Profenofos metabolites in human poisoning

Profenofos and its metabolites were determined in a case of fatal poisoning. Little profenofos and large amounts of metabolites were detected by gas chromatography/flame photometric detection in the acid extracts of blood and urine after methylation with diazomethane. Four major metabolites containing phosphorus were identified with the synthesized metabolites, namely, despropylated profenofos, desethylated profenofos and des-S-propylated profenofos, respectively. 4-Bromo-2-chlorophenol (BCP), an aryl moiety of profenofos, was also determined in blood and urine with high performance liquid chromatograph (HPLC) as free or conjugated metabolites.     

Technical and interpretive pitfalls of postmortem CT: Five examples of errors revealed by autopsy

Image acquisition of dead bodies, particularly using postmortem computed tomography (PMCT), has become common in forensic investigations worldwide. Meanwhile, in countries such as Japan which have an extremely low rate of autopsy, PMCT is being increasingly used in the clinical field to certify the cause of death (COD) without performing an autopsy or toxicological tests, even in cases of unnatural death. Additionally, these PMCT images are predominantly interpreted by clinical personnel such as emergency physicians or clinicians who are not trained in PMCT interpretation and who work for the police, that is, the so-called police doctors. Many potential pitfalls associated with the use of PMCT have been previously described in textbooks and published papers, including the pitfalls of not performing a complete forensic pathology investigation, and the use of physicians without appropriate PMCT training to interpret PMCT and direct death investigation and certification. We describe five examples in which apparent misdiagnosis of COD based on PMCT misinterpretation was revealed by autopsy. Here are the five examples of errors: (1) Postmortem changes were misinterpreted as COD, (2) resuscitation effects were misinterpreted as COD, (3) COD was determined after an incomplete examination, (4) fatal findings caused by external origin were wrongly interpreted as ‘of internal origin’ based on PMCT, and (5) non-fatal findings on PMCT were wrongly interpreted as fatal. Interpretation of PMCT by appropriately trained physicians and an accompanying complete forensic investigation, including autopsy when indicated, is necessary to prevent significant errors in COD determination and related potential adverse medicolegal consequences.     

Thymus and adrenal glands in elder abuse

Endogenous glucocorticoid-induced thymic involution is generally considered to be an important finding for determining child abuse. The present study investigated the weight of the thymus and the adrenal glands in elder abuse cases to identify a potential marker for elder abuse. There was no significant difference in the thymus and the adrenal weight between elder abuse and control cases. However, the elder abuse cases in which the duration of abuse was less than 3 months showed a significant increase in the adrenal weight in comparison to control cases. In such cases, histopathological findings showed a loss of intracellular light granules from the zona fasciculata, which might indicate a loss of cholesterol due to the overproduction of glucocorticoid. These results might imply that the elderly, who were maltreated for less than 3 months, were in the early phase of a long-term stress state during which stress-induced overproduction of glucocorticoid was observed in adrenal glands as indicated by Selye. Our results suggest that an increase in adrenal weight may be a potential marker for elder abuse of relatively short periods, especially less than a few months.     

Analysis of AmpFlSTR MiniFiler™ loci and its forensic application

The allele frequencies of eight MiniFiler™ loci have been analyzed in 101 Japanese individuals living in Kanagawa with informed consent by means of ABI 310 Genetic Analyzer. A total of 7 alleles for D13S317, 8 alleles for D7S820, 11 alleles for D2S1338, 11 alleles for D21S11, 5 alleles for D16S539, 14 alleles for D18S51, 8 alleles for CSF1PO, and 13 alleles for FGA were observed. The polymorphic profiles of these MiniFiler™ loci in the present study were essentially the same as those obtained by using the AmpFlSTR^® Identifiler^® PCR Amplification kit. The combined matching probability of eight MiniFiler™ loci and cumulative probability of paternity exclusion were estimated as 1.97 × 10⁻¹⁰ and 0.9996, respectively. The MiniFiler™ kit was useful for individual identification in forensic analysis.     

Determination of phenotypes of esterases (Set) in fresh saliva and saliva stains by disc electrophoresis and the distribution of Set phenotypes in the Japanese population

A rapid and simple disc electrophoretic technique for the determination of saliva esterase (Set) types is described. The frequency of Set types was F 16.4%, FS 49.8% and S 33.8%. The estimated gene frequency of Set-1F was 0.413 and of Set-1S was 0.587. An accurate determination of Set types was possible in 5 – 7-week-old saliva stains. This system may be useful in medicolegal applications.     

Development of Multiple Assays using 46 SNPs for Comprehensive mtDNA Haplogrouping and Application to Highly Degraded DNA

Six multiplex PCR systems using single‐base extension reactions to analyze 46 mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA)‐coding region single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) that define 42 haplogroups, that is, 24 major mtDNA haplogroups and 18 subclades, were devised. To improve the usefulness of the established systems for the analysis of degraded DNA samples, novel primers to render amplicons with sizes <150 bp were designed. By applying these systems to 214 Japanese individuals, 24 different haplogroups (power of discrimination = 93.4%) were found. To assess the effectiveness of our systems in grouping degraded DNA, an ancient bone sample of a Jomon skeleton was analyzed and then classified as haplogroup N9b. We conclude that the present systems are powerful screening tools for major haplogroups of mtDNA in addition to the prevalent subhaplogroups in the Japanese population and that these systems are capable of analyzing highly degraded DNA samples in forensic studies.     

Reforming the Rules of the Parliamentary Game: Measuring and Explaining Changes in Parliamentary Rules in Austria,Germany, and Switzerland, 1945–2010

Questions of institutional change have recently received increased attention in comparative politics. Even though comparative legislative research has identified important effects of parliamentary rules on processes and outputs as well as large variation across countries, we know very little about changes in these rules. This article takes several steps towards mapping and explaining rule changes in European parliaments. Theoretically, it sketches a model explaining such changes based on the rational choice notion of institutions as endogenous equilibria. Methodologically, it proposes two complementary approaches to measure rule changes. In combination, these measures allow us to identify the content, relevance, and effects of changes in parliamentary rules. Empirically, the article provides the first systematic analysis of all changes in the parliamentary standing orders of Austria, Germany, and Switzerland since 1945. This analysis demonstrates that parliamentary rules are changed frequently and massively. It also identifies differences across countries and content areas that are largely in line with theoretical expectations.     

Comparison of the Volatile Organic Compounds from Different Biological Specimens for Profiling Potential*

Previous work has demonstrated the ability to differentiate individuals based on the analysis of human scent hand odor chemicals. In this paper, a range of forensic biological specimens are shown to also have the ability to differentiate individuals based upon the volatile organic compounds (VOCs) present. Human VOC profiles from hand odor, oral fluid, breath, blood, and urine of 31 individuals were analyzed by solid‐phase microextraction–gas chromatography–mass spectrometry (SPME‐GC‐MS) and combined methods of chromatogram comparison, Spearman rank correlation comparison, and principal component analysis. Intra‐specimen comparisons demonstrated the distinguishability of individuals above 99%. Inter‐specimen VOC profiles from the same individual were found to be too different to be used for scent‐matching purposes, with Spearman rank coefficients below 0.15. A 6‐month VOC profile monitoring of two individuals demonstrated the consistency of VOC profiles over time across specimens.     

Case study of dissolving allele dropout

Allele typing performed using the original components of the AmpFlSTR Identifiler kit led to unbalanced peak heights and allele dropouts. However, allele typing was completely successful when substituting the QIAGEN Multiplex PCR Master Mix for the AmpFlSTR PCR Reaction Mix of the Identifiler kit. The successful range for allele typing was 250 pg to 1.5 ng of DNA. The running times for PCR amplification were reduced by about 30 min from the original protocol.