Age-at-death estimation in older adults is complicated because current techniques fail to capture an older individual’s age-at-death in a narrow enough range. This study aimed to test the relationship between osteoporotic change and age-at-death in the form of intracortical porosity. It was hypothesized that as individuals age, osteoporotic processes increase resulting in a higher percentage of intracortical porosity that may correlate with particular age cohorts. Forty ribs were analyzed, ranging in age from 15 to 84. Ribs sections were digitized using a 40X objective on a Nikon E600 microscope equipped with a motorized stage and a Turboscan montaging system (Objective Imaging Inc., UK). Images were made binary using image ImageJ 2.0. Nine measurements and calculations as described by the Agnew and Stout (2012) method were used: total subperiosteal area, endosteal area, cortical area, percent cortical area (%C/T), porosity area, percent porosity area, absolute cortical area, percent absolute cortical area (%CA/T), and the difference between %C/T and %CA/T. The ranges and mean values for intracortical porosity across the sample were calculated. The effect of intracortical porosity on measures of cortical area were interpreted using a calculation of the difference between %C/T and %CA/T. A Two Sample Independent T-Test was performed to see if there was a significant difference between sexes. Regression analyses were conducted to assess correlations between the traits and age-at-death. No significant difference was found between sexes in regards to intracortical porosity or the difference between %C/T and %CA/T. The mean intracortical porosity was found to be 15.30. The mean value of the difference was found to be 6.95%. Measures of intracortical porosity varied from 0.74% - 31.67% while measures of the effect of intracortical porosity varied from 0.32% - 17.85%. No correlation was found between either trait and age-at-death. There are a number of reasons intracortical porosity might not be correlated with an individual’s age-at-death including (1) processes that influence intracortical porosity, (2) hormonal changes, (3) the current understanding of the relationship between aging and bone cell functions. One should still account for intracortical porosity when conducting histomorphometric analyses, as failure to consider it would result in miscalculations.

One role of forensic anthropologists is to create a biological profile to help identify remains. This includes estimating ancestry. Many morphological and metrical methods of ancestry estimation have been created and utilized. This study was aimed at created a simple, metrical analysis of dental arch size and shape to aid in ancestry estimation. Maximum length and width of over 700 dental casts (both maxillary and mandibular) were recorded and statistically analyzed by one-way ANOVA. Measurements were taken using points on teeth rather than on the fragile bone of the maxilla and mandible. It was found that ancestry does affect the size of the maxillary arch but not the mandibular one, but discriminant function analysis showed that ancestry estimation is not possible with the present set of data for either the maxilla or the mandible. Further research will need to be conducted with larger sample sizes of certain populations in order to improve ancestry estimation using this method.

This project examined the effects of burning on saw mark characteristics of isolated semi-fleshed white-tailed deer (Odocoileus virginianus) long bones as a substitute for human remains. Different classes of saws were examined to determine which type of saw mark characteristics are obliterated when burned and which are not. The saw mark characteristics that were examined are superficial false start scratches, false start kerfs, and completely sectioned cuts with breakaway spurs/notches. The long bones were burned at the Boston University School of Medicine using a muffle furnace, at differing temperatures and at differing time increments. The author hypothesized that the higher the temperature and the longer the duration of bone burning, the greater will be the obliterative effect on saw mark characteristics. All samples were examined using a Motic® Digital Light Microscope 12 VDC with a Nikon® MKII Fiber Optic Light attached with accompanying Motic® imaging and measuring software. Distances were measured between striations on complete cuts, false start kerf widths, and false start scratch widths using the Motic® imaging and measuring software. Images were also taken of the cross sections of the kerf floors. The striations on the kerf walls, false start kerf widths, and false start scratch widths were compared to the control samples. Measurements taken from false start scratches, false start kerfs, and complete cuts were averaged and compared to the averages from each temperature and the control samples, to assess the degree of shrinkage from thermal alteration. The false start kerf profile shapes were blindly examined and classified into Class A, B, C, or D(following the system of Symes 1992) and compared to the control samples. Kerf flare and blade drift were examined to determine if thermal alteration obliterated those saw mark characteristics. The chainsaw false start kerfs and complete cuts were examined macroscopically to determine what effects thermal alteration had on those types of marks. All thermally altered samples were assessed for color change, heat-related fracturing, and whether or not the saw marks were still visible. The author found that all saw marks made with the mitre saw, crosscut saw, and bow saw were still visible and identifiable, even in a fractured state and, when burned up to 700°C for one hour. Most of the false start kerf samples were classified into the correct kerf profile shape as outlines in Symes (1992). False start kerfs and complete cuts made with the chainsaw were blindly examined and showed that these marks are distinct and easily identifiable when the bone is completely intact or has very minimal fracturing. The crosscut saw false start scratch and crosscut saw complete cut samples showed signs of shrinkage. The average width of the false start scratch samples burned at 700°C for one hour was about 50% smaller than the control sample's average width. The same was true for the complete cut striation widths. Shrinkage did not appear to alter the crosscut saw false start kerf widths or the bow saw false start scratch widths. For all cuts made with the mitre saw shrinkage did appear to alter the samples. Warping did occur where some of the burned averages were larger than the control sample averages. This suggests that some warping did take place by widening the kerf, thus changing the analysis of the saw mark characteristics. Blade drift and kerf flare were seen in the samples and thus were not affected by thermal alteration. The author's hypothesis was not rejected, because in some cases thermal alteration did modify the saw mark characteristic measurements and in some cases thermal alteration did not alter the measurements. Some of the saw marks were affected by shrinkage, while others were not. False start kerf profile shape classification was not affected by thermal alteration. The chainsaw samples were affected most by the thermal alteration, because of the obliterative effects of heat-related fracturing which progressed generally with the greater temperature.

Estimating sex and age at death are two crucial processes during the creation of a biological profile for a set of skeletal remains. Whether the remains are archaeological or forensic, estimating the sex and age of the individual is necessary for further analysis and interpretation. Specifically, in a medicolegal context, knowing the biological sex and approximate age of the remains assists law enforcement or government agencies in identifying unknown individuals. Since the inception of the field of forensic anthropology, practitioners have been developing methods to perform the aforementioned tasks. It is crucial that these methods be consistent, repeatedly tested, validated, and improved for multiple reasons. Firstly, to conform to Daubert (1993) standards, and additionally, to make sure that they are accurate and applicable to modern forensic cases. The present study was performed to validate the efficacy of the method for estimating sex from the os pubis originally proposed in Klales et al. (2012), as well as the efficacy of the “transition analysis” method for estimating age, originally outlined in Boldsen et al. (2002). Considering the recent popularity of using these methods to create a biological profile for forensic cases, it is necessary to develop error rates on a large, modern, American autopsy sample. These two methods are not only being readily utilized, but are additionally being taught to students in training. The utilization of these models involves a “logistic regression model” created by Klales et. al (2012) to process ordinal scores, and the Bayesian statistics software program “ADBOU” that was created for processing data collected using the method in Boldsen et. al (2002). These statistical systems which produced age estimates are relatively young compared to methods developed for the same purpose. The new generation of forensic anthropologists is fully responsible for objectively critiquing and validating these methods that are being disseminated by their professors and senior practitioners. The goal of the present study is to do just that. A skeletal reference sample of 630 pubic bones, all removed from modern autopsy cases and housed at the Maricopa County Forensic Science Center in Phoenix, Arizona, was utilized for data collection in the present study. Each pubic bone was assessed and scored according to the exact instructions outlined in the materials for each method, which was the Klales et al. (2012) paper for sex estimation, and the UTK Data Collection Procedures for Forensic Skeletal Material 2.0 for age estimation (Langley et al. 2016). Additionally, the observers recorded their “gestalt” estimates for sex using the Phenice (1969) system, as well as Brooks and Suchey (1990) and Hartnett (2010a) phases for each pubis. Demographic information labels were hidden, and the collection demographic information was not viewed until the completion of data collection. The null hypothesis in the present study is that both methods (the Klales et al. method (2012) and “transition analysis” method (Boldsen et al. 2002) will perform as well as they did in the original studies. The alternate hypothesis is that they do not result in the same accuracy rates reported in the original studies. Statistical analysis of the data indicates that there is sufficient evidence to reject the null hypothesis as it applies to the Klales et al. (2012) method. The classification accuracies achieved applying the logistic regression equation to the sample of pubic bones was found to be significantly lower than reported in the original study (86.2%), averaging around 70% between observers. The level of both intraobserver and interobserver agreement was only moderate for this method. It was also found that asymmetry occurred in some individuals, producing differing estimates of sex when the left and right pubes were scored separately. When utilizing the Boldsen et al. (2012) method and the ADBOU software package on only pubic symphyseal components to estimate age, the method was found to perform reasonably well. The majority (about 82%) of individuals had actual ages at death that fell within the predicted range produced by the statistical analysis. The majority of the symphyseal component scores showed moderate to good levels of interobserver agreement, and the estimated maximum likelihood (point estimate) of age at death predicted by the software package correlated moderately well with the actual age of death of the individual. These methods did not perform as well as reported in the original studies, and they should be further validated and recalibrated to improve their accuracy and reliability.

Forensic anthropologists increasingly use chemical isotope analysis in the investigation of unidentified human remains, as biochemical georeferencing continually improves with the development of modern reference data of known origins. Isotope variations in trace elements such as strontium (Sr) and lead (Pb) in human teeth are some of the most useful indicators of past domicile in archaeological research and thus have high potential for modern, forensic applications. In this study, high-precision lead isotope analysis was conducted on 63 modern human teeth, which were previously analyzed for strontium isotopes. The results present new lead isotope data for the following countries: United States (n=34), Colombia (n=9), Haiti (n=5), Cape Verde (n=3), Morocco (n=2), El Salvador (n=2), Guatemala (n=2), Honduras (n=2), Jamaica (n=1), Dominican Republic (n=1), Albania (n=1), and United Kingdom (n=1). In addition, the lead and strontium isotope data of 23 modern human teeth from individuals born in Holland, eight teeth from individuals born in Bulgaria, and 26 teeth from individuals born in the U.S. are extracted from the literature to supplement the data analysis. Exploratory data analysis, nonparametric Kruskal-Wallis tests, and one-way analysis of variance (Scheffe post hoc) are conducted using IBM SPSS® Statistics 24 to test for regional variation. Several trends are observed in the lead isotope data that may be relevant to modern forensic contexts involving unidentified human remains: Individuals from the northeast U.S. have relatively distinct 208Pb/204Pb, 207Pb/204Pb, and 206Pb/204Pb ratios when compared to individuals from the rest of the U.S. European and American individuals can be easily distinguished from each other using 208Pb/204Pb, 207Pb/204Pb, and 206Pb/204Pb ratios. Central American individuals have significantly lower 87Sr/86Sr ratios than North American individuals, and these groups can be easily distinguished using lead versus strontium scatterplots. Colombian individuals have significantly lower 87Sr/86Sr ratios than North American individuals, and these groups can be easily distinguished using lead versus strontium scatterplots. Caribbean individuals have significantly lower 87Sr/86Sr isotope ratios than individuals from the northeast U.S., and these groups can be easily distinguished using lead versus strontium scatterplots.

<p> This study investigates how heterosexual young people understand and manage risks related to meeting sexual partners online in the United States. The purpose of this study is to help inform the development of culturally-appropriate sexual risk communication and health promotion messages for young people by linking public health knowledge of adolescent sexual health and eHealth with anthropological theories of risk. With qualitative data from two rounds of semi-structured interviews and two group interviews with university students in central Florida, this study shows how young people experience and prioritize more social-emotional risks in meeting online-to-offline sexual partners compared to physical risks. The prominence of these social-emotional risks implies the need for more health promotion messages that incorporate both physical and social-emotional health risk communication.</p>

Thesis (MSc.(Anatomy)--Faculty of Health Sciences)-University of Pretoria, 2008. / Summary in English and Afrikaans. Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (Ph.D.)--Michigan State University. Dept. of Anthropology, 2008. / Title from PDF t.p. (viewed on July 2, 2009) Includes bibliographical references (p. 145-166). Also issued in print.

Thesis (M.A.)--Texas State University--San Marcos, 2009. / Vita. Appendices: leaves 40-61. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 62-66). Also available on microfilm.

Thesis (M.A.)--Texas State University--San Marcos, 2009. / Vita. Appendices: leaves 51-76. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 77-82). Also available on microfilm.