International Journal of Legal Medicine最新文献

Dimensions of the pelvic and skull bones are known to be sexually dimorphic in various population groups. The recovery of these bones is potentially beneficial in estimating the sex in forensic cases. Since both bones are not always available for forensic analysis, standards for sex estimation must be established for other bones of the postcranial skeleton. Previous studies have reported that postcranial skeletal elements (e.g. femur) perform like the pelvis and better than the cranium in sex estimation. Thus, this study explored the potential of CT-derived femoral measurements in sex estimation in a South African population. The sample consisted of 280 contemporary Black South Africans (50% sex ratio) whose scan reports are stored in the Radiology Department of Charlotte Maxeke Johannesburg Academic Hospital, Johannesburg, South Africa. The Xiris and IntelliSpace software was used to reconstruct the images into 3D formats from which measurements were taken. Previously derived sex estimation equations of the femur were tested using data from the current study and these equations presented low average classification accuracies. Using discriminant function and logistic regression analyses, new sex estimation equations were formulated, and these new equations yielded average sex estimation classification accuracies of between 82.5 and 91.4% (by multivariable logistic regression) and 79.3-84.3% (by multivariable discriminant function). The results indicate that population-specific femoral measurements obtained by CT are more reliable than those obtained by direct osteometry and that the femur has a high sexual dimorphism with relevant forensic applications.

The age estimation by tooth cementum thickness is a method that has been discussed regarding its applicability. The aim of this study was to conduct a systematic review on the use of tooth cementum thickness as a biomarker for age estimation in adults, as well as a meta-analysis to assess the method's reliability. The search was conducted on Embase, LILACS, PubMed/MEDLINE, SciELO, Scopus, and Web of Science databases. Two independent reviewers used inclusion and exclusion criteria to select and assess relevant studies. For bias risk assessment, a checklist proposed by the Joanna Briggs Institute was applied. Pearson and Spearman correlation coefficients were considered as effect measures for the meta-analysis between tooth cementum thickness and chronological age. Heterogeneity among studies was evaluated using Cochran's $Q$ test ( $p<0.05$ ), I² index, and Graphic Display of Heterogeneity plot. Meta-analysis robustness was assessed using Baujat plots, and publication bias was checked using DOI plots and the Luis Furuya-Kanamori index. Most selected studies showed low risk of bias. Although not all studies were included in the meta-analysis, moderate heterogeneity was found among those included. The synthesized result indicated that tooth cementum thickness has a moderate correlation with chronological age, both when the outlier study is included ( $r=0.59[0.48;0.69]$ ) and when the outlier is removed ( $r=0.57[0.45;0.68]$ ). It is concluded that tooth cementum thickness represents a potential age biomarker that can be useful in age estimation methods for adults. However, the presented results should be considered cautiously, emphasizing the need for further primary studies.

Mortality data systems are upstream determinants of health, providing critical information on causes of death and population health trends and influencing health outcomes by shaping policies, research, and resource allocation. Moreover, the gender-related deaths of women and girls are significantly underrepresented or underrecognized in mortality data across many countries. This paper seeks to identify potential barriers and facilitators to improving the representation of femicide data. The primary barriers affecting data representation of femicide are related to definitions, data collection, coding, comparability, access, and systemic challenges. Key recommendations include establishing a nationwide consensus on the definition of femicide, updating training modules for medicolegal professionals, improving pathology reporting processes, ensuring quality assurance in documentation, refining coding practices, developing new analytic methods, and providing deidentified access to cases still under investigation.

Sex estimation is an important part of skeletal analysis and forensic identification. Traditionally pelvic traits are utilized for accurate sex estimation. However, the long bones, especially humerus, have been proved to be as effective for determine the sex of the individual.The aim of this study was to compare the predictive accuracy of seven statistical modelling techniques including classical statistical methods and machine learning algorithms, to assess the sexual dimorphism of humerus on a French sample based on a metric analysis of 26 measurements. A total of 98 humeral bones (divided in two samples) were measured. Seven statistical models were compared: Linear Discriminant Analysis (LDA), Regularized Discriminant Analysis (RDA), Penalized Logistic Regression (PLR), Flexible Discriminant Analysis (FDA), Support Vector Machine (SVM), and Artificial Neural Network (ANN) and Random Forest (RF).With cross validation, classification accuracy was greater than 90% (ranges between 92% and 98%) for all models without variable selection methods. The simplification of the models has improved the accuracy between 98% and 100% and also a reduction of the number of variables to 6 or less. Penalized logistic regression (PLR), Random Forest (RF) and Linear discriminant analysis (LDA) were the best accuracy models.The measurements made at the proximal part of the humerus (WTT, CSD), at distal part (BEW, WT, MAW, THT) and of the entire bone (PLCT) stand out among the various models.The present study suggests that the humerus is an interesting alternative for sex estimation and that non-classical statistical models can provide a new approach.

Under the initiative of the "Direcció General de Memòria democràtica-Departament de Justícia" (Generalitat of Catalonia, Spain), a multi-disciplinar project was funded to identify the remains of people disappeared in Catalonia during and after the Spanish Civil War (1936-1939). Samples were officially sent by Autonomous Government of Catalonia to the Laboratory of Forensic and Population Genetics at Complutense University, Madrid, Spain, to be genotyped. Our study presents a database of 343 victims genotyped for STRs comprised in GlobalFiler™ PCR Amplification Kit (Thermofisher Scientific) and a subset of 292 typed with Y-STRs from Yfiler™ Plus PCR Amplification Kit (Thermofisher Scientific). Complete profiles amounted to 116 (33.81%) and 89 (30.48%) for autosomal and Y-STRs respectively. Allelic/haplotype frequencies, forensic parameters and HW equilibrium were calculated with STRAF software. Drop-out frequencies were also calculated for each locus. All the markers were in HW equilibrium (p > 0.05). Allelic drop-out frequencies were larger in the case of CSF1PO (1.5340E-01) and TPOX (1.2640E-01), probably due to extremely low DNA preservation combined with a less efficient PCR for these loci, among other causes. The comparison of our autosomal database with a set of modern European populations from STRidER database (ENFSI) reveals that the present study sample clusters with other West European samples. This is also the case for Y-STR when our study is compared with European and North African samples. Our results seem to suggest that modern Spanish forensic databases can be used to identify deceased persons during the Spanish Civil War and later, from their living descendants.

Introduction: In the reconstructive phase of medico-legal human identification, the sex estimation is crucial in the reconstruction of the biological profile and can be applied both in identifying victims of mass disasters and in the autopsy room. Due to the inherent subjectivity associated with traditional methods, artificial intelligence, specifically, convolutional neural networks (CNN) may present a competitive option.

Objectives: This study evaluates the reliability of VGG16 model as an accurate forensic sex prediction algorithm and its performance using orthopantomography (OPGs).

Materials and methods: This study included 1050 OPGs from patients at the Santa Maria Local Health Unit Stomatology Department. Using Python, the OPGs were pre-processed, resized and similar copies were created using data augmentation methods. The model was evaluated for precision, sensitivity, F1-score and accuracy, and heatmaps were created.

Results and discussion: The training revealed a discrepancy between the validation and training loss values. In the general test, the model showed a general balance between sexes, with F1-scores of 0.89. In the test by age group, contrary to expectations, the model was most accurate in the 16-20 age group (90%). Apart from the mandibular symphysis, analysis of the heatmaps showed that the model did not focus on anatomically relevant areas, possibly due to the lack of application of image extraction techniques.

Conclusions: The results indicate that CNNs are accurate in classifying human remains based on the generic factor sex for medico-legal identification, achieving an overall accuracy of 89%. However, further research is necessary to enhance the models' performance.

China's forensic pathology standardization has accumulated more than 30 years of experience, but there is limited research summarizing the features and detailed information concerning these standards. In this paper, we collected documents on forensic pathology standards and statistically analyzed their types, effective scopes, drafting units, authorization departments, promulgation times, revision cycles, and other information. All of the standards information was obtained from standardization websites and databases. Since the first national standardization committee of forensic science established in 1991, a total of thirty-six forensic pathology standards have been published, including one national standard, thirty-one sector standards, and four enterprise standards. Among them, twenty-four standards were currently valid, while another twelve had been repealed. There were two management standards and thirty-four technical standards. The minimum revision cycle for standards was nine years, and the maximum cycle was twenty-three years. The standards system of forensic pathology had been primarily established, and the public welfare attributes of standardization were strengthened. However, some challenges still await positive actions, such as resolving the relative deficiencies of basic and management standards, satisfying the requirements for national standards, and advancing the delayed revisions of standards. In the future, we should continue to promote national standards for forensic pathology, actively absorb advanced international experience, strengthen the construction of basic and management standards, and fully encourage the flexibility, efficiency, and pioneer of standards dominated by associations, enterprises, and other organizations.

The range of the oriental latrine fly (Chrysomya megacephala) is currently expanding. It coexists with another blowfly with a similar ecology, the green bottle fly (Lucilia sericata), one of the most abundant species in carrion during warm months. It is essential to understand the influence of temperature, larval substrate type, and larval competition on the development rates of these necrophagous calliphorids to evaluate the role and the adaptation of C. megacephala in the ecosystems, and on the necrophagous Diptera community. Moreover, due to the forensic importance of both species, biological data are need for forensic purposes in south-west Europe. This study represents the first on the biology of C. megacephala in Europe, and of L. sericata in Spain. We performed a field experiment in Alicante province (south-east Spain) to analyse the monthly abundance of both species in natural conditions, and three lab rearing experiments involving both species to evaluate (i) development at constant temperatures, (ii) the growth of larvae and pupae on different substrates, and (iii) coexistence in pure and mixed cultures under controlled abiotic conditions. The results allowed us to analyse the biological differences between both species, and their effects on the forensic entomology application.