Recognition of lightning-induced trauma to the skeleton: a forensic taphonomic study

Lightning related deaths can be hard to recognize in most circumstances, unless explicitly looked for, and impossible when the remains are fully skeletonized. There is a crucial need for this for forensic authorities in South Africa, where there is a high incidence of lightning deaths and a high rate of recovery of unidentified bodies in the skeletonized state. The effects of a 15 kA, 8/20 I-Ls impulse current applied to a series of pig femurs was investigated as well as a comparison with a skeletal element from a giraffe struck by lightning. A distinct pattern of traumatization was observed and is described in detail. Further analysis and comparison to human results should be carried out and a method for accurately identifying lightning related fatalities should be created

A multidisciplinary forensic analysis of two lightning deaths observed in South Africa

While in-depth studies of lightning deaths can be found in the literature, rarely do such investigations they utilize a multidisciplinary approach, analysing both the medical and electrical aspects of a case. Even more rare, is to find such studies on cases from the developing world such as Africa and South-East Asia - particularly in tropical countries with very high lightning exposure. This paper details the forensic investigation of two lightning deaths that took place during a weekend in February 2020, in South Africa. One event was eye witnessed and the other was not (Case A and B). The investigation involves multidisciplinary forensic examination including case histories, site analysis (including soil resistivity measurements), medical autopsies, lightning location system data analysis and voltage gradient estimations. In both cases, lightning is determined to be the cause of death. In Case A, we confirm that the responsible flash must have attached within close proximity to the deceased, if not a direct strike and in Case B we confirm direct strike as the most probable mechanism of death. The importance of clothing examination in the forensic studies of lightning victims is noted along with a discussion of the lightning safety issues at play, and recommendations for avoiding such incidents in developing world countries.The National Research Foundation of South Africahttps://http//www.elsevier.com/locate/ijdrram2020Forensic Medicin

Quantification of carbon black tattoo ink hydrophobicity pre- and post-sonication

Despite growing academic interest for dermal inking in contemporary society, the reason why skin tattoos remain visible for life has predominantly been studied from a biological perspective. In preliminary physics studies of ink it has been presumed that the hydrophobicity of its main constituent prevents further dilution of pigment dispersion and therefore may be a contributing factor to aforementioned life-longevity. According to these early studies, ultrasound might change the hydrophobicity of microparticles. The purpose of this study was to confirm or refute the presence of hydrophobic components in carbon black tattoo ink and to relate sonication to such presence. Cuvettes with n-octanol, distilled water, and a droplet of unsonicated or sonicated carbon black ink were shaken, allowed to settle and subsequently photographed. The sonicated ink had been subjected to ultrasound during 5 min at a centre frequency of 1 MHz, a pulse-repetition frequency of 1 kHz, and a 10% duty cycle. The greyscale values in both parts of the cuvettes were averaged. The resulting ratio of light intensities was an indicator for the ink hydrophobicity. The intensity partition coefficient of carbon black ink was measured to be greater than 103 before sonication and less than 103 after sonication. Carbon black tattoo ink was found to be very hydrophobic. However, sonication was found to make the dispersion less hydrophobic. Influencing the hydrophobicity of tattoo ink might change the permanence of a skin tattoo.Peer reviewe

First experiments with carbon black pigment dispersion acting as a Janus ultrasound contrast agent

Background: Theranostic ultrasound contrast agents comprise a therapeutic component whose controlled release is triggered by an ultrasound pulse. However, once the therapeutic component has been released from an ultrasound contrast agent microbubble, its intended uptake cannot be monitored, as its acoustically active host has been destroyed. Acoustic Janus particles, whose hydrophobic and hydrophilic properties depend on the external acoustic regime, are of potential use as contrast agents and drug-delivery tracers. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the hypothesis that submicron particles with Janus properties may act as ultrasound contrast agents whose hydrophobicity changes over time. Methods: Fifty samples of carbon black were subjected to 5-minute sonication with pulses with a center frequency of 10 MHz and a 1% duty cycle, after which the optical absorption coefficients were measured in n-octanol and water. These coefficients were compared with those of unsonicated samples. Results: Our preliminary results show that the difference between the linear absorption coefficients of sonicated and unsonicated samples was Δα = 80 ± 13 m−1 immediately after sonication, indicating that the carbon black particles were less hydrophobic after sonication than prior to it. Forty-eight hours after sonication, the difference in linear optical absorption coefficients had lessened to Δα = 16 ± 9 m−1, indicating that the carbon black particles had become more hydrophobic over time, but not equal to the hydrophobicity situation prior to sonication. Conclusion: The experiments confirmed that submicron carbon black particles have acoustic Janus properties.Peer reviewe

The Effect of taxes and social programs on competitiveness in international agriculture : a case study of the wheat industry

Published April 1994. Facts and recommendations in this publication may no longer be valid. Please look for up-to-date information in the OSU Extension Catalog: http://extension.oregonstate.edu/catalo

Harnessing Thor's Hammer: Experimentally induced lightning trauma to human bone by high impulse current

Lightning fatality identification relies primarily on soft tissue traumatic pattern recognition, prohibiting cause of death identification in cases of full skeletonisation. This study explores the effects of high impulse currents on human bone, simulating lightning-level intensities and characterising electrically induced micro-trauma through conventional thin-section histology and micro-focus X-ray computed tomography (μXCT). An experimental system for high impulse current application was applied to bone extracted from donated cadaveric lower limbs (n = 22). μXCT was undertaken prior to and after current application. Histological sections were subsequently undertaken. μXCT poorly resolved micro-trauma compared to conventional histology which allowed for identification and classification of lightning-specific patterns of micro-trauma. Statistical analyses demonstrated correlation between current intensity, extent and damage typology suggesting a multifaceted mechanism of trauma propagation - a combination of electrically, thermally and pressure induced alterations. This study gives an overview of high impulse current trauma to human bone, providing expanded definitions of associated micro-trauma

The UK Centre for Astrobiology:A Virtual Astrobiology Centre. Accomplishments and Lessons Learned, 2011-2016

Authors thank all those individuals, UK research councils, funding agencies, nonprofit organisations, companies and corporations and UK and non-UK government agencies, who have so generously supported our aspirations and hopes over the last 5 years and supported UKCA projects. They include the STFC, the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC), the Natural Environmental Research Council (NERC), the EU, the UK Space Agency, NASA, the European Space Agency (ESA), The Crown Estate, Cleveland Potash and others. The Astrobiology Academy has been supported by the UK Space Agency (UKSA), National Space Centre, the Science and Technology Facilities Council (STFC), Dynamic Earth, The Royal Astronomical Society, The Rotary Club (Shetlands) and the NASA Astrobiology Institute.The UK Centre for Astrobiology (UKCA) was set up in 2011 as a virtual center to contribute to astrobiology research, education, and outreach. After 5 years, we describe this center and its work in each of these areas. Its research has focused on studying life in extreme environments, the limits of life on Earth, and implications for habitability elsewhere. Among its research infrastructure projects, UKCA has assembled an underground astrobiology laboratory that has hosted a deep subsurface planetary analog program, and it has developed new flow-through systems to study extraterrestrial aqueous environments. UKCA has used this research backdrop to develop education programs in astrobiology, including a massive open online course in astrobiology that has attracted over 120,000 students, a teacher training program, and an initiative to take astrobiology into prisons. In this paper, we review these activities and others with a particular focus on providing lessons to others who may consider setting up an astrobiology center, institute, or science facility. We discuss experience in integrating astrobiology research into teaching and education activities.Publisher PDFPeer reviewe

Global burden of 369 diseases and injuries in 204 countries and territories, 1990–2019: a systematic analysis for the Global Burden of Disease Study 2019

Background: In an era of shifting global agendas and expanded emphasis on non-communicable diseases and injuries along with communicable diseases, sound evidence on trends by cause at the national level is essential. The Global Burden of Diseases, Injuries, and Risk Factors Study (GBD) provides a systematic scientific assessment of published, publicly available, and contributed data on incidence, prevalence, and mortality for a mutually exclusive and collectively exhaustive list of diseases and injuries. Methods: GBD estimates incidence, prevalence, mortality, years of life lost (YLLs), years lived with disability (YLDs), and disability-adjusted life-years (DALYs) due to 369 diseases and injuries, for two sexes, and for 204 countries and territories. Input data were extracted from censuses, household surveys, civil registration and vital statistics, disease registries, health service use, air pollution monitors, satellite imaging, disease notifications, and other sources. Cause-specific death rates and cause fractions were calculated using the Cause of Death Ensemble model and spatiotemporal Gaussian process regression. Cause-specific deaths were adjusted to match the total all-cause deaths calculated as part of the GBD population, fertility, and mortality estimates. Deaths were multiplied by standard life expectancy at each age to calculate YLLs. A Bayesian meta-regression modelling tool, DisMod-MR 2.1, was used to ensure consistency between incidence, prevalence, remission, excess mortality, and cause-specific mortality for most causes. Prevalence estimates were multiplied by disability weights for mutually exclusive sequelae of diseases and injuries to calculate YLDs. We considered results in the context of the Socio-demographic Index (SDI), a composite indicator of income per capita, years of schooling, and fertility rate in females younger than 25 years. Uncertainty intervals (UIs) were generated for every metric using the 25th and 975th ordered 1000 draw values of the posterior distribution. Findings: Global health has steadily improved over the past 30 years as measured by age-standardised DALY rates. After taking into account population growth and ageing, the absolute number of DALYs has remained stable. Since 2010, the pace of decline in global age-standardised DALY rates has accelerated in age groups younger than 50 years compared with the 1990–2010 time period, with the greatest annualised rate of decline occurring in the 0–9-year age group. Six infectious diseases were among the top ten causes of DALYs in children younger than 10 years in 2019: lower respiratory infections (ranked second), diarrhoeal diseases (third), malaria (fifth), meningitis (sixth), whooping cough (ninth), and sexually transmitted infections (which, in this age group, is fully accounted for by congenital syphilis; ranked tenth). In adolescents aged 10–24 years, three injury causes were among the top causes of DALYs: road injuries (ranked first), self-harm (third), and interpersonal violence (fifth). Five of the causes that were in the top ten for ages 10–24 years were also in the top ten in the 25–49-year age group: road injuries (ranked first), HIV/AIDS (second), low back pain (fourth), headache disorders (fifth), and depressive disorders (sixth). In 2019, ischaemic heart disease and stroke were the top-ranked causes of DALYs in both the 50–74-year and 75-years-and-older age groups. Since 1990, there has been a marked shift towards a greater proportion of burden due to YLDs from non-communicable diseases and injuries. In 2019, there were 11 countries where non-communicable disease and injury YLDs constituted more than half of all disease burden. Decreases in age-standardised DALY rates have accelerated over the past decade in countries at the lower end of the SDI range, while improvements have started to stagnate or even reverse in countries with higher SDI. Interpretation: As disability becomes an increasingly large component of disease burden and a larger component of health expenditure, greater research and developm nt investment is needed to identify new, more effective intervention strategies. With a rapidly ageing global population, the demands on health services to deal with disabling outcomes, which increase with age, will require policy makers to anticipate these changes. The mix of universal and more geographically specific influences on health reinforces the need for regular reporting on population health in detail and by underlying cause to help decision makers to identify success stories of disease control to emulate, as well as opportunities to improve. Funding: Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. © 2020 The Author(s). Published by Elsevier Ltd. This is an Open Access article under the CC BY 4.0 licens

Global, regional, and national cancer incidence, mortality, years of life lost, years lived with disability, and disability-Adjusted life-years for 29 cancer groups, 1990 to 2017 : A systematic analysis for the global burden of disease study

Importance: Cancer and other noncommunicable diseases (NCDs) are now widely recognized as a threat to global development. The latest United Nations high-level meeting on NCDs reaffirmed this observation and also highlighted the slow progress in meeting the 2011 Political Declaration on the Prevention and Control of Noncommunicable Diseases and the third Sustainable Development Goal. Lack of situational analyses, priority setting, and budgeting have been identified as major obstacles in achieving these goals. All of these have in common that they require information on the local cancer epidemiology. The Global Burden of Disease (GBD) study is uniquely poised to provide these crucial data. Objective: To describe cancer burden for 29 cancer groups in 195 countries from 1990 through 2017 to provide data needed for cancer control planning. Evidence Review: We used the GBD study estimation methods to describe cancer incidence, mortality, years lived with disability, years of life lost, and disability-Adjusted life-years (DALYs). Results are presented at the national level as well as by Socio-demographic Index (SDI), a composite indicator of income, educational attainment, and total fertility rate. We also analyzed the influence of the epidemiological vs the demographic transition on cancer incidence. Findings: In 2017, there were 24.5 million incident cancer cases worldwide (16.8 million without nonmelanoma skin cancer [NMSC]) and 9.6 million cancer deaths. The majority of cancer DALYs came from years of life lost (97%), and only 3% came from years lived with disability. The odds of developing cancer were the lowest in the low SDI quintile (1 in 7) and the highest in the high SDI quintile (1 in 2) for both sexes. In 2017, the most common incident cancers in men were NMSC (4.3 million incident cases); tracheal, bronchus, and lung (TBL) cancer (1.5 million incident cases); and prostate cancer (1.3 million incident cases). The most common causes of cancer deaths and DALYs for men were TBL cancer (1.3 million deaths and 28.4 million DALYs), liver cancer (572000 deaths and 15.2 million DALYs), and stomach cancer (542000 deaths and 12.2 million DALYs). For women in 2017, the most common incident cancers were NMSC (3.3 million incident cases), breast cancer (1.9 million incident cases), and colorectal cancer (819000 incident cases). The leading causes of cancer deaths and DALYs for women were breast cancer (601000 deaths and 17.4 million DALYs), TBL cancer (596000 deaths and 12.6 million DALYs), and colorectal cancer (414000 deaths and 8.3 million DALYs). Conclusions and Relevance: The national epidemiological profiles of cancer burden in the GBD study show large heterogeneities, which are a reflection of different exposures to risk factors, economic settings, lifestyles, and access to care and screening. The GBD study can be used by policy makers and other stakeholders to develop and improve national and local cancer control in order to achieve the global targets and improve equity in cancer care. © 2019 American Medical Association. All rights reserved.Peer reviewe