Material Evidence Research Articles

THE ROLE OF FORENSIC CYTOLOGY IN CRIMINAL INVESTIGATIONS

The purpose of this article is to substantiate the need for conducting cytological forensic research in the criminal investigations.
 Materials and methods. An investigation of regulatory, legal documents, and scientific publications was conducted using keywords in the international electronic databases PubMed, Embase, and Scopus. This review, coupled with statistical analysis and generalization, aimed to evaluate forensic cytological studies performed between 2020 and 2023 at the Kyiv City Clinical Bureau of Forensic Medical Examination. Results. The results obtained revealed an upward trend in the number of forensic cytological studies conducted in recent years. Notably, studies of subungual contents, injury tools, and hand washings comprised the majority of the work, accounting for 76% of the total. Changes in the ratio are due to the fact that in recent years, the number of examinations of washings from the hands and washings from the place of the accident has increased. In the reporting year, the number of objects (washes from the penis, bed linen, clothes of suspects, condoms, napkins) for sexual crimes increased. In 2023, the number of sexual crime investigations quadrupled. To preserve crucial evidence, investigators may now directly collect swabs from suspects' genitals within medical institutions. Previously, this procedure could be lengthy, especially if the crime occurred on a weekend, potentially leading to the loss, degradation, or destruction of evidence.
 Conclusion. Employees of law enforcement agencies constantly emphasize the relevance, scientific validity, evidentiality of cytological studies in the investigation of criminal crimes. The increase in the number of forensic cytological studies indicates the need for a cytological department in the structure of the forensic medical service. Conducting cytological forensic research is necessary to increase the informativeness and objectivity of the expert's conclusions in cases of complex study of microtraces of blood, isolated cells, particles of damaged tissues and organs on injury instruments, in the contents of the nail, and other material evidence in the investigation of criminal crimes.

3D Printed Materials for Permanent Restorations in Indirect Restorative and Prosthetic Dentistry: A Critical Review of the Literature.

The objective of this study was to review the scientific evidence currently available on 3D printable materials and 3D printing technologies used for the fabrication of permanent restorations, focusing on material properties that are clinically relevant. A literature search was performed on four databases (MEDLINE/PubMed, Scopus, Cochrane Library, Web of Science) for articles published from January 2013 until November 2023, using a combination of free words: (restorative dentistry OR prosthetic dentistry) AND (3D printing OR additive manufacturing OR rapid prototyping) AND materials. Two reviewers screened titles and/or abstracts of 2.468 unique studies. In total, 83 studies were selected for full-text reading, from which 36 were included in the review. The assessed variables were mechanical properties, reporting in most of the cases positive results, dimensional accuracy and fit, reporting conflicting results with a predominance of positive, aesthetic properties, with positive reports but scarcely addressed, and biological properties, almost unexplored in independent studies. Despite numerous studies with positive results in favor, papers with negative outcomes were also retrieved. Aesthetic and biological properties are conversely still mostly unexplored. There remains a lack of conclusive evidence for viable 3D printable restorative and prosthodontic materials for permanent restorations. Research should be strengthened by defining international standards for laboratory testing and, where pre-clinical data are promising, conducting clinical trials.

Dunking bizcochos: Sociability and the Material Culture of Chocolate in Eighteenth-Century Spain

ABSTRACT This article examines the social practices and material culture surrounding the consumption of chocolate in eighteenth-century Spain, through the practice of dipping bizcochos (sponge biscuits). Yet dipping biscuits into chocolate appears ubiquitously in early modern textual and visual sources, this custom has been mostly overlooked by historians. By focusing on the materiality of chocolate consumption, this study offers another example of a more complicated and nuanced story of ‘the civilising process’ and manners in the eighteenth century. An examination of underexplored visual, textual and material evidence allows us to further our understanding of how the introduction of chocolate had a profound impact on Spanish economies, culture and society. Overall, the focus on bizcochos (and dipping) opens a window to explore broader cultural phenomena regarding sociability, table manners, and gender relations in the Spanish Enlightenment.

Evolution of surgical methods for restoring missing teeth

Attempts to restore continuity of the dentition date back to ancient times, as evidenced by the numerous archaeological and written records found throughout the world. They served as material evidence of the existence of implantology in ancient civilizations and helped to restore the chronology of its development. For example, in about 2500 BC the Egyptians tried to strengthen teeth with diseased periodontium with gold ligature wire, and in 2000 BC in ancient China lost teeth were replaced with bamboo pegs. In different time intervals, different materials were used to make artificial teeth: sea shells, rose quartz, animal teeth and bones, porcelain, etc., teeth were tried to be replanted, transplanted from living and dead people. High percentage of postoperative infection, limited knowledge, religious prohibitions, skepticism of scientific elites acted as inhibiting factors at different stages of formation of implantology as an important field of dentistry. This article is devoted to the development of dental implantology and to the doctors and scientists who played a key role in the formation and development of this field of dentistry.

After the Fall of the Caravan Kingdoms. Notes about the Occupation of Sumhuram and the Area of Khor Rori (Oman) from the Fifth Century AD to the Islamic Period

Since the beginning of the investigations in the area of Khor Rori and at the site of Sumhuram, the easternmost outpost of the caravan kingdoms along the southern coast of the Arabian Peninsula, cultural material and architectural evidence seemed to exclude frequentation, both permanent and seasonal, during the Islamic period. Indeed, it was assumed that any form of occupation, which had begun in the second century BC, ceased in the fifth century AD, consistent with the historical, economic and cultural scenario that marked the end of the caravan kingdoms. However, discoveries made during more recent fieldwork, along with a critical reinterpretation of previously collected data, have clearly demonstrated the existence of a late occupation of the area, which can be tentatively dated to the Late Antique period in the case of the burials located nearby and to the Islamic period in the case of the reoccupation of the site. This paper will discuss the preliminary results of the re-analysis of the late evidence, focusing on the last architectural structures, the small finds and some of the pottery.

Beyond the masculinity of kingship: The making of a modern queen in early second millennium Sri Lanka

AbstractModern historians have repeatedly cast Sri Lanka’s historical female monarchs as ‘queens’, without critically reflecting on the conceptual limits and nuances of that term. Through a close examination of sources from the early second millennium, and their reception by scholars from the colonial period onwards, I demonstrate that Sri Lanka’s female monarchs—particularly Līlāvatī of Poḷonnaruva (r. 1197–1200, 1209, and 1210)—engaged in a more creative and subversive performance of gender than modern ‘queenship’ allows. In particular, I argue, a discourse of kingship’s inherent masculinity, advanced in literary and didactic texts written primarily by male monastics, was too-willingly accepted by colonial-period scholars. Closer attention to the material evidence of Līlāvatī’s reign, however, challenges this discourse and further suggests a politics of gender beyond the binary.

Smelting Metals, Enacting Rituals. The Interplay of Religious Symbolisms and Metallurgical Practices in the Ancient Eastern Mediterranean

The archaeological discourse on the development of metallurgy in Anatolia, the Levant and, more generally, the Eastern Mediterranean region has extensively focused on crucial aspects such as procurement routes, technological developments, manufacturing strategies, and socio-economic connotations of metal consumption. On the other hand, potential symbolic and ritualistic aspects permeating mining and metal-making activities have rarely been taken into consideration, largely due to the ephemerality of such traditions and practices in the material record. Extensive studies have analyzed the ritual dimensions of iron and copper metalworking across different belief systems and social structures, from pre-industrial sub-Saharan Africa to pre-classical Andean cultures, from Bronze Age Central Europe to China. Drawing on the contemporary anthropological and archaeological debate on the subject, this contribution identifies and analyzes recurrent semantics of ritualization in metalworking processes, looking at different lines of epigraphic and material evidence from the Chalcolithic and Bronze Age Eastern Mediterranean. The aim is to discuss patterns of correlation between belief systems, ritual behavior, and socioeconomic organizations and to prompt more comprehensive analyses on the complementary technological and symbolic aspects of ancient metallurgical practices.

5-6세기 고구려의 몽촌토성 점유 양상에 관한 연구

This paper aims to examine the processs of regeneration of Mongchontoseong by Goguryeo, following Baekje’s relocation of its capital to Ungjin. Drawing upon the artifacts from 1980s excavation and the recent fieldwork findings, this study explores the spatial and temporal reorganization in the Mongchontoseong after 5th century AD. The spatial distribution of the pottery from the southern part of the inner Mongchontoseong site was first explored. Goguryeo strategically reused places previously built by Baekje, including storage, ponds, and pits, and also altered the built environment. The features, iron weapons, farming tools, and pottery type also reveal the diverse aspects of the long-term occupation of Goguryeo, taking the roles of domestic housing, rituals, agricultural activities, and storage. The radiocarbon dating results from the pits and roadways show Goguryeo’s active engagement in infrastructure reconstruction from the late 5th century to the middle of the 6th century, predating the reoccupation by the allied forces of Baekje and Silla in 550 AD. The material evidence reveals Goguryeo’s prolonged regeneration of the site for the southward expansion, as sociopolitical strategies in the context of warfare in the Korean Peninsula during 5-6th century AD.

Ochre-based compound adhesives at the Mousterian type-site document complex cognition and high investment.

Ancient adhesives used in multicomponent tools may be among our best material evidences of cultural evolution and cognitive processes in early humans. African Homo sapiens is known to have made compound adhesives from naturally sticky substances and ochre, a technical behavior proposed to mark the advent of elaborate cognitive processes in our species. Foragers of the European Middle Paleolithic also used glues, but evidence of ochre-based compound adhesives is unknown. Here, we present evidence of this kind. Bitumen was mixed with high loads of goethite ochre to make compound adhesives at the type-site of the Mousterian, Le Moustier (France). Ochre loads were so high that they lowered the adhesive's performance in classical hafting situations where stone implements are glued to handles. However, when used as handheld grips on cutting or scraping tools, a behavior known from Neanderthals, high-ochre adhesives present a real benefit, improving their solidity and rigidity. Our findings help understand the implications of Pleistocene adhesive making.

Электронные доказательства, электронное доказывание, искусственный интеллект: что далее?

The concept of “electronic evidence” is usually considered within the framework of existing legal classification (material evidence, documents, etc.), whereas more general and natural concepts for them are “electronic proof” and “electronic litigation”, the material substrate of which is the digital environment, where artificial intelligence is gaining increasing importance. Electronic evidence does not always fit into existing legislative definitions and can exist in virtual space (cryptocurrency, other digital assets, etc.). Artificial intelligence in combination with so-called “big data” (Big Data), collectively called the integral technology of artificial intelligence and big data (BD&AI), can take the process of searching for evidence during an investigation to a qualitatively new level, revealing hidden relationships in events and behavior of individuals, often beyond the scope of human consciousness. Through the development and application of BD&AI, the very nature of evidence in criminal proceedings can change, transforming from the sphere of human perception into the sphere of machine cognition. Structuring “big data” for electronic evidence requires further development of investigation algorithms and standards of proof

‘Dead faces laugh’: Medievalist hungers and Irish republican time, 1917-1981

AbstractThe article analyses the temporal entanglements of personal and historical time through hunger-striking protests in Ireland and their commemoration in medieval imagery, reflecting on the role of medievalism and temporality in nation-building by insurgent agents. Between 1917 and 1981, twenty-two Irish republican paramilitary prisoners undertook hunger strikes to the death for recognition of political status and protest against their prison regimes. While some of these deaths went unremarked by the wider public because of state censorship and lack of support, others catalysed worldwide attention, and succeeded in pitching a compelling national and political narrative for their supporters. The article focuses on how the use of medievalism in examining and commemorating these deaths highlights the vivid temporal collapse between the present of the individual and the past of the nation, and the way this can appeal to the protest’s audience, while making a powerful political bid for the legitimacy of the insurgents’ national narrative. The article examines temporal entanglement both as practiced by the audience of the hunger strikes, from poets such as W.B. Yeats and Seamus Heaney to journalists and scholars, and by the republican community itself, whether by hunger strike survivors, their comrades, or their families, bringing together literary, material, and art historical evidence to show its relevance and pervasiveness. By doing so, the article achieves a study of the ways medievalist temporalities interact with political and personal history, in a bid for the ownership and definition of the nation.

A union's and university's responses to violence against a woman professor: Neoliberal restructuring, hypermasculinity, male privilege and hegemonic inequality

AbstractAlthough Eastern Canadian liberal arts universities are portrayed as progressive work environments that cultivate inclusivity and diversity, the corporatisation of these public spaces has transformed them from institutions that once encouraged pluralism and acceptance among all social groups to spaces that unevenly distribute privileges among faculty and students based on ascribed characteristics, social class, and adherence to cisnormative and heteronormative expectations. Under neoliberal reforms, universities and unions adopt their own policies and procedures that legitimate institutional power abuse over marginalised women Contract Limited Term (CLT) assistant professors. Using material evidence from complaints filed with a province's Human Rights Commission and Labour Board, this critical autoethnographic case study explores the institutionalised responses to a disenfranchised woman CLT's discrimination and harassment by a student, departmental chair, faculty and university staff. A theory of genocidal mobbing is developed to conceptualise the organisational processes and practices that maintain the status quo of white heteropatriarchy and disentitle women CLTs to safety, equality and fair representation by their unions. Genocidal mobbing is efficient, because misogynistic administrators only require weaponising one disgruntled student, and effective, because administrators utilise the most fatal and insidious of gendered narcissistic abuse: gaslighting. The current neoliberal climate within academia puts marginalised women faculty at increased risk of genocidal mobbing from those with institutional power and from students with ethnic/racial and/or economic privilege. This article illuminates the union's culpability in the genocidal mobbing of women CLTs disenfranchised by multiple marginalised intersectional identities. Implications for future research and on policy are presented.

Reflections on Bian Que in Religious and Medical Traditions in Early China

Abstract Initial analysis of the contents of the Laoguanshan manuscripts shows there is an emphasis on a number of healing principles and techniques that have been associated with Bian Que: puncturing the mai-channels to heal disease; diagnosis based on examining the appearance and palpating multiple sites on the body; reverence for the mantic arts, and the superior physician who can correctly “determine whether [the patient] will live or die.” These characteristics have been ascribed to Bian Que across a number of domains: through non-medical texts that describe cases or anecdotes, passages in the received medical literature ascribed to a person or lineage with this name, and material evidence from Han dynasty mortuary art. Widespread references to Bian Que in medical and non-medical works indicate that citing the name constituted a recognizable and potent mode of establishing authority. Although we cannot completely reconstruct the medical practices of a person, clan, or mode of authority called “Bian Que,” the traces that remain substantiate claims that a set of ideas and practices associated with Bian Que was revered as efficacious healing worthy of study and transmission.

Racial Exclusion by Bureaucratic Omission: Non-Enumeration, Documentary Dispossession, and the Rohingya Crisis in Myanmar

Abstract This article traces the bureaucratic bases of the Rohingya crisis in Myanmar. I draw on ethnographic fieldwork and interviews with Rohingya activists to elucidate the political struggles and competing archival logics surrounding their disenfranchisement and displacement. I explain a curious shift in the past decade in Myanmar’s approach to managing the Rohingya population, whereby longstanding strategies of legally-encoded racial exclusion gave way to moves to withhold and contract the state’s administrative reach: 1) the repudiation of the Rohingya category in the 2014 census; and 2) the dispossession of documents leading up to the 2015 elections. I develop the concept of “bureaucratic omission” to reveal an alternative mode by which the state’s symbolic power can be accumulated and exercised. In the wake of new claims-making pressures during Myanmar’s short-lived democratic opening, state officials nullified Rohingyas’ claims for recognition as citizens by depriving them of the material evidence to support these claims. In response, Rohingya activists invoked this same epistemic power of documents, leveraging archival sources and documentary vestiges to build their own historical counternarratives of indigenous belonging. By protagonizing stateless Rohingyas, I provide insight into top-down administrative efforts to un-make race and into how minorities can contest these omissions.

The Role of Nanotechnology in a Forensic Investigation

Nanotechnology has been a part of science fiction novels and the subject of speculative research in secret laboratories, Nowadays, nanotechnology is one of the most promising and controversial emerging technologies among existing technologies Nanotechnology involves the manipulation of materials at the atomic and molecular level, typically at a scale less than 100 nanometers. At this scale, materials exhibit unique properties and behaviors, making them suitable for a wide range of applications. this study delves into how nanotechnology is transforming the world of forensic science and The Role of Nanotechnology in Forensic Investigation. and focuses a reality in applying nanotechnology at crime scenes, detecting criminals, and assisting judicial officers and forensic scientists as experts assigned by the prosecution to give a detailed report on the crime, and i discussed the concept and nature of nanotechnology and the use of this technology at crime scenes, as well as its validity in criminal proof. The result of this study is This technique has the authority to prove it before a criminal judge as material evidence, and the Public Prosecution can rely on it to file a criminal case In a Forensic Investigation.

The commercial and regional imagery of big things: Establishing a foundation for the study of oversized roadside landmarks

The highly visible yet poorly studied phenomenon of roadside colossi—oversized commercial buildings and statues in the shape of everyday objects, referred to in this article as Big Things—has often been dismissed as a kitschy by-product of American post-war consumerism and car culture. There are no universal definitions or typologies for this form of material culture, nor is there a sufficiently global history that explains the origin, spread and contemporary popularity of these landmarks. In this article, I address these gaps in the discourse, drawing attention to the rich yet largely untapped theoretical underpinnings of Big Things. In doing so, I highlight the potential for further study of these landmarks as material evidence of broader socio-cultural impulses, particularly in communities across North America and Australia, where Big Things can be found in their greatest numbers.

An Archaeology of the Pomeranian Crime of 1939: The Case of Mass Crimes in the Szpęgawski Forest (Poland)

This article presents the general historical context of the mass shootings in the fall of 1939 in the pre-war Gdańsk Pomerania, Poland, and introduces the very term “Pomeranian Crime of 1939.” The executions in the Szpęgawski Forest, where between 2,413 and 7,000 people lost their lives, illustrate of the process itself. The results of archaeological research carried out at the site of the mass killings in the Szpęgawski Forest in 2023 is used as a case study. Archaeological research is shedding new light on the crime and its cover-up through analyses of the material evidence.

Pengelolaan Pembiayaan Pendidikan pada Jenjang Pendidikan Dasar (Studi Deskriptif Penggunaan Dana BOS Sekolah)

Bantuan Oprasional Sekolah (BOS) are one of the school's financial sources for carrying out educational activities at school. Schools are obliged to plan the allocation of funds carefully and calculatingly, as well as monitor the use of funds for operational and capital costs, as well as provide administrative and physical (material) evidence of how funds are used. However, unfortunately there are still many schools that are still indifferent to managing school finances, especially BOS funds. For this reason, this research aims to determine the management of education financing, in this case BOS funds, as a guide for other institutions in managing BOS funding in accordance with established regulations. The method used in this research uses a qualitative descriptive method with data collection using observation, interview and documentation techniques. The results of this research are: a) planning a budget by identifying goals, determining priorities, describing goals into measurable operational performance, analyzing alternatives for achieving goals with cost-effectiveness analysis, making recommendations for alternative approaches to achieving targets. b) budget realization by making real expenditures according to needs and physical evidence. c) carry out budget supervision and control, supervision carried out by certain parties within the school whose official function is to carry out supervision such as the principal and treasurer of the BOS, as well as the education office and the BPK as external supervisors of BOS finances in the school.

Identifying Past Beer Production: Contributions from an Ethnoarchaeological Study in Bedik Villages, Senegal

ABSTRACT The identification of beer production in past societies remains a challenge as very few studies have discussed its material evidence. Our investigation in Senegal aimed at filling this gap. We documented 14 beer houses and several beer cooking areas in five Bedik villages and excavated a beer house and associated cooking area in a recently abandoned village. We recorded the architectural attributes of the beer-making structures (location, shape, size, materials, techniques, internal layouts). We also analyzed associated pottery combining typometry and use-wear. Such an integrated study revealed that the pottery types (large vessels, small bottles) and use-alteration (inner non-abrasive attrition), are the most distinctive features for identifying beer production, besides the beer houses’ internal layouts (wedge holes of large pottery, altar) and the beer cooking areas’ location outside the compound. Exploration of the same criteria in other cultural contexts in Africa lends support to the broader significance of these findings.

Ethnoarchaeology before Processual Ethnoarchaeology: The First Ethnographic Comparisons

ABSTRACT From a genealogical perspective, this article explores the foundations of ethnoarchaeological research in the context of European colonialism. It investigates methodologies that utilize ethnographic information for reconstructing historical contexts, focusing first on early comparisons during colonial encounters. These comparisons significantly shaped the amalgamation of ethnographic data into archaeology and the formulation of interpretive strategies, encompassing the direct historical method and ethnographic analogy to decipher societies via material evidence using ethnographies of non-western societies. Despite the initial prevalence of ethnographic analogy in the 1950s, ethnoarchaeology progressed by integrating novel data collection techniques into broader scientific discussions. This article critically challenges established historiographical narratives within ethnoarchaeology, asserting that aspects of ethnographic analogy and ethnoarchaeological methodology did not solely emerge as processual innovations in the 1950s, but rather their roots trace back to earlier archaeologists and ethnographers and previous colonial scholars.