Forensic Identification of Four Indian Snake Species Using Single Multiplex Polymerase Chain Reaction

Among different endangered animal species,snakes are the most neglected creature looked at with apathy and therefore,are ruthlessly killed,illegally trafficked,and poached for their venom,lucrative skin,meat,and bones for manufacturing of medicines,accessories,and food items.Establishing the identity of the endangered snake species is important for punishing the offenders under Wildlife Protection Act(WPA)(1972)but morphological characters fail to establish identity as they are often altered.The technique of identification of snake species at molecular level holds very effective conclusion in punishing offender.Here,we have constructed and demonstrated a novel multiplexing polymerase chain reaction technique,using 16S rRNA and C-mos gene for identification of four Indian snake species,namely Ptyas mucosa,Daboia russellii,Naja naja,and Xenochrophis piscator.They are listed in Appendix-II and III of convention on international trade in endangered species of wild fauna and flora and Schedule II;Part II of Indian WPA,1972.Therefore,it may be considered a functional tool for establishing species-specific identity of four Indian snake species and promising to be useful for their conservation.

Forensic Identification of Cases with Infectious Diseases Such as Novel Coronavirus Pneumonia

Deaths or other legal disputes caused by novel coronavirus pneumonia(COVID-19)may require forensic pathological autopsy or forensic clinical identification.During daily forensic identification of cases in which individuals died of infectious diseases,forensic identification agencies and experts should be fully aware of the risk of infection when dissecting and examining such cadavers.Furthermore,forensic identification personnel should always adopt eflfective protective measures.As a novel infectious disease,research and information on COVID-19 are updated rapidly.Therefore,guidelines should be carefully selected for forensic identification.In addition to the above aspects,this paper has also discussed other common issues during the forensic autopsy of patients who died of infectious diseases,such as professional ethics,informed consent,insurance claims,and environmental protection.

Forensic Identification of Traumatic Thoracic Aortic Pseudoaneurysm:A Surviving Case Report

Traumatic thoracic aortic pseudoaneurysm is a rare and has a high mortality rate.Forensic identification in a living individual is even more rare.We herein present the case involving a 25‑year‑old male who developed a thoracic aortic pseudoaneurysm after a traffic accident.The debate,in this case,focused on whether a causal relationship was present between the traffic accident and the aortic pseudoaneurysm.Based on the patient’s trauma history,clinical manifestations,clear evidence of chest trauma,surgical findings,and exclusion of potential diseases,we determined that a causal relationship was present between the trauma and the aortic pseudoaneurysm.We propose that potential autogenous diseases should be excluded in the future evaluation of similar cases.

Pinpointing the Short-tandem Repeats Alleles for Ethnic Inferencing in Forensic Identification by K-medoids Approach

Background:The role of DNA analysis for ethnicity inferencing is a topic that attracts much interest from researchers in forensic identification,especially for identifying unknown bodies and trace evidence.So far,the approaches considered effective for ethnic inferencing are autosomal single-nucleotide polymorphisms,Y-chromosome short-tandem repeats(STRs),and mitochondrial DNA haplotyping,which successfully demonstrates the association of specific nucleotides or patterns with population groups.Ethnic inferencing based on autosomal STRs is complex due to the nature of recombination in gamete formation.Aim:This study attempts to use clustering analysis to associate alleles and loci of autosomal STRs with population groups.Materials and Methods:We examined the allele frequency data from 19 STRs loci from the Malay Indonesian population(n=470)to compare with other populations,namely,Chinese Indonesian(n=133)and four reference populations(Malay Malaysian,Filipino,Chinese,and Caucasian).K-Medoids clustering analysis was carried out to pinpoint alleles and loci affecting the population clustering process.Results:The first stage of clustering results placed Malay Indonesians and four other Asian populations,namely,Chinese Indonesian,Malay Malaysian,Filipino,and Chinese,in Cluster 1,whereas the Caucasian group was in Cluster 2.It indicates that the CSF1PO,D5S818,and D8S1179 loci significantly distinguished the five Asian population groups from the Caucasian group,whereas D2S441,D8S1179,and D22S1045 were the three loci that significantly influenced the separation between Malay Indonesians and other groups.Conclusions:We conclude that K-medoids clustering analysis has the potential to play a role in ethnicity estimation by pinpointing specific STRs alleles.

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.

Forensic Human Image Identification Using Medical Indicators

Diseases not only bring troubles to people’s body functions and mind but also influence the appearances and behaviours of human beings.Similarly,we can analyse the diseases from people’s appearances and behaviours and use the personal medical history for human identification.In this article,medical indicators presented in abnormal changes of human appearances and behaviours caused by physiological or psychological diseases were introduced,and were applied in the field of forensic identification of human images,which we called medical forensic identification of human images(mFIHI).The proposed method analysed the people’s medical signs by studying the appearance and behaviour characteristics depicted in images or videos,and made a comparative examination between the medical indicators of the questioned human images and the corresponding signs or medical history of suspects.Through a conformity and difference analysis on medical indicators and their indicated diseases,it would provide an important information for human identification from images or videos.A case study was carried out to demonstrate and verify the feasibility of the proposed method of mFIHI,and our results showed that it would be important contents and angles for forensic expert manual examination in forensic human image identification.

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.

The Determination of Heritability in palatal Rugae Pattern among Parents and their Off-Springs in Western India-A Cross-sectional Study

Background:Palatal rugae are asymmetrical elevations present on hard palate and are significant due to their uniqueness,stability and thus,aid in forensic identification.Objective:The objective is to determine palatal rugae morphology between parents and their offsprings and to determine their genetic inheritance.Materials and Methods:This randomized controlled cross-sectional single-blinded study was conducted on 50 families(randomly selected)who visited Vyas Dental College and Hospital.A total of 150 maxillary study models were examined and rugae were delineated and shape,size,and pattern of rugae were recorded.Results:Weak but significant correlation was seen in the nonspecific and angular type of palatal rugae between child and mother and child and father as P<0.05.Matching with either or both of their parent was seen for curved,wavy,divergent,straight,horseshoe,angular,and nonspecific type of rugae with the higher%of wavy pattern matching(52%with mother and 54%with father).A considerable number of samples showed high heritability of primary and secondary rugae from both parents,but more predominantly to their mothers(branched,nonspecific,and straight).Conclusion:Both environmental and genetic factors can influence the rugae pattern.Further,studies should be conducted on a larger sample size to get more significant results.

An overview of forensic operations performed following the terrorist attacks on November 13,2015,in Paris

On the evening of November 13,2015,the city of Paris and its surroundings was hit by a series of attacks committed by terrorist groups,using firearms and explosives.The final toll was 140 people deceased(130 victims and 10 terrorists or their relatives)and more than 413 injured,making these attacks the worst mass killings ever recorded in Paris in peacetime.This article presents the forensic operations carried out at the Medicolegal Institute of Paris(MLIP)following these attacks.A total of 68 autopsies of bodies or body fragments and 83 external examinations were performed within 7 days,and the overall forensic operations(including formal identification of the latest victims)were completed 10 days after the attacks.Over this period,156 body presentations(some bodies were presented several times)were provided to families or relatives.Regarding the 130 civilian casualties,129 died from firearm wounds and one died from blast injuries after an explosion.Of the 10 terrorists or their relatives who were killed,eight died from suicide bombing,one was shot by police and one died from crush injuries due to partial collapse of a building following the police raid against a terrorist’s hideout after the attacks.All mass shootings were perpetrated with AK-47 or Zastava M70 assault rifles using 7.62mm39mm cartridges.In the case of ballistic injuries,death was most often obviously caused by craniocerebral injuries,extensive organ lacerations and/or massive haemorrhage.Among the terrorists killed by bombing,the lesion patterns were body transection,multiple amputations,extreme organ lacerations and the presence of foreign bodies owing to the shrapnel load(steel nuts,glass fragments)or the explosive charge fastening system of the devices.This discussion highlights the particular difficulties of interpretation encountered within the framework of ballistic injuries,a conclusion that should lead to a modest and realistic approach in these exceptional situations where forensic operations involve a very large number of victims in a constrained time.

Construction and evaluation of in-house methylation-sensitive SNaPshot system and three classification prediction models for identifying the tissue origin of body fluid

The identification of tissue origin of body fluid can provide clues and evidence for criminal case investigations.To establish an efficient method for identifying body fluid in forensic cases,eight novel body fluid-specific DNA methylation markers were selected in this study,and a multiplex single base extension reaction(SNaPshot)system for these markers was constructed for the identification of five common body fluids(venous blood,saliva,menstrual blood,vaginal fluid,and semen).The results indicated that the in-house system showed good species specificity,sensitivity,and ability to identify mixed biological samples.At the same time,an artificial body fluid prediction model and two machine learning prediction models based on the support vector machine(SVM)and random forest(RF)algorithms were constructed using previous research data,and these models were validated using the detection data obtained in this study(n=95).The accuracy of the prediction model based on experience was 95.79%;the prediction accuracy of the SVM prediction model was 100.00%for four kinds of body fluids except saliva(96.84%);and the prediction accuracy of the RF prediction model was 100.00%for all five kinds of body fluids.In conclusion,the in-house SNaPshot system and RF prediction model could achieve accurate tissue origin identification of body fluids.

An Acoustic Analysis of Fluctuations for Inter-and Intra-Speaker Variability in Speech Sounds

Background:Variation in the speech of speakers is a crucial issue for the forensic system.The main reason behind incorrect speaker identification is greater intra-speaker fluctuation.In the forensic state of play,a lot of research has been carried out on speaker identification.However inter variations and intra fluctuations in speakers for the Punjabi language is still a grey area.Aims and Objectives:Our aim is to study acoustic analysis of fluctuations for inter and intra speaker variability in speech sounds.In our study,we will consider Punjabi vowel with consonants.The Statistical methods will be applied to analyze the data;firstly,the Shapiro-Wilk test will be checked for normality and then Levene’s Test to assess the equality of variances.Materials and Method:Five vowels were selected with different consonants.They were combined to make meaningful words.Then these meaningful words were embedded in sentences.Ten speakers participated voluntarily.All are students of A.S College at Khanna in Punjab.The individuals were aged between 20-22 years with no hearing or speech disorder.The voice samples were recorded with help of good quality microphone and by Goldwave software in the sound proof lab.Samples were introduced directly into PRAAT software by the use of a Sony microphone and with sampling rate of 44100 Hz frequency.Acoustic Analysis has been done with help of Goldwave software in form of spectrograms.Results and Conclusion:Each formant shows a different value for inter variations and inter speaker fluctuations.F1 and F2 shows lesser speaker variation than the high-frequency region in F3 and F4,so we can say that in comparison with the lower part,high-frequency regions are more valuable.The assumptions for TWO-WAY ANOVA is violated and hence,we have used the non-parametric Friedman Test and performed its Post hoc analysis.From Posthoc analysis,we can say that F1 and F2(p>0.05)and F2 and F3(p>0.05)gave the same type of results.Hence,from the results of these statistical tests,we can conclude that F1 is recommended over F2,F3,and F4.As the frequency of F1 is high as well as in line with the results of statistical tests.Because we prefer more variation among frequencies so that we can easily distinguish different speakers and it would be more beneficial for inter variations and intra fluctuations.

Stature estimation from footprint measurements in Bangladeshi adults

The estimation of stature is very important in forensic investigation,as it provides useful data that can narrow the pool of potentially matching identities.The purpose of this study was to develop formulae for the estimation of stature from footprint measurements in Bangladeshi adults.This study included 118 randomly selected men and 130 randomly selected women,all aged 18–50 years.From each participant,stature and six footprint measurements were taken by means of standard measurement techniques.Footprint measurements were found to be positively correlated with stature.Stature was estimated by using linear regression equations.The right T1 length in men(R:þ0.587,R^(2):0.345)and the right T2 length in women(R:þ0.506,R^(2):0.256)were the most reliable individual estimators of stature.However,when data were combined for both sexes,the right T2 length was identified as the most reliable estimator of stature,with higher values of R(þ0.792)and R^(2)(0.627).In conclusion,human stature can be successfully estimated by using footprint measurements;this finding can be applied in forensic research and investigation.