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

On Lerch's transcendent and the Gaussian random walk

Let $X_1,X_2,...$ be independent variables, each having a normal distribution with negative mean $-\beta<0$ and variance 1. We consider the partial sums $S_n=X_1+...+X_n$, with $S_0=0$, and refer to the process $\{S_n:n\geq0\}$ as the Gaussian random walk. We present explicit expressions for the mean and variance of the maximum $M=\max\{S_n:n\geq0\}.$ These expressions are in terms of Taylor series about $\beta=0$ with coefficients that involve the Riemann zeta function. Our results extend Kingman's first-order approximation [Proc. Symp. on Congestion Theory (1965) 137--169] of the mean for $\beta\downarrow0$. We build upon the work of Chang and Peres [Ann. Probab. 25 (1997) 787--802], and use Bateman's formulas on Lerch's transcendent and Euler--Maclaurin summation as key ingredients.Comment: Published at http://dx.doi.org/10.1214/105051606000000781 in the Annals of Applied Probability (http://www.imstat.org/aap/) by the Institute of Mathematical Statistics (http://www.imstat.org

Casimir Energy for a Wedge with Three Surfaces and for a Pyramidal Cavity

Casimir energy calculations for the conformally coupled massless scalar field for a wedge defined by three intersecting planes and for a pyramid with four triangular surfaces are presented. The group generated by reflections are employed in the formulation of the required Green functions and the wave functions.Comment: Latex, 9 page

Fresh look at randomly branched polymers

We develop a new, dynamical field theory of isotropic randomly branched polymers, and we use this model in conjunction with the renormalization group (RG) to study several prominent problems in the physics of these polymers. Our model provides an alternative vantage point to understand the swollen phase via dimensional reduction. We reveal a hidden Becchi-Rouet-Stora (BRS) symmetry of the model that describes the collapse ($\theta$-)transition to compact polymer-conformations, and calculate the critical exponents to 2-loop order. It turns out that the long-standing 1-loop results for these exponents are not entirely correct. A runaway of the RG flow indicates that the so-called $\theta^\prime$-transition could be a fluctuation induced first order transition.Comment: 4 page

On Critical Exponents and the Renormalization of the Coupling Constant in Growth Models with Surface Diffusion

It is shown by the method of renormalized field theory that in contrast to a statement based on a mathematically ill-defined invariance transformation and found in most of the recent publications on growth models with surface diffusion, the coupling constant of these models renormalizes nontrivially. This implies that the widely accepted supposedly exact scaling exponents are to be corrected. A two-loop calculation shows that the corrections are small and these exponents seem to be very good approximations.Comment: 4 pages, revtex, 2 postscript figures, to appear in Phys.Rev.Let