The use of micro-CT in the investigation of a case involving 3D printed firearms.

This paper highlights how micro-CT was used to assist in the investigation of hybrid firearms constructed using a mixture of plastic and metal components, as a complementary technique to the physical examination performed by firearms experts. In recent years, there has been an increase in the complexity and sophistication of 3D printed and hybrid firearm designs. This was also the case in the investigation presented herein, with the firearms seized demonstrating a step change in the threat level they pose through their complexity. Thus, we describe how data produced from micro-CT scans was used to help firearms experts study the viability and mechanics of two hybrid weapons prior to dismantling and test-firing. This process aided experts in determining whether components were 3D printed or manufactured through other means, whilst ensuring that a digital record (digital twin) was retained in case evidence was damaged during testing. Finally, we show how the data was presented visually through animations and as evidence in court. This proved to be imperative when communicating to the judge, jury, and wider investigating teams, the complex multiple components and mechanisms within the firearms.

Micro-CT in a forensic examination of a fatal child abuse case: A case report.

Child abuse is a serious concern that can cause the death of a child. In such cases the medico-legal evidence is often pivotal but complex, drawing across multiple medical disciplines and techniques. One key specialism is histopathology, which is considered the gold standard for estimating the age of individual fractures. Another is micro-CT imaging, which can visualise the location of trauma across the body. This case report demonstrates how micro-CT was used to contextualise the histological evidence in the Criminal Justice Proceedings of a fatal child abuse case. This was achieved by overlaying the aged fracture evidence from histopathology onto the visuals rendered from micro-CT imaging. The case was a suspected child abuse of a deceased 1-month old infant who was reported unresponsive by their parents. The child was taken to hospital where they were pronounced dead. Suspicion was raised and post-mortem imaging confirmed head trauma and rib fractures, and the case was escalated for a forensic investigation. This case report details how the micro-CT imaging was merged with the gold standard of histopathology for visualisation of trauma, and how the court presentation was planned alongside Senior Investigating Officers and various medical experts. The presentation was used in court by the histopathologist to present the evidence. The resulting presentation provided additional clarity to jury members regarding the location, severity, frequency, and timings of the injuries. From the perspective of the investigating police force, the resulting presentation was crucial in ensuring understanding of the medico-legal evidence of how the infant died. The prosecuting lawyer noted that combining the histological and micro-CT evidence in this way allowed the evidence to be presented in a sensitive, clear, and impactful manner.

3D scanning a crime scene to enhance juror understanding of Bloodstain Pattern Analysis evidence.

There are numerous crime scene investigation applications of 3D scanning that have been previously documented. This paper documents the application of a 3D point cloud in the presentation of Bloodstain Pattern Analysis evidence to mock jurors. 150 mock jurors viewed a presentation of Bloodstain Pattern Analysis evidence from a murder trial in the UK. After viewing the evidence, the participants were tested on their knowledge of the evidence and repeated the test again 2 weeks later; to simulate criminal trial conditions; whereby there is a time lapse between the initial viewing of evidential material and deliberation. This paper found that the mock jurors who additionally viewed a 3D flythrough of a point cloud of the crime scene, better retained knowledge of the evidence over time, reported a greater ability to visualise the crime scene and had higher levels of interest in the evidence. Crucially, the 3D flythrough group did not report different levels of confidence in the accuracy of their memories of the evidence, nor different levels of emotional arousal to the group that viewed the evidence without the 3D presentation. Together, these findings suggest that 3D scanning of crime scenes, and the resultant point cloud's presentation to jurors, could add further value to the justice system when spatial information, such as Bloodstain Pattern Analysis evidence, is presented.

Head-to-Head Comparison of CCN4, DNMT3A, PTPN11, and SPARC as Suppressors of Anti-tumor Immunity.

Purpose: Emergent cancer cells likely secrete factors that inhibit anti-tumor immunity. To identify such factors, we applied a functional assay with proteomics to an immunotherapy resistant syngeneic mouse melanoma model. Four secreted factors were identified that potentially mediate immunosuppression and could become targets for novel immunotherapies. We tested for consistent clinical correlates in existing human data and verified in vivo whether knocking out tumor cell production of these factors improved immune-mediated control of tumor growth. Methods: Existing human data was analyzed for clinical correlates. A CRISPR/Cas9 approach to generate knockout cell lines and a kinetic analysis leveraging a Markov Chain Monte Carlo (MCMC) approach quantified the various knockouts' effect on cells' intrinsic growth rate. Flow cytometry was used to characterize differences in immune infiltration. Results: While all four gene products were produced by malignant melanocytes, only increased CCN4 expression was associated with reduced survival in primary melanoma patients. In immunocompetent C57BL/6 mice the CCN4 knockout increased survival while the other knockouts had no effect. This survival advantage was lost when the CCN4 knockout cells were injected into immunocompromised hosts, indicating that the effect of CCN4 may be immune mediated. Parameter estimation from the MCMC analysis shows that CCN4 was the only knockout tested that decreased the net tumor growth rate in immunocompetent mice. Flow cytometry showed an increase in NK cell infiltration in CCN4 knockout tumors. Conclusions: The results suggest that CCN4 is a mediator of immunosuppression in the melanoma tumor microenvironment and a potential collateral immunotherapy target. Supplementary Information: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s12195-023-00787-7.

Modeling angiogenesis in the human brain in a tissue-engineered post-capillary venule.

Angiogenesis plays an essential role in embryonic development, organ remodeling, wound healing, and is also associated with many human diseases. The process of angiogenesis in the brain during development is well characterized in animal models, but little is known about the process in the mature brain. Here, we use a tissue-engineered post-capillary venule (PCV) model incorporating stem cell derived induced brain microvascular endothelial-like cells (iBMECs) and pericyte-like cells (iPCs) to visualize the dynamics of angiogenesis. We compare angiogenesis under two conditions: in response to perfusion of growth factors and in the presence of an external concentration gradient. We show that both iBMECs and iPCs can serve as tip cells leading angiogenic sprouts. More importantly, the growth rate for iPC-led sprouts is about twofold higher than for iBMEC-led sprouts. Under a concentration gradient, angiogenic sprouts show a small directional bias toward the high growth factor concentration. Overall, pericytes exhibited a broad range of behavior, including maintaining quiescence, co-migrating with endothelial cells in sprouts, or leading sprout growth as tip cells.

Engineering the human blood-brain barrier at the capillary scale using a double-templating technique.

In vitro blood-brain barrier (BBB) models have played an important role in studying processes such as immune cell trafficking and drug delivery, as well as contributing to the understanding of mechanisms of disease progression. Many biological and pathological processes in the cerebrovasculature occur in capillaries and hence the lack of robust hierarchical models at the capillary scale is a major roadblock in BBB research. Here we report on a double-templating technique for engineering hierarchical BBB models with physiological barrier function at the capillary scale. We first demonstrate the formation of hierarchical vascular networks using human umbilical vein endothelial cells. We then characterize barrier function in a BBB model using brain microvascular endothelial-like cells (iBMECs) differentiated from induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs). Finally, we characterize immune cell adhesion and transmigration in response to perfusion with the inflammatory cytokine tumor necrosis factor-alpha, and show that we can recapitulate capillary-scale effects, such as leukocyte plugging, observed in mouse models. Our double-templated hierarchical model enables the study of a wide range of biological and pathological processes related to the human BBB.

Quantifying forensic investigations involving bloodstain pattern analysis within the UK.

Research informed by practice is more likely to have a greater impact on society. However, forensic cases are confidential and thus, real-life data regarding the details of violent crime is usually withheld from the public and academia. Through a partnership between the authors institution and a UK police service, casefiles from 78 criminal investigations from 2012 to 2020 involving Bloodstain Pattern Analysis (BPA) were examined and quantified. The most common methods of assault and weapons used were identified as well as the frequency of different bloodstain pattern classifications. The results of this study will help inform researchers and supply forensic training providers with data derived from forensic practice. Despite a significant body of literature exploring impact patterns and software for calculating the Area of Origin (AO), impact pattern was classified at only 22% of scenes, with sharp-force trauma being the most prevalent form of assault. This paper recommends a review of the BPA terminology, to include additional commonly encountered patterns that are not defined by the current standard.

Advantages of micro-CT in the case of a complex dismemberment.

This case study reports the advantages of micro-CT to aid the investigative process in a complex dismemberment case. Micro-CT was successfully implemented to scan all skeletal remains of a dismembered female. The digital models were utilized to (i) screen for any further injuries not related to the dismemberment, (ii) provide measurements from false starts non-destructively, and (iii) visually represent the evidence in a structured format in court to improve the understanding of the forensic evidence by the jury. Acquiring high-resolution scans in this manner improved the efficiency of the forensic investigation by screening the remains and provided complementary toolmark evidence to the investigating team and forensic pathologist. A total of 14 false starts were identified along with the directionality of each dismemberment cut. Furthermore, the visual 3D representation of the remains in court provided a powerful tool to communicate this important evidence to the jury and form a prosecution narrative. As a forensic radiological method, micro-CT provided valuable information both in the investigation and the court presentation.

Software for the trajectory analysis of blood-drops: A systematic review.

Blood-drop trajectory analysis can provide investigators with retrospective information regarding the spatial positioning of an injured person. To assist with bloodstain pattern analysis, various commercially available software have been developed and deployed. A systematic review was conducted to understand the extent of experimental validation and applications of blood-drop trajectory analysis software to case work. Ninety-two sources between 1987 and 2020 were identified including peer-reviewed studies and commercial websites. Thirty-four of these were validation studies, of which, only two involved impact patterns generated from greater than 1 m from the main target surface. Fifteen software were identified during this review with six documented to have been applied in casework. The reviewed software do not appear to fully satisfy relevant forensic validation criteria, based on publicly available literature. In some cases, software underwent limited experimental validation prior to real-world application with subsequent references to this in later literature. This review provides forensic investigators and bloodstain pattern analysts with a comprehensive overview of all available software options, knowledge of the extent of research into validating these techniques and highlights documented applications of these software in criminal cases.

Micro-CT for the examination of paediatric rib injuries: A case series.

Cases of child abuse and homicide are amongst the biggest challenges investigators face, with complex evidence bases often strongly contested and reliant on specialist interpretation of the medical evidence. In many cases, this medical evidence includes examination of the deceased's skeleton using different macroscopic and microscopic imaging methods. Rib fractures are a common concern when examining suspicious cases and much research has been conducted on their causes. The role of CPR in particular has been controversial and therefore a clear assessment of the fracture distribution is crucial. Recent studies have shown the benefit of imaging techniques such as Computed Tomography, although the gold standard remains histology. This paper presents three cases of suspected non-accidental rib fractures of infants which had been examined using micro-CT and histology. Micro-CT has been shown to be superior to medical CT as it achieves a greater resolution, making it effective for paediatric post-mortem imaging. Micro-CT observations were compared retrospectively to the histology, which demonstrated that micro-CT found 69% of the fractures identified histologically as well as an additional 22% not identified through histology. As well as complimenting histological analysis, the extent to which micro-CT can enhance the overall examination of paediatric non-accidental injuries is also discussed.

Forensic 3D printing from micro-CT for court use- process validation.

Forensic application of 3D scanning and printing technology is gaining momentum with 3D printed evidence starting to be produced for court. However, the processes for creating these forensic 3D models requires still rigorous assessment to ensure they adhere to the relevant legal standards. Although, previous work has examined the accuracy of 3D prints created from medical grade Computed Tomography (CT), no such assessment has been carried out for Micro Computed Tomography (micro-CT) which offers superior resolution and the ability to capture forensically relevant injuries. This study aimed to quantify the error rates associated with forensic 3D printed models and toolmarks, created using three different printing technologies, based on micro-CT data. Overall, 3D printed models, based on micro-CT scans, replicate bone surface geometry to sub-millimetre accuracy (<0.62mm for overall shape and <0.36mm for toolmarks). However, there were significant differences between the printing technology employed (mean errors of -0.3%, -0.8%, and 0.7% for shape geometry and -0.8%, 14.1%, and 0.7% for toolmark geometry for Printers 1-3 respectively). Where possible, the authors recommend micro-CT imaging for producing forensic 3D printed bone models particularly when injuries are present.

Seen this scene? Scene recognition in the reaction-time Concealed Information Test.

Detecting a suspect's recognition of a crime scene (e.g., a burgled room or a location visited for criminal activity) can be of great value during criminal investigations. Although it is established that the Reaction-Time Concealed Information Test (RT-CIT) can determine whether a suspect recognizes crime-related objects, no research has tested whether this capability extends to the recognition of scenes. In Experiment 1, participants were given an autobiographic scene-based RT-CIT. In Experiment 2, participants watched a mock crime video before completing an RT-CIT that included both scenes and objects. In Experiment 3, participants completed an autobiographic scene-based RT-CIT, with half instructed to perform a physical countermeasure. Overall, the findings showed that an equivalent RT-CIT effect can be found with both scene and object stimuli and that RT-CITs may not be susceptible to physical countermeasure strategies, thereby increasing its real-world applicability.

The hazards of perception: evaluating a change blindness demonstration within a real-world driver education course.

Overconfidence in one's driving ability can lead to risky decision-making and may therefore increase the accident risk. When educating people about the risks of their driving behavior, it is all too easy for individuals to assume that the message is not meant for them and so can be ignored. In this study we developed and assessed the effect of a road safety demonstration based around the phenomenon of change blindness within a real-world Driver Awareness Course. We collected quantitative and qualitative data to evaluate the effectiveness of the demonstration in both a police-led environment (Experiment 1) and a laboratory environment (Experiment 2). We also compared the change blindness intervention to two control tasks. The results showed that participants' self-reported ability to spot important visual changes was reduced after the change blindness demonstration in both experiments, but was not reduced after participation in the control tasks of Experiment 2. Furthermore, participants described the change blindness demonstrations positively and would recommend that they were shown more widely.

Correction to: Quantitative topographic anatomy of the femoral ACL footprint: a micro-CT analysis.

An author has corrected their first name and updated their email address - see the affiliation section below. Daniel G. Norman should now be Danielle G. Norman as shown in the authorgroup section above.

Novel application of three-dimensional technologies in a case of dismemberment.

This case study reports the novel application of three-dimensional technologies such as micro-CT and 3D printing to the forensic investigation of a complex case of dismemberment. Micro-CT was successfully employed to virtually align severed skeletal elements found in different locations, analyse tool marks created during the dismemberment process, and virtually dissect a charred piece of evidence. High resolution 3D prints of the burnt human bone contained within were created for physical visualisation to assist the investigation team. Micro-CT as a forensic radiological method provided vital information and the basis for visualisation both during the investigation and in the subsequent trial making it one of the first examples of such technology in a UK court.

Quantitative topographic anatomy of the femoral ACL footprint: a micro-CT analysis.

The femoral footprint of the anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) is a much-studied anatomic structure, predominantly due to its importance during ACL reconstruction surgery. A new technique utilising high-resolution micro-computed tomography (micro-CT) is described, allowing detailed three-dimensional (3D) quantitative analysis of this structure. Seven cadaveric knees were scanned using micro-CT, yielding 3D data with a reconstructed voxel size of 60 µm. A novel method of 3D surface extraction was developed and validated, facilitating both qualitative observation of surface details and quantitative topographic assessment using colour-coded relief maps. Images were displayed on an immersive 3D visualisation wall, and ten experienced ACL clinicians were surveyed as to the presence and morphology of osseous landmarks, providing qualitative assessment of whether such features can be reliably identified for navigation during surgery. Both quantitative analysis and qualitative assessment of the footprints in this study showed significant variability in the presence and morphology of osseous landmarks, with the lateral intercondylar ridge being objectively present in four out of seven relief maps, although reportedly seen in six out of seven cases in the qualitative study, suggesting an element of subjectivity and interpretation. This is the first study to utilise micro-CT in the study of ACL anatomy.

Inconsistency in 9 mm bullets: correlation of jacket thickness to post-impact geometry measured with non-destructive X-ray computed tomography.

Fundamental to any ballistic armour standard is the reference projectile to be defeated. Typically, for certification purposes, a consistent and symmetrical bullet geometry is assumed, however variations in bullet jacket dimensions can have far reaching consequences. Traditionally, characteristics and internal dimensions have been analysed by physically sectioning bullets--an approach which is of restricted scope and which precludes subsequent ballistic assessment. The use of a non-destructive X-ray computed tomography (CT) method has been demonstrated and validated (Kumar et al., 2011 [15]); the authors now apply this technique to correlate bullet impact response with jacket thickness variations. A set of 20 bullets (9 mm DM11) were selected for comparison and an image-based analysis method was employed to map jacket thickness and determine the centre of gravity of each specimen. Both intra- and inter-bullet variations were investigated, with thickness variations of the order of 200 µm commonly found along the length of all bullets and angular variations of up to 50 µm in some. The bullets were subsequently impacted against a rigid flat plate under controlled conditions (observed on a high-speed video camera) and the resulting deformed projectiles were re-analysed. The results of the experiments demonstrate a marked difference in ballistic performance between bullets from different manufacturers and an asymmetric thinning of the jacket is observed in regions of pre-impact weakness. The conclusions are relevant for future soft armour standards and provide important quantitative data for numerical model correlation and development. The implications of the findings of the work on the reliability and repeatability of the industry standard V50 ballistic test are also discussed.