Novel paternity testing by distinguishing parental alleles at a VNTR locus in the differentially methylated region upstream of the human H19 gene

Conventional PCR-based genotyping is useful for forensic testing but cannot be used to determine parental origins of alleles in DNA specimens. Here we describe a novel method of combined conventional genotyping and PIA typing (parentally imprinted allele typing) at a minisatellite region upstream from the H19 locus. The PIA typing uses two sets of primers and DNA digested with methylation-sensitive Hha I enzyme. The first amplification produces only the methylated fragment of paternal H19 allele, and the second detects polymorphism in the minisatellite. Hence, this distinguishes paternal and maternal alleles by difference in the DNA methylation. Furthermore, the polymorphism in this polymorphic locus was examined using 199 unrelated Japanese and 171 unrelated Germans, their polymorphism information content being 0.671 and 0.705, respectively. Feasibility of this typing is demonstrated for six families, and the usefulness is shown by application to paternity testing.     

Colonial Legacy and Foreign Aid: Decomposing the Colonial Bias

It is well-known that donors give considerably more foreign aid to former colonies than to countries lacking past colonial ties. Unfortunately, we know relatively little about why this is the case. For one, there is almost never a theoretical justification for the inclusion of colonial history in statistical models. For the other, the only explicitly made rationale by Bueno de Mesquita and Smith (2009) actually predicts an interpretational problem: colonial history not only increases a former colony’s saliency to the donor, but also has left deep marks on recipients’ social and political institutions today. Both aspects shape how much aid a donor transfers to the recipient. This leaves ambiguous the meaning of the routinely found positive, sizable, and significant coefficient of colonial history on aid flows. We solve the inferential quandary by using a decomposition approach from labor econometrics. Our results show that about 75–100% of the colony effect on foreign aid stems from the greater saliency that donors give to policy concessions from former colonies.     

Fatal bilateral pneumothoraces after electroacupuncture treatment: A case report and literature review

Acupuncture is practiced as a complementary medicine worldwide. Although it is considered a safe practice, pneumothorax is one of its most common serious complications. However, there have been few reports of deaths due to pneumothorax after acupuncture treatment, especially focused on electroacupuncture. We report an autopsy case of a man in his 60s who went into cardiopulmonary arrest and died immediately after receiving electroacupuncture. Postmortem computed tomography (PMCT) showed bilateral pneumothoraces, as well as the presence of numerous gold threads embedded subcutaneously. An autopsy revealed two ecchymoses in the right thoracic cavity and a pinhole injury on the lower lobe of the right lung, suggesting that the needles had penetrated the lung. There were marked emphysematous changes in the lung, suggesting that rupture of bullae might also have contributed to bilateral pneumothoraces and fatal outcome. The acupuncture needles may have been drawn deeper into the body than at the time of insertion due to electrical pulses and muscle contraction, indicating the need for careful determination of treatment indications and technical safety measures, such as fail-safe mechanisms. This is the first case report of fatal bilateral pneumothoraces after electroacupuncture reported in the English literature. This case sheds light on the safety of electroacupuncture and the need for special care when administering it to patients with pulmonary disease who may be at a higher risk of pneumothorax. This is also the first report of three-dimensional reconstructed PMCT images showing the whole-body distribution of embedded gold acupuncture threads, which is unusual.     

Abdominal Stab Wounds with Tension Pneumopericardium Confirmed by Autopsy and Postmortem Computed Tomography

We present the first report of pneumopericardium observed by autopsy and on postmortem computed tomography (PMCT) images. The subject was a woman who died of self‐inflicted stab wounds to the abdomen. The PMCT scan revealed air in the pericardial sac, a “flattened heart” sign, and retroperitoneal hemorrhage. Medicolegal autopsy revealed two abdominal stab wounds near the xiphoid process that had cut the apical pericardium and adjacent diaphragm and liver. Examination of the open thorax confirmed that the pericardial sac was distended with air. The wound extended to the abdominal aorta, causing retroperitoneal hemorrhage. PMCT images showed that the pneumopericardial volume was 133 mL. We believe that cardiac tamponade occurred resulting from the tension pneumopericardium; however, the effects were mitigated by hypovolemia secondary to the retroperitoneal hemorrhage as well as obstructive shock. Therefore, the cause of death appears to have been low‐pressure cardiac tamponade.     

Ruptured Syphilitic Aneurysm: A Cause of Sudden Death in a Man with Human Immunodeficiency Coinfection

Syphilis, a sexually transmitted infection caused by the bacterium Treponema palladium, is experiencing a worldwide resurgence. The risk of syphilis infection is particularly high in men who have sex with men (MSM), especially those who are human immunodeficiency virus (HIV)‐positive. Untreated syphilis can lead to rare but severe late‐stage complications, including syphilitic aortitis. Herein, we present an autopsy case of a ruptured thoracic aneurysm that resulted from an undetected case of syphilitic aortitis in an HIV‐positive Japanese MSM with undiagnosed syphilis. Although no syphilitic skin lesions were observed on the body, anatomical changes consistent with a syphilitic etiology were present at the site of the rupture, including medial aortic scarring with “tree‐bark”‐like atherosclerotic plaque. In addition, heart blood was positive for T. palladium in a latex agglutination test. This case highlights for forensic pathologists the importance of recognizing syphilis as a possible underlying cause of sudden death among HIV‐positive MSM.     

Population genetics of 17 Y-chromosomal STR loci in Japanese

Haplotypes and allele frequencies of 17 Y-chromosomal short tandem repeat (Y-STR) markers were examined using the AmpFlSTR Yfiler PCR Amplification Kit (Applied Biosystems) in a population sample of 1166 Japanese male volunteers in 6 prefectures: Miyagi, Yamagata, Osaka, Tottori, Fukuoka, and Okinawa. A total of 1058 haplotypes were observed from 1166 males, and the most common haplotype detected in 12 males had a frequency of 1.03% and the discrimination capacity was 0.907. The R_ST analysis showed statistically significant differences between Okinawa and the other subpopulations.     

Modelling the demand for foreign savings in developing countries: Testing a hypothesis with Latin American data

The demand for foreign savings is an important feature of the economy in many LDCs, and it would be helpful to have a better understanding of its determinants. This paper considers one approach to modelling the demand for foreign savings in LDCs. If the demand for investment shifts out more buoyantly than does the supply of domestic saving in response to current macro‐economic conditions, persistent demand for foreign savings will be generated as a normal feature of the development process. We test this hypothesis with elasticities computed from the parameters of investment and domestic saving equations estimated for a sample of 21 Latin American countries. The empirical results show that in approximately half of the countries in the sample (and most notably in Brazil and in Mexico), the demand for foreign savings is rooted in the parameters of the investment and domestic saving functions.     

‘Great Green Wall' and ‘Green Corps' :Joining with Our Chinese Youth to Stop the Spread of Deserts.

正My engagement in the long-term effort to stop the spread of deserts in China started from a very distinct personal experience.When I arrived in Beijing in 1998 to serve as ambassador to China,I was greeted by the yellow dust storms.The gales that brought in the sand and dust were very powerful and it was no small shock to see Beijing’s