Research on detection techniques for pattern modifications of playing cards used in illegal gambling operations

We investigated pattern-modified marked cards used in fraudulent gambling cases in Korea. These cards are printed with modifications to some of the repeated marks on the back, revealing the hand on the front and enabling fraudsters to deceive their victims. We proposed a method for identifying the modified part by first enhancing the card's color difference using an image processing technique and then calculating the similarity between the repeated basic patterns with a Siamese network. This method is fast and convenient, as it can determine the deformation with only 1 or 2 cards and can be implemented in mobile applications, allowing law enforcement officers to investigate quickly. The proposed method serves as a useful tool to aid document examiners in making judgments, as it does not require expensive equipment and effectively visualizes the alterations.     

The Food Preferences of the Blow Fly Lucilia cuprina Offered Human Blood,Semen and Saliva,and Various Nonhuman Foods Sources

As human DNA profiles can be obtained from blow fly artifacts, this study aimed to establish the feeding preferences of Lucilia cuprina (Wiedemann) blow flies when offered human biological fluids and nonhuman food sources. One‐day‐old and 3‐day‐old blow flies of both sexes were simultaneously offered human blood, semen and saliva, pet food, canned tuna and honey, and the number and length of visits documented over 6 h. One‐day‐old flies visited pet food and honey most often, but stayed longest on honey and semen. Three‐day‐old flies visited semen and pet food most often, and stayed longest on these food sources. Blood and saliva were the least preferred options for all flies. Overall, flies preferred dry blood and semen to the wet forms. These findings demonstrate that even when other food sources are available, flies at a crime scene may feed on human biological fluids if present, potentially transferring human DNA.     

The Utility of Skeletal and Surgical Features for the Personal Identification Process: A Pilot Study

This pilot study provides a conceptual framework for the application of the anthropological analysis of skeletal features and surgical interventions for the purpose of identification in cases of unknown deceased individuals with unavailable fingerprint, genetic or odontological antemortem data. The study sample includes 276 individuals with known demographic and clinical information from the Italian CAL Milano Cemetery Skeletal Collection. In the sample, 124 (45%) individuals showed one or more skeletal features that may be potentially individualizing. Of these, 79% showed two and more features, which occurred in a multitude of different combinations. Skeletal findings may provide useful postmortem information that can be compared with antemortem witness statements and clinical imaging. However, more research into the utility of dry bone findings and the availability of comparative material, including imaging, and epidemiological data needs to be undertaken before skeletal features can be implemented into identification protocols and databases.     

Location of Artifacts Deposited by the Blow Fly Lucilia cuprina After Feeding on Human Blood at Simulated Indoor Crime Scenes

Human DNA profiles can be obtained from fly artifacts (feces and regurgitant) when a fly has been feeding on biological material, sometimes 2 years after deposition. Morphological similarity between artifacts and spots of unaltered biological material make it difficult to distinguish between them, and presumptive and confirmatory forensic tests are unreliable in making the distinction. Knowing possible artifact locations will assist investigators in recognizing where DNA contamination might occur. Flies were released into a house with human blood available under a variety of different climatic and lighting conditions. The location of flies and artifacts was recorded after 72 h. It was found flies may move toward warm or well‐lit areas and deposit artifacts there, but artifacts were predominantly located around food sources and were often found in low positions. Factors such as ambient temperature, and the proximity of light and food sources, had an impact on where artifacts were deposited.     

Comments on the Security Council Referral of the Situation in Darfur to the ICC

Recently, the United Nations (UN) Security Council (SC) decidedto refer the situation in Darfur to the International CriminalCourt (ICC), following the suggestion of the UN Commission ofInquiry established by the Secretary-General pursuant to SCRes. 1564 (2004). The authors discuss four main problematicissues raised by the first SC referral of a situation to theICC. First, they emphasize that States Parties to the ICC andnon-States Parties have different obligations to cooperate withthe Court, irrespective of the adoption of a SC Resolution.Secondly, they discuss the question of immunity granted to nationalsof non-States Parties. Thirdly, the puzzling reference containedin the SC Resolution to exemption agreements is commented upon.Finally, the paper concludes with a criticism of the lack ofany measure providing for compensation to victims.     

Locating the Issue Public: The Multi-Dimensional Nature of Engagement with Health Care Reform

This research examines in detail the structure of the issue public for health care reform, drawing from extensive, nationally representative survey data tapping general attentiveness to news and public affairs, specific interests in health care issues, and motivations (e.g., personal health and financial conditions) to follow health care reform issues. We furthermore adopt a multi-dimensional approach to defining the contours of the issue public for health care policy, separately studying its cognitive, affective, and behavioral underpinnings. Results indicate only weak interconnections across these dimensions—measured through health care knowledge, holding strong opinions on health care issues, and participation in health-related political activities, respectively—and somewhat different structural and motivational patterns underlying each. Theoretical, conceptual and methodological implications of these findings are discussed.Vincent Price and Joseph N. Cappella are Professors in the Annenberg School for Communication at the University of Pennsylvania, where Clarissa David, Brian Goldthorpe, and Marci McCoy Roth are doctoral students. Gathering of the data reported here was supported by grants to Vincent Price and Joseph N. Cappella from The National Science Foundation (Grant EIA-0306801) and the Annenberg Public Policy Center of the University of Pennsylvania. Views expressed are those of the authors alone and do not necessarily reflect opinions of the sponsoring agencies.     

Prevalence and blood concentrations of benzodiazepines and opioids in opioid-positive death investigations in Ontario,Canada, from 2017 to 2021

The aim of this study was to investigate the incidence of benzodiazepines in opioid-positive death investigations, including trends in frequency and combination of drugs, as well as demographic data and blood concentrations, where available. Additionally, naloxone concentrations in polysubstance compared to opioid-only cases were analyzed. This was a retrospective study that consisted of all post-mortem toxicology cases in Ontario, Canada, from January 01, 2017, to December 31, 2021, with an opioid finding in any analyzed autopsy specimen. There were 11,033 death investigations identified. The overall rate of benzodiazepine co-involvement was 54.5%. Males accounted for the majority of cases (71%), and the most affected age group was 30- to 39-year-olds. The most frequently detected opioid was fentanyl and the most frequently detected benzodiazepine was etizolam, which was also the most frequently observed opioid/benzodiazepine combination. Findings related to differences in concentrations of opioids when naloxone was also present were mostly non-significant, except for methadone. The rate of benzodiazepine detection with opioids grew faster than opioid detections overall, potentially due to the increasingly toxic drug supply. Detection of novel psychoactive drugs fluctuated more unpredictably than opioids and benzodiazepines associated with clinical use. These findings can help inform policy decisions by public health agencies in exploring harm reduction efforts, for example, education and drug-checking services.     

Effects of language mismatch in automatic forensic voice comparison using deep learning embeddings

In forensic voice comparison, deep learning has become widely popular recently. It is mainly used to learn speaker representations, called embeddings or embedding vectors. Speaker embeddings are often trained using corpora mostly containing widely spoken languages. Thus, language dependency is an important factor in automatic forensic voice comparison, especially when the target language is linguistically very different from that the model is trained on. In the case of a low-resource language, developing a corpus for forensic purposes containing enough speakers to train deep learning models is costly. This study aims to investigate whether a model pre-trained on multilingual (mostly English) corpus can be used on a target low-resource language (here, Hungarian), not represented by the model. Often multiple samples are not available from the offender (unknown speaker). Samples are therefore compared pairwise with and without speaker enrollment for suspect (known) speakers. Two corpora are used that were developed especially for forensic purposes and a third that is meant for traditional speaker verification. Speaker embedding vectors are extracted by the x-vector and ECAPA-TDNN techniques. Speaker verification was evaluated in the likelihood-ratio framework. A comparison is made between the language combinations (modeling, LR calibration, and evaluation). The results were evaluated by Cllr_min and EER metrics. It was found that the model pre-trained on a different language but on a corpus with a significant number of speakers can be used on samples with language mismatch. Sample duration and speaking style also seem to affect the performance.     

Lead isotope measurement of primer gunshot residues and likelihood ratio predictions for forensic cartridge discrimination and individualization in China

Gunshot residues (GSR), cartridge projectiles, and casings are frequently encountered evidence in gun-related forensic investigations. However, in circumstances where the investigation of striation marks is impossible, such as unrecovered or deformed projectiles and cartridge casings, GSR deposited on the hands or clothes of the shooter and victim-related items can provide information to establish a link between the suspect, the firearms used, and the victim. Since the formula of primers used by all cartridge manufacturers in China is identical, links based on the conventional morphological and compositional analysis of GSR are difficult to establish. However, the abundance of lead isotopes in primer components of lead styphnate varies significantly, and a fundamental understanding of these differences may facilitate the validation of primer (p)GSR evidence in forensic investigations. Here, 44 pGSR samples were characterized by Pb isotope ratios of ²⁰⁶Pb/²⁰⁴Pb, ²⁰⁷Pb/²⁰⁴Pb, and ²⁰⁸Pb/²⁰⁴Pb using laser ablation multicollector inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry. There was no obvious mass fractionation of the lead isotope ratios of the primers from individual cartridges analyzed before and after the shooting process, thereby establishing a basis for the comparison of pGSR and unfired cartridges. Evaluation of the results using univariate likelihood ratio (LR) computations revealed low rates of misleading evidence (<0.53%) The results demonstrated that lead isotope ratio analysis of pGSR and LR predictions can provide a practicable method for forensic cartridge discrimination and individualization.     

Identification of document paper using hybrid feature extraction

Document forgery is a significant issue in Korea, with around ten thousand cases reported every year. Analyzing paper plays a crucial role in examining questionable documents such as marketable securities and contracts, which can aid in solving criminal cases of document forgery. Paper analysis can also provide essential insights in other types of criminal cases, serving as an important clue for solving cases such as the source of a blackmail letter. The papermaking process generates distinct forming fabric marks and formations, which are critical features for paper classification. These characteristics are observable under transmitted light and are created by the forming fabric pattern and the distribution of pulp fibers, respectively. In this study, we propose a novel approach for paper identification based on hybrid features. This method combines texture features extracted from images converted using the gray-level co-occurrence matrix (GLCM) approach and a convolutional neural network (CNN), with another set of features extracted by the CNN using the same images as input. We applied the proposed method to classification tasks for seven major paper brands available in the Korean market, achieving an accuracy of 97.66%. The results confirm the applicability of this method for visually inspecting paper products and demonstrate its potential for assisting in solving criminal cases involving document forgery.