Background correction in forensic photography. II. Photography of blood under conditions of non-uniform illumination or variable substrate color--practical aspects and limitations

The combination of photographs taken at wavelengths at and bracketing the peak of a narrow absorbance band can lead to enhanced visualization of the substance causing the narrow absorbance band. This concept can be used to detect putative bloodstains by division of a linear photographic image taken at or near 415 nm with an image obtained by averaging linear photographs taken at or near 395 and 435 nm. Nonlinear images can also be background corrected by substituting subtraction for the division. This paper details experimental applications and limitations of this technique, including wavelength selection of the illuminant and at the camera. Characterization of a digital camera to be used in such a study is also detailed. Detection limits for blood using the three wavelength correction method under optimum conditions have been determined to be as low as 1 in 900 dilution, although on strongly patterned substrates blood diluted more than twenty-fold is difficult to detect. Use of only the 435 nm photograph to estimate the background in the 415 nm image lead to a twofold improvement in detection limit on unpatterned substrates compared with the three wavelength method with the particular camera and lighting system used, but it gave poorer background correction on patterned substrates.     

Death due to Ehlers-Danlos syndrome type IV

Ehlers-Danlos syndrome (EDS) represents a group of collagen connective tissue disorders characterized by joint laxity, easy bruising, and various skin manifestations. Persons with type IV EDS are at risk for gastrointestinal, uterine, and arterial rupture. Mutations in the COL3A1 gene that encodes for type III procollagen underlie the pathologic abnormalities. Forensic pathologists must be aware of this rare, autosomal-dominant connective tissue disorder. Postmortem diagnosis is possible but requires specialized testing (fibroblast culture and subsequent biochemical assays, with or without molecular studies). When the condition is diagnosed or suspected at autopsy, it is important for forensic pathologists to notify family members of this potentially lethal disorder. Three cases of type IV EDS diagnosed by forensic pathologists are presented, followed by a discussion of the disorder.     

Sexually abused girls' behavior during an initial counseling session

Three processes of psychotherapy scales, the Vanderbilt Process of Psychotherapy Scale-Revised (VPPS), the Perceptual Process of Psychotherapy Scale (PPPS), and a Rating Form, were utilized to assess sexually abused girls' behavior during an initial counseling session. The variable of interest was the interactional differences between those girls who were treated by male as opposed to female counselors. Videotape recordings provided the medium by which the sessions were assessed. Trained raters observed a continuous portion of videotaped assessment sessions. Results indicated that there was no significant effect for the sex of counselor on the observers' ratings for the VPPS, the PPPS, and the frequency of verbalization as exhibited by the child and counselor. These findings suggest that there is no significant difference in sexually abused girls' interaction with a male or female counselor during an initial counseling session.     

Normal responses to sexually anatomically detailed dolls

The behaviors and verbalizations of normal, preschool age boys and girls during interactions with sexually anatomically detailed (SAD) dolls were examined. A structured, nonsuggestive interview with each child was videotaped, and five behaviors and five verbalizations were coded for each of five phases of the interview. A two-way ANOVA (gender × phase) showed that during those phases when the dolls were undressed, both boys and girls showed more sexual exploratory play, aggressive behavior which was nonsexual, and active avoidance. Across all phases, nonsexual aggression accounted for 31% of the boys' and 22% of the girls' total responses. Behavioral and verbal sexual exploratory play represented 42% of the boys' responses and 50% of the girls' responses. In contrast, sexually aggressive behavior accounted for only 1% and 2% of the boys' and girls' responses, respectively. Girls interacted with the dolls more than did boys. Additionally, girls demonstrated more affection to the dolls than did the boys, and boys displayed more anxiety with the dolls than did girls. Investigators should be cautious as to inferences about preschoolers' interactions with SAD dolls, especially interactions of a sexual or aggressive nature which do not clearly depict fondling or intercourse.     

Crime scene investigation in child-abuse cases

Although child abuse and neglect continue to appear in the medical literature frequently, little regarding scene investigation in such cases has been discussed. Many explanations have been offered for this deficit, the most common one is based on the time delay between infliction of the injury and discovery. At the Armed Forces Institute of Pathology, child-abuse cases submitted for consultation repeatedly show deficits in the scene investigation and its documentation. Since the discovery of child abuse is dependent on either physical evidence of repetitive punitive measures or an injury pattern not in agreement with the alleged circumstances, it behooves the assigned investigator to make every attempt to document the scene(s) as in any other criminal investigation.     

Concentrations of ethanol in two segments of the vascular system.

The time courses of capillary and venous blood concentrations of ethanol after oral administration of 0.30 and 0.34 g/kg doses of ethanol to two normal human subjects indicated that, by interpolation, equal capillary and venous concentrations are reached at only one time, and this time varied with the subject. The capillary/venous blood concentration ratios varied markedly as a function of time in both subjects over the entire observation period of 4 h.     

The New Chum girl: Upending Colonial Clichés in Lilian Turner's Emigration Novel

This essay analyses Lilian Turner's Three New Chum Girls (1910) to show how settler authors played with colonial clichés as part of a critical reaction to shifting imperialist and nationalist ideologies at the turn of the century. In particular, Turner redefines the derogatory colonial term “new chum”—commonly used to describe a recent emigrant in the settler colonies—to suggest what the welcome of new arrivals ought to be like. Yet if her deliberate reworking of stereotypes consequently contains an element of wish-fulfilment, the narrative also offers a startlingly stark portrayal of settler life. Emigration, Turner contends in the novel, is neither easy nor a solution to problems at home. Nor does settler Australia provide a convenient space for fortune-seeking sojourns. Turner thus dismantles two clusters of common clichés: emigration as a pat ending in fiction and settlers' return to the homeland as an equally expedient plot twist. The self-irony that runs through much of her intertextual rewriting of both metropolitan fiction and male-coded settler writing reveals how emigration and return were being imagined and written about differently in the settler colonies and how Turner was utilising the exposure of false expectations to promote her vision of a welcoming settler community.     

Forensic veterinary radiology: ballistic-radiological 3D computertomographic reconstruction of an illegal lynx shooting in Switzerland

The most popular handgun in Brazil is the single round-barrel caliber 0.38 revolver. In recent years, however, owing to the modernization of police arms and their availability on the legal and illicit markets, pistols have become increasingly popular and currently represent about 20% of police seizures. In a previous paper we presented a novel collection method for gunshot residues (GSR) using a sampling procedure based on ethylenediamine-tetraacetic acid (EDTA) solution as a complexing agent on moistened swabs with subsequent detection using sector field-high resolution-inductively coupled plasma-mass spectrometry (SF-HR-ICP-MS). In the present paper, we discuss the capability of this methodology to identify antimony (Sb), barium (Ba) and lead (Pb) on the hands of volunteers after shot tests with 9 mm and 0.40 in. caliber pistols. Two types of munitions were tested: 9 mm Taurus and clean range. The use of a technique with high sensitivity, such as SF-HR-ICP-MS, permits the identification of low concentrations (less than 1 microg/L) of metals in firearm residue and constitutes a powerful tool in forensic science. We also discuss the importance of the sampling procedure, including collection from a different body part than the gun hand of the suspect. Comparison of the analytical data obtained allows clear discrimination between samples from the hands of shooters and non-shooters.