Evaluation of the addiction history of a dead woman after exhumation and sectional hair testing.

In Greece, sectional hair analysis, in addition to clinical examination, has been used as a valuable tool for the confirmation of a person's history of drug use. The present report concerns the toxicologic analysis of the exhumed remains and hair samples of an 18-year-old woman. Postmortem toxicologic analysis of blood and urine confirmed recent opiate and cannabis use and indicated that death was associated with heroin abuse. Several months later, the woman's family asked for exhumation and reexamination of the body, insisting that the cause of death was homicide. The investigating judge ordered exhumation and new medicolegal examination of the body. The investigation of the drug profile along the hair shaft was undertaken by analyzing hair sections 1 cm from the hair root for morphine, 6-monoacetylmorphine, heroin, and cannabinoids. The total lengths of the hair samples ranged from 8 to 11 cm. The total morphine levels in the hair sections corresponding to the 3-month period before death were significantly lower (1.5-2.85 ng/mg) than those of the 4- to 10-month period before death (7.4-14.8 ng/mg). An interpretation of these results may be occasional drug use (with considerable attenuation of use during the last 3 months before death). Decrease of tolerance to heroin caused by abstinence and relapse in use could have been the cause of death.     

Y-chromosomal STR haplotype in the Japanese population.

Allele and haplotype frequencies of seven Y-chromosome STR loci from samples of 108 unrelated Japanese males living in Aichi Prefecture.     

Barriers Inhibiting Industry from Partnering with Universities: Evidence from the Advanced Technology Program

This paper describes a small, unique set of project data that was assembled as part of a larger study on universities as research partners. Herein, we summarize, to the extent possible, our interpretation of what the project data reveal about barriers, intellectual property (IP) concerns in particular, inhibiting industry from partnering with universities.