Death of a Pedestrian due to Fatal Scrotal Trauma: a Case Report

Background: Male external genitalia comprising penis and scrotum though exposed externally, being a mobile anatomical structure are less prone to injuries during a vehicular accident. Injuries are reported usually during sports activities, violent sexual acts and sometimes vehicular accidents. Injuries to scrotum, penis or adjoining structures may lead to temporary or permanent impotence or infertility or both.Case Report: A 53 years old male sustained injuries as a result of accident with a car while he was walking along the roadside. He was brought immediately to a tertiary care hospital and was treated by a quick response team of doctors in emergency department. Despite of all resuscitative measures by expert doctors, he could not be revived. Autopsy revealed enlarged bluish red colored scrotum with loss of rugosities associated with multiple other injuries. On dissection of scrotum, it was showing a dark red colored hematoma covering whole scrotum. Most frequently, hematoma covering whole scrotum is due to rupture of tunica albuginea, with tunica vaginalis pooling to the epididymis. Death in this case was attributed to scrotal injury.Conclusion: Even though blunt trauma is the commonest mechanism causing about 85% of scrotal trauma, it is often missed on routine autopsy procedure. At least in cases of instantaneous death following a vehicular accident, scrotum must be properly examined

Comparative study of functional outcome of distal one-third shaft tibia fractures treated with tip locking tibia nailing versus precontoured anatomical locking plate

Background: The distal 1/3rd shaft tibia extra-articular fractures are treated with both tip locking intra-medullary nailing (TLIMN) and precontoured anatomical locking plates (PCALP). The aim of this study was to compare the results of TLIMN and PCALP in distal tibia fractures and to determine dominant strategies. The complications and functional outcome in both groups were compared. Methods: Forty patients with distal 1/3rd shaft tibia were randomly assigned to TLIMN (group 1) and PCALP group (group 2). The functional outcomes were evaluated using American Orthopaedic Foot and Ankle Society (AOFAS) score. Complications like infection, delayed union, non-union, malunion, hardware prominence and secondary interventions were compared. Results: The average union time was 15.05±3.33 weeks in group 1 and 13.4±2.46 weeks in group 2 (p=0.045). The mean AOFAS score at 1 year follow up was 89.8±6.13 in group 1 and 89.1±6.15 in group 2 (p=0.262). Five patients in group 1 and one in group 2 had mal-alignment. Deep infection was present in one and superficial infection was present in two cases in group 2. Four patients in group 1 developed anterior knee pain and five patients in group 2 had hardware prominence. Conclusions: We conclude that tip locking intra-medullary nail is a reliable and satisfactory method for treatment of fractures of distal 1/3rd shaft tibia AO type 42A, 42B and 42C fractures with good functional outcomes and high union rates with comparatively low complications. Prevalence of malunion was higher in TLIMN group and hardware prominence was more prevalent in PCALP group. Implant removal are more in PCALP group mostly due to implant irritation

When Color meets Gravity; Near-Threshold Exclusive J/ψJ/\psi Photoproduction on the Proton

The proton is one of the main building blocks of all visible matter in the universe. Among its intrinsic properties are its electric charge, mass, and spin. These emerge from the complex dynamics of its fundamental constituents, quarks and gluons, described by the theory of quantum chromodynamics (QCD). Using electron scattering its electric charge and spin, shared among the quark constituents, have been the topic of active investigation until today. An example is the novel precision measurement of the proton's electric charge radius. In contrast, little is known about the proton's inner mass density, dominated by the energy carried by the gluons, which are hard to access through electron scattering since gluons carry no electromagnetic charge. In the present work we chose to probe this gluonic gravitational density using a small color dipole, the $J/\psi$ particle, through its threshold photoproduction. From our data we determined, for the first time, the proton's gluonic gravitational form factors, which encode its mass density. We used a variety of methods and determined in all cases a mass radius that is notably smaller than the electric charge radius. In some cases, the determined radius is in excellent agreement with first-principle predictions from lattice QCD. This work paves the way for a deeper understanding of the salient role of gluons in providing gravitational mass to visible matter.Comment: Under peer revie

Author Correction: A chickpea genetic variation map based on the sequencing of 3,366 genomes

In Extended Data Fig. 1 of this Article, the labels ‘Market class’ and ‘Biological status’ were inadvertently swapped. In the corresponding figure legend, “Track 1: Biological status; Track 2: Market class;” should have been “Track 1: Market class; Track 2: Biological status;”. The original Article has been corrected online

Hydrogen and Carbon Nanotubes from Pyrolysis-Catalysis of Waste Plastics: A Review

More than 27 million tonnes of waste plastics are generated in Europe each year representing a considerable potential resource. There has been extensive research into the production of liquid fuels and aromatic chemicals from pyrolysis-catalysis of waste plastics. However, there is less work on the production of hydrogen from waste plastics via pyrolysis coupled with catalytic steam reforming. In this paper, the different reactor designs used for hydrogen production from waste plastics are considered and the influence of different catalysts and process parameters on the yield of hydrogen from different types of waste plastics are reviewed. Waste plastics have also been investigated as a source of hydrocarbons for the generation of carbon nanotubes via the chemical vapour deposition route. The influences on the yield and quality of carbon nanotubes derived from waste plastics are reviewed in relation to the reactor designs used for production, catalyst type used for carbon nanotube growth and the influence of operational parameters

A genome-scale integrated approach aids in genetic dissection of complex flowering time trait in chickpea

A combinatorial approach of candidate gene-based association analysis and genome-wide association study (GWAS) integrated with QTL mapping, differential gene expression profiling and molecular haplotyping was deployed in the present study for quantitative dissection of complex flowering time trait in chickpea. Candidate gene-based association mapping in a flowering time association panel (92 diverse desi and kabuli accessions) was performed by employing the genotyping information of 5724 SNPs discovered from 82 known flowering chickpea gene orthologs of Arabidopsis and legumes as well as 832 gene-encoding transcripts that are differentially expressed during flower development in chickpea. GWAS using both genome-wide GBS- and candidate gene-based genotyping data of 30,129 SNPs in a structured population of 92 sequenced accessions (with 200–250 kb LD decay) detected eight maximum effect genomic SNP loci (genes) associated (34 % combined PVE) with flowering time. Six flowering time-associated major genomic loci harbouring five robust QTLs mapped on a high-resolution intra-specific genetic linkage map were validated (11.6–27.3 % PVE at 5.4–11.7 LOD) further by traditional QTL mapping. The flower-specific expression, including differential up- and down-regulation (>three folds) of eight flowering time-associated genes (including six genes validated by QTL mapping) especially in early flowering than late flowering contrasting chickpea accessions/mapping individuals during flower development was evident. The gene haplotype-based LD mapping discovered diverse novel natural allelic variants and haplotypes in eight genes with high trait association potential (41 % combined PVE) for flowering time differentiation in cultivated and wild chickpea. Taken together, eight potential known/candidate flowering time-regulating genes [efl1 (early flowering 1), FLD (Flowering locus D), GI (GIGANTEA), Myb (Myeloblastosis), SFH3 (SEC14-like 3), bZIP (basic-leucine zipper), bHLH (basic helix-loop-helix) and SBP (SQUAMOSA promoter binding protein)], including novel markers, QTLs, alleles and haplotypes delineated by aforesaid genome-wide integrated approach have potential for marker-assisted genetic improvement and unravelling the domestication pattern of flowering time in chickpea