The Biological Effects of Kambo: Is There a Relationship Between its Administration and Sudden Death?

Kambo is a substance obtained from the skin secretions of a frog, Phyllomedusa bicolor, popular in the Amazon region, which is administered via the transdermal route. We report a case of 42‐year‐old man found dead in his house. Near the corpse, a plastic box labeled as “Kambo sticks” was found. The man was a chronic consumer of Kambo and no previous pathology or genetic disease emerged in clinical history from the declaration of his general practitioner. Autopsy investigations and toxicological analysis were performed. The histopathological examination showed left ventricular hypertrophy. Toxicological screening was negative for ethanol and other drugs. Phyllocaerulein, phyllokinin, and deltorphin A were isolated from the Kambo sticks but, only deltorphin A was detected in blood sample. We describe the first forensic case of death associated with Kambo administration. We attempt to explain how its use could be related to the cause of sudden death in this case.     

The death of Adolf Hitler--forensic aspects

The death of Adolf Hitler is one of the unsolved mysteries of the twentieth century. Numerous historians and journalists have attempted to piece together the details, but despite the interest in the forensic literature regarding the identification of the body, there has not been much scientific debate about the alleged cause of death--cyanide poisoning, gunshot injury, or both. The available literature concerning Hitler's cause of death is incomplete because the toxicological analysis has not been performed and because the skull bone fragment with a gunshot wound possibly from Hitler's corpse has not been properly examined. This has given basis for various theories, which are reviewed. We believe that mtDNA analysis of the skull fragments and of Hitler's jaw, now filed in Moscow, and samples from maternal relatives of Hitler are crucial linking the skull fragment with the gunshot wound to Hitler.     

A Qualitative Study of Undergraduates’ Conceptualizations of Mental Illness

This qualitative study examined three stigma reduction interventions against mental illness stigma: education, video, and contact. Undergraduates (N = 69) in three introductory psychology classes from a small, Catholic, liberal arts university in the northeast United States participated. Responses to two open-ended questions revealed common negative and stereotypical themes associated with mental illness. The benefits of supplementing traditional social distance measures with a qualitative approach, as well as the importance of considering a social developmental approach to stigma education are discussed.     

Estimating the time since discharge of spent cartridges: A logical approach for interpreting the evidence

Estimating the time since discharge of a spent cartridge or a firearm can be useful in criminal situations involving firearms. The analysis of volatile gunshot residue remaining after shooting using solid-phase microextraction (SPME) followed by gas chromatography (GC) was proposed to meet this objective. However, current interpretative models suffer from several conceptual drawbacks which render them inadequate to assess the evidential value of a given measurement. This paper aims to fill this gap by proposing a logical approach based on the assessment of likelihood ratios. A probabilistic model was thus developed and applied to a hypothetical scenario where alternative hypotheses about the discharge time of a spent cartridge found on a crime scene were forwarded. In order to estimate the parameters required to implement this solution, a non-linear regression model was proposed and applied to real published data. The proposed approach proved to be a valuable method for interpreting aging-related data.     

The Stalking of Lawyers: A Survey Amongst Professionals in Milan

This is the first study focused on the stalking of lawyers. The authors hypothesized that these professionals are at risk of being stalked by their clients and that this stalking is ascribable to RECON type I.B. A random sample of lawyers was survived. 37.3% of 166 respondents revealed to have been stalked: not only by clients, but also by adversaries and colleagues. Data seem to confirm that the stalking of lawyers mainly belongs to RECON type I.B. Female lawyers were at greater risk than male lawyers. In family law cases, the professionals tended to be stalked by the former husbands of the lawyers' clients (p < 0.01). Several female lawyers—but no male lawyers—were threatened with harm to their family members (p < 0.05). Most of the stalking victims described psychological effects of being stalked. Who suffered physical aggression or repercussions on work was more likely to lodge a complaint (p < 0.01).     

Microcrystal analysis of cocaine hydrochloride and added adulterants

The objective of this project was to investigate the trends of changes in the crystal morphology of cocaine in the presence of the common adulterants, caffeine and lidocaine HCl. By performing gold chloride microcrystal tests on samples of cocaine with adulterants at 10, 20, and 50% concentrations, trends in the changes of the crystal morphology can be linked to specific adulterants and concentrations. For cocaine/caffeine mixtures, the trend is elongation of one axis, additional branching, and brown discoloration of the crystals. At 50:50 cocaine/caffeine mixtures, branched spherical crystals and long needles appear. The trends for cocaine/lidocaine mixtures include elongation of one axis with an X-shaped middle axis. The axes continue to grow and branching decreases until at 50%, spherical clusters of needles appear. These results indicate microcrystal analysis can be used as a novel method for presumptively identifying not only cocaine but also the identity and concentration of the adulterant.