- Relationship between betahydroxybutyrate (BHB) and acetone concentrations in postmortem blood and cause of death. [Journal Article]Forensic Sci Int. 2021 Feb 15; 321:110726.FS
- Unexpected death caused by diabetic or alcoholic ketoacidosis is easily overlooked due to the non-specific symptoms. Although the acid betahydroxybutyrate (BHB) is the most abundant ketone body formed in conditions with ketoacidosis, routine analysis in postmortem investigations often only includes the neutral ketone body acetone. This study aims to evaluate the usefulness of implementing routine…
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- Analysis of condom evidence in forensic science: Background survey of the human vaginal matrix using DRIFTS and pyrolysis-GC/MS. [Journal Article]Forensic Sci Int. 2021 Feb 16; 321:110724.FS
- Condom traces are increasingly detected from victims of sexual assault, mostly from vaginal swabs. Protocols have been developed for the analysis of silicone-based condom lubricants using DRIFTS-FTIR and py-GC/MS, but very little research is concerned with the background contribution of the vaginal matrix itself. The present contribution would be an asset for more fundamental research on condom r…
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- Predicting suitability of finger marks using machine learning techniques and examiner annotations. [Journal Article]Forensic Sci Int. 2021 Feb 05; 320:110712.FS
- Previous research has established the variability of examiners in reaching suitability determinations for friction ridge comparisons. Attempts to create predictive models to assist in this determination have been made, but have been largely confined to fully automated processes that focus on suitability for AFIS entry. This work develops, optimizes, and validates a hybrid predictive model that ut…
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- High-field and benchtop NMR spectroscopy for the characterization of new psychoactive substances. [Review]Forensic Sci Int. 2021 Feb 04; 321:110718.FS
- New psychoactive substances (NPS) have become a serious threat to public health in Europe due to their ability to be sold in the street or on the darknet. Regulating NPS is an urgent priority but comes with a number of analytical challenges since they are structurally similar to legal products. A number of analytical techniques can be used for identifying NPS, among which NMR spectroscopy is a go…
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- Judges and forensic science education: A national survey. [Journal Article]Forensic Sci Int. 2021 Jan 30; 321:110714.FS
- In criminal cases, forensic science reports and expert testimony play an increasingly important role in adjudication. More states now follow a federal reliability standard, which calls upon judges to assess the reliability and validity of scientific evidence. Little is known about how judges view their own background in forensic scientific evidence, and what types of specialized training they rec…
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- A DWT-SVD based robust digital watermarking for medical image security. [Journal Article]Forensic Sci Int. 2021 Jan 13; 320:110691.FS
- In this work, we propose a blind watermarking approach for medical image protection. In this approach, the watermark will be constituted of the Electronic Patient Record and the image acquisition data. In order to enhance the security and guarantee the data integrity, the Electronic Patient Record hash will be added to the watermark. The integration process is based on a DWT-SVD combination, a DW…
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- Contemporary issues in forensic science-Worldwide survey results. [Journal Article]Forensic Sci Int. 2021 Feb 04; 320:110704.FS
- Forensic science continues to be openly challenged and criticized. The aim of this study was to gain an understanding of forensic workplaces and the perceived current and potential future issues from forensic scientists via a detailed survey. An online survey was designed and disseminated to forensic practitioners and researchers worldwide. 544 participants from more than 20 countries took part i…
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- A dataset for evaluating blood detection in hyperspectral images. [Journal Article]Forensic Sci Int. 2021 Jan 21; 320:110701.FS
- The sensitivity of imaging spectroscopy to haemoglobin derivatives makes it a promising tool for detecting blood. However, due to complexity and high dimensionality of hyperspectral images, the development of hyperspectral blood detection algorithms is challenging. To facilitate their development, we present a new hyperspectral blood detection dataset. This dataset, published under an open access…
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- Carfentanil - from an animal anesthetic to a deadly illicit drug. [Review]Forensic Sci Int. 2021 Jan 30; 320:110715.FS
- The use of novel synthetic opioids as recreational drugs has become a public health concern as they are implicated in numerous fatal intoxications across the world. Synthetic opioids have played a major role in the United States opioid crisis and may contribute to a similar opioid epidemic in Europe. The most prominent group of designer opioids consists of fentanyl and its analogues. At present, …
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- A case of fatal intoxication by ingestion of an herbicide formulation containing fluroxypyr-meptyl and triclopyr. [Case Reports]Forensic Sci Int. 2021 Feb 03; 320:110717.FS
- Fluroxypyr-meptyl and triclopyr are synthetic auxin-like herbicides that are used to control woody and broadleaf weeds. Herein, we report a case of fatal intoxication involving fluroxypyr-meptyl and triclopyr. A 61-year-old man was found dead at his farm with several suicide notes, and a white plastic bottle and a plastic cup with traces of white emulsion were found next to him. The plastic bottl…
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- A comparison of reverse projection and PhotoModeler for suspect height analysis. [Journal Article]Forensic Sci Int. 2021 Jan 22; 320:110690.FS
- The purpose of this study was to compare the accuracy and precision between the Reverse Projection and PhotoModeler methods for suspect height analysis. Thirty analysts were assigned to measure the heights of three different suspects, one for each method, with the suspects having been recorded standing at three different distances in a scene. For Reverse Projection, the analysts were provided wit…
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- Prevalence of DNA of regular occupants in vehicles. [Journal Article]Forensic Sci Int. 2021 Jan 30; 320:110713.FS
- People will deposit, redistribute and remove biological traces when they interact with their environment. Understanding the dynamics of trace DNA is crucial to assess both the optimal sampling strategy to recover traces and the relevance of DNA evidence in the context of a case. This paper addresses the prevalence of DNA of drivers, passengers, and unknown individuals in vehicles. Five vehicles w…
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- The legislation, search, recovery, identification and repatriation of conflict casualties worldwide: Introducing the WWI and WWII Special Issue. [Editorial]Forensic Sci Int. 2021 Jan 30; 320:110716.FS
- Conflict casualties refer to those individuals who are lost due to military conflict or war. The involvement of forensic archaeologists and anthropologists in the legal search, recovery, documentation, identification, and repatriation/reburial of conflict casualties is well known. Internationally, there are a number of professional organisations who ethically recover and identify these individual…
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- Using case specific experiments to evaluate fingermarks on knives given activity level propositions. [Journal Article]Forensic Sci Int. 2021 Jan 30; 320:110710.FS
- Bayesian networks have shown to be a useful tool for the evaluation of forensic findings given activity level propositions. In this paper, we demonstrate how case specific experiments can be used to assign probabilities to the states of the nodes of a Bayesian network for the evaluation of fingermarks given activity level propositions. The transfer, persistence and recovery of fingermarks on kniv…
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- A method of forensic authentication of audio recordings generated using the Voice Memos application in the iPhone. [Journal Article]Forensic Sci Int. 2021 Jan 23; 320:110702.FS
- Considering the widespread use of mobile phones, audio recordings of crime scenes are widely used as digital evidence; however, it is important to authenticate the audio recordings before consideration as legal evidence. This study aimed to develop a method to authenticate audio recordings generated using the iPhone through three steps: 1) bitrate/audio latency time analysis of audio recordings, …
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- Age estimation in the living: A scoping review of population data for skeletal and dental methods. [Review]Forensic Sci Int. 2021 Jan 14; 320:110689.FS
- Age estimation of living individuals has become a crucial part of the forensic practice, especially due to the global increase in cross-border migration. The low rate of birth registration in many countries, hence of identification documents of migrants, especially in Africa and Asia, highlights the importance of reliable methods for age estimation of living individuals. Despite the fact that a n…
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- An integrated system for forensic DNA testing of sexual assault cases in the Philippines. [Journal Article]
- In the Philippines, more than 7000 cases of sexual assault are reported annually. DNA technology is a powerful tool in identifying assailants. However, it is not routinely used in sexual assault investigations due to insufficient government support to cover the high cost of DNA testing and the absence of a national system for sample collection, handling, storage, and DNA testing of biological evi…
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- Spanish Civil War: The recovery and identification of combatants. [Journal Article]Forensic Sci Int. 2021 Jan 28; 320:110706.FS
- In the context of exhumations of individuals who died during the Spanish Civil War (1936-1939), since the year 2000, over 780 mass graves have been excavated using archaeological methodology and following forensic protocols. Most of the recovered more than 9600 bodies have tended to be from the Republican civil population, the majority having been executed extrajudicially. However, a number of ex…
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- Adjusted binary classification (ABC) model in forensic science: An example on sex classification from handprint dimensions. [Journal Article]Forensic Sci Int. 2021 Jan 30; 320:110709.FS
- Binary classification techniques are commonly used in forensic examination to test if a specimen belongs to a particular group and base the expert opinion on the questioned evidence. However, most of the currently used methods do not achieve sufficient accuracy due to the ignoring of the specimens classified in the overlapping area. To address the issue, we proposed a novel Adjusted binary classi…
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- Evaluation of three microhaplotypes in individual identification and ancestry inference. [Journal Article]Forensic Sci Int. 2021 Jan 10; 320:110681.FS
- Microhaplotype as an emerging genetic marker has attracted more attention in forensic field. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the potential of microhaplotypes in individual identification and ancestry inference in Chinese Hainan Li and 26 1000 G populations. Three microhaplotypes were genotyped from 100 Li individuals using Agena MassARRAY. Moreover, 2504 individuals from 26 populations …
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- Comparative analysis of DNA extraction processes for DNA-based identification from putrefied bodies in forensic routine work. [Journal Article]Forensic Sci Int. 2021 Jan 27; 320:110707.FS
- Identification of putrefied bodies is an important and common task in forensic routine. Usually, the identification of deceased is done by visual recognition, fingerprints, physical distinguishing marks (e.g. tattoos, scars and surgical implants) and/or dental examination. However, if morphologic characteristics are not recognizable, due to advanced putrefaction of the corpse, or recent medical r…
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- Whodunit? A reconstruction study in a case of one-handed strangulation. [Journal Article]Forensic Sci Int. 2021 Jan 27; 320:110708.FS
- A 27-year old woman reported an attack by her ex-partner. According to her, he suddenly started to strangle her with his left hand, using a claw-like grip against her throat. After 30-60 seconds the victim reacted by kicking the attacker in the groin, thereby disrupting the strangulation. During the court hearing, pictures of the strangulation marks taken by the police were shown as evidence. Fro…
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- An integrated multidisciplinary approach to resolve long-standing unidentified human skeletal remains in Cyprus. [Journal Article]Forensic Sci Int. 2021 Jan 23; 320:110679.FS
- The Committee on Missing Persons in Cyprus (CMP) is a bicommunal committee established in 1981, tasked to determine the fate of 2002 individuals who went missing during the intercommunal fighting of 1963-64 and the events of 1974. The CMP operates strictly within a humanitarian framework, using a multidisciplinary approach to conclude individual identifications of remains exhumed throughout the i…
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- Minor migrants' age estimation: Comparison of two dental methods. [Journal Article]
- In case of minor migrants, absence of valid identification documents that clearly define age is a critical issue, because without these data the child cannot enjoy the rights provided by the Convention on the Rights of the Child. Differentiation between minors and adults is fundamental when age is disputed in human identification, asylum seeking, criminal liability, and child abuse fields. Few in…
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- Improved autosomal STR typing of degraded femur samples extracted using a custom demineralization buffer and DNA IQ™. [Journal Article]
- Bone samples are utilized as a source of DNA in disaster victim identification and human remains investigations. However, DNA recovery from bones is time consuming and prone to contamination. A logical approach for postmortem identification is to validate efficient DNA extraction methods requiring less bone material using improved molecular kits with less hands-on time and workflows that facilita…
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- Severe acute intoxication with yohimbine: Four simultaneous poisoning cases. [Case Reports]Forensic Sci Int. 2021 Jan 27; 320:110705.FS
- Yohimbine is an indole alkaloid from the leaves and bark of the Pausinystalia johimbe tree that has acquired an enviable reputation in treating erectile dysfunction. This report presents four simultaneous severe poisoning/death cases caused by yohimbine. The test samples comprised the venous blood of four middle-aged men (aged 47-65) who were suspected of poisoning; one of the men died due to ine…
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- A method for measuring the quality of friction skin impression evidence: Method development and validation. [Journal Article]Forensic Sci Int. 2021 Jan 23; 320:110703.FS
- The forensic fingerprint community has faced increasing criticism by scientific and legal commentators, challenging the validity and reliability of fingerprint evidence due to the lack of an empirical basis to assess the quality of the friction ridge impressions. This paper presents a method, developed as a stand-alone software application, DFIQI ("Defense Fingerprint Image Quality Index"), which…
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- Isotonitazene: Fatal intoxication in three cases involving this unreported novel psychoactive substance in Switzerland. [Case Reports]Forensic Sci Int. 2021 Jan 13; 320:110686.FS
- The paper describes the first three deaths reported in Europe involved in isotonitazene consumption, a potent benzimidazole derivate opioid consumed in the recreational drug scene. Isotonitazene powder and purity determination was performed on the sample collected in the first death scene by NMR, HRMS, GC-FTIR, ATR-FTIR and GC-MS. Isotonitazene purity was determined by GC-MS analysis and proton N…
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- Forensic investigation of war graves from WWI and WWII in Hungary. [Journal Article]Forensic Sci Int. 2021 Jan 13; 320:110688.FS
- The Hungarian war grave care professionals weren't in an easy situation when they started the work because, until 2012, the burial places of Hungarian soldiers had no legal protection. It was necessary to develop legal regulations and scientific methods. Since this is a multidisciplinary field, the work is quite compound as many professionals from different field of sciences work together. This w…
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