Forensic Science and Technology Commons^™

Effects Of Mercury On The Dopamine Transporter Cell Surface Expression In Pc12 Cells, Christina Hui

Student Theses

Environmental factors, such as heavy metal exposures, have been suggested to have an impact not only on neurodegenerative disease, such as Parkinson’s disease, but also on psychostimulants abuse and their toxicity. In this study, two questions were addressed: 1) effects of mercuric chloride on parkinsonian toxicant 1-methyl-4-phenylpyridinium (MPP⁺) induced cytotoxicity and 2) effects of mercuric chloride on cell surface dopamine transporter. Pheochromocytorma cells (PC12) were treated with various concentrations of mercuric chloride (0.02~2.0 ppm) for 4 hours with and without 0.1 mM MPP⁺. Significant potentiation of toxicity was observed when there was co-treatment with 0.5 ppm …

An Exploration Of Protein And Dna Components In Fingerprint Residue, Ashley Borrego

Student Theses

The main focus of this project was to investigate the protein and DNA components in both sebaceous and eccrine fingerprints. This study investigated the relative content of DNA and proteins in eccrine fingerprints to sebaceous fingerprints. All volunteers were instructed to wash and dry their hands prior to depositing parallel thumbprints. Twenty volunteers were instructed to touch their face to produce sebaceous prints, and 5 volunteers were instructed to wear gloves over a heat source to produce sweaty or eccrine prints. Microscopy was used to score the cellular debris of the right fingerprint on a scale of 1-4 based on …

The Development And Use Of Computational Tools In Forensic Science, Dennis E. Slice

Human Biology Open Access Pre-Prints

Modern computational resources make available a rich toolkit of statistical methods that can be applied to forensic questions. This toolkit is built on the foundation of statistical developments dating back to the 19th century. To fully and effectively exploit these developments, both the makers and users of software must be keenly aware of the quality, i.e., the accuracy and precision, of the data being modeled or analyzed, and end-users must be sufficiently familiar with the underlying theory to understand the process and results of any analysis or software they use. This is especially important for medico-legal personnel who might be …

Correcting Forensic Dna Errors, Greg Hampikian

Biology Faculty Publications and Presentations

DNA mixture interpretation can produce opposing conclusions by qualified forensic analysts, even within the same laboratory. The long-delayed publication of the National Institutes of Standards and Technology (NIST) study of 109 North American crime laboratories in this journal demonstrates this most clearly. This latest study supports earlier work that shows common methods such as the Combined Probability of Inclusion (CPI) have wrongly included innocent people as contributors to DNA mixtures.The 2016 President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology report concluded,“In summary, the interpretation of complex DNA mixtures with the CPI statistic has been an inadequately specified—and thus inappropriately subjective—method. …

Method Development And Validation For The Determination Of Designer Benzodiazepines In Blood By Lc-Ms/Ms, Victoria Mei

Student Theses

The misuse of designer benzodiazepines, as an alternative to prescription benzodiazepines and for drug-facilitated sexual assaults, has emerged as a growing threat, due in part to the ease of purchasing these drugs on the internet at low prices. Causing concern for safety, is the lack of dosage information resulting in users self-medicating, often leading to unintended overdoses, coma, or death at higher doses. With limited published data regarding quantification of designer benzodiazepines in forensic cases, a method was validated for the determination of thirteen and screening for two designer benzodiazepines in blood, in addition to a limited number of common …

Simultaneous Determination Of Fourteen Antipsychotic Drugs In Whole Blood By Solid Phase Extraction And Liquid Chromatography Tandem Mass Spectrometry, Theresa M. Dawe

Student Theses

Anti-psychotic drugs are commonly prescribed to patients to treat several mental conditions, such as bipolar, schizophrenia, and manic-depressive disorder. The analysis of anti-psychotic drugs in blood is a common practice in clinical and forensic toxicology, to monitor drug treatment (therapeutic drug monitoring) or to explain the cause of the impairment or intoxication in human performance and in postmortem cases. However, most of the current studies have been performed in plasma, and a limited number in blood. We developed and validated a method to confirm and quantify a panel of commonly prescribed anti-psychotic drugs in whole blood using solid phase extraction …

Dna Methylation Methods For Donor Age Prediction Using Touch Dna, Emily Neverett

Master's Theses

The International Labor Organization (ILO) estimated over 30 million individuals fall victim to human trafficking each year, of which, 50% are children below the age of 16. In 2012, the ILO reported there to be 168 million child laborers worldwide, with many trafficked into hazardous conditions to manufacture consumer products that are sold in developed countries. This is a modern form of slavery with poor working conditions, no access to education, and low wages. The hidden nature of this crime, however, makes it extremely difficult to identify and locate victims of forced child labor, and thus making it challenging to …

Assay Development For The Identification Of Species And Bioactive Compounds Of Morinda Citrifolia (Noni) In Dietary Supplements By Rt-Qpcr, Dna Sanger Sequencing And Spectroscopy (Uv-Vis/Ftir), Ricardo L. Fernandez Walker

Master's Theses

Regulation standards for dietary supplements lack greatly. Due to this, fraud during the manufacturing of these products might be committed. Previous investigations on herbal dietary supplements have shown that the main ingredient was not present in most of the herbal supplements tested and that these products also contained other substances not stated in the label The purpose of this study was to develop a fluorescent qPCR assay for the identification of Morinda citrifolia herbal species in dietary supplements. Primers for genetic regions rbcL and matK of M. citrifolia were designed. The potential of novel matK primer showed discrimination potential …

Compound-Specific Isotope Analysis Of Amino Acids In Biological Tissues: Applications In Forensic Entomology, Food Authentication And Soft-Biometrics In Humans, Mayara Patricia Viana De Matos

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports

In this work we demonstrate the power of compound-specific isotope analysis (CSIA) to analyze proteinaceous biological materials in three distinct forensic applications, including: 1) linking necrophagous blow flies in different life stages to their primary carrion diet; 2) identifying the harvesting area of oysters for food authentication purposes; and 3) the ability to predict biometric traits about humans from their hair.

In the first application, we measured the amino-acid-level fractionation that occurs at each major life stage of Calliphora vicina (Robineau-Desvoidy) (Diptera: Calliphoridae) blow flies. Adult blow flies oviposited on raw pork muscle, beef muscle, or chicken liver. Larvae, pupae …