Self‐Embedding Behavior in Adults: A Report of Two Cases and a Systematic Review

Self‐embedding behavior (SEB) is the repeated insertion of sharp objects, such as needles or pins, into the soft tissues of abdomen, limbs, and other body parts. In this study, two cases of SEB were reported and the scientific worldwide literature reviewed. Thirty‐two cases of SEB were identified through systematic searches in the main bibliographic databases. Mean age was 35 years (SD = 8.97). Just over two‐thirds of the patients were female. Although the number of embedded objects could be as high as 200, major clinical and surgical complications were uncommon and mortality was null. Patients with SEB presented three major diagnoses: psychotic (25%), personality (21.9%), and factitious (28.1%) disorders. The practice of SEB largely went undetected as the patients themselves did not bring it to the attention of family members or physicians and usually denied they have engaged in SEB. A high level of suspicion is required to avoid a missed diagnosis.     

Fast LC-MS/MS method for the determination of amphetamine, methamphetamine, MDA, MDMA, MDEA, MBDB and PMA in urine

A fast method was designed for the simultaneous determination of amphetamine (A), methamphetamine (MA), PMA, MDA, MDMA, MDEA and MBDB in urine. The drugs were analysed by LC (ESI)-MS/MS, after a simple liquid-liquid extraction in the presence of the deuterated analogues. Reverse phase separation on an Atlantis dC18 Intelligent Speed column was achieved in less than 4 min under gradient conditions, and the total run time was 8 min. The method was fully validated, including linearity (1-1000 ng/mL for A, MDMA, MDEA and MBDB; 2-1000 ng/mL for MDA and PMA; 1-200 ng/mL for MA; r2>0.99 for all compounds), recovery (>80%), within-day and between-day precision and accuracy (CV and MRE<12.7% for intermediate level and ULOQ, and <17.2% for LLOQ), limit of detection (0.2 ng/mL for MDMA, MDEA and MBDB; 0.5 ng/mL for A, MA and PMA; 1 ng/mL for MDA) and quantitation (1 ng/mL for A, MA, MDMA, MDEA and MBDB; 2 ng/mL for MDA and PMA) and relative ion intensities. No matrix effect was observed. The procedure proved to be sensitive, specific and rapid, and was applied to real forensic cases.     

Y-chromosomal STR haplotypes in a population from the Amazon region, Brazil

Haplotype and allele frequencies of the nine Y-STR (DYS19, DYS389 I, DYS389 II, DYS390, DYS391, DYS392, DYS393, DYS385 I/II) were determined in a population sample of 200 unrelated males from Belém, Brazil. The most common haplotypes are shared by 1.5% of the sample, while 186 haplotypes are unique. The haplotype diversity is 0.9995+/-0.0006. The data obtained were compared to those of other Brazilian populations. AMOVA indicates that 99.91% of all the haplotypical variation is found within geopolitical regions and only 0.09% is found among regions.     

Nucleotide variability of HV-I in Afro-descendents populations of the Brazilian Amazon Region

The analysis of genetic variation in the nucleotide sequences of mitochondrial DNA, provides unique information about the population diversity and human identification. In this study, the mitochondrial DNA sequences of the first hypervariable region (HV-I) were analyzed in 243 unrelated individuals of seven Afro-descendents populations of the Amazon Region. Sequence polymorphisms were detected using PCR and direct sequencing analysis. A total of 133 different haplotypes were found determined by 97 variable nucleotides. Each one of the three more frequent haplotypes was shared by 9 samples and 91 sequences were unique. The genetic diversity was estimated to 0.9898+/-0.0016 and the probability of two random individuals showed identical mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) haplotypes were 1.2%.     

High‐Resolution Melting (HRM) of Hypervariable Mitochondrial DNA Regions for Forensic Science

Forensic strategies commonly are proceeding by analysis of short tandem repeats (STRs); however, new additional strategies have been proposed for forensic science. Thus, this article standardized the high‐resolution melting (HRM) of DNA for forensic analyzes. For HRM, mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) from eight individuals were extracted from mucosa swabs by DNAzol reagent, samples were amplified by PCR and submitted to HRM analysis to identify differences in hypervariable (HV) regions I and II. To confirm HRM, all PCR products were DNA sequencing. The data suggest that is possible discriminate DNA from different samples by HRM curves. Also, uncommon dual‐dissociation was identified in a single PCR product, increasing HRM analyzes by evaluation of melting peaks. Thus, HRM is accurate and useful to screening small differences in HVI and HVII regions from mtDNA and increase the efficiency of laboratory routines based on forensic genetics.     

Evaluating the forensic informativeness of mtDNA haplogroup H sub-typing on a Eurasian scale

The impact of phylogeographic information on mtDNA forensics has been limited to the quality control of published sequences and databases. In this work we use the information already available on Eurasian mtDNA phylogeography to guide the choice of coding-region SNPs for haplogroup H. This sub-typing is particularly important in forensics since, even when sequencing both HVRI and HVRII, the discriminating power is low in some Eurasian populations. We show that a small set (eight) of coding-region SNPs resolves a substantial proportion of the identical haplotypes, as defined by control-region variation alone. Moreover, this SNP set, while substantially increasing the discriminating efficiency in most Eurasian populations by roughly equal amounts, discloses population-specific profiles.