Reconstruction of femur length from its fragments

INTRODUCTION : All the human beings occupying this globe belong to the same species i.e. Homo sapiens. No two individuals are exactly alike in all their measurable traits, even genetically identical twins (monozygotic) differ in some respects. These traits tend to undergo change in varying degrees from birth to death, in health and disease. Since skeletal development is influenced by a number of factors producing differences in skeletal proportions between different geographical areas, it is desirable to have some means of giving quantitative expression to variations which such traits exhibit. Identification is the recognition of an individual by means of various physical features and biological parameters, which are unique to each individual. There are various established parameters for identification of the individual. These are external features (such as birth marks, scars, tattoo marks, occupational marks, malformations), personal features (such as clothing, speech, handwriting, habits), assessment of age and sex, race and stature, anthropometric measurements, finger prints, foot prints, DNA profiling. The question of identification arises in everyday medico legal practice in civil and criminal cases. AIM AND OBJECTIVES : 1. To correlate various measurements of fragments of femur with its maximum length. 2. To assess the feasibility of estimation of maximum femoral length from metric study of its fragments. 3. To derive regression equations for calculating maximum length of femur from its fragments. 4. To compare the results obtained with similar studies. MATERIALS & METHODS : Period of study: August 2008 to August 2010. Ethical clearance: obtained. Study design: Descriptive cross sectional study Collection of samples: The femora for the study were collected from unidentified, unclaimed bodies coming for routine medico legal postmortem examination to the Institute of Forensic Medicine, Chennai-3. Inclusion criteria: 1. Intact femur from the unidentified, unclaimed bodies cases coming for routine medicolegal postmortem examination. 2. Completely ossified femur. Exclusion criteria: 1. Cases below 20 years of age and unossified femur. 2. Cases showing deformed, diseased or fractured femur which will hamper the study of femur length measurement. CONCLUSION : 1. The mean maximum femoral length in males was observed to be more than females in males and was 44.9 cms, whereas that of females was 39.5 cms. 2. The mean values of all fragmentary measurements in males were found to be higher than that of females. Therefore, sex determination is possible from the fragmentary remains of the femur. 3. All the fragmentary measurements in our study showed positive correlations with the femoral length (FML). Therefore the maximum femoral length can be estimated from fragmentary remains of the femur. 4. Among all the fragments in males, the epicondylar length (FDL) and medial condylar length (MCL) of the distal fragments consistently showed the best correlation with the maximum femoral length. The vertical diameter of femoral head (VHD) of the proximal fragments showed the least correlation with the maximum femoral length. 5. In females also, the medial condylar length (MCL) of the distal fragments consistently showed the best correlation with the maximum femoral length. But, the bicondylar length (BCB) showed the least correlation with the maximum femoral length. 6. When the sex of the femur is not determined, the upper breadth of femur (VHA) of the proximal segment showed the best correlation with the maximum femoral length. But, the lateral condylar length (LCL) showed the least correlation with the maximum femoral length. 7. In males, the maximum length of femur can be best calculated from the metric evaluation of epicondylar breadth (FDL) and medial condylar length (MCL) fragments. In males, the following equations can be used to calculate the maximum length of femur • 13.105+3.994(FDL) ± 0.888, • 30.340+2.303(MCL) ± 0.889. 8. In females, the maximum length of femur can be best calculated from the metric evaluation of medial condylar length (MCL) fragment. In females, the following equation can be used to calculate the maximum length of femur • 21.860+3.425(MCL) ± 1.087. 9. When the sex is unknown or in doubt, the maximum length of femur can be best calculated from the metric evaluation of the proximal fragment (VHA) and the distal fragment, epicondylar length (FDL). Therefore when the sex is in doubt or unknown, the following equation can be used to calculate the maximum length of femur 16.307+2.961(VHA) ± 1.144. • 13.841+3.884(FDL) ± 1.185. 10. The regression formulae using combination of fragmentary length showed much better correlation with maximum femoral length than using individual fragments. The best equation to calculate the maximum length of femur in males is • 19.977+1.219(FDL) + 1.228(VHA) + 1.034(LCL) - 1.933(VHD) + 0.815(BCB) ± 0.672. The best equation to calculate the maximum length of femur in females is 23.443+1.859(VND)+0.607(VHA)-1.048(BCB)- 1.118(LCL)+3.664(MCL) ± 0.944. • When the sex is not known, maximum length of femur can be calculated using the equation 14.975+1.279(VHA)+1.289(FDL)+1.157(MCL) ± 0.974. 11. Since the sample size is small, more authoritative equation can be obtained by analyzing more samples

RM8.7b perangi dadah 2009: Peruntukan boleh diguna untuk bina 216 sekolah

Kerajaan membelanjakan RM8.654 bilion dalam usaha memerangi dadah pada 2009 yang sepatutnya diguna untuk tujuan lebih penting dan dadah pada 2009 yang sepatutnya diguna untuk tujuan lebih penting dan memanfa­atkan semua rakyat. Perdana Menteri, Datuk Seri Najib Razak, berkata hasil kajian Universiti Utara Malay­sia (UUM) itu mendapati kos itu merangkumi perbelanjaan agensi penguatkuasaan dan pemulihan berkaitan dadah, rawatan kesihatan, kehila­ngan produktiviti dan kos ber­kaitan jenayah

Tokoh-tokoh Kedah dalam legenda dan sejarah : satu kajian perbandingan

Kedah merupakan negeri yang tertua di Malaysia dan mempunyai rangkaian sejarah yang agak panjang. Sejarah membuktikan bahawa Kedah pernah mengalami pelbagai perubahan budaya dan kepercayaan masyarakat. Pengaruh animisme, Hindu- Budha dan pengaruh Islam telah turut mempengaruhi masyarakat Kedah. Kedah juga telah dijajah oleh beberapa buah negara seperti Siam, Acheh dan Kerajaan Chola di India. Kesemua pengaruh ini telah mengwujudkan suatu sintesis Animisme, Hindu-Buddha dan Islam dalam masyarakat Melayu. Kedah juga sangat terkenal dengan beberapa orang tokoh legenda yang sentiasa menjadi pujaan masyarakat. Diantara mereka yang terkenal ialah Tok Syeikh Jarum, Mahsuri, Puteri Lindungan Bulan, Tunku Anom, Haji Mohd. Said Yan dan Panglima Nayan. Kedah is the oldest state in Malaysia, which reflects the longest network of history. History proof that Kedah has undergone a spectrum of various diverse cultural changes as well as societal belief. The strong animism of Hindu-Buddha as well as Islam have great influence on the people of Kedah. Kedah had also been invaded, conquered and ruled by various powerful countries of that era such as Siam, Acheh and the Chola dynasty from India. All these influences had shaped the thought and brought about the Hindu-Buddhist and Islamic synthesis in the Malay community. It is worth mentioning that Kedah is also well known for some of its distinct legendary personalities or heroes who are admired highly regarded by the community. Among the famous personalities are Tok Syeikh Jarum, Mahsuri, Puteri Lindungan Bulan, Tunku Anom, Haji Mohd. Said Yan dan Panglima Nayan

Transforming The Bad Debt Into Cash Flow

The increasing amount of bad debt and uncollected accounts in the banks and other creditors have affected the cash inflow very badly. The transformation of bad debt into cash flow is vey crucial for daily business operation or for further expansion in the future. In view of the above, effective collection and recovery of bad debt strategies are very important for the business to be successful and mitigate losses. Banks and creditors maintain the current recovery model, the in-house collection activities to recover the bad debt. However, in certain circumstances, the amount recovered is not as expected and as such, alternative options are required. The two most feasible and efficient recovery tools are to outsource the bad debt to an established debt collection agency or to sell the bad debt to an interested buyer to maximize the recovery. The procedures, concepts, and workflow including the guidelines of Bank Negara Malaysia involved in all the three options are outlined to have a better understanding and comparison on the different recovery activities. Literature reviews on the causes of bad debt and other recovery tools are discussed with the relevant examples. These bad debt problems are not only affecting Malaysia, but also has been a major problem in the developed and emerging economies. The worldwide financial crisis has affected a lot of banks and other creditors with substantial amount of bad debt. Further, the increasing demand for unsecured loans including credit cards is one of the main causes for increasing of bad debt amount. The research is conducted with the appropriate research methodology and suitable respondents are selected as the samples. The feedbacks from the interview are reported and summarized in a tabular format to develop three different hypotheses. The findings are discussed in detail with the benefits and limitations available for the three alternatives. The selection of the recovery tool is subject to the guidelines and requirement of the individual bank or creditor to maximize recovery and minimize the cost of operation

Mapping of ferric (Fe3+) and ferrous (Fe2+) iron oxides distribution using band ratio techniques with ASTER data and geochemistry of Kanjamalai and Godumalai, Tamil Nadu, south India

The iron ores found in Tamil Nadu State, South India, are major varieties that have been confined with banded magnetite quartzite. The occurrence, distribution, and grade of these deposits significantly vary according to their geological structure and geomorphologic control. In this article, presents a novel approach, based on spectral remote sensing and digital processing of ASTER data, to identify and characterize the iron ores of Kanjamalai and Godumalai areas located in Tamil Nadu, India. By analyzing the ASTER images, the abundance of iron oxides including ferric (Fe3+) and ferrous (Fe2+) components was determined. The band ratioing technique, a multiband analysis was used to generate the abundance of iron oxide content in various parts of the study area using different band combinations such as band 2/band 1 (for Fe3+) and band 5/band 3 + band 1/band 2 (for Fe2+). The geochemical analysis is an important part of this work to arrive with the outcome of band ratio techniques to decipher the relationship of the band ratio to the chemical composition of the ore samples. Accordingly, the correlation between the results of the geochemical analysis of the samples collected from the random locations was determined by Pearson's coefficient of correlation (ρ) and compared with the corresponding locations in the abundance image. In addition to ρ, various factors such as mean (μ), variance (σ2) and corresponding standard deviations (σ) were also analyzed for a comparative analysis. This comparative analysis indicated that most of the samples have considerably high iron oxide content in the locations. Thus, this study shows the possibility of detecting iron oxide content and its spatial distribution by using ASTER satellite images analysis. Hence, from the mapping results, it is evident that the band ratio technique of ASTER images can be used to map and characterize with limited fieldwork and geochemistr

Latent Thermal Energy Storage Technologies and Applications: A Review

The achievement of European climate energy objectives which are contained in the European Union's (EU) “20-20-20” targets and in the European Commission's (EC) Energy Roadmap 2050 is possible, among other things, through the use of energy storage technologies. The use of thermal energy storage (TES) in the energy system allows to conserving energy, increase the overall efficiency of the systems by eliminating differences between supply and demand for energy. The article presents different methods of thermal energy storage including sensible heat storage, latent heat storage and thermochemical energy storage, focusing mainly on phase change materials (PCMs) as a form of suitable solution for energy utilisation to fill the gap between demand and supply to improve the energy efficiency of a system . PCMs allow the storage of latent thermal energy during phase change at almost stable temperature. The article presents a classification of PCMs according to their chemical nature as organic, inorganic and eutectic and by the phase transition with their advantages and disadvantages. In addition, different methods of improving the effectiveness of the PCM materials such as employing cascaded latent heat thermal energy storage system, encapsulation of PCMs and shape-stabilisation are presented in the paper. Furthermore, the use of PCM materials in buildings, power generation, food industry and automotive applications are presented and the modelling tools for analysing the functionality of PCMs materials are compared and classified