Potential for error when assessing blood cyanide concentrations in fire victims.

The present study explores toxicologic significance of blood cyanide concentrations in fire victims. Headspace gas chromatography was used for cyanide detection. Analysis of blood samples from ten fire victims (postmortem interval = 8 h to 3 to 5 d) detected zero to 11.9 mg/L of cyanide and a large difference in cyanide concentrations among victims. Carboxyhemoglobin (COHb) saturation was in the range of 24.9 to 84.2%. To examine the effects of methemoglobinemia and postmortem interval on blood cyanide concentrations in fire victims, an experiment was carried out using rabbits as the animal model. The rabbits were sacrificed by intramuscular injection of 1 mL/kg 2% potassium cyanide 5 min after intravenous injection of 0.33 mL/kg of 3% sodium nitrite (Group A, n = 3) or physiological saline (Group B, n = 6). Average methemoglobin contents immediately before potassium cyanide administration were 6.9 and 0.8% in Groups A and B, respectively. Average cyanide concentrations in cardiac blood at the time of death were 47.4 and 3.56 mg/L, respectively. When blood-containing hearts of the rabbits (n = 3 for Group B) were left at 46 degrees C for the first 1 h, at 20 to 25 degrees C for the next 23 h and then at 4 degrees C for 48 h, approximately 85 and 46% of the original amounts of blood cyanide disappeared within 24 h in Groups A and B, respectively. After the 72-h storage period, 37 and 10%, respectively, of the original amounts of cyanide remained in the blood. When the other three hearts in Group B were left at 20 to 25 degrees C for the last 48 h without refrigeration, cyanide had disappeared almost completely by the end of the experiment. The present results and those published in the literature demonstrate that the toxic effects of cyanide on fire victims should not be evaluated based solely on the concentration in blood.     

A method for forensic identification of vegetable oil stains--rapid analysis of carboxylic acids with methyl esterification using purge-and-trap gas chromatography/mass spectrometry.

A simple method using purge-and-trap gas chromatography/mass spectrometry (P&T-GC/MS) for forensic examination of oil stains was studied. Carboxylic acids, chosen as target components for discrimination of oil samples, were extracted from stains with ether, methyl esterified by tetramethylammonium hydroxide, and analyzed by P&T-GC/MS. Vegetable oils were discriminated according to their carboxylic acid compositions. Carboxylic acid composition was independent of the substrate material of the stain. Although the carboxylic acid composition of the oil changed on exposure to sunlight, identification of oil was possible for oil stains that had been in the shade, if analysis was made within 20 days.     

Sudden death of an infant with 'an early epileptic encephalopathy'.

This article reports an autopsy case of sudden death of an infant with an infrequent encephalopathy involving epileptic episodes. The infant was a 1-year and 10-month-old boy, who had a history of the first convulsive seizures in the third month after birth. The clinical diagnosis was described as 'an early infantile epileptic encephalopathy with suppression-bursts' (Ohtahara syndrome). On a winter day, he was collapsed following a high fever and was already dead on the arrival at a hospital. The body was small for the age and poorly nourished. The autopsy and postmortem magnetic resonance imaging scan (MRI) of formalin-fixed brain revealed advanced unsymmetric brain atrophy with cortical dysplasia, which were prominent in the left temporal and right occipital lobes, and sclerotic atrophy of the parahippocampal gyri, additionally showing a feature of the olivo-ponto-cerebellar atrophy. However, the cause of death was pathologically and microbiologically determined as bacterial bronchopneumonia following pulmonary infection of the influenza A virus. In sudden death cases of physically handicapped infants, the investigation of viral infection in consideration of an epidemiological survey is important even when the death can be pathomorphologically explained.     

A road map for universal coverage: finding a pass through the financial mountains

Government already pays for more than half of U.S. health care costs, and nearly all universal health insurance proposals assume continued government involvement through tax subsidies and other means. The question of what specific taxes could be used to finance universal coverage is, however, seldom carefully examined, in part due to efforts by health care reform proponents to downplay tax issues. In this article we undertake such an examination. We argue that the challenges of relying on taxes for universal coverage are even greater than is generally appreciated, but that they can nevertheless be met. A proposal to fund a universal health insurance voucher system with a value-added tax illustrates issues that would arise for tax-financed plans in general and provides a broad framework for a bipartisan approach to universal coverage. We discuss significant problems that such an approach would face and suggest solutions. We outline a long-term political and legislative strategy for enacting universal coverage that draws upon precedents set by comparable legislative initiatives, including tax reform and Medicare. The results are an improved understanding of the relationship between systemic health care finance reform and taxation and a politically realistic plan for universal coverage that employs undisguised taxes.     

Metric sex determination from the pelvis in modern Greeks

The ability to determine sex from unknown skeletal remains is vital, and methods to do this on the various bones of the human skeleton have been researched extensively. Many researchers have emphasized the need for population specific data for methods which are based on measurements, as there are vast differences in body size in various populations. The pelvis is known to be the most sexually dimorphic part of the human body, and no discriminant function formulae for this bone are available for Greek or other Mediterranean groups. The purpose of this study was therefore to develop discriminant functions which can be used for sex determination on measurements of the pelvis of modern Greeks. A sample of 97 male and 95 female pelves in a skeletal collection housed in Heraklion, Crete, was used. Measurements were taken from the articulated pelvis, single os coxae and the sacrum. Discriminant function formulae for all measurements and various combinations were used in order to assess the degree of sexual dimorphism in various parts of the pelvis, and to make the formulae usable on fragmented remains. For the single os coxae, average accuracies of 79.7-95.4% (79.1-93.5% on cross-validation) were found. However, it was found that measurements of the sciatic notch were unreliable and yielded poor results, and it is advisable that this characteristic must only be used as a last resort. Dimensions of the sacrum were not very dimorphic (average accuracy 60.9%), while measurements from the articulated pelvis yielded poorer results than that from single innominate bones. The diameter of the acetabulum was the single most dimorphic characteristic, providing on average 83.9% accuracy when used in isolation.     

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.