Sex determination is one of the main steps in the identification of human skeletal remains. It constitutes an initial step in personal identification from the skeletal remains. The aim of the present study was to provide the population-specific sex discriminating osteometric standards to aid human identification. The present study was conducted on 87 (174 sides) slices of crania using postmortem computed tomography in 45 males and 42 females, aged between 18 and 75 years. About 22 parameters of crania were measured using Osirix software 3-D Volume Rendering. Results showed that all parameters were significantly higher in males than in females except for orbital height of the left eye by independent t test (P<0.01). By discriminant analysis, the classification accuracy was 85.1%, and by regression, the classification accuracy ranged from 78.2% to 86.2%. In conclusion, cranium can be used to distinguish between males and females in the Malaysian population. The results of the present study can be used as a forensic tool for identification of unknown crania.

Objective: Determination of sex is one of the most important parameters for conducting biological profile of unknown skeletal remains in anatomical anthropology and forensic medicine. Mastoid bone is useful for the identification of sex, as it is the most protected bone and is resistant to damage, due to its anatomical position at the base of the skull. The aim of this study was to develop new equations for the estimation of sex from mastoid triangle in the Malaysian population.Methods: About 10 parameters were studied on 388 computed tomography scans of crania in 231 males and 157 females. The parameters comprised three sides of mastoid triangle, its perimeter and area on both sides. T-test was used to compare between the right and left sides and between males and females. Stepwise discriminant function was used to reveal the best discriminatory parameter and its classification accuracy.Results: Comparison of means by T-test revealed no difference between the right and left sides in both sexes. T-test showed a significant difference between males and females for all parameters. Perimeter of mastoid triangle was found to be the best parameter by stepwise discriminant analysis. The equation based on perimeter of mastoid triangle was developed with 84.4% classification accuracy.Conclusion: The developed equation could be used to assess sexual dimorphism of fragmented Malaysian crania with intact mastoid region. The achieved cross-validated classification was relatively high compared to that in other previous studies.

Objective: Vitamin E is an antioxidant which can help in the prevention of cardiovascular disease. The objective of this study was to estimate the effects of Vitamin E on cardiac marker enzymes in isoprenaline (ISO)-induced myocardial infracted rats. Methods:Adult male albino rats were divided into three groups. The first group was the control negative group. The second group was the control positive group that was subcutaneously injected with ISO (100 mg/kg). The third group was pretreated with Vitamin E (100 mg/kg) once daily for 30 days, then subcutaneously injected with ISO at an interval of 24 h for 2 days. Aspartate aminotransferase (AST), alanine transaminase (ALT), lactate dehydrogenase (LDH), cardiac troponin-I (CTn-I), glutathione (GSH), superoxide dismutase (SOD), malondialdehyde (MDA), and histopathological examinations were measured. Comparison between groups was achieved by one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) test through SPSS software. Results:The levels of AST, ALT, LDH, creatine kinase (CK), and CTn-I significantly decreased in pretreated group with Vitamin E compared to its increasing in the control positive group. The level of GSH and SOD markedly increased in pretreated group with Vitamin E compared to its decreasing in the control positive group, while the level of MDA significantly decreased in pretreated group with Vitamin E compared to its increasing in the control positive group. ISO + Vitamin E rats group reflected a cardioprotective role of Vitamin E in myocardial infarcted rats. Conclusion:Pretreatment with Vitamin E can protect the myocardial membranes against ISO-induced oxidative stress in rats and can be used for routine clinical and epidemiological purposes.

The present systematic review explores the most sexually dimorphic parameters by using geometric morphometric analysis of human skull. An extended search was conducted in Google Scholars and PubMed (published between 2005 and 2017). The main inclusion criteria were research articles published in English, and studies that used geometric morphometric analysis for classification of human skull. The literature search identified 54 potential relevant articles whereby, five had met the inclusion criteria. Most studies reported positive contribution of geometric morphometric as an alternative and accurate tool for classification of unknown human crania. Geometric morphometric method resulted in a high classification accuracy of sexual dimorphism among different populations. Further studies are required to approach the best method used for varied types of postcranial bones equipped with a more advanced meta-analysis of the results.