Injury profiles of road traffic deaths

The objective is to describe injuries of road traffic deaths in Barcelona and identify injury profiles by road user type, through a cross-sectional study including road traffic deaths for the period 1997-2004. The data source was the Institut de Medicina Legal de Catalunya. Diagnoses were coded using the International Classification of Diseases, 9th revision, Clinical Modification, and classified using the Barell Matrix. Of the 719 deaths studied, 45% were pedestrians, 32% two wheel motor vehicle users, and 23% car occupants. The injury profile of the road traffic deaths in Barcelona is internal injuries and fractures to the torso and to the head/neck. This profile is repeated in all the road user groups, although pedestrians present higher frequencies of fractures and contusions to extremities and contusions to the head/neck, and fewer internal torso injuries than car occupants or two wheel motor vehicle users.     

Accumulation of cadmium in livers and kidneys in Greenlanders

In the Arctic, the traditional diet exposes its people to a very high intake of cadmium because it is highly concentrated in the liver and kidneys of commonly eaten marine mammals. In one study in Greenland, the cadmium intake was estimated to 182 microg/day/person in the fall and 346 in the spring. To determine whether the cadmium is accumulated in humans, we analyzed autopsy samples of liver and kidneys from 95 ethnic Greenlanders (aged 19-89) who died from a wide range of causes. The cadmium concentration in liver (overall mean 1.97 microg/g wet wt) appeared to be unrelated to any particular age group, whereas the concentrations in the kidneys peaked in Greenlanders between 40 and 50 years of age (peak concentration 22.3 microg/g wet wt). Despite the high cadmium levels in the typical Greenlander diet, we found that the cadmium concentrations in livers and kidneys were comparable to those reported from Denmark, Sweden, Australia and Great Britain. Furthermore, even though the mean cadmium intake from the diet was estimated to be 13-25 times higher in Greenlanders than in Danes, we found similar cadmium levels in the kidneys of both. Seal livers and kidneys are the main source of cadmium in the diet of Greenlanders, but these tissues are not eaten in Denmark. Thus, our results suggest that the accumulation of cadmium from Greenlander's marine diet is very low.     

Fouling characteristics of NF and RO operated for removal of dissolved matter from groundwater

A pilot study had been performed for about 6 months in order to investigate the removal efficiency of dissolved matter and its fouling potential during nanofiltration (NF) and reverse osmosis (RO) of local groundwater that was pretreated with an ultrafiltration (UF) membrane system. After pilot plant operation, autopsy tests were performed to identify the characteristics of foulants that were attached to the membrane surface. In the autopsy tests, the flux recovery for each specific cleaning scheme (hydraulic washing, acid cleaning, and alkaline cleaning) was also measured using a dead-end filtration cell unit. The washing solution used in each chemical cleaning was analyzed to identify major components of the foulants, and the membrane surface was observed using the scanning electron microscopy (SEM).Among three kinds of membranes tested, one NF and two RO membranes, the NF and RO1 membranes showed a rapid flux decline after 100 days of operation. Especially, the RO1 membrane showed the more serious flux decline than the NF membrane. The RO2 membrane, with the lowest recovery rate, demonstrated a gradual flux decline. The removal efficiency of dissolved inorganic matter (as conductivity) for each NF, RO1 and RO2 membrane was 76.3%, 88.2% and 95.3%, respectively. The removal of dissolved organic matter (as total organic carbon) was found to be about 80% for both NF and RO membranes used in this study. During the membrane autopsy tests, five sections of the fouled membrane were cut along each NF and RO membrane module from the feed inlet side to the concentrate outlet side, the specific flux for each membrane section was measured before and after each cleaning step. As expected, the degree of fouling was intensified along the membrane surface as the feed flow approached the outlet. Based on the analysis results of wash water used in each cleaning step, the major foulants attached to the membrane surface appeared to be Ca bound with inorganic matter and Si bound with organic matter. Fe seemed to be a great contributor to irreversible fouling. The SEM analysis indicated that the organic matter was forming the first fouling layer close to the membrane and that the inorganic matter was layered top of the organic fouling layer in a tetragonal shape. Any evidence of biofouling was not observed in this study because most of microorganisms had been already removed by the UF pretreatment.     

人体尸解组织中钍和钚的含量及其分布的比较

本文分析测定了日本北部新■县1986和1988年死亡的33例病人的部分尸解组织(包括骨、肺、肝、脾、肾和肌肉)中~(232)Th、~(230)Th、~(228)Th 和~(239+240)Pu 的含量,并估算了组织负荷量,对钍和钚在人体内的分布进行了比较     

Crash characteristics of older pedestrian fatalities: dementia pathology may be related to 'at risk' traffic situations

Older people are over represented among pedestrian casualties, and cognitive decline is an often cited possible contributory factor. Cognitive decline and dementia are intimately associated, however the role dementia might play in older pedestrian crashes has received little attention. This study describes crash characteristics for 52 fatally injured older pedestrians in the Sydney metropolitan area. It investigates the relationship between the extent of neurofibrillary tangles (NFT), a hallmark of Alzheimer's disease in the brain, and particular crash situations. The results demonstrate crash characteristics that are similar to that reported in other studies of older pedestrians. Furthermore, the results suggest that cognitive decline associated with dementia related neuropathology may be associated with specific crash situations. Compared to older pedestrians with no, or low NFT, those with moderate to high NFT were more likely to be: at least partially responsible for the incident; injured while in low complexity situations; involved in impacts with reversing vehicles; impacted in near lanes of traffic; and struck by a vehicle off road. While described as trends only (p < 0.2), these findings highlight areas of concern for older pedestrians and suggest potential targets for engineering and behaviour-based countermeasures aimed at reducing casualty numbers among older pedestrians.     

An application of case-based reasoning with machine learning for forensic autopsy

Case-based reasoning (CBR) is one of the matured paradigms of artificial intelligence for problem solving. CBR has been applied in many areas in the commercial sector to assist daily operations. However, CBR is relatively new in the field of forensic science. Even though forensic personnel have consciously used past experiences in solving new cases, the idea of applying machine intelligence to support decision-making in forensics is still in its infancy and poses a great challenge. This paper highlights the limitation of the methods used in forensics compared with a CBR method in the analysis of forensic evidences. The design and development of an Intelligent Forensic Autopsy Report System (I-AuReSys) basing on a CBR method along with the experimental results are presented. Our system is able to extract features by using an information extraction (IE) technique from the existing autopsy reports; then the system analyzes the case similarities by coupling the CBR technique with a Naïve Bayes learner for feature-weights learning; and finally it produces an outcome recommendation. Our experimental results reveal that the CBR method with the implementation of a learner is indeed a viable alternative method to the forensic methods with practical advantages.     

RO membrane autopsy of Zarzis brackish water desalination plant

Tunisia, located in a semi-arid zone, has limited water resources. The shortage of good water quality in particular at the south regions required a brackish water desalination to supply these regions with potable water. Zarzis desalination plant, working since 1999, has revealed difficulties related to the loss of membrane performances. In the aim to determine the reason of membrane fouling, foulant layer were analysed. The membrane autopsy has achieved by different methods, such as TOC (total organic carbon) measurement, SEM (scanning electron microscopy), AFM (atomic force microscopy), FTIR (fourier transform infrared spectroscopy) analysis, diffraction by X-ray. Results show that the foulant layer composed mostly of SiO₂, clay, organic matter (polysaccharide, protein), CaSiO₃, Fe₃O₄, AlPO₄, and CaSO₄. The characteristics bonds obtained by IR indicate the presence of polysaccharides and proteins that constitute a source for further microbiological growth; this is the problem of biofouling. The metallic elements results of corroded stainless steel and internal coating of cartridges filter that are damaged by the silica particle rejected by sand filters. The scale of CaSO₄ and CaSiO₃ deposition is owing to the bad antiscaling efficiency. The results are presented and discussed in the light of new trends in material.     

Diagnostic and membrane autopsy of Djerba Island desalination station

Tunisia is a semi arid country; the shortage of good water quality in particular at the south regions forced the government to desalt brackish water via membrane technology such as RO to supply these regions with potable water. Station of Djerba Isle established in 2000 by SONEDE has a nominal capacity of 15 10³m³ per day and recovery rate of 75%; it is fed from an artesian well with the water salinity of 5500 ppm. Three RO units compose station; each one has configured in two stages a 2:1 array with six RO polyamide elements per pressure vessel. Membranes have been cleaned or replaced, during four operating years, as much time. In the aim to determine the reason of membrane fouling, this work occurs to analyse fouling layers. The membrane autopsy has achieved by different analytical methods, such as COT measurement, SEM (scanning electron microscopy), IR analysis, and diffraction by X-ray. Obtained results show that the deposit composed mostly of organic matter, silica, iron and CaCO³. The debris accumulate on upstream of pressure vessel is composed mainly of silica, metallic matter (iron and chromium) and aluminium phosphate.

The presence of TOC indicates the presence of microorganism. The metallic products come from stainless steel fittings and internal coating film of cartridges filter that are damaged by the silica particle probably rejected by sand filters. The scale of CaCO³ deposition is owing to the bad anti-scaling organophosphonate-based, which can form aluminium phosphate by reaction with aluminium composing cartridges filter internal coating.     

Analysis of injuries among pilots involved in fatal general aviation airplane accidents

The purpose of this study was to analyze patterns of injuries sustained by pilots involved in fatal general aviation (GA) airplane accidents. Detailed information on the pattern and nature of injuries was retrieved from the Federal Aviation Administration's autopsy database for pilots involved in fatal GA airplane accidents from 1996 to 1999. A review of 559 autopsies revealed that blunt trauma was the primary cause of death in 86.0% (N=481) of the autopsies. The most commonly occurring bony injuries were fracture of the ribs (72.3%), skull (55.1%), facial bones (49.4%), tibia (37.9%) and pelvis (36.0%). Common organ injuries included laceration of the liver (48.1%), lung (37.6%) heart (35.6%), and spleen (30.1%), and hemorrhage of the brain (33.3%) and lung (32.9%). A fractured larynx was observed in 14.7% of the cases, a finding that has not been reported in literature until now. It was observed that individuals who sustained brain hemorrhage were also more likely to have fractures of the facial bones rather than skull fractures.