Deadly injuries through recoilless anti-tank weapons while military shooting practice-two case studies from Germany and Switzerland.

In this casuistry, two accidents from Germany and Switzerland are presented that happened during the shot of recoilless anti-tank weapons. In both cases, the injuries led to the death of two soldiers: A 22-year-old soldier in Germany was struck by the counter mass of a so-called Davis gun which had been fired by a comrade during a firing exercise; he died from his severe injuries, especially in the abdominal part of the body. As a peculiarity of the wound morphology, it was found to be a thick-layered, metallic, gray material in the wound cavity, which corresponded to the material of the counter mass that was ejected opposite to the shooting direction.

Collagen degradation as a possibility to determine the post-mortem interval (PMI) of human bones in a forensic context - A survey.

To find out the time since death (PMI) of a human individual, from which only skeletal remains are left is a difficult question to answer, since methods currently available don't bring concrete answers. Subsequent to our validation study on porcine bones, we focused on human bones analysing if collagen degradation would occur at a predictive rate so that the method may be used for PMI-estimation. We tried to reproduce a method for determining the Co/NCo (Collagen to Non-Collagen) ratio of porcine bones Boaks et al.

Cranial secular change from the nineteenth to the twentieth century in modern German individuals compared to modern Euro-American individuals.

Studying secular changes on human skulls is a central issue in anthropological research, which is however insufficiently investigated for modern German populations. With our study, we focus on morphological cranial variations within Germans during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. To study this, we recorded different facial landmarks from a cohort study of about 540 German individuals of different age and sex by calculating their cranial size, shape dimensions, and cranial module and cranial capacity to get information about variations occurring during the decades.

Correction to: Collagen degradation as a possibility to determine the post-mortem interval (PMI) of animal bones: a validation study referring to an original study of Boaks et al. (2014).

The original version of this article contains an error. The Author Katharina Hoeland incorrectly listed as Katharina Höland. The correct spelling is presented above.

Collagen degradation as a possibility to determine the post-mortem interval (PMI) of animal bones: a validation study referring to an original study of Boaks et al. (2014).

Estimation of the post-mortem interval (PMI) of unknown skeletal remains is a common forensic task. Boaks and colleagues demonstrated a new method for PMI estimation in showing a reduction of the collagen to non-collagen content (Co/NCo ratio) in porcine bones after a PMI of 12 months using the Sirius Red/Fast Green Collagen Staining Kit from Chondrex in 2014 (Boaks et al. Forensic Sci Int 240: 104-110, 2014).

Secular change of sexually dimorphic cranial variables in Euro-Americans and Germans.

Crania are a reliable source for sex estimation in Euro-Americans, Europeans, and most other populations. Besides morphological assessments, the application of Fordisc® has become a useful tool within the last two decades, creating discriminant functions from morphometric data. Unfortunately, until now, white populations are mostly represented by measurements of American individuals.

[Drying time for human saliva].

In a case of aggravated extortion under threat of force, the medicolegal expert was asked to give an opinion on the drying time of human saliva. Fresh traces of saliva were applied to composite stones similar to those at the scene of the crime and their drying behavior was examined in a climate test chamber. Air temperature and air humidity during the experiment corresponded to the values of the measuring station located nearest to the crime scene.