Bite mark analysis in forensic routine case work

The individuality of the human dentition frequently allows the Forensic Odonto-Stomatologist (FOS) to reach a strong opinion of association in cases of identification and bite mark analy-sis. Such analysis can often be useful during the investigation of violent crimes, especially those involving sexual assault. Bites from animals are rarely the object of bite mark analysis. The teeth of animals leave patterned injuries that appear quite different from those created by human teeth. This is especially true with dogs, which are predominant culprits in bites to humans. Dogs bite humans at a rate eight times more frequently than humans bite each other. However, such bites may need to be analyzed in order to distinguish what species of animal may have been the attacker, or exclude one or more animals when there is more than one possible offender. Typical cases of routine bite mark analysis encountered by the FOS are presented. Two cases of dog bites appearing as possible accidents and two human bites report about this spectrum. In another case, a child abuse with several specific bite marks shows the potential to detect the perpetrator. The last case representing a bite mark in a fruit is obtained from criminal routine case work. It is hoped that these cases will demonstrate the significant role the analysis of bite marks might play alongside other criminalistic routines. The FOS is often involved in a late stage of the investigation. This is one reason for the problems associated with the bite mark analysis in the cases presented. Additionally, the quality of the documentation of patterned injuries is often incomplete

A phosphatidylinositol (4,5)-bisphosphate binding site within mu 2-adaptin regulates clathrin-mediated endocytosis

The clathrin adaptor complex AP-2 serves to coordinate clathrin-coated pit assembly with the sorting of transmembrane cargo proteins at the plasmalemma. Flow precisely AP-2 assembly and cargo protein recognition at sites of endocytosis are regulated has remained unclear, but recent evidence implicates phosphoinositides, in particular phosphatidylinositol (4,5)- bisphosphate (PI[4,5]P-2) in these processes. Here we have identified and functionally characterized a conserved binding site for PI(4,5)P2 within mu2-adaptin, the medium chain of the clathrin adaptor complex AP-2. Mutant p,2 lacking a cluster of conserved lysine residues fails to bind PI(4,5)P2 and to compete the recruitment of native clathrin/AP-2 to PI(4,5)P-2- containing liposomes or to presynaptic membranes. Moreover, we show that expression of mutant mu2 inhibits receptor-mediated endocytosis in living cells. We suggest that PI(4,5)P-2 binding to mu2-adaptin regulates clathrin-mediated endocytosis and thereby may contribute to structurally linking cargo recognition to coat formation

Retention of mouth-to-mouth, mouth-to-mask and mouth-to-face shield ventilation

Background: Retention of mouth-to-mouth, mouth-to-mask and mouth-to-face shield ventilation techniques is poorly understood.Methods: A prospective randomised clinical trial was undertaken in January 2004 in 70 candidates randomly assigned to training in mouth-to-mouth, mouth-to-mask or mouth-to-face shield ventilation. Each candidate was trained for 10 min, after which tidal volume, respiratory rate, minute volume, peak airway pressure and the presence or absence of stomach inflation were measured. 58 subjects were reassessed 1 year later and study parameters were recorded again. Data were analysed with ANOVA, \textgreekq2 and McNemar tests.Results: Tidal volume, minute volume, peak airway pressure, ventilation rate and stomach inflation rate increased significantly at reassessment with all ventilation techniques compared with the initial assessment. However, at reassessment, mean (SD) tidal volume (960 (446) vs 1008 (366) vs 1402 (302) ml; p<0.05), minute volume (12 (5) vs 13 (7) vs 18 (3) l/min; p<0.05), peak airway pressure (14 (8) vs 17 (13) vs 25 (8) cm H2O; p<0.05) and stomach inflation rate (63% vs 58% vs 100%; p<0.05) were significantly lower with mouth-to-mask and mouth-to-face shield ventilation than with mouth-to-mouth ventilation. The ventilation rate at reassessment did not differ significantly between the ventilation techniques.Conclusions: One year after a single episode of ventilation training, lay persons tended to hyperventilate; however, the degree of hyperventilation and resulting stomach inflation were lower when a mouth-to-mask or a face shield device was employed. Regular training is therefore required to retain ventilation skills; retention of skills may be better with ventilation devices

Emergent constraints on climate-carbon cycle feedbacks in the CMIP5 Earth system models

Journal ArticleAn emergent linear relationship between the long-term sensitivity of tropical land carbon storage to climate warming (γLT) and the short-term sensitivity of atmospheric carbon dioxide (CO2) to interannual temperature variability (γIAV) has previously been identified by Cox et al. (2013) across an ensemble of Earth system models (ESMs) participating in the Coupled Climate-Carbon Cycle Model Intercomparison Project (C4MIP). Here we examine whether such a constraint also holds for a new set of eight ESMs participating in Phase 5 of the Coupled Model Intercomparison Project. A wide spread in tropical land carbon storage is found for the quadrupling of atmospheric CO2, which is of the order of 252 ± 112 GtC when carbon-climate feedbacks are enabled. Correspondingly, the spread in γLT is wide (-49 ± 40 GtC/K) and thus remains one of the key uncertainties in climate projections. A tight correlation is found between the long-term sensitivity of tropical land carbon and the short-term sensitivity of atmospheric CO2 (γLT versus γIAV), which enables the projections to be constrained with observations. The observed short-term sensitivity of CO2 (-4.4 ± 0.9 GtC/yr/K) sharpens the range of γLT to -44 ± 14 GtC/K, which overlaps with the probability density function derived from the C4MIP models (-53 ± 17 GtC/K) by Cox et al. (2013), even though the lines relating γLT and γIAV differ in the two cases. Emergent constraints of this type provide a means to focus ESM evaluation against observations on the metrics most relevant to projections of future climate change. Key Points Tropical land carbon loss is a key uncertainty in climate change projections CO2 interannual variability is linearly related to tropical carbon loss in CMIP5 Observed variability in CO2 constrains projections of future carbon losses ©2014. American Geophysical Union. All Rights Reserved.European Commission's Seventh Framework Programme, EMBRACE and ESMVa