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Madentzoglou MS, Nathena D, Traithepchanapai P, Karantanas A, Kontakis G, Kranioti EF. Age estimation based on the metamorphosis of the clavicle end: A test of Falys and Prangle method in two contemporary samples. Leg Med (Tokyo) 2024; 67:102331. [PMID: 37838583 DOI: 10.1016/j.legalmed.2023.102331] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/15/2023] [Revised: 09/06/2023] [Accepted: 10/01/2023] [Indexed: 10/16/2023]
Abstract
Upon finding skeletal unidentified remains, four are the questions that must be answered: age, sex, ancestry, and stature. Regarding age estimation, clavicle has received special attention because medial epiphysis is the last epiphysis, among long bones that ossifies. Falys and Prangle proposed a method of age estimation based on three degenerative characteristics-surface topography (TOP), Porosity (POR) and Osteophyte formation (OST)-evaluated on the sternal end of the clavicle according to the descriptions and the illustrations provided in the original article producing satisfactory results. The current study aims to test the applicability of the Falys' and Prangle's method on 174 individuals from two contemporary samples, one from Greece (Cretan osteological Collection and Athens Forensic Anthropology Lab collection) and one from Thailand (Osteological collection in Chiang Mai). Composite scores were calculated, inter and intra- observer error were estimated by kappa statistics and regression equations of the original study were tested in our sample and in subsamples divided by sex and population. The Greek sample gave more accurate estimates compared to the Thai sample. Regressions of known sex gave slightly better results in most cases. When individuals <40 years old were excluded, classification increased for both Thai and Greeks. The results of this pilot study indicate that there are morphological features on the clavicle that are highly correlated with age. Thus, there is a scope of expanding research on the morphological features of the collar bone.
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Affiliation(s)
- M S Madentzoglou
- Department of Forensic Sciences, Faculty of Medicine, University of Crete, Greece.
| | - D Nathena
- Department of Forensic Sciences, Faculty of Medicine, University of Crete, Greece
| | | | - A Karantanas
- Department of Medical Imaging, University Hospital of Heraklion, Heraklion, Greece; Advanced Hybrid Imaging Systems, Institute of Computer Science, Foundation for Research and Technology (FORTH), Heraklion, Greece; Department of Radiology, School of Medicine, University of Crete, Heraklion, Greece
| | - G Kontakis
- Department of Orthopaedics and Traumatology, University Hospital of Heraklion, Crete, Greece
| | - E F Kranioti
- Department of Forensic Sciences, Faculty of Medicine, University of Crete, Greece
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2
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Maass P. The Free State Collection for Anthropological Research (FS-CAR): a new contemporary identified skeletal collection in South Africa. Int J Legal Med 2023; 137:1921-1926. [PMID: 37723343 PMCID: PMC10567847 DOI: 10.1007/s00414-023-03086-y] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/04/2023] [Accepted: 09/09/2023] [Indexed: 09/20/2023]
Abstract
Documented skeletal collections are valuable resources for anthropological studies aimed at reconstruction of the biological profile and examination of osteological trauma and pathology. The Free State Collection for Anthropological Research is a new, contemporary skeletal collection, based in central South Africa that has become available for such studies. This paper aims to provide an overview of the collection to encourage its future use in national and international research. The collection currently contains 64 female and 122 male skeletons of individuals that have died in the Free State province since the year 2000. Black individuals constitute 94.6% of the collection. Age-at-death ranges between 19 and 86 years, with an overall mean of 40 years. Year-of-birth ranges from 1927 to 1991. Tuberculosis (22.6%) and influenza/pneumonia (20.4%) are the most common cause of death for these individuals. Although the current demographic profile of the collection is skewed, new individuals are continuously being added. The collection offers several opportunities for anthropological research. The relatively young age-at-death and contemporary nature of the collection make it a useful tool for validation of existing methods for estimations of components of the biological profile. It can also be used in conjunction with other collections for the development of new methods for age and sex estimation and studies of trauma and disease manifestation of the skeleton.
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Affiliation(s)
- Petra Maass
- Department of Basic Medical Sciences, Faculty of Health Sciences, University of the Free State, 205 Nelson Mandela Drive, Park West, Bloemfontein, 9300, South Africa.
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3
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Štepanovský M, Buk Z, Pilmann Kotěrová A, Brůžek J, Bejdová Š, Techataweewan N, Velemínská J. Automated age-at-death estimation from 3D surface scans of the facies auricularis of the pelvic bone. Forensic Sci Int 2023; 349:111765. [PMID: 37331049 DOI: 10.1016/j.forsciint.2023.111765] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/14/2023] [Revised: 05/18/2023] [Accepted: 06/13/2023] [Indexed: 06/20/2023]
Abstract
This work presents an automated data-mining model for age-at-death estimation based on 3D scans of the auricular surface of the pelvic bone. The study is based on a multi-population sample of 688 individuals (males and females) originating from one Asian and five European identified osteological collections. Our method requires no expert knowledge and achieves similar accuracy compared to traditional subjective methods. Apart from data acquisition, the whole procedure of pre-processing, feature extraction and age estimation is fully automated and implemented as a computer program. This program is a part of a freely available web-based software tool called CoxAGE3D. This software tool is available at https://coxage3d.fit.cvut.cz/ Our age-at-death estimation method is suitable for use on individuals with known/unknown population affinity and provides moderate correlation between the estimated age and actual age (Pearson's correlation coefficient is 0.56), and a mean absolute error of 12.4 years.
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Affiliation(s)
- Michal Štepanovský
- Faculty of Information Technology, Czech Technical University in Prague, Thakurova 9, Prague 16000, Czech Republic
| | - Zdeněk Buk
- Faculty of Information Technology, Czech Technical University in Prague, Thakurova 9, Prague 16000, Czech Republic
| | - Anežka Pilmann Kotěrová
- Department of Anthropology and Human Genetics, Faculty of Science, Charles University, Vinicna 7, Prague 12843, Czech Republic.
| | - Jaroslav Brůžek
- Department of Anthropology and Human Genetics, Faculty of Science, Charles University, Vinicna 7, Prague 12843, Czech Republic
| | - Šárka Bejdová
- Department of Anthropology and Human Genetics, Faculty of Science, Charles University, Vinicna 7, Prague 12843, Czech Republic
| | | | - Jana Velemínská
- Department of Anthropology and Human Genetics, Faculty of Science, Charles University, Vinicna 7, Prague 12843, Czech Republic
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Constantinou C, Chovalopoulou ME, Nikita E. AgeEst: An open access web application for skeletal age-at-death estimation employing machine learning. FORENSIC SCIENCE INTERNATIONAL: REPORTS 2023. [DOI: 10.1016/j.fsir.2023.100317] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 03/31/2023] Open
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5
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Kiskira C, Eliopoulos C, Vanna V, Manolis SK. Biometric sex assessment from the femur and tibia in a modern Greek population. Leg Med (Tokyo) 2022; 59:102126. [PMID: 35901538 DOI: 10.1016/j.legalmed.2022.102126] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/24/2022] [Revised: 06/15/2022] [Accepted: 07/18/2022] [Indexed: 10/31/2022]
Abstract
Forensic anthropologists assess sex by analysing quantitative and qualitative characters of the human skeleton. In general, the pelvis and skull are the skeletal regions used most often, but in many cases, they are missing or fragmentary. In such circumstances, where only limb bones are present, it is necessary to use techniques based on other skeletal elements. Metric traits of the long bones of the lower extremities have been reported as reliable indicators of sex. This study was designed to determine whether the two main long bones of the leg, the femur and tibia, can be used for the assessment of sex on a Greek skeletal population. The skeletal sample used in this study comes from the modern human skeletal collection that is currently housed at the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens and is known as The Athens Collection. It consists of 371 femora and 372 tibiae corresponding to 200 adult individuals (111 males and 89 females). The age range is 19-96 years for males and 20-99 years for females. The maximum lengths and epiphyseal widths were measured for the present study, and it was found that the discriminant analysis of the metrical data of each long bone provided high sex discrimination accuracies. The rate of correct sex discrimination based on different long bones ranged from 91.50 % (left femur) to 93.40 % (left tibia). Our results suggest that lower limb bones can be used effectively for sexing in forensic contexts, in addition to other sex assessment techniques.
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Affiliation(s)
- Christina Kiskira
- Department of Animal & Human Physiology, Faculty of Biology, National & Kapodistrian University of Athens, Panepistimiopolis, 157 84 Athens, Greece.
| | - Constantine Eliopoulos
- School of Biological and Environmental Sciences, Liverpool John Moores University, Byrom Street, Liverpool L3 3AF, United Kingdom.
| | - Velissaria Vanna
- UCL Institute of Archaeology, 31-34 Gordon Square, London WC1H 0PY, United Kingdom
| | - Sotiris K Manolis
- Department of Animal & Human Physiology, Faculty of Biology, National & Kapodistrian University of Athens, Panepistimiopolis, 157 84 Athens, Greece.
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Kotěrová A, Štepanovský M, Buk Z, Brůžek J, Techataweewan N, Velemínská J. The computational age-at-death estimation from 3D surface models of the adult pubic symphysis using data mining methods. Sci Rep 2022; 12:10324. [PMID: 35725750 PMCID: PMC9209440 DOI: 10.1038/s41598-022-13983-8] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/22/2022] [Accepted: 05/31/2022] [Indexed: 11/12/2022] Open
Abstract
Age-at-death estimation of adult skeletal remains is a key part of biological profile estimation, yet it remains problematic for several reasons. One of them may be the subjective nature of the evaluation of age-related changes, or the fact that the human eye is unable to detect all the relevant surface changes. We have several aims: (1) to validate already existing computer models for age estimation; (2) to propose our own expert system based on computational approaches to eliminate the factor of subjectivity and to use the full potential of surface changes on an articulation area; and (3) to determine what age range the pubic symphysis is useful for age estimation. A sample of 483 3D representations of the pubic symphyseal surfaces from the ossa coxae of adult individuals coming from four European (two from Portugal, one from Switzerland and Greece) and one Asian (Thailand) identified skeletal collections was used. A validation of published algorithms showed very high error in our dataset-the Mean Absolute Error (MAE) ranged from 16.2 and 25.1 years. Two completely new approaches were proposed in this paper: SASS (Simple Automated Symphyseal Surface-based) and AANNESS (Advanced Automated Neural Network-grounded Extended Symphyseal Surface-based), whose MAE values are 11.7 and 10.6 years, respectively. Lastly, it was demonstrated that our models could estimate the age-at-death using the pubic symphysis over the entire adult age range. The proposed models offer objective age estimates with low estimation error (compared to traditional visual methods) and are able to estimate age using the pubic symphysis across the entire adult age range.
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Affiliation(s)
- Anežka Kotěrová
- Department of Anthropology and Human Genetics, Faculty of Science, Charles University, Vinicna 7, Prague 2, 128 43, Czech Republic.
| | - Michal Štepanovský
- Faculty of Information Technology, Czech Technical University in Prague, Thakurova 9, Prague, 160 00, Czech Republic
| | - Zdeněk Buk
- Faculty of Information Technology, Czech Technical University in Prague, Thakurova 9, Prague, 160 00, Czech Republic
| | - Jaroslav Brůžek
- Department of Anthropology and Human Genetics, Faculty of Science, Charles University, Vinicna 7, Prague 2, 128 43, Czech Republic
| | | | - Jana Velemínská
- Department of Anthropology and Human Genetics, Faculty of Science, Charles University, Vinicna 7, Prague 2, 128 43, Czech Republic
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Petaros A, Caplova Z, Verna E, Adalian P, Baccino E, de Boer HH, Cunha E, Ekizoglu O, Ferreira MT, Fracasso T, Kranioti EF, Lefevre P, Lynnerup N, Ross A, Steyn M, Obertova Z, Cattaneo C. Technical Note: The Forensic Anthropology Society of Europe (FASE) Map of Identified Osteological Collections. Forensic Sci Int 2021; 328:110995. [PMID: 34583243 DOI: 10.1016/j.forsciint.2021.110995] [Citation(s) in RCA: 8] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/30/2021] [Revised: 09/03/2021] [Accepted: 09/06/2021] [Indexed: 11/26/2022]
Abstract
Identified (documented) osteological collections represent an important resource in the development of forensic anthropology standards and methods as well as a precious tool for learning and training of practitioners. Even though the number of papers presenting identified collections worldwide increases, many of the collections have still not been divulged to the scientific community in sufficient detail to ascertain their exact number. The Forensic Anthropology Society of Europe (FASE) therefore developed a tool that goes beyond sporadic publications: the FASE Map of Identified Osteological Collections, which is freely accessible and continuously updated and revised. The online map is available at http://forensicanthropology.eu/osteological-collections/. The map of skeletal collections was created in 2017 and currently displays information on 153 identified osteological collections (43 of them categorized as contemporary) located in 41 different countries. This article offers a short analysis of the type, geographical location and content of the collections included in the map. The aim of this article and the map as such is to provide a useful resource to facilitate research planning and teaching in forensic anthropology and related disciplines.
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Affiliation(s)
- Anja Petaros
- Department of Legal Medicine Linköping, National Board of Forensic Medicine, Linköping, Sweden.
| | | | - Emeline Verna
- Aix-Marseille Université, CNRS, EFS, ADES, Marseille, France
| | - Pascal Adalian
- Aix-Marseille Université, CNRS, EFS, ADES, Marseille, France
| | - Eric Baccino
- Medico-legal Unit, Hospital Lapeyronie, University Hospital of Montpellier, Montpellier, France
| | - Hans H de Boer
- Victorian Institute of Forensic Medicine, Southbank, Victoria, Australia
| | - Eugenia Cunha
- University of Coimbra, Centre for Functional Ecology, Department of Life Sciences, Coimbra, Portugal; National Institute of Legal Medicine and Forensic Sciences, Lisbon, Portugal
| | - Oguzhan Ekizoglu
- Department of Forensic Medicine, Tepecik Training and Research Hospital, Izmir, Turkey; Unit of Forensic Imaging and Anthropology, University Center of Legal Medicine Lausanne, Geneva, Switzerland
| | - Maria Teresa Ferreira
- University of Coimbra, Centre for Functional Ecology, Laboratory of Forensic Anthropology, Department of Life Sciences, Coimbra, Portugal
| | - Tony Fracasso
- University Center of Legal Medicine, Lausanne-Geneva, Geneva, Switzerland
| | - Elena F Kranioti
- Forensic Medicine Unit, Medical School, University of Crete, Greece
| | - Philippe Lefevre
- Laboratory of Anatomy, Biomechanics and Organogenesis (LABO), Forensic Anthropology Unit, Université Libre de Bruxelles, Brussels, Belgium
| | - Niels Lynnerup
- Department of Forensic Medicine, University of Copenhagen, Denmark
| | - Ann Ross
- NC Human Identification & Forensic Analysis Laboratory, Department of Biological Sciences, North Carolina State University, USA
| | - Maryna Steyn
- Human Variation and Identification Research Unit, School of Anatomical Sciences, Faculty of Health Sciences, University of the Witwatersrand, South Africa
| | - Zuzana Obertova
- Centre for Forensic Anthropology, School of Social Sciences, University of Western Australia, Crawley, Australia
| | - Cristina Cattaneo
- Laboratory of Forensic Anthropology and Odontology (LABANOF), University of Milan, Milan, Italy
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