Dermestes maculatus (Coleoptera: Dermestidae) development under fluoxetine effect using two drug administration models

Fluoxetine is a selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor, commonly used for the treatment of a variety of psychopathological conditions. As such, fluoxetine may be expected to appear in clinical and forensic cases. Dermestes maculatus De Geer (Coleoptera: Dermestidae) has been recognized as a relevant component of the insect fauna associated with decomposing human and animal remains. Experiments were conducted to study the effect of fluoxetine on developing D. maculatus using two‐drug administration models: a non‐living animal model (pork muscle) and a living one (Sus scrofa L. pigs). We assessed the duration of immature stages and total life cycle, as well as morphological parameters (body length, cephalic width, and weight). The effect of fluoxetine was studied at an overdose concentration: In the non‐living animal model the drug was mixed with macerated pork muscle (2000 mg/kg) and in the living animal model, pigs were given the drug orally (833 mg/kg). A control was used for each model. Daily observations were performed from the beginning to the end of the experiments. GC‐MS was used for drug detection and quantification. There were no statistically significant differences in the duration of immature stages, life cycle, larval mortality, morphological parameters, or sex ratio, between treatment and control, regardless of the drug administration model. Given that fluoxetine had no detectable effect on the development of D. maculatus, detection of this drug in forensic situations would not compromise the accuracy of PMI estimations.     

Analysis of glass fragments by laser ablation-inductively coupled plasma-mass spectrometry and principal component analysis

Laser ablation-inductively coupled plasma-mass spectrometry (LA-ICP-MS) is used to differentiate glass samples with similar optical and physical properties based on trace elemental composition. Laser ablation increases the number of elements that can be used for differentiation by eliminating problems commonly associated with dissolution and contamination. In this study, standard residential window and tempered glass samples that could not be differentiated by refractive index or density were successfully differentiated by LA-ICP-MS. The primary analysis approach used is Principal Component Analysis (PCA) of the complete mass spectrum. PCA, a multivariate analysis technique, provides rapid analysis of samples without time-consuming pair-wise comparison of calibrated analyses or prior knowledge of the elements present in the samples. Probabilities for positive association of the individual samples are derived from PCA. Utilization of the Q-statistic with PCA allowed us to distinguish all samples within the set to a certainty greater than the 99% confidence interval.