Development of a Simple and Low‐Cost Enzymatic Methodology for Quantitative Analysis of Carbamates in Meat Samples of Forensic Interest

Abstract: Foods contaminated with a granulated material similar to Temik (a commercial pesticide formulation containing the carbamate insecticide aldicarb) are often involved in accidental ingestion, suicides, and homicides in Brazil. We developed a simple technique to detect aldicarb. This technique is based on the inhibition of a stable preparation of the enzyme acetylcholinesterase, and it is specially adapted for forensic purposes. It comprises an initial extraction step with the solvent methylene chloride followed by a colorimetric acetylcholinesterase assay. We propose that results of testing contaminated forensic samples be expressed in aldicarb equivalents because, even though all other carbamates are also potent enzyme inhibitors, aldicarb is the contaminant most frequently found in forensic samples. This method is rapid (several samples can be run in a period of 2 h) and low cost. This method also proved to be precise and accurate, detecting concentrations as low as 40 μg/kg of aldicarb in meat samples.     

Incapacity of the Mind Secondary to Medication Misuse as a Not Criminally Responsible Defense

The manifestations of disorders of the mind may play a role in the occurrence of criminal behavior. In the majority of the cases, the presence of a psychiatric disorder is cited as the reason that an individual was not fully aware of his behavior. However, other conditions, such as seizure disorders or hypoglycemia, have also been linked to an inability to understand the nature and consequences of one's actions. On occasion, these situations can be explained by a state of automatism that may be described as insane or noninsane. In this article, we describe the case of a 77‐year‐old man, suffering from Parkinson's disease, where the issue of criminal responsibility associated with incapacity of the mind secondary to medication misuse was raised. We elaborate on the thinking behind this opinion and the implications according to Canadian law. Although the legal outcome of this case is specific to our jurisdiction, the clinical implication may be common to any patient suffering from a similar condition and may inform physicians, families, and lawyers.     

Measuring Political Preferences: Ratings for Members of the Swiss National Council

Party affiliation as the standard measure of political preferences of Swiss legislators is associated with several problems. To overcome these problems the authors develop ratings for members of the National Council, based on roll-call votes. They discuss the construction of the ratings and their limitations in detail, and outline the importance of this kind of information for the participants of the political process, as well as some applications in empirical research.     

Gender Determination of Adult Individuals by Three‐Dimensional Modeling of Canines

Gender determination is a fundamental issue in forensic anthropology. Many techniques based on bone and dental remains have been proposed. It is not always possible to implement the techniques using bones, but teeth are often perfectly preserved. It has been demonstrated that the canine has the greatest sexual dimorphism, and the aim of this work was to provide an easy and accurate dental technique for determining the gender in the absence of other skeletal elements. The sample was composed of 210 CT scans with four healthy canines. The 840 canines were modeled using MIMICS^® 10.01 software. The total volume of each tooth was determined. Seven mathematical models were determined by binary logistic regressions and ranked in order of relative performance. The seven proposed predictive models thus performed (0.910 ≤ AUC ≤ 0.938), with overall rates of correct predictions between 82.38 and 85.24%. The 4‐canine model is the most powerful for predicting the gender.     

Estimation of Age Using Alveolar Bone Loss: Forensic and Anthropological Applications

The objective of this study was to utilize a new odontological methodological approach based on radiographic for age estimation. The study was comprised of 397 participants aged between 9 and 87 years. A clinical examination and a radiographic assessment of alveolar bone loss were performed. Direct measures of alveolar bone level were recorded using CT scans. A medical examination report was attached to the investigation file. Because of the link between alveolar bone loss and age, a model was proposed to enable simple, reliable, and quick age estimation. This work added new arguments for age estimation. This study aimed to develop a simple, standardized, and reproducible technique for age estimation of adults of actual populations in forensic medicine and ancient populations in funeral anthropology.     

Increasing pressure does not benefit lie detection: a reply to Ten Brinke et al. (2015)

When passively attending to suspects, observers are poor at distinguishing lies from truths. Deception research has therefore shifted to examining interview styles aimed at eliciting and enhancing deception cues. Based upon a literature review and three empirical studies, ten Brinke, L., Khambatta, P., and Carney, D. R. [2015. Physically scarce (vs. enriched) environments decrease the ability to successfully tell lies. Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, 144, 982–992. doi:10.1037/xge0000103] recommend increasing pressure on interviewees as it would increase lie detection accuracy. In this comment, we argue that these authors (1) misinterpret the literature when concluding that lie detection benefits from increasing pressure on interviewees, and (2) their data do not show that lie detection is more accurate when pressure is increased. In absence of such data, we recommend that increasing pressure on interviewees should be avoided: it hampers the elicitation of valuable information and can lead to false confessions.