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![This is an SEM micrograph of Carex microdonta (J. Torrey & W. J. Hooker). This plant is in the Cyperaceae plant family and the common name is little-toothed Caric-sedge. The bar scale is 10 µm long [Courtesy of Gretchen D. Jones, Ph.D., & Ester F. Wilson, USDA-ARS, APMRU.]](profile/Vaughn-Bryant/publication/278309962/figure/fig1/AS:267532653297686@1440796163332/This-is-an-SEM-micrograph-of-Carex-microdonta-J-Torrey-W-J-Hooker-This-plant-is.png)
This is an SEM micrograph of Carex microdonta (J. Torrey & W. J. Hooker). This plant is in the Cyperaceae plant family and the common name is little-toothed Caric-sedge. The bar scale is 10 µm long [Courtesy of Gretchen D. Jones, Ph.D., & Ester F. Wilson, USDA-ARS, APMRU.]
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Forensic pollen studies in the United States of America and to a great degree in other regions of the world as well are currently one of the most highly under utilized and neglected techniques available to assist in solving criminal and civil cases. During the past century, there has been a very limited attempt to use pollen evidence in either crim...
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Os primeiros vestígios da utilização de técnicas forenses datam do Séc. XVII, na China, onde Ti Chien Yen utilizou da lógica e evidências para investigar, elucidar e solucionar um caso criminal. Desde então, a atualização de ferramentas e tecnologias utilizadas pela Ciência Forense — com o mesmo intuito — vêm sendo aperfeiçoadas para obter maior pr...
Citations
... The study of pollen, spores, and other acid resistance microscopic plant bodies including fungi to prove or connecting links between objects, places, and people is known as Forensic Palynology (Mildenhall et al. 2004). The pollen grain evidence found at the crime scene in both criminal and civil cases is known as trace evidence or physical evidence (Mildenhall et al. 2006;Bryant 2014). ...
... For the investigation purpose, forensic palynologist depends on two methods. First method involves the utilization of Locard's principle of exchange (Bryant 2014) which states that the two objects will transfer their traces while coming in contact [Lynner A. Milen et al.]. The main sources of pollen dust cross contamination includes soil, dust, mud area or they can be directly exchanged from plants and trees which contain spores of pollen (Mildenhall et al. 2004). ...
... The main sources of pollen dust cross contamination includes soil, dust, mud area or they can be directly exchanged from plants and trees which contain spores of pollen (Mildenhall et al. 2004). The second method involves investigation and communication about the climatic condition, plant ecology, vegetation, and soil, a topographic feature that is surrounded by the crime scene (Bryant 2014). ...
With the increase in human population, over exploitation of bioresources and climate change, there is an ever-growing threat to biological resources and biodiversity. Numerous species of plants and animals are under constant pressure of being extinct due to habitat loss and degradation. Loss of biodiversity would not only be disruptive to the delicate functioning of ecosystems but also incur huge losses economically affecting food security and public health among others. Understanding the inter-dependencies between life forms and their microbiomes is one of the many facets of conservation strategies that can aid in sustainable utilisation of bioresources. This chapter highlights the importance of metagenomics in elucidating roles of microbial (bacterial and fungal) communities whether it be in the gut of an animal, the rhizosphere of a plant or soil in a tropical forest. Due to the unculturability of most microbial species, metagenomics proves to be an effective approach in identifying the microbial wealth as well as their role in the ecological niches. In metagenomics, the total DNA of the collected sample is extracted followed by amplification of certain conserved genes, for example, 16S rDNA in bacteria and ITS regions in fungi. Knowledge of these phylogenetic profiles can be integrated with other existing data to assess host physiology and metabolism, which are known indicators of threat to biodiversity.
... A number of studies have been conducted using certain morphological traits from the skull and the pelvis in the assignment of population affinity [1,2,27]. However, this method has been shown to be subjective which requires a certain degree of expertise on the part of the examiner. ...
As part of their routine work, forensic anthropologists are expected to report population affinity as part of the biological profile of an individual. The skull is the most widely used bone for the estimation of population affinity but it is not always present in a forensic case. Thus, other bones that preserve well have been shown to give a good indication of either the sex or population affinity of an individual. In this study, the potential of measurements of the talus was investigated for the purpose of estimating population affinity in South Africans. Nine measurements from two hundred and twenty tali of South African Africans (SAA) and South African Whites (SAW) from the Raymond A. Dart Collection of Human Skeletons were used. Direct and step-wise discriminant function and logistic regression analyses were carried out using SPSS and SAS. Talar length was the best single variable for discriminating between these two groups for males while in females the head height was the best single predictor. Average accuracies for correct population affinity classification using logistic regression analysis were higher than those obtained from discriminant function analysis. This study was the first of its type to employ discriminant function analyses and logistic regression analyses to estimate the population affinity of an individual from the talus. Thus these equations can now be used by South African anthropologists when estimating the population affinity of dismembered or damaged or incomplete skeletal remains of SAA and SAW.
... The Bryophyta and Pteridophyta are spore-producers, and pollen is only produced by the Coniferophyta and the Angiophyta. A whole plant, and parts of its internal and external structure (woody and nonwoody tissue), can provide varied information but, one of the most frequent sources of botanical evidence is palynology-the study of pollen, spores, and other microscopic entities ( Mildenhall, 2008;Bryant, 2009;Wiltshire, 2009). Forensic diatom analysis is also well established, and some consider diatoms to be plants, but this discipline is highly specialized and is covered elsewhere ( Peabody and Cameron, 2010). ...
Botany has many subdisciplines which have proved to be valuable in providing evidence on: approach and exit paths and timing of events at crime scenes; postmortem interval and deposition times; differentiating kill from deposition sites; disturbance, and movement of objects; locating clandestine burials; information on peri- and premortem events; gut content analysis; premeditated burials; origins of soil, honey, weapons, drugs, etc.; trace evidence linking places, objects, and people; poisonous and psychotropic plants and plant products; identity and sources of biological objects; linking plant material to specific shipments; and confirming and refuting testimony. Examination and identification procedures are described, from crime scene to laboratory.
Pollen grains from different flowers range in sizes from 10 to 200 μm. Even though the morphological characterization of their optical images distinguishes them from each other, however, many times it becomes difficult to identify the genus of their plant especially in lieu to the pursuit of its taxonomy, fossil, and forensic study. The use of matrix laboratory tools (MATLAB) helps in distinguishing comparatively similar pollens and a trace amount of pollen dust by taking their optical image to match them with the pollen dust of present or past locations at a particular pilot scale. In the present study, about 80 pollens from their respective different flowers were collected, imaged, and analyzed by correlation studies using MATLAB tool. Among a random study of similarly shaped pollens, it was found that Asclepias curassavica and Crinum latifolium showed the highest correlation coefficient compared to that of Callistemon sp. pollen.KeywordsApplicationsCorrelationMATLABMorphologyPollen
Minutiae are small distinguishing features found along every ridge flow, which make each friction ridge print unique. The most common friction ridge prints found at the crime scene are fingerprints; therefore, the most of the minutiae studies are focused exactly on this kind of prints. The authors believe that further examination and enlargement of the palm print database could result in better use of the palm prints for personal identification. We analyzed a total of 160 palm prints from 40 females and 40 males aged between 18 and 70 years from Slovakia. For the evaluation of the minutiae, the area of the hypothenar had to be marked out. The classification of the minutiae used for this study was based on a modified version of the classification system using the total of 13 types of minutiae. The frequency of every minutiae type was calculated and, using the chi‐square test with Yates's correction, bilateral and sex differences were assessed. The relationship between the different types of minutiae was examined with Pearson's correlation test. During the initial phases of the identification process, the focus should be on the least common types of minutiae (Y or M and return), which were found not to correlate; thus, their mutual occurrence is random (e.g., overlap—Y or M, crossbar—return, or Y or M—dock). The results of the present study show which specific minutiae types are the most suitable for personal identification. These findings may be beneficial in more effective outcome of the identification process.
Determining the time of death, or time since death, may be crucial in the investigation of crime in assisting with the identification of a perpetrator or the exclusion of an individual. While no single method for determining time of death has proved to be consistently accurate and reliable, the state of food digestion and degree of gastric emptying have long been considered to play a role in this respect. This method of determining time of death requires macroscopic analysis of the food consumed and state of digestion, with microscopic analysis and ancillary investigations used to identify specific nutrients. However, this method is often considered controversial due to ante-mortem factors that affect gastric emptying. This chapter provides an overview of normal gastrointestinal physiology, factors that may affect the normal physiological processes, the principles of scientific analysis used in determining the nature of gastric contents and the application of these principles in estimating time of, or time since, death, and the limitations of such estimations.
The alcohol breath test is reviewed with a focus on gas exchange factors affecting its accuracy. The basis of the alcohol breath test is the assumption that alveolar air reaches the mouth during exhalation with no change in alcohol concentration. Recent investigations have shown that alcohol concentration is altered during its transit to the mouth. The exhaled alcohol concentration is modified by interaction with the mucosa of the pulmonary airways. Exhaled alcohol concentration is not an accurate indicator of alveolar alcohol concentration. Measuring alcohol concentration in the breath is very different process than measuring a blood level from air equilibrated with a blood sample. Airway exchange of alcohol leads to a bias against certain individuals depending on the anatomic and physiologic characteristics. Methodological modifications are proposed to improve the accuracy of the alcohol breath test to become fair to all.
In contrast to GC–MS, many factors are influencing mass spectra of organic compounds when analyzed by LC–MS. In-source or transport collision-induced dissociation by electrospray ionization or atmospheric pressure chemical ionization demonstrate the need for experimental condition standardization when building-up a library of reference spectra. Magnetic sector, quadrupole, ion trap or time-of-flight filters placed on single or multiple mass spectrometry instruments coupled with HPLC deliver unique mass intensities pattern from the same molecules that are most often not readily comparable between each other. This makes it very difficult or even impossible to rely on any collections of reference data whatever comparison algorithm is applied for library search or manual comparison when full confirmation of identity is required. Typical areas of expertise are very sensitive to sound and complete package procedures to withstand administrative or court’s scrutiny. In this paper, this problem is referred to the specific field of forensic toxicology and doping control in sports. Several official guidelines have been released recently and await confrontation with concrete cases. Closely related areas like residues in living animals and meat products are regulating these aspects with detailed procedures. Basically, they all propose the accumulation of a finite quantity of information about the unknown molecule and the reference substance. These confirmatory packages are briefly exposed, compared and evaluated for their future application to the newest LC–MS techniques that are more frequently used within these critical fields of expertise.
