Alveolar macrophages and the diagnosis of drowning

In the present study, we examined the number of alveolar macrophages in lung tissue from 17 cases of fresh water drowning, 22 cases of acute death and 6 cases of lung emphysema. When counting only the number of alveolar macrophages per alveolus without consideration of the alveolar size we found no relevant differences between the groups investigated. To exclude any influence of the alveolar size on the results the surface density of the alveolar macrophages and interstitial tissue was estimated and compared in the different groups. In cases of drowning, the lungs showed significantly lower values in both categories. The ratio of ‘alveolar macrophages/interstitial tissue’ was also reduced in cases of drowning in comparison to the other groups, however, without significant differences. These morphometrical results characterizing the ‘emphysema aquosum’ with almost ‘empty’ and dilated alveoli could be explained by a wash-out effect of the drowning fluid leading to a partial removal of the macrophages from the alveoli. This hypothesis was confirmed by the detection of alveolar macrophages in the drowning froth by immunohistochemical analysis. Even though alveolar macrophages were unambiguously identified in advanced putrefied lungs in HE-stained sections as well as by immunohistochemical staining, an estimation of the number of these cells cannot provide further information for the diagnosis of drowning in putrefied corpses due to the autolytic destruction of the lung architecture providing no reliable values

Penentuan Jumlah Operator Optimum Departemen Desain PT Spt melalui Pendekatan Hard System Methodology

PT SPT adalah sebuah Perusahaan yang bergerak di bidang industri tekstil. Salah satu divisi yang ada di Perusahaan tersebut adalah departemen desain. Departemen ini mempunyai peran vital bagi Perusahaan karena berhubungan langsung dengan permintaan dari pihak konsumen. Pada saat ini, departemen desain mempunyai beberapa permasalahan yang mempengaruhi tingkat efisiensi dan efektifitas kerja dari departemen tersebut, yaitu jumlah permintaan yang fluktuatif dan tingginya down time operator. Kedua permasalahan ini mengakibatkan biaya yang tidak proporsional dengan jumlah pekerja di departemen desain. Salah satu solusi yang dapat diterapkan untuk permasalahan ini adalah mengurangi jumlah operator tetap sehingga dapat menurunkan down time operator dan meminimumkan total biaya gaji operator. Dari permasalahan tersebut dibuat sebuah model dengan pendekatan Hard System Methodology menggunakan metode trial and error/estimasi parameter. Tujuan dari pembuatan model tersebut adalah untuk mendapatkan solusi optimal jumlah operator tetap yang dapat menurunkankan down time operator serendah mungkin sehingga diperoleh total biaya gaji operator minimum. Implementasi dari permasalahan ini adalah dengan melakukan pengurangan jumlah operator tetap dengan memperhatikan etika kemanusiaan dan memberlakukan subkont

Pulmonary giant cells and their significance for the diagnosis of asphyxiation

This study was performed to prove whether the detection of polynuclear giant cells in lungs is useful for the diagnosis of asphyxiation due to throttling or strangulation. Therefore, lung specimens of 54 individuals with different natural and unnatural causes of death were investigated. In most lungs examined numerous alveolar macrophages with 1-2 nuclei were found. Polynuclear giant cells, which were arbitrarily defined as alveolar macrophages containing 3 or more nuclei, were observed in all groups investigated except in the cases of hypoxia due to covering the head with plastic bags. Apparent differences between the other groups in particular an increased number in cases of throttling or strangulation, could not be observed. Immunohistochemical investigations confirmed the hypothesis that the observed polynuclear giant cells were derived from alveolar macrophages. The immunohistochemical analysis of the proliferation marker antigen Ki 67 revealed no positive reaction in the nuclei of polynuclear giant cells indicating that these cells had not developed shortly before death by endomitosis as an adaptative change following reduction in oxygen supply. The results provide evidence that the detection of pulmonary polynuclear giant cells cannot be used as a practical indicator for death by asphyxiation due to throttling or strangulation

Introduction: Meeting in the Middle

Compromise is routinely evoked in everyday language and in scholarly debates across the social sciences. Yet, it has been subjected to relatively little systematic study. The introduction to this inter-disciplinary volume addresses the research gap in three steps. First, we offer three reasons for the study of compromise: its empirical omnipresence in politics, its theoretical potential to bridge the rationalist-constructivist divide, and its normative promise to recognize the plurality of society. Second, we introduce different approaches to the coherence, legitimacy and limits of compromise found in the existing explanatory and normative literatures. We discuss why these literatures need to speak to one another, and identify possible applications in empirical research. Third, we conceptualize compromise as one possible solution to a conflict. Distinct from both dissensus and consensus, all compromises share three characteristics: concessions, non-coercion and continued controversy. However, different types of compromise can be distinguished by how mutual, costly and painful concessions are; by whether all forms of coercion are absent; and by the degree to which the relevant parties’ grounds for conflict are transformed. We conclude by discussing the challenge and appeal of ‘politics as compromise’ in plural and complex societies

Scotopic and Photopic Visual Thresholds and Spatial and Temporal Discrimination Evaluated by Behavior of Mice in a Water Maze †

Methods that allow specific manipulations of the mouse genome have made it possible to alter specific aspects of photoreceptor function within the mouse retina. Mice with photoreceptors that have altered photosensitivities and altered photoresponse kinetics are now available. Methods are needed that can show how those perturbations in photoreceptor response characteristics translate into perturbations in visual sensitivity and perception. We have adapted a previously described method to evaluate visual threshold, spatial discrimination and temporal discrimination in mice swimming in a water maze. In this report we describe the sensitivities of rod-mediated and cone-mediated vision using GNAT1–/–and GNAT2–/– mice. Cone-mediated vision is ˜10000 times less sensitive than rod-mediated vision in mice. We also demonstrate that mice can distinguish striped from solid objects in the water maze and that they can distinguish flickering from continuous illumination.Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/75706/1/j.1751-1097.2006.tb09804.x.pd

Scientific rationale of a Saturn probe mission

We describe the main scientific goals to be addressed by future in situ exploration of Saturn

Improving the Generic Camera Calibration technique by an extended model of calibration display

Generic camera calibration is a method to characterize vision sensors by describing a line of sight for every single pixel. This procedure frees the calibration process from the restriction to pinhole-like optics that arises in the common photogrammetric camera models. Generic camera calibration also enables the calibration of high-frequency distortions, which is beneficial for high-precision measurement systems. The calibration process is as follows: To collect sufficient data for calculating a line of sight for each pixel, active grids are used as calibration reference rather than static markers such as corners of chessboard patterns. A common implementation of active grids are sinusoidal fringes presented on a flat TFT display. So far, the displays have always been treated as ideally flat. In this work we propose new and more sophisticated models to account for additional properties of the active grid display: The refraction of light in the glass cover is taken into account as well as a possible deviation of the top surface from absolute flatness. To examine the effectiveness of the new models, an example fringe projection measurement system is characterized with the resulting calibration methods and with the original generic camera calibration. Evaluating measurements using the different calibration methods shows that the extended display model substantially improves the uncertainty of the measurement system