“The big sleep: Elucidating the sequence of events in the first hours of death to determine the postmortem interval”

Recent developments on postmortem interval estimation (PMI) take an advantage of the autolysis process, pointing out to the analysis of the expression of apoptosis and autophagy genes towards this purpose. Oxidative stress plays a role in this signaling as a regulatory mechanism and/or as a consequence of cell death. Additionally, melatonin has been implicated on apoptosis and autophagy signaling, making melatonin a suitable target for PMI determination. The aim of this study was to investigate the early PMI through the analysis of the expression of autophagy genes as well as oxidative stress and melatonin receptor. Our results demonstrated a rapidly increased on the expression of autophagy genes according to the expected sequence of events, then a marked decrease in this expression, matched with the switch to the apoptosis signaling. These results revealed potential candidates to analyze the PMI in the first hours of death, helping to estimate the time-since-death.     

To Care and Protect: Care Workers Confronting Sweden Democrats in their Workplace

Austerity policies across European countries have encountered diverse forms of public protest and resistance. In Sweden, we have seen the emergence of a number of networks and organizations which take care workers’ professional identity as their point of departure. These networks and organizations stress the impossibility of being professional care workers in slimmed-down, neoliberal organizations. Parallel to this, and sometimes embedded into one another, female-dominated professions (e.g. social workers, nurses, doctors, and teachers) have been engaged in opposing restrictive refugee policies. This article analyses how care workers in an emergency room in Malmö mobilized against a visit by Jimmie Åkesson, leader of the right-wing, xenophobic Sweden Democrats. The article explores how workers used a gendered discourse of care and professionalism to argue that their actions were consistent with both organizational culture and their professional ethics. The article shows how, by defending their professional role of providing quality care to all in need, workers challenge both austerity and racist policies, which both impose restrictions on who has the right to care. Theoretically, the article explores how the politicization of care creates spaces of resistance, to critique both austerity policies and exclusionary understandings of national belonging. The study stresses the importance of identifying emerging forms of collective resistance among care workers at the intersection of the struggles against austerity and right-wing xenophobic parties.     

Regional psychiatric boards in Israel: expectations and realities

As laid down by Israeli legislation, the Regional Psychiatric Board constitutes one of the chief instruments in the monitoring of compulsory hospitalization, of compulsory outpatient treatment and of the quality of all inpatient care of the mentally ill. This article presents the findings of a study into the working of these boards. Taking a sample of every second application (N=168) over a 6-month period to one of Israel's six existing Regional Psychiatric Boards, an examination was made of the decisions issued by the board and of other aspects of its functioning. Explanations for the findings of this analysis are suggested, and generalizing from these findings, recommendations are offered for the improvement of the future functioning of all six Boards.     

Analysis of Delta9-tetrahydrocannabinol in oral fluid samples using solid-phase extraction and high-performance liquid chromatography-electrospray ionization mass spectrometry

An analytical method using solid-phase extraction (SPE) and high-performance liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry (LC-MS) has been developed and validated for the confirmation of Delta(9)-tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) in oral fluid samples. Oral fluid was extracted using Bond Elut LRC-Certify solid-phase extraction columns (10 cm(3), 300 mg) and elution performed with n-hexane/ethyl acetate. Quantitation made use of the selected ion-recording mode (SIR) using the most abundant characteristic ion [THC+H(+)], m/z 315.31 and the fragment ion, m/z 193.13 for confirmation, and m/z 318.00 for the protonated internal standard, [d(3)-THC+H(+)]. The method proved to be precise for THC, in terms of both intra-day and inter-day analyses, with coefficients of variation less than 10%, and the calculated extraction efficiencies for THC ranged from 76 to 83%. Calibration standards spiked with THC between 2 and 100 ng/mL showed a linear relationship (r(2)=0.999). The method presented was applied to the oral fluid samples taken from the volunteers during the largest music event in Portugal, named Rock in Rio-Lisboa. Oral fluid was collected from 40 persons by expectoration and with Salivette. In 55% of the samples obtained by expectorating, THC was detected with concentration ranges from 1033 to 6552 ng/mL and in 45% of cases THC was detected at concentrations between 51 and 937 ng/mL. However, using Salivette collection, 26 of the 40 cases had an undetectable THC.