Analysis and classification of common vegetable oils

The analysis of fatty acids from common vegetable oils was investigated for application to forensic casework. A base-catalyzed transesterification of the fatty acids to fatty acid methyl esters using tetramethylammonium hydroxide was simple, rapid, straightforward and inexpensive. Canola, corn, olive, peanut, safflower, soybean and sunflower oils were able to be classified based on their fatty acid methyl ester profiles. Using gas chromatography-mass spectrometry, the detection limits for canola, corn, olive, peanut and safflower oils were determined to be 0.4 mg/mL or less and 0.2 mg/mL or less for soybean and sunflower oils.     

A potential metallographic technique for the investigation of pipe bombings

This study was conducted in an attempt to develop a metallographic method for the investigation of pipe bombings. Three common pipe materials, ASTM A53 steel, AISI 304L stainless steel, and 6061-T6 aluminum, were shock-loaded using five high explosives and three propellants. The explosives used were ANFO, Composition C4, C6 detasheet, nitroglycerine-based dynamite, and flake TNT. The propellants used were FFFFg black powder. Red Dot smokeless powder, and Turbo Fuel A. The post-blast microstructure, hardness, and, in the case of 304L, transformed martensite content were examined for each test. The damage done to the microstructure was found to increase with increasing detonation velocity of the explosives and increase in pressure generated by the shock-metal interaction. Material hardness and, in the case of 304L, martensite content showed a sharp increase followed by a plateau as the shock pressure and detonation velocity increased.     

Forensic and medical aspects of lethality from thromboembolytic complications of trauma,diseases and certain pathological conditions

A total of 743 lethal outcomes of thromboembolytic complications of trauma, diseases and certain pathological conditions as observed in 1999-2001 and in the three quarters of 2002 were studied. The undertaken analysis confirmed two factors provoking the pathological thrombosis, i.e. 1. Pathological changes observed in the surface vascular wall preconditioned by mechanical damages, atherosclerotic process and aging; and 2. A slower blood flow due to an impaired blood circulation, a forced positioning and to hypodynamics. While deciding on a possibility of a direct cause-effect relation between past traumas, surgeries, poisonings and death of thromboembolism of the pulmonary arteries (TEPA), such relation can be mentioned only on rare occasions. It is more often the case that an indirect, mediated relationship is found, when TERA evolves due to an unfavorable combination of risk factors, i.e. a forced immobility, changing coagulated blood system, impaired blood vessels etc.     

Histomorphometric indices of the pancreas in intoxication with alcohol and narcotics

The results of histomorphometric examinations of the pancreas in drug- and alcohol-addiction as well as in acute intoxications are described. They show that, in chronic alcoholic intoxication as compared with opiomania, there are more pronounced interlobular sclerosis and lipomatosis, which is manifested by an enlarged middle lobe of the stroma (containing fat and connective tissue fibers), by a higher density of islands of Langerhans and by their higher sectional area. Autolysis and edema of the stroma are more severe in an acute intoxication with drugs than in other cases of fatal outcome. A possibility is demonstrated to differentiate between various types of the so-called long-term exogenous intoxication and to discriminate between different types of thanatogenesis typical of various cases of acute intoxications. Data are presented that demonstrate the advantage of the quantitative analysis of histological preparations over the qualitative one.     

Changes in adrenergic and cholinergic innervation of the external genitalia in alcohol and drug intoxication

Eighteen cadavers of persons, who died of acute and chronic alcohol and drug intoxication (ephedron-addiction), were used to study the changes in the spinal nerve plexuses and external genitals. The activity of acetylcholinesterase and of NADPH-diaphorase was determined histochemically; the adrenergic nerve fibers were detected by a glyoxyl-acid technique. Rectified changes in the relative density of adrenal-cholinergic- and nitroxydergic structures and in the activity of mediators in different intoxications were found. The chronic intoxication by alcohol and ephedron was accompanied by a reduced activity of enzymes involved in the metabolism of acetylcholine, nitric oxide and catecholamines. A lower density was observed in the nerve fibers that contained the examined substances. The results can be used as an additional criterion in evaluating the male sexual-function status.     

Determination of 2.4-dinitrophenol,its basic metabolite and 4-oxide diphenyl in biological materials

A possibility was considered to isolate, by using dimethylformamide, 2.4-dinitrophenol, 2-amino-4-nitrophenol and 4-oxid-diphenyl from a biological-origin object. A method of extraction with subsequent chromatography in thin silicon-gel layer was used to purify the isolates from biological materials. The designed technique provides for identifying and for quantitatively defining the discussed phenol structures contained in the isolates from the liver tissue of corpses and human blood.