Enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay for determination of plasma thyroglobulin and its application to post-mortem diagnosis of mechanical asphyxia

A high sensitive enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) for determination of plasma thyroglobulin was devised and applied to the postmortem diagnosis of mechanical asphyxia. The sensitivity of the present ELISA was 5 ng/ml. All of the 15 victims who died from causes other than mechanical asphyxia showed plasma thyroglobulin levels lower than 200 ng/ml (99.8 +/- 37.9 ng/ml), while 12 out of 14 victims of mechanical asphyxia showed the levels higher than 200 ng/ml (2100 +/- 3450 ng/ml in 14 victims). Thus, the present ELISA appears to be useful for postmortem diagnosis of mechanical asphyxia.     

Understanding search engines: A legal perspective on liability in the Internet law vista

This contribution discusses the legal dimension of search engines in an Internet law context, through both a global lens and a Turkish perspective. This paper introduces search engine liability in the growing Internet industry and the role of search engines in distributing and disseminating information. Next, this paper considers a global perspective on the legal dimension of search engines from United States case law, United Kingdom case law, and other European courts and legislation. This contribution then discusses the liability of search engines in the Turkish legal context. The conclusion provides an overall evaluation of the current status of search engine liability and prospects on its potential development.     

Studying the Arabs: Myths and metaphors

The relationship between knowledge and power is examined in this article in terms of the social science literature base on Arab countries. It is argued that knowledge imposes normative constraints on the exercise of power, and the exercise of power is dependent on the lack of knowledge. This is examined in terms of the knowledge base on Iraq and Palestine, the two countries in the Arab world most decimated in the post-World War II era by the exercise of external power politics. The study is organized in three phases: (1) delimiting the population of scholarly literature in the social sciences on the Middle East by country; (2) drawing representative samples of scholarly literature on Iraq and Palestine from this population; and (3) content analysis of the samples. Jacqueline S. Ismael is a professor of social work at The University of Calgary. She has published a number of articles and monographs on social change in the Middle East, as well as several works on Canadian social policy. She is co-author with Tareq Y. Ismael ofThe People’s Democratic Republic of Yemen: The Politics of Socialist Transformation (1986),Government and Politics in Islam (1986),Politics and Government in the Middle East andNorth Africa (1991), andThe Gulf War and the New World Order (1994). Her most recent work isKuwait: Dependency and Class in a Rentier State (1993). Tareq Y. Ismael is a professor of political science at The University of Calgary. He has written extensively on Middle East politics, the international relations of the Middle East, and ideology in the Arab world. His recent publications includeInternational Relations of the Contemporary Middle East (1986),Middle East Studies: International Perspectives on the State of the Art (1990),The Communist Movement in Egypt (1990),Politics and Government in the Middle East and North Africa (1991), andThe Gulf War and the New World Order (1994).     

Hyperuricemia in rats during acute carbon monoxide poisoning

The effect of carbon monoxide (CO) inhalation on plasma levels of uric acid and hypoxanthine in rats was investigated. Exposure to 3% CO caused respiratory arrest within about 2 minutes. The plasma uric acid level of CO-treated rats increased to 157% above that of ether-treated rats. When rats were exposed to 1% or 0.8% CO, the exposure periods until the onset of respiratory arrest were prolonged, and plasma uric acid levels at respiratory arrest were further elevated. Plasma uric acid levels at respiratory arrest increased with prolongation of the exposure periods. Under our experimental conditions, hypoxanthine or xanthine was not detected in plasma of CO-treated rats. These results are discussed in relation to the hyperuricemia in hemorrhagic shock or hypoxemia: CO-induced hyperuricemia can be attributed to the stimulated degradation of adenine nucleotides under tissue anoxia, and thus could be an excellent parameter of tissue anoxia.     

Determination of age from the sternal rib in white males: a test of the phase method

The effectiveness of a given age determination technique can better be assessed by testing the standards on unknown specimens. A test of this nature was carried out to evaluate the authors' previously published phase method for age estimation from the sternal extremity of the rib. A sample of 15 test ribs was judged by 25 physical and forensic anthropologists with varying levels of education and experience. The judges were asked to match the rib to the phase it most closely resembled by comparing it with the photographs from the original study. The results indicated that interobserver error based on experience was minimal, and nearly all of the participants averaged within one phase of the ideal. Variation appeared to be greater among the ribs than among the judges, yet no consistent association could be made between this variation and factors such as cause of death, antemortem medical history, drug or alcohol abuse, and occupation.     

Immunoassay for methamphetamine with a new antibody

p- and o-Aminomethamphetamine were synthesized as haptens to be coupled with carrier protein at the benzene ring of methamphetamine. Immunogens were prepared by the glutaraldehyde method or the MBS (N-(m-maleimidobenzoyloxy)succinimide) type cross-linking reagent method. In particular, immunization with p-aminomethamphetamine-bovine serum albumin (BSA) conjugate prepared by the glutaraldehyde method gave an anti-methamphetamine antiserum having a low cross-reactivity with methylephedrine. With the antiserum, three kinds of immunoassays for methamphetamine were established. An enzyme immunoassay (EIA) and an enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) were developed with alkaline phosphatase (ALP) as a label enzyme. The amount of antibody bound ALP conjugate was determined by its activity in dephosphorylating p-nitrophenyl phosphate in EIA and nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide phosphate (NADP+) in ELISA. The range of methamphetamine measurable by ELISA was 0.025-0.5 ng/well and its sensitivity was superior to that of EIA (0.3-300 ng/tube). A latex agglutination inhibition reaction test (LAIRT) was also developed for the mass screening method of urine samples. The sensitivity of this method for methamphetamine was 0.1 micrograms/ml urine.