Autopsy Biobanking: Biospecimen Procurement, Integrity, Storage, and Utilization

An autopsy is a specialized surgical procedure consisting of external and internal examination of a deceased individual for the purposes of documenting abnormalities and determining or confirming medical diagnoses that may have contributed to their death. One of the benefits of an autopsy is the opportunity to collect and store biospecimens for the purposes of biobanking. This chapter outlines the procedures necessary to procure, store, and utilize biospecimens obtained during an autopsy. With the emergence of molecular diagnostics, this chapter also discusses factors that influence the integrity of autopsy biospecimens prior to procurement. These include the postmortem interval, as well as premortem factors such as the patient's agonal state, biospecimen temperature, and pH

Chronology of the Pueblo Viejo epithermal gold-silver deposit, Dominican Republic: formation in an Early Cretaceous intra-oceanic island arc and burial under ophiolite.

The Pueblo Viejo deposit (production to 1996:166 t Au, 760 t Ag) is located in the Dominican Republic on the Caribbean island of Hispaniola and ranks as one of the largest high-sulfidation/acid-sulfate epithermal deposits (reserves in 2007: 635 t Au, 3,648 t Ag). One of the advanced argillic ore bodies is cut by an inter-mineral andesite porphyry dike, which is altered to a retrograde chlorite-illite assemblage but overprinted by late-stage quartz-pyrite-sphalerite veins and associated low-grade Au, Ag, Zn, Cd, Hg, In, As, Se, and Te mineralization. The precise TIMS U-Pb age (109.6±0.6 Ma) of the youngest zircon population in this dike confirms that the deposit is part of the Early Cretaceous Los Ranchos intraoceanic island arc. Intrusion-related gold-sulfide mineralization took place during late andesite-dacite volcanism within a thick pile (>200 m) of carbonaceous sand- and siltstones deposited in a restricted marine basin.The high-level deposit was shielded from erosion after burial under a late Albian (109-100 Ma) ophiolite complex (8 km thick), which was in turn covered by the volcano-sedimentary successions (>4 km) of a Late Cretaceous-Early Tertiary calc-akaline magmatic arc. Estimates of stratigraphic thickness and published alunite, illite, and feldspar K-Ar ages and closure temperatures (alunite 270±20C, illite 260±30C, K-feldspar 150C) indicate a burial depth of about 12 km at 80 Ma. During peak burial metamorphism (300C and 300 MPa), the alteration assemblage kaolinite + quartz in the deposit dehydrated to pyrophyllite. Temperature-time relations imply that the Los Ranchos terrane then cooled at a rate of 3-4C/Ma during slow uplift and erosion

Neogene sharks and rays from the Brazilian ‘Blue Amazon’

The lower Miocene Pirabas Formation in the North of Brazil was deposited under influence of the proto-Amazon River and is characterized by large changes in the ecological niches from the early Miocene onwards. To evaluate these ecological changes, the elasmobranch fauna of the fully marine, carbonate-rich beds was investigated. A diverse fauna with 24 taxa of sharks and rays was identified with the dominant groups being carcharhiniforms and myliobatiforms. This faunal composition is similar to other early Miocene assemblages from the proto-Carribbean bioprovince. However, the Pirabas Formation has unique features compared to the other localities; being the only Neogene fossil fish assemblage described from the Atlantic coast of Tropical Americas. Phosphate oxygen isotope composition of elasmobranch teeth served as proxies for paleotemperatures and paleoecology. The data are compatible with a predominantly tropical marine setting with recognized inshore and offshore habitats with some probable depth preferences (e.g., Aetomylaeus groups). Paleohabitat of taxa particularly found in the Neogene of the Americas (†Carcharhinus ackermannii, †Aetomylaeus cubensis) are estimated to have been principally coastal and shallow waters. Larger variation among the few analyzed modern selachians reflects a larger range for the isotopic composition of recent seawater compared to the early Miocene. This probably links to an increased influence of the Amazon River in the coastal regions during the Holocene

Evidence for a magmatic origin for Carlin-type gold deposits: isotopic composition of sulfur in the Betze-Post-Screamer Deposit, Nevada, USA

We report here new sulfur isotope analyses from the Betze-Post-Screamer deposit, the largest Carlin-type gold deposit in the world. Carlin-type deposits contain high concentrations of arsenic, antimony, mercury, tellurium and other elements of environmental interest, and are surrounded by large volumes of crust in which these elements are also enriched. Uncertainty about the source of sulfur and metals in and around Carlin-type deposits has hampered formulation of models for their origin, which are needed for improved mineral exploration and environmental assessment. Previous studies have concluded that most Carlin-type deposits formed from sulfide sulfur that is largely of sedimentary origin. Most of these studies are based on analyses of mineral separates consisting of pre-ore diagenetic pyrite with thin overgrowths of ore-related arsenian pyrite rather than pure, ore-related pyrite. Our SIMS spot analyses of ore-related pyrite overgrowths in the Screamer zone of the Betze-Post-Screamer deposit yield δ 34 S values of about −1 to 4‰ with one value of about 7‰. Conventional analyses of realgar and orpiment separates from throughout the deposit yield δ 34 S values of about 5–7‰ with one value of 10‰ in the Screamer zone. These results, along with results from an earlier SIMS study in the Post zone of the deposit and phase equilibrium constraints, indicate that early arsenian pyrite were formed from fluids of magmatic origin with variable contamination from sulfur in Paleozoic sedimentary rocks. Later arsenic sulfides were formed from solutions to which sulfur of sedimentary origin had been added. The presence of Paleozoic sedimentary sulfur in Carlin-type deposits does not require direct involvement of hydrothermal solutions of sedimentary origin. Instead, it could have been added by magmatic assimilation of Paleozoic sedimentary rocks or by hydrothermal leaching of sulfur from wall rocks to the deposit. Thus, the dominant process delivering sulfur, arsenic, gold and mineralizing fluids to Carlin-type systems and their surrounding country rocks was probably separation of fluids from a magmatic source.Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/46046/1/126_2005_Article_477.pd