Drowning and three-wheel strollers

©The Medical Journal of Australia 2007 The document attached has been archived with permission from the editor of the Medical Journal of Australia (26 April 2007). An external link to the publisher’s copy is included.Roger W Byard and Neil Matthew

Increase in adult body weight in coronial autopsies: An impending crisis

The document attached has been archived with permission from the editor of the Medical Journal of Australia. An external link to the publisher’s copy is included.Roger W Byard and Maria Belli

Cytokine receptor expression in human lymphoid tissue: analysis by fluorescence microscopy

A highly-sensitive flourescence method, capable of detecting cytokine receptors present at low concentrations (around I DO molecules per cell) by flow cytometry, was adapted for use on tissue sections. This method was used to examine the expression of several cytokine receptors in lymphoid ti ss ues. lL-2 receptors were distributed broadly, with higher concentrations in T cell areas. lL-1 receptor Type I was detected in T cell areas and in the follicular mantle, and was strongly expressed on vasc ular endothelium. IL-6 receptor was found at very low concentration, both within and outside germinal centres. The gp 130 molecule, which is involved in the functional receptor complex for IL-6 and several other cytokines, was present at higher concentrations, particularly in the germinal centre. Analysis of receptor expression in secondary lymphoid tissue provides evidence bearing on the physiological roles of cytokines, as these tissues contain cells at various stages of physiological activation located in well-defined functional zones.Heddy Zola, Jodie Ridings, Helen Weedon, Michael Fusco, Roger W. Byard, Peter J. Macardl

Communicating the Impacts of Potential Future Climate Change on the Expected Frequency of Extreme Rainfall Events in Cook County, Illinois

A novel methodology for determining future rainfall frequency is described in this report. Isohyetal maps illustrate how heavy precipitation may change in the future, but the results have a high level of uncertainty expressed as very wide confidence limits. Uncertainty in possible future conditions is much greater than the uncertainty identified for current commonly used precipitation analyses. The resulting isohyetal maps do not replace existing sources, such as Illinois State Water Survey (ISWS) Bulletin 70 (Huff and Angel, 1989) or National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) Atlas 14 (Bonnin et al., 2006). Presently, the ISWS is updating Bulletin 70 (Huff and Angel, 1989) for subregions of Illinois. Some of these updates will include projected rainfall frequency. The key objectives of this study are to i) design a framework to translate future climate scenarios into a product that engineers and planners can use to quantify the impact of climate change, and ii) demonstrate how climate model output can be used to inform and plan adaptive strategies for stormwater and floodplain management. The framework in this study is illustrated using the observed and projected rainfall data in Cook County, Illinois, providing a road map to evaluate climate change impacts on urban flooding and a plan for adaptation. Numerous studies attempt to identify the implications of climate change with respect to hydrologic extremes (e.g., IPCC, 2007; CCSP, 2008; Milly et al., 2008). These studies project future climate conditions with more frequent extreme precipitation events in many regions around the world, including parts of the United States. In particular, it has been projected that northeastern Illinois, including the Chicago metropolitan area, will experience more frequent and more intense rainfall events in the future (Markus et al., 2012), which will lead to more intense and more frequent urban flooding events and to increased human, environmental, and economic risks. Thus, various planning and management measures need to be considered by urban communities which are responsible for administering ordinances governing the construction and maintenance of stormwater management systems, and for floodplain management to address public safety concerns, property damage, and economic interruption from intense precipitation. In these efforts, effective communication of climate change impacts on urban watersheds/sewer sheds is needed. Data should be delivered at the watershed level in a form that can be incorporated in watershed planning at the community level. Delivery of useful climate change information is critical for community planning and adaptation to changing climate conditions. It is common practice that future climate projections, which are based on global circulation models (GCM), are downscaled to finer temporal and spatial scales using statistical or dynamical downscaling models. However, watershed-scale climate data generated by climate models still do not provide precipitation data in a format useful for community engineers and planners to prepare, mitigate, and adapt to future conditions. Furthermore, city managers and decision makers need quantifiable future risk to demonstrate the need for adaptive actions, such as retrofitting storm sewers and other water conveyance structures or adopting higher regulatory design standards within the community. This is not offered by the present climate modeling outputs. In this research, a method is designed to analyze and express climate data in a format that can be readily used to assess future extreme precipitation events in models commonly used for sizing stormwater infrastructure and identifying flooding potential. In this method, future conditions climate data are analyzed to prepare precipitation maps for selected design storm frequencies which can be used to model future climate conditions of stormwater runoff and flood risk. This report presents a newly designed research framework to determine future conditions rainfall frequency maps, illustrating it in Cook County, Illinois, for the 24-hour duration rainfall event and for a range of recurrence intervals (also called return periods). Engineers commonly use these maps to determine the appropriate return period rainfall amount by interpolating between the isohyetals to evaluate options for storm and flood water management. Impacts of future climate conditions can then be convincingly demonstrated using conventional engineering to show changes in flooding frequency and extent, as well as damage comparisons associated with changing intense precipitation. Using standard and familiar models with future conditions precipitation scenarios facilitates communication of quantifiable future risk and supports community decision makers so they can plan, mitigate, and adapt to future conditions. This directly supports climate adaptation and mitigation by providing an understandable method for community engineers and planners to demonstrate the impact of climate change at the local level and develop specific adaptation strategies that will reduce future risk.published or submitted for publicationis peer reviewedOpe

Death and paramethoxyamphetamine - an evolving problem

The document attached has been archived with permission from the editor of the Medical Journal of Australia. An external link to the publisher’s copy is included.Roger W Byard, Nicholas G Rodgers, Ross A James, Chris Kostakis and Andrew M Camiller

Recreational fishing-related injuries to Australian pelicans (Pelecanus conspicillatus) and other seabirds in a South Australian estuarine and river area

113 seabirds treated over 5.5 years had 132 fishing-related injuries that included entanglement with line only (N=35/132; 26.5%), entanglement with line and an associated hook (N=47/132; 35.6%), embedded hooks only (N=34/132; 25.7%) and foreign body ingestion (N=16/132; 12.1%). The percentage of fishing-related injuries ranged from 0.9% for banded stilts (Cladorhynchus leucocephalus), pacific gulls (Larus pacificus) and masked lapwing plovers (Vanellus miles), to 59.3% for Australian pelicans (Pelecanus conspicillatus). Entanglement and/or embedded hooks were present more often than injuries from ingestion; i.e. 97% (70/72) of pelicans had entanglement and/or embedded hook injuries; of these 35/72 [48.6%] were entangled with line and hooks, 24/72 [33.3%] had embedded hooks alone and 11/72 [15.3%] were entangled with lines only, with only 3% (2/72) having injuries from ingestion. A count of sea and river birds in close proximity to fishers revealed that the majority were pelicans (33.9%), compared to pied cormorants (28.6%), silver gulls (21.4%) and black swans (16.1%). Regular removal of discarded fishing material along local shores resulted in no reduction in the numbers of entangled or hooked seabirds. It appears likely, therefore, that such injuries may result from seabird proximity to active recreational fishing, rather than from entanglement in discarded material.ER Carapetis, A Machado, K Braun, RW Byar

Lack of consistency in safe-sleeping messages to parents

The document attached has been archived with permission from the editor of the Medical Journal of Australia. An external link to the publisher’s copy is included.Roger W Byard, Glenda Cains, Helen Noblet and Maxine Webe

Toxicological screening and DNA sequencing detects contamination and adulteration in regulated herbal medicines and supplements for diet, weight loss and cardiovascular health

Use of herbal medicines and supplements by consumers to prevent or treat disease, particularly chronic conditions continues to grow, leading to increased awareness of the minimal regulation standards in many countries. Fraudulent, adulterated and contaminated herbal and traditional medicines and dietary supplements are a risk to consumer health, with adverse effects and events including overdose, drug-herb interactions and hospitalisation. The scope of the risk has been difficult to determine, prompting calls for new approaches, such as the combination of DNA metabarcoding and mass spectrometry used in this study. Here we show that nearly 50% of products tested had contamination issues, in terms of DNA, chemical composition or both. Two samples were clear cases of pharmaceutical adulteration, including a combination of paracetamol and chlorpheniramine in one product and trace amounts of buclizine, a drug no longer in use in Australia, in another. Other issues include the undeclared presence of stimulants such as caffeine, synephrine or ephedrine. DNA data highlighted potential allergy concerns (nuts, wheat), presence of potential toxins (Neem oil) and animal ingredients (reindeer, frog, shrew), and possible substitution of bird cartilage in place of shark. Only 21% of the tested products were able to have at least one ingredient corroborated by DNA sequencing. This study demonstrates that, despite current monitoring approaches, contaminated and adulterated products are still reaching the consumer. We suggest that a better solution is stronger pre-market evaluation, using techniques such as that outlined in this study

Toxicological screening and DNA sequencing detects contamination and adulteration in regulated herbal medicines and supplements for diet, weight loss and cardiovascular health

Use of herbal medicines and supplements by consumers to prevent or treat disease, particularly chronic conditions continues to grow, leading to increased awareness of the minimal regulation standards in many countries. Fraudulent, adulterated and contaminated herbal and traditional medicines and dietary supplements are a risk to consumer health, with adverse effects and events including overdose, drug-herb interactions and hospitalisation. The scope of the risk has been difficult to determine, prompting calls for new approaches, such as the combination of DNA metabarcoding and mass spectrometry used in this study. Here we show that nearly 50% of products tested had contamination issues, in terms of DNA, chemical composition or both. Two samples were clear cases of pharmaceutical adulteration, including a combination of paracetamol and chlorpheniramine in one product and trace amounts of buclizine, a drug no longer in use in Australia, in another. Other issues include the undeclared presence of stimulants such as caffeine, synephrine or ephedrine. DNA data highlighted potential allergy concerns (nuts, wheat), presence of potential toxins (Neem oil) and animal ingredients (reindeer, frog, shrew), and possible substitution of bird cartilage in place of shark. Only 21% of the tested products were able to have at least one ingredient corroborated by DNA sequencing. This study demonstrates that, despite current monitoring approaches, contaminated and adulterated products are still reaching the consumer. We suggest that a better solution is stronger pre-market evaluation, using techniques such as that outlined in this study

Enzymatic modification of cotton fibre polysaccharides as an enabler of sustainable laundry detergents

Cotton is the most common natural fibre used in textile manufacture, used alone or with other fibres to create a wide range of fashion clothing and household textiles. Most of these textiles are cleaned using detergents and domestic or commercial washing machines using processes that require many chemicals and large quantities of water and energy. Enzymes can reduce this environmental footprint by enabling effective detergency at reduced temperatures, mostly by directly attacking substrates present in the soils. In the present study, we report the contribution of a cleaning cellulase enzyme based on the family 44 glycoside hydrolase (GH) endo-beta-1,4-glucanase from Paenibacillus polymyxa. The action of this enzyme on textile fibres improves laundry detergent performance in several vectors including soil anti-redeposition, dye transfer inhibition and stain removal. Molecular probes are used to study how this enzyme is targeting both amorphous cellulose and xyloglucan on textile fibres and the relationship between textile surface effects and observed performance benefits