Performance of forensic facial comparison by morphological analysis across optimal and suboptimal CCTV settings

Facial comparison is an important yet understudied discipline in forensics. The recommended method for facial comparison in a forensic setting involves morphological analysis (MA) with the use of a facial feature list. The performance of this approach has not been tested across various closed-circuit television (CCTV) conditions. This is of particular concern as video and image data available to law enforcement is often varied and of subpar conditions. The present study aimed at testing MA across two types of CCTV data, representing ideal and less than ideal settings, also assessing which particular shortcomings arose from less-than-ideal settings. The study was conducted on a subset of the Wits Face Database arranged in a total of 225 face pools. Each face pool consisted of a target image obtained from either a high-definition digital CCTV camera or a low-definition analogue CCTV camera in monochrome, contrasted to 10 possible matches. The face pools were analysed and scored using MA and confusion matrices were used to analyse the outcomes. A notably high chance corrected accuracy (CCA) (97.3%) and reliability (0.969) was identified across the digital CCTV sample, while in the analogue CCTV sample MA appeared to underperform both in accuracy (CCA: 33.1%) and reliability (0.529). The majority of the errors in scoring resulted in false negatives in the analogue sample (75.2%), while across both CCTV conditions false positives were low (digital: 0.3%; analogue: 1.2%). Even though hit rates appeared deceptively high in the analogue sample, the various measures of performance used and particularly the chance corrected accuracy highlighted its shortfalls. Overall, CCTV recording quality appears closely associated to MA performance, despite the favourable error rates when using the Facial Identification Scientific Working Group feature list.     

一种AI换脸方法生成的伪造视频分析

深度伪造(Deepfake)是一种将图像篡改与AI相结合的面部替换方法。本文首先介绍了Deepfake的产生背景和发展状况,介绍了相应检测技术的研究状况,并对相关文献进行归纳;然后探究了Deepfake运行的基本构架和核心部件,给出了视频面部替换的基本流程和步骤,并阐释了利用自编码网络进行脸部图像训练和转换的原理;最后,从视频的基本信息、编辑痕迹、违背摄影规律、视频整体和案情五个方面与原始视频作对比,分析这类伪造视频存在的问题。深度伪造技术在推动娱乐和文化发展的同时也产生了大量恶意的换脸视频,对国家安全、社会稳定和个人隐私造成潜在的威胁,本文通过对Deepfake实现原理的研究和伪造视频特征的分析,希望能够为该类视频的真伪检验提供一定的理论支持。     

Validation of the New Interpretation of Gerasimov's Nasal Projection Method for Forensic Facial Approximation Using CT Data,

The most common method to predict nasal projection for forensic facial approximation is Gerasimov's two‐tangent method. Ullrich H, Stephan CN (J Forensic Sci, 2011; 56: 470) argued that the method has not being properly implemented and a revised interpretation was proposed. The aim of this study was to compare the accuracy of both versions using a sample of 66 postmortem cranial CT data. The true nasal tip was defined using pronasale and nasal spine line, as it was not originally specified by Gerasimov. The original guidelines were found to be highly inaccurate with the position of the nasal tip being overestimated by c. 2 cm. Despite the revised interpretation consistently resulting in smaller distance from true nasal tip, the method was not statistically accurate (p > 0.05) in positioning the tip of the nose (absolute distance >5 mm). These results support that Gerasimov's method was not properly performed, and Ullrich H, Stephan CN (J Forensic Sci, 2011; 56: 470) interpretation should be used instead.     

Effect of Head Position on Facial Soft Tissue Depth Measurements Obtained Using Computed Tomography

Facial soft tissue depth (FSTD) studies employing clinical computed tomography (CT) data frequently rely on depth measurements from raw 2D orthoslices. However, the position of each patient's head was not standardized in this method, potentially decreasing measurement reliability and accuracy. This study measured FSTDs along the original orthoslice plane and compared these measurements to those standardized by the Frankfurt horizontal (FH). Subadult cranial CT scans (n = 115) were used to measure FSTDs at 18 landmarks. Significant differences were observed between the methods at eight of these landmarks (p < 0.05), demonstrating that high‐quality data are not generated simply by employing modern imaging modalities such as CT. Proper technique is crucial to useful results, and maintaining control over head position during FSTD data collection is important. This is easily and most readily achieved in CT techniques by rotating the head to the FH plane after constructing a 3D rendering of the data.     

Facial soft tissue depths in craniofacial identification (part I): An analytical review of the published adult data

With the ever increasing production of average soft tissue depth studies, data are becoming increasingly complex, less standardized, and more unwieldy. So far, no overarching review has been attempted to determine: the validity of continued data collection; the usefulness of the existing data subcategorizations; or if a synthesis is possible to produce a manageable soft tissue depth library. While a principal components analysis would provide the best foundation for such an assessment, this type of investigation is not currently possible because of a lack of easily accessible raw data (first, many studies are narrow; second, raw data are infrequently published and/or stored and are not always shared by some authors). This paper provides an alternate means of investigation using an hierarchical approach to review and compare the effects of single variables on published mean values for adults whilst acknowledging measurement errors and within-group variation. The results revealed: (i) no clear secular trends at frequently investigated landmarks; (ii) wide variation in soft tissue depth measures between different measurement techniques irrespective of whether living persons or cadavers were considered; (iii) no clear clustering of non-Caucasoid data far from the Caucasoid means; and (iv) minor differences between males and females. Consequently, the data were pooled across studies using weighted means and standard deviations to cancel out random and opposing study-specific errors, and to produce a single soft tissue depth table with increased sample sizes (e.g., 6786 individuals at pogonion).     

Material Feminism and Epigenetics: A ‘Critical Window’ for Engagement?

ABSTRACT

While there is increasing interest in gender and sex issues in the medical field, most research in medicine can still be defined as operating with a binary of sex/gender. Epigenetics presents a marked challenge to such binaries as it operates across many tightly held boundaries, blurring the lines between the biological and social. Feminist scholars are paying attention to this new field and reconsidering relationships between the politics of matter, biologies and the social in new ways. The aim of this article is to investigate how theoretical insights from material feminism might enhance epigenetic research. Rather than repeat important critical arguments that point to the dangers of reductionism and biological essentialism, we make a case for examining the ways that material feminism can engage with epigenetic research by broadening ideas of reproduction (beyond in-utero effects) to relational and political views of gender and sex within a materialist framework. In conclusion, we suggest that a focus on material-discursive co-formations has the potential to contribute to an established body of feminist theory and science work; increasing awareness of the intra-action of gender and sex in relation to exposures, and increasing political leverage in supporting health-enhancing environments.     

Eggs on Ice: Imaginaries of Eggs and Cryopreservation in Denmark

While Denmark is widely known as a global exporter of cryopreserved sperm, Danish women’s eggs face a very different fate. This paper combines legal and rhetorical analyses with the concept of sociotechnical imaginaries. In establishing the genealogy of the sociotechnical imaginaries that shaped Danish regulation of the cryopreservation of eggs, we analyse the relevant Acts, Bills, preparatory work, and readings in Parliament, along with the concurrent public and ethical debates that over time relaxed the legal limit for the cryopreservation of eggs to the current five years and today continue to ignite discussions on elective egg freezing. We rely on welfare-state perspectives to discuss why reproduction, in the Danish context, is seen as a legitimate and appropriate sphere to regulate, and we turn to feminist theorizing to discuss the gendered implications captured in the sociotechnical imaginaries of the “Moral State”, “technologies to be tamed”, “the nuclear family”, and “technology as equality and hope”. We end by discussing how an interdisciplinary approach enriches our understanding of the legal, cultural, and political entanglements related to putting eggs on ice.     

火针治疗中枢性面瘫54例

目的 观察运用火针治疗中枢性面瘫的临床疗效,并探讨其作用机制。方法 按照随机数字表法随机选取108例中枢性面瘫患者,将其分为对照组（普通针刺疗法）和治疗组（火针疗法）,每组54例。比较两组患者临床疗效,治疗前后分别采用修订的面神经功能量表（modified house-brackmann,MHBN）和面部残疾指数（face disability index,FDI）评价面部神经功能。结果 两组临床疗效的分布比较,差异具有统计学意义（P＜0.05）。两组患者治疗后MHBN评分均较治疗前显著提高（P＜0.05）,且治疗组治疗后MHBN评分提高程度高于对照组（P＜0.05）。两组患者治疗后各项评分较治疗前均明显提高（P＜0.05）,且治疗组在进食困难、喝饮料困难、流泪困难、刷牙或漱口困难的改善程度上优于对照组（P＜0.05）。结论 与普通针刺法相比,火针法能更有效地改善中枢性面瘫后面部的感觉及运动功能,更有利于面神经功能的恢复,尤其适用于难治性面瘫患者。     

纳晶微针联合中药面膜治疗女性黄褐斑临床研究

目的 观察纳晶微针联合中药面膜治疗黄褐斑的疗效。方法 将42例黄褐斑患者随机分为对照组和治疗组,每组21例。治疗组接受纳晶微针联合中药面膜治疗,对照组接受自制中药面膜外敷治疗。观察两组临床疗效及皮损总积分。结果 〖JP2〗两组患者临床疗效分布比较,差异有统计学意义（Ｐ＜0.05）,治疗组临床疗效显著优于对照组。两组患者治疗后皮损总积分均较治疗前显著降低（P＜0.05）,治疗组患者皮损总积分降低值显著大于对照组（P＜0.05）。结论 纳晶微针与中药面膜联用的疗效优于中药面膜单用的疗效。     

Counterpublic and counterprivate: Zoe Leonard,David Wojnarowicz,and the political aesthetics of intimacy

In this paper we explore the space that dyadic intimacy plays within the counterpublic world-building of political activism. We reflect on a particular encounter between the artists and ACT UP activists Zoe Leonard and David Wojnarowicz by offering two readings of what we call the “counterprivate” relation between the two. In the first part of our argument, we contend that the counterprivate couple form (found in our case study of Leonard and Wojnarowicz) occasions a space of provisional leave from the normative affective, aesthetic, and identity-based impulses which tend to emerge in social movement group formation. Despite established critiques of the private, dyadic intimacy of the couple within social movement theory and queer and feminist cultural studies, we highlight the value of counterprivate couples – not in place of the collective world-building that is made possible by political organizing and collective identity, but as a necessary aesthetic complement to collective, participatory politics. In the second part of our argument, we read the intimacy between Leonard and Wojnarowicz as a private moment of expressed doubt that has subsequently been institutionalized into a public discourse through the context of art. Here the counterprivate couple form in turn becomes a counterpublic mode of collective world-making once more. This transformation from counterprivate relation to public discourse occasions a practice of collective subject formation (in the institutional terrain of art) that affirms doubt, curiosity, and poetic beauty as part of the reproductive labor involved in political participation.