Made available in DSpace on 2014-06-11T19:33:00Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 0 Previous issue date: 2007-09-21Bitstream added on 2014-06-13T21:05:36Z : No. of bitstreams: 1 marques_jam_dr_araca.pdf: 1077734 bytes, checksum: 69d5bccdcab64aafc3425a46d3b31a1d (MD5) / Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior (CAPES) / Fundação para o Desenvolvimento da UNESP (FUNDUNESP) / Um dos mais intrigantes, complexos e controversos desafios da Odontologia Legal é o reconhecimento, registro e análise de marcas de mordidas na pele. Este estudo teve como objetivos: abordar os aspectos relevantes sobre a importância do estudo das marcas de mordidas; produzir informações sobre a ocorrência de casos registrados no Instituto Médico Legal da cidade de Araçatuba-SP, nos últimos cinco anos, envolvendo lesões ocasionadas por mordidas humanas; avaliar comparativamente quatro materiais de moldagem para estudo de marcas de mordidas na pele e testar a aplicabilidade da técnica proposta, por meio de um caso simulado. Foram analisadas 7.550 ocorrências policiais do período de 2001 a 2005. Verificou-se: idade das vítimas, parentesco com o agressor e ocorrência de lesões produzidas por mordidas humanas, bem como, o local mais acometido por tal ferimento. Nas etapas laboratoriais foram utilizados cinco suínos abatidos, com idade média de oito semanas e pesando cerca de seis quilos. Eles foram divididos ao meio e, em seguida, entre dez voluntários foi feito um sorteio sendo que quatro sorteados morderam cada uma das partes, sem conhecimento do pesquisador. A análise das mordidas foi feita de acordo com as normas da ABFO. Foram utilizados os materiais de moldagem: Alginato, Poliéter, Silicone de Condensação e Silicone de Adição. Durante o estudo de caso, a partir dos modelos de gesso e das partes mordidas, foi feita a identificação dos agentes das mordidas, utilizando a técnica da Análise Métrica, e, como controle, a técnica de sobreposições de imagens com uso do Software Adobe Photoshop 7.0. Foram encontrados quarenta e dois casos envolvendo, dentre outros tipos de lesões, as marcas de mordidas. O total de lesões encontradas foi de cinqüenta e seis mordidas: trinta e três pessoas foram vítimas (31 do sexo feminino e 11 do sexo masculino) e oito foram os autores das agressões (todos homens). / One of the most intriguing, complex and controversial challenges of the Legal Odontology is the recognition, registers and analysis of bite mark. This study objectives was: observe the relevant aspects about bite marks analyses importance, using a literature review; demonstrate the prevalence of bite marks in domestic violence crimes involving physical aggression with were collected data in the Police Station of the Woman's Defense in Araçatuba (São Paulo/Brazil); evaluate comparatively four impressions materials for bite marks analysis on skin and test the proposed technique applicability, with a simulated case. 7.550 occurrences policemen of the period from 2001 to 2005 were analyzed. It was verified: the victims' age, relationship with the aggressor and occurrence of lesions produced for bitten human, as well as, the place more attacked by such wound. In the laboratorial phase, it was used five pigs, with eight weeks ages. They were cute, soon afterwards, among ten volunteers it was made a draw and four raffled they bit each one of the parts, without the researcher's knowledge. The analysis of the bites was made in agreement with the norms of ABFO. The molding materials were used: Alginate, Poliéter, Condensation Silicon and Addition Silicon. During the case study, starting from the models of plaster and of the bitten foods, it was made the agents' of the bites identification, using the technique of the Metric Analysis, and, as control, the technique to put upon of images with use of the Software Adobe Photoshop 7.0. They were found forty two cases involving, among other types of lesions, the marks of bitten. The total of found lesions was of fifty six bitten: thirty three people were victims (31 female and 11 male) and eight were the authors of the aggressions (all men).

Orientador: Cléa Adas Saliba Garbin / Banca: Eduardo Daruge Júnior / Banca: Alício Rosalino Garcia / Banca: Maocyr da Silva / Banca: Luís Carlos Cavalcante Galvão / Resumo: Um dos mais intrigantes, complexos e controversos desafios da Odontologia Legal é o reconhecimento, registro e análise de marcas de mordidas na pele. Este estudo teve como objetivos: abordar os aspectos relevantes sobre a importância do estudo das marcas de mordidas; produzir informações sobre a ocorrência de casos registrados no Instituto Médico Legal da cidade de Araçatuba-SP, nos últimos cinco anos, envolvendo lesões ocasionadas por mordidas humanas; avaliar comparativamente quatro materiais de moldagem para estudo de marcas de mordidas na pele e testar a aplicabilidade da técnica proposta, por meio de um caso simulado. Foram analisadas 7.550 ocorrências policiais do período de 2001 a 2005. Verificou-se: idade das vítimas, parentesco com o agressor e ocorrência de lesões produzidas por mordidas humanas, bem como, o local mais acometido por tal ferimento. Nas etapas laboratoriais foram utilizados cinco suínos abatidos, com idade média de oito semanas e pesando cerca de seis quilos. Eles foram divididos ao meio e, em seguida, entre dez voluntários foi feito um sorteio sendo que quatro sorteados morderam cada uma das partes, sem conhecimento do pesquisador. A análise das mordidas foi feita de acordo com as normas da ABFO. Foram utilizados os materiais de moldagem: Alginato, Poliéter, Silicone de Condensação e Silicone de Adição. Durante o estudo de caso, a partir dos modelos de gesso e das partes mordidas, foi feita a identificação dos agentes das mordidas, utilizando a técnica da Análise Métrica, e, como controle, a técnica de sobreposições de imagens com uso do Software Adobe Photoshop 7.0. Foram encontrados quarenta e dois casos envolvendo, dentre outros tipos de lesões, as marcas de mordidas. O total de lesões encontradas foi de cinqüenta e seis mordidas: trinta e três pessoas foram vítimas (31 do sexo feminino e 11 do sexo masculino) e oito foram os autores das agressões (todos homens). / Abstract: One of the most intriguing, complex and controversial challenges of the Legal Odontology is the recognition, registers and analysis of bite mark. This study objectives was: observe the relevant aspects about bite marks analyses importance, using a literature review; demonstrate the prevalence of bite marks in domestic violence crimes involving physical aggression with were collected data in the Police Station of the Woman's Defense in Araçatuba (São Paulo/Brazil); evaluate comparatively four impressions materials for bite marks analysis on skin and test the proposed technique applicability, with a simulated case. 7.550 occurrences policemen of the period from 2001 to 2005 were analyzed. It was verified: the victims' age, relationship with the aggressor and occurrence of lesions produced for bitten human, as well as, the place more attacked by such wound. In the laboratorial phase, it was used five pigs, with eight weeks ages. They were cute, soon afterwards, among ten volunteers it was made a draw and four raffled they bit each one of the parts, without the researcher's knowledge. The analysis of the bites was made in agreement with the norms of ABFO. The molding materials were used: Alginate, Poliéter, Condensation Silicon and Addition Silicon. During the case study, starting from the models of plaster and of the bitten foods, it was made the agents' of the bites identification, using the technique of the Metric Analysis, and, as control, the technique to put upon of images with use of the Software Adobe Photoshop 7.0. They were found forty two cases involving, among other types of lesions, the marks of bitten. The total of found lesions was of fifty six bitten: thirty three people were victims (31 female and 11 male) and eight were the authors of the aggressions (all men). / Doutor

Orientador: Sergio Roberto Peres Line / Dissertação (mestrado) - Universidade Estadual de Campinas, Faculdade de Odontologia de Piracicaba / Made available in DSpace on 2018-08-06T02:16:43Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Ramenzoni_LizaLima_M.pdf: 5290352 bytes, checksum: 1818ddf6ffadc1647ac3b1313ce4f5e3 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2006 / Resumo: O esmalte dental é caracterizado por camadas de prismas em direções alternadas regularmente. Estas camadas sucessivas formam as Bandas de Hunter-Schreger (HSB) que aparecem como faixas claras e escuras quando vistas sob forte iluminação lateral. Neste presente trabalho avaliamos a singularidade das HSB em dentes humanos como um método biométrico para identificação pessoal, já que as diferenças no padrão das HSB em dentes ainda não foi estudada. A amostra foi composta de 274 incisivos inferiores. Os procedimentos seguintes foram executados: os dentes foram fotografados em uma lupa esteroscópica e fibra óptica acopladas. O contraste das imagens após digitalização, foi aumentado utilizando Corel Photo Paint 9® e então as mesmas imagens foram analisadas em software de identificação automatizado de base biométrica (Verifinger 4.2 SDK / Fingersec®). O software gerou uma lista de comparações de dados biométricos com uma medida de semelhança (comparações entre ¿minutias¿). As medidas de similaridade do banco de dados foram comparadas em uma matriz de semelhança. Analisamos também a variação das espessuras médias das Bandas desde que este parâmetro é muito variável e pode ser usado para confirmar a identificação. Os resultados demonstraram que o padrão de HSB é altamente variável e único para cada dente analisado. HSB não puderam ser observadas em 4,5% dos dentes examinados. Dentes sem HSB não foram incluídos no banco de dados. Dentes com 0 ou 1 minutias totalizaram 3,3% da amostra. Nestes casos, a distinção pode ser feita através de comparação visual simples. Assim, as medidas biométricas das HSB provaram ser um método com alta potencialidade para identificação pessoal, desde que o tecido do esmalte resiste condições ambientais extremas e as imagens são obtidas facilmente. Estas características fazem das HSB um modelo potencialmente útil para análise forense utilizando medidas físicas ou biológicas pessoais, dando uma descrição correta do indivíduo / Abstract: Dental enamel is characterized by layers of prisms with regularly alternating directions. These successive layers form Hunter-Schreger Bands (HSB) that appear as dark and light bands when viewed under strong illumination. In the present study, we evaluate the HSB singularity in human teeth as a biometric-based method for personal identification since differences in HSB patterns have never been studied. The sample was composed of 274 lower incisors. The following procedures were performed: the teeth were photographed at low magnification, the contrast of the captured images was increased using Corel Photo Paint 9® and then analyzed in automated biometrics-based identification software (Verifinger Demo 4.2 SDK / Fingersec®). The software generated a list of biometric data comparisons with a similarity measure (minutiae matching). The storage of database comparisons could be represented with a similarity matrix. We also analyzed the thickness of the bands since this parameter is very variable and could be used for the identification. The results demonstrated that the pattern of HSB is highly variable and unique for each tooth. HSB bands could not be observed in 4.5 % of the teeth examined. Teeth without HSB could not be included in the database. Teeth having 0 or 1 minutiae comprised 3.3% of our sample. In these cases, the inspection was simply done by visual comparison. Thus, the biometric measurements of HSB proved to be a valuable method for personal identification, since enamel can resist extreme environmental conditions and the images could be easily obtained. These characteristics make HSB a potentially useful model for personal physical or biological measurements to give a correct description of an individual / Mestrado / Histologia e Embriologia / Mestre em Biologia Buco-Dental

Orientador: Eduardo Daruge Junior / Dissertação (mestrado) - Universidade Estadual de Campinas, Faculdade de Odontologia de Piracicaba / Made available in DSpace on 2018-08-26T05:39:00Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Machado_MarceloAfonso_M.pdf: 1707822 bytes, checksum: 9c8af380bc470aec6324d45e89b2d3aa (MD5) Previous issue date: 2014 / Resumo: Introdução: As radiografias carpais e panorâmicas de crianças e adolescentes são importantes em identificação humana por serem simples de obter e por conterem quantidade significativa de estruturas que trazem informações relevantes sobre o desenvolvimento corporal. Muitas vezes é necessário estimar a idade pelo envolvimento dessas crianças em procedimentos cíveis e criminais. Várias técnicas existentes usam as informações destas radiografias mas, nem todas foram testadas em brasileiros. Objetivo: Este trabalho procurou validar em uma população brasileira três métodos que estimam a idade de crianças e adolescentes a partir de medidas nos dentes permanentes em desenvolvimento e nos ossos da região do carpo e compará-las. Material e método: Esse estudo usou radiografias de 234 crianças e adolescentes (126 meninas e 108 meninos) para validar o método numa população brasileira. Os dados obtidos a partir das radiografias foram inseridos nas fórmulas propostas e comparados com a idade conhecida de cada sujeito da pesquisa. A precisão dos métodos em estimar a idade foi analisada através do teste de regressão linear estatística (ANOVA). Resultados: A partir da comparação entre as três técnicas estudadas, foi encontrado um erro médio para a técnica da região dos dentes (RD) de -0,21 anos, sendo -0,14 anos para meninas e -0,28 anos para os meninos havendo tendência, então, de subestimar a idade. Para a técnica da região do carpo (RC) o erro médio encontrado foi 1,61 anos, sendo 1,89 anos para meninas e 1,29 anos para os meninos, superestimando a idade. Quando foram utilizadas informações dos ossos do carpo e dos dentes (RCD) simultaneamente, o erro médio encontrado foi 0,39 anos, sendo 0,54 anos para meninas e 0,21 anos para meninos, havendo uma tendência a superestimar a idade cronológica das crianças. Conclusão: As técnicas RD e RCD possuem boa acurácia para estimativa da idade numa população do sudeste do Brasil. O método mais preciso foi o RD, seguido pelo RCD e pelo RC / Abstract: Introduction: Hand-wrist and panoramic radiographs of children and adolescents are important in human identification because they are easily obtained and contain a significant amount of structures that provide important information about the body¿s development. It is often necessary to estimate the age of children involved in civil and criminal proceedings. Many methods use the information in these radiographs, but not all of them have been tested in Brazilians. Objective: This study attempted to validate, in a Brazilian population sample, three methods that estimate the ages of children and adolescents using measurements of developing permanent teeth and wrist bones, and to compare the methods. Materials and methods: This study used the radiographs of 234 children and adolescents (126 girls and 108 boys) to validate the methods in a Brazilian population sample. Age was estimated using radiographic data and the pertinent formulas, and compared with the known chronological age of each study subject. The methods¿ accuracy for estimating age was determined by analysis of variance (ANOVA). Results: The mean error for the tooth region method (TR) was -0.21 years, -0.14 for girls and -0.28 for boys; therefore, this method underestimated chronological age. The mean error for the hand-wrist region method (HWR) was 1.61 years, 1.89 for girls and 1.29 for boys; hence, this method overestimated chronological age. When the two methods were used simultaneously (HWTR), the mean error was 0.39 years, 0.54 for girls and 0.21 for boys; thus, both methods combined overestimated chronological age. Conclusion: The TR and HWTR methods can estimate the chronological age of a population sample from Southeast Brazil with good accuracy. The most accurate method was TR, followed by HWTR and HWR / Mestrado / Odontologia Legal e Deontologia / Mestre em Biologia Buco-Dental

The primary role of a physical anthropologist is to provide sufficient information to assist in the individualisation of unknown skeletal remains. This is often achieved in establishing a biological profile of the deceased, of which ancestry is an essential aspect. Several successful osteometric and morphological approaches have been developed to facilitate the estimation of ancestry from the cranium. However, the cranium is not always available for analysis, emphasising a need for postcranial alternatives. The postcranial skeleton is frequently labelled as too variable and unreliable to provide an accurate assessment of ancestry. Yet, numerous studies utilise the postcrania for sex and stature estimation, where the a priori knowledge of ancestry results in higher accuracy. Thus, the presence of postcranial differences among populations when investigating other biological parameters inherently demonstrates the potential for the estimation of ancestry. The purpose of this study was to quantify postcranial variation among modern, peer-reported black, white and coloured South Africans. A series of 39 standard measurements were taken from 11 postcranial bones, namely the clavicle, scapula, humerus, radius, ulna, sacrum, pelvis, femur, tibia, fibula and calcaneus. The sample consisted of 360 modern South African individuals (120 black, 120 white, 120 coloured) from the Pretoria Bone and Kirsten Collections housed at the University of Pretoria and the University of Stellenbosch, respectively. Group differences were explored with ANOVA and Tukey’s honestly significant difference test (HSD). Group means were used to create univariate sectioning points for each variable indicated as significant with ANOVA. Where two of the three groups had similar mean values, the groups were pooled for the creation of the sectioning points. Multivariate classification models were employed using linear and flexible discriminant analysis (LDA and FDA, respectively). Classification accuracies were compared to evaluate which model yielded the best results. The results demonstrated variable patterns of group overlap. Black and coloured South Africans displayed similar means for breadth measurements, and black and white South Africans showed similar means for the maximum length of distal limb elements. The majority of group variation is attributed to differences in size and robusticity, where white South Africans are overall larger and more robust than black and coloured South Africans. Accuracies for the univariate sectioning points ranged from 43% to 87%, with iliac breadth performing the best. However, the majority of the univariate sectioning points can only classify individuals into two groups rather than three because of similar group means. Multivariate bone models created using all measurements per bone resulted in accuracies ranging from 46% to 62% (LDA) and 41% to 66% (FDA). Multivariate subsets consisting of numerous different measurement combinations from several skeletal elements achieved accuracies as high as 85% (LDA) and 87% (FDA). Ultimately the best results were achieved using combinations of different variables from several skeletal elements. Overall, the multivariate models yielded better results than the univariate approach, as the inclusion of more variables is generally better for maximising group differences. Furthermore, FDA achieved higher accuracies than the more traditional approach of LDA. Despite the significant overlap among the groups, the postcranial skeleton has proven to be proficient in distinguishing the three groups. Thus, even in a heterogeneous population, a multivariate postcraniometric approach can be used to estimate ancestry with high accuracy. / Dissertation (MSc)--University of Pretoria, 2015. / Anatomy / Unrestricted

Orientador: Eduardo Daruge Junior / Dissertação (mestrado) - Universidade Estadual de Campinas, Faculdade de Odontologia de Piracicaba / Made available in DSpace on 2018-08-27T18:33:28Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Machado_MarcosPauloSalles_M.pdf: 1542270 bytes, checksum: 2ded2442ee636b63adfcabdc553824aa (MD5) Previous issue date: 2015 / Resumo: O objetivo deste trabalho foi realizar a análise retrospectiva dos casos investigados nos dois primeiros anos de funcionamento do Serviço de Antropologia Forense (SAFO) do Rio de Janeiro. Foram recebidas 66 requisições de exames expedidas por autoridades policiais ou judiciárias e cada requisição deu origem a um laudo. Seis requisições continham ossos de origem não humana, três representavam materiais sem interesse forense, enquanto uma outra requisição solicitava exame complementar. As demais 56 requisições continham ossos de 74 diferentes indivíduos, pois nove requisições encaminhavam ossos de mais de uma pessoa. Cinco das 74 ossadas não deram entrada no laboratório do SAFO por terem sido identificados pelo Serviço de Odontologia Forense ou pelo Setor de Necropapiloscopia. Logo, 69 ossadas foram periciadas e o resultados desses exames compõe o presente estudo. Dentre as 56 requisições, 47 (83%) eram constituídas de remanescentes de um único indivíduo, enquanto 9 (17%) traziam ossos de mais de uma pessoa. Menos de 18,8% das 69 ossadas tiveram mais de 95% dos ossos do corpo recuperados, enquanto que apenas 10,14% das 47 ossadas encontradas completamente esqueletizadas tiveram mais de 50% dos seus ossos recuperados. O perfil biológico resultante dos exames das ossadas revelou que a amostra era predominantemente constituída por homens (80%), caucasoides (32%), adultos-jovens entre 21-50 anos (54%) constituindo o grupo de risco. O trauma mais frequentemente observado foi o contundente, correspondendo a 33,3% dos casos, seguido do perfurocontundente, observado em 31,4%. A região mais atingida foi a crânio-cervical, atingida em 42% dos traumas. A relação mais alta observada entre um tipo de trauma e uma região específica do corpo foi a ação perfurocontundente incidindo sobre a região crânio-cervical, correspondendo à 27,3%. 52,1% das ações perfurocontundentes foram observadas na região crânio-cervical. Por fim, a analise dos locais de encontro de ossadas evidenciou um grande número de encontro reduzido a poucas áreas da cidade, revelando que existe concentração da violência / Abstract: The aim of this study was to perform a retrospective analysis of the cases investigated in the first two years of the Forensic Anthropology Service (SAFO) of Rio de Janeiro. Over these two years the laboratory received 66 examination requisitions requested by police or judicial authorities and each of these requests has resulted in a report. Six corresponded to non-human material, other 3 represented material without forensic implications and another one corresponded to a complementary examination requisition. The remaining 56 requisitions comprised a total of 74 different individuals, once there were 9 cases with bones of more than one person. Five out of 74 skeletal remains did not enter the SAFO laboratory because they had been positively identified by the Forensic Dentistry Office or through Necropapiloscopy. Therefore 69 skeletal remains were examined and the resulting data compose the present study. Out of 56 requisitions, 47 (83%) presented skeletal remains of single individuals; whereas the other 9 (17%) conteined bones of more than one individual. Less than 18.8% of 69 skeletal remains recovered comprised more than 95% of body bones, wile only 10.14% of the 47 fully skeletonized remains had more than half of the bones recovered. The biological profile established after skeletal remains were investigated showed that the sample was made up mainly of male subjects (80%), caucasian (32%), young-adults ranging from ages 21-50 (54%), considered as the risk group. Injuries most frequently observed were blunt trauma (33.3%), followed by gunshot (31.4%). The most susceptible body regions were the head and neck, affected in 42% of cases. The highest correlation between type of trauma to a specific body part was observed with gunshot injuries to the head-neck region, corresponding to 27.3% of the cases. Gunshot trauma represented 52.1% of injuries found on the head and neck. Analysis of the places where the remains were recovered reveled a great number of cases restricted to a few areas of the city, which shows the violence is concentrated in these localities / Mestrado / Odontologia Legal e Deontologia / Mestre em Biologia Buco-Dental

Breastfeeding offers significant benefits to the breastfed infant as well as the breastfeeding woman. The World Health Organization now recommends exclusive breastfeeding until six months, followed by supplementation and continued breastfeeding to two years or more. Around the world, public health programs endeavour to promote breastfeeding through educational programs. In Brazil, such programming is widespread, and yet less than 30% of women in São Paulo breastfeeding exclusively even to four months post-partum. This study uses a qualitative-quantitative bio-experiential approach to explore the way that stressful experiences and circumstances in the lives of low-income women from the Eastern Zone of São Paulo, Brazil, influence their decision to wean or supplement their infant before 12 weeks post-partum. Sixty-five first-time mothers participated in a 12-week longitudinal study of life stressors and breastfeeding practice. Participants were asked to complete one pre-partum and six post-partum interviews. Narrative and biological data were collected from each participant at each interview. Statistical analysis revealed that among these participants the breastfeeding hormone oxytocin did not mediate breastfeeding duration. Oxytocin appeared to act as a biomarker of stressful experience, while Epstein-Barr Virus antibody titre, a commonly used biological measure of psychosocial stress, did not. Unplanned pregnancy, older age and higher mean oxytocin level were statistically associated with weaned outcome at 12 weeks. Unplanned pregnancy, older age, higher mean oxytocin level, higher mean satisfaction score regarding financial situation and lower mean satisfaction score regarding interpersonal factors were associated with decreased duration of any breastfeeding. Unplanned pregnancy, older age and lower mean satisfaction score regarding interpersonal factors were associated with decreased duration of exclusive breastfeeding. Ethnographic analysis revealed that the effect of unplanned pregnancy may be connected to the discourse of the self-sacrificial, child-centric “good mother.” Exclusive breastfeeding was seen as a hallmark of this idealised maternal type. Single women with unplanned pregnancies expressed a great deal of ambivalence towards their own maternity and toward the somewhat unobtainable good mother ideal, especially with relation to the physical and psychological challenges breastfeeding. Women’s ambivalence appeared to influence their decisions to supplement or wean their infants by or before 12 weeks post-partum.

Human remains enter marine environments in a number of ways ranging from homicides, suicides, accidental drownings, shipwrecks, to burials at sea. Once the remains are discovered, a legal and forensic investigation begins. A key component to this investigation is the postmortem submergence interval (PMSI). Determining this range on skeletonized remains is a complicated process in which there is no accurate test; although barnacle growth data was previously used to determine PMSI, there are still limitations with that method. Therefore, a more reliable component of bone needs to be used as a potential PMSI indicator, such as its elemental composition. Diagenesis starts affecting bones immediately and continues for thousands of years. Although diagenesis is a slow process, an exchange of elements between bone and the marine environment continually occurs. The purpose of the present study is to determine whether an increase in marine elements is found within the composition of bone after being submerged in a marine environment for up to 20 months. The present study will also determine whether bones submerged in different aquatic environments have significantly different elemental concentrations. For the time trials, pig femora were submerged in lobster cages off the coast of the University of Massachusetts Boston for 2-20 months. For the salinity trials, pig femora were submerged in a freshwater pond (Holliston, MA), the Inner Boston Harbor, and an ocean inlet near Woods Hole, MA for 18 months. All bone samples were dried, milled, homogenized, and analyzed by ED-XRF under He purge. The initially produced mass percentages of the identified elements were corrected with certified values of standard reference materials (NIST 1486, 1646a, and 2702). A Pearson’s correlation test determined that the concentrations for K, Fe, Zn, Sr, Si, S, Cr, Mn, Cl, Br, Ta, and W were significantly correlated to the amount of time submerged in the water. An ANCOVA analysis was applied to the significant elements noted above. After adjusting for the amount of time submerged, the concentrations of K, Fe, Sr, Si, S, Cl, Br, and Ta were determined to be significantly different between the control samples (never submerged) and the submerged samples (submerged for 2-20 months). K was the only element that had greater concentrations in the control samples than the submerged samples, most likely because of the decrease in mass percent as other environmental elements were incorporated into the bone. S and W were significantly related to the number of months submerged, with S being positively influenced and W being negatively. A multivariable linear regression was run in order to identify a means of predicting the amount of time submerged from the elemental concentrations of an unknown bone from a marine environment. The regression produced an equation that used the concentrations for K, Sr, Si, S, Cr, Cl, and Br to predict the PMSI in months. For the salinity trials, a one-way ANOVA was performed on all the elemental concentrations from the different salinity environments. Post hoc tests determined significant differences in elemental concentrations for K, Fe, Si, S, Al, Ti, Cr, Ni, Mn, Cl and Br among the different submergence locations; elemental concentrations of S, Fe, Mn, Cl, K, and Br were either significantly different between the fresh, brackish, and saltwaters or the freshwater and some form of marine water (brackish and salt). The trends in the other elemental concentrations were less obvious due to the impact of pollution within the surrounding environments. The linear regression equation created in the present study accounted for the majority of the variance in the outcome (R2 = 80.2%); however, this equation should not currently be applied in forensic investigations. The study needs to be repeated a number of times with other bone samples from the same and different submergence locations, in order to determine the accuracy and usefulness of the equation. Although not verified, this regression equation may be useful in analyzing samples from brackish and saltwater environments, because the majority of the variables within the equation (K, Sr, S, Cl, Br) were consistent among the fresh, brackish, and saltwater samples. Time constraints, small sample sizes, and variance among samples were the major limitations of the present study. Even with limitations, significant results were produced by the ED-XRF analysis. Future research should expand upon the methodologies of XRF analyses of bones, especially those from marine environments. Because of their relevance to forensic investigations and PMSI, future research should include longer experimental periods, more salinity locations, more information on the surrounding water components, and more comparisons among instrumentation.

When remains are found in a fragmentary state, skeletal reconstruction aids forensic anthropologists in recreating general traits of the biological profile such as age, sex, ancestry and stature, reveals trauma, and reproduces visual facial likenesses. Previously an ignored area of forensic anthropology, the present study explored the error present when fragmentary skeletal remains are measured and those measurements are applied to statistical programs such as FORDISC 3.1 (Jantz and Ousley 2005) for classification. The study utilized 72 tibiae of white-tailed deer (Odocoileus virginianus), fragmented into varying states to find the difference in measurements before and after fragmentation. The study found that, while there was a difference in measurements after reconstruction, the difference was on average less than 2 mm for all dimensions of the bone and less than the generally accepted level of interobserver error in osteometrics. On average, the bones decreased in size, partially due to the effects of maceration and drying, and the total change due to fragmentation was considered minimal compared to other sources of error. When applied to FORDISC 3.1 (Jantz and Ousley 2005), this difference in measurements did not result in the misclassification of a previously identified individual. The recommendation therefore is to utilize fragmentary skeletal remains, when an accurate reconstruction can be determined, to maximize the information potential of those remains.

In current forensic practice, there are few standards for outdoor crime scene documentation, despite the need for such documentation to be accurate and precise in order to preserve evidence. A potential solution to this is the implementation of image-based photogrammetry. Applied Structure from Motion (SfM) reconstructs models through image point comparisons. A 3D model is produced from a reference photoset that captures a 360-degree view of the subject and the software employs triangulation to match specific points, datums, across individual photos. The datums are arranged into a point-cloud that is then transformed into the final model. Modifying the point-cloud into a final product requires algorithms that adjust the points by building a textured mesh from them. One of the disadvantages of SfM is that the point-cloud can be “noisy,” meaning that the program is unable to distinguish the features of one datum from another due to similarities, creating coverage gaps within the meshed images. To compensate for this, the software can smooth portions of the model in a best-guess process during meshing. As commercial software does not disclose the adjustment algorithms, this documentation technique, while very useful in other disciplines that regularly apply SfM such as archaeology, would fail to meet the standards of the Daubert and Kumho criteria in a forensic setting. A potential solution to this problem is to use open-source software, which discloses the adjustment algorithms to the user. It was hypothesized that the output of open-sourced software solutions would as accurate as the models produced with commercial software and with total station mapping techniques. To evaluate this hypothesis, a series of mock outdoor crime scenes were documented using SfM and traditional mapping techniques. The scenes included larger surface scatter and small surface scatter scenes. The large surface scatter scenes contained a dispersed set of plastic human remains, and various objects that might reasonably be associated with a crime scene. Ten of these scenes were laid out in 10 x 10 m units in a New England forested environment, each grid with a slightly different composition, and then documented using an electronic total station, data logger and digital camera. The small surface scatter scenes consisted of a pig mandible placed in different environments across two days of data collection. The resulting models were built using PhotoScan by AgiSoft, the commercial software, and MicMac for Mac OSX as the open-source comparison software. Accuracy is only part of the concern however; the full utility of any one of the workflows is defined additionally by the overall cost-effectiveness (affordability and accessibility) and the visual quality of the final model. Accuracy was measured by the amount of variance in fixed-datum measurements that remained consistent across scenes, whereas visual quality of the photogrammetric models were determined by cloud comparison histograms, which allows for comparison of models between software types and across different days of data collection. Histograms were generated using CloudCompare. Not all models that were rendered were useable—90% of large surface scatter models and 87.5% of small surface scatter models were useable. While there was variance in the metric outputs between the total station and photogrammetric models, the average total variance in fixed-datum lengths for individual scenes was below 0.635 cm for six of the ten scenes. However, only one of the large surface scatter scenes produced measurement that were significantly different between the total station measurements and the software measurement. The maximum differences in measurement between the total station and software measurements were 0.0917 m (PhotoScan) and 0.178 m (MicMac). The minimum difference that was found for either software was 0.000 m, indicating exact measurement. The histograms for the large scatter scenes were comparable, with the commercial and open-source software-derived models having low standard deviations and mean distances between points. For the small surface scatter scenes, the histograms between software types varied depending on the environment and the lighting conditions on the day of data collection. Conditions such as light, ground foliage and topography affect model quality significantly, as well as the amount of available computing power. No such issues of losing objects or limitations of computing power were encountered when mapping by total station and processing the data in AutoCAD. This research shows that SfM has the potential to be a rapid, accurate and low-cost resource for forensic investigation. SfM methodology for outdoor crime scene documentation can be adapted to fit within evidentiary criteria through the use of open-source software and transparent processing, but there are limitations that must be taken into consideration.