1,720,983 research outputs found
Un’intossicazione acuta da metadone: l’analisi metabolomica come strumento per l’identificazione del meccanismo della morte
No full textViene presentato il caso recentemente pubblicato1 della morte di un infante dell’età di 49 giorni, sospetto per una sindrome da morte improvvisa del lattante (SIDS). Il dato circostanziale e gli elementi oggettivi patologici macroscopici ed istopatologici erano coerenti con un'insufficienza respiratoria acuta e, pertanto, compatibili in astratto con una SIDS. Le analisi tossicologiche hanno rilevato nel sangue la presenza di metadone ad una concentrazione (570 ng/ml) compatibile con quelle descritte in letteratura nei casi mortali. Non essendo soddisfatta la criteriologia per la diagnosi di SIDS, la morte è stata quindi attribuita ad un’insufficienza respiratoria acuta secondaria ad un'intossicazione da metadone.
Oltre all'approccio tossicologico routinario, un campione urinario prelevato durante l’esame autoptico è stato studiato con un approccio metabolomico con piattaforma spettroscopica (1H NMR). Al fine di testare l’ipotesi che il metabolismo cellulare tende ad adattarsi alle diverse cause di ipossia/anossia in maniera similare, il profilo metabolomico identificato è stato confrontato mediante Analisi MultiVariata con una coorte rappresentata dai profili ottenuti da 10 neonati affetti da asfissia perinatale e da un gruppo di controllo di 16 neonati sani.
Il profilo metabolomico urinario del neonato intossicato da metadone ha presentato notevoli analogie con quello dei neonati con asfissia perinatale (giacendo in contiguità con questi nello spazio euclideo identificato dalla MVA) e, in particolare, con quel sotto cluster rappresentato dai tre neonati che erano deceduti nella prima settimana di vita e che quindi avevano subito l’insulto ipossico/anossico più grave nel peripartum.
Pur con l’evidente limitazione del singolo caso e del ristretto gruppo di controllo, i risultati ottenuti offrono importanti indicazioni su un possibile squilibrio metabolico condiviso tra i diversi meccanismi di asfissia/ipossia. Al meglio della conoscenza degli autori, questo è il primo caso pubblicato in letteratura specialistica internazionale dell'utilizzo di un approccio metabolomico in un caso patologico forense, in cui l’analisi traslazionale proposta offre informazioni addizionali riguardo al meccanismo della morte rispetto alle metodiche routinarie.
1 Chighine A, Porcu M, Ferino G, Lenigno N, Trignano C, d'Aloja E, Locci E. Infant urinary metabolomic profile in a fatal acute methadone intoxication. Int J Legal Med. 2022 Mar;136(2):569-575. doi: 10.1007/s00414-021-02772-z
D.LGS 187/00: aspetti medico-legali in tema di liceità, prescrivibilità ed esecutività di indagini diagnostiche e trattamenti terapeutici con radiazioni ionizzanti
No full textLC-MS/MS analysis of acetaminophen and caffeine in amniotic fluid
No full textThe intake of several substances by pregnant women could be
hazardous to the fetus and mother's health: many substances can
cross the placenta and reach the fetal compartment, causing adverse
outcomes. Consequently, to accurately measure the presence of
xenobiotics in fetal matrices, sensitive and specific bioanalytical
methods are necessary: this would allow the assessment of fetal
exposure to substanceswhich, although licit, can be dangerous for the
fetal and child's growth. The aim of this study was to develop and
validate a liquid chromatography tandem mass spectrometry method
for the simultaneous determination and quantitation of caffeine and
acetaminophen in amniotic fluid. Amniotic fluid is a quite complex
biological matrix and, as such, it requires a purification step prior to
analysis. The extraction method has been optimized by comparing
three different commercially available SPE cartridges (SupelTM Select
HLB, Phenomenex Strata C18-E, and Agilent ABS Elut-NEXUS), and a
liquid/liquid extraction with acetonitrile. A reverse-phase HPLC with a
C18 column and gradient elution programwas used. MS detectionwas
carried out in MRM mode. Quantitation was performed using the
internal standard method. Validation parameters were very satisfactory.
The high selectivity and sensitivity of the method (LOQ < 9.5 ng
mL1, and LOD < 3.3 ngmL1) allowed us to determine target analytes
even in small amounts. Precision, matrix effect, and stability were also
evaluated. The whole validated method has finally been applied to the
analysis of 194 real samples of human amniotic fluid obtained from
pregnant women (15–21 weeks of gestation) in order to monitor the
effective intake of target analytes: 96% of the examined women
consumed caffeine during pregnancy while a lower percentage (20%)
showed acetaminophen intake. The whole procedure is simple and
easy to perform with minimal sample preparation and short analysis
time
Determination of xeniobiotics in human amniotic fluid. A preliminary study in Sardinian pregnant women
No full textEffect of Homoeopathic Mother Tinctures on Breath Alcohol Testing
No full textIn some countries, it is illegal to drive with any detectable amount of alcohol in blood; in others, the legal limit is 0.5 g/L or lower. Recently, some defendants charged with driving under the influence of alcohol and have claimed that positive breath alcohol test results were due to the ingestion of homeopathic mother tinctures. These preparations are obtained by maceration, digestion, infusion, or decoction of herbal material in hydroalcoholic solvent. A series of tests were conducted to evaluate the alcoholic content of three homeopathic mother tinctures and their ability to produce inaccurate breath alcohol results. Nine of 30 subjects gave positive results (0.11–0.82 g/L) when tests were
taken within 1 min after drinking mother tincture. All tests taken at least 15 min after the mother tincture consumption and resulted in alcohol free readings. An observation period of 15–20 min prior to breath alcohol testing eliminates the possibility of false-positive results
Forensic Biometrics: Challenges, Innovation and Opportunities. In: Francese, S., S. P. King, R. (eds) Driving Forensic Innovation in the 21st Century. Springer, Cham.
No full textForensic science has always benefited from the adoption and exploitation of novel technologies to perform and analyze measurements at a crime scene and in the laboratory. Modern information technologies boosted many forensic procedures, such as accelerating and automating the comparison of fingerprints and fingermarks, and, recently, the analysis and comparison of images from human faces. Moreover, the recent advent of fast and performant Machine Learning (often dubbed AI) models, greatly improved the applicability of automatic face recognition to operational scenarios. However, even though technology has enabled the development of such systems, there are several hindering factors which must be taken into account. In this chapter the technological, legal and societal factors potentially enabling and fostering the development and application of automatic face recognition in forensic procedures are described and discussed. Also, the current issues and main concerns, restricting the mass-adoption of automatic face recognition technologies in forensic cases are presented. This chapter attempts not only to document both enablers and roadblockers of forensic face recognition, but also provides some promising research avenues and suggestions for a better application of these technologies in today’s society
Going Beyond Counting First Authors in Author Co-citation Analysis
Full text linkThe present study examines one of the fundamental aspects of author co-citation analysis (ACA) - the way co-citation
counts are defined. Co-citation counting provides the data on which all subsequent statistical analyses and mappings
are based, and we compare ACA results based on two different types of co-citation counting - the traditional type that
only counts the first one among a cited work's authors on the one hand and a non-traditional type that takes into
account the first 5 authors of a cited work on the other hand. Results indicate that the picture produced through this non-traditional author co-citation counting contains more coherent author groups and is therefore considerably clearer. However, this picture represents fewer specialties in the research field being studied than that produced through the traditional first-author co-citation counting when the same number of top-ranked authors is selected and analyzed. Reasons for these effects are discussed
Variations on the Author
Full text link“Variations on the Author” discusses two of Eduardo Coutinho’s recent films (Um Dia na Vida, from 2010, and Últimas Conversas, posthumously released in 2015) and their contribution to the general question of documentary authorship. The director’s filmography is characterized by a consistent yet self-effacing form of authorial self-inscription: Coutinho often features as an interviewer that rather than express opinions propels discourses; an interviewer that is good at listening. This mode of self-inscription characterizes him as an author who is not expressive but who is nonetheless markedly present on the screen. In Um Dia na Vida, however, Coutinho is completely absent form the image, while Últimas Conversas, on the contrary, includes a confessional prologue that moves the director from the margins to the center of his films. This article examines the ways in which these works stand out in the filmography of a director who offers new insights into the notion of cinematic authorship
Appropriate Similarity Measures for Author Cocitation Analysis
Full text linkWe provide a number of new insights into the methodological discussion about author cocitation analysis. We first argue that the use of the Pearson correlation for measuring the similarity between authors’ cocitation profiles is not very satisfactory. We then discuss what kind of similarity measures may be used as an alternative to the Pearson correlation. We consider three similarity measures in particular. One is the well-known cosine. The other two similarity measures have not been used before in the bibliometric literature. Finally, we show by means of an example that our findings have a high practical relevance.information science;Pearson correlation;cosine;similarity measure;author cocitation analysis
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