Swedish National Forensic Centre

To further develop a low-power, low-cost optical motion detector for use with traffic detection under dark and daylight conditions, we have developed and verified a procedure to use a near-sensor image processing programmable 2-D optical sensor in a “1-D mode” to achieve the effect of using a cylindrical lens, thus improving the angle-of-view (AOV), the sensitivity, and usefulness of the sensor. Using an existing <inline-formula xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink"><tex-math notation="LaTeX">$256\times 256$</tex-math></inline-formula> element sensor in an innovative way, the AOV was increased from 0.4 <inline-formula xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink"><tex-math notation="LaTeX">$^{\circ }$</tex-math></inline-formula> to 21.3 <inline-formula xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink"><tex-math notation="LaTeX">$^{\circ }$</tex-math></inline-formula> in the vertical direction while also improving the sensitivity. The details of the sensor hardware architecture are described in detail and pseudo-code for programming the sensor is discussed. The results were used to demonstrate the extraction of local extreme points used for time-to-impact calculations to estimate the speed of an approaching vehicle.

Abstract Femoral head‐neck defects (FHNDs) are commonly reported in the anatomical and anthropological literature. The best known types are Allen's fossa and Poirier's facet; however, their definition and etiology are still debated. The aims of this study were to revise the categorization and identification of FHNDs and to reveal their prevalence in a skeletal sample. The femora of 238 individuals (161 males and 77 females) aged between 21 and 93 years old from the Hamann‐Todd osteological collections (Cleveland Museum of Natural History) were examined. FHNDs were classified according to their location, size, and appearance. Six different types of defects in the femoral head and neck were defined: ditch (it appears like Allen's fossa), tongue (it appears like Poirier's facet), indentate, sunken, groove, and pit. This classification method was found to be reliable (κ ≥ 0.907). FHNDs are very common among adult human populations (69.3%), especially the ditch (25.2%) and the tongue types (38.2%). All types were sex and age independent; however, the age of onset varied. The tongue type was more prevalent among the elderly, whereas the ditch type was more prevalent among younger individuals. To conclude, there are six distinct types of FHNDs, which varied in their location, appearance, and prevalence. The most common defects, tongue and ditch, were sex and age independent. These defects are easily identified by naked eye or via CT images and therefore can be studied both in skeletal and modern populations, respectively.

The introduction of new psychoactive substances (NPS) on the illicit drug market has led to major challenges for the analytical laboratories. Keeping screening methods up to date with all relevant drugs is hard to achieve and the risk of missing important findings in biological samples is a matter of concern. Aiming for an extended retrospective data analysis, diagnostic fragment ions from synthetic cannabinoids (n=251), synthetic opioids (n=88) and designer benzodiazepines (n=26) not included in our original analytical method were obtained from the crowdsourced database HighResNPS.com and converted to a personalized library in a format compatible with the analytical instrumentation. Data files from the analysis of 1314 forensic post mortem samples with an Agilent 6540 ultra high pressure liquid chromatography quadrupole time-of-flight mass spectrometry (UHPLC-QTOF-MS) performed in our laboratory from January 2014 to December 2018 were retrieved and retrospectively processed with the new personalized library. Potentially positive findings were grouped in two: The most confident findings contained MS/MS data for library match (category 1) whereas the less confident findings lacked such data (category 2). Five new category 1 findings were identified: Flubromazepam in two data files from 2015 and 2016, respectively, phenibut (4-amino-3-phenylbutyric acid) in one data file from 2015, fluorofentanyl in one data file from 2016 and cyclopropylfentanyl in one data file from 2018. Retention time matches with reference standards further strengthened these findings. A list of 35 presumably positive category 2 findings was generated. Of these, only one finding of phenibut was considered plausible after checking retention times and signal-to-noise ratios. This study shows that new compounds can be detected retrospectively in data files from QTOF-MS using an updated library containing diagnostic fragment ions. Automatic screening procedures can be useful, but a manual re-evaluation of positive findings will always be necessary.

The optimization of a number ofgas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS) parameters in order to improve peak area precision through the application of a nonparametric statistical test (the sign ...

Context. 5-(2-aminopropyl)indole (5-IT) is a new psychoactive substance (NPS; “legal high” or “research chemical”) structurally related to indoleamines and substituted phenethylamines and implicated in several fatalities. We describe the clinical characteristics and results of laboratory investigations of 14 analytically confirmed nonfatal cases of 5-IT intoxication within the Swedish STRIDA project. Study design. Observational case series of consecutive patients with admitted or suspected intake of NPS presenting to hospitals in Sweden in 2012. Patients and methods. Blood and/or urine samples were collected from intoxicated patients presenting to emergency departments and intensive care units over the country. Analysis of NPS was performed using an LC–MS/MS multi-component method. Clinical data were collected when caregivers consulted the Poisons Information Centre and also retrieved from medical records. The severity of poisoning was graded retrospectively using the Poisoning Severity Score (PSS). Results. Eleven male and three female patients (age: 21–53 years, median: 27) tested positive for 5-IT in 2012, all cases appearing in April–July. The 5-IT concentration in serum ranged between 0.015 and 0.59 μg/mL (median: 0.22; n = 8) and in urine between 0.005 and 24.7 μg/mL (median: 5.95; n = 12). Five intoxications were indicated to be caused by 5-IT alone, whereas additional psychoactive substances were detected in the other nine cases. Six (43%) of fourteen cases were graded as severe (PSS 3), five (36%) as moderate (PSS 2), and three (21%) as minor (PSS 1) poisonings. In the severe cases, agitation, hallucinations, dilated pupils without light reaction, tachycardia, hypertension, hyperthermia, myoclonus, muscle rigidity, arrhythmias, seizures, rhabdomyolysis, and/or renal failure were noted. Conclusions. The results demonstrated that severe clinical toxicity was commonly present in patients with analytically confirmed 5-IT exposure. The clinical features are consistent with a sympathomimetic toxidrome, and some patients also displayed symptoms associated with serotonin toxicity.

Microbial forensics is an important part of a strengthened capability to respond to biocrime and bioterrorism incidents to aid in the complex task of distinguishing between natural outbreaks and deliberate acts. The goal of a microbial forensic investigation is to identify and criminally prosecute those responsible for a biological attack, and it involves a detailed analysis of the weapon--that is, the pathogen. The recent development of next-generation sequencing (NGS) technologies has greatly increased the resolution that can be achieved in microbial forensic analyses. It is now possible to identify, quickly and in an unbiased manner, previously undetectable genome differences between closely related isolates. This development is particularly relevant for the most deadly bacterial diseases that are caused by bacterial lineages with extremely low levels of genetic diversity. Whole-genome analysis of pathogens is envisaged to be increasingly essential for this purpose. In a microbial forensic context, whole-genome sequence analysis is the ultimate method for strain comparisons as it is informative during identification, characterization, and attribution--all 3 major stages of the investigation--and at all levels of microbial strain identity resolution (ie, it resolves the full spectrum from family to isolate). Given these capabilities, one bottleneck in microbial forensics investigations is the availability of high-quality reference databases of bacterial whole-genome sequences. To be of high quality, databases need to be curated and accurate in terms of sequences, metadata, and genetic diversity coverage. The development of whole-genome sequence databases will be instrumental in successfully tracing pathogens in the future.