Thesis (M.A.)--Texas State University--San Marcos, 2009. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 46-49). Also available on microfilm.

Thesis (M.A.)--University of Montana, 2006. / Mode of access: Internet. Title from title screen. Description based on contents viewed Oct. 26, 2006. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 37-40). Also available in print format.

Dental calculus is a complex biological material that has been found to provide significant evidence of past population diet, health and habitual activity. It is composed of mineral phases, trace elements, organic species and can have inclusions such as starch granules and microfossils incorporated into its structure. This composition has been found to vary among individuals, although the reasons for this are poorly understood. Despite this, there is a wealth of knowledge that can be gained from analysing this biomineral, especially from archaeological remains. In past populations, the variables that affect composition, such as pharmaceuticals and diet are reduced compared to modern populations. As such the reliance on clinical studies that have investigated dental calculus from modern individuals, may be flawed when considering past populations. The focus of this study was to provide insight about the variation in physical characterisation and composition of archaeological dental calculus. Despite there being an abundance of archaeological dental calculus research, this is the first large scale compositional study of specimens from three separate past populations. In addition, this research is the first study to adopt a non-destructive to destructive approach to archaeological dental calculus analysis. As well, it is the first application of nanocomputed tomography to dental calculus from past populations. Consequently, this study demonstrates the first evidence of accumulation layering that has been detected using non- estructive nano-computed tomography. Furthermore, this research has identified three types of layering in archaeological dental calculus. Due to these findings, it is expected that this research will impact the future of dental calculus analysis, especially when considering dental calculus as a method of mapping an individual’s health, diet or lifestyle in the weeks or months prior to death. The overall results of this thesis demonstrate that some aspects of the morphological, mineralogical and elemental analysis of archaeological dental calculus are inconsistent with clinical literature. The results have also shown that there are some differences between the dental calculus from different archaeological populations which can be related to post-mortem burial conditions.

Orientador: Eduardo Daruge Junior / Dissertação (mestrado) - Universidade Estadual de Campinas. Faculdade de Odontologia de Piracicaba / Made available in DSpace on 2018-08-16T05:25:40Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Oliveira_OsvaldoFortesde_M.pdf: 1686263 bytes, checksum: 011e66d64852b8a5da91c8f32159b2ce (MD5) Previous issue date: 2010 / Resumo: Objetivo: Verificar se há presença de dimorfismo sexual para cada uma das medidas realizadas no crânio e observar qual das medidas são mais confiáveis para elaboração de um modelo matemático que possa ser aplicado na prática forense. Material e métodos: A amostra foi composta de 100 crânios humanos, sendo 50 de indivíduos do sexo masculino e 50 do sexo feminino, com idade no momento do óbito superior a 22 anos, procedentes do cemitério São Gonçalo, da prefeitura municipal de Cuiabá - Mato Grosso/Brasil. Foram realizadas medições com paquímetro digital e compasso de ponta curva entre as seguintes estruturas anatômicas do crânio: násio-lâmbda; násio-básio; glabela-lâmbda; glabela-ínio; glabela-bregma; básio-lâmbda; básio-bregma; zígio-zígio; eurio-eurio; mastóide-mastóide. Para verificar o erro sistemático intra-examinador foi utilizado o teste "t" pareado e para determinação do erro casual foi utilizado o cálculo de erro proposto por Dalhberg. Foi utilizado o teste t Student para comparar se existe diferença estatisticamente significante nas medidas entre os sexos. Foi utilizada a análise discriminante modelo stepwise para verificar qual das medidas realizadas é mais relevante para ser utilizada em um modelo matemático para diferenciar o sexo. Resultado: O valor médio das medidas realizadas foi sempre superior para o sexo masculino em relação ao sexo feminino, sendo que a distância eurio-eurio foi a única entre as medidas que apresentou-se sem significância após aplicação da estatística com teste t de Student. Conclusão: A distância zígio-zígio foi a que apresentou maior dimorfismo entre os sexos, onde foi possível a obtenção de uma função por análise discriminante juntamente com a distância básio-lâmbda com confiabilidade de 72% de acerto. / Abstract: Aim: To verify the presence of sexual dimorphism for each of the measurements made in the skull and see which of measures are more reliable for developing a mathematical model that can be used in forensic practice. Material and methods: The sample consisted of 100 human skulls of 50 individuals were male and 50 female subjects, age at death of more than 22 years, coming from the cemetery São Gonçalo, the municipal government of Cuiabá - Mato Grosso / Brazil . Measurements were taken with a digital caliper and caliper pliers of the following anatomical structures of the skull: Násio-lâmbda; násio-básio; glabela-lâmbda; glabela-ínio; glabela-bregma; básio-lâmbda; básio-bregma; zígio-zígio; eurio-eurio; mastóide-mastóide.To check the systematic error intrarater test was used to "t" test and to determine the random error was used to calculate error proposed by Dalhberg. It was used the Student t test to compare if exist a statistically significant difference in measures between the sexes. It was used the stepwise discriminant analysis model to verify which of the measures taken are more relevant to be used in mathematical model to differentiate the sex. Results: The average value of measurements was always higher for males compared to females, and the distance eurio-eurio was unique among the measures that showed no statistical significance after applying with the Student t test. Conclusion: The distance zigio-zigio showed the greatest dimorphism between the sexes, where it was / Mestrado / Odontologia Legal e Deontologia / Mestre em Biologia Buco-Dental

Thyroid hormone (TH) plays an important role in fetal brain development. Therefore, exogenous factors that interfere with TH signaling may exert potentially important adverse effects on brain development. However the specific roles of TH in brain development are poorly understood. The goal of this research is to delineate the mechanisms of TH and potential mechanisms of endocrine disruption at the TH receptor in the developing brain. The dissertation showed that PCBs can reduce the circulating levels of TH, but simultaneously exerted TH-like effects on TH-responsive genes in fetal brain. To determine whether a specific PCB metabolite, 4-OH-PCB106, could exert a direct agonistic effect on the TRβ1, we employed chromatin immunoprecipitation (ChIP). These studies demonstrate that 4-OH-PCB106 acts as an agonist in GH3 cells, and does not alter the ability of TRβ1 to physically interact with the TRE in the growth hormone (GH) promoter, or with SRC1/NCoR. Interestingly, 4-OH-PCB106 appears to exert actions on gene expression in GH3 cells predominantly through TR, as evidenced by a focused study using differential mRNA display in GH3 cells. A significant impediment in identifying the ability of PCBs to interact with TRs in vivo is that few direct gene targets of TH are known. Therefore, we employed ChIP-on-chip in combination with whole transcriptome expression analysis. We identified 526 direct TH gene targets and these revealed major signaling networks regulated by maternal TH during fetal brain development, including cell-fate specification, cell migration and synaptogenesis. This combination of approaches provides a new look at the role of TH in fetal brain development. In a summary, despite the great deal of research focused on the mechanism of TH action, we do not have comprehensive understanding of the role of TH and its modulators in the brain. Therefore it is important to identify genes that may be direct targets of TH action. This is the first large in vivo database for native TREs in the fetal brain before the onset of fetal thyroid function. Therefore the result will provide profound impact in study of mechanisms of TH as well as endocrine disruptors at the TR in developing brain.

Saliva can be detected on items including cigarette butts, glassware, clothing, human skin and condoms, and the identification of saliva on these types of evidence may be important to provide linkages or investigative leads in forensic cases. Sometimes when the presence of saliva is indicated, the item will be sent for deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) analysis and may be used for identification of individuals involved in a crime. The detection of saliva mostly depends on the activity and the presence of amylase. The SERATEC® Amylase Test (SERATEC GmbH, Goettingen, Germany) is a lateral flow immunochromatographic test that targets the presence of human α-Amylase using two monoclonal anti-human-α-Amylase antibodies. This study investigates the effectiveness of using the SERATEC® Amylase Test to detect amylase on cigarette butts and vaping devices. In addition, the possible correlation between the SERATEC® Amylase Test result and the amount of DNA extracted from cigarette butt samples is evaluated. Results indicated that the cigarettes and vaping devices tested had no inhibitory effect on the SERATEC® Amylase Test. The SERATEC® Amylase test was able to detect amylase from various brands of cigarettes, marijuana cigarettes, JUULpods™ (JUUL Labs™ Inc., San Francisco, CA) and an additional vaping device. Negative amylase test results (22 of 114 samples) may be attributable to personal smoking habits and the texture of the cigarette butt wrap paper or vaping device. DNA quantification results indicated that the majority of cellular material was retained on the wrap paper even after submersion in the SERATEC® Amylase Test buffer. It is recommended that the wrap paper from the cigarette filter and the remaining extract from preliminary testing be combined prior to DNA extraction in order to maximize total DNA recovered from a cigarette sample. The correlation between the SERATEC® Amylase Test result and the quantity of DNA extracted from the same source was not linear. The presence of saliva and DNA concentration are controlled by different factors, thus using the detection of saliva to predict the recoverability of DNA on cigarettes may be valuable in some situations, but is not precise.

Limited experimentation has been conducted on fractography of fresh versus dry bones. The present project examined the presence of select fractographic features on wet and dry bone specimens over a time interval of 15 months. The experimental remains consisted of a total of 81 white-tailed deer (Odocoileus virginianus) long bones as a proxy for human long bones. A subsample of 15 long bones that were defleshed of most external soft tissue was subjected to blunt force trauma every 30 days for a total of three months. After these three months passed, a subsample of 15 bones was subjected to blunt force trauma every 90 days for the remaining 12 months. Following fracturing, the long bones were macerated and the fractures on the long bones were inspected, and observations were recorded and photographed. The author hypothesized that the presence (or absence) of fractographic features including hackle patterns, bone mirror, cantilever curls, and arrest ridges, on the fractured long bones would differ on fresh versus dry bones. Therefore, the difference in fractographic features found on the fresh versus dry bones would allow greater separation of perimortem from postmortem fractures. Other fracture characteristics such as fracture angle, fracture surface texture, fracture jaggedness, number of fragments produced, and type of fracture produced were also observed as part of the data collected in this research to potentially confirm the findings and results of previous studies conducted on differentiating between perimortem and postmortem trauma on bone. This study disproved the hypothesis by concluding that the presence (or absence) of fractographic features is not greatly affected by time exposure and therefore, does not aid in distinguishing between fresh bone and dry bone fractures. Fractographic features were present and absent on bone specimens during all postmortem intervals. The only statistically significant difference discovered was that bone hackle patterns are more commonly observed than cantilever curls on bones with a later PMI. Other general trends observed were that the number of bones showing bone hackle patterns increased over time and the number of bones showing bone mirror decreased over time. In addition, the results of the study revealed that the only fracture characteristic that showed a slightly significant difference with time of exposure was the fracture surface texture produced. The probability of a bone showing intermediate fracture surfaces is statistically significantly higher than a bone showing rough fracture surfaces when the represented PMI is fresh. The probability of a bone showing intermediate fracture surfaces is statistically significantly higher than a bone showing smooth fracture surfaces when the represented PMI is dry. The present study showed that the fracture characteristics including fracture angle, fracture type, number of fragments produced, and fracture jaggedness were not greatly influenced by exposure of time but, certain patterns and trends were recognized. The number of bones showing sharp fracture angles increased over time, while the number of bones showing intermediate fracture angles stayed stagnant. Bones showing comminuted fractures also increased with the progression of drying time. The average number of fragments produced were high during both fresh and dry PMIs and low throughout the transitional postmortem intervals. Bones showing jagged, intermediate, and not jagged broken ends increased with the progression of time however, not jagged broken ends only began to appear in the sample starting at a PMI of 90 days.

No description available.

Shark attacks on humans are increasing every year, and due to this fact, it is important to understand the damage that these predators can inflict on bone. The present study examined the striation patterns that shark teeth leave behind on bones during an attack or scavenging event and determined whether they can be used to identify the species of shark involved. The present study examined twelve different species of sharks including white shark (Carcharodon carcharias), tiger shark (Galeocerdo cuvier), and bull shark (Carcharhinus leucas), as there are high incidences of attacks reported of these species. Striations were made in dental wax using the teeth of these species, as well as nine others including blue shark (Prionace glauca), tawny nurse shark (Nebrius ferrugineus), blacktip reef shark (Carcharhinus melanopterus), dusky shark (Carcharhinus obscurus), java shark (Carcharhinus amboinensis), gray reef shark (Carcharhinus amblyrhynchos), sand tiger shark (Carcharias taurus), cookiecutter shark (Isistius brasiliensis), and lemon shark (Negaprion brevirostris), to compare morphologies, their serration patterns, and what striations would be left on bone. It was hypothesized that the striations left in the impressions would be distinct to each species and would provide another method to identify species implicated in attack and scavenging events on humans. The results of this study suggest a statistically significant difference between the patterns of serrations found between some species of sharks examined. The white shark and the tiger shark can be distinguished from the other species in the present study. Further research on this method should be conducted, so future scientists can identify species involved in predation events and scavenging using striation patterns.

The maltreatment of children has been recorded in history as early as the first century B.C. when weak and infirm children of the Ceylonese were reported to tarnish the rest of the healthy population and were put to death. The medical implications of child maltreatment however, have been recognized for less than a century. Pioneered by John Caffey in 1946, the advances in medical science technology and the education of the medical community have served as an infallible ally against abuse. Early studies reported a direct correlation between infants with reported subdural hematomas also having unreported long bone fractures. These undeniable correlations lead to a trend in the investigations on the mechanisms of non-accidental injuries and their manifested outcomes. Certain injuries when unsupported by appropriate history, or the presence of multiple injuries in different stages of healing, warrant specific investigations and should raise suspicion of abuse. In addition to clinical and medical evaluation, a physical evaluation of height and weight may indicate overall health. This thesis will research, through a literature review of published sources and exploratory data analysis, the effects of child maltreatment on the juvenile skeleton.