scholarly journals Forensic NMR metabolomics: one more arrow in the quiver

Metabolomics ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 16 (11) ◽  
Author(s):  
Emanuela Locci ◽  
Giovanni Bazzano ◽  
Alberto Chighine ◽  
Francesco Locco ◽  
Ernesto Ferraro ◽  
...  

Abstract Introduction NMR metabolomics is increasingly used in forensics, due to the possibility of investigating both endogenous metabolic profiles and exogenous molecules that may help to describe metabolic patterns and their modifications associated to specific conditions of forensic interest. Objectives The aim of this work was to review the recent literature and depict the information provided by NMR metabolomics. Attention has been devoted to the identification of peculiar metabolic signatures and specific ante-mortem and post-mortem profiles or biomarkers related to different conditions of forensic concern, such as the identification of biological traces, the estimation of the time since death, and the exposure to drugs of abuse. Results and Conclusion The results of the described studies highlight how forensics can benefit from NMR metabolomics by gaining additional information that may help to shed light in several forensic issues that still deserve to be further elucidated.

2021 ◽  
Vol 50 ◽  
pp. 101862
Author(s):  
Fabio De-Giorgio ◽  
Simone Grassi ◽  
Ernesto d'Aloja ◽  
Vincenzo L. Pascali

Philosophy ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 96 (1) ◽  
pp. 73-97
Author(s):  
Hassan Alsharif ◽  
John Symons

AbstractThis paper argues that open-mindedness is a corrective virtue. It serves as a corrective to the epistemic vice of confirmation bias. Specifically, open-mindedness is the epistemically virtuous disposition to resist the negative effects of confirmation bias on our ability to reason well and to evaluate evidence and arguments. As part of the defense and presentation of our account, we explore four discussions of open-mindedness in the recent literature. All four approaches have strengths and shed light on aspects of the virtue of open-mindedness. Each mentions various symptoms of confirmation bias and some explore aspects of the corrective role of open-mindedness. However, ours is the first to explicitly identify open-mindedness as a corrective virtue to the specific epistemic vice of confirmation bias. We show how the corrective account also permits a response to the concern that open-mindedness might not actually count as a virtue.


Author(s):  
Laila Skogstad ◽  
Inger Schou-Bredal ◽  
Tore Bonsaksen ◽  
Trond Heir ◽  
Øivind Ekeberg ◽  
...  

Concerns related to the first outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic in the Norwegian population are studied in a cross-sectional web-survey conducted between 8 April and 20 May 2020. The qualitative thematic analysis of the open-ended question “Do you have other concerns related to the pandemic?”, followed a six-step process. Concerns from 1491 informants were analyzed, 34% of women and 30% of men (p = 0.05) provided concerns. Respondents with higher educational level reported concerns more often (86% vs. 83%, p = 0.022). The qualitative analysis revealed five themes—society, health, social activities, personal economy and duration—and 13 sub-themes, mostly related to the themes “society” and “health” (724 and 704, respectively). Empathy for others was prominent, for society (nationally and globally), but also concerns related to infecting others and family members at risk for developing serious illness if infected. The responses to the open-ended question yielded additional information, beyond the information obtained from questions with pre-categorized response options, especially related to concerns about society and health. Themes arising from the qualitative analysis shed light on what are important concerns for people during the pandemic and this may serve as targeted measures for the authorities.


2015 ◽  
Vol 11 (A29B) ◽  
pp. 416-419 ◽  
Author(s):  
Emmanuel Dartois ◽  
Ivan Alata ◽  
Cécile Engrand ◽  
Rosario Brunetto ◽  
Jean Duprat ◽  
...  

AbstractThe composition of interstellar matter is driven by environmental parameters and results from extreme interstellar medium physico-chemical conditions. Astrochemists must rely on remote observations to monitor and analyze the interstellar solids composition. They bring additional information from the study of analogues produced in the laboratory, placed in simulated space environments. Planetologists and cosmochemists access and spectroscopically examine collected extraterrestrial material in the laboratory. Diffuse interstellar medium and molecular clouds observations set constraints on the composition of organic solids that can then be compared with collected extraterrestrial materials analyses, to shed light on their possible links.


2019 ◽  
Vol 134 (4) ◽  
pp. 1457-1463
Author(s):  
M. E. M. Vester ◽  
R. R. van Rijn ◽  
W. L. J. M. Duijst ◽  
L. F. M. Beenen ◽  
M. Clerkx ◽  
...  

Abstract Purpose The aim of this study was to investigate whether post-mortem computed tomography (PMCT) provides additional information regarding the cause of death and underlying diseases in a general practitioners’ (GP), out-of-hospital population. Methods and materials Bodies donated to our anatomy department between January 2014 and January 2018, who consecutively underwent a total body PMCT and had given permission for retrieval of their medical records during life, were included. PMCT scans were assessed by a radiologist and compared with the cause of death as stated in the medical records. Discrepancies were analyzed with an adjusted Goldman classification. Results Ninety-three out of the 274 scanned donors during the inclusion period had given consent for the retrieval of their medical records, of which 79 GP’s responded to the request thereof (31 men, 48 women, average age 72.8 years, range 36–99). PMCT identified 49 (62%) cases of cancer, 10 (12.7%) cardiovascular diseases, 8 (10.1%) severe organ failures, 5 (6.3%) cases with signs of pneumonia, 2 (2.5%) other causes, and 7 (8.9%) cases without an (underlying) definitive cause of death. Eleven major discrepancies on the Goldman classification scale, with possible relevance to survival between PMCT and GP records, were identified. Conclusion PMCT can have added value for the detection of additional findings regarding the cause of death in an out-of-hospital, GP’s population, especially to identify or exclude major (previously non-diagnosed) underlying diseases.


2019 ◽  
Vol 42 (2) ◽  
pp. 277-292 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ellis Jones

Recent theoretical work by Internet and social media scholars promises to offer valuable clarity to a concept which has been historically rather muddy: the affordance. Connections and shared themes within this recent literature have been thus far rather under-developed, and therefore the first contribution of this article is to strengthen those connections. It argues for a nascent conceptualisation of affordances as ‘sites of contestation’, improving on unsatisfactory applications of affordance theory to date by focusing on the specificity of user-groups, on social media’s status as both textual and material, and on power imbalances between users and platforms. The second contribution of this article is an empirical application of this analytical tool. Drawing on ethnographic work in a do-it-yourself (‘DIY’) music scene in Leeds, it considers what is ‘afforded’ to these practitioners by the Facebook Pages platform. Three key affordances are outlined – ‘digging’, ‘rallying’ and ‘surveilling’ – which shed light on the complexity and variety of contestations enacted between platforms and users.


2012 ◽  
Vol 19 (1) ◽  
pp. 58-88 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sara María Riveiro Outeiral ◽  
Juan Carlos Acuña-Fariña

The nature of agreement has been the topic of extensive debate in the recent literature of both linguistics and psycholinguistics. In contrast to either fully syntactic or fully semantic accounts, so-called ‘constraint-satisfaction models’ (Haskell et al. 2010, among others) posit that all grammatical encoding is subject to a number of influences (syntax, semantics, pragmatics, frequency, etc.) which compete to dominate every computation, including agreement processes. After briefly considering psycholinguistic work on attraction (Wagers et al. 2009 and references therein), we try to shed light on this debate by observing how agreement operates in certain structures which were previously tested by Berg (1998) in a comparison of German and English. Here, we establish the same type of comparison between Spanish and English, and conclude that: 1. agreement is resolved after a constant tug-of-war between the syntactic and the semantic, a process in which semantics is likely to interfere in formal operations when these are performed in the context of a weak morphology; 2. agreement resolution is effectively subject to various linguistic influences, including the morphological characteristics of each language, but also the domain in which agreement is realised; and 3. agreement is responsible for shaping overall linguistic systems in the sense that, as noted by Berg, it may motivate left–orientation (as in English) or not (as in Spanish) as a general default strategy for locating subjects.


2018 ◽  
Vol XV (1) ◽  
pp. 1-26 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alberto C. GARRIDO ◽  
Horacio PARENT ◽  
Luciano BRAMBILLA

In the Cerro Mallín Quemado area (Sierra de la Vaca Muerta) the three members of the Vaca Muerta Formation (Portada Covunco, Los Catutos and Pichi Moncol) can be recognized, including the whole of the Tithonian rock-record. The ammonite fauna does not show significant differences with respect to that of the nearby locality Pampa Tril, but the record of faunal horizons is patchier. Eighteen species of ammonites were recorded through the studied sections, covering the whole of the Andean Tithonian. The current chronostratigraphic zonation of the Andean Tithonian is briefly discussed, updated and correlated with the most recent literature. From the current succession of ammonite bio-horizons previously defined in the basin, only three (picunleufuense alpha, picunleufuense beta and falculatum) were recognized definitely. Four other bio-horizons (perlaevis, erinoides, internispinosum alpha and vetustum) were recognized only tentatively, because the typical assemblages of morphotypes (morpho-species) were not clearly or completely recognized. The current regional time-correlation chart dated by the ammonite bio-horizons of the Neuquén Basin along a 70°W transect is updated with the results of the present study and additional information recently obtained from other localities.


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