Forensic Science International: Reports最新文献

A man in his forties with two lacerations in the occiput was found in a river. A forensic autopsy revealed that the cause of death was drowning, and the blood ethanol concentration was 1.5 mg/mL. The whole brain was fixed with formalin for 15 days using the standard immersion method to evaluate this. The fixed brains showed large holes in the deep white matter as artifacts. Research suggests that formalin-fixed brains from drowning cases tend to have “Swiss cheese-like” holes in the deep white matter. However, this study is the first to report a case that focuses on large holes as artifacts. The holes in the fixed brain may have been caused by postmortem invasion of freshwater indigenous bacteria and gas formation.

Synthetic skin produced by SynDaver®, currently used primarily in medical testing and training applications, may be suitable as a surrogate for human skin in forensic investigations. To determine how accurately the company's synthetic skin, SynTissue®, could mimic the mechanical properties of human skin, tests were conducted to measure its elastic modulus and resistance to laceration. Test results were compared to published data acquired from tensile tests conducted on human scalp and impacts with blunt objects on porcine heads. The stress vs strain relation for SynTissue® 8 N corresponded closely to that of the human scalp. Deformations similar to skin lacerations were observed when SynTissue® was subjected to blunt object impacts, at forces in the range of those reported for lacerations of cadaver and porcine heads. However, the published data are insufficient to unequivocally assess the suitability of SynTissue® for forensic investigations of lacerations. Moreover, there are features of the SynTissue® impact deformations that can provide useful information even if the laceration threshold turns out to be lower than that of human skin.

In forensic science, accurate age estimation becomes crucial, especially in cases where information about the deceased is unavailable. The legal categorization of children into age groups, notably at 12 and 14 years, holds significant importance in various legal and social contexts. Despite the importance of such categorizations, the existing literature lacks ample studies addressing the specific classification of children into these legal age groups. This study aims to identify the key variables that distinguish between the categories of 12 and 14 years of age. Additionally, it seeks to calculate and compare the sensitivity, specificity, and overall accuracy of the discriminant function in accurately determining the required age. The oral panoramic radiographs (OPGs) of 3058 children aged between 5 and 16 years from six South Indian states were evaluated. The dataset was divided into train and test data sets. Dental maturity for each individual was estimated by considering the number of fully developed permanent mandibular teeth on the left side and the normalized measurement of the open apices of all seven teeth. Linear discriminant functions for the age groups of 12 and 14 years were computed using the training data. The discriminant functions for the 12-year age group demonstrated an accuracy of, 78.0 %, while those for the 14-year age group achieved an accuracy of .71.2 %. The sensitivity and specificity of the discriminant functions for the 12-year age group were 74.5 % and, 84.6 %, respectively. In the case of the 14-year age group, the sensitivity and specificity were 72.5 % and 70.0 %, respectively. This study concludes that the discriminant functions utilized herein exhibited commendable performance in accurately classifying individuals within the specified age groups of 12 and 14 years.

Burned human remains have been studied by both forensic anthropologists and bioarchaeologists to understand how fire impacts and alters bone in different scenarios. Heat-induced changes can occur including differences in colour and shrinkage, where the extent of the latter varies in different studies. The current study aimed to bring information regarding this topic and to observe how the individual’s biological sex and age at death impact shrinkage. The variability of shrinkage was analysed, relating to temperature and duration of burning. The sample comprised of the patellae of 32 individuals (18 [56.3 %] females and 14 [43.8 %] males) with age at death between 60 and 93 (age grouped in decades) from the sub-collection of experimentally burned skeletons, part of the 21st Century Identified Skeletal Collection (ISC/XXI). The right patellae were subjected to experimental burning at different temperatures and durations using an electric muffle furnace. Both the right and left patellae had three measurements taken, maximum height, maximum thickness and maximum width, with a digital calliper. The shrinkage percentage was higher in males and among the younger individuals (60–79 years old of both sexes). The values of standard deviation were high which indicates high variability. Shrinkage occurred at every temperature with bigger values observed in the patellae that had been subjected to temperatures over 800ºC. However, three patellae showed an increase in size at temperature under 800ºC. These findings align with previous studies where a non-linear correlation between shrinkage and exposure duration was found. It is essential to underscore that the percentage of shrinkage exhibits substantial variability even under identical temperature and duration conditions, highlighting the critical significance of meticulous experimental design and thorough analysis.

Heroin use is responsible for many drug-related deaths, so the determination of its biomarkers, except for 6-acetylmorphine, in biological samples, is of particular concern in toxicological laboratories worldwide, for a better investigation of these cases. Th use of 6-acetylmorphine as a heroin biomarker has some limitations due to its rapid bioconversion to morphine within a few hours, especially in blood samples. The need for new indirect biomarkers, like the ones that come from the processing of opium during the clandestine production of heroin, becomes imperative. A GC/MS method was developed and validated for the determination of meconin, thebaine, papaverine, acetylcodeine and noscapine, along with morphine, codeine and 6-acetylmorphine, in different biological samples of heroin users. For all analytes and all individual biological samples, the LOD and LOQ were 2.00 and 5.00 ng/mL, respectively, the calibration curves were linear (R²≥0.991) from 5.00 to 500.0 ng/mL, and absolute recoveries were higher than 91.9 %. The method was applied during the toxicological investigation of 34 forensic cases after positive immunoassay screening for opiates. The results indicate that meconin is the most frequently detected indirect biomarker of heroin use, as it was found in 91.2 % of all cases, whilst in 23.5 % of them no 6-acetylmorphine was detected. Papaverine was found in 67.6 % of all cases and is considered to be the second most important indirect biomarker of heroin use. The establishment of detecting meconin and papaverine in biological materials in parallel with the detection of morphine, codeine and 6-acetylmorphine can contribute to more conclusive results concerning heroin use in forensic cases.