Anti-Necrobiosis Effect of Maggot Infestation in Experimental Pig Skin: A Tool in Forensic Medicine

Forensic examination in crime scene investigation (CSI) may involve examination of corpses from outside and exposed environment or even exhumed bodies. Analysis of necrotic tissue is often a challenging work. Though forensic entomology is helpful in determining time of death by linear regression method, this work seek to employ and advance the use of knowledge of the effect of insect larvae in comparing the pattern and nature of necrobiosis in maggot infested tissue and non-infested tissue during forensic analysis and interpretation. Twenty samples of pig skin were obtained, a good choice as a model similar to human skin, ten of which were deliberately infested with cultured larvae of  Lucilia sericata as test and the other ten allowed to undergo natural Necrobiosis without the larvae as control group, all in moist environment. The weight of each sample pig skin is taken every other day (48 hourly). The result showed a significant loss of consistency by autolysis and sloughing in non-infested pig skin more than in the infested pig skin sample and a significant of loss of weight in the two groups of sample (P<0.05). Marked acantholysis was more prominent in the non-infested pig skin than infested Pig skin on qualitative histological comparison. The study suggests that Necrobiosis in Maggot infested Tissue is much less than in Non-infested Tissue

Meta-analysis of 49 549 individuals imputed with the 1000 Genomes Project reveals an exonic damaging variant in ANGPTL4 determining fasting TG levels

Background So far, more than 170 loci have been associated with circulating lipid levels through genomewide association studies (GWAS). These associations are largely driven by common variants, their function is often not known, and many are likely to be markers for the causal variants. In this study we aimed to identify more new rare and low-frequency functional variants associated with circulating lipid levels. Methods We used the 1000 Genomes Project as a reference panel for the imputations of GWAS data from ~60 000 individuals in the discovery stage and ~90 000 samples in the replication stage. Results Our study resu

Integrating sequence and array data to create an improved 1000 Genomes Project haplotype reference panel

A major use of the 1000 Genomes Project (1000GP) data is genotype imputation in genome-wide association studies (GWAS). Here we develop a method to estimate haplotypes from low-coverage sequencing data that can take advantage of single-nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) microarray genotypes on the same samples. First the SNP array data are phased to build a backbone (or 'scaffold') of haplotypes across each chromosome. We then phase the sequence data 'onto' this haplotype scaffold. This approach can take advantage of relatedness between sequenced and non-sequenced samples to improve accuracy. We use this method to create a new 1000GP haplotype reference set for use by the human genetic community. Using a set of validation genotypes at SNP and bi-allelic indels we show that these haplotypes have lower genotype discordance and improved imputation performance into downstream GWAS samples, especially at low-frequency variants. © 2014 Macmillan Publishers Limited. All rights reserved

Breaking traditions: sexual health and ethnicity in nursing research: a literature review.

AIM: The aim of this paper is to explore some reasons for the lack of focus on ethnicity and sexual health in nursing research, and suggest ways to advance the nursing evidence-base required for practice development. BACKGROUND: The United Kingdom National Strategy for Sexual Health and human immunodeficiency virus published in July 2001 highlighted the continued rise in sexual ill health amongst minority ethnic groups. In order to improve sexual health, research evidence is needed explain why particular ethnic groups appear to be at greater risk of sexual ill health. The Strategy identified nurses as key to bringing about improvements in sexual health. Nursing research includes many studies exploring links between ethnicity and health. However, with the exception of extensive work on human immunodeficiency virus/acquired immunodeficiency syndrome as a specific disease, nursing research into ethnicity has not systematically included sexual health. METHODS: Literature searches were conducted using the BIDS database, World Wide Web and United Kingdom Department of health website between June 2000 and August 2003. Papers written in English incorporating the keywords 'sexual health', 'sexually transmitted infection' and 'health and ethnicity' in the title or abstract were selected for review. FINDINGS: Nursing research into the association between sexual health and ethnicity is rare. It has been hampered by a variety of political and social constraints concerning the nature of sexual health practice in nursing, researching sexual health, and researching ethnicity and health. The result is a dearth of research evidence to support the development of sexual health practice and the education of healthcare professionals to underpin care of minority ethnic clients. CONCLUSIONS: Barriers to researching ethnicity and sexual health by nurses must be addressed through nursing education and practice. Without this, a detailed evidence base will fail to materialize and healthcare practices to implement the priorities to improve sexual health in minority ethnic communities will remain undeveloped

A map of human genome variation from population-scale sequencing

The 1000 Genomes Project aims to provide a deep characterization of human genome sequence variation as a foundation for investigating the relationship between genotype and phenotype. Here we present results of the pilot phase of the project, designed to develop and compare different strategies for genome-wide sequencing with high-throughput platforms. We undertook three projects: low-coverage whole-genome sequencing of 179 individuals from four populations; high-coverage sequencing of two mother-father-child trios; and exon-targeted sequencing of 697 individuals from seven populations. We describe the location, allele frequency and local haplotype structure of approximately 15 million single nucleotide polymorphisms, 1 million short insertions and deletions, and 20,000 structural variants, most of which were previously undescribed. We show that, because we have catalogued the vast majority of common variation, over 95% of the currently accessible variants found in any individual are present in this data set. On average, each person is found to carry approximately 250 to 300 loss-of-function variants in annotated genes and 50 to 100 variants previously implicated in inherited disorders. We demonstrate how these results can be used to inform association and functional studies. From the two trios, we directly estimate the rate of de novo germline base substitution mutations to be approximately 10(-8) per base pair per generation. We explore the data with regard to signatures of natural selection, and identify a marked reduction of genetic variation in the neighbourhood of genes, due to selection at linked sites. These methods and public data will support the next phase of human genetic research.Molecular Epidemiolog

A map of human genome variation from population-scale sequencing

The 1000 Genomes Project aims to provide a deep characterization of human genome sequence variation as a foundation for investigating the relationship between genotype and phenotype. Here we present results of the pilot phase of the project, designed to develop and compare different strategies for genome-wide sequencing with high-throughput platforms. We undertook three projects: low-coverage whole-genome sequencing of 179 individuals from four populations; high-coverage sequencing of two mother-father-child trios; and exon-targeted sequencing of 697 individuals from seven populations. We describe the location, allele frequency and local haplotype structure of approximately 15 million single nucleotide polymorphisms, 1 million short insertions and deletions, and 20,000 structural variants, most of which were previously undescribed. We show that, because we have catalogued the vast majority of common variation, over 95% of the currently accessible variants found in any individual are present in this data set. On average, each person is found to carry approximately 250 to 300 loss-of-function variants in annotated genes and 50 to 100 variants previously implicated in inherited disorders. We demonstrate how these results can be used to inform association and functional studies. From the two trios, we directly estimate the rate of de novo germline base substitution mutations to be approximately 10(-8) per base pair per generation. We explore the data with regard to signatures of natural selection, and identify a marked reduction of genetic variation in the neighbourhood of genes, due to selection at linked sites. These methods and public data will support the next phase of human genetic research