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The Lancet. Planetary Health Jun 2024
Topics: Climate Change; Humans; Drowning; Disasters
PubMed: 38849173
DOI: 10.1016/S2542-5196(24)00090-1 -
Legal Medicine (Tokyo, Japan) Nov 2022Estimation of the postmortem interval (PMI) is a very essential task for forensic experts especially in criminal cases. drowning is still the most difficult tasks for...
Estimation of the postmortem interval (PMI) is a very essential task for forensic experts especially in criminal cases. drowning is still the most difficult tasks for forensic pathologists to be diagnosed and differentiated from a body disposed of in water following death especially after long post-mortem period. The objective of this study was to estimate the PMI in drowning in comparison to postmortem submersion using mRNA expression of AQP1 in addition to histological and immunohistochemical examination of caspase-3 in the adrenal and thyroid glands of adult albino rats. Adult albino rats were divided into 2 groups; group A (drowning) and group B (post-mortem submersion). Thyroid and adrenal glands were examined at different PMI. The results revealed significant differences at AQP1 levels between drowning and postmortem submersion at different PMI. Histological changes and caspase-3 expression immunologically in both glands were helpful.
Topics: Humans; Caspase 3; Drowning; Immersion; Postmortem Changes; RNA, Messenger; Water; Rats; Models, Animal; Animals
PubMed: 36029692
DOI: 10.1016/j.legalmed.2022.102138 -
The Medical Clinics of North America Mar 2016Injuries result in nearly 6 million deaths and incur 52 million disability-adjusted life-years annually, making up 15% of the global disease burden. More than 90% of... (Review)
Review
Injuries result in nearly 6 million deaths and incur 52 million disability-adjusted life-years annually, making up 15% of the global disease burden. More than 90% of this burden occurs in low- and middle-income countries. Given this burden, it is not unexpected that injuries are the leading cause of death among travelers to low- and middle-income countries, namely, from road traffic crashes and drowning. Therefore, pretravel advice regarding foreseeable dangers and how to avoid them may significantly mitigate injury risk, such as wearing seatbelts, helmets, and personal flotation devices when appropriate; responsibly consuming alcohol; and closely supervising children.
Topics: Accidents, Traffic; Developing Countries; Drowning; Humans; Risk; Safety; Travel; Wounds and Injuries
PubMed: 26900117
DOI: 10.1016/j.mcna.2015.07.011 -
Electrophoresis Jun 2021In recent years, the DNA detection of drowning-related diatoms, cyanobacteria, and aeromonas has gradually attracted interest from forensic scientists. In this study, we...
In recent years, the DNA detection of drowning-related diatoms, cyanobacteria, and aeromonas has gradually attracted interest from forensic scientists. In this study, we described the validation and application of a novel multiplex PCR system. This system integrated 12 fluorescently labelled primers designed to amplify specific genes of diatoms, cyanobacteria, and aeromonas. The specificity studies demonstrated that this multiplex PCR system could detect nine species of diatom, seven species of cyanobacteria, and five species of aeromonas, all of which were drowning-related and widely distributed in various water circumstance of southern China. The sensitivity studies indicated that the limit concentration of template DNA was 0.0125 ng. Besides, this multiplex PCR system had good performance in sizing precision and stability, but it is not suitable for degraded DNA samples. The application into forensic casework showed that all the tissue samples from ten nondrowning cases showed negative results, and the positive rates of lung, liver, kidney, and water samples from 30 drowning bodies were 100, 86.7, 90, and 100%, respectively. Combined with results of diatom tests of MD-VF-Auto SEM method, this multiplex PCR system could help rule out nondrowning bodies and provide extra evidences to support drowning diagnosis, especially for those cases with few diatoms observed. It is expected that this multiplex PCR system has great potential for forensic drowning diagnosis.
Topics: DNA; Diatoms; Drowning; Humans; Lung; Multiplex Polymerase Chain Reaction; Water
PubMed: 33687071
DOI: 10.1002/elps.202000265 -
British Journal of Nursing (Mark Allen... Jul 2017
Topics: Drowning; Early Diagnosis; Early Medical Intervention; Humans; Near Drowning; Pulmonary Edema; Time Factors
PubMed: 28745953
DOI: 10.12968/bjon.2017.26.14.790 -
Injury Prevention : Journal of the... Feb 2023Drowning is a significant public health challenge globally. In Africa and Ghana, drowning has remained a silent epidemic among poor communities. Limited evidence has...
BACKGROUND
Drowning is a significant public health challenge globally. In Africa and Ghana, drowning has remained a silent epidemic among poor communities. Limited evidence has challenged advances in drowning knowledge and prevention. While drowning deaths are often widely circulated in the newspapers, drowning data are not systematically organised to constitute a body of evidence sufficient for scientific exploration. Although drowning was frequent, they were poorly understood. We explore the context of drowning from multiple perspectives from the Volta-basin where the largest man-made lake in the world has become a hotspot for drowning.
METHOD
This study adopts a sequential-mix-qualitative study comprising content analysis of newspaper reports on drowning, structured-observations and in-depth interviews with boaters and fisherfolk. We first explored, the content of newspapers over a 10-year period. This information provided the context of drowning. We followed up with extensive observation of activities on the lake by a team of five. Photovoice qualitative interviews were conducted with 22 boaters, fishers and community members. Thematic content analysis was applied to both the newspaper reports and the in-depth interviews.
RESULTS
Drowning was attributed to both proximate and distal causes. Distal causes were the reasons for movement, while proximate causes were the immediate cause of the drowning. Travelling to farm, market, hospital, church, sell were important distal causes of drowning. Proximate determinants included strong winds, tree stumps, overcrowding, no-adherence to safety procedures, spiritual reasons and high tides. Four types of boat accidents were observed: boat-capsizing, boat-sinking, boat-splitting and boat-catching-fire. Ideas converged and diverged in comparing the newspaper content analysis to the photovoice interviews.
Topics: Humans; Ships; Drowning; Ghana; Qualitative Research; Public Health
PubMed: 36697022
DOI: 10.1136/ip-2022-044567 -
Sensors (Basel, Switzerland) Oct 2022Drowning is a major health issue worldwide. The World Health Organization's global report on drowning states that the highest rates of drowning deaths occur among...
Drowning is a major health issue worldwide. The World Health Organization's global report on drowning states that the highest rates of drowning deaths occur among children aged 1-4 years, followed by children aged 5-9 years. Young children can drown silently in as little as 25 s, even in the shallow end or in a baby pool. The report also identifies that the main risk factor for children drowning is the lack of or inadequate supervision. Therefore, in this paper, we propose a novel 5G and beyond child drowning prevention system based on deep learning that detects and classifies distractions of inattentive parents or caregivers and alerts them to focus on active child supervision in swimming pools. In this proposal, we have generated our own dataset, which consists of images of parents/caregivers watching the children or being distracted. The proposed model can successfully perform a seven-class classification with very high accuracies (98%, 94%, and 90% for each model, respectively). ResNet-50, compared with the other models, performs better classifications for most classes.
Topics: Caregivers; Child; Child, Preschool; Deep Learning; Drowning; Humans; Infant; Parents; Swimming; Swimming Pools
PubMed: 36236782
DOI: 10.3390/s22197684 -
Fa Yi Xue Za Zhi Feb 2022To retrospectively analyze diatom test cases of corpses in water and discuss the value of quantitative analysis of diatoms in the diagnosis of drowning.
OBJECTIVES
To retrospectively analyze diatom test cases of corpses in water and discuss the value of quantitative analysis of diatoms in the diagnosis of drowning.
METHODS
A total of 490 cases of water-related death were collected. They were divided into drowning group and postmortem immersion group according to the cause of death. Diatoms in lung, liver, kidney tissue and water sample were analyzed quantitatively by microwave digestion-vacuum filtration-automated scanning electron microscopy (MD-VF-Auto SEM) method. The ratios of content of diatoms in lung tissue and water sample (/) were calculated.
RESULTS
The results of diatom test for three organs (lung, liver and kidney) were all positive in 400 cases (85.5%); the content of diatom in lung, liver, kidney tissues, and water samples of drowning group were (113 235.9±317 868.1), (26.7±75.6), (23.3±52.2) and (12 113.3±21 760.0) cells/10 g, respectively; the species of diatom were (7.5±2.8), (2.6±1.9), (2.9±2.1) and (8.9±3.0) types, respectively; the / of drowning group and postmortem immersion group were (100.6±830.7) and (0.3±0.4), respectively.
CONCLUSIONS
Quantitative analysis of diatoms can provide supportive evidence for the diagnosis of drowning, and the parameter / can be introduced into the analysis to make a more accurate diagnosis of drowning.
Topics: Autopsy; Diatoms; Drowning; Humans; Lung; Retrospective Studies; Water
PubMed: 35725713
DOI: 10.12116/j.issn.1004-5619.2021.410707 -
Applied Ergonomics Apr 2023Ensuring that pool lifeguards develop the skills necessary to detect drowning victims is challenging given that these situations are relatively rare, unpredictable and...
BACKGROUND
Ensuring that pool lifeguards develop the skills necessary to detect drowning victims is challenging given that these situations are relatively rare, unpredictable and are difficult to simulate accurately and safely. Virtual reality potentially provides a safe and ecologically valid approach to training since it offers a near-to-real visual experience, together with the opportunity to practice task-related skills and receive feedback. As a prelude to the development of a training intervention, the aim of this research was to establish the construct validity of virtual reality drowning detection tasks.
METHOD
Using a repeated measures design, a total of 38 qualified lifeguards and 33 non-lifeguards completed 13 min and 23 min simulated drowning detection tasks that were intended to reflect different levels of sustained attention. During the simulated tasks, participants were asked to monitor a virtual pool and identify any drowning targets with accuracy, response latency, and dwell time recorded.
RESULTS
During the simulated scenarios, pool lifeguards detected drowning targets more frequently and spent less time than non-lifeguards fixating on the drowning target prior to the drowning onset. No significant differences in response latency were evident between lifeguards and non-lifeguards nor for first fixations on the drowning target.
CONCLUSION
The results provide support for the construct validity of virtual reality lifeguarding scenarios, thereby providing the basis for their development and introduction as a potential training approach for developing and maintaining performance in lifeguarding and drowning detection.
APPLICATION
This research provides support for the construct validity of virtual reality simulations as a potential training tool, enabling improvements in the fidelity of training solutions to improve pool lifeguard competency in drowning detection.
Topics: Humans; Drowning; Attention; Reaction Time
PubMed: 36566527
DOI: 10.1016/j.apergo.2022.103954 -
International Journal of Legal Medicine Jul 2023Drowning is a common cause of accidental death worldwide, and it continues to be a serious public health problem. However, diagnosing drowning is a challenging task in...
Drowning is a common cause of accidental death worldwide, and it continues to be a serious public health problem. However, diagnosing drowning is a challenging task in forensic investigation because it is difficult to prove actual drowning and other submerged deaths with the autopsy techniques that are currently in use. Here, we show biomarkers that may be helpful for the diagnosis of drowning. We divided the experimental animals into four groups (drowning, postmortem submersion, hypoxia, and control) to evaluate the expression patterns of extracellular signal-regulated kinase 1/2 (ERK1/2). On gene expression analysis, only ERK2 was found to be significantly increased in the drowning groups compared to the other cases. In the immunoblot analysis, phosphorylated ERK2 (p-ERK2) was found to be upregulated in the drowning groups. Immunohistochemical staining also showed that p-ERK in alveolar cells revealed a granular pattern in the drowning groups. However, the expression pattern of ERK2 over time after drowning differed between the freshwater and seawater drowning groups. Taken together, these results indicate that ERK2 may be useful for distinguishing between drowning and postmortem submersion if the postmortem interval (PMI) of drowning is short. Conversely, if the PMI is long from the time that death occurs until the discovery of dead bodies, it is possibly more helpful for identifying between freshwater and seawater drowning.
Topics: Animals; Drowning; Mitogen-Activated Protein Kinase 1; Forensic Medicine; Autopsy; Biomarkers; Forensic Pathology
PubMed: 36973587
DOI: 10.1007/s00414-023-02992-5