scholarly journals What Teeth Can Tell Us

2021 ◽  
Vol 9 ◽  
Author(s):  
Klara Janjić ◽  
Fabian Kanz ◽  
Hermann Agis

Teeth are the hardest substance of the body and the gatekeeper of the digestive tract. They can survive extreme environmental conditions and they are the last part of the body that is decomposed after death. With these unique features, teeth are often the only remaining body part of a deceased person in a criminal case. Teeth can help investigators to find out who a dead person is, how old the person was, if the person was male or female, what kind of daily habits and lifestyle a person had and how the person died. Thus, the examination of teeth plays a key role in crime scene investigations and can help solve crimes.

Legal Concept ◽  
2021 ◽  
pp. 90-99
Author(s):  
Kristina Trifonova ◽  
Mikhail Shmatov ◽  
Vadim Perekrestov

Introduction: the termination of a criminal case or refusal to initiate a criminal case on a non-rehabilitative basis, provided for in paragraph 4, part 1, Article 24 of the Code of Criminal Procedure of the Russian Federation, will have a certain degree of specificity in the production of procedural actions. A sign of this type of proceedings is the appearance of a special category of subjects of criminal procedural relations – close relatives of the deceased person, who can initiate further investigation of the criminal case and its consideration in court in order to rehabilitate the deceased suspect or accused. These subjects are involved in the plane of legal relations in connection with the presence of their “legitimate interest”, both of a property and non-property nature. A detailed study of the criminal procedure status of a person against whom the criminal prosecution was carried out, but he was not given the status of a suspect or accused, is due to the need to establish the circle of his close relatives. The effectiveness of this activity depends both on the successful interaction of the subject of the investigation with the body of inquiry and other state bodies, and on the legal regulation of the situation in criminal proceedings of close relatives and other interested persons of the deceased. The purpose of the study is to analyze the legal status of the deceased person not only at the stage of procedural verification, but also at the stage of preliminary investigation, as well as to suggest the ways to solve problems, related to the involvement of close relatives and other interested persons of the deceased in the investigation process, including through the use of various forms of interaction of the subject of the investigation with the body of inquiry and the state bodies. Methods: in the course of the study, the general and specific scientific methods were used, namely: comparative research, system analysis and logical-legal. Results: the paper analyzes the current regulatory regulation of the legal status of a deceased person during a procedural check before making a decision to refuse to initiate a criminal case, and provides a comparative legal analysis of similar legal provisions under the legislation of some foreign countries. The problems associated with the moment when it is necessary to obtain the consent of close relatives for making a decision in accordance with paragraph 4 of part 1 of the article are identified. 24 of the Code of Criminal Procedure of the Russian Federation, the directions and conditions of the activity of the investigative body in connection with the adoption of this decision are defined. It is indicated that the circle of related persons whose opinion needs to be clarified is not defined in the law. In this regard, it is proposed to rely on the position of the Constitutional Court of the Russian Federation and find out the opinion primarily of close relatives, the establishment of which depends on the successful application of various forms of interaction. Conclusions: the legislative recommendations are proposed to improve the legal status of a deceased person who has not yet been given the status of a suspect or accused, but in relation to whom the criminal prosecution was carried out. The paper analyzes in detail the activities of the investigation body to identify close relatives in order to clarify their opinion on the decision made in accordance with paragraph 4, part 1, Article 24 of the Criminal Procedure Code of the Russian Federation. The recommendations on the organization of interaction aimed at identifying the specified participants in the criminal process are given.


2019 ◽  
Vol 17 (2) ◽  
pp. 58-62
Author(s):  
Fahmida Khatoon

The biological samples used in forensics can contain DNA which is highly fragmented as a consequence of exposure to any of the numerous degrading factors. Analysis of the sequence or size of the products of Polymerase chain reaction is at present responsible for the analysis of remains of humans in forensics. Despite the effectiveness of protocols based on PCR, there are certain limitations that are presented by the low numbers of copies of the template and the variations that are imposed by the decaying process to the template. The primary aim of this research is to explore the significance of autosomal SNPs in forensic science through the identification of humans at a crime scene. This study provides an exploration of the applicability of autosomal SNPs for the identification of humans at crime scene. This would fill the gap present in the current literature regarding the significance of autosomal SNPs in the identification of humans during crime scene investigation. It will also enable the identification of the criminals involved in several types of the crimes ranging from general theft to rape and sexual assault, murder, and robberies. It will also allow the identification of dead bodies in cases where it is difficult to identify the dead person due to unrecognizable condition of the body. This study will facilitate the improvement of the investigation of crime scene investigators. It will provide a significant way for the incorporation of recent techniques of the molecular genetics into forensics. Reduction in the workload of the crime scene investigators would also occur through the implementation of outcomes of this study into the field of forensic science. There are several studies which have demonstrated the applicability of SNPs in forensic investigations for identifying the humans at crime scene. Several effective and efficient technological systems have been developed by the researchers which are capable of performing analysis of biological samples containing degraded DNA because SNPs can be obtained from these samples. Physical characteristics of the individuals can be predicted through the analysis of SNPs. This can provide significant information about the color of eye, hair and skin of the individuals involved in crime.


2019 ◽  
Vol 17 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Fahmida Khatoon

The biological samples used in forensics can contain DNA which is highly fragmented as a consequence of exposure to any of the numerous degrading factors. Analysis of the sequence or size of the products of Polymerase chain reaction is at present responsible for the analysis of remains of humans in forensics. Despite the effectiveness of protocols based on PCR, there are certain limitations that are presented by the low numbers of copies of the template and the variations that are imposed by the decaying process to the template. The primary aim of this research is to explore the significance of autosomal SNPs in forensic science through the identification of humans at a crime scene. This study provides an exploration of the applicability of autosomal SNPs for the identification of humans at crime scene. This would fill the gap present in the current literature regarding the significance of autosomal SNPs in the identification of humans during crime scene investigation. It will also enable the identification of the criminals involved in several types of the crimes ranging from general theft to rape and sexual assault, murder, and robberies. It will also allow the identification of dead bodies in cases where it is difficult to identify the dead person due to unrecognizable condition of the body. This study will facilitate the improvement of the investigation of crime scene investigators. It will provide a significant way for the incorporation of recent techniques of the molecular genetics into forensics. Reduction in the workload of the crime scene investigators would also occur through the implementation of outcomes of this study into the field of forensic science. There are several studies which have demonstrated the applicability of SNPs in forensic investigations for identifying the humans at crime scene. Several effective and efficient technological systems have been developed by the researchers which are capable of performing analysis of biological samples containing degraded DNA because SNPs can be obtained from these samples. Physical characteristics of the individuals can be predicted through the analysis of SNPs. This can provide significant information about the color of eye, hair and skin of the individuals involved in crime.


2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Caleb Liang ◽  
Wen-Hsiang Lin ◽  
Tai-Yuan Chang ◽  
Chi-Hong Chen ◽  
Chen-Wei Wu ◽  
...  

AbstractBody ownership concerns what it is like to feel a body part or a full body as mine, and has become a prominent area of study. We propose that there is a closely related type of bodily self-consciousness largely neglected by researchers—experiential ownership. It refers to the sense that I am the one who is having a conscious experience. Are body ownership and experiential ownership actually the same phenomenon or are they genuinely different? In our experiments, the participant watched a rubber hand or someone else’s body from the first-person perspective and was touched either synchronously or asynchronously. The main findings: (1) The sense of body ownership was hindered in the asynchronous conditions of both the body-part and the full-body experiments. However, a strong sense of experiential ownership was observed in those conditions. (2) We found the opposite when the participants’ responses were measured after tactile stimulations had ceased for 5 s. In the synchronous conditions of another set of body-part and full-body experiments, only experiential ownership was blocked but not body ownership. These results demonstrate for the first time the double dissociation between body ownership and experiential ownership. Experiential ownership is indeed a distinct type of bodily self-consciousness.


2021 ◽  
Vol 17 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Natalia Szeligowska ◽  
Paulina Cholewińska ◽  
Katarzyna Czyż ◽  
Konrad Wojnarowski ◽  
Marzena Janczak

Abstract Background The microbiome of the digestive tract of ruminants contains microbial ecosystem that is affected by both environmental and genetic factors. The subject of this study concerns the influence of selected genetic factors, such as species of animals and “host” individual differences on the digestive tract microbiome composition. The results show the core microbiological composition (Firmicutes and Bacteroidetes) of ruminants digestive tract (based on feces) depending on breed and “host”. The Bacteroidetes and Firmicutes phyla are the most abundant in ruminants digestive tract. The aim of the study was to determine the differences prevalence level of Bacteroidetes and Firmicutes phyla in feces of Charolaise cattle and Polish Olkuska Sheep with respect to intra- and inter-species variability. Results The research group in the experiment consisted of animals at the age of 3 months kept in the same environmental conditions – rams of Polish Olkuska Sheep (n = 10) and Charolaise bulls (n = 10). Feces were collected individually from each animal (animals without disease symptoms were selected), living on the same environmental conditions. The analysis of the results in terms of species showed differences in the Firmicutes phylum level and Lactobacillaceae family between rams and bulls. Subsequently, the analysis performed for the “host effect” showed differentiation in the levels of the Bacteroidetes and Firmicutes phyla between individuals in a group and also between the groups. Conclusion The obtained results suggest that, apart from the diet and the environment, the species and the individual host are equally important factors influencing the microbiological composition of the digestive system of ruminants.


Author(s):  
Henglong Xu ◽  
Yong Jiang ◽  
Wei Zhang ◽  
Mingzhuang Zhu ◽  
Khaled A. S. Al-Rasheid ◽  
...  

The annual variations in body-size spectra of planktonic ciliate communities and their relationships to environmental conditions were studied based on a 12-month dataset (June 2007 to May 2008) from Jiaozhou Bay on the Yellow Sea coast of northern China. Based on the dataset, the body sizes of the ciliates, expressed as equivalent spherical diameters, included five ranks: S1 (5–35 μm); S2 (35–55 μm); S3 (55–75 μm); S4 (75–100 μm); and S5 (100–350 μm). These body-size ranks showed a clear temporal succession of dominance in the order of S2 (January–April) → S1 (May–July) → S4 (August–September) → S3 (October–December). Multivariate analyses showed that the temporal variations in their body-size patterns were significantly correlated with changes in environmental conditions, especially water temperature, salinity, dissolved oxygen concentration (DO) and nutrients. In terms of abundance, rank S2 was significantly correlated with water temperature, DO and nutrients, whereas ranks S4 and S5 were correlated with the salinity and nutrients respectively (P < 0.05). These results suggest that the body-size patterns of planktonic ciliate communities showed a clear temporal pattern during an annual cycle and significantly associated with environmental conditions in marine ecosystems.


1939 ◽  
Vol 17 (2) ◽  
pp. 69-82 ◽  
Author(s):  
D. W. Fenwick

Numerous attempts have been made in the past to induce the eggs of Ascaris suum to hatch outside the body of the host. Extra-corporeal hatching has been observed under a variety of conditions by different workers. Kondo (1920, 1922), Asada (1921) and others record hatching in water, charcoal and sand cultures. Wharton (1915) states that hatching will occur in alkaline digestive juices, while Martin (1913) records a similar phenomenon in pancreatic fluid. Many different explanations have been offered to explain this hatching. Wharton suggested that the interaction of algae and sand might have some effect. Ohba (1923), who found that hatching would occur in 0·2% hydrochloric acid and 0·2% sodium carbonate believed that extra-corporeal hatching was limited to very old cultures of eggs. Many workers are of the opinion that some stimulus normally present in the digestive tract is necessary for hatching.


2010 ◽  
Vol 16 (4) ◽  
pp. 112-121 ◽  
Author(s):  
Brennen W. Mills ◽  
Owen B. J. Carter ◽  
Robert J. Donovan

The objective of this case study was to experimentally manipulate the impact on arousal and recall of two characteristics frequently occurring in gruesome depictions of body parts in smoking cessation advertisements: the presence or absence of an external physical insult to the body part depicted; whether or not the image contains a clear figure/ground demarcation. Three hundred participants (46% male, 54% female; mean age 27.3 years, SD = 11.4) participated in a two-stage online study wherein they viewed and responded to a series of gruesome 4-s video images. Seventy-two video clips were created to provide a sample of images across the two conditions: physical insult versus no insult and clear figure/ground demarcation versus merged or no clear figure/ground demarcation. In stage one, participants viewed a randomly ordered series of 36 video clips and rated how “confronting” they considered each to be. Seven days later (stage two), to test recall of each video image, participants viewed all 72 clips and were asked to identify those they had seen previously. Images containing a physical insult were consistently rated more confronting and were remembered more accurately than images with no physical insult. Images with a clear figure/ground demarcation were rated as no more confronting but were consistently recalled with greater accuracy than those with unclear figure/ground demarcation. Makers of gruesome health warning television advertisements should incorporate some form of physical insult and use a clear figure/ground demarcation to maximize image recall and subsequent potential advertising effectiveness.


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