Postmortem biochemical investigations in hypothermia fatalities

Despite the progress made during the past several decades in forensic pathology, the possibilities for the postmortem diagnosis of hypothermia remains relatively limited. Aside from histology and immunohistochemistry, numerous authors have investigated the postmortem biochemistry of hypothermia fatalities. Several biochemical markers (e.g., glucose, electrolytes, hormones, ketone bodies, and neurotransmitters) and various biological samples (e.g., blood, urine, heart, liver, skeletal muscle as well as pericardial and cerebrospinal fluids) have been proposed as potentially useful markers to improve the insufficient diagnostic efficacy of macroscopic and microscopic findings. The aim of this article is to review the medicolegal literature covering the postmortem biochemical investigations that are associated with hypothermia cases as well as report our own research results on this topic where possibl

On the selection of AGN neutrino source candidates for a source stacking analysis with neutrino telescopes

The sensitivity of a search for sources of TeV neutrinos can be improved by grouping potential sources together into generic classes in a procedure that is known as source stacking. In this paper, we define catalogs of Active Galactic Nuclei (AGN) and use them to perform a source stacking analysis. The grouping of AGN into classes is done in two steps: first, AGN classes are defined, then, sources to be stacked are selected assuming that a potential neutrino flux is linearly correlated with the photon luminosity in a certain energy band (radio, IR, optical, keV, GeV, TeV). Lacking any secure detailed knowledge on neutrino production in AGN, this correlation is motivated by hadronic AGN models, as briefly reviewed in this paper. The source stacking search for neutrinos from generic AGN classes is illustrated using the data collected by the AMANDA-II high energy neutrino detector during the year 2000. No significant excess for any of the suggested groups was found.Comment: 43 pages, 12 figures, accepted by Astroparticle Physic

The positive net radiative greenhouse gas forcing of increasing methane emissions from a thawing boreal forest-wetland landscape

At the southern margin of permafrost in North America, climate change causes widespread permafrost thaw. In boreal lowlands, thawing forested permafrost peat plateaus (‘forest’) lead to expansion of permafrost‐free wetlands (‘wetland’). Expanding wetland area with saturated and warmer organic soils is expected to increase landscape methane (CH4) emissions. Here, we quantify the thaw‐induced increase in CH4 emissions for a boreal forest‐wetland landscape in the southern Taiga Plains, Canada, and evaluate its impact on net radiative forcing relative to potential long‐term net carbon dioxide (CO2) exchange. Using nested wetland and landscape eddy covariance net CH4 flux measurements in combination with flux footprint modeling, we find that landscape CH4 emissions increase with increasing wetland‐to‐forest ratio. Landscape CH4 emissions are most sensitive to this ratio during peak emission periods, when wetland soils are up to 10 °C warmer than forest soils. The cumulative growing season (May–October) wetland CH4 emission of ~13 g CH4 m−2 is the dominating contribution to the landscape CH4 emission of ~7 g CH4 m−2. In contrast, forest contributions to landscape CH4 emissions appear to be negligible. The rapid wetland expansion of 0.26 ± 0.05% yr−1 in this region causes an estimated growing season increase of 0.034 ± 0.007 g CH4 m−2 yr−1 in landscape CH4 emissions. A long‐term net CO2 uptake of >200 g CO2 m−2 yr−1 is required to offset the positive radiative forcing of increasing CH4 emissions until the end of the 21st century as indicated by an atmospheric CH4 and CO2 concentration model. However, long‐term apparent carbon accumulation rates in similar boreal forest‐wetland landscapes and eddy covariance landscape net CO2 flux measurements suggest a long‐term net CO2 uptake between 49 and 157 g CO2 m−2 yr−1. Thus, thaw‐induced CH4 emission increases likely exert a positive net radiative greenhouse gas forcing through the 21st century

Postmortem chemistry update part I

Postmortem chemistry is becoming increasingly essential in the forensic pathology routine and considerable progress has been made over the past years. Biochemical analyses of vitreous humor, cerebrospinal fluid, blood and urine may provide significant information in determining the cause of death or in elucidating forensic cases. Postmortem chemistry may essentially contribute in the determination of the cause of death when the pathophysiological changes involved in the death process cannot be detected by morphological methods (e.g. diabetes mellitus, alcoholic ketoacidosis and electrolytic disorders). It can also provide significant information and useful support in other forensic situations, including anaphylaxis, hypothermia, sepsis and hormonal disturbances. In this article, we present a review of the literature that covers this vast topic and we report the results of our observations. We have focused our attention on glucose metabolism, renal function and electrolytic disorder

Impact of garlic tablets on nosocomial infections in hospitalized patients in intensive care units.

BACKGROUND Nosocomial infections are one of the main causes of mortality and morbidity in hospitals, especially in intensive care units (ICUs). OBJECTIVE The aim of this study was to examine the impact of garlic tablets on nosocomial infections in hospitalized patients in intensive care units. METHODS This clinical trial was carried out on 94 patients, admitted to the intensive care units in Kashani and Al-Zahra hospitals from January 21, 2014 to December 20, 2014. Firstly, the patients were randomly selected by simple sampling, then they were assigned into case and control groups. The case group administered one 400 mg garlic tablet daily for 6 days and the control group received placebo. During the study, inflammatory blood factors and infection occurrence in the two groups were compared. The Data were analyzed by SPSS software version 22 through descriptive tests such as independent t-test, Chi-square test, ANOVA and exact Fisher test for the analyses of primary and secondary outcomes. RESULTS During the study period, 78 cases of intravenous catheter tip were sent to laboratory for culture, of which, 37 cases were in the intervention group and 41 in the control group. Culture results of Catheter tips was positive in 5 cases and all five cases were in the control group. Frequency distribution of catheter tip culture was significantly higher in the control group than that of the intervention group (p=0.03). CONCLUSION Based on the results of our study, in people with weakened immune systems and in people with high incidence of opportunistic infections, it is necessary to strengthen their body's immune system stimulants before dealing with these infectious agents, and cause decrease in the diseases insusceptible people. It was suggested that garlic supplementation has shown to be effective in patients admitted to ICU, who are highly susceptible to nosocomial infection, and it can be used for the prevention of septicemia and urinary tract infections. However, further research with larger sample size is needed. TRIAL REGISTRATION The trial was registered at the Iranian Registry of Clinical Trials (http://www.irct.ir) with the Irct ID: IRCT207406156480N6. FUNDING Shahrekord University of Medical Sciences financially supported this research

Subtelomeric CTCF and cohesin binding site organization using improved subtelomere assemblies and a novel annotation pipeline

Mapping genome-wide data to human subtelomeres has been problematic due to the incomplete assembly and challenges of low-copy repetitive DNA elements. Here, we provide updated human subtelomere sequence assemblies that were extended by filling telomere-adjacent gaps using clone-based resources. A bioinformatic pipeline incorporating multiread mapping for annotation of the updated assemblies using short-read data sets was developed and implemented. Annotation of subtelomeric sequence features as well as mapping of CTCF and cohesin binding sites using ChIP-seq data sets from multiple human cell types confirmed that CTCF and cohesin bind within 3 kb of the start of terminal repeat tracts at many, but not all, subtelomeres. CTCF and cohesin co-occupancy were also enriched near internal telomere-like sequence (ITS) islands and the nonterminal boundaries of subtelomere repeat elements (SREs) in transformed lymphoblastoid cell lines (LCLs) and human embryonic stem cell (ES) lines, but were not significantly enriched in the primary fibroblast IMR90 cell line. Subtelomeric CTCF and cohesin sites predicted by ChIP-seq using our bioinformatics pipeline (but not predicted when only uniquely mapping reads were considered) were consistently validated by ChIP-qPCR. The colocalized CTCF and cohesin sites in SRE regions are candidates for mediating long-range chromatin interactions in the transcript-rich SRE region. A public browser for the integrated display of short-read sequence–based annotations relative to key subtelomere features such as the start of each terminal repeat tract, SRE identity and organization, and subtelomeric gene models was established