This article aims to increase accuracy in estimating the postmortem submersion interval (PMSI) for bodies recovered from rivers in the United Kingdom. Data were collected from closed case files, crime scene reports, and autopsy files concerning bodies recovered over a 15-year period from the River Clyde, Scotland, and the River Mersey and canals in northwest England. One hundred and eighty-seven cases met the study criteria and were scored by quantifying the overall amount of decomposition observed in each case. Statistical analysis showed that the duration of a body's submergence in water and the temperatures to which it was exposed, as measured in accumulated degree days (ADD), had a significant effect on the decay process. Further analysis indicated that there were no significant differences in decomposition between the waterways. By combining the data from all study samples, it was possible to produce a single linear regression model for predicting ADD from observed decomposition.

Comparison of data from a variety of environments and ambient temperatures has previously been difficult as few studies used standardized measures of time/temperature and decomposition. In this paper, data from previous studies and recent experiments are compared using simple conversions. These conversions allow comparison across multiple environments and experiments for the first time. Plotting decomposition score against logADD allows the exponential progression of decomposition to be expressed as a simple linear equation. Data comparison from many environments and temperatures shows no difference in decomposition progression when measured using Accumulated Degree Days. The major effector of change in rate was insect presence, regardless of depositional environment, species, or season. Body size is significant when carcasses are accessed by insects; when insects are excluded, while bodies are indoors, submerged, or buried, then decomposition progresses at the same rate regardless of body size.

Using standards established by Lovejoy et al. (l) to estimate age at death from auricular surface morphology, 266 individuals of documented age, sex, and ancestry from the Terry and Bass Donated Collections were scored. Analysis of covariance (ANCOVA) indicates that for the factors that could be controlled, age is the sole influence on auricular surface morphology. Ancestry and sex had no significant effect on auricular phase expression. No evidence of secular changes was detected when comparing the Terry Collection (early 20th century) to the Bass Collection (later 20th century). Pearson correlations reveal that several of the subcomponents of the auricular surface (superior and inferior demifaces, left and right sides, transverse organization, texture) correspond with age equally well, although a combined scoring of all features performs slightly better than any one indicator taken alone. Not surprisingly, only 33% of the sample was correctly aged when using the 5-year age ranges provided by Lovejoy et al. (l), suggesting that the published ranges are much too narrow to be used in forensic contexts. To assess the variation in age per phase, standard descriptive statistics and error ranges were calculated and can be employed by forensic anthropologists when estimating the age of an unidentified decedent. Because the mean ages of some of the eight phases did not differ significantly from one another, a modified six-phase system is presented. The auricular surface performs as well as any other single skeletal indicator of adultage. This research suggests that a statistically-informed approach should be taken in order to fully understand the drawbacks and limitations of any aging method.

Although the relationship between decomposition and postmortem interval has been well studied, almost no studies examined the potential effects of physical disturbance occurring as a result of data collection procedures. This study compares physically disturbed rabbit carcasses with a series of undisturbed carcasses to assess the presence and magnitude of any effects resulting from repetitive disturbance. Decomposition was scored using visual assessment of soft tissue changes, and numerical data such as weight loss and carcass temperature were recorded. The effects of disturbance over time on weight loss, carcass temperature, soil pH and decomposition were studied. In addition, this study aimed to validate some of the anecdotal evidence regarding decomposition. Results indicate disturbance significantly inversely affects both weight loss and carcass temperature. No differences were apparent between groups for soil pH change or overall decomposition stage. An insect-mediated mechanism for the disturbance effect is suggested, along with indications as to why this effect may be cancelled when scoring overall decomposition.

The skeletal remains presented to forensic anthropologists are often fragmentary. Previously described methods of estimating stature from segments of long bones have not proved satisfactory because of the difficulty involved in identifying the precise anatomical landmarks by which they are defined. This study represents an assessment of the feasibility of stature estimation from fragmentary femora. A sample of 200 males and females, blacks and whites (total sample = 800), was obtained from the Terry Collection. New regression equations for the estimation of maximum femur length and stature from three well-defined and easy-to-measure segments of the femur are presented. This technique represents an improvement over methods currently in use for estimating stature from femur fragments; the location of the anatomical landmarks and the accuracy of the prediction are enhanced. The applicability of these formulae to a modern forensic sample is addressed with regard to secular trends in stature increase and changes in body segment proportions.

Megyesi et al.'s (J Forensic Sci, 2005, 50, 618) paper was important to forensic anthropology as it introduced a quantitative framework for estimating time since death in human cadavers, based upon physical appearance by way of scoring on a novel scale. However, errors concerning rounding, temperature scale, and incorrect use of a statistical regression model render their predictive formula unusable. Based upon only their more reliable data, a more appropriate regression model to predict accumulated degree days (ADD) from total body score (TBS) is presented. The new model is also a superior fit (r(2)  = 0.91) and produces markedly narrower confidence intervals than the original, which also allowed impossible, negative ADD values. Explanations of the shortcomings in the original analysis and calculations are presented, which it is hoped will help forensic scientists avoid making similar mistakes.

Periodontitis is a polymicrobial chronic inflammatory disease of tooth-supporting tissues with bacterial etiology affecting all age groups, becoming chronic in a subgroup of older individuals. Periodontal pathogens Porphyromonas gingivalis, Tannerella forsythia, and Treponema denticola are implicated in the development of a number of inflammatory pathologies at remote organ sites, including Alzheimer's disease (AD). The initial inflammatory hypothesis proposed that AD hallmark proteins were the main contributors of central nervous system (CNS) inflammation. This hypothesis is expanding to include the role of infections, lifestyle, and genetic and environmental factors in the pathogenesis of AD. Periodontal disease (PD) typifies a condition that encompasses all of the above factors including pathogenic bacteria. These bacteria not only are the source of low-grade, chronic infection and inflammation that follow daily episodes of bacteremia arising from everyday tasks such as brushing, flossing teeth, chewing food, and during dental procedures, but they also disseminate into the brain from closely related anatomical pathways. The long-term effect of inflammatory mediators, pathogens, and/or their virulence factors, reaching the brain systemically or otherwise would, over time, prime the brain's own microglia in individuals who have inherent susceptibility traits. Such susceptibilities contribute to inadequate neutralization of invading agents, upon reaching the brain. This has the capacity to create a vicious cycle of sustained local inflammatory milieu resulting in the loss of cytoarchitectural integrity and vital neurons with subsequent loss of function (deterioration in memory). The possible pathways between PD and AD development are considered here, as well as environmental factors that may modulate/exacerbate AD symptoms.

This article reports results of a comparative study of decomposition rates of wild rabbit (Oryctolagus cuniculus) which were either (i) buried after exposure to insect activity, (ii) buried without exposure, (iii) kept above ground behind an insect screen, or (iv) continuously exposed above ground in a field experiment. Results showed that dipteran oviposition occurred consistently in groups i and iv only. Decomposition rates (measured by Total Body Score every c. 50 accumulated degree days [ADD]) of rabbits kept behind the screen and those buried without exposure showed no difference (p = 0.450). This was significantly slower than those buried after exposure (p = 0.0016) which was in turn significantly slower than those continuously exposed (p << 0.001). Temperatures collected from animals showed the presence of feeding larvae increased intra-abdominal temperatures to >5°C above ambient. The findings support the assertion that insect presence is the primary agent affecting decomposition rate via tissue consumption and also the heat they generate.KEYWORDS: forensic science, taphonomy, insects, decomposition, degree-days, terrestrial, burial Although long utilized by entomologists and introduced to human decomposition research by Vass et al. in 1992 (1), forensic anthropologists have been slow to accept the standardization of time ⁄ temperature (accumulated degree days [ADD]) as the x-axis event timeline for decomposition; even some of the most current publications indicate that it has not been incorporated into research designs or data analysis (2-4) and reluctance to accept the implications of results generated by its use appears to be common. An analogy to an understanding of ADD is quite simple: for example, a pot of water on the stove at low heat may take 15 min to boil, whereas the same volume of water in the same pot will boil in 5 min if the heat is turned up. The same endpoint is reached, the pot boils-at the same accumulation of heat energy; the amount of chronological time it takes the pot to boil is incidental, as long as the right amount of heat energy accumulates.A slightly more complex analogy is to basic chemistry, where the input of thermal energy increases the speed of a chemical reaction. Hence in decomposition studies, ADD records the input of thermal energy (temperature multiplied by time) and measures the reaction (decay, measured in total body score [TBS]) to that input. Thus, the number of days it takes a corpse to skeletonize is incidental to the amount of thermal energy required to reach skeletonization. To continue the analogy, the experiment discussed in this article explores the use of a catalyst, to further increase the rate of decomposition in relation to ADD. In this experiment, the catalyst is insect access and, more specifically, the action of maggots.Recently published data (5) indicate that, when the accumulation of temperature over time is standardized by using ADD, insects influence the rate of decomposition more than any other variable. Simmons and colleagues (5) s...