Extended reality (XR) virtual practical and educational eGaming to provide effective immersive environments for learning and teaching in forensic science.

Online virtual learning resources have been available for learning and teaching in forensic science for some years now, but the recent global COVID-19 related periods of irregular lockdown have necessitated the rapid development of these for teaching, learning and CPD activities. However, these resources do need to be carefully constructed and grounded in pedagogic theory to be effective. This article details eXtended Reality (XR) learning and teaching environments to facilitate effective online teaching and learning for forensic geoscientists.

Portable X-ray fluorescence (pXRF) analysis of heavy metal contamination in church graveyards with contrasting soil types.

Human remains have been interred in burial grounds since historic times. Although the re-use of graveyards differs from one country, region or time period to another, over time, graveyard soil may become contaminated or enriched with heavy metal elements. This paper presents heavy metal element soil analysis from two UK church graveyard study sites with contrasting necrosols, but similar burial densities and known burial ages dating back to the sixteenth century and some possibly older than 1,000 years.

Monitoring of simulated clandestine graves of dismembered victims using UAVs, electrical tomography, and GPR over one year to aid investigations of human rights violations in Colombia, South America.

In most Latin American countries, there are significant numbers of missing people and forced disappearances, over 120,000 in Colombia alone. Successful detection of shallow buried human remains by forensic search teams is difficult in varying terrain and climates. Previous research has created controlled simulated clandestine graves of murder victims to optimize search techniques and methodologies.

Geophysical monitoring of simulated homicide burials for forensic investigations.

Finding hidden bodies, believed to have been murdered and buried, is problematic, expensive in terms of human resource and currently has low success rates for law enforcement agencies. Here we present, for the first time, ten years of multidisciplinary geophysical monitoring of simulated clandestine graves using animal analogues. Results will provide forensic search teams with crucial information on optimal detection techniques, equipment configuration and datasets for comparison to active and unsolved cold case searches.

The Search for "Fred": An Unusual Vertical Burial Case.

Police witness intelligence stated a murdered adult male "Fred" had been vertically buried in wooded hilly terrain 30 years ago in the Midlands, U.K. Conventional search methods were unsuccessful; therefore, the police requested a geophysical investigation to be undertaken to determine whether "Fred" could be detected.

Sexual Dimorphism of the First Rib: A Comparative Approach Using Metric and Geometric Morphometric Analyses.

This research investigated the sexual dimorphism of the first human rib using geometric morphometric and metric approaches on a sample of 285 specimens containing European Americans and African Americans from the Hamann-Todd collection. Metric measurements were investigated for sexual dimorphism and ancestral differences using univariate statistics. Four type II landmarks and 40 sliding semi-landmarks were placed outlining the dorsal and ventral curvatures of the ribs.

Quantifying the temperature of maggot masses and its relationship to decomposition.

Numerous Calliphoridae species have been observed to form larval aggregations during the feeding stage of development, resulting in localized increases in temperature. This study investigates the relationship between maggot numbers in a mass and heat generation. Single-species aggregations (Lucilia sericata) of various sizes (50-2500 individuals) were reared in the laboratory at a constant ambient temperature of 22°C.

Predicting the postmortem submersion interval for human remains recovered from U.K. waterways.

This article aims to increase accuracy in estimating the postmortem submersion interval (PMSI) for bodies recovered from rivers in the United Kingdom. Data were collected from closed case files, crime scene reports, and autopsy files concerning bodies recovered over a 15-year period from the River Clyde, Scotland, and the River Mersey and canals in northwest England. One hundred and eighty-seven cases met the study criteria and were scored by quantifying the overall amount of decomposition observed in each case.