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Anthropology

Theses/Dissertations

2017

Forensic anthropology

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The Influence Of Body Size On Sexual Dimorphism, Haley Elizabeth Horbaly Dec 2017

The Influence Of Body Size On Sexual Dimorphism, Haley Elizabeth Horbaly

Masters Theses

Accurate sex estimation of human skeletal remains is imperative for skeletal biologists, and relies upon the sexual dimorphism between males and females in a population. The degree of dimorphism, and hence the accuracy of sex estimation methods, are known to vary among populations, and while such global patterns have been well studied, the underlying causes of this variation are relatively unclear. Body size—a sexually dimorphic trait that also varies among populations—has previously been shown to affect skeletal morphology, yet whether specific body size parameters, such as stature and body mass, influence the expression of traits used for nonmetric sex estimation …


Identity By The Numbers: Cancerous Lesions And Likelihood Ratios, William Daniel Cawley May 2017

Identity By The Numbers: Cancerous Lesions And Likelihood Ratios, William Daniel Cawley

Masters Theses

The use of Bayesian theory has been gaining popularity within the forensic anthropology community for its ability to model the way in which decisions are made based upon varying levels of confidence. However, many forensic anthropologists have been reticent to adapt Bayesian approaches given the general lack of knowledge in regards to this approach (Konigsberg and Frankenburg, 2013:153). The purpose of this thesis is to demonstrate how the application of an establish Bayesian framework can be used to determine likelihood ratios representing the probative value of skeletal lesions consistent with cancer for use in forensic personal identification. To do this, …