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The investigation of bone injuries is an essential topic in forensics. We sometimes have to deal with charred or dismembered human remains that have lost soft tissue, making it difficult to diagnose the mechanisms of injury that led to death. Our contribution aims to share with the scientific community how we approached two cases of very different bone injuries and the techniques used to differentiate relevant pathology findings of bone fragments. Two cases are analyzed from the case history of the forensic medicine institute of Palermo. PMCT made it possible to differentiate heat bone lesions from traumatic lesions. The stereomicroscope was superior to PMCT in being able to better characterize and evaluate shear injuries, allowing a more accurate measurement of acute lesions. Injury to bone remains can be appropriately investigated with rapid techniques such as PMCT and stereomicroscopy. The presented methodology shows the importance of a multidisciplinary approach when dealing with bone injuries in forensics that could find further applications in other circumstances to answer forensic questions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this study the occurrence and the behavior of illicit drugs and their metabolites have been investigated for two wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs) (namely, WWTP-1 and WWTP-2) located in Sicily (island of Italy). Samples were analyzed for methamphetamine, cocaine (COC), 3,4-methylenedioxymethamphetamine (MDMA), methadone (METH), 2-ethylidene-1,5-dimethyl-3,3-diphenylpyrrolidine (EDDP), 3,4-methylenedioxy amphetamine (MDA); 3,4-methylenedioxy ethylamphetamine (MDEA), 11-nor-9-carboxy-Δ9-tetrahydrocannabinol (THC-COOH) and Benzoylecgonine (BEG). The BEG, COC, MOR and THC-COOH were found at the highest concentration in both WWTPs. The Wastewater-based epidemiology calculation for BEG, COC, cannabinoids and THC-COOH was performed. On average, for both plants, population consumes 1.6 and 23.4 dose 1000 inh −1 day −1 of cocaine and cannabis, respectively. For WWTP-1 negative removals of illicit drugs were observed. For WWTP-2 the following average removal efficiencies were obtained: BEG (77.85%), COC (92.34%), CODEINE (64.75%), MOR (90.16%) and THC-COOH (68.64%). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduction: A wastewater-based epidemiology approach was performed to estimate the drug consumption in Palermo city, the fifth largest city of Italy with a population of 671 696 inhabitants, and to investigate the monthly variability of drug loads in wastewater from different areas of the city. A seven-months detection campaign was conducted at the two wastewater treatment plants of the city., Methods: Following a pre-treatment, 32 samples of wastewater were analyzed by liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry., Results: We estimated a mean cocaine use in Palermo of 0.19 g/day/1000 people, corresponding to 1.90 doses/1000 people and cannabinoids use of 2.85 g/day/1000 people, corresponding to 35.62 doses/1000 people. Amphetamines residues in wastewater were always recovered in concentrations lower than the limit of quantification., Conclusion: Our findings showed that drugs consumption in Palermo is in line with those of other Italian cities and that no significant differences on prevalence on cocaine and cannabinoids consumption were recorded in the different months of the survey, except for the summer period in a wastewater treatment plant of the city.