Toward a universal equation to estimate postmortem interval
Establishing postmortem interval (PMI), or time elapsed since death, is a key component of every medicolegal death investigation. Postmortem interval plays various important roles to different parties involved in a death investigation. Postmortem interval may corroborate witness statements, support the credibility of other physical evidence, provide intelligence information for developing leads, facilitate information management regarding decisions on the allocation of investigative resources, and serve as evidence for subsequent prosecutorial action. (Source: Forensic Science International)
Source: Forensic Science International - January 17, 2017 Category: Forensic Medicine Authors: Amy E. Maile, Christopher G. Inoue, Larry E. Barksdale, David O. Carter Tags: Technical Note Source Type: research
The identification of markers for Geoforensic HPLC profiling at close proximity sites
Forensic geoscience is the scientific discipline that applies the techniques developed to study earth materials pertaining to the law and has applications in any legal context where earth materials may be able to help investigators, judges or jurors establish “what happened, where and when it occurred and how and why it took place”[1]. Since earth materials are highly transferable, persistent and present at a wide variety of crime scenes, forensic geoscience can be used in many scenarios to aid crime reconstruction, corroborate witness statements or verify suspect alibis[2]. (Source: Forensic Science International)
Source: Forensic Science International - January 16, 2017 Category: Forensic Medicine Authors: G. McCulloch, L.A. Dawson, M.J. Brewer, R.M. Morgan Source Type: research
Blind Source Computer Device Identification from Recorded VoIP Calls for Forensic Investigation
Traditionally, the communication devices were limited to telephone handsets and cell phones. Today this definition has been expanded to wider range of devices such as mobile devices, notebooks, and personal computers. Moreover, with the advent of networked personal computers, and especially with the connection of those networked computers to the outside world, and to each other over the Internet, computer devices with the necessary hardware to speak and hear (i.e. microphone and speaker) and the voice communication software (i.e. (Source: Forensic Science International)
Source: Forensic Science International - January 16, 2017 Category: Forensic Medicine Authors: Mehdi Jahanirad, Nor Badrul Anuar, Ainuddin Wahid Abdul Wahab Source Type: research
Age estimation in Portuguese population: the application of the London atlas of tooth development and eruption
Estimation of the chronological age in living or deceased individuals is becoming increasingly important in modern societies. In forensic science, age estimation is one of the main areas of research. The need for this specific branch of forensic science can be explained by the constant increase of the unidentified individuals due to the worldwide conflicts or special requirements from the judicial bodies in cases of the unknown age of the individuals [1]. In the past several years an emerging problem of illegal immigration hit Europe, due to the global changes in politics and influenced massive migrations around the world....
Source: Forensic Science International - January 16, 2017 Category: Forensic Medicine Authors: Strahinja Pavlovi ć, Cristiana Palmela Pereira, Rui Filipe Vargas de Sousa Santos Source Type: research
An “up, no change, or down” system: time-dependent expression of mRNAs in contused skeletal muscle of rats used for wound age estimation
The determination of wound age is important in medicolegal traumatology, but remains a challenging application in forensic medicine. In forensic pathology, it is often important to estimate wound age as accurately as possible, especially when there are several injuries that were caused by multiple abusers or vehicles within narrow intervals, in view of the value of wound age in the reconstruction of crime scenes and the determination of the cause of death [1]. However, as yet, no parameter has been shown to be sufficiently accurate to distinguish the minimal interval of an early wound in court. (Source: Forensic Science International)
Source: Forensic Science International - January 16, 2017 Category: Forensic Medicine Authors: Jun-hong Sun, Xi-yan Zhu, Ta-na Dong, Xiao-hong Zhang, Qi-qing Liu, San-qiang Li, Qiu-xiang Du Source Type: research
A study of cannabis potency in France over a 25 years period (1992 –2016)
Cannabis sativa L., commonly known as marijuana, is one of the oldest cultivated plants in the world. Each part of the plant is used. The stalks give the (hemp) fibers used in the industry (fabrics, ropes, papers, etc.). The seeds are often cold-pressed to give hempseed oil, or used directly in animal and bird feed. The flowers and leaves contain the psychoactive substances and are used as drug and medicine [1]. (Source: Forensic Science International)
Source: Forensic Science International - January 15, 2017 Category: Forensic Medicine Authors: Laurence Dujourdy, Fabrice Besacier Source Type: research
Identification of aged bloodstains through mRNA profiling: experiments results on selected markers of 30- and 50-year-old samples
Bloodstain is an important type of physical evidence in forensic genetics, which can be identified by many tests, e.g. luminol test can give out fluorescence in the presence of blood [1]. However, the effectiveness of those methods on aged bloodstain is yet to be demonstrated. (Source: Forensic Science International)
Source: Forensic Science International - January 15, 2017 Category: Forensic Medicine Authors: Hemiao Zhao, Chong Wang, Lan Yao, Qingluan Lin, XiuLan Xu, Lan Hu, Wanshui Li Tags: Rapid Communication Source Type: research
A study of Cannabis potency in France over a 25 years period (1992-2016)
Cannabis sativa L, commonly known as marijuana, is one of the oldest cultivated plants in the world. Each part of the plant is used. The stalks give the (hemp) fibres used in the industry (fabrics, ropes, papers, etc.). The seeds are often cold-pressed to give hempseed oil, or used directly in animal and bird feed. The flowers and leaves contain the psychoactive substances and are used as drug and medicine [1]. (Source: Forensic Science International)
Source: Forensic Science International - January 15, 2017 Category: Forensic Medicine Authors: Laurence Dujourdy, Fabrice Besacier Source Type: research
Topical application of THC containing products is not able to cause positive cannabinoid finding in blood or urine
There exists only little information about the transcutaneous absorption of tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) by the application of hemp containing creams. Hemp oil is used in diverse personal hygiene products like in shampoos, body lotions, creams, salves, massage oil, lip balm. Vendors claim that hemp oil has preventive and therapeutic benefits for the skin. The content of poly-unsaturated fatty acids may alleviate dry-skin defects, improve the smoothness of dry and scaly skin and slow down skin aging [1 –3]. (Source: Forensic Science International)
Source: Forensic Science International - January 15, 2017 Category: Forensic Medicine Authors: C. Hess, M. Kr ämer, B. Madea Source Type: research
An LC –MS/MS method for the simultaneous determination of 15 antipsychotics and two metabolites in hair and its application to rat hair
Young men in South Korea are obligated to undertake two years of mandatory military service. Those that fail to meet the required standards during physical examinations are exempted from military service. As military service exemptions are given for mental illness, some men pose as mental health patients to avoid military service. (Source: Forensic Science International)
Source: Forensic Science International - January 13, 2017 Category: Forensic Medicine Authors: Juhyun Sim, Eunmi Kim, Wonkyung Yang, Sanghee Woo, Sangwhan In Source Type: research
Shape variability of the adult human acetabulum and acetabular fossa related to sex and age by geometric morphometrics. implications for adult age estimation
The acetabulum, a part of its locomotor implication, is important because of its utility in sex estimation (e.g., [1,2,3,4,5,6], and because recently it has been identified as a good adult age marker [7,8,9,10,11,12,13,14,15,16]. The original acetabular method [8] for estimating adult age-at-death studied exclusively acetabular age changes in males [9]. Some authors reported no sex differences in their obtained age estimations when Rissech ’s method was applied in both males and females [10,17,13]. (Source: Forensic Science International)
Source: Forensic Science International - January 13, 2017 Category: Forensic Medicine Authors: Marta San-Mill án, Carme Rissech, Daniel Turbón Source Type: research
Third Molar Cut-off Value in Assessing the Legal Age of 18 in Saudi Population
Determining the age of an individual is a fundamental objective in forensic and legal sciences. Legal documents, such as birth certificates, provide the accurate age for individuals, but in the absence of documents, age estimation using biological indicators: physical or radiographic examination or combination of both is vital. [1,2] (Source: Forensic Science International)
Source: Forensic Science International - January 12, 2017 Category: Forensic Medicine Authors: Sakher AlQahtani, Alemad Kawthar, Ayman AlAraik, Ahmad AlShalan Source Type: research
Forensic assignment to geographic origin, a useful tool in seafood fraud control
Seafood fraud is an important problem for many reasons and, unfortunately, has becoming widely spread in the last decades, especially in fish [1]. Economic reasons underlie seafood fraud in most cases: species of low commercial values are sold for others more expensive in order to increase benefits [2]. However, this economically motivated adulteration can encompass drastic consequences affecting public health [3] and species conservation [4]. For all these reasons, seafood forensics helps to combat mislabelling and fraud, being DNA-based technology essential on it [5]. (Source: Forensic Science International)
Source: Forensic Science International - January 9, 2017 Category: Forensic Medicine Authors: J.L. Horreo, G. Machado-Schiaffino, E. Garc ía-Vázquez Source Type: research
The (non)sense of routinely analysing beta-hydroxybutyric acid in forensic toxicology casework
Ketoacidosis is a metabolic disturbance caused by an elevated blood level of the ketone bodies acetoacetate, acetone and beta-hydroxybutyric acid (BHB). These compounds are generated by the liver when there is insufficient glucose available. Under these circumstances, lipids – stored as triglycerides in fatty tissue – are an alternative energy source. During lipolysis, triglycerides are degraded into fatty acids, resulting in the generation of acetyl-CoA. This co-enzyme is converted into acetoacetate, a precursor molecule of BHB and acetone. (Source: Forensic Science International)
Source: Forensic Science International - January 5, 2017 Category: Forensic Medicine Authors: Nele Sadones, Willy E. Lambert, Christophe P. Stove Source Type: research
The (non)sense of routinely analyzing beta-hydroxybutyric acid in forensic toxicology casework
Ketoacidosis is a metabolic disturbance caused by an elevated blood level of the ketone bodies acetoacetate, acetone and beta-hydroxybutyric acid (BHB). These compounds are generated by the liver when there is insufficient glucose available. Under these circumstances, lipids −stored as triglycerides in fatty tissue- are an alternative energy source. During lipolysis, triglycerides are degraded into fatty acids, resulting in the generation of acetyl-CoA. This co-enzyme is converted into acetoacetate, a precursor molecule of BHB and acetone. (Source: Forensic Science International)
Source: Forensic Science International - January 5, 2017 Category: Forensic Medicine Authors: Nele SADONES, Willy E. LAMBERT, Christophe P. STOVE Source Type: research
