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Knowledge on the postmortem interval (PMI) of wild boar (Sus scrofa) carcasses is crucial in the event of an outbreak of African swine fever in a wild boar population. Therefore, a thorough understanding of the decomposition process of this species in different microhabitats is necessary. We describe the decomposition process of carcasses exposed in cages. Trial 1 compared a wild boar and a domestic pig (Sus scrofa domesticus) under similar conditions; Trial 2 was performed with three wild boar piglets in the sunlight, shade, or in a wallow, and Trial 3 with two adult wild boar in the sun or shade. The wild boar decomposed more slowly than the domestic pig, which shows that standards derived from forensic studies on domestic pigs are not directly applicable to wild boar. The carcasses exposed to the sun decomposed faster than those in the shade did, and the decomposition of the carcass in the wallow took longest. To assess the state of decomposition, we adapted an existing total body scoring system originally developed for humans. Based on our studies, we propose a checklist tailored to wild boar carcasses found in the field that includes the most important information for a reliable PMI estimation.
Background: We evaluated the Kidney Donor Risk Index (KDRI) scoring system for kidney transplantation in the Eurotransplant Senior Program (ESP) that allocates kidneys from older donors to older recipients (≥65 years).
Material and methods: We retrospectively analyzed data of 37 kidney transplant recipients and 36 kidney donors who participated in kidney transplantation program according to the ESP at our center from January 2004 until December 2013.
Results: Mean recipient and donor age was 67.9±2.6 and 70.5±4.0 years respectively. The mean KDRI score was 1.7±0.27. Uncensored graft survival after 1 year and 5 years was 64.2% and 53.7% respectively. Subgroup analysis showed that in kidney transplantation with KDRI >1.83, graft survival was significantly reduced compared to lower KDRI subgroups. KDRI was significantly correlated with serum creatinine level at discharge (r=0.4).
Conclusions: ESP kidneys represent a group of high-risk grafts with high KDRI scores. Higher KDRI scores in ESP kidneys was associated with reduced postoperative short-term and long-term graft outcomes. KDRI might be useful in decision-making for selecting donors for ESP kidney transplantation.
Background: In a previous analysis (Int J Radiat Oncol Biol Phys 70:828-835,2010), we assessed whether an adjuvant supplementation with selenium (Se) improves Se status and reduces the radiation-induced side-effects of patients treated by adjuvant radiotherapy (RT) for cervical and uterine cancer. Now, a potential relation between the planning target volume (PTV) of the RT and the Se effect concerning radiation induced diarrhoea was evaluated in detail.
Methods: Whole blood Se concentrations had been measured in patients with cervical (n=11) and uterine cancer (n=70) after surgical treatment, during, and at the end of RT. Patients with initial Se concentrations of less than 84 μg/l were categorized as Se-deficient and randomized before RT to receive Se (as sodium selenite) per os on the days of RT, or to receive no supplement during RT. Diarrhoea was graded according to the Common Toxicity Criteria system (CTC, Version 2a). The evaluation of the PTV of the RT was ascertained with the help of a specialised computer-assisted treatment planning software used for radiation planning procedure.
Results: A total of 81 patients had been randomized for the initial supplementation study, 39 of which received Se [selenium group, SeG] and 42 serving as controls [control group, CG]. Mean Se levels did not differ between SeG and CG upon study initiation, but were significantly higher in the SeG compared to the CG at the end of RT. The actuarial incidence of at least CTC 2 radiation induced diarrhoea in the SeG was 20.5% compared to 44.5% in the CG (p=0.04). The median PTV in both groups was 1302 ml (916–4608). With a PTV of <= 1302 ml (n=41) the actuarial incidence of at least CTC 2 diarrhoea in the SeG was 22.3% (4 of 18 patients) compared to 34.8% (8 of 23 patients) in the CG (p=0.50). In patients with a PTV of > 1302 ml (n=40) the actuarial incidence of at least CTC 2 diarrhoea in the SeG was 19.1% (4 of 21 patients) versus 52.6% (10 of 19 patients) in the CG (p=0.046).
Conclusions: Se supplementation during RT was effective to improve blood Se status in Se-deficient cervical and uterine cancer patients, and reduces episodes and severity of RT-induced diarrhoea. This effect was most pronounced and significant in patients with large PTV (> 1302 ml).
Considering the review by Puspitasari and colleagues, an additional discussion of the endpoints of the Se supplementation studies described would be helpful. In our view, selenium can safely be given to selenium-deficient cancer patients prior to and during radiotherapy. Therefore, in order to help the radiation oncologist in decision making, we strongly advocate to determine the selenium status prior to and during a potential adjuvant selenium supplementation, e.g. when trying to ease the side-effects of radiation treatment or in the aftercare situation when the selenium status may become insufficient.
Background: The progression of mild cognitive impairment (MCI) to Alzheimer’s disease (AD) dementia can be predicted by cognitive, neuroimaging, and cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) markers. Since most biomarkers reveal complementary information, a combination of biomarkers may increase the predictive power. We investigated which combination of the Mini-Mental State Examination (MMSE), Clinical Dementia Rating (CDR)-sum-of-boxes, the word list delayed free recall from the Consortium to Establish a Registry of Dementia (CERAD) test battery, hippocampal volume (HCV), amyloid-beta1–42 (Aβ42), amyloid-beta1–40 (Aβ40) levels, the ratio of Aβ42/Aβ40, phosphorylated tau, and total tau (t-Tau) levels in the CSF best predicted a short-term conversion from MCI to AD dementia.
Methods: We used 115 complete datasets from MCI patients of the "Dementia Competence Network", a German multicenter cohort study with annual follow-up up to 3 years. MCI was broadly defined to include amnestic and nonamnestic syndromes. Variables known to predict progression in MCI patients were selected a priori. Nine individual predictors were compared by receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve analysis. ROC curves of the five best two-, three-, and four-parameter combinations were analyzed for significant superiority by a bootstrapping wrapper around a support vector machine with linear kernel. The incremental value of combinations was tested for statistical significance by comparing the specificities of the different classifiers at a given sensitivity of 85%.
Results: Out of 115 subjects, 28 (24.3%) with MCI progressed to AD dementia within a mean follow-up period of 25.5 months. At baseline, MCI-AD patients were no different from stable MCI in age and gender distribution, but had lower educational attainment. All single biomarkers were significantly different between the two groups at baseline. ROC curves of the individual predictors gave areas under the curve (AUC) between 0.66 and 0.77, and all single predictors were statistically superior to Aβ40. The AUC of the two-parameter combinations ranged from 0.77 to 0.81. The three-parameter combinations ranged from AUC 0.80–0.83, and the four-parameter combination from AUC 0.81–0.82. None of the predictor combinations was significantly superior to the two best single predictors (HCV and t-Tau). When maximizing the AUC differences by fixing sensitivity at 85%, the two- to four-parameter combinations were superior to HCV alone.
Conclusion: A combination of two biomarkers of neurodegeneration (e.g., HCV and t-Tau) is not superior over the single parameters in identifying patients with MCI who are most likely to progress to AD dementia, although there is a gradual increase in the statistical measures across increasing biomarker combinations. This may have implications for clinical diagnosis and for selecting subjects for participation in clinical trials.
1. Locating an optimal oviposition site can be a challenging task for female insects, especially when dealing with a patchy, unpredictable and ephemeral food source such as carrion. Understanding the biotic and abiotic parameters that influence the oviposition behaviour of necrophagous flies is not just of great biological importance but also essential for their application in legal investigations.
2. In this study, we monitored the oviposition activity of necrophagous flies (Calliphoridae, Sarcophagidae) using mouse carcasses in an urban (city) and a rural (mixed forest) habitat in Frankfurt/Germany over a 2-year period.
3. Over 240 sampling days, 220,963 larvae of 4 blow fly species and 1 flesh fly were sampled. The most abundant species was the blow fly Lucilia ampullacea, followed by its family members Calliphora vicina and Lucilia caesar, the flesh fly Sarcophaga caerulescens and Lucilia sericata. Up to seven environmental parameters were statistically significant predictors for a colonisation of the carcasses, leading to unique patterns of seasonal and daily oviposition activity for all five species.
4. Overall, the analysis showed that the seasonal adaption (the phenology of each species), the habitat (rural vs. urban) as well as temperature are the most important factors influencing the oviposition behaviour and activity of necrophagous blow flies and flesh flies.
The aim of the current study was to analyze two major pitfalls in forensic entomological casework: delayed evidence sampling and the effect of low-temperature storage of the body. For this purpose, temperature profiles of heavily infested corpses during cooling and cases in which insect evidence was collected both at the scene and during autopsy were evaluated with regard to species composition and development stages found. The results show that the temperature in the body bags remained at higher average temperatures up to 10 °C relative to the mortuary cooler, therefore, sufficient for larval development, with significant differences in temperature between larval aggregations on one and the same body. In addition, we found large differences both in species number, species composition, and the developmental stages found at the scene and during the autopsy. These data and observations underscore the importance of sampling evidence at the scene and recording temperatures throughout the cooling period of a body.
Gene trapping is used to introduce insertional mutations into genes of mouse embryonic stem cells (ESCs). It is performed with gene trap vectors that simultaneously mutate and report the expression of the endogenous gene at the site of insertion and provide a DNA tag for rapid identification of the disrupted gene. Gene traps have been employed worldwide to assemble libraries of mouse ESC lines harboring mutations in single genes, which can be used to make mutant mice. However, most of the employed gene trap vectors require gene expression for reporting a gene trap event and therefore genes that are poorly expressed may be under-represented in the existing libraries. To address this problem, we have developed a novel class of gene trap vectors that can induce gene expression at insertion sites, thereby bypassing the problem of intrinsic poor expression. We show here that the insertion of the osteopontin enhancer into several conventional gene trap vectors significantly increases the gene trapping efficiency in high-throughput screens and facilitates the recovery of poorly expressed genes.
Memory Concerns, Memory Performance and Risk of Dementia in Patients with Mild Cognitive Impairment
(2014)
Background: Concerns about worsening memory (“memory concerns”; MC) and impairment in memory performance are both predictors of Alzheimer's dementia (AD). The relationship of both in dementia prediction at the pre-dementia disease stage, however, is not well explored. Refined understanding of the contribution of both MC and memory performance in dementia prediction is crucial for defining at-risk populations. We examined the risk of incident AD by MC and memory performance in patients with mild cognitive impairment (MCI).
Methods: We analyzed data of 417 MCI patients from a longitudinal multicenter observational study. Patients were classified based on presence (n = 305) vs. absence (n = 112) of MC. Risk of incident AD was estimated with Cox Proportional-Hazards regression models.
Results: Risk of incident AD was increased by MC (HR = 2.55, 95%CI: 1.33–4.89), lower memory performance (HR = 0.63, 95%CI: 0.56–0.71) and ApoE4-genotype (HR = 1.89, 95%CI: 1.18–3.02). An interaction effect between MC and memory performance was observed. The predictive power of MC was greatest for patients with very mild memory impairment and decreased with increasing memory impairment.
Conclusions: Our data suggest that the power of MC as a predictor of future dementia at the MCI stage varies with the patients' level of cognitive impairment. While MC are predictive at early stage MCI, their predictive value at more advanced stages of MCI is reduced. This suggests that loss of insight related to AD may occur at the late stage of MCI.
Research in social insects has shown that hydrocarbons on their cuticle are species-specific. This has also been proven for Diptera and is a promising tool for identifying important fly taxa in Forensic Entomology. Sometimes the empty puparia, in which the metamorphosis to the adult fly has taken place, can be the most useful entomological evidence at the crime scene. However, so far, they are used with little profit in criminal investigations due to the difficulties of reliably discriminate among different species. We analysed the CHC chemical profiles of empty puparia from seven forensically important blow flies Calliphora vicina, Chrysomya albiceps, Lucilia caesar, Lucilia sericata, Lucilia silvarum, Protophormia terraenovae, Phormia regina and the flesh fly Sarcophaga caerulescens. The aim was to use their profiles for identification but also investigate geographical differences by comparing profiles of the same species (here: C. vicina and L. sericata) from different regions. The cuticular hydrocarbons were extracted with hexane and analysed using gas chromatography-mass spectrometry. Our results reveal distinguishing differences within the cuticular hydrocarbon profiles allowing for identification of all analysed species. There were also differences shown in the profiles of C. vicina from Germany, Spain, Norway and England, indicating that geographical locations can be determined from this chemical analysis. Differences in L. sericata, sampled from England and two locations in Germany, were less pronounced, but there was even some indication that it may be possible to distinguish populations within Germany that are about 70 km apart from one another.