Long-term exposure to ephedrine leads to neurotoxicity and neurobehavioral disorders accompanied by up-regulation of CRF in prefrontal cortex and hippocampus in rhesus macaques.

Drug addiction continues to threaten the health and welfare of people worldwide, and ephedrine abuse is a serious drug problem in many areas of the world. Ephedrine toxicity is thought to induce behavioral effects primarily through actions on the central nervous system. The corticotropin-releasing factor (CRF) system plays an important role in regulating behavioral effects induced by addictive drugs, but whether CRF is related to ephedrine toxicity remains unclear.

Predictable weathering of puparial hydrocarbons of necrophagous flies for determining the postmortem interval: a field experiment using Chrysomya rufifacies.

Preadult development of necrophagous flies is commonly recognized as an accurate method for estimating the minimum postmortem interval (PMImin). However, once the PMImin exceeds the duration of preadult development, the method is less accurate. Recently, fly puparial hydrocarbons were found to significantly change with weathering time in the field, indicating their potential use for PMImin estimates.

Time of death revealed by hydrocarbons of empty puparia of Chrysomya megacephala (Fabricius) (Diptera: Calliphoridae): a field experiment.

Determination of the postmortem interval (PMI) is crucial for investigating homicide. However, there are currently only limited methods available. Especially, once the PMI exceeds the duration of pre-adult development of the flies with the adult emergence, its determination is very approximate.

Chronic alcoholism-mediated impairment in the medulla oblongata: a mechanism of alcohol-related mortality in traumatic brain injury?

Alcohol-related traumatic brain injury (TBI) is a common condition in medical and forensic practice, and results in high prehospital mortality. We investigated the mechanism of chronic alcoholism-related mortality by examining the effects of alcohol on the synapses of the medulla oblongata in a rat model of TBI. Seventy adult male Sprague-Dawley rats were randomly assigned to either ethanol (EtOH) group, EtOH-TBI group, or control groups (water group, water-TBI group).

Haplotypes of 20 Y-chromosomal STRs in a population sample from southeast China (Chaoshan area).

In this study, 20 Y-specific short tandem repeat (STR) loci (DYS434, Y-GATA-A10, Y-GATA-H4, DYS438, DYS439, DYS443, DYS444, DYS446, DYS447, DYS448, DYS456, DYS458, DYS460, DYS520, DYS531, DYS557, DYS622, DYS630, DYS635(Y-GATA-C4), and DYS709) were analyzed in 158 unrelated healthy men from southeast China by three fluorescence-labeled multiplex polymerase chain reaction systems. The Y-STR multiplexes developed have followed the published nomenclature and International Society for Forensic Genetics (ISFG) guidelines for STR analysis. Gene diversity ranged from 0.

[Twenty Y-STR locus multiplex amplification and genetic polymorphism analysis in Han population in Chaoshan area].

Objective: To study genetic polymorphisms of 20 Y-chromosomal short tandem repeats (STR) in Chaoshan Han population, and to evaluate their value in forensic science.

Methods: Twenty Y-specific STR loci (DYS434, Y-GATA-A10, Y-GATA-H4, DYS438, DYS439, DYS443, DYS444, DYS446, DYS447, DYS448, DYS456, DYS458, DYS460, DYS520, DYS531, DYS557, DYS622, DYS630, DYS635 and DYS709) were amplified by using three fluorescence-labeled multiplex PCR systems and were analyzed by ABI310 genetic analyzer. One hundred and fifty-eight unrelated male individuals of Han population in Chaoshan area were investigated to determine the distribution of allele frequencies and haplotype.