The effect of following best practice reporting recommendations on legal and community evaluations of forensic examiners reports.

Commentators have recommended that forensic scientists' reports contain various disclosures to facilitate comprehension. However, little research has explored whether following best practice recommendations for disclosure impacts on receivers' impressions of the evidence. We examined whether forensic science reports that are more compliant with these best practice recommendations reduced overvaluing of the evidence and sensitized legal and community decision-makers to evidence quality. Across three experiments, 240 legal practitioners/trainees and 566 community decision-makers were presented with a fingerprint or footwear report that was either compliant or non-compliant with best practice recommendations. Participants were then asked to make evaluations and decisions based on the report. We found mixed effects of report compliance. Report compliance affected community participant's evaluations of the persuasiveness of the evidence but had limited impact on the judgments of legal practitioners/trainees. When presented with compliant reports, we found that community participants regarded unknown reliability evidence as less reliable and less persuasive than high reliability evidence, suggesting disclosures helped reduce overvaluing of the evidence and create sensitivity to differences in evidence quality. These results suggest compliance with reporting recommendations does affect community impressions, while only minimally influencing legal impressions of forensic science evidence. The costs and/or benefits of this outcome require further examination.

Revealing hidden defects through stored energy measurements of radiation damage.

With full knowledge of a material's atomistic structure, it is possible to predict any macroscopic property of interest. In practice, this is hindered by limitations of the chosen characterization techniques. For example, electron microscopy is unable to detect the smallest and most numerous defects in irradiated materials. Instead of spatial characterization, we propose to detect and quantify defects through their excess energy. Differential scanning calorimetry of irradiated Ti measures defect densities five times greater than those determined using transmission electron microscopy. Our experiments also reveal two energetically distinct processes where the established annealing model predicts one. Molecular dynamics simulations discover the defects responsible and inform a new mechanism for the recovery of irradiation-induced defects. The combination of annealing experiments and simulations can reveal defects hidden to other characterization techniques and has the potential to uncover new mechanisms behind the evolution of defects in materials.

Progress in Uranium Chemistry: Driving Advances in Front-End Nuclear Fuel Cycle Forensics.

The front-end of the nuclear fuel cycle encompasses several chemical and physical processes used to acquire and prepare uranium for use in a nuclear reactor. These same processes can also be used for weapons or nefarious purposes, necessitating the need for technical means to help detect, investigate, and prevent the nefarious use of nuclear material and nuclear fuel cycle technology. Over the past decade, a significant research effort has investigated uranium compounds associated with the front-end of the nuclear fuel cycle, including uranium ore concentrates (UOCs), UF4, UF6, and UO2F2. These efforts have furthered uranium chemistry with an aim to expand and improve the field of nuclear forensics. Focus has been given to the morphology of various uranium compounds, trace elemental and chemical impurities in process samples of uranium compounds, the degradation of uranium compounds, particularly under environmental conditions, and the development of improved or new techniques for analysis of uranium compounds. Overall, this research effort has identified relevant chemical and physical characteristics of uranium compounds that can be used to help discern the origin, process history, and postproduction history for a sample of uranium material. This effort has also identified analytical techniques that could be brought to bear for nuclear forensics purposes. Continued research into these uranium compounds should yield additional relevant chemical and physical characteristics and analytical approaches to further advance front-end nuclear fuel cycle forensics capabilities.

[What determines a breast cancer patient's choice of hospital? The role of travel time, care history of the patient and the general practitioner's referral history]. / Wat bepaalt de ziekenhuiskeuze van borstkankerpatiënten?

OBJECTIVE: To examine to what extent patients' hospital choices are influenced by travel time, their care history, and their general practitioners' (GP) referral history. DESIGN: Quantitative study. METHOD: We used care claims data from 2015 of patients with breast cancer. We selected the initial care products of the breast cancer patients who had been referred to a hospital by a GP or GP practice. We used conditional logit choice models with 82 hospitals in the choice set to assess whether travel time to the hospital, care history of the patient in the preceding two years, and referral history of the GP were related to the choice of hospital. How often patients opted for a default choice hospital was also determined. RESULTS: We identified 74,227 breast cancer care products representing the hospital choices of 70,608 unique patients (96% female; mean age 52.7 years) who originated from 4840 different GP practices. Travel time, the patient's care history, and GP referral history were all statistically significantly related to hospital choice. Patients more often visited a hospital where they had been before, with a shorter travel time, or where relatively more patients from the same GP practice went to for breast cancer care. The latter improved the model most, followed by patient's care history and travel time. Twelve percent of patients without previous care, and 7% of patients with a care history, did not opt for a default hospital; relatively often a university hospital or specialized hospital was chosen in these cases. CONCLUSION: Next to travel time, the patient's care history and the GP's referral history clearly contribute to the hospital choice of breast cancer patients. A considerable cohort opts to receive care in a hospital that, based on travel time, the patient's care history and GP referral history, would not be the default destination.

The Intestinal Tumour Microenvironment.

The tumour microenvironment (TME) of intestinal tumours is highly complex and comprises a network of stromal cells, tumour cells, immune cells and fibroblasts, as well as microorganisms. The tumour location, environmental factors and the tumour cells themselves influence the cells within the TME. Immune cells can destroy tumour cells and are associated with better patient prognosis and response to therapy; however, immune cells are highly plastic and easily influenced to instead promote tumour growth. The interaction between local immune cells and the microbiome can lead to progression or regression of intestinal tumours. In this chapter, we will discuss how tumour development and progression can influence, and be influenced by, the microenvironment surrounding it, focusing on immune and fibroblastic cells, and the intestinal microbiota, particularly in the context of colorectal cancer.

Estimation of genetic parameters for traits associated with reproduction, lactation, and efficiency in sows.

Increased milk production due to high litter size, coupled with low feed intake, results in excessive mobilization of sow body reserves during lactation, which can have detrimental effects on future reproductive performance. A possibility to prevent this is to improve sow lactation performance genetically, along with other traits of interest. The aim of this study was to estimate breed-specific genetic parameters (by parity, between parities, and across parities) for traits associated with lactation and reproduction in Yorkshire and Landrace sows. Performance data were available for 2,107 sows with 1 to 3 parities (3,424 farrowings total). Sow back fat, loin depth and BW at farrowing, sow feed intake (SFI), and body weight loss (BWL) during lactation showed moderate heritabilities (0.21 to 0.37) in both breeds, whereas back fat loss (BFL), loin depth loss (LDL), and litter weight gain (LWG) showed low heritabilities (0.12 to 0.18). Among the efficiency traits, sow lactation efficiency showed extremely low heritability (near zero) in Yorkshire sows but a slightly higher (0.05) estimate in Landrace sows, whereas sow residual feed intake (SRFI) and energy balance traits showed moderate heritabilities in both breeds. Genetic correlations indicated that SFI during lactation had strong negative genetic correlations with body resource mobilization traits (BWL, BFL, and LDL; -0.35 to -0.70), and tissue mobilization traits in turn had strong positive genetic correlations with LWG (+0.24 to +0.54; < 0.05). However, SFI did not have a significant genetic correlation with LWG. These genetic correlations suggest that SFI during lactation is predominantly used for reducing sow body tissue losses, rather than for milk production. Estimates of genetic correlations for the same trait measured in parities 1 and 2 ranged from 0.64 to 0.98, which suggests that first and later parities should be treated as genetically different for some traits. Genetic correlations estimated between traits in parities 1 and 2 indicated that BWF and BWL measured in parity 1 can be used as indicator traits for SFI and SRFI measured in parities 1 and 2. In conclusion, traits associated with lactation in sows have a sizable genetic component and show potential for genetic improvement.

Physical cryptographic verification of nuclear warheads.

How does one prove a claim about a highly sensitive object such as a nuclear weapon without revealing information about the object? This paradox has challenged nuclear arms control for more than five decades. We present a mechanism in the form of an interactive proof system that can validate the structure and composition of an object, such as a nuclear warhead, to arbitrary precision without revealing either its structure or composition. We introduce a tomographic method that simultaneously resolves both the geometric and isotopic makeup of an object. We also introduce a method of protecting information using a provably secure cryptographic hash that does not rely on electronics or software. These techniques, when combined with a suitable protocol, constitute an interactive proof system that could reject hoax items and clear authentic warheads with excellent sensitivity in reasonably short measurement times.

Genetic analysis of reproductive traits and antibody response in a PRRS outbreak herd.

Porcine reproductive and respiratory syndrome (PRRS) is the most economically significant disease impacting pig production in North America, Europe, and Asia, causing reproductive losses such as increased rates of stillbirth and mummified piglets. The objective of this study was to explore the genetic basis of host response to the PRRS virus (PRRSV) in a commercial multiplier sow herd before and after a PRRS outbreak, using antibody response and reproductive traits. Reproductive data comprising number born alive (NBA), number alive at 24 h (NA24), number stillborn (NSB), number born mummified (NBM), proportion born dead (PBD), number born dead (NBD), number weaned (NW), and number of mortalities through weaning (MW) of 5,227 litters from 1,967 purebred Landrace sows were used along with a pedigree comprising 2,995 pigs. The PRRS outbreak date was estimated from rolling averages of farrowing traits and was used to split the data into a pre-PRRS phase and a PRRS phase. All 641 sows in the herd during the outbreak were blood sampled 46 d after the estimated outbreak date and were tested for anti-PRRSV IgG using ELISA (sample-to-positive [S/P] ratio). Genetic parameters of traits were estimated separately for the pre-PRRS and PRRS phase data sets. Sows were genotyped using the PorcineSNP60 BeadChip, and genome-wide association studies (GWAS) were performed using method Bayes B. Heritability estimates for reproductive traits ranged from 0.01 (NBM) to 0.12 (NSB) and from 0.01 (MW) to 0.12 (NBD) for the pre-PRRS and PRRS phases, respectively. S/P ratio had heritability (0.45) and strong genetic correlations with most traits, ranging from -0.72 (NBM) to 0.73 (NBA). In the pre-PRRS phase, regions associated with NSB and PBD explained 1.6% and 3% of the genetic variance, respectively. In the PRRS phase, regions associated with NBD, NSB, and S/P ratio explained 0.8%, 11%, and 50.6% of the genetic variance, respectively. For S/P ratio, 2 regions on SSC 7 (SSC7) separated by 100 Mb explained 40% of the genetic variation, including a region encompassing the major histocompatibility complex, which explained 25% of the genetic variance. These results indicate a significant genomic component associated with PRRSV antibody response and NSB in this data set. Also, the high heritability and genetic correlation estimates for S/P ratio during the PRRS phase suggest that S/P ratio could be used as an indicator of the impact of PRRS on reproductive traits.

On the interpretation of likelihood ratios in forensic science evidence: Presentation formats and the weak evidence effect.

Likelihood ratios are increasingly being adopted to convey expert evaluative opinions to courts. In the absence of appropriate databases, many of these likelihood ratios will include verbal rather than numerical estimates of the support offered by the analysis. However evidence suggests that verbal formulations of uncertainty are a less effective form of communication than equivalent numerical formulations. Moreover, when evidence strength is low a misinterpretation of the valence of the evidence - a "weak evidence effect" - has been found. We report the results of an experiment involving N=404 (student and online) participants who read a brief summary of a burglary trial containing expert testimony. The expert evidence was varied across conditions in terms of evidence strength (low or high) and presentation method (numerical, verbal, table or visual scale). Results suggest that of these presentation methods, numerical expressions produce belief-change and implicit likelihood ratios which were most commensurate with those intended by the expert and most resistant to the weak evidence effect. These findings raise questions about the extent to which low strength verbal evaluative opinions can be effectively communicated to decision makers at trial.

Genetic and phenotypic parameters for carcass and meat quality traits in commercial crossbred pigs.

Pork quality and carcass characteristics are now being integrated into swine breeding objectives because of their economic value. Understanding the genetic basis for these traits is necessary for this to be accomplished. The objective of this study was to estimate phenotypic and genetic parameters for carcass and meat quality traits in 2 Canadian swine populations. Data from a genomic selection study aimed at improving meat quality with a mating system involving hybrid Landrace × Large White and Duroc pigs were used to estimate heritabilities and phenotypic and genetic correlations among them. Data on 2,100 commercial crossbred pigs for meat quality and carcass traits were recorded with pedigrees compromising 9,439 animals over 15 generations. Significant fixed effects (company, sex, and slaughter batch), covariates (cold carcass weight and slaughter age), and random additive and common litter effects were fitted in the models. A series of pairwise bivariate analyses were implemented in ASReml to estimate phenotypic and genetic parameters. Heritability estimates (±SE) for carcass traits were moderate to high and ranged from 0.22 ± 0.08 for longissimus dorsi muscle area to 0.63 ± 0.04 for trimmed ham weight, except for firmness, which was low. Heritability estimates (±SE) for meat quality traits varied from 0.10 ± 0.04 to 0.39 ± 0.06 for the Minolta b* of ham quadriceps femoris muscle and shear force, respectively. Generally, most of the genetic correlations were significant (P < 0.05) and ranged from low (0.18 ± 0.07) to high (-0.97 ± 0.35). There were high negative genetic correlations between drip loss with pH and shear force and a positive correlation with cooking loss. Genetic correlations between carcass weight (both hot and cold) with carcass marbling were highly positive. It was concluded that selection for increasing primal and subprimal cut weights with better pork quality may be possible. Furthermore, the use of pH is confirmed as an indicator for pork water-holding capacity and cooking loss. The heritabilities of carcass and pork quality traits indicated that they can be improved using traditional breeding methods and genomic selection, respectively. The estimated genetic parameters for carcass and meat quality traits can be incorporated into the breeding programs that emphasize product quality in these Canadian swine populations.

Estimates of genetic parameters for stayability to consecutive calvings of Canadian Simmentals by random regression models.

Stayability to consecutive calvings was selected as a measure of cow longevity in the Canadian Simmental population. Calving performance data on 188,579 cows and culling information from the Total Herd Reporting System were used to determine whether a cow stayed in a herd for her second and later (up to the eighth) calvings, given that she had calved as 2 yr old. Binary records (n = 1,164,319) were analyzed with animal linear and threshold models including fixed effects of year of birth by season of birth by parity number and age of cow at first calving by parity number and random effects of contemporary group (CG) defined as herd of birth within year by season, animal additive genetic effect, and a cow permanent environmental (PE) effect. All random effects were Legendre polynomial regressions of the same order, defined on the scale from second to the eighth calving. Bayesian methods with Gibbs sampling were used to estimate covariance components and genetic parameters for random effects of models and selected variables on the longitudinal scale. Bayes factors and analyses of mean squared error and correlation between observed and predicted observations indicated that the linear model with regressions of order 3 was most plausible for generating the current data compared with a fixed regression and other random regression (both linear and threshold) models of order up to 4. Estimates of variances for all random effects from the best fitting model changed with the calving number. Estimates of heritability decreased in time: from 0.35 (SD = 0.006) for stayability to second calving to 0.13 (SD = 0.004) for stayability to the eighth calving. Variance due to PE effect constituted the largest part of the total variance of stayability for all longitudinal points followed by genetic and CG components. Genetic effects of stayability to different calvings were relatively highly correlated, from 0.62 (SD = 0.011) to 0.99 (SD = 0.001), and correlation decreased with the time span between calvings. Correlations for PE and CG effects showed similar trends. Animal genetic effect seemed to be less variable on the longitudinal scale compared with other random effects of the model. The first 2 principal components explained from 95% (PE effects) to 99% (genetic effect) of the total variance. The overall level of genetic stayability curve correlated well (from 0.87 to 0.99, with SD < 0.006) with genetic stayability to different calvings and therefore could be used as a single criterion in selection for stayability.

The initial freezing point temperature of beef rises with the rise in pH: a short communication.

This study tested the hypothesis that the initial freezing point temperature of meat is affected by pH. Sixty four bovine M. longissimus thoracis et lumborum were classified into two ultimate pH groups: low (<5.8) and high pH (>6.2) and their cooling and freezing point temperatures were determined. The initial freezing temperatures for beef ranged from -0.9 to -1.5°C (∆=0.6°C) with the higher and lower temperatures associated with high and low ultimate pH respectively. There was a significant correlation (r=+0.73, P<0.01) between beef pH and freezing point temperature in the present study. The outcome of this study has implications for the meat industry where evidence of freezing (ice formation) in a shipment as a result of high pH meat could result in a container load of valuable chilled product being downgraded to a lower value frozen product.

Spray chilling of deer carcasses--effects on carcass weight, meat moisture content, purge and microbiological quality.

Twenty red deer carcasses were included in the study. Two treatments were applied to the carcasses; control (air chilling) and spray chilling (n=10 for each treatment). Carcass weight and temperature change were registered during over-night chilling. Meat moisture content was measured in the shoulder, loin, flap and leg before and after the chilling treatments; purge, cooking loss and tenderness were measured in loin samples stored at -1.5 °C for 3 and 9 weeks. Microbiological status was assessed on swabs taken at the lumbar end of the loin before and after the chilling treatments. Spray chilling reduced carcass weight loss significantly; air chilled and spray chilled carcasses lost 1 kg and less than 0.01 kg, respectively. No effects of spray chilling on tenderness, purge and cooking loss were found. Bacterial levels were low in general even after 9 weeks of vacuum packaged chilled storage.

Liver transplantation at a university hospital, faculty of the medicine of Ribeirão Preto, University of São Paulo: results for the first 60 recipients.

The purpose of the present article was to present the series operated by a Liver Transplant Group of the interior of the State of Sao Paulo, Brazil. Sixty patients were transplanted from May 2001 to May 2007. Thirty percent of the patients had alcoholic cirrhosis. 18.3% had C virus-induced cirrhosis, 10% had C virus- and alcohol-induced cirrhosis, 6% had B virus-induced cirrhosis, 13.3% had cryptogenic cirrhosis, 8.3% autoimmune cirrhosis, 13.3% had familial amyloidotic polyneuropathy (FAP), and 13.3% had hepatocellular carcinomas. The series was divided by a chronological criterion into two periods: A (n = 42) and B (n = 18) with the latter group operated based upon the Model for End-stage Liver Disease (MELD) criterion. Sixty-nine percent were men. Age ranged from 14 to 66 years. Period A included 12% Child A: 59.2%, Child B; 24%, Child C; and 4.8%, FAP. Period B comprises 22.2% Child A: 11.1%, Child B: 33.3%, Child C: and 33.3%, FAP. MELD scores ranged from 8 to 35 for period A and from 14 to 31 for period B. Intraoperative mortality was 2/42 patients for period A and 0/18 for period B, overall postoperative mortality was 40% including for period A, 35% among Child B and C patients, and 5% among FAP and Child A patients (P < .05) and 16.6% for period B among 11.1% Child B patients and 5.5% FAP patients; 3.3% of patients required retransplantation due to hepatic artery thrombosis. Real postoperative survival was 60% during period A and 83.3% during period B, with an overall survival rate of 67% for the two periods. The present results show levels of postoperative mortality, (especially during period B), and survival rates similar to those reported by several other centers in Brazil.

A performance estimate for the detection of undeclared nuclear-fuel reprocessing by atmospheric 85Kr.

To test the sensitivity of using atmospheric (85)Kr to detect undeclared separation of plutonium from irradiated nuclear-reactor fuel, measurements of atmospheric (85)Kr taken in Tsukuba, Japan are analyzed to determine: (1) a lower limit of detection for discovering anthropogenic (85)Kr emissions, (2) the probability of detecting plutonium separation at the Tokai Reprocessing Plant, and (3) the extent to which these results can be generalized to other sites. A LLD of at least 3.4 sigma=0.14 Bq/m(3) with a theoretical false-positive rate of 0.05% is recommended for safeguards' purposes. At this threshold, the continuous separation of 100, 300, and 900 g equivalent weapon-grade plutonium per day was found to correspond to 10%, 50%, and 80% probability of detection, respectively. The smallest detected concentration was for the continuous separation of 45 g/day, with a probability of detection of about 0.6%. It was found that the detection rate is determined predominantly by the weather.

Myocardial blood flow in patients with low-flow, low-gradient aortic stenosis: differences between true and pseudo-severe aortic stenosis. Results from the multicentre TOPAS (Truly or Pseudo-Severe Aortic Stenosis) study.

BACKGROUND: Impairment of myocardial flow reserve (MFR) in aortic stenosis (AS) with normal left ventricular function relates to the haemodynamic severity. OBJECTIVES: To investigate whether myocardial blood flow (MBF) and MFR differ in low-flow, low-gradient AS depending on whether there is underlying true-severe AS (TSAS) or pseudo-severe AS (PSAS). METHODS: In 36 patients with low-flow, low-gradient AS, dynamic [13N]ammonia PET perfusion imaging was performed at rest (n = 36) and during dipyridamole stress (n = 20) to quantify MBF and MFR. Dobutamine echocardiography was used to classify patients as TSAS (n = 18) or PSAS (n = 18) based on the indexed projected effective orifice area (EOA) at a normal flow rate of 250 ml/s (EOAI(proj )0.55 cm(2)/m(2)). RESULTS: Compared with healthy controls (n = 14), patients with low-flow, low-gradient AS had higher resting mean (SD) MBF (0.83 (0.21) vs 0.69 (0.09) ml/min/g, p = 0.001), reduced hyperaemic MBF (1.16 (0.31) vs 2.71 (0.50) ml/min/g, p<0.001) and impaired MFR (1.44 (0.44) vs 4.00 (0.91), p<0.001). Resting MBF and MFR correlated with indices of AS severity in low-flow, low-gradient AS with the strongest relationship observed for EOAI(proj) (r(s) = -0.50, p = 0.002 and r(s) = 0.61, p = 0.004, respectively). Compared with PSAS, TSAS had a trend to a higher resting MBF (0.90 (0.19) vs 0.77 (0.21) ml/min/g, p = 0.06), similar hyperaemic MBF (1.16 (0.31) vs 1.17 (0.32) ml/min/g, p = NS), but a significantly smaller MFR (1.19 (0.26) vs 1.76 (0.41), p = 0.003). An MFR <1.8 had an accuracy of 85% for distinguishing TSAS from PSAS. CONCLUSIONS: Low-flow, low-gradient AS is characterised by higher resting MBF and reduced MFR that relates to the AS severity. The degree of MFR impairment differs between TSAS and PSAS and may be of value for distinguishing these entities.