Ultrastructure of acute ammonia toxicity in the human lung

A tanker truck carrying anhydrous ammonia (NH3) fell off a freeway, releasing a dense cloud of NH3 gas, killing several people. The driver was dead upon impact. To our knowledge, pulmonary NH3 toxicity in humans has not been studied previously by electron microscopy (EM). Therefore, in two cases, the paraffin-embedded tissue blocks of lung were deparaffinized and reembedded in plastic for 1-mu sections and EM examination. The lung tissue of a third case, the truck driver, was similarly processed as a control. Light-microscopic pulmonary findings in the acute NH3 deaths included denudation of the tracheobronchial epithelium, edema of the lamina propria, and marked alveolar edema, congestion, and hemorrhage. In contrast, in the truck driver's lungs, the bronchial epithelium was intact, and there was no gross odor of NH3. Massive pulmonary hemorrhages in his lungs were attributed to trauma rather than NH3 inhalation. EM examination of the lungs of the truck driver showed no discernible toxic alterations in either the capillary endothelial cells or the Type I or II alveolar epithelial cells, and alveolar and capillary basement membranes were intact. In contrast, EM study of the lungs from two individuals dying acutely of NH3 inhalation showed marked swelling and imbitional edema of Type I alveolar epithelial cells; however, alveolar basement membranes and capillary endothelial cells appeared as usual. These electron-microscopic findings demonstrate the Type I epithelial cell to be the target cell of acute alveolar wall injury in NH3 inhalation.     

Elemental analysis of human cremains using ICP-OES to classify legitimate and contaminated cremains

The Tri-State Crematory Incident in Nobel, GA (February 2001) revealed limitations in traditional human cremated remains (cremains) analytical methodology. The goal of this study was to develop a method for effectively classifying questionable sets of cremains as legitimate or contaminated. Eighty-eight samples of known human cremains, concrete, mixtures of the two, and questionable sets of cremains were acid digested and analyzed for 21 elements by Inductively Coupled Plasma-Optical Emission Spectroscopy (ICP-OES). Variable cluster and principle component analyses identified the seven elements (Sb, B, Li, Mn, Sr, Tl, and V) used to develop discriminant functions to classify questionable sets into two groups: cremains and concrete. The discriminant analysis shows that at the 0.90 probability level, mixtures of 50% or less human content were classified as concrete. Mixtures with 90% human content classified as cremains. Sixty percent and 75% human content mixtures remained in the questionable classification, but as the concentration of human increased in the mixture, the probability of assignment to the known cremains group increased. Most of the questionable human samples classified as cremains. This is a pilot study and cannot yet satisfy Daubert standards for courtroom admissibility, but it indicates that it is possible to determine the legitimacy of cremains using elemental analysis by ICP-OES coupled with multivariate statistical analysis.     

Party composition in the American states: Clarifying concepts and explaining changes in partisanship since the 1950s

Students of state politics have long been interested in the partisanship and the degree of interparty competition in the American states. This has led to numerous attempts to quantify state-level partisanship and competition, the most significant by Ranney (1965). Interestingly, however, scholars have never specified clearly the relationship between these two concepts as measured by the Ranney index. This research attempts to do just that and reveals that the two are different measures which are related systematically. More important, understanding changes in a state's partisanship is determined to be crucial to understanding changes in its level of two-party competition. As such, in order to explain changes in partisanship and competition across the American states from the 1950s to the 1970s, we focus on accounting for changes in partisanship. To this end, changes in aggregate demographic variables account very well for states' movement along the Ranney index over the last 3 decades.The names of the authors appear in alphabetical order and imply that this paper is in every way a collaborative enterprise.     

Defending hospital mergers after the FTC's unorthodox challenge to the Evanston Northwestern--Highland Park transaction

Examining the Federal Trade Commission's retrospective challenge of a hospital merger in Illinois, the author provides an insightful analysis of one of the agency's major antitrust enforcement initiatives in health care in the last several years. Because the case produced several departures from antitrust orthodoxy, these departures may affect the trials of future hospital mergers that are challenged. The author reviews the methodology and evidence of the case, and he identifies theories and best practices that are important for administrators and legal practitioners to implement in future mergers.