Assessing the publication output in the field of forensic science and legal medicine using Web of Science database from 2011 to 2020

The aim of this study was threefold.First,it analyzed the characteristics of the publication outputs for the Legal Medicine(LM)category using the Web of Science(WoS)database during 2011-2020.Second,it discussed the distribution of the papers for the 25 most productive countries/regions in terms of quality and quantity,such as the h-index and GDP per capita.Finally,it investigated the trend and temporal stability of the journal impact factor(JIF)and determined the percentage of the journal self-citations.The findings suggested that the number of papers,the average number of pages of the papers,the average number of cited references in the papers,the average number of authors per paper,the percentage of open access papers,as well as international and domestic collaboration tended to increase regularly.However,the productivity was limited when compared to the whole WoS database,since there was no significant change in the number of the journals.The countries/regions with the highest number of publications were not those that made the most impact in terms of the widespread impact of the publications.The level of international cooperation and the funding for the research had dramatic impact on the visibility of papers.The average JIF has increased significantly while the journal self-citation rates have decreased in a similar way.The journals have had very stable(have not fluctuated)impact factors over time.During the period studied,the journals with the higher impact factors(Q1,Q2)published many more papers than journals with the lower impact factors(Q3,Q4).

Postmortem Nasopharyngeal Swabs Performed during the COVID-19 Infection:Analysis of Preliminary Clinical Records by the Genoa Institute of Legal Medicine(North-West Italy)

COVID-19,the disease caused by the SARS-CoV-2 virus,is highly contagious.The persistence of the virus after infected individuals die remains unclear.This article reports the findings taken from postmortem nasopharyngeal swabs performed to investigate the presence of SARS-CoV-2 in the corpses transferred to the Genoa District Mortuary from the outset of the Italian lockdown(March 9)to the end of the first emergency phase(July 13).One hundred and eighty swabs were carried out:13 corpses resulted positive for the virus,with the diagnosis being reached only after death.Seven were male and 6 female with an average age of 73.5 years old.The most frequent comorbidities recorded were arterial hypertension,diabetes,Alzheimer 5s,and pulmonary disease.In two cases,the swab tested positive at a distance of 125 h and 165 h from actual death.The nasopharyngeal swab results a useful way to screen corpses for COVID-19 and to handle bodies in Legal Medicine Centers where safe autoptic rooms are not available.Swabs are also a means of safeguarding forensic pathologists,identifying the presence of breeding grounds in the community and providing information for the Public Prosecutor's Office in legal cases.They are able to produce reliable results up to at least 7 days following death,provided that the corpse is correctly preserved.

Rhazes’concepts on medical ethics

Ethics in any industry and profession,especially in medicine,is a matter of great concern and debatable.Ancient Persian Muslim doctors also did not neglect this issue,as they mentioned some points regarding the observance of medical ethics in most of their books.Rhazes'"Akhlaq al-Tabib"treatise is one of the most important manuscripts on medical ethics.Abu Bakr Muhammad ibn Zakariyya Razi,known in the west as Rhazes,was a great Persian scientist and physician who lived in the 9th and 10th centuries AD.In the"Akhlaq al-Tabib"treatise,he wrote a collection of his guidelines and ideas about medical ethics.In this manuscript,Rhazes first mentioned the ethical qualities that the physician must admire,and then pointed out the ethical standards regarding treatment and patient's rights.The study found that the principles of tenth-century medical ethics are very similar to what is being said today.

Modernization of Medicine in the Ottoman Empire and Its Effects on Forensic Sciences

Modernization in medicine began in the Ottoman Empire in the 19^(th)century.Until that time,medical education had been provided through the traditional master-apprentice practices and its methods had relied on custom or religion.The most important of these reforms was in 1827,when the first medical schools in surgical and clinical branches were opened in Istanbul.The lack of contemporary understanding in medical education until that time had caused an underdevelopment in forensic sciences as it had in various other fields.Following the reform movements,the contents of the forensic medicine curriculum,mainly influenced by the French medical schooling,touched upon all areas of forensic sciences such as pathology,toxicology,organic chemistry,neuropsychiatry,gynecology,handwriting analysis and criminalistics.It was noteworthy to see such rapid development in scientific modernization considering the fact that,before the reform movements,the religion had a repressive effect and it was forbidden to even perform laboratory tests or examinations on corpses.In the modem Turkish Republic,founded in 1923 after World War I,scientific reforms gained momentum and began competing with the modem world.Such that,after a letter sent to the Turkish Government by Albert Einstein in 1933,the contemporary Turkish universities embraced the scientists who escaped from the Nazi regime.

Trauma outcomes in nonfatal road traffic accidents:a Portuguese medico-legal approach

The objective of this study was to compare the outcomes of nonfatal road traffic accidents by the victims’age group and sex.We used the Portuguese medico-legal rules for personal injury assessment,in the scope of the Civil Law in that country,which includes a three-dimensional methodology.This was a retrospective study including 667 victims of road traffic accidents aged 3–94 years old.Their final medico-legal reports all used the Portuguese methodology for personal injury assessment.Outcomes were analysed by the victims’age group(children,working-age adults,and older people)and sex.Road traffic accidents were generally serious(ISS mean 9.5),with higher severity in children and older people.The most frequent body sequelae were musculoskeletal(64.8%),which were associated with functional and situational outcomes.Temporary damage resulted in an average length of impairment of daily life of 199.6 days,171.7 days to return to work,and an average degree of quantum doloris(noneconomic damage related to physical and psychological harm)of 3.7/7.The average permanent damage was 7.3/100 points for Permanent Functional Deficit,0.43/3 for Permanent Professional Repercussion,2/7 for Permanent Aesthetic Damage,3.9/7 for Permanent Repercussion on Sexual Activity and 3.2/7 for Permanent Repercussion on Sport and Leisure Activities.Overall,19%of people became permanently dependent(10.6%needed third-party assistance).The medico-legal methodology used,considering victims’real-life situation,allows a comprehensive assessment.There were several significant differences among the three age groups but none between sexes.These differences and the impact of the more severe cases justify further detailed medico-legal studies in these specific situations on children,older people,and severely injured victims.

Analysis of the testimonial evidence of Portugal's first major forensic case:part Ⅱ

The crime possibly perpetrated by a doctor named Vicente Urbino de Freitas in 1890 is one of the most famous cases of poisoning,and it had echoes in the Portuguese and foreign press for several decades.This prestigious doctor was convicted of the fatal poisoning of his nephew.He also attempted the homicide of two nieces and their mother-in-law,who only escaped because they obstinately refused to comply with the"therapeutics"prescribed by the family doctor.The motive of the crime should have been Vicente Urbino de Freitas'ambition to receive the family inheritance of his wife,the daughter of the well-known mer-chant Jose Antonio Sampaio of Flores Street in Porto.Vicente Urbino de Freitas was con-victed but doubt about his guilt persists for more than a century.This second work aimed to collect and analyse all the relevant and contradictory testimonial evidence of the prosecu-tion and defence witnesses.This case represents an odd historical record obtained through more than 12years of research on the first major significant Portuguese forensic case.Rare and unprecedented testimonial evidence and photographs were obtained from different countries and then repaired,since these also provide an important historical record of the medical photography.

Identification of victims of the collapse of a mine tailing dam in Brumadinho

The collapse of the B1 Dam of VALESAmining company in Brumadinho,Minas Gerais,Brazil was the largest humanitarian disaster and occupational accident in the country’s history,and it posed challenges regarding the management and identification of multiple victims.We evaluated the impact of the iron ore tailings on the victims’bodies.We examined the scientific identification of the victims and the dynamics of the disaster over the 1st year after it occurred.We also determined the socio-demographic profiles of the victims.In this retrospective,cross-sectional study,we investigated the expert reports of the victims’biological remains from 25 January 2019 to 25 January 2020.We analysed the socio-demographic data,identification methods,identification status,identification time,and necroscopic information.During the study period,259 of 270 victims were identified,and 603 biological materials were analysed;among them,86.2%were body parts and 13.8%were whole bodies.Of the total cases registered that year,476(78.9%)were submitted during the first 10 weeks after the disaster.Friction ridge analysis accounted for 67.9%of primary identifications and DNAanalysis did so for 91.6%of re-identification cases.Body dismemberment was 3.4 times greater among mine workers than among community victims.Adult males accounted for the greatest number of victims(P<0.001).Polytraumatic injury was the prevalent single cause of death.Necropsy examination revealed the occurrence of asphyxia in 7%of cases.The higher number of fatalities and greater dismemberment among employees than with community residents underlines the occupational dangers in the mining industry and clarifies the dynamics of the disaster.In the initial weeks after the dam collapsed,friction ridge analysis was the most appropriate method for identification.Subsequently,DNAanalysis became the most-used technique for identification and re-identification owing to the great volume of body parts and decomposed biological tissue.Autopsy allowed diagnosis of the causes of death to be clarified according to the Brazilian criminal legal system.

Histopathological,histochemical and biochemical postmortem changes in induced fatal hypothermia in rats

Reaching a postmortem diagnosis of hypothermia is challenging in forensic practice.Therefore,this study was conducted to detect the histopathological,histochemical and biochemical changes that occur in adult albino rats following exposure to induced fatal hypothermia.Twenty-four adult albino rats were divided into the negative control,moderate hypothermia,severe hypothermia and hypoxia groups.Rats in the control group were euthanized when those in the moderate hypothermic group died.Blood samples were collected via heart puncture,and the cerebrum,heart,suprarenal gland,kidney,liver and skeletal muscle were removed to investigate the biochemical,histochemical and histopathological changes.Postmortem assessment depicted significant changes in lipid peroxidation,represented by increased malondialdehyde levels in the studied organs of the rats in hypothermic and hypoxia groups.Histopathological examination of the rats’organs revealed degeneration and necrosis in the hypothermia and hypoxia groups.Sections taken from the severe hypothermic rats revealed a loss of normal cardiac tissue architecture,necrotic changes in the pyramidal cells in the cerebral cortex,and massive necrosis,mainly in the tubules of the renal cortex and medulla.These findings suggest that histological changes might be used as biochemical markers for postmortem diagnosing of fatal hypothermia,particularly in severe hypothermic conditions.

FORSETI: A visual analysis environment enabling provenance awareness for the accountability of e-autopsy reports

Autopsy reports play a pivotal role in forensic science.Medical examiners(MEs)and diagnostic radiologists(DRs)cross-reference autopsy results in the form of autopsy reports,while judicial personnel derive legal documents from final autopsy reports.In our prior study,we presented a visual analysis system called the forensic autopsy system for e-court instruments(FORSETI)with an extended legal medicine markup language(x-LMML)that enables MEs and DRs to author and review e-autopsy reports.In this paper,we present our extended work to incorporate provenance infrastructure with authority management into FORSETI for forensic data accountability,which contains two features.The first is a novel provenance management mechanism that combines the forensic autopsy workflow management system(FAWfMS)and a version control system called lmmlgit for x-LMML files.This management mechanism allows much provenance data on e-autopsy reports and their documented autopsy processes to be individually parsed.The second is provenance-supported immersive analytics,which is intended to ensure that the DRs’and MEs’autopsy provenances can be viewed,listed,and analyzed so that a principal ME can author their own report through accountable autopsy referencing in an augmented reality setting.A fictitious case with a synthetic wounded body is used to demonstrate the effectiveness of the provenance-aware FORSETI system in terms of data accountability through the experience of experts in legal medicine.

Analysis of the autopsy,toxicological,and psychiatric reports of Portugal’s first major forensic case:partⅢ

This work presents an odd historical record obtained through more than 14 years of research regarding one of the first major european forensic cases.The presumed homicide of Mário Guilherme Augusto de Sampaio in 1890 was allegedly perpetrated by his uncle,the prestigious doctor vicente Urbino de Freitas.This famous poisoning had international repercussions for decades,with the participation of several forensic experts that made the history of forensic sciences,namely forensic toxicology and pathology.This third work aims to collect,restore,and analyse all the forensic evidence,particularly from the autopsy,toxicological,and psychiatric forensic reports.Facts regarding the life of vicente Urbino de Freitas during his exile in Brazil were also recovered,along with a vast and outstanding assortment of forensic medicine photographs from the 19th century.