Rudolf Hess - The Doppelgänger conspiracy theory disproved.

The Deputy Führer of the Third Reich Rudolf Hess was captured after a controversial flight to Scotland in 1941. Hess was sentenced to life imprisonment during the Nuremberg War Crimes Trials. He was detained in Berlin's Spandau Prison under the official security designation 'Spandau #7.

[Alleged assault in a forest: An unusual case of self-inflicted blunt injury].

The medico-legal assessment of potentially self-inflicted injuries is an important field of clinical forensic medicine. Compared with sharp force injuries, it is much more difficult to distinguish blunt injuries caused by another party from self-inflicted lesions. We present a case of a young female doctor, who was allegedly attacked by an unknown stranger during her evening walk in the woods.

Another phantom from the morgue--a case of instrument-born sample contamination in the course of identifying an unknown deceased.

Due to its high reliability, DNA-typing is the method of preference in the field of osseous human remains identification. Nevertheless, contaminations from various sources have been shown to be inherent to the system, especially if the DNA-yield of samples under investigation is expected to be at a low level. For this reason a special focus has to be put on sampling procedures and contamination control in order to prevent from false results.

Driving under the influence of drugs and alcohol in Salzburg and Upper Austria during the years 2003-2007.

Until 2002 in Austria a blood sample could not be drawn due to regulations stipulated by the Austrian constitution. During the years 2003-2007 alcohol, pharmaceuticals and illicit drugs were analyzed in 1167 blood samples from cases of suspected and drugged drivers. In accordance with the findings of the EU-project Rosita, a wide variety of illicit drugs and medications could be found in blood samples of the drivers where cannabis (50%), opiates (20%), amphetamines (18%), cocaine (15%) and benzodiazepines (20%) were those with the highest prevalence.

Pupil function as a parameter for assessing impairment of the central nervous system from a traffic-medicine perspective.

To evaluate an individuals driving safety objective measurement methods are required which allow reproducible, reliable and subsequently verifiable data to be collected. In this study, we exposed healthy test subjects (n=41), as well as persons who were under the influence of drugs and/or medication (n=105), to different light stimuli and tested the pupillary light reflex in order to gain a better understanding of the physiological and pathological pupil function. The tests were performed using a "Compact Integrated Pupillograph" (CIP), which enables pupil reactions to be measured using infrared technology.

Application of ion mobility spectrometry in cases of forensic interest.

Ion mobility spectrometry (IMS) has been known as an analytical technique since the late 1960s and early 1970s. To date, it has been successfully utilized for the detection of environmental pollutants, warfare agents, explosives, herbicides, pesticides, petroleum products as well as for the detection of prescription and illicit drugs. In this paper the authors describe the use of the IMS technology in cases of forensic interest in Salzburg, Austria.