The Interest of a Systematic Toxicological Analysis Combined with Forensic Advice to Improve the Judicial Investigation and Final Judgment in Drug Facilitated Sexual Assault Cases.

The conviction rate in drug facilitated sexual assault (DFSA) cases is known to be very low. In addition, the potential impact of toxicological results on the case is often not well understood by the judicial authorities. The aims of this study were (1) to obtain more knowledge concerning the prevalence of incapacitating substances in DFSA cases, (2) to create a more efficient DFSA analysis strategy taking background information into account, and (3) to evaluate the potential impact of systematic toxicological analysis (STA) on the final judicial outcome.

Validation of SmartRank: A likelihood ratio software for searching national DNA databases with complex DNA profiles.

Searching a national DNA database with complex and incomplete profiles usually yields very large numbers of possible matches that can present many candidate suspects to be further investigated by the forensic scientist and/or police. Current practice in most forensic laboratories consists of ordering these 'hits' based on the number of matching alleles with the searched profile. Thus, candidate profiles that share the same number of matching alleles are not differentiated and due to the lack of other ranking criteria for the candidate list it may be difficult to discern a true match from the false positives or notice that all candidates are in fact false positives.

Acrylamide, an in vivo thyroid carcinogenic agent, induces DNA damage in rat thyroid cell lines and primary cultures.

Chronic treatment of rats with acrylamide induces various tumors among which thyroid tumors are the most frequent. The aim of the present study was to develop an in vitro model of acrylamide action on thyroid cells to allow the investigation of the mechanism of this tumorigenic action. The first part of the study considered as targets, characteristics of thyroid metabolism, which could explain the thyroid specificity of acrylamide action: the cAMP mitogenic effect and the important H2O2 generation by thyroid cells.

Sphingolipid-cholesterol domains (lipid rafts) in normal human and dog thyroid follicular cells are not involved in thyrotropin receptor signaling.

Partition of signaling molecules in sphingolipid-cholesterol-enriched membrane domains, among which are the caveolae, may contribute to signal transduction efficiency. In normal thyroid, nothing is known about a putative TSH/cAMP cascade compartmentation in caveolae or other sphingolipid-cholesterol-enriched membrane domains. In this study we show for the first time that caveolae are present in the apical membrane of dog and human thyrocytes: caveolin-1 mRNA presence is demonstrated by Northern blotting in primary cultures and that of the caveolin-1 protein by immunohistochemistry performed on human thyroid tissue.