Efficacy of a Community-Based Trauma Recovery Program after a Fire Disaster

As industries develop,fire disasters and their associated damage are increasing.Investigating the mental health of victims is imperative because this is an essential issue for community recovery after a disaster.This study was conducted to determine the efficacy of a program implemented by a community mental health center based on the investigation of the victims’depression and post-traumatic stress disorder(PTSD)levels immediately after the disaster and at one-year follow-up.As a result,victims’depression and PTSD recovered over time,and more changes were confirmed.In particular,the high-risk group for PTSD showed a high program participation rate,and there was significant recovery over time compared with the group without PTSD.Based on these results,community mental health programs are an effective way to increase community mental health after disasters.In the future,community-based recovery programs after disasters should be expanded,and administrative support for them should be developed.

The role of forensic anthropology in disaster victim identification(DVI):recent developments and future prospects

Forensic anthropological knowledge has been used in disaster victim identification(DVI)for over a century,but over the past decades,there have been a number of disaster events which have seen an increasing role for the forensic anthropologist.The experiences gained from some of the latest DVI operations have provided valuable lessons that have had an effect on the role and perceived value of the forensic anthropologist as part of the team managing the DVI process.This paper provides an overview of the ways in which forensic anthropologists may contribute to DVI with emphasis on how recent experiences and developments in forensic anthropology have augmented these contributions.Consequently,this paper reviews the value of forensic anthropological expertise at the disaster scene and in the mortuary,and discusses the way in which forensic anthropologists may use imaging in DVI efforts.Tissue-sampling strategies for DNA analysis,especially in the case of disasters with a large amount of fragmented remains,are also discussed.Additionally,consideration is given to the identification of survivors;the statistical basis of identification;the challenges related to some specific disaster scenarios;and education and training.Although forensic anthropologists can play a valuable role in different phases of a DVI operation,they never practice in isolation.The DVI process requires a multidisciplinary approach and,therefore,has a close collaboration with a range of forensic specialists.

Digital capture of fingerprints in a disaster victim identification setting:a review and case study

Identification of victims following a mass fatality is conducted by collecting and analysing a series of scientific identifiers and contextual information of each decedent.Recently,there has been a paradigm shift demanding that this complex identification process be accelerated to meet the needs of the surviving families,politicians and even the media.Postmortem fingerprint identification is a fast and efficient means of victim identification,and through the use of new advances in technology,the digital capture of fingerprints in a disaster victim identification(DVI)setting will play a strong role.This paper provides an overview of current technology and explains how this technology can adapt to current DVI procedures.The Malaysian Airlines Flight 17(MH17)incident is a recent example of a DVI event that utilized new digital fingerprint capture technology and further demonstrates why such technology is warranted in future mass fatality operations.

Friction ridge analysis in disaster victim identification(DVI):Brazilian case studies

Depending on the magnitude and nature of a disaster,identifying the victims can be a complex task that requires coordinated work by disaster victim identification(DVI)teams based on pre-established protocols.Thus,the analysis of fingerprints has been presented as a method to establish,when possible,the identity of the victims during the DVI process.This study discusses the importance of this primary method of identification and the results obtained in four different disasters in which Brazilian DVI teams were involved:the Air France Flight AF447 plane crash in the Atlantic Ocean,floods and mudslides in the State of Rio de Janeiro,Brazil,the LaMia Flight 2933 plane crash in Colombia,and the tailings dam collapse in Brumadinho,Brazil.Here,we also report the use of the automatic fingerprint capture and identification system,called Alethia,developed by the Federal Police of Brazil and used in the victim identification process in the two latter events mentioned above.

Forensic odontology in DVI:current practice and recent advances

Forensic odontology frequently plays a significant role in identification of the victims of multi-fatality disasters,but not in all.It depends on adequate dental remains surviving the disaster and on the availability of dental records to be successful.This paper describes current practice in the techniques of identification in forensic odontology and outlines recent advances that are moving into the mainstream.

Forensic odontology identification response to terrorist attacks in Paris November 2015

The terrorist attacks of November 2015 led to the immediate death of 129 victims admitted to the Legal and Forensic Medicine Institute of Paris,including 41 unidentified.During the Disaster Victim Identification(DVI)operations,22 bodies were examined by the postmortem(PM)dental team with the aim of establishing PM odontograms.At the same time,the dental expert in the antemortem(AM)unit collected a large number of dental files,progressively filtered as the list of missing persons became reduced.Feedback from these events has highlighted the difficulties of implementing the DVI chain principles in a legal framework,published the day before the attacks,and also the technical complexity of collecting dental data on a week end of terror.The return on experience after this event has represented a paradigm shift on previous methods of DVI in Paris and even more in France.Indeed,the victim identification procedure was redesigned,integrating new technical means such as a CT scan directly on spot,allowing the extraction of maxillofacial data as soon as possible in order to support the PM dental examination team.Moreover,the National Dental Council proceeded to the overall remodeling of the dental identification unit,which is composed of trained members,from local,regional and national aspects.These forensic experts are dedicated,at the request of the legal authorities,to DVI operations and deployed throughout the country capable of managing AM and PM data.This unit aims also to share experiences and awarenessraising among health professionals and investigators in order to optimize a better submission of AM elements and also to enhance the major interest of odontology as a primary identifier in disaster.

DNA identification of compromised samples with massive parallel sequencing

Genetic profiling is a standard procedure for human identification,i.e.in criminal cases and mass disasters,and has been proven to be an important part in the process in the repatriation of victims to their relatives.In the event of a catastrophe whether it be a natural disaster,terror attack or accident,fatalities of many nationalities may be a consequence and international collaboration becomes necessary.Current DNA techniques used on a routine basis at forensic laboratories world-wide are very useful,and results reported from different labs are compared,making it possible to be matched in order to declare the identification of a victim.Statistical calculations of possibilities of a random match are achievable since population data from many parts of the world are available.However,decomposition and degradation of the remains are not uncommon in the aftermath of a catastrophe and hence it may be difficult to retrieve detailed DNA profiles from such samples.Massive parallel sequencing(MPS)is a technique capable of producing a vast amount of DNA sequence data in a high-through put manner,and panels of single nucleotide polymorphism(SNP)markers allow the amplification of small DNA fragments,often seen in compromised samples.Here,we report the results from a set of 10 samples from missing person identification cases,analyzed with an MPS based method comprising 131 SNP markers and compared with direct reference material or buccal swab samples collected from relatives of the deceased.We assess the weight of evidence of a match by statistical calculation.Furthermore,we compare results reported on different platforms using different SNP panels,and conclude that more work has to be done if results from missing person identification cases analyzed on MPS with SNP panels at different laboratories are to be fully reliable and thus comparable.

Automatic detection of teeth and dental treatment patterns on dental panoramic radiographs using deep neural networks

Disaster victim identification issues are especially critical and urgent after a large-scale disaster.The aim of this study was to suggest an automatic detection of natural teeth and dental treatment patterns based on dental panoramic radiographs(DPRs)using deep learning to promote its applicability as human identifiers.A total of 1638 DPRs,of which the chronological age ranged from 20 to 49 years old,were collected from January 2000 to November 2020.This dataset consisted of natural teeth,prostheses,teeth with root canal treatment,and implants.The detection of natural teeth and dental treatment patterns including the identification of teeth number was done with a pre-trained object detection network which was a convolutional neural network modified by EfficientDet-D3.The objective metrics for the average precision were 99.1%for natural teeth,80.6%for prostheses,81.2%for treated root canals,and 96.8%for implants,respectively.The values for the average recall were 99.6%,84.3%,89.2%,and 98.1%,in the same order,respectively.This study showed outstanding performance of convolutional neural network using dental panoramic radiographs in automatically identifying teeth number and detecting natural teeth,prostheses,treated root canals,and implants.

Forensic Dental Identification:Practice in Indian Context Compared to Western Countries

Today,in most of the countries forensic dental identification is considered as one of the most accurate and reliable method of identification of human remains.This application of forensic dentistry has proven successful in both single identification cases as well as in multiple fatality incidents such as world trade center disaster in 2001,the Asian tsunami in December 2004 etc.Comparative dental identification is one of the primary means of identification along with DNA and fingerprint analysis and also the most common method of identification of human remains.Identification of human remains from dental records is mandated by the law in some countries.India is one of the most disaster‑prone countries of the world.It has had some of the world’s most severe droughts,famines,earthquakes,road accidents,and rail accidents.In this paper,few multiple fatality incidents that took place over the last decade in India are reported.A brief analysis of all the reported cases and difficulties encountered during identification were discussed.The purpose of this paper is to discuss some of the issues involved in body identifications following disasters in India.The author also discussed to what extent Indian government is successful in utilizing the expertise of a forensic dentist in body identifications and also compared the present practice of forensic dental identification in India to Western countries.The goal is to cite situations and to bring issues into better focus,and hence that the identification procedures can be refined and changes can be made as necessary.