Classifying the manner of death in drug/ethanol overdose in equivocal cases: a suggested future tool for medical examiners using neuroanatomical markers

The purpose of the present thesis was to propose a guideline to differentiate between an accidental or suicide manner of death when dealing with a drug/ethanol overdose in which all available medical and investigational evidence, including a psychological autopsy, is inconclusive, thereby resulting in an undetermined manner of death. An in-depth literature review was conducted in the field of neuroscience, psychiatry, and pharmacology to discover neuroanatomical markers indicative of suicidal behavior in the context of two major risk factors of suicide, stress and depression, and two hypotheses behind the cause of suicidal behavior, impulsive aggression and neuronal plasticity. The neuroanatomical markers of suicidal behavior, as indicated by the experimental evidence of various studies in suicide subjects, included serotonergic dysfunction, hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis hyperactivity, brain-derived neurotrophic factor deficiency, and the associated anatomical changes in the brain. Upon consideration of the forensic applicability of analyzing these neuroanatomical markers indicative of suicidal behavior, a guideline was generated to differentiate between an accidental and suicide manner of death by showing suicide subjects had significantly decreased messenger ribonucleic acid and protein levels of presynaptic serotonin receptors along with significantly increased messenger ribonucleic acid and protein levels of postsynaptic serotonin receptors in the prefrontal cortex, significantly decreased serum brain-derived neurotrophic factor levels, and significantly decreased messenger ribonucleic acid and protein levels of brain-derived neurotrophic factor and tyrosine kinase B receptors in the prefrontal cortex and hippocampus when compared to the levels of both depressed non-suicidal individuals and healthy controls. Given the significant difference observed between suicide subjects and controls, these differences in neuroanatomical markers may play an important role in the pathophysiology of suicidal behavior and have the potential to be used in establishing the intention of an individual in an overdose death to distinguish between an accidental or suicidal manner of death

Hydraulic and sediment analysis for Panther Slough, Sanganois Conservation Area

"Final report to the Illinois Department of Natural Resources in partial fulfilment of project requirments.

Impacts of the 1993 flood on the Mississippi and Illinois Rivers

"Report prepared for the Illinois Environmental Protection Agency."February 1996.""Contract report 594.

The Astro-H Soft X-Ray Mirror

The Astro-H is led by the Japanese Space Agency (JAXA) in collaboration with many other institutions including the NASA Goddard Space Flight Center. Goddard's contributions include two soft X-ray telescopes (SXTs). The telescopes have an effective area of 562 square cm at 1 keV and 425 square cm at 6 keV with an image quality requirement of 1.7 arc-minutes half power diameter (HPD). The engineering model has demonstrated 1.1 arc-minutes HPD error. The design of the SXT is based on the successful Suzaku mission mirrors with some enhancements to improve the image quality. Two major enhancements are bonding the X-ray mirror foils to alignment bars instead of allowing the mirrors to float, and fabricating alignment bars with grooves within 5 microns of accuracy. An engineering model SXT was recently built and subjected to several tests including vibration, thermal, and X-ray performance in a beamline. Several lessons were learned during this testing that will be incorporated in the flight design. Test results and optical performance are discussed, along with a description of the design of the SXT

Circadian Orchestration of the Cellular Proteome

Circadian rhythms are biological oscillations with a period length of roughly 24 hours. They confer an adaptive advantage as they enable the prediction of the regular environmental changes caused by the rotation of the Earth, and so they are highly conserved. Circadian coordination of biology is an important feature not only across kingdoms, but also at multiple levels of biological scale, from behaviour to physiology and cell biology. On the cellular level it is thought that mammalian circadian rhythms are driven by a delayed feedback loop, involving the transcription and translation of a core set of ‘clock proteins’. This cellular timekeeping system is remarkably precise and robust to perturbations. In the first chapter of this thesis I explored the mechanism of action of picrotoxin, a drug that shortens circadian period through unknown means. I uncovered features that are not readily explained by the canonical transcriptional-translational-feedback loop (TTFL) model of circadian rhythm generation. In the second part of this thesis I used mass spectrometry-based proteomics to characterise the cellular circadian proteome, and I uncovered the reciprocal, rhythmic regulation of protein and ion concentrations in cultured cells. Strikingly, by using a genetic knock-out of the CRYPTOCHROME (CRY) proteins I found that the generation of these rhythms was not dependent upon the TTFL, strongly supporting an alternative model of circadian rhythm generation – the post-translational oscillator (PTO) model. In the next chapter I explored the circadian regulation of the PERIOD 2 (PER2) protein in CRY-deficient cells, suggesting that a key determinant of PER2 behaviour in the absence of the TTFL may be cellular protein and ion concentrations. In the final chapter I investigated the functional consequences of CRY knock-out. I found that CRY-deficient cells and animals have disrupted proteostasis and metabolism, and found that impaired proteostasis attenuates circadian rhythmicity at the cellular and organism levels. Altogether, the work presented in this thesis provides evidence for a PTO model of circadian rhythm generation. I have uncovered circadian regulation of the cellular proteome even in the absence of the canonical TTFL. I propose that rather than driving circadian rhythms, the TTFL confers robustness to cellular timekeeping and facilitates proteostasis.MRC Doctoral Training Programme, Frank Edward Elmore Fund, Strauss Bursar

Management strategies for flood protection in the lower Illinois River: phase I, development of the lower Illinois River pool 26 UNET model

"Prepared for the Office of Water Resources, Illinois Department of Natural Resources.""June 2001.

Bank Erosion Survey of the Illinois River, Volume 2: Appendices

"December 2000."This report summarizes the research and surveying that were conducted in 1995 to determine the amount and severity of bank erosion that existed on the entire length of the Illinois River. The study reach extended from Grafton, River Mile (RM) 0 to Joliet, RM 286

Effects of riparian tree management on flood conveyance study of Manning's Roughness in vegetated floodplains with an application on the Embarras River in Illinois

"February 2002.

Physical Changes Associated with Navigation Traffic on the Illinois and Upper Mississippi Rivers

Physical changes associated with navigation traffic in a large river environment such as the Illinois or Mississippi River are many and varied. Some of these changes are related to basic hydraulic and physical factors, and can be measured using available instrumentation. Other changes are not quantifiable by direct measurement in the field, and their effects can only be observed over a long period of time. Relationships between barge-tow movements and the hydraulic and physical characteristics of specified reaches of a river are not fully understood at the present time. This scientific area of large river fluvial hydrodynamics has not been addressed fully with a detailed and comprehensive plan of action. Moreover, because changes in the hydraulic parameters of a river are normally associated with changes in the river's biological activities and/or habitats, a clear understanding of the ambient or original hydrauliccharacteristics of the river is needed before management decisions can be made. The present investigation is one of the first attempts to quantify the hydraulic changes associated with the movement of navigation traffic within the Upper Mississippi River System (UMRS). Work is also being done by researchers from the Waterways Experiment Station (U.S. Army Corps of Engineers) on laboratory simulation of flows in the near field of a barge-tow. This report outlines the research that has been completed by engineers and scientists from the Illinois State Water Survey (ISWS) on physical changes associated with navigation traffic. In addition to research results, materials showing the basic hydraulic structure of large river systems such as the UMRS are included in the appendices.U.S. Geological Survey Environmental Management Technical CenterOpe

An analysis of managed flood storage options for selected levees along the Lower Illinois River for enhancing flood protection report no. 4: flood storage reservoirs and flooding on the Lower Illinois River

"Prepared for the Office of Water Resources, Illinois Department of Natural Resources.