Re-humanisation, Recognising the person behind the patient

Submission content Introduction: At the end of a particularly hectic night shift on the intensive care unit (ICU) I found myself sitting in the relatives' room with the mother and aunt of a young patient, listening to their stories of her hopes and aspirations as she grew up. She had been diagnosed with lymphoma aged 14 and received a bone marrow transplant from her younger sister. Fighting through treatment cycles interposed with school studies, she eventually achieved remission and a portfolio of A-levels. Acceptance into university marked the start of a new era, away from her cancer label, where she studied forensic science and took up netball. Halfway through her first year she relapsed. Main body: When I met this bright, ambitious 20-year-old, none of this history was conveyed. She had been admitted to ICU overnight and rapidly intubated for type-1 respiratory failure. The notes contained a clinical list of her various diagnoses and treatments, with dates but no sense of the context. Rules regarding visitation meant her family were not allowed onto the unit, with next-of-kin updates carried out by designated non-ICU consultants to reduce pressures on ICU staff. No photos or personal items surrounded her bedside, nothing to signify a life outside of hospital. She remained in a medically-induced coma from admission onwards, while various organ systems faltered and failed in turn. Sitting in that relatives' room I had the uncomfortable realisation that I barely saw this girl as a person. Having looked after her for some weeks, I could list the positive microbiology samples and antibiotic choices, the trends in noradrenaline requirements and ventilatory settings. I had recognised the appropriate point in her clinical decline to call the family in before it was too late, without recognising anything about the person they knew and loved. She died hours later, with her mother singing 'Somewhere Over the Rainbow' at her bedside. Poignant as this was, the concept of this patient as more than her unfortunate diagnosis and level of organ failure had not entered my consciousness. Perhaps a coping mechanism, but dehumanisation none-the-less. Conclusion(s): Striking a balance between emotional investment and detachment is of course vital when working in a clinical environment like the ICU, where trauma is commonplace and worst-case-scenarios have a habit of playing out. At the start of my medical career, I assumed I would need to consciously take a step back, that I would struggle to switch off from the emotional aspects of Medicine. However, forgetting the person behind the patient became all too easy during the peaks of Covid-19, where relatives were barred and communication out-sourced. While this level of detachment may be understandable and necessary to an extent, the potential for this attitude to contribute to the already dehumanising experience of ICU patients should not be ignored. I always thought I was more interested in people and their stories than I was in medical science;this experience reminded me of that, and of the richness you lose out on when those stories are forgotten.

Microbiology and Bioterrorism

It's been 2 decades since the posting of the anthrax letters in the United States in 2001. This event marked a pivotal point in our history. It highlighted the vulnerability of modern society to acts of bioterrorism and set countries on a course to develop capabilities to pre-empt, prevent, react to, investigate, and recover from acts of bioterrorism. The current COVID-19 pandemic is a stark reminder of the enormity of the impact that the release of a biological agent, natural or otherwise, can have on an immunological naïve society. The purpose of this article is to describe how microbiology is applied in the investigation of bioterrorism, highlighting the modern advances in technology, particularly the DNA technologies, which have assisted this discipline as a forensic practice. © 2023 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Alcohol use trends in Dallas County during the COVID-19 pandemic

Alcohol (ethanol) is the most widely detected drug in forensic toxicology casework and an increase in consumption of alcohol was reported during the COVID-19 pandemic. The increase in consumption could be attributed to rising stress levels and social isolation. To determine whether the pandemic had an impact on ethanol positivity and concentrations in cases analyzed by the Dallas County Southwestern Institute of Forensic Sciences, blood ethanol results were evaluated from January 1, 2019, through December 31, 2021. This time frame captured ethanol prevalence and concentrations before, during, and immediately following the pandemic for comparison. The average ethanol concentration in postmortem casework over the three years for each quarter ranged from 0.116 g/100 mL to 0.142 g/100 mL while the average concentration in driving while intoxicated (DWI) was higher, ranging from 0.173 g/100 mL to 0.188 g/100 mL. The ethanol positivity rate for postmortem casework remained relatively the same at approximately 20% during the time frame, while there was a decrease in ethanol positivity rate for DWI casework during the pandemic in April - June (Q2) 2020. However, the positivity rate returned to pre-pandemic levels by the end of 2020. Despite the self-reported surveys of increased alcohol consumption during the pandemic, a corresponding increase in average ethanol concentrations was not observed in Dallas County and the surrounding area.Copyright © 2023

Forensic Examination Of Covid Certificates And Passports To Extract Felonious Manipulations With Adobe Photoshop Cs5 Tools

In today's era, digital documents are used in official proceedings and various commercial online platforms. With the advent of Digital locker facilities, a digital document is admissible in various Government and private sectors. Due to this, the misuse of digital documents is increasing and criminal activity has surged during COVID times. Digital documents can be easily manipulated with the help of image-processing software applications. Manipulations include forgeries and duplication in the documents, counterfeiting in currency notes, and alteration and tampering in government documents or personal documents have increased manifolds. In the present study, a preliminary attempt has been made to analysed digitally manipulated documents by using different software which includes JPEG snoop, Adobe Photoshop CS5, and forensically beta software. Apart from that, in this paper new methodology to authenticate manipulations in scanned documents is devised. The authors were able to detect manipulations in altered documents like mark sheets, COVID certificates, Id cards, driving licenses, and passports. The morphological attributes like changes in background colour, variations in pixel size, and specifically appearance of dots and layers were observed. The results obtained were conclusive and were able to detect the manipulations, as well as the date and time of alterations, were detected with help of Forensic beta software.Copyright © 2022 Wolters Kluwer Medknow Publications. All rights reserved.

Students' Perceptions of the Virtual Learning Challenges of Islamic Science Courses During the Corona Pandemic and Ways to Reduce them

As a consequence of the worldwide pandemic caused by COVID-19, universities have begun to teach in a digital format, exacerbating the integration and use of technology in methodological adaptation. The research aims to reveal the perceptions of students about the level of challenges of virtual learning and identifies ways to reduce them during the COVID-19 pandemic at the faculty of Islamic study at Yarmouk University in Jordan. The information collection method was an online questionnaire, using simple random sampling. The results demonstrate a generalized dissatisfaction among the students, being fundamental to carrying out the transition of the educational processes. Furthermore, There was no statistically significant difference at the level of significance (α = 0.05) between the two arithmetic means of the challenges of virtual learning for the forensic science courses during the COVID-19 pandemic in the College of Sharia at Yarmouk University with gender, educational level and (Bachelor, Master level), and academic achievements. However, there are many challenges they list, from these: students' interaction with virtual learning, virtual learning exams, and technical challenges. © 2022 DSR Publishers/ The University of Jordan.

Developing a virtual laboratory module for forensic science degree programmes.

Laboratory work is essential in forensic science degree courses. They provide students with an opportunity to put theory into practice, as well as develop relevant professional laboratory skills through a case-based learning framework. Traditional laboratory instruction involves the use of a written laboratory script or manual that details the laboratory procedures and techniques for an experiment. Occasionally, instructors may provide a brief in-person demonstration of a critical aspect of the experimental procedure during the session. Since the coronavirus pandemic, the use of virtual laboratory (vLab) resources, such as video demonstrations, in teaching science practical skills has increased. These resources may be used alone or in combination with in-person laboratory sessions in a flipped learning model. Previous research has shown that vLab resources could enhance students' knowledge, confidence, and experience inside the laboratory. This study aimed to explore the perceptions and attitudes of forensic science students toward the use of a vLab module. Three videos were created in which procedures for carrying out presumptive tests, screening exhibits, and recording examinations were demonstrated. Seven undergraduate students enrolled at different stages of a forensic science degree programme were introduced to the vLab module and interviewed using a semi-structured interview approach. Through a thematic synthesis of the interview transcripts, we found that the implementation of an inclusive vLab module could enhance students' knowledge, confidence, and independence in carrying out forensic science laboratory procedures.

Identifying unknown specimens using predictive phylogenies for remote forensic education.

One significant impact of the COVID-19 pandemic for educators in forensic science was adapting what is traditionally a very applied field to a virtual learning environment. Because of this, science classes with a practical laboratory component had to implement significant adjustments to ensure that student learning objectives were still met, including practical elements. To provide learners with an alternative to a traditional lab exercise in forensic entomology, we designed an exercise to be conducted completely remotely to instruct students in how to identify a real unknown specimen using a hypothetical phylogenetic tree they create. Students retrieved data and make predictions using public databases, generate phylogenies based off sequence data, and finally determine the identity of the unknown sequence provided. This lab replacement exercise has been adapted to be accessible to learners from different academic levels and takes the length of one two-and-a-half-hour lab period to complete. Through creating this resource, we have been able to link molecular systematics to forensic education and provide learners who download this publicly available exercise insight into how forensic questions are answered.

Emerging trends in domestic homicide/femicide in Greece over the period 2010-2021.

Temporal trends in epidemiological parameters of domestic homicide and femicide in Greece over the last decade have not yet been studied. We conducted this study to fulfill this purpose. Specifically, we conducted a retrospective epidemiological study using 11-year data from the official nationwide Hellenic Police Archives and statistically analyzed data regarding domestic homicide and femicide. Overall, 1370 records of homicides among which 236 domestic homicides were identified. The pattern emerging from the statistical results of the present study highlighted the phenomenon of femicide as the gravest current issue to be interpreted and addressed. Nationally, the average number of homicides was 114.2/year, among which 19.7 domestic homicides. However, in 2021, while a decrease was recorded in homicides in general to 89 incidents per year, domestic homicides skyrocketed to 34 cases, reaching the highest annual number ever nationally recorded. On average, domestic homicides account for 18.2% of all homicides in Greece. In 2021, however, this percentage rose to 38.2%. The number of male victims of domestic homicide has declined over the years, with a further decline in 2021, in stark contrast to the number of women escalating over time and even more sharply in 2021. The proportion of female victims of domestic homicides in Greece was fourfold higher on average. The fact that cases of domestic homicide and femicide have received a lot of media attention, the recent Greek financial crisis, as well as increased alcohol and drug consumption due to the COVID-19 pandemic constitute possible aggravating factors.

Forensic Examination Of Covid Certificates And Passports To Extract Felonious Manipulations With Adobe Photoshop Cs5 Tools

In today's era, digital documents are used in official proceedings and various commercial online platforms. With the advent of Digital locker facilities, a digital document is admissible in various Government and private sectors. Due to this, the misuse of digital documents is increasing and criminal activity has surged during COVID times. Digital documents can be easily manipulated with the help of image-processing software applications. Manipulations include forgeries and duplication in the documents, counterfeiting in currency notes, and alteration and tampering in government documents or personal documents have increased manifolds. In the present study, a preliminary attempt has been made to analysed digitally manipulated documents by using different software which includes JPEG snoop, Adobe Photoshop CS5, and forensically beta software. Apart from that, in this paper new methodology to authenticate manipulations in scanned documents is devised. The authors were able to detect manipulations in altered documents like mark sheets, COVID certificates, Id cards, driving licenses, and passports. The morphological attributes like changes in background colour, variations in pixel size, and specifically appearance of dots and layers were observed. The results obtained were conclusive and were able to detect the manipulations, as well as the date and time of alterations, were detected with help of Forensic beta software. Copyright © 2023 Wolters Kluwer Medknow Publications. All rights reserved.

Microbiology and Bioterrorism

It’s been 2 decades since the posting of the anthrax letters in the United States in 2001. This event marked a pivotal point in our history. It highlighted the vulnerability of modern society to acts of bioterrorism and set countries on a course to develop capabilities to pre-empt, prevent, react to, investigate, and recover from acts of bioterrorism. The current COVID-19 pandemic is a stark reminder of the enormity of the impact that the release of a biological agent, natural or otherwise, can have on an immunological naïve society. The purpose of this article is to describe how microbiology is applied in the investigation of bioterrorism, highlighting the modern advances in technology, particularly the DNA technologies, which have assisted this discipline as a forensic practice.

Audit of child protection medicals and investigation in children age 0–2 years for the period January – December 2020: a reflection of the Covid-19 pandemic and current literature?

988 Table 1ConclusionThere were less medicals carried out in 2020, likely a reflection of the reduction in face to face contact with health professionals. The pandemic heightened risk factors for abuse which our data appear to reflect. 26% of infants with concerns for NAI following JPFME had head injuries on imaging and 20% had occult fractures on skeletal survey. This is higher than the average yield expected for this age group described in the literature. These audit findings at a local level, support findings published by a large centre for Paediatric abusive head trauma in the UK in 2020.This audit further provides evidence to consider the risk of occult injuries and support the existence of policies and protocols with a low threshold for information sharing and investigation. This also highlights the importance of training those working with families with young babies to support parents with keeping their babies safe and reducing the risk of non-accidental head injuries in the form of standardised training packages for example.

Study on the Effect of Face Masks on Forensic Speaker Recognition

The COVID-19 pandemic has led to a dramatic increase in the use of face masks. Face masks can affect both the acoustic properties of the signal and the speech patterns and have undesirable effects on automatic speech recognition systems as well as on forensic speaker recognition and identification systems. This is because the masks introduce both intrinsic and extrinsic variability into the audio signals. Moreover, their filtering effect varies depending on the type of mask used. In this paper we explore the impact of the use of different masks on the performance of an automatic speaker recognition system based on Mel Frequency Cepstral Coefficients to characterise the voices and on Support Vector Machines to perform the classification task. The results show that masks slightly affect the classification results. The effects vary depending on the type of mask used, but not as expected, as the results with FPP2 masks are better than those with surgical masks. An increase in speech intensity has been found with the FPP2 mask, which is related to the increased vocal effort made to counteract the effects of hearing loss. © 2022, Springer Nature Switzerland AG.

ULTRA-RAPID REAL-TIME MICROFLUIDIC POLYMERASE CHAIN REACTION INSTRUMENT FOR CLINICAL AND FORENSIC APPLICATIONS

The SARS-CoV-2 pandemic has elevated the development of novel diagnostic solutions, including rapid nucleic acid amplification tests (NAATs), to a global priority to meet the high demand for accurate, timely viral detection and diagnosis. However, ubiquitously implemented NAATs, such as polymerase chain reaction (PCR), consume hours of testing. We report a field-forward instrument capable of ultra-fast real-time PCR for amplification-based nucleic acid detection in a custom-designed microfluidic chip. Prudent selection and unconventional positioning of thermal cyclers relative to the microfluidic chip and a fluorescent detector permit ultra-fast simultaneous amplification and detection, with 40 cycles complete in under 10 minutes. © 2021 MicroTAS 2021 - 25th International Conference on Miniaturized Systems for Chemistry and Life Sciences. All rights reserved.

"the Errors Are Egregious": Assessing the Csi Effect and Undergraduate Students' Perceptions of Forensic Science through a Pre- and Post-Test Investigation

Purpose: The authors attempt to capture new forensic science students' preconceptions of the field and their assessment of competencies. Methodology: The authors surveyed students at a Historically Black College and University and a Primarily White Institution on their viewership of crime and forensic TV shows and measured their competencies in a range of forensic science skills at the start and end of the semester, along with having students capture errors and evidence from an episode of CSI Las Vegas. Findings: Students who were viewers of crime series with and without prior forensics coursework over evaluated their level of preparedness at the start of the semester, often ranking themselves as moderately or well prepared in blood spatter analysis, fingerprinting, bodily fluid, and hair/ fiber collection. Research limitations: The authors relied on a convenience sample of forensic science courses, and their comparison of student learning was disrupted by COVID-19. Originality: The authors examine student concerns with working at crime scenes and reflections on their abilities to succeed in the field. The authors discuss the need for incorporating media literacy, content warnings, and emotional socialization and professional development into forensic science curricula to better equip and prepare students for careers as crime scene investigators and forensic analysts.

Saliva: A Non-Invasive and Multifaceted Tool in the Sphere of Diagnostics

Salivary diagnostics is emerging as a propitious tool with a multitude of clinical applications. It has been into practice for centuries but has recently garnered scientific researchers and clinicians' interest due to its added benefits. In this review, we have emphasized the various components of saliva and its functionalities, an introduction to salivary diagnostics, and its application in the detection and prognosis of many ailments all around the globe. A segment about saliva's special uses in animals and its role in therapeutics and forensics has also been focused. With the continually evolving technologies and chemical equipment, several devices have been devised which are used in salivary diagnostics. The utilization of saliva and its biomarkers as a non-invasive diagnostic agent in several diseases, including malignancies, caries, novel coronavirus, psychological stress, diabetes, and much more, has been discussed.

The potential of digital technologies in problem-based forensic learning activities.

Forensic practice is the concluding practical course of the forensic science bachelor program at the School of Criminal Justice of the University of Lausanne. Learning activities are constructed around five main objectives for the resolution of simulated forensic case problems: 1) select relevant traces and items to be collected at the scene and perceive their potential value in the reconstruction process, 2) apply appropriate detection techniques in sequence to obtain clues of good quality, 3) process traces using Analysis, Comparison, Evaluation and Verification (ACE-V) methodology, 4) produce and summarise information in oral and written forms to help an investigation, and 5) work collaboratively to benefit from the diversity of group members. Simulating and supervising realistic activities is a complex task that became more and more challenging with a continuously increasing number of students over the years (from ca. 30 in 2016 to more than 60 in 2021). Thus, an educational innovation project was launched and aimed at implementing digital technologies to support the teaching staff. A computer-based crime scene simulation tool (allowing students to visualize 360° crime scenes and relevant items) and a communication tool (to simplify and centralise the communication between the students and the teaching staff) were implemented. This article describes the implementation, added value and limitations of these digital technologies in problem-based learning activities. Prior to 2020, the practical course forensic practice was delivered entirely on-site without specific technologies, and entirely on-line in 2020 (due to the sanitary restrictions related to the COVID-19 pandemic). Finally, in 2021, on-line and on-site activities were implemented with success, combining the best of both approaches in a blended teaching mode. An overall increase in the satisfaction of students and teaching staff was observed with the implementation of these tools. Limiting presence on-site allowed students to take a step back from the activities and collected items. This promoted critical thinking, and together with an increase in structured (on-line and on-site) interactions allowed for a positive, continuous learning experience. While the evaluations of these novel technologies were very positive, students still expressed their willingness to perform certain tasks on-site and a preference for face-to-face interactions.

Teaching Forensic Entomology, Forensic Anthropology, and Haematology & Serology during the COVID-19 pandemic: Practical activities for distance learning.

As the COVID-19 pandemic upended college and university instruction throughout the world, instructors were hard-pressed to find suitable alternatives for practical activities typically carried out outside of classrooms-in laboratories, workshops, clinics, and in the field. In response to this unanticipated challenge, they relied on their ingenuity to achieve pre-pandemic goals under pandemic conditions that necessitated the shift to online teaching. The Forensic Science Undergraduate Program housed in the School of Medicine of the National Autonomous University of Mexico was not exempt from this educational upheaval but, due to its interdisciplinary nature, required creating and/or adopting a wide range of activities capable of training students to perform practical tasks associated with subject areas that span the natural and social sciences, the humanities, and the law. This report aims to describe the approaches undertaken in three subjects (Forensic Entomology, Forensic Anthropology, and Hematology & Serology) by interviewing instructors and examining their teaching materials. Also, through online surveys, students' reactions to these approaches were elicited to learn about their suitability and teaching potential. Instructor's experiences during the pandemic have proven to be a rich source of ingenious solutions, with implications well-beyond the current crisis, such as creating blended or fully online courses aimed at larger numbers of students, forensic and legal professionals, and even other instructors. The wide variety of forensic sciences offers the opportunity to innovate and improve the teaching and learning of science, particularly to the benefit of students that must combine their school tasks with professional and/or family duties.

Substance Use Disorder and COVID-19;Forensic Medicine and Pharmacology Perspectives: A Concise Narrative Review

Many investigations have confirmed the link between a substance use disorder (SUD) and the COVID-19 pan-demic's increased risk of infection and consequences. This narrative review aims to understand these issues from a pharmacological standpoint, as well as the pan-demic's impact on forensic medicine. Research and review articles included in this review were selected through an extensive search of databases such as PubMed and the use of appropriate keywords e.g. “substance use disorder” and “COVID-19”. Due to a weakened immune system and degeneration of the respiratory system's defense systems, SUDs have been shown to increase the risk of COVID-19 infection. Furthermore, some substances raise pro-inflammatory mediators, exposing the body to a cytokine storm. SUD frequently causes secondary comorbidities, such as the liver, lung and cardiovascular disease, complicating the treatment of COVID-19 infections. Some misused substances can compromise the treatment's effectiveness or safety. This study also looked at the effects of the pandem-ic on forensic medicine. It underlines the importance of developing safe forensic examination procedures and methodologies during pandemics. The use of narcotic substances was documented as one of the reasons for the increase in the frequency of COVID-19 and the sever-ity of its repercussions. © 2021. AJFSFM.