Estimation of age of Ossification of Hyoid Bone by Radiological and Histopathological Examination of Autopsy Specimen

INTRODUCTION : Identification is essential in living persons, recently dead persons, decomposed bodies, mutilated bodies and skeletal remains. The main part of corpus delicti (i.e. the body of the offence; the essence of crime) is the establishment of the identity of the dead body. The three primary characteristics of identification of a person are Sex, Age and Stature. Visual identification becomes difficult and impossible in cases of explosions, fires, advanced decomposition, mutilation, earthquakes, aircraft accidents, mass disasters and other terrorist activities. During a person’s life, their bones would constantly undergo changes and those changes would follow a chronological pattern. Knowledge on those changes occurring in the bones would help in estimating age from the skeleton. The time of appearance of centers of ossification and the process of union of the epiphysis with the diaphysis have a sequence and time period, which is utilized towards age determination. However, countable differences may be noticed in the appearance and fusion activities of the ossification centers depending on the sex, race and geological distribution. Ossification process may also be influenced by food, nutritional status, physical activity, metabolic and hormonal disturbances. Ossification activities occur earlier in Indian population than in Western population Estimation of age after 25 years becomes more uncertain in living person and the dead6, 23. It is difficult to determine the accuracy of age after the full permanent dentition and fusion of all centres of ossification of long bones. The changes suggestive of advancing age in an individual were as follows: The fusion of the body with the greater cornu of the hyoid bone and the fusion of the manubrium and xiphisternum with the body of the sternum, the lipping of the vertebrae, fusion of exocranial and endocranial sutures of the skull bone, calcification changes of the cricoids and thyroid cartilages and Gastofson’s method for estimating age from teeth 24. All those mentioned changes may occur between 40 – 60 years. The ossification changes resulting in fusion of greater cornu of the hyoid bone with its body occurs in a wide age groups. Trotter M stated that fusion of greater cornu with the body of the hyoid bone occurred in middle age group and the ossification process may obliterate the joint space at later years. Fusion of the body with the greater cornu of the hyoid bone occurred as early as 18 years, and on other end, no fusion was found even in eighth and ninth decades. Indian authors like Parikh1, Vij, Krishnan had reported that 40-60 years was the age group at which greater cornu of the hyoid bone would unite with its body. The studies done abroad by Parson and Miller showed that greater cornu of the hyoid bone unites with its body at an earlier age group i.e. at 30- 40 years. Shimzu, DiMaoi, Nikolic observed that as age increases the frequency of union of greater horn of the hyoid bone with its body was found to be increased. The age at which hyoid bone ossifies and their fractures were interrelated. Fracture was more frequent in persons over 40 years of age. The reason was that, after 40 years, the joint space between the greater horn of the hyoid bone with its body got ossified and thus the elasticity of the bone was lost making it susceptible to get fractured in case of external compression of the neck. Thus, it was stated that, susceptibility of the hyoid bone to get fractured was directly related to its age. The slope and curvature of the hyoid bone also contribute to its fracture in case of strangulation. AIMS AND OBJECTIVES : 1. To estimate the age of fusion of greater horn of the hyoid bone with its body using radiological and histological examination. 2. To find out the sexual variations in the fusion of greater horn of the hyoid bone with its body. MATERIALS AND METHODS : The present study “Estimation of age of ossification of hyoid bone by radiological and histopathological examination of autopsy specimen” had been carried out in the Institute of Forensic Medicine, Madras Medical College, Chennai, during the period of 2011 to 2012. Of all the cases brought to the institute for medicolegal autopsy, a sum total of 155 cases were selected randomly for this prospective study. Permission of the ethical committee on the use of human material for research purpose was obtained. Dissection techniques: For bloodless dissection of the neck first the brain and the thoraco abdominal contents were removed before proceeding to the neck dissection. A wooden block 12 to 20cm high was placed under the shoulders to allow the head to fall back and thus the neck was extended. A vertical incision was then made from the chin down up to the suprasternal notch. The skin over the region of the neck was held with a toothed forceps and subcutaneous dissection was carried to the lower border of lower jaw, laterally on the sides of neck and clavicle. Deep cervical fascia was reflected from cervical muscles and strap muscles of the neck were exposed, inspected and reflected on each side. Thyroid gland and carotid sheath was freed by blunt dissection. CONCLUSION : The incidence of fusion of the body and the greater cornu of the hyoid bone increases with age and maximum number of hyoid bones with bilateral complete fusion are observed in the age group of 51 – 55 years. Both in radiological and histological analysis, increased frequency of complete fusion are observed in the age group of 51 – 55 years. In the present study, the age group of complete fusion is higher than the previous studies, the reason for this difference is that majority of the cases included in this study are aged beyond 40 years. Age estimation from teeth, skull and pelvis has been done conventionally but each method has its own limitations and they are governed by endocrine, racial, dietary and sex factors. These methods can be used to categorize age into broad age groups and estimation of age based on hyoid bone can be used as a supplement to the above mentioned methods. As both radiological and histological findings coincides with the age of fusion of hyoid bone, estimating the age group based on ossification of the body and greater horn of the hyoid bone can be done alone with radiological study. As histological study of the ossification of the hyoid bone, is more time consuming, it is concluded that radiological assessment of the hyoid bone alone is sufficient in determining the age of an individual. In this study, it is observed that, bilateral non fusion is present in the samples of age less than 40 years and bilateral completion fusion is present in samples of age above 50 years. No sex difference is observed in the age of bilateral fusion of the hyoid bone. Factors affecting the ossification process should be noted before estimating the age of an individual based on radiological examination of the bone

Analysis of SPWM Technique for Solar Inverter

Reactive power control is necessary to maintain power system stable. In a three phase grid connected PV system, the inverter should regulate the reactive power. Low Voltage Ride Through has to be done to ensure the system stability in fault conditions. Fault current has to be limited. In this paper, we propose a control strategy for grid connected solar PV inverter. The system study is done under LVRT condition. The strategy is based on current loop under single axis dq rotating coordinate system. Grid connected PV systems has a three phase inverter fed by DC-DC converter which will take care of maximum power point. In this project, a 100kW PV system is studied. The entire system is simulated and analysed using MATLAB Simulink software

Global burden of 288 causes of death and life expectancy decomposition in 204 countries and territories and 811 subnational locations, 1990–2021: a systematic analysis for the Global Burden of Disease Study 2021

BACKGROUND Regular, detailed reporting on population health by underlying cause of death is fundamental for public health decision making. Cause-specific estimates of mortality and the subsequent effects on life expectancy worldwide are valuable metrics to gauge progress in reducing mortality rates. These estimates are particularly important following large-scale mortality spikes, such as the COVID-19 pandemic. When systematically analysed, mortality rates and life expectancy allow comparisons of the consequences of causes of death globally and over time, providing a nuanced understanding of the effect of these causes on global populations. METHODS The Global Burden of Diseases, Injuries, and Risk Factors Study (GBD) 2021 cause-of-death analysis estimated mortality and years of life lost (YLLs) from 288 causes of death by age-sex-location-year in 204 countries and territories and 811 subnational locations for each year from 1990 until 2021. The analysis used 56 604 data sources, including data from vital registration and verbal autopsy as well as surveys, censuses, surveillance systems, and cancer registries, among others. As with previous GBD rounds, cause-specific death rates for most causes were estimated using the Cause of Death Ensemble model-a modelling tool developed for GBD to assess the out-of-sample predictive validity of different statistical models and covariate permutations and combine those results to produce cause-specific mortality estimates-with alternative strategies adapted to model causes with insufficient data, substantial changes in reporting over the study period, or unusual epidemiology. YLLs were computed as the product of the number of deaths for each cause-age-sex-location-year and the standard life expectancy at each age. As part of the modelling process, uncertainty intervals (UIs) were generated using the 2·5th and 97·5th percentiles from a 1000-draw distribution for each metric. We decomposed life expectancy by cause of death, location, and year to show cause-specific effects on life expectancy from 1990 to 2021. We also used the coefficient of variation and the fraction of population affected by 90% of deaths to highlight concentrations of mortality. Findings are reported in counts and age-standardised rates. Methodological improvements for cause-of-death estimates in GBD 2021 include the expansion of under-5-years age group to include four new age groups, enhanced methods to account for stochastic variation of sparse data, and the inclusion of COVID-19 and other pandemic-related mortality-which includes excess mortality associated with the pandemic, excluding COVID-19, lower respiratory infections, measles, malaria, and pertussis. For this analysis, 199 new country-years of vital registration cause-of-death data, 5 country-years of surveillance data, 21 country-years of verbal autopsy data, and 94 country-years of other data types were added to those used in previous GBD rounds. FINDINGS The leading causes of age-standardised deaths globally were the same in 2019 as they were in 1990; in descending order, these were, ischaemic heart disease, stroke, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, and lower respiratory infections. In 2021, however, COVID-19 replaced stroke as the second-leading age-standardised cause of death, with 94·0 deaths (95% UI 89·2-100·0) per 100 000 population. The COVID-19 pandemic shifted the rankings of the leading five causes, lowering stroke to the third-leading and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease to the fourth-leading position. In 2021, the highest age-standardised death rates from COVID-19 occurred in sub-Saharan Africa (271·0 deaths [250·1-290·7] per 100 000 population) and Latin America and the Caribbean (195·4 deaths [182·1-211·4] per 100 000 population). The lowest age-standardised death rates from COVID-19 were in the high-income super-region (48·1 deaths [47·4-48·8] per 100 000 population) and southeast Asia, east Asia, and Oceania (23·2 deaths [16·3-37·2] per 100 000 population). Globally, life expectancy steadily improved between 1990 and 2019 for 18 of the 22 investigated causes. Decomposition of global and regional life expectancy showed the positive effect that reductions in deaths from enteric infections, lower respiratory infections, stroke, and neonatal deaths, among others have contributed to improved survival over the study period. However, a net reduction of 1·6 years occurred in global life expectancy between 2019 and 2021, primarily due to increased death rates from COVID-19 and other pandemic-related mortality. Life expectancy was highly variable between super-regions over the study period, with southeast Asia, east Asia, and Oceania gaining 8·3 years (6·7-9·9) overall, while having the smallest reduction in life expectancy due to COVID-19 (0·4 years). The largest reduction in life expectancy due to COVID-19 occurred in Latin America and the Caribbean (3·6 years). Additionally, 53 of the 288 causes of death were highly concentrated in locations with less than 50% of the global population as of 2021, and these causes of death became progressively more concentrated since 1990, when only 44 causes showed this pattern. The concentration phenomenon is discussed heuristically with respect to enteric and lower respiratory infections, malaria, HIV/AIDS, neonatal disorders, tuberculosis, and measles. INTERPRETATION Long-standing gains in life expectancy and reductions in many of the leading causes of death have been disrupted by the COVID-19 pandemic, the adverse effects of which were spread unevenly among populations. Despite the pandemic, there has been continued progress in combatting several notable causes of death, leading to improved global life expectancy over the study period. Each of the seven GBD super-regions showed an overall improvement from 1990 and 2021, obscuring the negative effect in the years of the pandemic. Additionally, our findings regarding regional variation in causes of death driving increases in life expectancy hold clear policy utility. Analyses of shifting mortality trends reveal that several causes, once widespread globally, are now increasingly concentrated geographically. These changes in mortality concentration, alongside further investigation of changing risks, interventions, and relevant policy, present an important opportunity to deepen our understanding of mortality-reduction strategies. Examining patterns in mortality concentration might reveal areas where successful public health interventions have been implemented. Translating these successes to locations where certain causes of death remain entrenched can inform policies that work to improve life expectancy for people everywhere. FUNDING Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation

Global, regional, and national burden of disorders affecting the nervous system, 1990–2021: a systematic analysis for the Global Burden of Disease Study 2021

BackgroundDisorders affecting the nervous system are diverse and include neurodevelopmental disorders, late-life neurodegeneration, and newly emergent conditions, such as cognitive impairment following COVID-19. Previous publications from the Global Burden of Disease, Injuries, and Risk Factor Study estimated the burden of 15 neurological conditions in 2015 and 2016, but these analyses did not include neurodevelopmental disorders, as defined by the International Classification of Diseases (ICD)-11, or a subset of cases of congenital, neonatal, and infectious conditions that cause neurological damage. Here, we estimate nervous system health loss caused by 37 unique conditions and their associated risk factors globally, regionally, and nationally from 1990 to 2021.MethodsWe estimated mortality, prevalence, years lived with disability (YLDs), years of life lost (YLLs), and disability-adjusted life-years (DALYs), with corresponding 95% uncertainty intervals (UIs), by age and sex in 204 countries and territories, from 1990 to 2021. We included morbidity and deaths due to neurological conditions, for which health loss is directly due to damage to the CNS or peripheral nervous system. We also isolated neurological health loss from conditions for which nervous system morbidity is a consequence, but not the primary feature, including a subset of congenital conditions (ie, chromosomal anomalies and congenital birth defects), neonatal conditions (ie, jaundice, preterm birth, and sepsis), infectious diseases (ie, COVID-19, cystic echinococcosis, malaria, syphilis, and Zika virus disease), and diabetic neuropathy. By conducting a sequela-level analysis of the health outcomes for these conditions, only cases where nervous system damage occurred were included, and YLDs were recalculated to isolate the non-fatal burden directly attributable to nervous system health loss. A comorbidity correction was used to calculate total prevalence of all conditions that affect the nervous system combined.FindingsGlobally, the 37 conditions affecting the nervous system were collectively ranked as the leading group cause of DALYs in 2021 (443 million, 95% UI 378–521), affecting 3·40 billion (3·20–3·62) individuals (43·1%, 40·5–45·9 of the global population); global DALY counts attributed to these conditions increased by 18·2% (8·7–26·7) between 1990 and 2021. Age-standardised rates of deaths per 100 000 people attributed to these conditions decreased from 1990 to 2021 by 33·6% (27·6–38·8), and age-standardised rates of DALYs attributed to these conditions decreased by 27·0% (21·5–32·4). Age-standardised prevalence was almost stable, with a change of 1·5% (0·7–2·4). The ten conditions with the highest age-standardised DALYs in 2021 were stroke, neonatal encephalopathy, migraine, Alzheimer's disease and other dementias, diabetic neuropathy, meningitis, epilepsy, neurological complications due to preterm birth, autism spectrum disorder, and nervous system cancer.InterpretationAs the leading cause of overall disease burden in the world, with increasing global DALY counts, effective prevention, treatment, and rehabilitation strategies for disorders affecting the nervous system are needed

Hybrid Metaheuristics with Deep Learning Enabled Cyberattack Prevention in Software Defined Networks

Software-Defined Networks (SDN) refers to a revolutionary pattern that separates the control plane from the data plane, converting the idea of a software-driven network. Cyber attackers had a target towards the SDN controllers to subdue the control planes that can be regarded as the SDN brain. It offers a plethora of functionalities like regulating flow control to routers or switches in the data plane below through southbound Application Programming Interfaces (APIs) and application logic and business in the application plane above through northbound APIs for implementing sophisticated networks. But the control plane is a tempting prospect for security attacks from adversaries due to its centralization features. The main concern is information safety in the network. To prevent the loss of extremely useful information, the Intrusion Detection System (IDS) has been formulated for recognizing the outbreak of a stream of attacks and notifying system administrators granting network security. With this motivation, this article develops a Hybrid Metaheuristics with Deep Learning Enabled Cyberattack Prevention (HMDL-CAP) model in SDN. The presented HMDL-CAP model initially carries out data preprocessing to scale the input data. Then,spiral dynamics optimization-based feature selection (SDOFS) algorithm is utilized for optimum selection of feature subsets. Next, hybrid convolutional neural network with recurrent neural network (HCRNN) model is applied to detect intrusions. As hyperparameter tuning is important, pelican optimization algorithm (POA) is used to tune the HRCNN parameters. To assess the experimental outcomes of the proposed model, a series of experiments were performed using benchmark dataset. The comparison study shows the promising performance of the HMDL-CAP model over recent models

Fuzzy Logic based Efficient Multipath Routing for Mobile Adhoc Networks

The reliable data delivery is the main problem of Mobile Ad-Hoc Networks (MANET). Due to node mobility, heavy packet dropping occurs, which leads to packet overhead and links break. The previous routing protocols are vulnerable to node mobility especially for large-scale networks. Due to this issue ,an Efficient Multipath Routing Protocol (EMRP) using fuzzy logic controller is proposed which takes advantage of the stateless property of geographic routing and the broadcast nature of wireless medium. In this protocol, both stability and mobility are calculated to determine network reliability. The reliable multipath is constructed based on network topology. Both link and node reliability is determined to enable novel routing based on calculation of stability. Fuzzy logic control procedure is implemented with reliability to increase the network performance. This system is used in ad hoc network to determine its reliability. The proposed protocol is simulated with Network Simulator (NS2.34) tool to attain better stability and network reliability and also improves the network life time compared to Existing protocols EMLARP

Dense region clustering using bayesian rose tree algorithm and depth first search with collaborating filtering

In this research, segmentation of an image into displace areas, which means every region fulfils a partition criterion. In this research, the problem of finding the maximum density region in an image has been resolved by applying the Gaussian-Filter. Further, it includes the BRT structure which includes the use of multiplicative algorithms for graph clustering. The BRT algorithm is mainly considered for gene analysis and optimization process. The outcomes found good in distinguishing and investigating complex natural designs utilizing chart bunching, collective sifting and profundity first inquiry. The inborn and extraneous qualities are additionally determined during quality ID investigation

Integration of affinity precipitation with three phase partitioning methods for bioseparation of laccase from Trametes versicolor

Abstract: Separation of Trametes versicolor laccase from a commercial preparation was carried out using Three-Phase-Partitioning (TPP) technique. The conditions were optimized and the most favorable ammonium sulphate concentration (70% w/v), crude to t-butanol ratio (1.0:2.0) and pH (4.5) resulted in 56.22% yield with 1.65-fold purity of laccase. For further improvement in purification, an improved version of TPP called Macroaffinity-Ligand-Facilitated Three-Phase Partitioning (MLFTPP) of Trametes versicolor laccase was performed in the presence of the polymer chitosan. The chitosan shows a selective binding to the laccase and is precipitated in the interfacial layer as chitosan-laccase complex. The MFLTPP conditions were then optimized for chitosan and the best conditions were found to be 70% w/v ammonium sulphate concentration, 1.0:1.0 ratio of polymer solution to t-butanol and pH 6.0 that gave 92.3% recovery and 4.97-fold purity. The study was further widened by comparing the efficiency of TPP and MLFTPP in purifying laccases from 3 different sources Trametes veriscolor, Pleurotusostreatus, Pseudomonas desmolyticum. This study, thus, demonstrates the potential of MLFTPP as an industrially exploitable, bioseparation technique for the separation of laccase from a less-established fungal source Trametes veriscolor

Chitosan-based nanoparticles in cancer therapy

In recent years, many nanotechnology platforms in the area of medical biology, including cancer therapy, have attracted remarkable attention. In particular, research in targeted, polymeric nanoparticles for cancer therapy has increased dramatically in the past 5-10 years. However, the potential success of nanoparticles in the clinic relies on consideration of important parameters such as nanoparticle fabrication strategies, their physical properties, drug loading efficiencies, drug release potential, and, most importantly, minimum toxicity of the carrier itself. Recent work has suggested that chitosan materials hold much promise in advancing nanoparticle-based therapeutics. The field of oncology could soon be revolutionized by novel strategies for therapy employing chitosan-based nanotherapeutics. Several aspects of cancer therapy would be involved. Chitosans can also be applied to a variety of cancer therapies to improve their safety and efficacy. Further applications of chitosans in cancer therapy are being examined. This review focuses on providing brief updates on chitosan nanoparticles for cancer therapy. © 2011 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg