Showing papers in "Science & Justice in 2017"

TL;DR: The aim of this article is to sensitise forensic practitioners (and lawyers and judges) to a range of potentially significant issues, and encourage them to engage with research in these domains so that they may adapt procedures to improve performance, mitigate risks and reduce errors.

TL;DR: A conceptual understanding has the potential to ensure that the endeavour of forensic reconstruction has its roots in 'problem-solving' science, and can offer transparency and clarity in the conclusions and inferences drawn from trace evidence, thereby enabling the value of trace evidence to be realised in investigations and the courts.

TL;DR: Results show that the output from the two-level model gives good discrimination between same and different source hypotheses, but a post-hoc calibration step is necessary to improve the accuracy of the likelihood ratios.

TL;DR: It is argued that a conceptual understanding of forensic reconstruction that draws on the full range of both explicit and tacit forms of knowledge, and incorporates the strengths of the different domains pertinent to forensic science, offers a pathway to harness the full value of trace evidence for context sensitive, problem-solving forensic applications.

TL;DR: This study used a systematic content analysis to identify misleading evidence, drawing information from case transcripts of rulings argued unsafe by the Court of Appeal of England and Wales over a 7-year period.

TL;DR: PMI estimations for exposed terrestrial cases in Canada unreliable, combined with a limited understanding of the full range of variables which influence the speed of decomposition, makes PMi estimations elsewhere unreliable and calls in question PMI estimation elsewhere.

TL;DR: This article is meant to raise awareness of cognitive bias contamination in forensic DNA testing and to give laboratories possible pathways to make sound decisions to address its influences.

TL;DR: This paper describes, explores, and tests three procedures which shrink the value of the likelihood ratio or Bayes factor toward the neutral value of one.

TL;DR: This model will allow rapid prediction of the binding activity of emerging benzodiazepines in a rapid and economic way, compared with lengthy and expensive in vitro/in vivo analysis, to enable forensic chemists and toxicologists to better understand both recently developed compounds and prediction of substances likely to emerge in the future.

TL;DR: The results of both experiments suggest that it is possible to kill and store fly larvae directly in (not hot) ≥70%-ethanol, and helps to simplify the sampling and evaluation of entomological evidence and to backup or questioning existing guidelines and best practice recommendations.

TL;DR: The impact of time on deposited fingerprints was investigated, revealing that while the quality of profiles deteriorated, full STR profiles could still be obtained from samples after 40days of storage at room temperature.

TL;DR: The aim of this study was to investigate self-synthesized amphetamines concerning their identity and their enantiomeric status either by GC-MS or by HPLC, and simultaneous chiral separation of three positions isomers, namely 2-fluoroamphetamine, 3- fluoroamphetamine and 4-fluoromethamphetamine, was shown successfully by HP LC.

TL;DR: Detailed physical and chemical analysis of gunshot residue deposited in the nearest vicinity of a submachine gun alone and with a sound suppressor was performed and their availability for research was established and discussed.

TL;DR: It is argued that the problem faced by forensic scientists, the reporting on imperfect personal knowledge, in terms of probabilities, can be reconstructed as a decision problem by tackling this problem through a rigorous decision theoretic analysis.

TL;DR: Findings in exploring ATR-FTIR spectral profiles for characterizing both genuine and questioned samples of several generic and brand-name sildenafil- and tadalafil"-based tablets available on the Brazilian market, including Viagra and Cialis evidenced the strong spectral similarities between generic andbrand-named tablets employing the same active ingredient.

TL;DR: The data suggest a trend for West and Central European countries to concentrate the majority of Prüm matches, while DNA databases of Eastern European countries tend to contribute with profiles of people that match stains in other countries.

TL;DR: Six novel mRNAs are characterised, partly identified from RNA-Seq, which can supplement existing markers for the detection of circulatory blood, semen (with and without spermatozoa), and menstrual fluid: HBD and SLC4A1 for blood, TNP1 for spermatoozoa, KLK2 for seminal fluid, and MMP3 and STC1 for menstrual fluid.

TL;DR: The smart single cell analysis method is used to recover probative single source profiles from individual and agglomerated cells from various touched objects and clothing items belonging to known donors and for the detection of single source male donor DNA in simulated physical contact/assault mixture samples.

TL;DR: The scope of the issues that will confront forensic and user communities is identified, as forensic science touches on areas as diverse as 'big data', privacy and protected health information.

TL;DR: The controversial question is debated, could the authors be facing an era where digital crime can no longer be effectively policed?

TL;DR: The suitability of the studied characteristics for age estimation in living individuals could be confirmed and the high number of missing third molars in the studied age group must be considered as a limitation of the methods.

TL;DR: The accuracy of juvenile age estimation from the face alone is poor using simple visual assessment of images, and further research is required to determine exactly how age is assessed from a facial image.

TL;DR: Assessment of dental development with both orthopantomography and computed tomography imaging, by using DentaVol© software, can be considered a good indicator of age of majority (18years or older) in all third molars.

TL;DR: This paper replies to recent comments according to which subjective probability is not considered to be a concept fit for use in forensic evaluation and expert reporting by explaining that it understands subjective probability as a justified assertion, i.e. a conditional assessment based on task-relevant data and information that may be thought of as a constrained subjective probability.

TL;DR: The importance of considering the impact of new technologies into a forensic workflow on established forensic evidence prior to implementation is illustrated by the effect of flying a quadcopter drone over a controlled scene and taking off at different distances from the scene.

TL;DR: The findings indicate that the type of scoring method used has a significant impact on the ability to accurately evaluate the decomposition of exposed pig carcasses from photographs, and it was identified that photographic taphonomic analysis can reach high inter-observer reproducibility.

TL;DR: The findings show that the interpretation of the crime scene by CSIs is affected by the moment identification information is provided, and CSIs seem to attach great value to traces that produce matches with databases and hence yield a name of a known person.

TL;DR: It is suggested that the RNA method could be introduced to current saliva identification procedures and should be used as a supplementary method to strongly support identification of saliva by the amylase-based method.

TL;DR: A series of experiments were carried out to investigate the transfer and persistence of diatoms upon common footwear materials, a recipient surface that has historically been overlooked by studies of persistence, and indicate that, if the variability within and between experimental runs can be addressed, there is significant potential for diatom incorporated into the trace analysis of footwear and assist forensic reconstructions.

TL;DR: In this paper, the authors investigated the CHC n -pentacosane (nC25) on the legs of the adult blow flies Lucilia sericata and Calliphora vicina with gas chromatography-mass spectrometry.