Study on the performance of different craniofacial superimposition approaches (II): Best practices proposal.

Craniofacial superimposition, although existing for one century, is still a controversial technique within the scientific community. Objective and unbiased validation studies over a significant number of cases are required to establish a more solid picture on the reliability. However, there is lack of protocols and standards in the application of the technique leading to contradictory information concerning reliability.

Study on the performance of different craniofacial superimposition approaches (I).

As part of the scientific tasks coordinated throughout The 'New Methodologies and Protocols of Forensic Identification by Craniofacial Superimposition (MEPROCS)' project, the current study aims to analyse the performance of a diverse set of CFS methodologies and the corresponding technical approaches when dealing with a common dataset of real-world cases. Thus, a multiple-lab study on craniofacial superimposition has been carried out for the first time. In particular, 26 participants from 17 different institutions in 13 countries were asked to deal with 14 identification scenarios, some of them involving the comparison of multiple candidates and unknown skulls.

Soft tissue thickness values for black and coloured South African children aged 6-13 years.

In children, craniofacial changes due to facial growth complicate facial approximations and require specific knowledge of soft tissue thicknesses (STT). The lack of South African juvenile STT standards of particular age groups, sex and ancestry is problematic. According to forensic artists in the South African Police Service the use of African-American values to reconstruct faces of Black South African children yields poor results.

Characterization of newly established testicular peritubular and prostatic stromal cell lines: potential use in the study of mesenchymal-epithelial interactions.

Testicular peritubular and prostatic stromal cells produce extracellular matrix elements and paracrine factors that modulate the cytodifferentiation and function of the corresponding epithelial cells. The present paper describes the establishment and characterization of five rat testicular cell lines with peritubular characteristics and one prostatic stromal cell line. Four peritubular cell lines were isolated after transfection of a mixed peritubular-Sertoli cell culture with a v-myc-containing plasmid.

Generation and characterization of mouse microglial cell lines.

A murine cell line (MMGT1) has been established after transfection of primary microglial cell cultures with a v-myc-containing plasmid. This cell line was comparable with primary microglial cells with respect to morphology, presence of acetylated low density lipoprotein receptor, non-specific esterase, CD63, major histocompatibility complex antigens and CD11, and binding for Ricinus communis agglutinin. Primary microglia as well as MMGT1 cells were negative for glial fibrillary acidic protein.