Forensic Sciences Research最新文献

{"title":"Corpses identification in mass disasters and other violence: the ethical challenges of a humanitarian approach","authors":"Vina Vaswani, Luciana Caenazzo, Derek R. Congram","doi":"10.1093/fsr/owad048","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/fsr/owad048","url":null,"abstract":"\u0000 In October 2022, the Centre for Ethics of Yenepoya University hosted a national workshop entitled: ‘Respect for human dignity of the unidentified dead from mass disasters and other violence: strategies for the ethical management of biological samples and personal data’. The aim was to explore and share experience and ethical considerations regarding the management and identification of human remains in the event of disasters, with the purpose to arrive at a general consensus about what constitutes the ethical foundation of the management of unidentified human remains in forensic practice and, in particular, contextualizing this in India.\u0000 The main ethical consideration that emerged was racing the missing and identifying the dead are crucial to maintaining or restoring basic human rights and responsible relief activities.\u0000 Identification is not only an organizational and scientific achievement but, regardless of circumstances, it is also necessarily and always an activity with significant political, epistemic and philosophical relevance and consequence.\u0000 In India, it could be important to consider new legal provisions for the management of human samples so that this would provide a starting point for the treatment of human remains managed for forensic purposes with uniformity in the Country. Another important step in which governments should take part regards the involvement and education of the general public to develop their interest in this important goal.\u0000 In the field of forensic anthropology, artificial intelligence can support, through the use of algorithms, the decision-making process that leads to the identification of the victim or its remains. Furthermore, they can be used to extract new knowledge from huge databases and shorten identification through computer automation of data binding activities.\u0000 Applying AI tools in forensic sciences to collect new information from massive datasets to enhance knowledge, and reduce human subjectivity and errors, provides a greater scientific basis that could improve the strength of the evidence and support the admissibility of expert evidence.\u0000 In light of the general lack of national/international guidance about ethical oversight for identification and care of human remains, the fact that regulations are frequently not adequate to govern ethical aspects, we hope that an internationally recognized body should develop such guidance in collaboration with relevant organizations.","PeriodicalId":45852,"journal":{"name":"Forensic Sciences Research","volume":"82 23","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":1.3,"publicationDate":"2023-12-20","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"138957889","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Improving accuracy of age estimates for insect evidence—calibration of physiological age at emergence (k) using insect size but without ‘k versus size’ model","authors":"Jędrzej Wydra, Łukasz Smaga, S. Matuszewski","doi":"10.1093/fsr/owad049","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/fsr/owad049","url":null,"abstract":"\u0000 Postmortem interval (PMI) may be estimated based on the age of insect evidence collected on a death scene. Reference data that are used in such estimation frequently comprise thermal summation constant (ie, k), which is equal to the insect age upon completion of immature development expressed in accumulated degree-days or degree-hours (ADD or ADH). Essentially, k is a central point of an insect group and it may poorly represent insect evidence that is near the limits of variation for the group. Accordingly, it was postulated to calibrate k for particular insect evidence and insect size and sex were found to be useful for this purpose in some of the species. However, the calibration is only possible by using the model that correlates k with insect size. Since very few such models were published, this lack of data limits the calibration of k in forensic casework. In this article we develop a formula that is useful for the calibration of k without the use of ‘k versus size’ model (and related datasets). The formula uses k from the general thermal summation model for a species (with its standard error), size range for the species (retrieved from entomology literature) and size measurements for particular insect evidence. The calibration of k with the formula was validated using the Creophilus maxillosus (Coleoptera: Staphylinidae) and Necrodes littoralis (Coleoptera: Silphidae) datasets. It was particularly useful while analyzing unusually small and large insects, in case of which the formula reduced the inaccuracy of k from the general model on average by about 25 ADD in C. maxillosus and about 40 ADD in N. littoralis. We discuss the limitations and prospects of the calibration protocol that employs the formula.","PeriodicalId":45852,"journal":{"name":"Forensic Sciences Research","volume":" 602","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":1.3,"publicationDate":"2023-12-19","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"138960511","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Comparing baseline correction algorithms in discriminating brownish soils from five proximity locations based on UPLC and PLS-DA methods","authors":"Muhamad Adib bin Ahmad, Loong Chuen Lee, Nur  Ain Najihah Binti Mohd Rosdi, Nadirah Binti Abd Hamid, A. Ishak, Hukil Sino","doi":"10.1093/fsr/owad045","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/fsr/owad045","url":null,"abstract":"\u0000 \u0000 \u0000 Soil is commonly collected from an outdoor crime scene, and thus it is helpful in linking a suspect and a victim to a crime scene. The chemical profiles of soils can be acquired via chemical instruments such as Ultra-Performance Liquid Chromatography (UPLC). However, the UPLC chromatogram often interferes with an unstable baseline. In this paper, we compared the performance of five baseline correction (BC) algorithms, i.e., asymmetric least squares, fill peak (FP), iterative restricted least squares, median window (MW), and modified polynomial fitting, in discriminating 30 chromatograms of brownish soils by five locations of origin, i.e., PP, HK, KU, BL and KB. The performances of the preprocessed sub-datasets were first visually inspected through the mean chromatograms and then further explored via scores plots of principal component analysis. Eventually, the predictive performances of the PLS-DA models estimated from 1000 pairs of training and testing samples (i.e., prepared via iterative random resampling split at 75:25) were studied to identify the best BC method. Mean raw chromatograms of the ten soil samples were different from each other, with evident fluctuated baselines. AsLS and MW corrected chromatograms demonstrated the most significant improvement compared to the raw counterpart. Meanwhile, the scores plot of PCA revealed that most of the sub-datasets produced three separate clusters. Then, the sub-datasets were modelled via the partial least squares-discriminant analysis (PLS-DA) technique. MW emerged as the excellent BC method based on the mean prediction accuracy estimated using 1000 pairs of training and testing samples. In conclusion, MW outperformed the other BC methods in correcting the UPLC data of soil.\u0000 \u0000 \u0000 \u0000","PeriodicalId":45852,"journal":{"name":"Forensic Sciences Research","volume":" 30","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":1.3,"publicationDate":"2023-12-19","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"138962029","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Potential role of the Sella Turcica x-ray imaging aspects for sex estimation in the field of Forensic anthropology: a systematic review and metanalysis","authors":"E. C. Ribeiro, D. D. de Mendonça, P. G. de Barros Silva, L. Kurita, A. D. de Aguiar, F. M. Tuji, Frederico Sampaio Neves, F. Carvalho, Fábio Wildson Gurgel Costa","doi":"10.1093/fsr/owad046","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/fsr/owad046","url":null,"abstract":"\u0000 \u0000 \u0000 Several studies have evaluated the parameters of normality of the Sella Turcica (ST), which is important face to different craniofacial syndromes that may affect this structure. Therefore, this research summarized the scientific evidence on the role of ST in the sex estimation of non-syndromic individuals. The research protocol was registered (PROSPERO # CRD42021256469), followed by an electronic search in six databases (PubMed, LILACS, Web of Science, Scopus, EMBASE, LIVIVO) and gray literature (Google scholar, OpenGrey). Meta-analysis of linear (width, length, height, and diameter) and volumetric measurements, in addition to an assessment of risk of bias (RoB) and certainty of evidence, were performed. After the screening of 986 articles, 13 were evaluated by meta-analysis (1307 males and 1231 females). In subgroup analysis, females had lower values ​​for width (lateral radiograph; −0.67 mm; P = 0.040), length (computed tomography; −0.23 mm; P = 0.020), and diameter (computed tomography; −0.27 mm; P < 0.001) compared to males. There was no statistically significant difference regarding height (P = 0.95), area (P = 0.72), and volume (P = 0.21). Most studies exhibited moderate RoB, and the certainty of evidence of the outcomes was very low. In this review, significant differences were observed between the sexes for the length and diameter of the ST; however, the heterogeneity of the studies must be considered.\u0000 \u0000 \u0000 \u0000","PeriodicalId":45852,"journal":{"name":"Forensic Sciences Research","volume":"53 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":1.3,"publicationDate":"2023-12-18","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"138965154","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Comparison of Demirjian’s comprehensive chart with the London Atlas of tooth development in children and adolescents: a pilot study","authors":"Aman Chowdhry, Priyanka Kapoor, Deepak Bhargava, D. Bagga, Abhishek Mehta","doi":"10.1093/fsr/owad044","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/fsr/owad044","url":null,"abstract":"\u0000 Dental age estimation has its application in various subdisciplines of medicine and dentistry. New methods of dental age estimation are emerging and it’s important that we compare different methods to determine which one is more closely related to the chronological age. Demirjian’s method is one of the most widely used technique and has been tested in various ethnic populations globally. In 2016, Another, approach to dental age estimation is the London atlas of human tooth development and eruption. No study has compared both Demirjian’s comprehensive chart and London atlas method in the Indian population. Hence, in the current study we estimated dental age using both Demirjian’s comprehensive chart and London atlas method for association with the known chronologic age in children and adolescent orthodontic. The study also attempted to determine if sexual dimorphism existed in dental age estimated by the two methods. Dental age estimation was performed for both the methods on 100 orthopantomogram records (50 males and 50 females, aged 6-16 years) of orthodontic patients. The data were compared and analysed using paired t-tests. There was an overestimation of dental age by Demirjian’s comprehensive chart on an average of +1.3 in males and +0.5 in females, whereas using London Atlas, it was +1.4 years in males and +0.5 years in females. The mean of underestimation was -0.6 years in males and -0.8 years in females using Demirjian’s comprehensive chart, whereas it was -0.8 years in males and -0.5 years in females. A statistically significant difference (P<0.0001) was found when mean chronological age (11.6±2.6) of the participants was compared with dental age estimated using either Demirjian’s comprehensive chart (12.3±2.8) or London Atlas (11.8±2.9). The trends in this pilot study point towards more accuracy of London atlas over Demirjian’s method when done using comprehensive chart for estimating dental age. Studies with larger sample and on diverse ethnic population should be done to validate this finding.","PeriodicalId":45852,"journal":{"name":"Forensic Sciences Research","volume":"3 5","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":1.3,"publicationDate":"2023-12-09","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"138585762","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Ground penetrating radar used to detect drowning victims under ice.","authors":"Gordon G Giesbrecht, Mitesh Patel, Rafid Javid, Scott Murray, Vrushil Patel, Noah Wiens, Darren Xie, Ian Jeffrey, Philip Ferguson","doi":"10.1093/fsr/owad040","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/fsr/owad040","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Every year, people drown after falling through ice on rivers and lakes. In some cases, the body of the victim floats up to the underside of the ice, making detection and recovery difficult using traditional search methods with divers. A robust and contact-less sensing system is required to locate drowning victims that does not put rescue teams at risk of falling through the ice themselves. In this paper, we demonstrate the feasibility of a ground penetrating radar (GPR) for detecting deceased drowning victims that have floated up to the underside of the ice. We placed three euthanized pigs simulating drowning victims under ice ranging in thickness from 5 to 26 cm. We dragged a GPR at 500 MHz and 1 GHz across the ice to detect the simulated victims using an autocorrelation-based detection technique. Results showed that both frequencies were able to detect the rough shape of the simulated victims at ice thicknesses up to 42 cm, with the 1-GHz data showing slightly more resolution than the 500-MHz data. These results show promise and suggest future development of an autonomous drone-based GPR detection system.</p><p><strong>Key points: </strong>Floating bodies are successfully detected under both ice and snow using a commercial ground penetrating radar system with ice depths reaching up to 26 cm in a controlled environment.The differences between using radar systems operating at/around 500 MHz and 1 GHz were not pronounced from the point of view of detection.Future studies should investigate the capabilities for detecting bodies in more realistic settings.</p>","PeriodicalId":45852,"journal":{"name":"Forensic Sciences Research","volume":"8 4","pages":"280-287"},"PeriodicalIF":1.3,"publicationDate":"2023-12-08","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10894067/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"139973944","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Oral health professional intervention and child physical abuse—European legal approach","authors":"A. Corte-Real, P. Almiro, Mafalda Silva, T. Nunes, João Abreu, Carla Carreira, Duarte Nuno Vieira","doi":"10.1093/fsr/owad042","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/fsr/owad042","url":null,"abstract":"\u0000 Physical violence against children and adolescents is an issue of Global Public Health. This study aims to identify traumatic injuries and the medical–legal temporary framework of the victim’s profile in the European legal approach. Participants and Setting: The clinical reports of a Portuguese European Clinical Academic Center database were analyzed. An observational and prospective cohort study was performed. A descriptive analysis of the variables was conducted, considering gender, bimodal age groups, place of residence, offender data, place of occurrence, etiology, localization, type of injuries, personal injury assessment by Quantum doloris, and injury time. The statistical analysis was performed by Spearman’s rho and Kendall’s tau-b correlation tests, Pearson’s chi-square test of independence (χ2), and Mann–Whitney and Kruskal–Wallis nonparametric tests (P < 0.05). The relationship between age groups and the place of occurrence was statistically significant (P = 0.001). Orofacial and nonorofacial injuries were related (P = 0.035). The General Data Protection Regulation is not a barrier to the treatment and sharing of justified data but a framework for safeguarding individuals’ fundamental rights, including the Right to Health. Meticulous reporting of the clinical situation involves the victim, the occurrence, and the potential offender.","PeriodicalId":45852,"journal":{"name":"Forensic Sciences Research","volume":"28 3","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":1.3,"publicationDate":"2023-12-06","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"138598045","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"A bibliometric analysis of research trends for missing persons globally and in East Asia from 2000 to 2021","authors":"Zixuan Zeng, Ishmael Dikeledi, Yehui Lv","doi":"10.1093/fsr/owad041","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/fsr/owad041","url":null,"abstract":"\u0000 A bibliometric analysis was performed to explore the current research status and development trends for missing persons globally and in East Asia and to identify research hotspots and frontiers relating to this topic. A search was conducted to identify relevant literature on missing persons using the Web of Science Core Collection database for the period 2000–2021. Subsequently, a knowledge map was constructed using CiteSpace software to perform a visual analysis of the distribution of authors and institutions, journals, national/regional distribution; citation frequency; high-frequency keywords; and emerging research hotspots. The results showed firstly that discussions on missing persons and related topics in East Asia are held at the regional scale. There is a paucity of research on this topic, which has been conducted on a limited scale, lacks depth and possibly innovation and entails limited discussion in this region. Secondly, there is a lack of social science research on missing persons and related topics worldwide. Thirdly, relevant research in East Asia should continue to preserve its own characteristics, effectively addressing current issues and enabling more people to participate in social science-oriented discussions focusing on the topic of missing persons. This approach provides a promising direction for pursuing the sustainable development of the topic of missing persons.","PeriodicalId":45852,"journal":{"name":"Forensic Sciences Research","volume":"21 6","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":1.3,"publicationDate":"2023-12-06","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"138596678","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Sequence variations of 58 STRs and 94 SNPs in Northeastern Xibe with ForenSeq™ DNA signature prep kit","authors":"Fei Guo, Longnian Zhang, Y. Xin, Shiquan Liu","doi":"10.1093/fsr/owad043","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/fsr/owad043","url":null,"abstract":"\u0000 Massively parallel sequencing (MPS) technology has already shown many advantages in forensic DNA typing. In this study, the repeat region (RR) and flanking region (FR) variations were detected at 58 short tandem repeats (STRs) by MPS, which could increase allelic diversity (34.59%) and gene diversity (3.95%) compared with the capillary electrophoresis (CE) method. Six novel RR variants were identified at 5 STRs, and eleven FR variants were found at 8 STRs. Concordance amounted to 99.96% (4598 out of 4600 alleles) between ForenSeq DNA Signature Prep Kit and CE kits, and discordance was due to bioinformatic misinterpretation at DXS7132. Additionally, allele frequencies and forensic parameters of 94 identity-informative single nucleotide polymorphisms (iiSNPs) provided a reference dataset, which held a higher power of discrimination (1–3.4825 × 10−35). A total of 29 FR variants were found at 24 target iiSNPs. The power of the system effectiveness with the combined 27 autosomal STRs by sequence and 94 iiSNPs was added more substantially than that of a single type of marker alone, such as the combined power of discrimination (CPD) and the combined power of exclusion (CPE) achieving 1–7.1358 × 10−65 and 1–4.4803 × 10−21, respectively. Population structure analyses with iiSNPs and additional ancestry-informative SNPs (aiSNPs) demonstrated that Chinese Xibe in the northeast was one of the East Asian populations. At the genetic level, Northeastern Xibe is close to populations where they live, such as Han Chinese and other ethnic minority groups.","PeriodicalId":45852,"journal":{"name":"Forensic Sciences Research","volume":"24 6","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":1.3,"publicationDate":"2023-12-06","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"138596610","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"A study on the measurement of GSR with bloodstains by ICP-MS.","authors":"Xiang Li, Aoyang Yü, Xinxin Xia, Yü Zhu, Hui Song","doi":"10.1093/fsr/owad033","DOIUrl":"10.1093/fsr/owad033","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>In forensic laboratories, analytical investigations of gunshot residues (GSRs) are usually conducted by scanning electron microscopy (SEM) in combination with energy dispersive X-ray microanalysis. If GSRs are covered with bloodstains, SEM cannot detect them. In this study, an inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry method is proposed to solve this problem. Results show that bloodstains did not interfere with GSRs and low-level elements are detected. Qualitative and quantitative analyses of Sn, Sb, Ba, and Pb elements in GSRs are also carried out. Different pretreatment methods are adopted according to the characteristics of different samples. Our investigations suggest that the proposed method has the advantages of low detection limit and high sensitivity and it can be very important in expert testimony.</p><p><strong>Key points: </strong>GSRs with bloodstains could be successfully detected <i>via</i> ICP-MS and bloodstains did not interfere in GSRs analysis.The best pretreatment method for incident bullet holes with bloodstains was microwave digestion.The best pretreatment method for the region around the bullet hole and the shooter's hand with bloodstains was ultrasonic vibration.For the same shooting distance, GSRs collected from the cloth and the shooter's hand with type 95-1 rifle were higher than that of type 92 pistol.</p>","PeriodicalId":45852,"journal":{"name":"Forensic Sciences Research","volume":"9 4","pages":"owad033"},"PeriodicalIF":1.4,"publicationDate":"2023-11-29","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC11630047/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142814509","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}