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If femoral blood is not available at autopsy, toxicological analyses, in particular blood ethanol measurements, are carried out on cardiac blood. This is known to be subject to major redistribution. We aimed to determine whether subclavian blood can be equated with a peripheral blood sample and could be used if femoral blood is not available. The study was based on 50 medicolegal autopsies in which we compared ethanol concentrations between subclavian blood, the different heart blood compartments (right and left cardiac blood), and femoral blood. Mechanisms that could lead to variations in concentration, i.e., postmortem redistribution and/or endogenous production, were also taken into account in interpreting the results. Ethanol concentrations were determined by headspace gas chromatography with a flame ionization detector. In each case, we recorded the circumstances of death, resuscitation attempts if any, degree of putrefaction, chest or abdominal trauma, and/or inhalation of gastric fluid in the airways. Ethanol concentrations in subclavian blood were found to be close to those in peripheral blood (p = 0.948) and were not influenced by the degree of putrefaction (r = 0.017, p = 0.904), gastric ethanol concentration (r = -0.011, p = 0.940), inhalation of gastric contents in the airways (p = 0.461), or cardiac resuscitation attempts (p = 0.368). We discuss the possible explanations for these findings and stress the value of sampling subclavian blood when femoral blood is not obtainable at autopsy.

If femoral blood is not available at autopsy, toxicological analyses, in particular blood ethanol measurements, are carried out on cardiac blood. This is known to be subject to major redistribution. We aimed to determine whether subclavian blood can be equated with a peripheral blood sample and could be used if femoral blood is not available. The study was based on 50 medicolegal autopsies in which we compared ethanol concentrations between subclavian blood, the different heart blood compartments (right and left cardiac blood), and femoral blood. Mechanisms that could lead to variations in concentration, i.e., postmortem redistribution and/or endogenous production, were also taken into account in interpreting the results. Ethanol concentrations were determined by headspace gas chromatography with a flame ionization detector. In each case, we recorded the circumstances of death, resuscitation attempts if any, degree of putrefaction, chest or abdominal trauma, and/or inhalation of gastric fluid in the airways. Ethanol concentrations in subclavian blood were found to be close to those in peripheral blood (p = 0.948) and were not influenced by the degree of putrefaction (r = 0.017, p = 0.904), gastric ethanol concentration (r = -0.011, p = 0.940), inhalation of gastric contents in the airways (p = 0.461), or cardiac resuscitation attempts (p = 0.368). We discuss the possible explanations for these findings and stress the value of sampling subclavian blood when femoral blood is not obtainable at autopsy.

Scarcity of water resources in the entire country is more serious in the northern provinces like Golestan. Therefore, farmers have to use saline water or waste waters. One way to adapt to this condition is to use unconventional water such as Caspian Sea water, with lower salinity as compared with water from free seas, for common crops like soybean. Thus feasibility of using Caspian Sea water that has integrated with narrow common water and the calibration of Aquacrop model under the effect of salinity and water stress for soybean crop in Golestan province are more important. The Aquacrop model assumes a linear relationship between the biomass yield (BY) and crop transpiration one one hand and water productivity (WP) value on the other (Steduto and Albrizio, 2005). This model, as compared to other crop models, requires minimal input data and its new version 4.0 (June, 2012) has a salinity module which was used in this research to simulate the grain yield (GY) and WP of soybean under deficit and saline water irrigation. Furthermore, the AquaCrop model has not often been tested to simulate the yield of soybean under saline conditions in the semi-arid climate of Golestan province. This study aims at evaluating the efficiency of AquaCrop model in soybean yield simulation. The results are to be used for optimizing water consumption under water and saline stress. To this end, an experiment was carried out at the research farm of Gorgan University of Agricultural Sciences and Natural Resources.

Scarcity of water resources in the entire country is more serious in the northern provinces like Golestan. Therefore, farmers have to use saline water or waste waters. One way to adapt to this condition is to use unconventional water such as Caspian Sea water, with lower salinity as compared with water from free seas, for common crops like soybean. Thus feasibility of using Caspian Sea water that has integrated with narrow common water and the calibration of Aquacrop model under the effect of salinity and water stress for soybean crop in Golestan province are more important. The Aquacrop model assumes a linear relationship between the biomass yield (BY) and crop transpiration one one hand and water productivity (WP) value on the other (Steduto and Albrizio, 2005). This model, as compared to other crop models, requires minimal input data and its new version 4.0 (June, 2012) has a salinity module which was used in this research to simulate the grain yield (GY) and WP of soybean under deficit and saline water irrigation. Furthermore, the AquaCrop model has not often been tested to simulate the yield of soybean under saline conditions in the semi-arid climate of Golestan province. This study aims at evaluating the efficiency of AquaCrop model in soybean yield simulation. The results are to be used for optimizing water consumption under water and saline stress. To this end, an experiment was carried out at the research farm of Gorgan University of Agricultural Sciences and Natural Resources.

In biomedical scientific investigations, expositions of findings are conceptually simplest when they comprise comparisons of discrete groups of individuals or involve discrete features or characteristics of individuals. But the descriptive benefits of categorization become outweighed by their limitations in studies involving dose-response relationships, as in many teratogenic and environmental exposure studies. This article addresses a pair of categorization issues concerning the effects of prenatal alcohol exposure that have important public health consequences: the labeling of individuals as fetal alcohol syndrome (FAS) versus fetal alcohol effects (FAE) or alcohol-related neurodevelopmental disorder (ARND), and the categorization of prenatal exposure dose by thresholds. We present data showing that patients with FAS and others with FAE do not have meaningfully different behavioral performance, standardized scores of IQ, arithmetic and adaptive behavior, or secondary disabilities. Similarly overlapping distributions on measures of executive functioning offer a basis for identifying alcohol-affected individuals in a manner that does not simply reflect IQ deficits. At the other end of the teratological continuum, we turn to the reporting of threshold effects in dose-response relationships. Here we illustrate the importance of multivariate analyses using data from the Seattle, Washington, longitudinal prospective study on alcohol and pregnancy. Relationships between many neurobehavioral outcomes and measures of prenatal alcohol exposure are monotone without threshold down to the lowest nonzero levels of exposure, a finding consistent with reports from animal studies. In sum, alcohol effects on the developing human brain appear to be a continuum without threshold when dose and behavioral effects are quantified appropriately.

In biomedical scientific investigations, expositions of findings are conceptually simplest when they comprise comparisons of discrete groups of individuals or involve discrete features or characteristics of individuals. But the descriptive benefits of categorization become outweighed by their limitations in studies involving dose-response relationships, as in many teratogenic and environmental exposure studies. This article addresses a pair of categorization issues concerning the effects of prenatal alcohol exposure that have important public health consequences: the labeling of individuals as fetal alcohol syndrome (FAS) versus fetal alcohol effects (FAE) or alcohol-related neurodevelopmental disorder (ARND), and the categorization of prenatal exposure dose by thresholds. We present data showing that patients with FAS and others with FAE do not have meaningfully different behavioral performance, standardized scores of IQ, arithmetic and adaptive behavior, or secondary disabilities. Similarly overlapping distributions on measures of executive functioning offer a basis for identifying alcohol-affected individuals in a manner that does not simply reflect IQ deficits. At the other end of the teratological continuum, we turn to the reporting of threshold effects in dose-response relationships. Here we illustrate the importance of multivariate analyses using data from the Seattle, Washington, longitudinal prospective study on alcohol and pregnancy. Relationships between many neurobehavioral outcomes and measures of prenatal alcohol exposure are monotone without threshold down to the lowest nonzero levels of exposure, a finding consistent with reports from animal studies. In sum, alcohol effects on the developing human brain appear to be a continuum without threshold when dose and behavioral effects are quantified appropriately.

Yeast volatiles double starvation survival in Drosophila .