Journal de recherche médico-légale

Introduction: Well protected palatal rugae patterning in the oral cavity has been suggested as useful complimentary information for forensic purposes. Also since the blood group remains same throughout the lifespan of an individual, can act as a biological record.

Aim: The aim of the presentation is to study the different palatal rugae patterns and to correlate and compare palatoscopy with blood group among patients visiting Indira Gandhi government dental college Jammu.

Materials and methods: A total of 100 patients with age group ranging between 14-45 years with known blood group were included in the study. Palatal rugae patterns on plastercasts, were obtained and examined for different biometric characteristics including number, shape, length and association with sex and the data was obtained.

Results: There was significant association found between palatal rugae, ABO blood groups and Rh factor (chi square statistic=18.205, P=0.034).

Conclusion: The study concluded that palatal rugae when correlated with suspect’s specific blood group-Rh factor can be used to narrow down the suspect list and can also prove significant in identifying individuals in case of any disaster.

Handwriting is an acquired knowledge and learned neuromuscular activity, composed of letters, words or designs. Intoxication of certain drugs affects the neuromuscular system which causes variation in handwriting. In the present research work a total of 25 individual’s handwriting samples including both men and women were collected. Effect of intoxication of alcohol, tobacco, marijuana and their combinations on handwriting was examined. Handwriting samples were collected twice before and after the consumption of intoxicants. Deterioration in the handwriting was examined both qualitatively and quantitatively. The handwriting parameters such as pictorial effects, spacing between letters, words and lines, alignment, size, proportion and tremors were analyzed. The volunteers who were habitual drinkers showed slighter variations in their handwriting under the influence of alcohol. The results revealed that alcohol alone can cause gross changes in the handwriting and signature, whereas tobacco and marijuana cause less effect than alcohol. It may be concluded that variations in the handwriting characteristics under the influence of intoxicants help to distinguish between the writing of drunken and sober person.

Trace evidence are types evidence evolved when an object comes in contact with a surface (based on Locard’s exchange principle). Locard’s exchange principle states that: Every contact leaves its trace”. Whenever two objects comes in contact there is transfer of substances between them. They are microscopic in nature because it is difficult to detect to our naked eye. These types of evidence are crucial for the investigation and also help in reconstruction of the crime scene. Unusual trace evidence is a unique set of evidence found in the crime scene that will be play an important role in investigation. Trace evidence refers to minimal amount of sample particularly fibres, glass, hair, fingerprints, saliva, paint chips, glitter etc. The trace evidence presence depends on persistence of the evidence. The extent of persistence of evidence depends on size and shape, amount deposited, environmental factors and time.

Paint is a pigmented liquid composed of pigment, binder, liquid and additives. Used for protecting, decoration and for providing texture. Paint chips are mainly encountered in cases of hit and run, burglary, kidnapping, sexual assault and homicide. Paint evidence comes under two main categories class and individual. Class characteristics can be examined through chemical analysis of each layer as the manufacturer uses different combinations.

The paint analysis is performed in three forms they are mechanical, physical, and chemical. The mechanical involves by making a physical matches, chemical involves by determining the chemical composition and finally physical which relates to the color, texture, pattern and appearance. The paint from a vehicle can be traced based on specific modal and make as the manufacturer will mix different constituents with a specific formula which helps in curbing the suspect. Here in this project, we have performed the paint examination based on the following: physical examination, microscopic examination, solubility test and instrumentations.

Glitter as a trace evidence is found in cases of sexual assault, robbery, kidnapping, and accidental cases. It is collected by using a cello tape or post it- notes. The characterization of glitter is performed by using various techniques such as stereomicroscopy, FT-IR and SEM/EDX. Glitter is analysed based on their color, shape, size, thickness and specific gravity etc.

Varieties of writing instruments are available in the market. The history and development of writing instruments, impact printers, non-impact printers, scanners and auto-pens are very interesting subjects to create new challenges for document scientists. The available literature suggests that the mechanical typewriter could be the first writing machine and digital printers are the latest machines that are still used for typing and printing processes. There is a paucity of works of literature on machine writing as questioned documents. A new innovative, imitational software based digital writing machine i.e., the ‘Drawing CNC machine with XY Plotter’ is introduced into the market which can be utilized to imitate writings, signatures as well as drawings which mimic natural patterns of human handwriting. Such an imitational digital writing machine is capable of creating customized written samples by imitating pen movement, good line quality of letter formations, rhythmic connecting strokes, pen pressure and a combination of letter formations. Identifying the difference between machines generated writing and human handwriting is biggest task for questioned document scientists in the present digital era. The research on such writing machines is very useful for the questioned document scientists, law enforcement agencies, police administrations, vigilance and surveillance departments, banks etc.

Human violence is a complex act that involves harming oneself, others, or objects physically or verbally. It takes on many forms and can be protective, planned (e.g., predatory), or impulsive (non-premeditated). In contrast to deliberate and impulsive aggressiveness, which are seen as unhealthy, defensive aggression falls within the normal range of human behaviour. However, a convergent pattern of data consistently connects impulsive, but not deliberate, aggression to biological, environmental, pharmacological, and psychological treatment response characteristics.

In the present climate in the field of scientific science where nonstop progressions in innovation and logical methodologies are the standard, the requirement for criminological professionals with more particular and subject-explicit information is basic. An up-to-date survey regarding the preferred educational requirements for entry-level applicants by senior practitioners, directors of crime laboratories, and managers was carried out. In order to prepare the next generation of forensic scientists while maintaining a solid foundation in the natural sciences at the undergraduate level, the results highlighted a preference for specialized coursework within specific disciplines. Experts, paying little heed to train, are looking for candidates with openness to cutting edge educational plan content notwithstanding refined proficient abilities and decisive reasoning capacities. According to the current accreditation guidelines, the needs of employers of crime laboratories have changed, shifting from a general, broad-based criminalistics curriculum to a focused, subject-matter-rich curriculum with additional management and professional content.

Introduction: Due to globalization and changes in the health care delivery system, there has been a gradual change in the attitude of the medical community as well as the lay public toward greater acceptance of euthanasia as an option for terminally ill and dying patients. Physicians in developing countries come across situations where such issues are raised with increasing frequency. As euthanasia has gained world?wide prominence, the objectives of our study therefore were to explore the attitude of physicians and patients toward euthanasia and related issues. Concomitantly, we wanted to ascertain the frequency of requests for assistance in active euthanasia.

Materials and methods: Questionnaire based survey among terminally ill patients, their caregivers, treating physicians.

Study objectives: 1. To study the knowledge of the legal regulation of painless death and euthanasia among terminally ill patients, their caregivers, treating physicians.

2. To study the national legal regulation of euthanasia in Mongolia.

Results: Of the 120 terminally ill patients surveyed, 75% said euthanasia should be legalized, 98.9% were in favor of euthanasia, 87.5% of them were fed up with economic problems, and 91.7% were tired of medical care. According to the results of palliative care physicians, 45.8% supported euthanasia, 23% concluded that it was a way to reduce pain and suffering, and 56.2% did not know the legal regulation of euthanasia. However, 29.2% of euthanasia requests came from patients, 37.5% from caregivers, and 4.1% from children. 89.5% of doctors believed that there is a need for the legal regulation of euthanasia for patients in the terminal stage of the disease. Among patients no significant differences were observed for age, religion, or underlying health status.

Conclusion: In the terminal stage of the disease, the patient has a deep economic and emotional crisis, which affects the psychology of the doctor and the caregivers and makes them think about euthanasia. However, there is insufficient legal regulation of euthanasia in Mongolia, and there is a lack of knowledge on how to solve it.

Alternative-light sources (ALS) are widely used in both forensic laboratories and crime scenes for semen detection. This non-specific strategy is effective despite a few limitations, leading to both false negative and false positive results. To detect semen stains, specific acid-phosphatase (AP) tests can also be implemented in a controlled laboratory environment. However, they are not appropriate for direct crime scene investigations. A newly commercialized product could overcome all those limitations: Sperm Tracker (STK) Spray®, an AP-spray test for non-textile items.

In this study, we assessed its specificity, sensitivity, and compared its effectiveness with those of two well-known ALS on a wide range of materials, focusing on 32 different surfaces that can be commonly encountered on crime scenes. We found STK spray® easy to use, with a rapid fluorescent signal appearing in the presence of semen. It is specific, detects pure semen spots down to 1 μL and semen dilutions down to 1/20. Results showed that the fluorescent signal may be blocked by feces or blood but not by any of the other body fluids we tested. Comparison with ALS showed encouraging results, particularly on diluted semen stains for which ALS were less sensitive. This new reagent does not interfere with the Christmas tree spermatozoa staining method or with the process leading to DNA profiling.

In conclusion, the present study showed convincing results regarding the new STK spray® reagent and its further direct use on real crime scenes.

In forensic medicine, there has been a marked rise in demand for age estimation in recent years with the growing global migration trend. Forensic age estimation should be based on clinical examinations, hand radiography, as well as orthopantomography and clavicle CT scan if wrist bone fusion is in a late maturation stage. Orthopantomography is based on the mandibular third molar mineralization stage according to the Demirjian method. This study was carried out to validate the efficacity of CT scan with the Demirjian method to determine whether a single CT scan would be sufficient for mandible and clavicle examination. This exhaustive monocentric study included 201 living individuals up to 25 years old who had undergone orthopantomography and CT scan less than 2 months apart between 2007 and 2020. We compared mandibular third molar development stages that had been attributed via the two techniques. A concordance calculation to assess the findings of the two techniques revealed almost perfect agreement with a weighted kappa of 0.86 for the 128 left mandibular third molars and 0.88 for the 126 right mandibular third molars analyzed. Calculations of agreement in the CT findings also showed almost perfect agreement for intra-observer variability with a kappa of 0.97 and 1.0, and close agreement for inter-observer variability with kappas of 0.86 and 0.73. CT scan was found to be accurate for mandibular third molar development staging, with almost perfect agreement with regard to the Demirjian method using orthopantomography. CT scan could therefore be an effective alternative to orthopantomography.

Diseases of cardiovascular origin such as cardiomiopathies and canalopatías are the main causes of sudden cardiac death and in some cases are difficult to diagnose during autoposy. We present an in silico analysis using bioinformatic tools, for the analysis of possibly pathogenic variants in genes associated with sudden cardiac death. Algorithms were used to predict pathogenicity, predicting the impact of SNPs on proteins, genomic specificity and protein-protein interaction. We found that variants in the KCNH2, ANK3, TTN, CAV3 and DSP genes cause structural alterations, molecular, cellular and interstitial changes in the heart that can trigger sudden death.