Predicting face shape from the skull using a combined NMR and stereophotographic image database of living individuals

Science & Justice, 2008

The relationship between diet, geographic location and isotopic composition of human tissue has been successfully exploited in archaeological and palaeodietary studies, i.e. on ancient man, but cases in which this approach has been applied to present-day people e.g. to aid identification of mutilated or deteriorated bodies are far and few between. Stable isotope data are presented here from a case where for the first time stable isotope based intelligence aided victim identification by DNA analysis and subsequent apprehension of the perpetrators thus demonstrating that it is possible in principal for stable isotope data of present-day people to be useful for human provenancing, i.e. to yield valuable information about a person's life history and geographic origin.

Continuous-flow isotope ratio mass spectrometry (CF-IRMS) was used to compare 2H isotopic composition at natural abundance level of human scalp hair and fingernail samples collected from subjects worldwide with interpolated d2H precipitation values at corresponding locations. The results showed a strong correlation between d2H values of meteoric water and hair (r2 = 0.86), while the corresponding correlation for nails was not as strong (r2¼0.6). Offsets of -180%and -127%were observed when calculating solutions of the linear regression analyses for d2H vs. d18O correlation plots of hair and nail samples, respectively. Compared with the +10% offset of the global meteoric water line equation these findings suggested that d18O data from hair and nail would be of limited diagnostic value. The results of this pilot study provide for the first time tentative correlations of 2H isotopic composition of human hair and nails with local water. Linear regression analyses for measured d2Hvalues of human hair and nails vs. water yielded d2H(hair) = 0.49d2H(water) - 35 and d2H(nails) = 0.38d2H(water) - 49, respectively. The results suggest that 2H isotopic analysis of hair and nail samples can be used to provide information regarding an individual’s recent geographical life history and, hence, location. The benefit of this technique is to aid identification of victims of violent crime and mass disasters in circumstances where traditional methods such as DNA and fingerprinting cannot be brought to bear (or at least not immediately).

Annals of Anthropological Practice, 2014

ABSTRACT The application of stable isotope analysis has provided novel approaches for provenancing unidentified human remains from forensic contexts. Stable isotope ratios measured in human tissues provide a record of the foods consumed during life as well as the geographic location where drinking water or food was obtained. This study begins with an overview of the application of stable isotope analysis for provenancing human remains, followed by three cases that illustrate how chemical signatures in bone reflect a probable region of origin. Using stable carbon and nitrogen isotopes of human bone, we test whether human skeletal remains recovered by the Joint POW/MIA Accounting Command-Central Identification Laboratory (JPAC-CIL, or CIL) reflect a geographic origin within North America or Asia. Stable carbon and nitrogen isotopes of human bone collagen and stable carbon isotopes of bone apatite reflect consumption of food resources that are expected to vary between world regions due to cultural dietary differences. Based on the isotopic differences, a testable hypothesis of geographic origin can be applied, determining if the remains are more likely of a U.S. service person or of an indigenous local. We believe that this approach can provide useful information for narrowing search parameters in unidentified persons cases; can contribute to human rights cases where an unknown individual is thought to originate from a different geographic area; and, in human remains cases of unknown geographic provenience, can determine whether a person is local or nonlocal.

Rapid Communications in Mass Spectrometry, 2006

Rapid Communications in Mass Spectrometry, 2007

Forensic Science and Humanitarian Action, 2020

2011

Stable isotope analysis of biogenic tissues such as tooth enamel and bone mineral has become a well-recognised and increasingly important method for determining the provenance of human remains, and it has been used successfully in bio-archaeological studies as well as forensic investigations. In particular, 18O and 2H stable isotope signatures of bone and hair, respectively, are well-established proxies of climate (temperature) and source water and are therefore considered as indicators of geographic life trajectories of animals and humans. While the methodology for 2H analysis of human hair, fingernails, and bone collagen is currently used to determine human provenance, i.e. geographic origin and identify possible migration patterns, studies involving the analysis of 2H in tooth enamel appear to be nonexistent in the scientific literature. Ground tooth enamel was analysed by continuous-flow isotope ratio mass spectrometry (IRMS) coupled on-line to a high-temperature conversion elemental analyser (TC/EA). An array of tooth enamel samples from archaeological and modern teeth has been analysed under different experimental conditions, and the results of this proof-of-concept study are presented. While no significant differences in 2H abundance were noted as a result of H exchange studies or different sample preparation protocols, no significant differences or trends in measured δ2H-values were observed either with regard to known differences in geographical provenance. We concluded that the δ2H-values obtained from tooth enamel could not be used as proxy for a person's geographical origin during adolescence. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Critical Questions in Education, 2019

The figure of the public intellectual and the act of public pedagogy are fairly central to varieties of critical pedagogy. Public intellectuals have historically been those who speak truth to power and challenge dominant ways of thinking, and critical pedagogy argues that academics have to take up this call, leaving the ivory towers and entering the public sphere. Critical pedagogues are not alone in their concern about the retreat of intellectuals or academics from public life, yet to what extent are these notions of the public intellectual tied to a pre-digital age, and how might the digital age undermine these notions? In this paper, we argue that the digital has facilitated the death of the traditional public intellectual as the means of intellectual production have been dispersed throughout society. Turning to Paolo Virno's writing on potential and history, we examine the pedagogy of the public intellectual and present a new configuration of learning and studying that emphasizes the infinite potentiality of history and the present. Whereas most scholarship defines learning as the actualization of potential, we show that potential is never fully actualized. Such a configuration introduces the need to historically saturate political acts with meaning , which we argue is the new task of public intellectuals in the postdigital age. In order to do this, however, academics who wish to contribute to social movements must embed themselves and operate within social movements, joining the leadership of organic intellectuals and professional revolutionaries, and even viewing their own critical work not as the production of new knowledge but rather the amplification of existing knowledges generated through these struggles, shifting the educational register from epistemology to ontology, and the educational mode of operation from teaching to collective studying.