No / The auricular surface is located on the os coxae (pelvis) and forms part of the sacro-iliac joint. Changes in appearance of the auricular surface have been used to estimate adult age-at-death. Two main methods are used in bioarcheology: the Lovejoy method and the Buckberry-Chamberlain (revised auricular surface) method. As with many age estimation methods, neither auricular surface method reaches the gold standard of being both accurate and precise, however the age-related changes of the auricular surface do extend into the later decades of life.

Human faces have been a subject of study in computer science for decades. The rich of set features from human faces have been used in solving various problems in computer vision, including person identification, facial expression analysis, and attribute classification. In this work, I explore the human facial features that depend on the geo-location using a data- driven approach. I analyze millions of public domain images to extract the geo-dependent human facial features and explore their applications. Using various machine learning and statistical techniques, I show that the geo-dependent features of human faces can be used to solve the image geo-localization task of given an image, predict where it was taken. Deep Convolutional Neural Networks (CNN) have been recently shown to excel at the image classification task; I have used CNNs to geo-localize images using the human face as a cue. I also show that the facial features used in image localization can be used to solve other problems, such as ethnicity, gender, and age estimation.

No description available.

The identification of victims involved in mass fatality incidents, as well as the identification of unknown individuals in criminal cases has become an increasingly important issue nowadays. Sex assessment represents a key point in forensic evaluations due to its significance in providing biological identity. Even though the availability of documented skeletal remains to forensic practitioners is a common practice in many countries, in Turkey, contemporary documented skeletal remains are not available for this purpose. For this reason, studies have been focused on living populations. Previous research has shown that modern technologies such as CT scanning present very promising potential in establishing new standards for contemporary populations. Therefore, the main aim of this project was to examine the application of the measurements taken from 3D CT images of the femur in order to assess sex, and to contribute to the establishment of discriminant function equations for the Turkish population for forensic applications. The accuracy and reproducibility of imaging methods in the assessment of the measurements taken from femora are essential when estimating sex. This research also concentrated on determining the accuracy and repeatability of CT measurements, using the femur. Prior to primary data collection, a preliminary study was performed in an effort to test the reliability of the femur measurements. The results of reliability analysis indicated no significant difference between the three observations of each measurement. Thus, the methodology employed in the current study appears reliable and reproducible. In addition, a validation study was conducted to determine the linear measurement accuracy of the 3D volume rendering models derived from a medical CT scanner and the influence of different reconstruction parameters. The differences between measurements obtained from dry bones and their 3D volume rendered models were also evaluated. The results from this study indicated that there were no statistically significant differences between measurements taken from different reconstruction parameters and measurements obtained from CT images and drybones. Using the CT data, volume-rendering function (VR), 3D Curved Multiplanar reconstruction (MPR), and Scout View on OsiriX were employed in order to compare the accuracy and reliability of each rendering method and to determine which technique is optimal for linear measurements. Overall, the measurements taken from the 3D Volume Rendering images had the highest intra-observer reliability when compared to the other two rendering methods. This research study produced data and interpretations that will inform on and improve population specific standards of sex assessment from three-dimensional postcranial osteometric landmarks. Additionally, this research is believed to provide value for a developing discipline of forensic anthropology, and integrate within the existing systems of criminal investigation and disaster victim identification practices in Turkey. A Turkish sample population, consisting of 300 adult hospital patients was examined via the interpretation of CT reconstructed images using the OsiriX software. The 3D reconstructions were then created using the volume-rendering function in OsiriX (v.5.6.). Following the 3D reconstruction, an image of each femur was segmented from the surrounding bones to ensure the correct usage of landmarks as accurately as possible. Thirteen measurements were acquired using a 3D viewer after being located and marked on each CT reconstructed femora. These thirteen anthropometric parameters were measured and analysed by basic descriptive statistics and discriminant analysis methods using the SPSS 21.0 software package. The intra-observer variation was assessed by obtaining the intraclass correlation coefficient in order to evaluate the accuracy of the linear measurements taken. Asymmetry was also tested. The results indicated that an accuracy of 92.3% was acquired from a combination of six of the measurements, and the Femur Vertical Diameter of Neck (FVDN) measurement was found to be the most dimorphic with 88.0% accuracy.

O objetivo deste estudo foi estimar a idade dentária e compará-la com a idade cronológica de crianças HIV+ com finalidade odontolegal, utilizando o método de estimativa da idade, baseado no estudo dos estágios de desenvolvimento dos elementos dentários da dentição permanente. Além disso, verificamos a relação entre a infecção pelo HIV e os efeitos da terapia anti-retroviral na cronologia de mineralização dentária destas crianças. Foram analisados, retrospectivamente, prontuários odontológicos e radiografias panorâmicas de 50 pacientes pediátricos infectados pelo HIV, 25 do sexo feminino e 25 do sexo masculino, entre 37 a 168 meses de idade. Através dessas radiografias, a idade dentária foi estimada com o auxílio do software Cronologia de Mineralização, que utiliza o método de Nicodemo, Moraes e Médici Filho (1974) e, em seguida, comparada com a Idade Real (IE). A média da Idade Estimada (IE) foi significativamente menor do que a média da IR para o total da amostra (p<0,01), ocorrendo uma subestimativa. Houve diferença estatística entre as crianças que recebiam drogas anti-retrovirais e as que não faziam uso de qualquer droga (p=0,02), ou seja, os indivíduos não tratados apresentaram diferença entre IR e IE de praticamente zero, enquanto os tratados apresentaram uma diferença de 10,67 meses. Na amostra observada, concluímos que a IE das crianças infectadas apresentou-se atrasada em relação à IR para o amostra total e que houve uma relação entre o uso da terapia anti-retroviral com um atraso na cronologia da mineralização dentária nas crianças HIV+. / The purpose of this study was to estimate the dental age and compare it to the chronological age of the HIV+ children for legal issues, using a method of age determination based on a study of the stage of development of the permanent teeth. In addiction we studied the relationship of HIV and the side effects of the antiretroviral therapy on the chronology of tooth formation of these children. Dental records, along with their panoramic radiographies of 50 pediatric patients infected with the HIV were analyzed, 25 males and 25 females, with ages between 37 months to 168 months. With these radiographies, the dental age was estimated with the aid of software Mineralization Chronology, witch used the method of Nicodemo, Moraes and Médici Filho (1974), and than compared with the Real Age (RA) of the patient. The mean Estimated Age (EA) was significantly lower than the mean RA in the entire studied sample (p<0.01), leading to an underestimated age prediction. There was a statistical difference between children who received antiretroviral drugs and those who used no drugs (p=0.02), i.e., the non treated individuals presented practically no difference between RA and EA, while the treated patients showed a difference of 10.67 months. From these results, we conclude that there is an underestimated age prediction for patients infected with HIV, or that the (EA) was delayed compared to the (RA) for the total sample, and there was a positive association between the use of antiretroviral therapy and a delay in the chronology of dental mineralization in the sample.

Estimar a idade de indivíduos em uma população é uma das importantes tarefas a se realizar ao se investigar aspectos relacionados à história de vida. Este estudo teve por objetivo estimar as idades e obter os parâmetros de crescimento de toninhas (Pontoporia blainvillei) e botos-cinza (Sotalia guianensis) capturados acidentalmente ou encontrados mortos no litoral sul de São Paulo e norte do Paraná entre 1995 e 2016. As idades foram estimadas por meio da técnica de contagem de camadas de crescimento presentes na dentina e cemento dos dentes. Os parâmetros de crescimento foram obtidos pelo ajuste dos modelos de von Bertalanffy, Gompertz, Logístico e Richards aos dados de idade-comprimento. As curvas de crescimento foram confeccionadas separadamente para machos e fêmeas de ambas as espécies, entretanto como para S. guianensis não foi detectado dimorfismo sexual, apresentaram-se resultados para todos os indivíduos agrupados. Os comprimentos assintóticos estimados para as toninhas foram de 116,7 cm para machos e 135,7 cm para fêmeas, enquanto que para os botos-cinza esse valor foi de 183,4 cm para ambos os sexos. A taxa de crescimento foi de 1,13 e 0,64 para machos e fêmeas de toninhas, respectivamente, e de 0,41 para os botos-cinza. O tamanho estimado de filhotes de toninhas foi de 85,9 cm para machos e 88,5 cm para fêmeas, enquanto que para botos-cinza a estimativa foi de 95,7 cm. / Estimating the age of individuals in a population is one of the most important tasks when investigating aspects related to life history. The present study goal was to estimate the age, as well to obtain the growth parameters of franciscana dolphins (Pontoporia blainvillei) and Guiana dolphins (Sotalia guianensis) incidentally caught in gillnets or found stranded at the south coast of São Paulo and northern Paraná states, Brazil, from 1995 to 2016. Age was estimated by counting the number of growth layer groups present in the dentine and cementum of teeth. Growth parameters were estimated by fitting the von Bertalanffy, Gompertz, Logistic and Richards models to length-at-age data. Growth curves were separately constructed for males and females of both species, however, as S. guianensis showed no sexual dimorphism in growth, results were presented for all individuals pooled together. Asymptotic lengths estimated for franciscana dolphins were 116.7 cm for males and 135.7 cm for females, while for Guiana dolphins the estimate was 183.9 cm for both sexes. Growth rate of male and female of franciscana dolphins was 1.13 and 0.64, respectively, and for Guiana dolphins was 0.41. Estimated size at birth of franciscana dolphins was 85.9 cm for males and 88.5 cm for females, while for Guiana dolphins the estimate was 95.7 cm.

Estimar a idade de indivíduos em uma população é uma das importantes tarefas a se realizar ao se investigar aspectos relacionados à história de vida. Este estudo teve por objetivo estimar as idades e obter os parâmetros de crescimento de toninhas (Pontoporia blainvillei) e botos-cinza (Sotalia guianensis) capturados acidentalmente ou encontrados mortos no litoral sul de São Paulo e norte do Paraná entre 1995 e 2016. As idades foram estimadas por meio da técnica de contagem de camadas de crescimento presentes na dentina e cemento dos dentes. Os parâmetros de crescimento foram obtidos pelo ajuste dos modelos de von Bertalanffy, Gompertz, Logístico e Richards aos dados de idade-comprimento. As curvas de crescimento foram confeccionadas separadamente para machos e fêmeas de ambas as espécies, entretanto como para S. guianensis não foi detectado dimorfismo sexual, apresentaram-se resultados para todos os indivíduos agrupados. Os comprimentos assintóticos estimados para as toninhas foram de 116,7 cm para machos e 135,7 cm para fêmeas, enquanto que para os botos-cinza esse valor foi de 183,4 cm para ambos os sexos. A taxa de crescimento foi de 1,13 e 0,64 para machos e fêmeas de toninhas, respectivamente, e de 0,41 para os botos-cinza. O tamanho estimado de filhotes de toninhas foi de 85,9 cm para machos e 88,5 cm para fêmeas, enquanto que para botos-cinza a estimativa foi de 95,7 cm. / Estimating the age of individuals in a population is one of the most important tasks when investigating aspects related to life history. The present study goal was to estimate the age, as well to obtain the growth parameters of franciscana dolphins (Pontoporia blainvillei) and Guiana dolphins (Sotalia guianensis) incidentally caught in gillnets or found stranded at the south coast of São Paulo and northern Paraná states, Brazil, from 1995 to 2016. Age was estimated by counting the number of growth layer groups present in the dentine and cementum of teeth. Growth parameters were estimated by fitting the von Bertalanffy, Gompertz, Logistic and Richards models to length-at-age data. Growth curves were separately constructed for males and females of both species, however, as S. guianensis showed no sexual dimorphism in growth, results were presented for all individuals pooled together. Asymptotic lengths estimated for franciscana dolphins were 116.7 cm for males and 135.7 cm for females, while for Guiana dolphins the estimate was 183.9 cm for both sexes. Growth rate of male and female of franciscana dolphins was 1.13 and 0.64, respectively, and for Guiana dolphins was 0.41. Estimated size at birth of franciscana dolphins was 85.9 cm for males and 88.5 cm for females, while for Guiana dolphins the estimate was 95.7 cm.

Though applied in bioarchaeology, dental wear is an underexplored age indicator in the biological anthropology of contemporary populations, although research has been conducted on dental attrition in forensic contexts (Kim et al. 2000, Prince et al. 2008, Yun et al. 2007). The purpose of this study is to apply and adapt existing techniques for age estimation based on dental wear to a modern American population, with the aim of producing accurate age range estimates for individuals from an industrialized context. Methodologies following Yun and Prince were applied to a random sample from the University of New Mexico (n=583) and Universidade de Coimbra (n=50) cast and skeletal collections. Analysis of variance (ANOVA) and linear regression analyses were conducted to examine the relationship between tooth wear scores and age. Application of both Yun et al. (2007) and Prince et al. (2008) methodologies resulted in inaccurate age estimates. Recalibrated sectioning points correctly classified individuals as over or under 50 years for 88% of the sample. Linear regression demonstrated 60% of age estimates fell within ±10 years of the actual age, and accuracy improved for individuals under 45 years, with 74% of predictions within ±10 years. This study demonstrates that age estimation from dental wear is possible for modern populations, with comparable age intervals to other established methods. It provides a quantifiable method of seriation into “older” and “younger” adult categories, and is a more reliable method than cranial sutures in instances where only the skull is available. / 2019-07-11T00:00:00Z

Syftet med studien var att undersöka hur hög precision äldre personer har när de ålderskattar maskerade och omaskerade ansikten. 21 kvinnor och 19 män, totalt 40 deltagare med genomsnittlig ålder på 57,7 år fick skatta åldern på 30 maskerade och 30 omaskerade ansiktsbilder. Samma stimuluspersoner användes med och utan mask. Stimulusbilderna delades upp i grupperna yngre (18-32 år) samt äldre (39-72 år). Resultatet visar att omaskerade ansikten skattas med högre precision än maskerade ansikten och att kvinnor hade en högre precision än män. Inga signifikanta skillnader fanns i deltagarnas förmåga att skatta yngre eller äldre ansikten. Tre interaktionseffekter hittades. (1) Mellan ålder och kön, (2) mellan ålder och maskering och (3) mellan mask, ålder och kön. De systematiska avvikelserna visar att de yngre och omaskerade stimuluspersonernas ålder överskattades samt att de äldre personernas ålder underskattades. Resultatet diskuteras i relation till åldersskattnig och självförankringseffekt. / The purpose of this study was to examine how precise older people can estimate the age of masked and unmasked faces. 21 women and 19 men, 40 participants in total, were shown pictures of 30 masked and 30 unmasked faces, and asked to estimate their age. The same stimulus persons were both masked and unmasked. The pictures were divided into age groups, younger (18-32) and older (39-72). The results showed that unmasked faces were better estimated than masked faces, and that women were more precise than men. There were no significant difference between participants ability to estimate the age of young and old faces. Three interaction effects was found. (1) Between age and sex, (2) between age and mask and (3) between mask, age and sex. The systematic divergences show that the age of the younger and unmasked stimulus persons were overestimated, and that the age of the older persons were underestimated. The results are discussed in relation to age estimation and self-anchoring effects.

Due to the strong genetic component of dental development, research has shown that mineralization patterns of the human dentition are relatively buffered against environmental influences that normally affect bone growth and development. It is because of this resistance to environmental factors and the continuous growth of the permanent dentition throughout childhood and adolescence that the evaluation of dental development patterns has become the preferred method of age estimation in living and deceased children. Researchers (Harris and Mckee 1990; Tompkins 1996; Blankenship et al. 2007; Kasper et al. 2009) have suggested that the timing of dental development varies by ancestral descent and geographic populations. However, further evaluations of these perceived differences in the timing of dental development among populations are necessary as classical statistical methods result in age estimations that are biased toward the age structure of the reference population. However, the Bayesian approach is beneficial since it incorporates relevant prior knowledge into the analysis and formalizes the relationship between assumptions and conclusions (Buck et al. 1996). Therefore, the purpose of this research is to incorporate methods in Bayesian analysis to compare the timing of dental development between two contemporary populations of the Southeastern United States, as well as test the accuracy of dental development age parameters devised by Moorrees et al. (1963) on a contemporary Florida Population. For this study, 51 panoramic radiographs of individuals from a contemporary Florida population ranging in age from 7.7-20.4 years were reviewed. Statistical analyses incorporated a Bayesian approach to compare the timing of dental development for individuals comprising the contemporary Florida sample with the timing of dental development for a contemporary Middle Tennessee population by utilizing the age structure of the Middle Tennessee population as informed prior knowledge, otherwise referred to as an informed prior. Transition distributions for age, given stage of dental development, were also modeled for individuals comprising the contemporary Florida sample. The accurate observation and comparison of probability density distributions for age can serve as a noninvasive method for evaluating the probability of whether or not an unknown individual is a particular age, given the stage of dental development. Results of this research indicate that there is a consistent underestimation of age for individuals comprising the contemporary Florida population when the age structure of the Middle Tennessee population is utilized as an informed prior. Additionally, the results of this thesis indicate that there is a consistent underestimation of age when utilizing age parameters of Moorrees et al. (1963) for the estimation of age for individuals from a contemporary Florida population. By incorporating a Bayesian approach to compare two contemporary populations of the Southeastern United States, a comprehensive analysis of the relationship between age and stage of dental development can be achieved. Therefore, the results of this thesis support Bayesian analysis as an appropriate method of evaluating perceived differences in the timing of dental development between contemporary populations. Furthermore, the results of this research are beneficial to the field of forensic anthropology as the observation of advanced stages of molar development utilizing panoramic radiographs serves as a noninvasive method in estimating age for unknown juveniles and young adults, and can also assist courts within the United States in determining whether or not an individual is legally considered a minor or an adult.