Publications by authors named "Carrie B LeGarde"

During the analysis of a commingled human remains assemblage, pair-matching is often conducted as part of the inventory to inform the DNA sampling strategy and to calculate the minimum or most likely number of individuals. As commingled assemblages become larger, pair-matching becomes more difficult, and it is unknown whether accuracy declines. Therefore, a study to determine the accuracy rates of visual pair-matching for multiple observers was conducted on a large, commingled human assemblage.

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Article Synopsis
  • This study reviews recent advancements in various analytical techniques since 2014 that enhance the ability to separate individual skeletal remains from mixed collections.
  • It highlights the importance of combining traditional methods with new technologies to improve identification of remains and analyze a broader range of skeletal elements.
  • The summary guides practitioners in selecting the best analytical approaches based on their goals, budget, and project requirements, supported by case studies in forensic anthropology and bioarchaeology.
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Objectives: Recovery rates reflect the amount of recovered skeletal materials based on expectations about the total number of elements or individuals that should be present in an assemblage. It is an underlying concept that reflects analytical potential, wherein high recovery rates typically indicate high analytical capabilities. However, numerous methods are available to calculate different types of recovery rates, and each method addresses various types of research questions and utilizes different variables.

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Evaluation of method performance involves the consideration of numerous factors that can contribute to error. A variety of measures of performance can be borrowed from the signal detection literature and others are drawn from statistical science. This article demonstrates the principles of performance evaluation by applying multiple measures to osteometric sorting models for paired elements run against data from known individuals.

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Although there are numerous reliable multivariate models for sex estimation, many scenarios, both forensic and archaeological, result in the recovery of fragmentary remains, which prevents the collection of various standard measurements. The purpose of this research was to establish metric applications for sex estimation from the distal humerus and distal radius of European/American Whites and American Blacks. Data for this research were retrieved from a sample consisting of a larger database from multiple skeletal collections.

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This study compares the original pair-matching osteometric sorting model (J Forensic Sci 2003;48:717) against two new models providing validation and performance testing across three samples. The samples include the Forensic Data Bank, USS Oklahoma, and the osteometric sorting reference used within the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency. A computer science solution to generating dynamic statistical models across a commingled assemblage is presented.

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