Detection of drugs of forensic importance in postmortem bone.

There is a paucity of literature detailing the disposition of drugs in bone and bone marrow. Infrequently, in deaths involving skeletonized remains, fragmentation, decomposition, and exsanguination, traditional specimens may be unavailable for toxicological testing. This study examined the utility of bone for the detection of benzodiazepines, opiates, cocaine and metabolites, and basic drugs in 39 cases. Cases were identified on the basis of a positive blood result. After specimen preparation, samples were assayed by liquid-liquid or solid phase extraction with gas chromatographic and gas chromatographic mass spectrometric detection. The majority of decedents were white males with 28% of individuals between the ages of 41 to 50 years. The cause of death was drug intoxication in 22 cases. The most prevalent drugs detected in the blood males and females were opiates and bases. Morphine, codeine, and oxycodone were detected in bone, whereas 6-acetylmorphine and hydrocodone were absent. For alkaline extractable drugs, in only 57% of blood positive specimens, the corresponding bone was also positive. These included antidepressants and antihistamines. Diazepam and nordiazepam were detected in the bone of all blood positive cases. Bone concentrations were higher than blood levels. Benzoylecgonine was the most common cocaine analyte detected in bone. These data demonstrated that drugs may be detected in bone using current technologies and that in general concentrations were higher than those observed in corresponding blood specimens. A negative result in bone, however, should be interpreted with caution because multiple factors determine the deposition of a drug in this matrix.

Substituent effect on the electronic properties and morphologies of self-assembling bisphenazine derivatives.

Tuning electronic properties and morphologies: We report a unique design platform of n-type organic semiconductors based on asymmetrically substituted bisphenazines that enable tuning of both electronic properties and morphologies of 1D nanostructures (see figure) by using small substituents with various sizes and electronic demands.This paper reports the synthesis and characterization of novel self-assembling n-type organic semiconductors based on asymmetrically substituted bisphenazines with various functional groups of different size, electron-withdrawing ability, and conjugation length. The overarching objective of this research is to tune electronic properties and morphologies of self-assembled structures of this system simultaneously, which offers a potentially useful platform for future optoelectronic applications. The thermal, optical, and electrochemical properties associated with different substituents were studied by differential scanning calorimetry (DSC), UV-visible and fluorescence spectroscopy, and cyclic voltammetry (CV). Electronic properties were calculated using density functional theory, and results were compared to experimental HOMO, LUMO, and energy gaps. The one-dimensional (1D) self-assembly properties of these new n-type molecules are discussed in terms of the type of peripheral substituents, alkyl side group length, and assembly conditions. This study includes extensive investigations by scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and X-ray diffraction (XRD).

Nanofibers of asymmetrically substituted bisphenazine through organogelation and their acid sensing properties.

This paper reports the formation of an organogel of an asymmetric bisphenazine through the growth of one-dimensional nanofibers via a coopertive interplay of pi-pi interaction, hydrogen bonding, and van der Waals interaction and the colorimetric acid sensing property of the nanofibers.