Theoretical and Methodological Approaches to Understanding Human Migration Patterns and their Utility in Forensic Human Identification Cases

Beyond the Surface: A Multidetector Computer Tomography Scan Investigation into Age and Gender Differences

Background

The identification of an individual after mass calamities poses challenges to experts when bones are fragmented. Dense bones, such as the maxilla, surpass this challenge and remain intact with sinuses even after incineration, thereby making the sinuses an ideal and reliable forensic science tool. No-ninvasive imaging techniques, such as Computed Tomography (CT), can be used to evaluate such cases and help detect fractures and further locate foreign bodies. This study aimed to estimate the dimensions and volumes of the frontal (FS), maxillary (MS), and sphenoidal air sinuses (SS) on CT scans and investigate age- and sex-related differences.

Methods

CT scans of the paranasal sinuses were acquired from 158 patients ranging in age from 19 to 73 years, and written consent was obtained from all participants. This study was approved by the Institutional Ethical Committee (ethical clearance number IEC 064/2010). All parameters were statistically analyzed using SPSS 20 version and the significance level was set at p<0.05.

Results

The bilateral anteroposterior length and height of the FS were significantly larger in men than females (p<0.05). The overall dimensions of the MS and SS were substantially greater in males than females (P <0.05). Likewise, the overall volumes of the fFS, MS, and SS were significantly greater in males than females (p<0.05).However, no significant age-related correlation was observed in the dimensions and volumes of the sinuses.

Conclusion

The results of this study showed that imaging could be a reliable instrument for personal identification in forensic anthropology. Countries that do not allow autopsies may implement this method to clarify the cause of death.

Gaussian Fuzzy Number for STR-DNA Similarity Calculation Involving Familial and Tribal Relationships

We performed locus similarity calculation by measuring fuzzy intersection between individual locus and reference locus and then performed CODIS STR-DNA similarity calculation. The fuzzy intersection calculation enables a more robust CODIS STR-DNA similarity calculation due to imprecision caused by noise produced by PCR machine. We also proposed shifted convoluted Gaussian fuzzy number (SCGFN) and Gaussian fuzzy number (GFN) to represent each locus value as improvement of triangular fuzzy number (TFN) as used in previous research. Compared to triangular fuzzy number (TFN), GFN is more realistic to represent uncertainty of locus information because the distribution is assumed to be Gaussian. Then, the original Gaussian fuzzy number (GFN) is convoluted with distribution of certain ethnic locus information to produce the new SCGFN which more represents ethnic information compared to original GFN. Experiments were done for the following cases: people with family relationships, people of the same tribe, and certain tribal populations. The statistical test with analysis of variance (ANOVA) shows the difference in similarity between SCGFN, GFN, and TFN with a significant level of 95%. The Tukey method in ANOVA shows that SCGFN yields a higher similarity which means being better than the GFN and TFN methods. The proposed method enables CODIS STR-DNA similarity calculation which is more robust to noise and performed better CODIS similarity calculation involving familial and tribal relationships.