Rapid identification of human remains following mass casualty events is essential to bring closure to family members and friends of the victims. Unfortunately, disaster victim identification, missing ...persons identification, and forensic casework analysis are often complicated by sample degradation due to exposure to harsh environmental conditions. Following a mass disaster, forensic laboratories may be overwhelmed by the number of dissociated portions that require identification and reassociation or compromised by the event itself. The interval between the disaster and receipt of victim samples at a laboratory is critical in that sample quality deteriorates as the postmortem interval increases. When bodies decompose due to delay in collection, transport, and sample processing, DNA becomes progressively fragmented, adversely impacting identification. We have previously developed a fully automated, field-forward Rapid DNA identification system that produces STR profiles (also referred to as DNA IDs or DNA fingerprints) from buccal and crime scene samples. The system performs all sample processing and data interpretation in less than 2 h. Here, we present results on Rapid DNA identification performed on several tissue types (including buccal, muscle, liver, brain, tooth, and bone) from exposed human bodies placed above ground or stored in a morgue/cooler, two scenarios commonly encountered following mass disasters. We demonstrate that for exposed remains, buccal swabs are the sample of choice for up to 11 days exposure and bone and tooth samples generated excellent DNA IDs for the 1-year duration of the study. For refrigerated remains, all sample types generated excellent DNA IDs for the 3-month testing period.
The life span of model organisms can be modulated by environmental conditions that influence cellular metabolism, oxidation, or DNA integrity. The yeast nicotinamidase gene pnc1 was identified as a ...key transcriptional target and mediator of calorie restriction and stress-induced life span extension. PNC1 is thought to exert its effect on yeast life span by modulating cellular nicotinamide and NAD levels, resulting in increased activity of Sir2 family class III histone deacetylases. In Caenorhabditis elegans, knockdown of a pnc1 homolog was shown recently to shorten the worm life span, whereas its overexpression increased survival under conditions of oxidative stress. The function and regulation of nicotinamidases in higher organisms has not been determined. Here, we report the identification and biochemical characterization of the Drosophila nicotinamidase, D-NAAM, and demonstrate that its overexpression significantly increases median and maximal fly life span. The life span extension was reversed in Sir2 mutant flies, suggesting Sir2 dependence. Testing for physiological effectors of D-NAAM in Drosophila S2 cells, we identified oxidative stress as a primary regulator, both at the transcription level and protein activity. In contrast to the yeast model, stress factors such as high osmolarity and heat shock, calorie restriction, or inhibitors of TOR and phosphatidylinositol 3-kinase pathways do not appear to regulate D-NAAM in S2 cells. Interestingly, the expression of D-NAAM in human neuronal cells conferred protection from oxidative stress-induced cell death in a sirtuin-dependent manner. Together, our findings establish a life span extending the ability of nicotinamidase in flies and offer a role for nicotinamide-modulating genes in oxidative stress regulated pathways influencing longevity and neuronal cell survival.
In this paper, we study the effect of various physical and mechanical properties, chemical and phase compositions of diffusion coatings of steels on the durability of tribosystems during rolling ...friction with point and linear contacts in an I-20 oil medium. Gradient coatings obtained by ion nitriding in anhydrous media and titanium and chromium nitride coatings, respectively, obtained by cathode-ion bombardment and galvanic deposition on steels with various levels of hardness after heat treatment were considered. The main factors affecting the contact endurance of coated steels and ways to increase the durability of tribosystems during rolling friction were identified in comparative tests using friction machines. A direct linear dependence of the durability of the coating-base composition on the hardness of the base for steels without metastable structures in the material and a deviation from this dependence toward increasing durability for steels with residual austenite in the structure of the material were established.
The paper presents the results of studying the contact endurance and wear resistance of boride coatings, which were deposited on the 40Kh and ShKh15 steels by chemical heat treatment from ...boron-containing powders and with the addition of copper. The wear kinetics and mechanism of boride coatings in the I-20 lubricant at a pressure of 2140 MPa on the contact area during rolling friction with point contact have been studied. It has been found that the presence of copper in boride coatings increases by a factor of 1.5 their crack resistance compared with those without copper, which favorably affects the life of the coating/substrate composition under cyclic contact load. The life of specimens with boride coatings on steels under rolling friction up to the occurrence of pitting under certain test conditions has been determined. It is shown that the lives of the ShKh15 and 40Kh steels with boride coatings in the presence of copper are 1.9 and 2.4 times longer, respectively, than those of uncoated hardened steels.
—The manifestation of coast effect is studied based on magnetotelluric (MT) data from three profiles in the southern part of the Sikhote-Alin folded system (SAFS), which is bounded in the south and ...east by the Sea of Japan. It is shown that the coast effect barely distorts the MT apparent resistivity curves but is well pronounced in the behavior of the magnetovariational response functions. The analysis of the complex Wiese tipper and its real induction arrows in the northward and eastward directions has revealed the extent of the coast effect within the study area and the impact of the deep faults and conductive zones in the Earth’s crust and upper mantle on the manifestation of the effect. Three-dimensional (3D) numerical modeling is used to identify the key factors determining the behavior of the MT apparent resistivity curves subjected to coast effect for the conditions of the SAFS southern part and different geoelectric models.
The magnetotelluric sounding results obtained in three profiles in the northern part of the Southern Sikhote-Alin region across its strike have been considered. Geoelectric sections have been ...constructed to a depth of 150 km and a three-dimensional model of electrical resistivity of the study area has been calculated. Sections have been constructed for depths of 5.5, 9, 15, 20, 30, and 40 km. Based on the obtained materials, the geoelectric heterogeneities of the study area have been analyzed and their geological interpretation has been proposed. Low electrical resistivity anomalies of less than 100 Ohm m located at depths from the surface of up to 40 km have been identified within the earth’s crust, and their morphological features have been shown. Some of them are related to deep faults, while others are spatially correlated with known ore districts and record the regions with an anomalously high destruction and fluid saturation of the earth’s crust, which are likely areas enriched in conductive ore minerals. The spatial distribution of the coast effect and its influence on the magnetovariation parameters within the study area have been considered.
In this paper, we present a reverse conversion from a two-stage Residue Number System (RNS) to a Binary Number System (BNS) with a special set of level 1 modules {2α1, 2α2 − 1, ..., 2αn − 1} and ...level 2 modules {2β1, 2β2 − 1, ..., 2βk − 1}. The proposed method is based on the Chinese Remainder Theorem (CRT) with fractions and using a calculation method that uses constant multiplications to speed up calculations. This article discusses the simulation of FPGA reverse conversion to a two-stage RNS using the proposed method and the standard CRT using adders, their comparison of latency and hardware costs.
Heat capacities
C
v
,
C
p
, and sound velocity
W
of carbon dioxide are calculated on the basis of a new thermal combined equation of state (EoS) with a low number of regulated constants. This ...equation includes a new regular EoS with 11 coefficients, a scaling EoS with six coefficients, and a regular transition function containing two adjustable parameters. Calculating results for thermodynamic properties of CO
2
in the regular behavior range of up to 200 MPa correspond to the accuracy level of modern practical equations of state with large numbers of determined constants. This makes it possible to calculate the properties of CO
2
in the critical region, taking into account the achievements of scaling theory. To determine the constants of the calculated equations, only
p
,ρ,
T
-data for CO
2
were used. The experimental and tabular data on
C
v
,
C
p
,
S
,
H
, and
W
were not involved except isochoric heat capacity
C
v
in the ideal gas state. These data were used to compare the calculated results with the experimental and tabulated values. The universal critical exponents were taken in accordance with the three-dimensional Ising model. The average errors in describing the thermal properties of CO
2
do not exceed errors: rms error is 0.93 % in pressure and max deviation in
C
v
is 10 %. Divergences in the critical region relate to application of the scaling equation of state, in contrast to the regular equations. The comparison was made with calculated
C
v
,
C
p
using the current crossover EoSs for CO
2
.
Inactivated (whole-virion, split, subunit, and adjuvanted) vaccines and live attenuated vaccine were tested in parallel to compare their immunogenicity and protective efficacy. Homologous and ...heterosubtypic protection against the challenge with influenza H5N1 and H1N1 viruses in a mouse model were studied. Single immunization with live or inactivated whole-virion H5N1 vaccine elicited a high level of serum antibodies and provided complete protection against the challenge with the lethal A/Chicken/Kurgan/3/05 (H5N1) virus, whereas application of a single dose of the split vaccine was much less effective. Adjuvants increased the antibody levels. Addition of the Iso-SANP adjuvant to the split vaccine led to a paradoxical outcome: it increased the antibody levels but reduced the protective effect of the vaccine. All tested adjuvants shifted the ratio between IgG1 and IgG2a antibodies. Immunization with any of the tested heterosubtypic live viruses provided partial protection against the H5N1 challenge and significantly reduced mouse mortality, while inactivated H1N1 vaccine offered no protection at all. More severe course of illness and earlier death were observed in mice after immunization with adjuvanted subunit vaccines followed by the challenge with the heterosubtypic virus compared to challenged unvaccinated animals.
The authors present the results of experimental investigations of strength and plasticity characteristics, as well as fracture nature, of the specimens of different steels under tension after ion ...nitriding in hydrogen (nitrogen with hydrogen) and hydrogen-free (nitrogen with argon) environments. The obtained characteristics are compared with those before nitriding. It is established that during ion nitriding in the hydrogen-free environment, tensile strength of the specimens has increased by 4–11%, whereas relative elongation and contraction have decreased by 1.1–3 times based on the nitriding mode and steel type. The authors have built the tensile stress-strain diagram for the specimens made of steel St3, 40Kh, and 12Kh18N10T without chemical and thermal treatment, ion nitriding in the hydrogen and hydrogen-free environments. The influence of hydrogen concentration in the saturation environment on the strength and plasticity characteristics has been defined. Under concentrations higher than 10 vol.% there is embrittlement with the decrease of strength characteristics (to 15%) and a significant decrease of plasticity (to 40%) for low-alloyed steels. For high-alloyed steels, the negative influence of hydrogen on the strength characteristics does not increase by 3%, while the influence on the plasticity characteristics – by 8%. The authors have investigated the initiation and propagation of microcracks under external loading on the steel with nitride layers.
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