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Role of forensic odontology in the identification of victims of major mass disasters across the world: A systematic review
Forensic odontology (FO) is regarded in the literature as one of the most reliable and economical scientific methods for victim identification in mass disasters (MDs). The present paper systematically reviews the role of forensic odontologists in various global MDs.
A comprehensive search of the literature databases (PubMed, Medline, SCOPUS, Web of Science and Google Scholar), along with cross-referencing published peer-reviewed articles, was conducted. The search included full texts, abstracts or titles, had no inclusion year limit (searched until September 2017) and was limited to the English language. Keywords included a combination of 'Forensic odontology', 'Dental records', 'Victim identification', 'Natural mass disaster', 'Criminal mass disaster', 'Accidental mass disaster' and 'Victim disaster'.
Of the included disasters (20), 12 (57.14%) were accidental, 5 (23.80%) natural and 3 (19.04%) were criminal. The maximum number of victims was associated with the Japan tsunami (15892), followed by the Thailand tsunami (4280) and the Estonia ferry disaster (852). A total of 23654 victims were reported, of which 20569 (86.96%) were positively identified. Reports from 17 MDs included the use of FO in victim identification [3025 (14.70%) cases]. In addition, 1094 victims (5.31%; from 7 papers) were identified using FO in combination with other methodologies. The highest percentage of victims was identified using FO following the Kentucky air crash (47; 100%), followed by the Newark air crash (38; 76%), the Nepal air crash (10; 71.42%), the France air crash (56; 65.88%), the Australian bushfire (14; 63.63%), and the Estonia ferry disaster (57; 60.63%).
FO has played a significant role in victim identification in several MDs around the world. The success of FO-based identification is heavily dependent on the availability of ante-mortem records from general dental practitioners. Hence, adequate knowledge about FO and appropriate dental record keeping among general dental practitioners are critical.
Journal Article
Death in Beijing : murder and forensic science in Republican China
\"In this innovative and engaging history of homicide investigation in Republican Beijing, Daniel Asen explores the transformation of ideas about death in China in the first half of the twentieth century. In this period, those who died violently or under suspicious circumstances constituted a particularly important population of the dead, subject to new claims by police, legal and medical professionals, and a newspaper industry intent on covering urban fatality in sensational detail. Asen examines the process through which imperial China's old tradition of forensic science came to serve the needs of a changing state and society under these dramatically new circumstances. This is a story of the unexpected outcomes and contingencies of modernity, presenting new perspectives on China's transition from empire to modern nation state, competing visions of science and expertise, and the ways in which the meanings of death and dead bodies changed amid China's modern transformation\"-- Provided by publisher.
Book
Face recognition accuracy of forensic examiners, superrecognizers, and face recognition algorithms
Achieving the upper limits of face identification accuracy in forensic applications can minimize errors that have profound social and personal consequences. Although forensic examiners identify faces in these applications, systematic tests of their accuracy are rare. How can we achieve the most accurate face identification: using people and/or machines working alone or in collaboration? In a comprehensive comparison of face identification by humans and computers, we found that forensic facial examiners, facial reviewers, and superrecognizers were more accurate than fingerprint examiners and students on a challenging face identification test. Individual performance on the test varied widely. On the same test, four deep convolutional neural networks (DCNNs), developed between 2015 and 2017, identified faces within the range of human accuracy. Accuracy of the algorithms increased steadily over time, with the most recent DCNN scoring above the median of the forensic facial examiners. Using crowd-sourcing methods, we fused the judgments of multiple forensic facial examiners by averaging their rating-based identity judgments. Accuracy was substantially better for fused judgments than for individuals working alone. Fusion also served to stabilize performance, boosting the scores of lower-performing individuals and decreasing variability. Single forensic facial examiners fused with the best algorithm were more accurate than the combination of two examiners. Therefore, collaboration among humans and between humans and machines offers tangible benefits to face identification accuracy in important applications. These results offer an evidence-based roadmap for achieving the most accurate face identification possible.
Journal Article
A review of sex estimation techniques during examination of skeletal remains in forensic anthropology casework
•The article reviews sex estimation methods used in forensic anthropology casework.•It also discusses the reliability of morphological, metric, molecular and radiographic methods.•Direct methods of sex estimation are found to be more reliable than the other methods.•GM and DSP methods are emerging as valid and widely used techniques in forensic anthropology.
Sex estimation is considered as one of the essential parameters in forensic anthropology casework, and requires foremost consideration in the examination of skeletal remains. Forensic anthropologists frequently employ morphologic and metric methods for sex estimation of human remains. These methods are still very imperative in identification process in spite of the advent and accomplishment of molecular techniques. A constant boost in the use of imaging techniques in forensic anthropology research has facilitated to derive as well as revise the available population data. These methods however, are less reliable owing to high variance and indistinct landmark details. The present review discusses the reliability and reproducibility of various analytical approaches; morphological, metric, molecular and radiographic methods in sex estimation of skeletal remains. Numerous studies have shown a higher reliability and reproducibility of measurements taken directly on the bones and hence, such direct methods of sex estimation are considered to be more reliable than the other methods. Geometric morphometric (GM) method and Diagnose Sexuelle Probabiliste (DSP) method are emerging as valid methods and widely used techniques in forensic anthropology in terms of accuracy and reliability. Besides, the newer 3D methods are shown to exhibit specific sexual dimorphism patterns not readily revealed by traditional methods. Development of newer and better methodologies for sex estimation as well as re-evaluation of the existing ones will continue in the endeavour of forensic researchers for more accurate results.
Journal Article
Biases in forensic experts
Forensic evidence plays a critical role in court proceedings and the administration of justice. It is a powerful tool that can help convict the guilty and avoid wrongful conviction of the innocent. Unfortunately, flaws in forensic evidence are increasingly becoming apparent. Assessments of forensic science have too often focused only on the data and the underlying science, as if they exist in isolation, without sufficiently addressing the process by which forensic experts evaluate and interpret the evidence. After all, it is the forensic expert who observes the data and makes interpretations, and therefore forensic evidence is mediated by human and cognitive factors. A U.S. National Research Council examination of forensic science in 2009, followed by a 2016 evaluation by a presidential panel, along with a U.K. inquiry into fingerprinting in 2011 and a 2015 guidance by the U.K. Forensic Science Regulator, have all expressed concerns about biases in forensic expert decision-making. Where does forensic bias come from, and how can we minimize it?
Journal Article
A modern documented Italian identified skeletal collection of 2127 skeletons: the CAL Milano Cemetery Skeletal Collection
•Identified skeletal collections are of paramount importance for research purposes.•The CAL Milano Cemetery Skeletal Collection is an identified osteological collection.•The collection counts 2127 skeletons of both sexes equally, aged from 0 to 104 years.•The associated death certificates provide specific traumatic and pathological data.•The collection is continuously growing and of research potential.
The CAL Milano Cemetery Skeletal Collection is a modern and continuously growing identified osteological collection of 2127 skeletons under study in the Laboratorio di Antropologia e Odontologia Forense (LABANOF) in the Department of Biomedical Sciences for Health of the University of Milan (Italy), and part of the Collezione Antropologica LABANOF (CAL). The collection presents individuals of both sexes and of all age groups with a high representation of the elderly and an interesting sample of infants. Each individual is associated with a documentation that includes sex, age-at-death, dates of birth and death, and a death certificate that specifies the exact cause of death and the chain of events that led to it (related pathological conditions or traumatic events). It was also possible to recover for several individuals the autopsy reports and antemortem photographs.
This documented osteological collection is of crucial interest in physical and forensic anthropology: it provides unique teaching opportunities and more importantly considerable research possibilities to test and develop sex and age estimation methods, investigate key subjects of forensic relevance and discuss pathological markers, among others. The aim of this paper is to introduce the CAL Milano Cemetery Skeletal Collection as a new identified skeletal collection and present its research and teaching potential.
Journal Article
Microbiome Tools for Forensic Science
Microbes are present at every crime scene and have been used as physical evidence for over a century. Advances in DNA sequencing and computational approaches have led to recent breakthroughs in the use of microbiome approaches for forensic science, particularly in the areas of estimating postmortem intervals (PMIs), locating clandestine graves, and obtaining soil and skin trace evidence. Low-cost, high-throughput technologies allow us to accumulate molecular data quickly and to apply sophisticated machine-learning algorithms, building generalizable predictive models that will be useful in the criminal justice system. In particular, integrating microbiome and metabolomic data has excellent potential to advance microbial forensics.
Microbes have been used as physical evidence for over a century. With recent advances in microbiome science, new opportunities exist for microbiome technologies in forensic science, particularly in the areas of estimating PMIs, location of clandestine graves, and soil and skin trace evidence.
Integrating microbiome and metabolomic data sets has the potential to improve our predictive ability, thereby lowering error rates, which is key to establishing new methods for the criminal justice system.
Low-cost, high-throughput technologies allow us to accumulate data quickly and to apply sophisticated machine-learning algorithms, building generalizable predictive models.
Journal Article
Abuse of fentanyl: An emerging problem to face
•Fentanyl-related morbility and mortality has alarmingly increased in recent years.•Most fentanyl abuse involves illicitly produced drug mixed up with heroin.•The drug can be also obtained by the diversion of fentanyl-containing medicines.•Fentanyl overdose rescue is based on a rapid administration of naloxone.
Fentanyl is a potent synthetic opioid used as a narcotic analgesic supplement in general and regional anesthesia as well as in management of persistent, severe chronic pain. Alarming epidemiological and forensic medicine reports, accumulated mainly during the last two decades, point to a growing increase in illicit use of fentanyl, mainly in North America and Europe. Toxicological data indicates that fentanyl use is inextricably linked with polydrug use. There are two main sources of fentanyl on the “recreational” drug market. First, the most common, combines illicitly manufactured fentanyl from clandestine sources. The drug is often mixed up with heroin (“fake heroin”) to increase its potency at a little cost, or included in cocaine products. It can also be mixed into and sold as oxycodone-, hydrocodone- or alprazolam-containing tablets. The other way to gain fentanyl is through the diversion of fentanyl-containing medicines, especially transdermal patches (FTPs). Fentanyl extracted from FTP can be administered intravenously, insufflated or inhaled after volatilization. The drug can also be delivered by oral or transmucosal application of the whole patch, or by rectal insertion. The most common overdose symptoms are coma, lethargy, respiratory depression and arrest. Although naloxone, an opioid receptor antagonist, is the standard drug for fentanyl overdose rescue, attempts to revive patients with naloxone could be unsuccessful, due to the rapid onset of fentanyl’s action. As the fentanyl problem is constantly growing, there is an urgent need for new, effective harm-reduction strategies and technologies, as well as overdose maintenance.
Journal Article
Recent advances in biodegradable polymers for sustainable applications
The interest in producing biodegradable polymers by chemical treatment, microorganisms and enzymes has increased to make it easier to dispose after the end of its use without harming the environment. Biodegradable polymers reported a set of issues on their way to becoming effective materials. In this article, biodegradable polymers, treatment, composites, blending and modeling are studied. Environmental fate and assessment of biodegradable polymers are discussed in detail. The forensic engineering of biodegradable polymers and understanding of the relationships between their structure, properties, and behavior before, during, and after practical applications are investigated.
Journal Article