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Ferreira MT, Coelho C, Makhoul C, Navega D, Gonçalves D, Cunha E, Curate F. New data about the 21st Century Identified Skeletal Collection (University of Coimbra, Portugal). Int J Legal Med 2020; 135:1087-1094. [PMID: 32857278 DOI: 10.1007/s00414-020-02399-6] [Citation(s) in RCA: 26] [Impact Index Per Article: 6.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/07/2020] [Accepted: 08/10/2020] [Indexed: 11/30/2022]
Abstract
After the publication of the first article in 2014, 21st Century Identified Skeletal Collection, housed in the Laboratory of Forensic Anthropology, Department of Life Sciences at the University of Coimbra, Portugal, has been growing. Currently, the collection is composed of 302 complete adult skeletons of both sexes, which means that in 5 years it has doubled. The collection consists mostly of elderly individuals, with only 12.25% of the individuals aged less than 61 years old. All individuals are Portuguese nationals who died between 1982 and 2012. Ninety individuals exhibit prostheses, other medical devices and signs of surgical procedures. Moreover, a sub-collection of experimentally burned skeletons is under development, and currently includes 56 individuals (18.54% of the collection). The 21st Century Identified Skeletal Collection constitutes a fundamental tool for forensic anthropology research, including the development and validation studies of methods that focus on elderly individuals, as can be ascertained by the numerous scientific publications and academic scholarship that have been produced in previous years.
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Affiliation(s)
- Maria Teresa Ferreira
- Laboratory of Forensic Anthropology, Centre for Functional Ecology, Department of Life Sciences, University of Coimbra, Calçada Martim de Freitas, 3000-456, Coimbra, Portugal. .,Departamento de Ciências da Vida, Calçada Martim de Freitas, 3000-456, Coimbra, Portugal. .,Research Centre for Anthropology and Health, Department of Life Sciences, University of Coimbra, Calçada Martim de Freitas, 3000-456, Coimbra, Portugal.
| | - Catarina Coelho
- Laboratory of Forensic Anthropology, Centre for Functional Ecology, Department of Life Sciences, University of Coimbra, Calçada Martim de Freitas, 3000-456, Coimbra, Portugal
| | - Calil Makhoul
- Laboratory of Forensic Anthropology, Centre for Functional Ecology, Department of Life Sciences, University of Coimbra, Calçada Martim de Freitas, 3000-456, Coimbra, Portugal.,Molecular Physical-Chemistry R&D Unit, Department of Chemistry, University of Coimbra, Coimbra, Portugal
| | - David Navega
- Laboratory of Forensic Anthropology, Centre for Functional Ecology, Department of Life Sciences, University of Coimbra, Calçada Martim de Freitas, 3000-456, Coimbra, Portugal
| | - David Gonçalves
- Laboratory of Forensic Anthropology, Centre for Functional Ecology, Department of Life Sciences, University of Coimbra, Calçada Martim de Freitas, 3000-456, Coimbra, Portugal.,Departamento de Ciências da Vida, Calçada Martim de Freitas, 3000-456, Coimbra, Portugal.,Archaeosciences Laboratory (LARC/CIBIO/InBIO), Lisbon, Portugal
| | - Eugénia Cunha
- Laboratory of Forensic Anthropology, Centre for Functional Ecology, Department of Life Sciences, University of Coimbra, Calçada Martim de Freitas, 3000-456, Coimbra, Portugal.,Instituto Nacional de Medicina Legal e Ciências Forenses, IP., Coimbra, Portugal
| | - Francisco Curate
- Laboratory of Forensic Anthropology, Centre for Functional Ecology, Department of Life Sciences, University of Coimbra, Calçada Martim de Freitas, 3000-456, Coimbra, Portugal.,Departamento de Ciências da Vida, Calçada Martim de Freitas, 3000-456, Coimbra, Portugal
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2
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Bredhauer K, Durdle A, Rowbotham S. Recording skeletal completeness in cases of fragmentary human remains: a pilot technical study using computed tomography volume rendering applications. AUST J FORENSIC SCI 2020. [DOI: 10.1080/00450618.2020.1789223] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 10/23/2022]
Affiliation(s)
- Katerina Bredhauer
- School of Life and Environmental Sciences, Faculty of Science, Engineering and the Built Environment, Deakin University, Geelong, Australia
| | - Annalisa Durdle
- School of Life and Environmental Sciences, Faculty of Science, Engineering and the Built Environment, Deakin University, Geelong, Australia
| | - Samantha Rowbotham
- Victorian Institute of Forensic Medicine / Department of Forensic Medicine, Monash University, Melbourne, Australia
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3
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d'Oliveira Coelho J, Curate F. CADOES: An interactive machine-learning approach for sex estimation with the pelvis. Forensic Sci Int 2019; 302:109873. [PMID: 31382223 DOI: 10.1016/j.forsciint.2019.109873] [Citation(s) in RCA: 17] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.4] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/11/2019] [Revised: 06/25/2019] [Accepted: 06/28/2019] [Indexed: 11/29/2022]
Abstract
The pelvis is consistently regarded as the most sexually dimorphic region of the human skeleton, and methods for sex estimation with the pelvic bones are usually very accurate. In this investigation, population-specific osteometric models for the assessment of sex with the pelvis were designed using a dataset provided by J.A. Serra (1938) that included 256 individuals (131 females and 125 males) from the Coimbra Identified Skeletal Collection and 38 metric variables. The models for sex estimation were operationalized through an online application and decision support system, CADOES. Different classification algorithms generated high accuracy models, ranging from 85% to 92%, with only three variables; and from 85.33% to 97.33%, with all 38 variables. CADOES conveys a probabilistic prediction of skeletal sex, as well as a suite of attributes with educational applicability in the fields of human skeletal anatomy and statistics. This study upholds the value of the pelvis for the estimation of skeletal sex and provides models for that can be applied with high accuracy and low bias.
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Affiliation(s)
- João d'Oliveira Coelho
- Institute of Cognitive and Evolutionary Anthropology, University of Oxford, Oxford, United Kingdom; Laboratory of Forensic Anthropology, Department of Life Sciences, University of Coimbra, Coimbra, Portugal.
| | - Francisco Curate
- Laboratory of Forensic Anthropology, Department of Life Sciences, University of Coimbra, Coimbra, Portugal; Research Centre for Anthropology and Health, Department of Life Sciences, University of Coimbra, Portugal
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Ammer S, d'Oliveira Coelho J, Cunha EM. Outline Shape Analysis on the Trochlear Constriction and Olecranon Fossa of the Humerus: Insights for Sex Estimation and a New Computational Tool. J Forensic Sci 2019; 64:1788-1795. [PMID: 31150127 DOI: 10.1111/1556-4029.14096] [Citation(s) in RCA: 10] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/28/2019] [Revised: 03/19/2019] [Accepted: 05/13/2019] [Indexed: 12/01/2022]
Abstract
Sex estimation through visual analysis of the distal humerus can contribute to establishing the biological profile of an unidentified skeletal individual. Using statistical shape modeling, the trochlear constriction open curves and olecranon fossa closed outlines of 151 humeri were digitized and analyzed. The shape configurations exhibited strikingly different degrees of sexual dimorphism when evaluated using linear discriminant analysis with leave-one-out cross-validation. The trochlear constriction performed poorly, correctly classifying 63.6% of the individuals. However, the olecranon fossa showed high sexual dimorphism, presenting a 94.0% accuracy. A simpler model using only two principal components was also generated. While the accuracy is slightly inferior (88.1%), it has the advantage of being constrained to bidimensional components that were translated into morphoscopic variables within a simulator interface. This allowed us to implement the method through a web application that does not require users to be trained in landmark digitization or have knowledge of geometric morphometrics.
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Affiliation(s)
- Saskia Ammer
- Laboratory of Forensic Anthropology, Department of Life Sciences Calçada Martim de Freitas, University of Coimbra, Coimbra, 3000-456, Portugal
| | - João d'Oliveira Coelho
- Laboratory of Forensic Anthropology, Department of Life Sciences Calçada Martim de Freitas, University of Coimbra, Coimbra, 3000-456, Portugal.,Institute of Cognitive and Evolutionary Anthropology, University of Oxford, Banbury 64, Oxford, OX2 6PN, UK
| | - Eugénia Maria Cunha
- Laboratory of Forensic Anthropology, Department of Life Sciences Calçada Martim de Freitas, University of Coimbra, Coimbra, 3000-456, Portugal
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5
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Santos F, Lacoste Jeanson A. Diaphysator: An online application for the exhaustive cartography and user‐friendly statistical analysis of long bone diaphyses. AMERICAN JOURNAL OF PHYSICAL ANTHROPOLOGY 2019; 169:377-384. [DOI: 10.1002/ajpa.23835] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.2] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/22/2018] [Revised: 03/25/2019] [Accepted: 03/31/2019] [Indexed: 11/06/2022]
Affiliation(s)
- Frédéric Santos
- Université de Bordeaux – CNRS – MCC, UMR 5199 PACEA 33600 Pessac France
| | - Alizé Lacoste Jeanson
- Laboratory of 3D Imaging and Analytical Methods, Faculty of Natural Sciences, Department of Anthropology and Human GeneticsCharles University Praha Czech Republic
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6
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Preliminary results of an investigation on postmortem variations in human skeletal mass of buried bones. Sci Justice 2019; 59:52-57. [PMID: 30654968 DOI: 10.1016/j.scijus.2018.08.002] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.4] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/19/2018] [Revised: 07/05/2018] [Accepted: 08/05/2018] [Indexed: 11/23/2022]
Abstract
Extreme fragmentation can complicate the inventory of human skeletal remains. In such cases, skeletal mass can provide information regarding skeleton completeness and the minimum number of individuals. For that purpose, several references for skeletal mass can be used to establish comparisons and draw inferences regarding those parameters. However, little is known about the feasibility of establishing comparisons between inherently different materials, as is the case of curated reference skeletal collections and human remains recovered from forensic and archaeological settings. The objective of this paper was to investigate the effect of inhumation, weather and heat exposure on the skeletal mass of two different bone types. This was investigated on a sample of 30 human bone fragments (14 trabecular bones and 16 compact bones) that was experimentally buried for two years after being submitted to one of four different heat treatments (left unburned; 500 °C; 900 °C; 1000 °C). Bones were exhumed periodically to assess time-related mass variation. Skeletal mass varied substantially, decreasing and increasing in accordance to the interchanging dry and wet seasons. However, trends were not the same for the two bone types and the four temperature thresholds. The reason for this appears to be related to water absorption and to the differential heat-induced changes in bone microporosity, volume, and composition. Our results suggest that mass comparisons against published references should be performed only after the skeletal remains have been preemptively dried from exogenous water.
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Navega D, Coelho JD, Cunha E, Curate F. DXAGE: A New Method for Age at Death Estimation Based on Femoral Bone Mineral Density and Artificial Neural Networks. J Forensic Sci 2017; 63:497-503. [PMID: 28851106 DOI: 10.1111/1556-4029.13582] [Citation(s) in RCA: 31] [Impact Index Per Article: 4.4] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/21/2017] [Revised: 04/28/2017] [Accepted: 05/26/2017] [Indexed: 11/28/2022]
Abstract
Age at death estimation in adult skeletons is hampered, among others, by the unremarkable correlation of bone estimators with chronological age, implementation of inappropriate statistical techniques, observer error, and skeletal incompleteness or destruction. Therefore, it is beneficial to consider alternative methods to assess age at death in adult skeletons. The decrease in bone mineral density with age was explored to generate a method to assess age at death in human remains. A connectionist computational approach, artificial neural networks, was employed to model femur densitometry data gathered in 100 female individuals from the Coimbra Identified Skeletal Collection. Bone mineral density declines consistently with age and the method performs appropriately, with mean absolute differences between known and predicted age ranging from 9.19 to 13.49 years. The proposed method-DXAGE-was implemented online to streamline age estimation. This preliminary study highlights the value of densitometry to assess age at death in human remains.
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Affiliation(s)
- David Navega
- Laboratory of Forensic Anthropology, Department of Life Sciences, University of Coimbra, Calçada Martim de Freitas, 3000-456, Coimbra, Portugal.,Centre for Functional Ecology, Department of Life Sciences, University of Coimbra, Calçada Martim de Freitas, 3000-456, Coimbra, Portugal
| | - João d'Oliveira Coelho
- Laboratory of Forensic Anthropology, Department of Life Sciences, University of Coimbra, Calçada Martim de Freitas, 3000-456, Coimbra, Portugal.,Centre for Functional Ecology, Department of Life Sciences, University of Coimbra, Calçada Martim de Freitas, 3000-456, Coimbra, Portugal
| | - Eugénia Cunha
- Laboratory of Forensic Anthropology, Department of Life Sciences, University of Coimbra, Calçada Martim de Freitas, 3000-456, Coimbra, Portugal.,Centre for Functional Ecology, Department of Life Sciences, University of Coimbra, Calçada Martim de Freitas, 3000-456, Coimbra, Portugal
| | - Francisco Curate
- Laboratory of Forensic Anthropology, Department of Life Sciences, University of Coimbra, Calçada Martim de Freitas, 3000-456, Coimbra, Portugal.,Research Centre for Anthropology and Health, Department of Life Sciences, University of Coimbra, Calçada Martim de Freitas, 3000-456, Coimbra, Portugal.,Interdisciplinary Center for Archaeology and Evolution of Human Behavior, Faculdade das Ciĉncias Humanas e Sociais, University of Algarve, Campus Gambelas, 8005-139, Faro, Portugal
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8
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Gonçalves D, d'Oliveira Coelho J, Amarante A, Makhoul C, Oliveira-Santos I, Navega D, Cunha E. Dead weight: Validation of mass regression equations on experimentally burned skeletal remains to assess skeleton completeness. Sci Justice 2017; 58:2-6. [PMID: 29332692 DOI: 10.1016/j.scijus.2017.07.003] [Citation(s) in RCA: 4] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.6] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/09/2017] [Revised: 07/18/2017] [Accepted: 07/20/2017] [Indexed: 11/30/2022]
Abstract
In very fragmentary remains, the thorough inventory of skeletal elements is often impossible to accomplish. Mass has been used instead to assess the completeness of the skeleton. Two different mass-based methods of assessing skeleton completeness were tested on a sample of experimentally burned skeletons with the objective of determining which of them is more reliable. The first method was based on a simple comparison of the mass of each individual skeleton with previously published mass references. The second method was based on mass linear regressions from individual bones to estimate complete skeleton mass. The clavicle, humerus, femur, patella, metacarpal, metatarsal and tarsal bones were used. The sample was composed of 20 experimentally burned skeletons from 10 males and 10 females with ages-at-death between 68 and 90years old. Results demonstrated that the regression approach is more objective and more reliable than the reference comparison approach even though not all bones provided satisfactory estimations of the complete skeleton mass. The femur, humerus and patella provided the best performances among the individual bones. The estimations based on the latter had root mean squared errors (RMSE) smaller than 300g. Results demonstrated that the regression approach is quite promising although the patella was the only reasonable predictor expected to survive sufficiently intact to a burning event at high temperatures. The mass comparison approach has the advantage of not depending on the preservation of individual bones. Whenever bones are intact though, the application of mass regressions should be preferentially used because it is less subjective.
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Affiliation(s)
- D Gonçalves
- Research Centre for Anthropology and Health, Department of Life Sciences, University of Coimbra, Calçada Martim Freitas, 3000-456 Coimbra, Portugal; Archaeosciences Laboratory, Directorate General for Cultural Heritage and LARC/CIBIO/InBIO, Rua da Bica do Marquês 2, 1300-087 Lisboa, Portugal; Centre for Functional Ecology, Laboratory of Forensic Anthropology, Department of Life Sciences, University of Coimbra, Calçada Martim Freitas, 3000-456 Coimbra, Portugal.
| | - J d'Oliveira Coelho
- Centre for Functional Ecology, Laboratory of Forensic Anthropology, Department of Life Sciences, University of Coimbra, Calçada Martim Freitas, 3000-456 Coimbra, Portugal
| | - A Amarante
- Department of Life Sciences, Faculty of Sciences and Technology, University of Coimbra, Calçada Martim Freitas, 3000-456 Coimbra, Portugal
| | - C Makhoul
- Centre for Functional Ecology, Laboratory of Forensic Anthropology, Department of Life Sciences, University of Coimbra, Calçada Martim Freitas, 3000-456 Coimbra, Portugal
| | - I Oliveira-Santos
- Research Centre for Anthropology and Health, Department of Life Sciences, University of Coimbra, Calçada Martim Freitas, 3000-456 Coimbra, Portugal; Centre for Functional Ecology, Laboratory of Forensic Anthropology, Department of Life Sciences, University of Coimbra, Calçada Martim Freitas, 3000-456 Coimbra, Portugal
| | - D Navega
- Centre for Functional Ecology, Laboratory of Forensic Anthropology, Department of Life Sciences, University of Coimbra, Calçada Martim Freitas, 3000-456 Coimbra, Portugal
| | - E Cunha
- Centre for Functional Ecology, Laboratory of Forensic Anthropology, Department of Life Sciences, University of Coimbra, Calçada Martim Freitas, 3000-456 Coimbra, Portugal; Department of Life Sciences, Faculty of Sciences and Technology, University of Coimbra, Calçada Martim Freitas, 3000-456 Coimbra, Portugal
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