2017 - Page 92 of 100 - searchfortruth.info

Selective Biodegradation In Hair Shafts Derived From Archaeological, Forensic And Experimental Contexts

January 17, 2019July 6, 2017 by admin

Summary

Background Hair is degraded by the action of both dermatophytic and nondermatophytic microorganisms. The importance of understanding hair sample condition in archaeological and forensic investigation highlights the need for a detailed knowledge of the sequence of degradation in samples that have been either buried or left exposed at the ground surface.
Objectives To investigate the sequence of biodegradative change to human terminal scalp hair from archaeological and forensic contexts.
Methods Cut modern scalp hair from three individuals with caucasoid-type hair was inoculated with soil microorganisms through soil burial in the field and under laboratory conditions to produce experimentally degraded samples. The degraded hair fibres were subjected to detailed histological examination using a combination of high-resolution light microscopy, transmission electron microscopy and scanning electron microscopy to investigate the nature and sequence of degradative change to hair structural components
Results ⁄discussion Degradation was found to occur first within the least structurally robust components that afford the least resistance to microbial ⁄chemical attack. The sequence of degradation

Revisiting the Spatial Analysis of Crime in National Forests

February 9, 2019July 6, 2017 by admin

We examined spatial patterns of crime incidents in national forests covering 112,396 km in the northwestern United States. In this study we analyzed a database containing 40,003 spatially referenced crime incidents representing felonies, infractions, and misdemeanors during 2 calendar years (2003–2004) at several geographic scales. We applied several geospatial analytical techniques including quadrat analysis, nearest neighbor analysis (NNA), and nearest neighbor hierarchical (NNH) clustering to investigate crime incident spatial patterning. These geospatial tools were beneficial in identifying crime incident relationships contained within a large, complex spatial database. NNH clustering identified 15 regional clusters with 16,138 crime incidents, focused in the central portion of Oregon’s national forests, specifically in the Deschutes, Mount Hood, and Willamette National Forests. Subsequent NNA tests confirmed spatial patterning in all three forests. Closer examination of a confirmed hot spot in one forest revealed a recreation corridor with adjacent recreation destination amenities and a large proximate metropolitan area, a combination of circumstances not apparent at the initial regional analysis scale. Other spatial...

Principles Of Stratigraphy

January 6, 2019July 6, 2017 by admin

Stratigraphy is That branch of geology that deals with formation, composition, sequence, and correlation of stratified rocks. Since the whole Earth is stratified, at least in a broad sense, bodies of all the different types of rocks—igneous, sedimentary, metamorphic—are subject to stratigraphic study and analysis. In most cases however, stratigraphy focuses on the evaluation of sedimentary rock strata. Modern principles of stratigraphic analysis were worked out in the 18th and 19th centuries by geologists such as Niels Stensen, James Hutton, Georges Cuvier, William Smith and Charles Lyell. By 1900 all the intellectual tools needed to establish the description, sequence, and correlation of strata were in place. Shortly after 1900, the tools needed to establish the absolute age of minerals containing unstable radioisotopes also became available, giving stratigraphers a physical basis for making chronostratigraphic correlations, at least in certain, favourable stratigraphic situations. Since the 1950’s effort has also been expended in establishing international standards for stratigraphic nomenclature, usage of stratigraphic terms, and the internationally agreed...

Open Source/Non-Commercial GIS Products

January 6, 2019July 6, 2017 by admin

I’m a big fan of open source software, including geospatial software, such as QGIS and GeoServer, and it’s not just because it can be used without paying a license fee. The best thing about open source is the community of users that share their code and support one another through shared applications, documentation, tips, and tricks. This is the same spirit that exists in the Pitney Bowes user community (Li360), ESRI’s GeoNET, and the countless other software communities of practice.

The question is, which GIS software is the best choice for an organization?

If you ask commercial vendors, they’ll explain that their paid-for solutions offer a higher level of reliability and quality. However, most QGIS users and consultants will say that their solutions are free, making them more attractive to the cash-strapped user. In fact, some QGIS users talk about open source software as if it’s air — a gift to the GIS community from selfless developers committed to the greater good. Let’s consider this more closely.

Additional Resource: Open Source or Commercial GIS, or both?

On-Site GIS Digital Archaeology

November 9, 2018July 6, 2017 by admin

The 1990s witnessed the progressive ‘miniaturization’ of personal computers and other digital devices. This affected virtually every type of business, research program, as well as the daily lives of millions of people around the world with access to electricity. The development of portable high-speed personal computers and other data collecting devices was not lost on archaeologists who have always had a deep interest in utilizing technological and scientific methods to advance their recording and study of the past (Renfrew and Bahn 2004). In 1997, when the University of California, San Diego initiated the deep-time study of ancient metallurgy and social evolution in Jabal Hamrat Fidan (JHF) region of the Faynan district in southern Jordan, a fairly traditional style of ‘analogue’ or paper archaeological recording was carried out during the first season of excavation. With the exception of using a very expensive Sony video camera for taking digital still photographs of...

Interfaces: Mobile GIS in archaeological survey

January 17, 2019July 6, 2017 by admin

You are surveying a broad, featureless plain and the planned coverage area is delimited in a Geographic Information System (GIS), but how do you rapidly locate your starting position and line up your survey crew with few landmarks? Your Global Positioning System (GPS) will get you to the survey area, but figuring out the coordinates is time consuming. Ideally, local maps and imagery, the survey coverage area, and yesterday’s coverage are available on a screen with your current GPS position indicated. You have discovered a site consisting of lithic concentrations of different material types, and each looks like a distinctive reduction event, but you only have 45 minutes to record and collect at the site. Using common GPS methods, you can map each concentration as a polygon feature, assign an ID number to it, document and collect it, and attribute it later. Alternately, you open the “lithic locus” geometry in a mobile GIS and map in each concentration. The GIS assigns a new ID number to the locus,..

Grids And Coordinates

February 8, 2019July 6, 2017 by admin

Latitude lines run east-west and are parallel to each other. If you go further north north, latitude values increase. Finally, latitude values (Y-values) range between -90 and +90 degrees

But longitude lines run north-south. They converge at the poles. And its X-coordinates are between -180 and +180 degrees.

Latitude and longitude coordinates make up our geographic coordinate system.

Map Coordinate Systems You can give anything on Earth latitude and longitude coordinates.

The field of study that measures the shape and size of the Earth is geodesy. Geodesists use coordinate reference systems such as WGS84, NAD27 and NAD83. In each coordinate system, geodists use mathematics to give each position on Earth a unique coordinate.

A geographic coordinate system defines two-dimensional coordinates based on the Earth’s surface. It has an angular unit of measure, prime meridian and datum (which contains the spheroid).

As shown in the image below, lines of longitude have X-coordinates between -180 and +180 degrees.

Grid Services for E-Archaeology

January 17, 2019July 6, 2017 by admin

Abstract

Archaeological data collection is based on the description of archaeological contexts. An archaeological excavation demolishes the original matrix within which the cultural material is found and special care is taken to record spatial context. Each artifact is described in terms of its physical and spatial properties as well as its relation to the matrix (for example soil composition). As several thousands of artifacts can be unearthed during a field season, there is a need to develop digital resources and collections that focus on the publication and preservation of data and the creation of tools for the analysis of these data. The first section of this paper presents preliminary results and the lessons learnt on the development of a prototype for an Australian archaeological digital collection based on data grid middleware and infrastructure. The second section introduces a versatile 3D reconstruction tool that visualizes the excavated archaeological artifacts with its associated stratigraphy. The data come from two major archaeological projects in Queensland, Australia: the Mill Point Archaeological...

Forensic Evaluation of Soils for Presence of Decaying Flesh

February 8, 2019July 6, 2017 by admin

I. Introduction

I.1 Forensic Searches for Human Remains The nature of police work is such that sometimes only vague clues are available regarding the location of a clandestine grave (e.g., “in farmer Brown’s bottom field.”). However,oftentimes without information of this type even the best available forensic tools have little hope of finding a grave. A variety of forensic tools can be used to locate clandestine graves. These are more efficient once the general location of a suspected grave site is identified. The forensic methods range from non-invasive techniques to extremely invasive techniques, and include aerial photographic surveys of suspected areas, ground level photographic surveys, magnetometer and metal detectors, dogs trained to search for cadavers, ground penetrating radar, infrared photography, vegetation differential (pioneer plants), and penetro meter. Treatments such as wetting the site and then using ground penetrating radar and/or magnetometer, plowing the siteand looking for color differential or other evidence of disturbances, and finally perform the actual forensic exhumation are also performed [1].

Crime Mapping and Spatial Analysis in National Forests

February 9, 2019July 6, 2017 by admin

We examined the spatial distribution of crime incidents on USDA Forest Service lands using a geographic information system and several spatial analysis techniques. Our primary objective was to examine whether patterns existed in the spatial distribution of crime and to explore the relationship of patterns to other geographic features using the Forest Service and other databases. We analyzed a database containing over 45,000 spatially referenced crimes such as felonies, infractions, and misdemeanors. Other spatial data layers included transportation networks, administrative boundaries, hydrology, elevation, and digital orthophotographs. Results at a regional scale showed crime densities concentrated in forests adjacent to population centers and transportation corridors. Nearest neighbor, quartic kernel density estimation, and quadrat analyses identified crime patterning and hot spots. Our results suggest that managers can use these spatial techniques as decision support tools to better understand the relationship between natural resources and crime.

Crime mapping has occurred for over 100 years but it is only recently that geographic information systems (GIS) have begun to...

Best Practice In Forensic Entomology—Standards And Guidelines

January 17, 2019July 6, 2017 by admin

Abstract Forensic entomology, the use of insects and other arthropods in forensic investigations, is becoming increasingly more important in such investigations. To ensure its optimal use by a diverse group of professionals including pathologists, entomologists and police officers, a common frame of guidelines and standards is essential. Therefore, the European Association for Forensic Entomology has developed a protocol document for best practice in forensic entomology, which includes an overview of equipment used for collection of entomological evidence and a detailed description of the methods applied. Together with the definitions of key terms and a short

Introduction
Forensic entomology is the name given to the study of insects (or even other arthropods such as mites and ticks) that form part of the evidence in legal cases [25], but it is mainly associated with death enquiries. Knowledge of the distribution, biology and behaviour of insects found where a body has been discovered can assist many types of forensic investigation by providing information on when, where, and how...

An Introduction to the Environmental Physics of Soil, Water and Watersheds

January 17, 2019July 6, 2017 by admin

Summary

This book is intended to provide the basic physical knowledge required to understand the processes involved in the sustainable use of the earth's land and water resources. Description of the physical science of soil and water processes is carried through to application at the watershed scale. Consideration of processes at this scale is necessary since this is the scale at which land-management decisions begin to be made and at which activities with environmental and water-quality implications occur.

The book is introductory in the sense that no prior knowledge of physics or calculus is assumed. Arithmetic and elementary algebra are used. No experience of computer-spreadsheet use is required of the reader, though the utility of such aids to calculation is illustrated on a few occasions. Though elementary in this sense, in some issues consideration is given to ideas at the frontier of research and understanding.

How theory can be applied to field data is illustrated using many examples...

Writing a Police Statement

February 12, 2019July 6, 2017 by admin

BACKGROUND
Requests for police statements regarding a patient’s medical condition or injuries are common. A lack of training in their preparation, coupled with ignorance as to their fate, combine to make the task one which is generally viewed as a necessary paperwork evil.
OBJECTIVE
This article aims to provide practical guidelines and a suggested format for use when preparing a police statement.
DISCUSSION
Police statements prepared by medical practitioners are important documents whose intended audience is overwhelmingly nonmedical. A small time investment made in the preparation of a concise, objective report in language likely to be understood by the lay person will assist the courts in understanding complex medical issues and may obviate the need for the doctor to appear in court as a witness. A structured statement ‘proforma’ can be readily customised and will both reduce time in preparation of reports and serve as a prompt for inclusion of essential details....

The Forensic Evaluation Of Burned Skeletal Remains: A Synthesis

January 6, 2019July 6, 2017 by admin

In recent years, research and case experience have greatly augmented knowledge regarding the effects of extreme heat on skeletal remains. As a result of this effort, enhanced interpretation is now possible on such issues as the extent of recovery, reconstruction, trauma, individual identification, size reduction, thermal effects on histological structures, color variation, the determination if remains were burned with or without soft tissue, DNA recovery and residual weight. The rapidly growing literature in this area of forensic science includes experimental research that elucidates the dynamics of the thermal impact on skeletal structure and morphology.

1. Introduction
Although many cases in forensic anthropology involve interpretation of burned bone, until relatively recently few scientific studies have focused specifically on this topic. Since thermal alterations can occur in all types of cases routinely examined in forensic anthropology, analysis is needed to address a variety of issues. These issues include recovery, reconstruction, trauma interpretation, bone recognition, weight interpretation, thermal correlations with coloration, shrinkage and structural changes, distinguishing bones

Pelvic and Thoracic Injuries in Nearside Impact Crashes: Analysis of Contributory Factors

January 17, 2019July 6, 2017 by admin

Abstract

The goal of this study was to identify variables related to vehicle design which are associated with pelvic and thoracic accelerations as measured by the driver's (near side) crash dummy during new car assessment program (NCAP) testing of motor vehicles. Vehicle specific parameters were analyzed using NCAP side impact test results. Data from national automotive sampling system, crashworthiness data system (NASS-CDS) and crash injury research and engineering network (CIREN) (both National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) injury databases) were assessed to confirm NCAP test observations. In addition, door armrest stiffness measurements were performed using a mechanical tester on a sample of 40 vehicles. NCAP data showed that of 10 variables tested using multiple linear regression, vehicle weight and door crush correlated with pelvic acceleration of the driver's crash dummy (overall, r2=0.58, p=0.002, n=165). For thoracic trauma index (TTI) vehicle weight and peak door velocity correlated, significantly (overall, r2=0.41, p=0.03, n=165). Mean TTI was 63.7 g with no side airbag (n=108) and 55.6 g with

Pediatric Forensic Pathology Is A Field Of Forensic Science

January 6, 2019July 6, 2017 by admin

Introduction

Pediatric forensic pathology is a field of forensic science. As such, it shares the frailties that many forensic sciences currently share. It was created by the justice system to serve its purpose and as such is an “uneasy partner” with the justice system; uneasy because the law demands a single casual theory in order to attach responsibility for precipitating or aggravating a victim’s condition while science can never supply absolute theories but rather presents findings in terms of probabilities. Forensic results in the relatively new field of DNA analysis represent the pinnacle of the scale of probability. Probabilities can be supplied in terms that approach absolute certainty. Nevertheless, even evidence of DNA analysis cannot be presented in terms of absolute certainty. As one moves down the scale from approaching absolute certainty to uncertainty, it is ironic that the terms in which evidence is presented appear to become more certain. For instance, bite-mark comparison, which has been recently tested and the results presented in the scientific...