Review
Medicine, Legal
Sharifah Mastura Syed Mohd Daud, Mohd Yusmiaidil Putera Mohd Yusof, Chong Chin Heo, Lay See Khoo, Mansharan Kaur Chainchel Singh, Mohd Shah Mahmood, Hapizah Nawawi
Summary: The use of drones has expanded rapidly in various fields over the past decade, including disaster management and humanitarian aid. However, evidence of their effectiveness in mass disasters remains limited. This study evaluates current drone feasibility projects and discusses challenges related to their deployment, identifying mapping/disaster management, search and rescue, transportation, and training as the main categories of drone application in disasters. While there has been a significant increase in publications on drone use in disasters, more research is needed to address post-disaster healthcare, particularly in victim identification. Further exploration of drone applications is necessary for their potential to improve disaster management effectiveness.
Article
Medicine, Legal
Fiona Permezel, Branko Borojevic, Stephanie Lau, Hans H. de Boer
Summary: This report discusses the clinical context and autopsy findings of a fatal case of ADEM following vaccination with the Oxford/AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine. It highlights the rare risk of developing ADEM post COVID-19 vaccination.
FORENSIC SCIENCE MEDICINE AND PATHOLOGY
(2022)
Article
Medicine, Legal
Paolo Frisoni, Margherita Neri, Stefano D'Errico, Letizia Alfieri, Diana Bonuccelli, Mariano Cingolani, Marco di Paolo, Rosa Maria Gaudio, Maurizio Lestani, Matteo Marti, Massimo Martelloni, Carlo Moreschi, Alessandro Santurro, Matteo Scopetti, Ombretta Turriziani, Martina Zanon, Roberto Scendoni, Paola Frati, Vittorio Fineschi
Summary: The study involved histological analysis of autopsied samples from COVID-19-related deaths, revealing enhanced inflammatory cytokine response in COVID-19 patients, playing a significant role in the development of acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS) and multiple organ failure.
FORENSIC SCIENCE MEDICINE AND PATHOLOGY
(2022)
Review
Medicine, Legal
Candace Wong, Stephen M. Roberts, Imad Neal Saab
Summary: The US FDA has identified dietary exposure to heavy metals as a public health concern, particularly arsenic, cadmium, lead, and mercury. Comparing established safe exposure limits with current population-based dietary background levels is a way to determine the current risk.
REGULATORY TOXICOLOGY AND PHARMACOLOGY
(2022)
Article
Medicine, Legal
Claude Roux, Rebecca Bucht, Frank Crispino, Peter De Forest, Chris Lennard, Pierre Margot, Michelle D. Miranda, Niamh NicDaeid, Olivier Ribaux, Alastair Ross, Sheila Willis
Summary: Unlike other disciplines, forensic science lacks a shared understanding and broad acceptance of its essence, purpose, and principles. The Sydney Declaration aims to revisit the foundation of forensic science beyond technicalities and protocols. It defines forensic science and proposes seven fundamental principles, emphasizing the importance of trace evidence in investigations. The declaration also discusses critical features of forensic scientists' work and argues that these principles should guide the practice, education, and research in forensic science to make it more relevant, effective, and reliable.
FORENSIC SCIENCE INTERNATIONAL
(2022)
Article
Medicine, Legal
Camilla Alexander-White, Dagmar Bury, Mark Cronin, Matthew Dent, Eric Hack, Nicola J. Hewitt, Gerry Kenna, Jorge Naciff, Gladys Ouedraogo, Andreas Schepky, Catherine Mahony, Cosmetics Europe
Summary: This paper presents a 10-step read-across framework for cosmetics safety assessment when the threshold of toxicological concern approach is not possible. The framework builds on established approaches and incorporates new methodologies, such as in vitro assays and physiologically-based kinetic modelling, to substantiate hypotheses on toxicological similarity. The data from these new methodologies can be used to perform a next generation risk assessment for data-poor target substances based on data-rich analogues.
REGULATORY TOXICOLOGY AND PHARMACOLOGY
(2022)
Article
Health Care Sciences & Services
Brittany N. Morey, Richard Calvin Chang, Karla Blessing Thomas, Alisi Tulua, Corina Penaia, Vananh D. Tran, Nicholas Pierson, John C. Greer, Malani Bydalek, Ninez Ponce
Summary: Data on health and social determinants for Native Hawaiians and Pacific Islanders (NHPIs) in the US are often hidden or reported in aggregate, leading to limited advocacy, resource allocation, and political power. While there have been improvements in national collection and reporting of NHPI data, federal data gaps and underreporting by states still exist, particularly in COVID-19 cases and deaths. The underrepresentation of NHPIs in resources allocation decisions for at-risk communities, determined by California's Healthy Places Index, highlights the need for equity in NHPI data to achieve health equity and social justice.
JOURNAL OF HEALTH POLITICS POLICY AND LAW
(2022)
Article
Medicine, Legal
Isabelle Messa, Matthew Holcomb, Jonathan D. Lichtenstein, Brad T. Tyson, Robert M. Roth, Laszlo A. Erdodi
Summary: The study aimed to determine the clinical utility of embedded performance validity indicators (EVIs) in adults with intellectual disability during neuropsychological assessment. The results showed high base rates of failure on most EVIs, potentially reflecting instrumentation artefacts, but similar performance on select EVIs related to recognition memory and unusual patterns of performance between intellectually disabled and cognitively higher functioning individuals.
AUSTRALIAN JOURNAL OF FORENSIC SCIENCES
(2022)
Article
Medicine, Legal
Eman Tadros, Andrew Ansell
Summary: Incarceration has various effects on prisoners' finances, health, education, employment, and family relationships, as well as on attachment bonds between romantic partners. Childhood stability has an impact on adult romantic attachment, and posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and depression also have statistically significant effects on romantic attachment.
JOURNAL OF FORENSIC SCIENCES
(2022)
Article
Genetics & Heredity
Erin M. Gorden, Ellen M. Greytak, Kimberly Sturk-Andreaggi, Janet Cady, Timothy P. McMahon, Steven Armentrout, Charla Marshall
Summary: DNA-assisted identification of historical remains requires the genetic analysis of highly degraded DNA and a comparison to DNA from known relatives. In this study, SNP capture combined with next-generation sequencing on a benchtop platform was used to target single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) and estimate distant kinship. The results showed that low-coverage SNP data can be recovered from degraded skeletal samples, enabling accurate kinship predictions.
FORENSIC SCIENCE INTERNATIONAL-GENETICS
(2022)
Article
Ethics
Kristin M. Kostick-Quenet, I. Glenn Cohen, Sara Gerke, Bernard Lo, James Antaki, Faezah Movahedi, Hasna Njah, Lauren Schoen, Jerry E. Estep, J. S. Blumenthal-Barby
Summary: AI-based applications in the health sector raise concerns about ethics, legality, and safety. Algorithms trained on data from majority populations may generate less accurate or reliable results for minorities and disadvantaged groups.
JOURNAL OF LAW MEDICINE & ETHICS
(2022)
Article
Genetics & Heredity
Jard H. de Vries, Daniel Kling, Athina Vidaki, Pascal Arp, Vivian Kalamara, Michael M. P. J. Verbiest, Danuta Piniewska-Rog, Thomas J. Parsons, Andre G. Uitterlinden, Manfred Kayser
Summary: This study empirically tested the impact of SNP microarray analysis of compromised DNA on kinship classification success by systematically altering the quantity and quality of 264 DNA samples using the Illumina Global Screening Array (GSA). The results showed that despite decreasing input DNA quantity and quality, kinship classification success rates did not significantly decrease until very low levels, highlighting the potential of using compromised DNA in investigative genetic genealogy (IGG).
FORENSIC SCIENCE INTERNATIONAL-GENETICS
(2022)
Article
Medicine, Legal
Marcha C. T. Verheijen, Matthew J. Meier, Juan Ochoteco Asensio, Timothy W. Gant, Weida Tong, Carole L. Yauk, Florian Caiment
Summary: Despite the widespread use of transcriptomics technologies in toxicology research, the acceptance of the data for regulatory purposes is limited due to the lack of reproducibility and differences in data processing. To address this issue and enhance the credibility of the data, we propose a user-friendly pipeline called R-ODAF for analyzing raw transcriptomics data and also provide additional statistical steps to remove false positives.
REGULATORY TOXICOLOGY AND PHARMACOLOGY
(2022)
Article
Medicine, Legal
Keith L. Monson, Erich D. Smith, Eugene M. Peters
Summary: This study, using black box experiments, assessed the performance of forensic firearms examiners in the United States. It found that a majority of errors were made by a limited number of examiners. The results of this study are consistent with prior research, indicating the existence of false positives and false negatives in firearms identification.
JOURNAL OF FORENSIC SCIENCES
(2023)
Article
Medicine, Legal
Simone Grassi, Vincenzo Arena, Paola Cattani, Marco Dell'Aquila, Flora Marzia Liotti, Maurizio Sanguinetti, Antonio Oliva
Summary: This study examined autopsy cases of patients who tested positive for SARS-CoV-2. The results showed that the time interval and viral load of postmortem swabs were higher in non-hospitalized cases. Active replication indicators were mainly found in non-hospitalized cases. The study emphasizes the importance of following biological safety guidelines in autopsy rooms and conducting autopsies in facilities that meet established safety criteria.
INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF LEGAL MEDICINE
(2022)
Article
Medicine, Legal
Gina M. Hilton, Catherine Adcock, Gregory Akerman, James Baldassari, Michael Battalora, Warren Casey, Amy J. Clippinger, Rhian Cope, Amber Goetz, A. Wallace Hayes, Sabitha Papineni, Richard C. Peffer, Deborah Ramsingh, Brandy Williamson Riffle, Mitscheli Sanches da Rocha, Natalia Ryan, Edward Scollon, Nicolo Visconti, Douglas C. Wolf, Zhongyu Yan, Anna Lowit
Summary: Rodent cancer bioassays have long been required for assessing human cancer hazard and risk, but new technologies have emerged in the past decade that can effectively evaluate these factors while reducing animal use. To facilitate the adoption of these technologies, a group of scientists developed a framework for waiver rationales for rodent cancer bioassays in agrochemical safety assessment. This framework considers various factors, such as use patterns, exposure scenarios, mode-of-action, and chemical properties, and can be applied to other chemicals and endpoints as well.
REGULATORY TOXICOLOGY AND PHARMACOLOGY
(2022)
Article
Genetics & Heredity
Linda Jansson, Marie Swensson, Emma Gifvars, Ronny Hedell, Christina Forsberg, Ricky Ansell, Johannes Hedman
Summary: Improved laboratory techniques have led to an increased use of touched surfaces and items as sources of forensic DNA evidence. Shedder status, which determines the propensity to leave DNA behind, plays a major role in regulating DNA transfer between individuals. The levels of deposited DNA on hands are closely associated with the accumulation of DNA on facial skin, suggesting that self-DNA transfer is influenced by accumulated facial DNA.
FORENSIC SCIENCE INTERNATIONAL-GENETICS
(2022)
Article
Medicine, Legal
Kaikai Zhang, Ming Cheng, Jingtao Xu, Lijian Chen, Jiahao Li, Qiangguo Li, Xiaoli Xie, Qi Wang
Summary: In forensic practice, the identification of antemortem and postmortem burns is crucial. This study compared the expression of two miRNAs, miR-711 and miR-183-3p, in burned skins of mice and postmortem humans. The findings suggest that miR-711 and miR-183-3p may serve as biomarkers for vital reaction of skin burn.
FORENSIC SCIENCES RESEARCH
(2022)
Article
Medicine, Legal
Agnieszka Mech, Stefania Gottardo, Valeria Amenta, Alessia Amodio, Susanne Belz, Soren Bowadt, Jana Drbohlavova, Lucian Farcal, Paula Jantunen, Aleksandra Malyska, Kirsten Rasmussen, Juan Riego Sintes, Hubert Rauscher
Summary: The European Commission's Green Deal aims to achieve a climate-neutral, zero pollution, sustainable economy with the help of safe and sustainable innovative materials. To achieve this, the development of chemicals needs to shift towards Safe-and Sustainable-by-Design, with agreed terminology, common principles, and assessment tools in place.
REGULATORY TOXICOLOGY AND PHARMACOLOGY
(2022)
Article
Genetics & Heredity
A. Heidegger, A. Pisarek, M. de la Puente, H. Niederstaetter, E. Pospiech, A. Wozniak, N. Schury, M. Unterlaender, M. Sidstedt, K. Junker, M. Ventayol Garcia, F. X. Laurent, A. Ulus, J. Vannier, I Bastisch, J. Hedman, T. Sijen, W. Branicki, C. Xavier, W. Parson
Summary: The analysis of DNA methylation is a well-established method for age estimation, with various assays available for somatic tissues like blood. However, age estimation from semen requires different DNA methylation markers. A new assay using massively parallel sequencing to analyse 13 candidate CpG sites in two multiplex PCRs has been developed and validated for age estimation from semen in forensic investigations, showing robust results.
FORENSIC SCIENCE INTERNATIONAL-GENETICS
(2022)
