative to health states; and (iii) whether values for states WTD are meaningful or useful. We conclude that anchoring 0 at dead is not a requirement of health status measurement or cost‐effectiveness analysis. This results from reframing QALYs as the relevant unit of measurement and reframing values as being derived from QALYs rather than the reverse. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Kidney Exchange Problem (KEP) aims at finding an optimal set of exchanges among pairs of patients and their medically incompatible living kidney donors as well as altruistic donors who are not associated with any particular patient but want to donate a kidney to any person in need. Existing platforms that offer the finding of such exchanges for patient-donor pairs and altruistic donors are organized in a centralized fashion and operated by a single platform operator. This makes them susceptible to manipulation and corruption. Recent research has targeted these security issues by proposing decentralized Secure Multi-Party Computation (SMPC) protocols for solving the KEP. However, these protocols fail to meet two important requirements for kidney exchange in practice. First, they do not allow for altruistic donors. While such donors are not legally allowed in all countries, they have been shown to have a positive effect on the number of transplants that can be found. Second, the existing SMPC protocols do not support prioritization, which is used in existing platforms to give priority to certain exchanges or patient-donor pairs, e.g., to patients who are hard to match due to their medical characteristics. In this paper, we introduce a generic gate for implementing prioritization in kidney exchange. We extend two existing SMPC protocols for solving the KEP such that they allow for altruistic donors and prioritization and present one novel SMPC protocol for solving the KEP with altruistic donors and prioritization based on dynamic programming. We prove the security of all protocols and analyze their complexity. We implement all protocols and evaluate their performance for the setting where altruistic donors are legally allowed and for the setting where they are not. Thereby, we determine the performance impact of the inclusion of altruistic donors and obtain those approaches that perform best for each setting. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

When Edwin Chadwick released his report into burial reform in 1843 he was highly critical of the working-class practice of keeping the dead body in the home for up to a week in the period between death and burial. Chadwick argued that the English working-classes kept the body for so long for economic reasons and that as a result of living in close quarters with a corpse they picked up negative associations with death and suffered moral decline. This paper overturns this assumption by using evidence from nineteenth-century folklore collections and working-class autobiography to argue that the long-standing tradition of keeping the body in the home and rallying round to prepare it for burial held a deep significance for rural working-class people. The gradual preparation of the body for burial engaged the senses and centred on the visual appearance of the corpse enabling rural folk to confirm social bonds through the formation of collective memories, demonstrate the respectability of both the deceased and their family, accept the reality of death, and begin the mourning process. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study presents an update of forensic accounting of the numbers and demographics of migrants found deceased in the Evros region of Greece in the years from 2015–22. Compared to data from 2000–14, this update reflects the mounting number of border‐related deaths in the region, as well as the changing demographic trends associated with the migrants who perish crossing the Greek‐Turkish border. Specifically, the paper documents a broadening of locations from which migrants originate, the increasing diversity of migrant death locations, and a shift in the leading causes of death. It contains important forensic accounting of the unique humanitarian crisis occurring along the Greek‐Turkish land border while also providing an additional context for the global migration crisis. The data presented here offer insights into other forensic stakeholders impacted by the global migration crisis, with respect to what factors contribute to and detract from identification rates, and can help stakeholders make informed policy decisions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article is a response to a single cadaver study that assessed the efficacy of two airway clearance devices, including the LifeVac device. The author criticizes the methodology and conclusions of the study, arguing that it lacks rigor and validity. They highlight errors in the research methodology and testing regime, as well as unsupported speculative conclusions made by the authors. The author also questions the bias and misrepresentation of evidence in the study. They argue that the LifeVac device has shown efficacy in multiple studies and should not be dismissed based on this single cadaver study. [Extracted from the article]

The paper explores the relationship between technology and imagination in the poetics of Don DeLillo and Michelangelo Antonioni, as reflected in DeLillo's Libra (1988), Underworld (1997), Falling Man (2007) and Antonioni's Blow-Up (1966). The plot of Antonioni's cult film, loosely based on Cortázar's short story „Las babas del diablo," is well-known: the protagonist, a professional fashion photographer, believes he has unwittingly captured a murder with his camera. The discovery is made in the scene in which he frantically makes a series of blow-ups in the hope of finding clues to the mystery thus reclaiming the past. His belief in the power of photography borders on fantastic, and the paper sets out to revisit this phenomenon in the context of the works of Don DeLillo, who has acknowledged his indebtedness to the European cinema, Antonioni included. In DeLillo's novels characters repeatedly try to find the truth which escapes them in their everyday experience through the power of technology, principally the camera, which, as Walter Benjamin noted, has the paradoxical (and sublime) capacity to represent the past as if it were „Here and Now". Indeed, the photograph as „memento mori" (Sontag) or a „micro version of death" (Barthes) is a little more than a metaphor in both Antonioni and DeLillo's murder mysteries, which abound in dead bodies, or bodies soon to be dead, captured in still photographs or sequences of images, enlarged and super-slowed, from the horrifying sight of Kennedy's exploding head recorded by Abraham Zapruder to the „horrific beauty" of the „Falling Man" shot by Richard Drew. Curiously enough, both Antonioni's and DeLillo's characters seem to call into question the nature of still and moving images, as the specters from these snapshots and videos haunt them, teetering between the real and the imaginary. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

What smell does border death leave to the inhabitants of borderlands? Is the encounter with the dead bodies of the migrants who perished in the Mediterranean Sea telling in how we articulate discussions around (necro)politics at the external borders of Europe? Based on one-year of fieldwork on the island of Lampedusa (Southern Italy), Door to Europe, and frontier for irregular border crossing, I argue that border death has consequences for both the migrants and the inhabitants of borderlands. The paper will trace such consequences through the testimony of Vincenzo, the old cemetery gatekeeper of Lampedusa, the witness and bearer of knowledge around the nameless bodies buried in Lampedusa's cemetery since 1996. This approach will help considering the extent to which the encounter with migrants' dead bodies – bare life in death – allows ethnographers to speak of the inherently violent system that scholars referred to as necropolitics or thanatopolitics, and the otherwise irreducible force of life, which manifests itself beyond any possible attempt to reduce it or silence it. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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