Firearm Fatalities in the Pediatric Population: A Retrospective Study From the Cook County Medical Examiner's Office.

Gunshot injuries are one of the leading causes of death from trauma in the United States. In recent years, the US has experienced an increasing number of fatal pediatric cases related to firearms.A search of the database of the Cook County Medical Examiner's Office over the period January 2016-December 2021 revealed 418 deaths by gunshot wounds (GSWs) among people aged between 0 and 18 years old.

MDMB-4en-PINACA-Related Deaths in Cook County Jail: Awareness and Preventive Measures.

Since January 2023, a series of fatalities has occurred in the Cook County Jail. Upon reviewing surveillance videos, in some cases, the inmates shared paper strips, and it was followed by the onset of labored breathing and loss of consciousness. Scene investigation revealed burnt paper strips near the body in 3 cases.

Digital Gangrene as a Paraneoplastic Manifestation of Peripheral T-cell Lymphoma Not Otherwise Specified Type.

Background: Peripheral T cell lymphoma (PTCL), not otherwise specified (NOS) is a heterogenous group of predominantly nodal T cell lymphomas that generally presents with lymphadenopathy with or without extra nodal involvement. Acral vascular syndrome clinically presents as digital ischemia with Raynaud's phenomenon and acral cyanosis. Although, this condition is commonly associated with connective tissue disorder, smoking and vasculitis, its association with lymphoid malignancy is very rare.

Preparation of a Herbal Mouthwash With Lemongrass and Mint-Mediated Zinc Oxide Nanoparticles and Evaluation of Its Antimicrobial and Cytotoxic Properties.

Introduction Nanotechnology holds considerable importance in biomedical and dental applications. Nanoparticles synthesized using green synthesis methods with herbal formulations offer various benefits to humans. Zinc oxide nanoparticles (ZnONPs), being semiconductors, exhibit potent antibacterial properties.

Evaluating the Reliability of Dipstick Drug Screens on Vitreous and Postmortem Blood as a Triage Modality in Forensic Pathology.

Dipstick drug screens are cheap, easy to use, and quick presumptive tests to detect common drugs of abuse. Dipsticks are designed for drug detection in urine. There is no literature regarding their potential use on fluids different from urine.

Female Homicide Victims in Cook County, Illinois: A Retrospective Review.

Female homicide is a broad term that includes any homicide in which the victim is a female, representing the most extreme form of violence against women. This study investigated the characteristics of female homicides to determine the types and characteristics of injury, circumstances of the events, and other aspects in this specific population. The Cook County Medical Examiner's Office files were searched for homicides in female subjects between January 2017 and January 2022, with no limits for age, race, or cause of death.

Report of 5146 Cases of Coronavirus Disease 2019-Related Mortality From Cook County, Illinois Causes of Death, Demographics, and Comorbidities.

A cross-sectional study used 5216 laboratory-confirmed coronavirus disease 2019 (severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2)-related mortality cases in Cook County of Illinois. The data set included each case's demographic data, manner of death, and comorbidities. The age ranged from 0 to 108 years, with a median of 73.

Lewis acidic Fe-driven catalytic active Ni formation in Fe-free metal-organic framework for enhanced electrochemical glucose sensing.

Manipulating metal valence states and porosity in the metal-organic framework (MOF) by alloying has been a unique tool for creating high-valent metal sites and pore environments in a structure that are inaccessible by other methods, favorable for accelerating the catalytic activity towards sensing applications. Herein, we report Fe-driven formation of catalytic active Ni species in the amine-crafted benzene-dicarboxylate (BDC-NH)-based MOF as a high-performance electrocatalyst for glucose sensing. This work took the benefit of different bonding stability between BDC-NH ligand, and Fe and Ni metal precursor ions in the heterometallic NiFe-BDC-NH MOF.

Conversion of seaweed waste to biochar for the removal of heavy metal ions from aqueous solution: A sustainable method to address eutrophication problem in water bodies.

The present study investigated the sustainable approach for wastewater treatment using waste algal blooms. The current study investigated the removal of toxic metals namely chromium (Cr), nickel (Ni), and zinc (Zn) from aqueous solutions in batch and column studies using biochar produced by the marine algae Ulva reticulata. SEM/EDX, FTIR, and XRD were used to examine the adsorbents' properties and stability.

Exploring Modified Rice Straw Biochar as a Sustainable Solution for Simultaneous Cr(VI) and Pb(II) Removal from Wastewater: Characterization, Mechanism Insights, and Application Feasibility.

This study aimed to investigate the efficacy of a rice straw biosorbent in batch adsorption for the removal of chromium (Cr(VI)) and lead (Pb(II)) heavy-metal ions from wastewater. The biosorbent was chemically synthesized and activated by using concentrated sulfuric acid. The produced biosorbent was then characterized by using Fourier transform infrared (FTIR), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDX), and X-ray diffraction (XRD) analyses, which provided insights into surface morphology and functional groups.

Impact of air pollutants on climate change and prediction of air quality index using machine learning models.

The impact of air pollution in Chennai metropolitan city, a southern Indian coastal city was examined to predict the Air Quality Index (AQI). Regular monitoring and prediction of the Air Quality Index (AQI) are critical for combating air pollution. The current study created machine learning models such as XGBoost, Random Forest, BaggingRegressor, and LGBMRegressor for the prediction of the AQI using the historical data available from 2017 to 2022.

Larvicidal and anti-termite activities of microbial biosurfactant produced by Enterobacter cloacae SJ2 isolated from marine sponge Clathria sp.

The widespread use of synthetic pesticides has resulted in a number of issues, including a rise in insecticide-resistant organisms, environmental degradation, and a hazard to human health. As a result, new microbial derived insecticides that are safe for human health and the environment are urgently needed. In this study, rhamnolipid biosurfactants produced from Enterobacter cloacae SJ2 was used to evaluate the toxicity towards mosquito larvae (Culex quinquefasciatus) and termites (Odontotermes obesus).

National Association of Medical Examiners Position Paper: Recommendations for the Documentation and Certification of Disaster-Related Deaths.

Collecting and reporting accurate disaster mortality data are critical to informing disaster response and recovery efforts. The National Association of Medical Examiners convened an ad hoc committee to provide recommendations for the documentation and certification of disaster-related deaths. This article provides definitions for disasters and direct, indirect, and partially attributable disaster-related deaths; discusses jurisdiction for disaster-related deaths; offers recommendations for medical examiners/coroners (ME/Cs) for indicating the involvement of the disaster on the death certificate; discusses the role of the ME/C and non-ME/C in documenting and certifying disaster-related deaths; identifies existing systems for helping to identify the role of disaster on the death certificate; and describes disaster-related deaths that may require amendments of death certificates.

Five-year review (2014-2019) of paediatric accidental deaths in Cook County, Illinois (USA).

In the USA, intentional and accidental injuries are the most frequent causes of death in children. Many of these deaths could be avoided through preventive measures, and aetiological studies are needed to reduce fatalities. The leading causes of accidental death vary by age.

When public health crises collide: 5 years of pediatric firearm injury prevention opportunities.

Objectives: Prior publications on pediatric firearm-related injuries have emphasized significant social disparities. The pandemic has heightened a variety of these societal stresses. We sought to evaluate how we must now adapt our injury prevention strategies.

Emerging waste-to-wealth applications of fly ash for environmental remediation: A review.

The considerable increase in world energy consumption owing to rising global population, intercontinental transportation and industrialization has posed numerous environmental concerns. Particularly, in order to meet the required electricity supply, thermal power plants for electricity generation are widely used in many countries. However, an annually excessive quantity of waste fly ash up to 1 billion tones was globally discarded from the combustion of various carbon-containing feedstocks in thermoelectricity plants.

Atypical performance of CoO-accelerated interface tweaking in hierarchical cobalt phosphide/oxide@P-doped rGO heterostructures for hybrid supercapacitors.

Designing two-dimensional (2D) heterostructures based on suitable energy materials is a promising strategy to achieve high-performance supercapacitors with hybridized transition metal and carbonaceous-based electrodes. The influence of each component and its content on the capacitor performance necessitates deeper insights. In this study, a 2D/2D heterostructure made of hierarchical pseudocapacitive cobalt phosphide/oxide and P-doped reduced graphene oxide (PrGO) nanosheets (CoP/CoO@PrGO) was fabricated using porous zeolitic-imidazolate framework precursor.

Influence of bioaugmentation in crude oil contaminated soil by Pseudomonas species on the removal of total petroleum hydrocarbon.

This study aimed to carry out the bioaugmentation of crude oil/motor oil contaminated soil. The mixture of novel strains Pseudomonas aeruginosa PP3 and Pseudomonas aeruginosa PP4 were used in this bioaugmentation studies. The four different bioaugmentation systems (BS 1-4) were carried out in this experiment labelled as BS 1 (Crude oil contaminated soil), BS 2 (BS 1 + bacterial consortia), BS 3 (Motor oil sludge contaminated soil), and BS 4 (BS 3 + bacterial consortia).

Genomic Autopsy of Sudden Deaths in Young Individuals.

Importance: Postmortem genetic testing of young individuals with sudden death has previously identified pathogenic gene variants. However, prior studies primarily considered highly penetrant monogenic variants, often without detailed decedent and family clinical information.

Objective: To assess genotype and phenotype risk in a diverse cohort of young decedents with sudden death and their families.

Human iPSC-Derived 2D and 3D Platforms for Rapidly Assessing Developmental, Functional, and Terminal Toxicities in Neural Cells.

With increasing global health threats has come an urgent need to rapidly develop and deploy safe and effective therapies. A common practice to fast track clinical adoption of compounds for new indications is to repurpose already approved therapeutics; however, many compounds considered safe to a specific application or population may elicit undesirable side effects when the dosage, usage directives, and/or clinical context are changed. For example, progenitor and developing cells may have different susceptibilities than mature dormant cells, which may yet be different than mature active cells.

A Complementary Co-Ni Phosphide/Bimetallic Alloy-Interspersed N-Doped Graphene Electrocatalyst for Overall Alkaline Water Splitting.

Echinops-like bimetallic CoNiP-CoNi alloy is synthesized from a metal-organic framework (MOF) and serves as an efficient catalyst for the oxygen evolution reaction (OER), with a low overpotential of 300 mV in 1 M KOH at 10 mA cm (η ). The cooperative effect of Ni and Co metal, as well as the interfacial properties of the integrated semiconducting phosphide/metallic alloy and electronic conductivity of the MOF-derived carbon regulate the performance of the catalyst. Moreover, the bimetallic CoNiP/CoNi alloy catalyst is interspersed with N-doped graphene, forming a triad catalyst that demonstrates superior activity towards the hydrogen evolution reaction (η =150 mV) and excellent durability, owing to interfacial effects of the triad catalyst, large electrochemical active surface area, and enhanced conductivity from N-doped graphene.

Composition engineering of ZIF-derived cobalt phosphide/cobalt monoxide heterostructures for high-performance asymmetric supercapacitors.

The fabrication of interpenetrated heterostructures from desirable energy materials for the development of efficient supercapacitors is promising yet challenging. Herein, a leaf-shaped cobalt phosphide/cobalt oxide heterostructure, (CoP)/CoO (0.44 > y > 0.