The shielding capacity of the standard military flak jacket against ballistic injury to the kidney

An animal model was designed to evaluate the ability of the standard military flak jacket to protect the kidneys from direct ballistic trauma. Yorkshire swine were anesthetized and their flanks were protected by flak jackets. Ballistic insults ranging from a low-velocity handgun to a high-velocity rifle were evaluated. The results demonstrate that a flak jacket provides adequate protection against low- and mid-velocity projectiles since none of the animals from this group had evidence of internal trauma and because only minor superficial surgical attention would have been required. Survivability in each case was considered to be excellent. The flak jacket failed to provide any protection against several types of high-velocity bullets. These weapons caused severe internal injury to the genitourinary system as well as to other major organ systems. Survival would have been unlikely.     

THE OPERATIONAL USE OF AN EXPERIENCE TABLE

One objective of the Parole Decision-Making project was the develop ment of experience tables for operational use by the U.S. Board of Parole to aid in individual case deckion-making. This report describes the interaction of parole board members and project staff in the development of an experience table acceptablc to the parole board for operational use. In addition, it describes the development of a research design to test the impact of the presentation of the experience table upon paroling decisions, the implementation of this design, and the initiol evaluation of results.     

Creatinine analysis in single collection urine specimens.

Controlled and uncontrolled fluid intake studies were conducted on series of volunteers over the 6 or 12 h of the study periods. Urine specimens were obtained from each subject randomly or at specified times relative to fluid ingestion. Creatinine analysis performed by a modification of the Abbott TDx procedure demonstrates that the values obtained from single collection specimens fall almost in the same range as the values from 24 h pooled collection specimens. The creatinine concentration can be used to indicate possible adulteration of urine specimens by dilution as a means of avoiding detection of use of drugs of abuse. Between 4 and 7 h are required for a decrease in creatinine concentration to about 100 mg/dL from an initial mean of about 170 mg/dL. A minimum of 6 h is needed for any creatinine value to fall to 50 mg/dL or less. Thus, it appears that creatinine output is sensitive to the amount of fluid ingested, but the relationship is neither linear nor immediate. The absence of a significant creatinine concentration in a specimen can be used as an indication of direct or indirect adulteration of the urine specimen by dilution or replacement with water. At NDSL-Great Lakes, a decline of the creatinine concentration to 30 mg/dL is used as a cutoff for differentiating between urine specimens that might have been tampered with to avoid detection of drug use and those specimens that are dilute for other reasons. Values at 10 mg/dL or less are suggestive of replacement by water. The information is provided to local commands for investigation prior to initiation of punitive action by the command.