| 1. |
- Alfsdotter, Clara, 1988-, et al.
(författare)
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Outdoor human decomposition in Sweden : A retrospective quantitative study of forensic-taphonomic changes and postmortem interval in terrestrial and aquatic settings
- 2021
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Ingår i: Journal of Forensic Sciences. - : John Wiley & Sons. - 0022-1198 .- 1556-4029. ; 66:4, s. 1348-1363
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- This paper presents a quantitative retrospective study of gross human decomposition in central and southeastern Sweden. The applicability of methods developed abroad for postmortem interval (PMI) estimation from decomposition morphology and temperature are is evaluated. Ninety‐four cases were analyzed (43 terrestrial and 51 aquatic) with a median PMI of 48 days. The results revealed differences in decomposition patterns between aquatic, surface, hanging, and buried remains. While partial saponification and desiccation occurred in cases of surface remains, complete skeletonization was observed in all cases with a PMI over two years. Aquatic skeletonization was slower due to extensive saponification in cases with PMI higher than one year. Formulae for assessing accumulated degree‐days (ADD) from the original methods did not fit the study material. However, a regression analysis demonstrated that 80% of decomposition variance in surface remains could be explained by ADD, suggesting that a geographically adapted equation holds promise for assessing PMI. In contrast, the model fit was poor for aquatic cases (43%). While this may be explained by problems in obtaining reliant aquatic temperature data or an insufficient scoring system, aquatic decomposition may be highly dependent on factors other than ADD alone. This study evaluates the applicability of current PMI methods on an outdoor sample from a previously unpublished region, and represents the first scientific publication of human outdoor decomposition patterns in Sweden. Suggestions for future research are provided, including that scoring methods should incorporate saponification to fit forensic taphonomy in Swedish environments.
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| 2. |
- Bulut, Ozgur, et al.
(författare)
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Sexual dimorphism in frontal bone roundness quantified by a novel 3D-based and landmark-free method
- 2016
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Ingår i: Forensic Science International. - : Elsevier BV. - 0379-0738 .- 1872-6283. ; 261, s. 162.e1-162.e5
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- In this study we present a novel and landmark-free method for quantifying shape differences between male and female frontal bones. CT scans were recorded for 80 male and 80 female Turkish hospital patients, age 25-40. The frontal bones were first isolated from the 3D models by digital cutting along the bordering sutures, and then aligned to a CAD-based sphere. This allowed us to quantify the amount of frontal bone overlapping with the sphere (on average 43.2 +/- 6.5% for males and 33.9 +/- 6.6% for females, the difference is significant at p < 0.0001), and to identify areas of shape difference and deviation from the sphere surface in male and female bones. The larger proportion of spherical frontal bone surface in males challenges the common description of the female forehead as rounder''. Based on the overlap data, we developed discriminant functions able to correctly classify 77.5% of the frontal bone models as male/female. This demonstrates that 3D-based and landmark-free approaches to statistical shape analysis may become a viable alternative to the currently dominating landmark-based approaches for shape investigation.
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| 3. |
- Clara, Alfsdotter, et al.
(författare)
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Development and implementation of forensic anthropology in Swedish forensic practice
- 2022
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Ingår i: Scandinavian Journal of Forensic Science. - : Sciendo. - 2353-0707. ; 28:Supplement 1, s. 10-19
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- This paper presents the ongoing development of forensic anthropology in Sweden. We discuss the background of the discipline, its application, as well as its current and potential development in Swedish forensic practice. Collaboration with osteoarchaeologists in skeletal forensic cases has a long tradition in Sweden. Analyses of skeletal remains are performed ad-hoc, in contrast to analyses of fleshed human remains. While several law enforcement employees are educated in forensic anthropology and /or osteoarchaeology , they are not employed in these fields, and regional variations are evident. Internationally, forensic anthropology has become an autonomous forensic discipline over the past decades, requiring skills beyond mere skeletal analysis. To keep on a par with international standards, it may be time to revisit the concept of forensic anthropology in Sweden. Despite the limited presence of supporting organisational structures and systems, forensic anthropological and hard-tissue-reliant physico-chemical analyses have proven valuable in Swedish forensic practice, especially in cases of personal identification, trauma analysis and search efforts. We argue that Sweden could benefit from making qualified forensic anthropology expertise available in all law enforcement regions, starting to implement and promote forensic anthropology in routine forensic casework and formalising the role of forensic anthropology practitioners.
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| 4. |
- Frković, Vedran, et al.
(författare)
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Finger width as a measure of femoral block puncture site : an ultrasonographic anatomical-anthropometric study
- 2015
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Ingår i: Journal of clinical anesthesia. - : Elsevier BV. - 0952-8180 .- 1873-4529. ; 27:7, s. 553-557
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Study objective: Femoral nerve blockade is a regional anesthetic procedure that may be used in prehospital and emergency settings in cases of femoral trauma. Its speed and performance depend on how well the puncture site can be accurately located, something that usually is achieved via visible landmarks and/or by combining various universal preestablished measurements. Most of these methods have been derived from cadaver studies, which often suffer limitations in clinical settings. To facilitate a quick and easy determination of the puncture site, we here attempt to find an in vivo anthropometric measure that closely corresponds to the distance between the femoral artery and femoral nerve.Design: This is a prospective observational study.Patients: The study includes 67 patients presenting for elective surgery.Measurements: The distance from the femoral nerve to the femoral artery, projected to the skin, was measured by a 13-MHz ultrasonographic linear probe. Anthropometric measurements of the width of the hand fingers were carried out at the distal interphalangeal joints.Results: The distance from the femoral artery to the femoral nerve projected to the skin was found to closely correspond to the width of the fifth finger of the dominant hand measured at the distal interphalangeal joint.Conclusion: Because it relies on individual anthropometric information, this finding offers an individualized approach to determining the puncture site in a given patient. We believe that such an approach can improve and simplify femoral nerve blockade procedures in prehospital and emergency settings.
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| 5. |
- Petaros, Anja, et al.
(författare)
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Evaluating sexual dimorphism in the human mastoid process : A viewpoint on the methodology
- 2015
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Ingår i: Clinical anatomy (New York, N.Y. Print). - : Wiley. - 0897-3806 .- 1098-2353. ; 28:5, s. 593-601
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- The mastoid process is one of the most sexually dimorphic features in the human skull, and is therefore often used to identify the sex of skeletons. Numerous techniques for assessing variation in the size and shape of the mastoid process have been proposed and implemented in osteological research, but its complex form still presents difficulties for consistent and effective analysis. In this article, we compare the different techniques and variables that have been used to define, measure, and visually score sexual dimorphism in the mastoid process. We argue that the current protocols fail to capture the full morphological range of this bony projection, and suggest ways of improving and standardizing them, regarding both traditional and 3D-based approaches. Clin. Anat. 28:593-601, 2015.
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| 6. |
- Petaros, Anja, et al.
(författare)
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Sexual dimorphism and regional variation in human frontal bone inclination measured via digital 3D models
- 2017
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Ingår i: Legal Medicine. - : Elsevier BV. - 1344-6223 .- 1873-4162. ; 29, s. 53-61
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- The frontal bone is one of the most sexually dimorphic elements of the human skull, due to features such as the glabella, frontal eminences, and frontal inclination. While glabella is frequently evaluated in procedures to estimate sex in unknown human skeletal remains, frontal inclination has received less attention. In this study we present a straightforward, quick, and reproducible method for measuring frontal inclination angles from glabella and supraglabella. Using a sample of 413 human crania from four different populations (U.S. Whites, U.S. Blacks, Portuguese, and Chinese), we test the usefulness of the inclination angles for sex estimation and compare their performance to traditional methods of frontal inclination assessment. Accuracy rates in the range 75-81% were achieved for the U.S. White, U.S. Black, and Portuguese groups. For Chinese the overall accuracy was lower, i.e. 66%. Although some regional variation was observed, a cut-off value of 78.2 for glabellar inclination angles separates female and male crania from all studied populations with good accuracy. As inclination angles measured from glabella captures two sexually dimorphic features (i.e. glabellar prominence and frontal inclination) in a single measure, the observed clear male/female difference is not unexpected. Being continuous variables, inclination angles are suitable for use in statistical methods for sex estimations.
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| 7. |
- Petaros, Anja, et al.
(författare)
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Sexual dimorphism in mastoid process volumes measured from 3D models of dry crania from mediaeval Croatia
- 2021
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Ingår i: Homo (Stuttgart). - : Schweizerbart. - 0018-442X .- 1618-1301. ; 72:2, s. 113-127
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- 3D analysis of skeletal volumes has become an important field in digital anthropology studies. The volume of the mastoid process has been proposed to display significant sexual dimorphism, but it has a complex shape and to date no study has quantified the full mastoid volume for sex estimation purposes. In this study we compared three different ways to isolate the volume of the mastoid process from digital 3D models of dry crania, and then evaluated the performance of the three different volume definitions for sex estimation purposes. A total of 170 crania (86 male, 84 females) excavated from five medieval Croatian sites were CT-scanned and used to produce 3D stereolitographic models. The three different isolation techniques were based on various anatomical landmarks and planes, as well as the anatomy of the mastoid process itself. Measurements of the three different mastoid volumes yielded different accuracies and precisions. Interestingly, anatomical structures were sometimes more useful than classical landmarks as demarcators of mastoid volume. For all three volume definitions, male mastoid volumes were significantly larger than female volumes, in both relative and absolute numbers. Sex estimation based on mastoid volume showed a slightly higher precision and better accuracy (71% correct classifications) than visual scoring techniques (67%) and linear distance measurements (69%) of the mastoid process. Sex estimation based on cranial size performed even better (78%), and multifactorial analysis (cranium size + mastoid volume) reached up to 81% accuracy. These results show that measurements of the mastoid volume represent a promising metric to be used in multifactorial approaches for sex estimation of human remains.
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| 8. |
- Wärmländer, Sebastian K. T. S., et al.
(författare)
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Landmark Typology in Applied Morphometrics Studies : What's the Point?
- 2019
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Ingår i: Anatomical Record Advances in Integrative Anatomy and Evolutionary Biology. - : Wiley. - 1932-8486. ; 302:7, s. 1144-1153
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Landmarks are the hallmark of biological shape analysis as discrete anatomical points of correspondence. Various systems have been developed for their classification. In the most widely used system, developed by Bookstein in the 1990s, landmarks are divided into three distinct types based on their anatomical locations and biological significance. As Bookstein and others have argued that different landmark types possess different qualities, e.g., that Type 3 landmarks contain deficient information about shape variation and are less reliably measured, researchers began using landmark types as justification for selecting or avoiding particular landmarks for measurement or analysis. Here, we demonstrate considerable variation in landmark classifications among 17 studies using geometric morphometrics (GM), due to disagreement in the application of both Bookstein's landmark typology and individual landmark definitions. A review of the literature furthermore shows little correlation between landmark type and measurement reproducibility, especially when factors such as differences in measurement tools (calipers, digitizer, or computer software) and data sources (dry crania, 3D models, or 2D images) are considered. Although landmark typology is valuable when teaching biological shape analysis, we find that employing it in research design introduces confusion without providing useful information. Instead, researchers should choose landmark configurations based on their ability to test specific research hypotheses, and research papers should include justifications of landmark choices along with landmark definitions, details on landmark collection methods, and appropriate interobserver and intraobserver analyses. Hence, while the landmarks themselves are crucial for GM, we argue that their typology is of little use in applied studies. Anat Rec, 302:1144-1153, 2019.
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