Social media video analysis methodology for sarin exposure.

As social media becomes increasingly ubiquitous, many events are recorded and released on social media platforms, including chemical weapon attacks. We develop an objective tool in order to evaluate brief and unstructured social media videos for analysing sarin exposure from a civilian medical pathology perspective. We developed and validated this new questionnaire using a standardized procedure that includes content domain specification, item pool generation, content validity evaluation, a pilot study, and assessment of reliability and validity. In total, 51 sarin attacks and 48 matched videos were analysed. Cronbach's α for all 20 items was 0.75, which indicates adequate internal reliability. The test-retest reliability was 0.96, which indicates good internal reliability. The inter-observer intraclass correlation coefficient was 0.97. After verifying sampling adequacy with the Kaiser-Meyer-Olkin measure and the factorability of the items with Barlett's test of sphericity, a factor analysis was performed. According to the principal axis factoring, a six-factor solution explained 51.86% of the total variance. The receiver-operating characteristic curve analysis showed that the Video Score Questionnaire has a sensitivity of 0.817, a specificity of 0.478, and an efficiency of 65.3. Therefore, the Video Score Questionnaire is reliable and valid for evaluating sarin attacks from brief and unstructured social media videos.Key pointsChemical weapons are still used as a method of warfare.Social media videos are an important source of information.We developed a validated scale which can analyse sarin exposure in short and unstructured videos.

A new and simple parameter for diagnosis pulmonary edema: Expiratory air humidity.

PURPOSE: Acute pulmonary edema is characterized by increased levels of fluid in the interstitial and alveolar space of the lung and requires emergency treatment. In acute pulmonary edema, the amount of fluid in the intra-alveolar, interstitial space, and pleural space vary considerably and this fluid will evaporate in different amounts compared to the physiological fluid. The aim of this study was to compare the humidity rates of expiratory air measured before and after pulmonary edema induced by α-naphthylthiourea (ANTU) in rats. METHODS: The study included twenty healthy adult rats divided equally into a healthy control group and a pulmonary edema group. Pulmonary edema was induced by administering ANTU intraperitoneally in the rats in the study group. Humidity, temperature, lung weight, pleural effusion, and histopathological changes in the respiratory system due to pulmonary edema were examined in the ANTU group. Control measurments were taken before administration of ANTU and again 4 h after administration of ANTU when lung damage was considred to be at maximum levels. RESULTS: Mean expiratory air humidity was 71.22±3.59% before ANTU and 56.28±3.94% after administration of ANTU. The mean humidity difference of -14.94±5.96% was considered statistically different (p = 0.01). CONCLUSION: Humidity rate in expiratory air was significantly lower in rats with acute pulmonary edema compared to healthy rats. This result supports the hypothesis that humidity in expiratory air can be considered an important parameter in patients during clinical are follow-up for pulmonary edema.

The preventative effect of of Ro5-4864 (peripheral benzodiazepine receptor agonist) on spinal epidural fibrosis after laminectomy in a rat model.

OBJECTIVE: To investigate the histopathological effects of a peripheral benzodiazepine receptor agonist (Ro5-4864) on epidural fibrosis (EF) in an experimental study model (post-laminectomy) in rats. METHODS: A total of 32 albino Wistar rats were randomly divided into four equal groups (n = 8). In Group 1, no treatment was applied after laminectomy (control group). In Group 2, hemostasis was achieved after Laminectomy, and the surgical procedure was terminated by placing a 2-mm absorbable gelatin sponge dipped in saline into the epidural space. In Group 3, low-dose (4 mg/kg) Ro5-4864 was administered 30 minutes before the surgery. In Group 4, high-dose (8 mg/kg) Ro5-4864 was administered 30 minutes before the surgery. A histopathological examination was performed to evaluate arachnoidal invasion and EF. RESULTS: Our data revealed the EF was significantly reduced in rats treated with high-dose Ro5-4864 (Group 4) compared to the control and saline-soaked Spongostan groups (p = 0.000 and p = 0.006, respectively). There was no significant difference between the groups treated with high- and low-dose Ro5-4864. Arachnoidal invasion was not seen in any of the rats in the high-dose R05-4864 group. However, the arachnoidal invasion results did not significantly differ between the study groups (p = 0.052 = 0.05). CONCLUSIONS: Our study showed that Ro5-4864 could be effective in reducing EF in rats after.

The potential of Raman and FT-IR spectroscopic methods for the detection of chlorine in human nail samples.

Although chlorine (Cl2) has been used as a chemical warfare agent since World War I there is no known specific and reliable biomarker to indicate the presence of chlorine. We distinguished chlorinated human nails from unchlorinated ones using Raman spectroscopy and Fourier Transform Infrared (FT-IR) Spectroscopy. This research was carried out between October 2018 and July 2019 on two nail samples taken from 55 male and 104 female volunteers. One sample from each participant was chlorinated, while the second sample was used as a control. Spectral data were collected from chlorinated and unchlorinated (control) human nails using Raman and FT-IR spectroscopy. Raman measurements were made between 100 and 3200 cm-1, while FT-IR measurements were recorded over the range of 650 to 4000 cm-1. Partial least squares regression-discriminant analysis (PLS-DA) was used to develop classification models for each spectral instrument. Results showed that the control and chlorinated nail samples were successfully discriminated with similar results achieved with both instruments. Minor differences were observed in the performance of classification models. The FT-IR spectroscopy model (sensitivity = 95%, specificity = 99%, accuracy = 97%) was found to be more successful with a smaller margin of error (sensitivity = 95%, specificity = 99%, accuracy = 96%) compared to the Raman spectroscopy model. This method can be used successfully for both ante-mortem and post-mortem diagnosis of chlorine exposure.