A systematic review of the agreement between chronological age and skeletal age based on the Greulich and Pyle atlas.

OBJECTIVES: This systematic review examines the agreement between assessed skeletal age by the Greulich and Pyle atlas (GP skeletal age) and chronological age. METHODS: We searched electronic databases until January 2017 for studies reporting GP skeletal age and confirmed chronological age in healthy individuals aged 10-25 years. Results are presented as forest plots and meta-analyses (random-effects models). RESULTS: In separate meta-analyses for each age group and sex (14-18 years for girls, 14-19 years for boys), the pooled mean differences between GP skeletal age and chronological age varied from -0.52 years to 0.47 years. In individual studies, age group and sex-specific mean differences between GP skeletal age and chronological age rarely exceeded 1 year, but between-study heterogeneities were large in most age groups. Few studies examined mean chronological age and distribution for each GP skeletal age. One study of good methodological quality indicates that 95% prediction intervals for chronological age from given GP skeletal ages are typically around 4 years. CONCLUSIONS: There is still good correlation between GP skeletal age and mean chronological age in modern populations. However, the individual variation of development within a population and heterogeneities between studies are substantial. KEY POINTS: • The GP atlas still corresponds well with mean chronological age in modern populations. • The substantial variation within a population must be considered. • The heterogeneity between studies is relatively large and of unknown origin.

[Stature estimation from teeth and jaw].

After the discovery of skeletonized human remains, the estimation of stature is an important element of the so-called "biological profile". Typically, long bone lengths are used in regression formulas. If long bones are not available, predictions of stature cannot be made. Human skulls are often the subject of forensic osteological examination, sometimes even detached. Therefore, it seems reasonable to search for skull measurements that have a sufficiently good correlation to stature. The aim of the study presented was to measure odonto-stomatological parameters using post-mortem CT data to check whether the esti- mation of stature was possible on this basis. Three classic tooth dimensions (MD, BL, ZL), two diagonal tooth dimensions (MBDL, DBML) first described by Lund and Mörnstad in 1999, two tooth dimensions defined for the first time in this study (MKDO, DKMO), the mesiodistal index (MDS) and also the palatal arch dimensions (arch length, arch width, molar length and dental length) - each at maxilla and mandible - were digitally measured on a total of 799 teeth of 48 virtual 3-D-reconstructed skulls (33 males and 15 females). For most of the aforementioned measurements no statistically significant relation to stature was found. There were positive correlations by Pearson at a significance level of 99 % (2-sided) at three measurements: ZL 15, MKDO 14 and MKDO 15. Positive correlations by Pearson at a significance level of 95 % (2-sided) could be determined for eight measurements, but an applicable regression formula could not be calculated for any of the parameters. Despite a statistical correlation of a few teeth parameters with body length, they must be considered unsuitable for estimating stature.

[DNA Ancestry and phenotype markers analyses and French law]. / Traits phénotypiques, origins bio géographiques et legislation française.

Since some of the genetic markers involved in the analyses are single nucleotide polymorphisms located in protein-coding regions or exons, their analyses are today forbidden for forensic application in French law. A recent application of the French Criminal Chamber of "Cour de Cassation" indicates that it would be possible to perform phenotypic studies and Ancestry Informative Markers (AIM) analysis on stain samples but not on samples taken from a body. The authors present the results of the HIrisplex test performed on seven bone samples belonging to a Mongolian Altaï population dated from the late Bronze Age. On account of the obtained results, the authors raise the question of the use of HIrisplex test on corpses and on skeletonized human remains for their identification.

[Identification of an exhumed unknown infant through DNA analysis]. / Identifizierung eines exhumierten unbekannten Säuglings mittels DNA-analyse.

The article reports on the exhumation and subsequent DNA analysis of the skeletal remains of an unknown male newborn from 1988. Molecular biological methods confirmed the maternity of a woman who was already convicted of infanticide. Since homicide could not be clearly proven and manslaughter becomes barred by the statute of limitation after 20 years, the woman cannot be held accountable for the alleged killing of her first child.

RELIGION AND DISASTER VICTIM IDENTIFICATION.

Disaster Victim Identification (DVI) is a triangle, the components of which are secular law, religious law and custom and professional methods. In cases of single non-criminal deaths, identification often rests with a hospital or a medical authority. When dealing with criminal or mass death incidents, the law, in many jurisdictions, assigns identification to the coroner/medical examiner, who typically uses professional methods and only answers the religious requirements of the deceased's next-of-kin according to his personal judgment. This article discusses religious considerations regarding scientific methods and their limitations, as well as the ethical issues involved in the government coroner/medical examiner's becoming involved in clarifying and answering the next-of-kin's religious requirements.

[Legal implication of DNA profiling]. / Les empreintes génétique en pratique judiciaire.

In recent years, DNA profiling has been used regularly by the justice system, and has seen a number of improvements, with the need for fewer cells, more efficient DNA extraction and purification, and more rapid genotyping. These methods can now identify an individual more rapidly, from a corpse, blood stain, sperm or epithelial cells, by comparison with familial profiles. In France, DNA profiling can only be ordered by a judge.

[Definition of a "domestic-setting corpse"--a retrospective study of 211 discoveries]. / Definition der "Wohnungsleiche"--eine retrospektive Studie anhand von 211 Leichenfunden.

In Germany, the term "domestic-setting corpse" is regularly used both in the medicolegal field (daily work, specialist literature) and by the general public (press, novels). The only formal definition of the term is in the German-language textbook "Basiswissen Rechtsmedizin" (Madea and Dettmeyer 2007). In this retrospective study, we compared the criteria for this definition with our findings. Autopsy reports from the Institute of Forensic Medicine at the Justus Liebig University in Giessen, Germany, for the period between 2005 and 2011 (including February), were reviewed retropectively to see if the criteria for this formal definition could be found. We chose a postmortem interval of more than 24 hours and discovery of the corpse in a private home as inclusion criteria for our study (n = 211). We could verify four of the criteria for the definition ("advanced signs of decomposition", "reclusiveness", "unclear cause of death", "difficult to identify") in our study. One criterion ("frequently a long postmortem interval") was too vague to be of use, and two further criteria ("discovery circumstances" and "high frequency of active alcohol dependence") could only be partially confirmed. In almost half of our cases there were, however, signs of general substance abuse. The proportion of male "domestic-setting corpses" was distinctly higher than that of females (approx. 3:1). The average age-at-death was 50.1 years for men, and 57.8 years for women, and thus clearly below the average life expectancies. In over half of the cases - even those with explicitly mentioned advanced facial decay--the identification method had not been noted. In the formal definition, the criteria "discovery circumstances" and "alcoholism" thus need to be more precisely defined. Also, due to the inexplicit time range, the criterion "frequently a long postmortem interval" was too vague to be applied to, or compared with, our cases as a classic criterion. We suggest specifying a minimum postmortem interval of 24 hours for "domestic-setting corpses". In addition, more attention should be paid to the identification of "domestic-setting corpses". To date, investigation authorities frequently seem to assume that a corpse discovered in a private residence is that of the home owner or occupant.

The strategies to DVI challenges in Typhoon Morakot.

Small village populations in which there is a high amount of kinship can cause complications in cases of disaster victim identification. This problem was highlighted by the loss of life after Typhoon Morakot struck Taiwan where over 500 people from small isolated communities lost their lives. Most of the victims were buried by landslides in the remote mountainous areas of southern Taiwan. Only 146 pieces of human remains were recovered after searching for 4 months. Most of the human remains were received for examination as severely damaged fragments prevented possible identification by morphological features. DNA testing using the traditional duo parent/child or sibling screening by STR data opens the possibility of including not only the actual victim but also false positives. Variable likelihood ratios were obtained when comparing DNA types from human remains to those from potential relatives; however, with the DNA typing of numerous members of the same living family, multiple matches to potential families were avoided. Of the 146 samples obtained and collapsed to 130 victims, they were linked to 124 individuals resulting in their identification when compared to a pool of 588 potential relatives. Six of the human remains could not be linked to any living relative and remain unknown.

Development and validation of I-DNA1: a 15-Loci multiplex system for identity testing.

This paper presents a system for the multiplex amplification of 15 loci, known as I-DNA1, which combines mini and midiSTR technology, with amplicon sizes ranging from 49 to 297 bp. I-DNA1 analyses all the STR loci included in the CODIS and the Interpol Standard Set of loci, nine of the ten European core loci and seven of the eight German core loci, making it suitable for use in identifying humans. Moreover, its high sensitivity and the small size of its amplicons mean that I-DNA1 is potentially highly useful for analysing highly degraded and/or very small DNA samples.

[Superimposition of ante- and post-mortem photographs of tattoos as a means of identification--a case report]. / Superimposition ante- und Postmortaler Bilder von Tätowierungen zur Identitätssicherung - ein Fallbericht.

With the rising number of tattooed people tattoos have become increasingly important for the identification of unknown corpses. Tattoos can be helpful in both phases of the identification process, either by providing clues to the identity of an unknown person or body or as a means of verifying a postulated identity. In the presented case, an ante-mortem photograph of a tattoo was available although it was of poor quality. The respective skin region of the body was photographed from the same angle as the tattoo on the ante-mortem photograph. When superimposing the two photos, the tattoos were found to match and the identity of the body could be verified.

[Identification of an unknown body by means of osteosynthesis material]. / Identifizierung einer Unbekannten Leiche Anhand von Osteosynthesematerial.

The present case describes the identification of an unknown corpse recovered from water by means of two osteosynthesis plates with serial numbers. This method of identification is compared with the pros and cons of other possibilities of identification using medical findings. Although in Western Europe osteosynthesis material is normally removed some months after the operation, autoptic exposure of a suspicious bone may occasionally allow valid, fast and convenient identification of the body, especially if osteosynthesis material with different serial numbers was used.

Investigation of WWII/postwar mass burials in Croatia-The implementation of the Croatian model of searching for the imprisoned and missing persons.

The search for victims of World War Two (WWII) and the immediate aftermath period (postwar) in Croatia started together with the search for Homeland War victims in 1991. It continued through years, most often sporadically and in a non-homogenous way. It was just with the adoption of the Law on Research, Arrangement and Maintenance of Military Cemeteries, Cemeteries of Victims of WWII and Postwar Period in 2013 that the search became more structured and gained a formal governmental body responsible for the organization and supervision of the activities related to it. It was then that the well-established model of searching for Homeland War victims, based on many years of field work and research, started to be implemented in the search and analysis of WWII/postwar victims. The model represents a continuously growing and developing project which encompasses a wide variety of steps and procedures, from the investigation of alleged burial locations to the analysis and reburial of recovered mortal remains. From its implementation in 2016, it allowed the successful investigation of 1300 alleged burial locations, 484 field surveys, 42 exhumations and the recovery of remains of more than 1600 individuals. Besides, care for military cemeteries, marking of mass burial sites and arranging of international treaties are conducted in order to guarantee proper handling, relocation and repatriation of all those that perished during WWII and the postwar period.

Forgotten in time: The state of legislation, recovery, identification, and repatriation of World War I and II soldiers in Slovakia.

Recovery, identification, and burial of casualties from World War I and II is still a topic of interest in many countries. In Slovakia, recent discoveries of such remains are usually accidental. Unfortunately, in many cases the remains are disrupted and without any material culture present, rendering the identification of the victim almost impossible. Majority of accidental skeletal remains are analyzed by legal medical doctors at forensic medicine departments spread across ten regional workplaces around the country. The aim of the paper is to point out the problems with recovery and identification of World War I and World War II remains in Slovakia.

The recovery and repatriation of the remains of Japanese war dead and the roles of physical anthropologists.

During and after World War II, around 2.4 million Japanese died overseas. The bodies of nearly half of them are still missing as they remain in the field where they fell and have never been repatriated. The tasks of recovering and repatriating the remains of Japanese war dead started in 1953 by the former Ministry of Health and Welfare, and are now carried out by the Social Welfare and War Victims' Relief Bureau of the Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare (MHLW). In 2016, the "Act on Promoting the Recovery of the Remains of Japanese War Dead (Act No. 12 of 2016)" was enacted. The Act designates Fiscal Year (FY) 2016 (from April 2016 to March 2017) to FY 2024 as the period of intensive implementation and stipulates that the state shall establish a process to promote the identification of the war dead. In line with this Act, physical anthropologists were employed as full-time experts by the MHLW to conduct scientific analysis on the remains in the field, and since then, they have accompanied all overseas delegations for repatriation. The authors of this paper have been sent to the sites in the partner countries overseas such as the former Soviet Union, the Philippines, Papua New Guinea, and the Solomon Islands, and nationally to Ioto (Iwo Jima) to analyze the minimum number of individuals (MNI), ancestry, age at death, and sex of the remains. Along with the morphological investigations, DNA analyses of mitochondrial polymorphism and Y-chromosomal/autosomal short tandem repeat (STR) have been applied for estimation of the ancestry and identification of the individual. By narrowing down the possible candidates based on the historical records such as name list of the missing, if individual identification of the remains is achieved, the remains are returned to the bereaved families, and if not, they are placed in the Chidorigafuchi National Cemetery in Tokyo to rest in peace. Also, the implementation of single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) analyses with next generation sequencing (NGS) for ancestry is under discussion. This paper provides an overview of the process of recovery and identification of the missing bodies from World War II in Japan.

The legislation, search, recovery, identification and repatriation of conflict casualties worldwide: Introducing the WWI and WWII Special Issue.

Conflict casualties refer to those individuals who are lost due to military conflict or war. The involvement of forensic archaeologists and anthropologists in the legal search, recovery, documentation, identification, and repatriation/reburial of conflict casualties is well known. Internationally, there are a number of professional organisations who ethically recover and identify these individuals. However, at the same time, some organisations and individuals have raised significant concerns about working in other countries, understanding specific laws and protocols, and how the whole recovery and identification process should be undertaken. Through this special issue, Forensic Science International is interested in promoting these investigative good-practice procedures, illustrated with case studies, and ethical and legal considerations when undertaking and disseminating these humanitarian missions to the wider forensic community. This Special Issue focuses primarily on the First and Second World Wars, yet other conflicts are covered, and includes the views and perspectives from different organisations within specific countries in the format of original papers, commentaries, and case reports. Specifically, these papers include the legislative regulations, information regarding the authorities to be consulted on and who deal with human remains, the organisations and professionals who are involved with the recovery and analysis of human remains, the process of identification, and how this information is disseminated to the public.

Unidentified human remains discovered within Polish territory: Traces of the difficult history of the twentieth century.

Poland, due to its geographical location, has been a place where the interests of neighbouring countries have converged. As a result, Polish territory has been the site of hostilities, totalitarian terror, and acts of genocide. Following the end of World War II, Poland became part of the so-called Eastern Bloc. A movement known as the anti-communist underground arose within Polish territory with the aim of conducting partisan warfare and political and propaganda activities against the occupiers. Partisans were victims of campaigns of liquidation; they lost their lives during interrogations, died in prisons, were sentenced to death by Polish courts, and were subsequently buried at unknown sites throughout the country. In connection with war and post-war events within Polish territory, the remains of victims of both World War II and post-war political repressions are being found to this day. In addition, remains derived from historical populations are being discovered as well as present-day remains belonging to missing persons or victims of criminal offences. A portion of the remains resulting from military operations and the post-war history of Poland are discovered by chance, but discovery of the burial sites of victims of communist crimes is often preceded by many years of research. International agreements and Polish legal regulations make it possible to search for victims of armed conflicts of various nationalities within the country. The process of identifying victims of armed conflicts, political terror and genocide can be carried out thanks to routine procedures for handling unidentified remains. Given the diversity (various historical periods, various nationalities) of the discovered remains, the elaborated procedures enable their dignified burial.

[Medicolegal identification of victims in mass disasters using the example of aircraft accidents]. / Rechtsmedizinische Identifizierungsaufgaben bei Katastrophen am Beispiel von Flugunfällen.

In mass disasters, the main task of the medicolegal expert is to support the victims' identification. As such events are rare, the knowledge obtained during previous operations should be evaluated and published to improve the quality and effectiveness of the identification work in future disasters. This report describes the experience gained at the Institute of Forensic Medicine of the Humboldt University in Berlin during the identification of the victims of three aircraft accidents (1972, 1986, 1989). The advantages and disadvantages of the identification methods used are discussed. Medicolegal experts should make themselves familiar with available experiences to be adequately prepared for the responsible task of identifying the victims in an emergency.

Sharp force trauma analysis in bone and cartilage: A literature review.

Sharp force trauma (SFT) in bone and cartilage has been studied extensively. This literature review summarizes knife and saw mark research. Researchers have documented several features of cut surfaces and successfully associated them with various tool characteristics. Most study designs are based on light microscopic examination, but other technologies such as micro-computed scanning, scanning electron microscope, and epifluorescence microscopy have been investigated. Researchers have worked with human and non-human material, and found that the presentation of SFT differs between the two. Furthermore, they have designed studies to control the parameters surrounding SFT (e.g., tool angle, force, direction) as well as not to control these parameters (real-world scenario) and have found that the trauma produced in the two scenarios differ considerably. Researchers have attempted to calculate the error rate associated with cut and saw mark analysis and have reported very different results. Several high profile cases of successful SFT analysis have been published and are briefly reviewed. Expert testimony based on cut and saw mark analysis has been found admissible, but not in all cases. Unfortunately, researchers have not consistently used standard terminology, a list of terms gathered from the literature is provided. Despite the extensive research, more work is needed. Methods that mitigate potential sources of error that are not dependent on analyst's experience must be developed.