Search results for "Forensic"
showing 10 items of 1701 documents
Experience with the PCR-based HLA-DQ? DNA typing system in routine forensic casework
1993
The results of HLA-DQ alpha typing from 42 routine forensic cases using the polymerase chain reaction (PCR) were analyzed regarding the reliability, discrimination efficiency and informative value of this system in a given case. The cases included stain typing from a variety of different substates, i.e. blood and semen stains, mixed body fluids, single hairs, cigarette butts, material from fingernail scratches, as well as identification and paternity cases on postmortem and fixed tissue. A total of 125 individual stain and tissue samples were included. PCR amplification was achieved in 70% of these samples. In cases with mixed body fluids, e.g. sperm and vaginal cells from rape cases, DQ al…
Tandem repeat structure of the duplicated Y-chromosomal STR locus DYS385 and frequency studies in the German and three Asian populations
1998
The Y-chromosomal short tandem repeat (STR) locus DYS385 can be typed using PCR amplification and separation of the resulting polymorphic fragments by non-denaturing high resolution polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis followed by silver staining. The PCR primers amplify a duplicated repeat sequence on the Y chromosome revealing a two-band pattern in male individuals. To determine the internal repeat structure as a basis for a consensus nomenclature, DNA sequence analysis was carried out after subcloning of PCR-amplified fragments revealing the uniform 4-bp repeat structure 'GAAA'. The shortest allele observed consisted of 10 repeat units thus providing the basis for the designation 'allele 1…
Accuracy of the estimation of dental age in comparison with chronological age in a Spanish sample of 2641 living subjects using the Demirjian and Nol…
2016
Age estimation is an important procedure in forensic medicine and is carried out for a number of reasons. For living persons, age estimation is performed in order to assess whether a child has attained the age of criminal responsibility, in scenarios involving rape, kidnapping or marriage, in premature births, adoption procedures, illegal immigration, pediatric endocrine diseases and orthodontic malocclusion, as well as in circumstances in which the birth certificate is not available or the records are suspect. According to data from the UNHCR (United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees), the number of people seeking refugee status continued to increase in the last years, driven by the w…
Transoral laser microsurgery for glottic cancer in the elderly: Efficacy and safety
2018
Background Data about the results of transoral laser microsurgery (TLM) in elderly patients are limited. Methods A retrospective study of 72 consecutive cases of glottic carcinoma (63 pT1 and 9 pT2 cases) in elderly patients (≥70 years old, mean 76 years) treated with TLM was made. A systematic review of the literature was performed. Results Six patients (8%) had postoperative complications, but no treatment-related deaths were observed. Local recurrences occurred in 12 patients (16.5%): nine with pT1 (14%) and three with pT2 (33%) tumors. Five-year disease-specific survival (DSS), overall survival, and laryngectomy-free survival were 95%, 68%, and 88%, respectively. The literature review i…
Determination of propofol by GC/MS and fast GC/MS-TOF in two cases of poisoning
2017
Two cases of suspected acute and lethal intoxication caused by propofol were delivered by the judicial authority to the Department of Sciences for Health Promotion and Mother-Child Care in Palermo, Sicily. In the first case a female nurse was found in a hotel room, where she lived with her mother; four 10 mg/mL vials and two 20 mg/mL vials of propofol were found near the decedent along with syringes and needles. In the second case a male nurse was found in the operating room of a hospital, along with a used syringe. In both cases a preliminary systematic and toxicological analysis indicated the presence of propofol in the blood and urine. As a result, a method for the quantitative determina…
The shape of synaptic ribbons in the rat pineal gland
1997
Under the transmission electron microscope, synaptic ribbons (SRs) of the mammalian pineal gland appear as rod-like organelles. Their three-dimensional structure is not precisely known. In the present study, pineal SRs were investigated using serial sections obtained from rats killed at noon and midnight. The shape of the SRs was reconstructed based on SR profile length and the number of sections in which the profiles were contained. The results obtained show that SRs are basically flat plate-like structures with polymorphic lateral edges. Reconstructions of SRs revealed that they had average dimensions of 300x150x35 nm and were 19.3% larger at night than at day; the difference in SR size p…
Atrial natriuretic factor-like immunoreactivity in spinal cord and in primary sensory neurons of spinal and trigeminal ganglia of guinea-pig: correla…
1989
Atrial natriuretic factor (ANF) is a cardiac hormone with various functions in body homeostasis. It is also processed in the brain and in the peripheral nervous system where it appears to play a role as a neuromodulator. Little is known about the presence of ANF throughout the spinal cord of the guinea-pig. We therefore examined the distribution of ANF and its possible interrelation with primary sensory afferents in this species. Using enzyme- and fluorescence-immunohistochemistry on deparaffinized sections, ANF-like immunoreactivity was found to be present in nerve fibers in laminae I/II of the spinal cord and in neurons of spinal and trigeminal ganglia. Tachykinins and ANF coexisted in ve…
Differential localization of neuronal nitric oxide synthase immunoreactivity and NADPH-diaphorase activity in the cat spinal cord.
1994
The distributions of neuronal nitric oxide synthase immunoreactivity (NOS-IR) and NADPH-diaphorase (NADPH-d) activity were compared in the cat spinal cord. NOS-IR in neurons around the central canal, in superficial laminae (I and II) of the dorsal horn, in the dorsal commissure, and in fibers in the superficial dorsal horn was observed at all levels of the spinal cord. In these regions, NOS-IR paralleled NADPH-d activity. The sympathetic autonomic nucleus in the rostral lumbar and thoracic segments exhibited prominent NOS-IR and NADPH-d activity, whereas the parasympathetic nucleus in the sacral segments did not exhibit NOS-IR or NADPH-d activity. Within the region of the sympathetic autono…
Loss of desmoglein 2 suggests essential functions for early embryonic development and proliferation of embryonal stem cells.
2002
Summary Desmoglein 2 (Dsg2) is a Ca 2+ -dependent adhesion molecule of desmosomes and is synthesized in all desmosome-bearing tissues from their earliest appearance onward. To examine the function of Dsg2, its gene was inactivated by homologous recombination in embryonal stem (ES) cells for the generation of knockout mice. DSG2 −/− mice and a considerable number of DSG2 +/− mice died at or shortly after implantation. On the other hand, DSG2 −/− blastocysts developed an apparently normal trophectoderm layer, the first tissue known to produce desmosomes, and hatched properly. Immunofluorescence analyses of these blastocysts showed, however, that the distribution of the desmosomal plaque prote…
Expression of the rat connexin 39 (rCx39) gene in myoblasts and myotubes in developing and regenerating skeletal muscles: an in situ hybridization st…
2005
We report a detailed analysis of the expression pattern of the recently identified rat connexin gene, named rat connexin 39 (rCx39), both during embryonic development and in adult life. Qualitative and quantitative reverse transcription/polymerase chain reaction analysis showed intense expression of rCx39 restricted to differentiating skeletal muscles, with a peak of expression detected at 18 days of embryonic life, followed by a rapid decline to undetectable levels within the first week of postnatal life. A combination of the in situ hybridization technique for the detection of rCx39 mRNA and immunohistochemistry for myogenin, a myoblast-specific marker, allowed us to establish that the mR…