The role of forensic dentistry for identification of a criminal sexual assault: a casework report

This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited."The identification of an individual from dental traces collected at the crime scene is one of the objectives of the criminal investigation. When, at the crime scene, objects are found with tooth marks, the intervention of Forensic Dentistry may represent the only way to obtain positive identification of the author’s bite mark. The forensic analysis of a bite mark consists of detection, recognition, description and comparison of bite marks on either individuals or inanimate objects. In this medico-legal casework, a sexual assault, the victim of the crime presented to the forensic examination had a mark on her left arm consistent with a bite mark, probably from the aggressor during the crime perpetration. The protocol followed in this medico-legal casework study is a scientific analysis of the facts which when presented in the court will be defendable under ruthless cross-examination. The pattern association of dental features in this sexual abuse case demonstrated a degree of concordance present between the tooth marks in the victim’s body and the suspect´s dentition.

Age estimation of unaccompanied minors: A portuguese overview

Licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License."In the past decade there has been a considerable increase in the number of unaccompanied asylum seeking children, many of whom appeared to be older than their given age. Dental age assessment has been included as part of the asylum seeking process in Portugal since the Law n. º 27/2008 dated 30 June (the “Asylum Law”). The legal framework of the forensic examination is based in biomedical ethics. The aim is to find the frequency of unaccompanied asylum seeking children with dental evidence of being older 18 years during the period between 2009 and 2013. In this period age estimations have been performed on 82 unaccompanied asylum seeking children whose given ages were queried by the Aliens and Bored Service – SEF, to the South Branch of National Institute of Legal Medicine and Forensic Sciences from Portugal. The dental development was studied on ortopantomograpic radiographs and the developing teeth staged from the tables according to Liversidge (2008), Mincer et al. (1993), Kullmanet al. (1992) and Haavikko (1970). If the dental development was complete, the dental age was estimated from Kvaal et al. (1995). The majority of the unaccompanied asylum seeking children clamed to came from Guinea Conakry, Nigeria, Guinea Bissau, Syria, Congo, Morocco and other African countries and non-African countries. There was no statistical significant difference between sexes. The majority gave the age as being 14 or 15 years (70%). Forty percent were found to be 18 years or older by the dental methods. Fifty percent were in need of dental treatment.

Value-focused investigation into programming languages affinity

The search for better techniques to teach computer programming is paramount in order to improve the students' learning experiences. Several approaches have been proposed throughout the years, usually through technical solutions such as evaluation systems, digital classrooms, interactive lessons and so on. Personal factors, such as affinity, have been largely unexplored due to their qualitative and abstract nature. The results of a preliminary survey on how and why affinity is created between programmers and their favorite languages, conducted on a master’s degree class at Universidade do Minho, showed unexpected results as to which languages became favorites and the possible reasons for the students' choices. Aiming at further exploration on this topic and continuation of this research, the Value-Focused Thinking method was applied in order to construct a more complex, in-depth survey. This value-oriented method kept focus under control and even raised a handful of opportunities to improve the research as a whole. This paper describes the Value-Focused Thinking method and how it was applied to construct a new and deeper computer programming education survey to understand affinity with languages

Programmers' affinity to languages

Students face several challenges when learning computer programming languages, a central topic to acquire programming skills. While those challenges that present a predominantly technical nature have been intensely studied by researchers along the years, the ones that are concerned with qualitative, and personal aspects have not. Affinity to a programming language is one of the many personal factors that may contribute to surpass these qualitative aspects that describe the difficulties that students face. From this point-of-view, this paper presents a proposal for treating and studying programmers' affinity to programming languages as an important factor for learning computer programming. It also reports a preliminary questionnaire conducted on a master's degree class at Universidade do Minho that showed that affinity may have a broader relation to learning computer programming than anticipated. Finally, a set of relevant questions are stated to compose a future inquiry aimed at deepening the knowledge on the affinity between programmers and languages, paving the way for following research.This work has been supported by FCT – Fundação para a Ciência e Tecnologia within the R&D Units Project Scope: UIDB/00319/2020

O EU na Osteoartrose : comparação dos Core Sets da CIF para a Osteoartrose, com a perspetiva dos utentes com OA da região centro de Portugal

Introdução: Na prática diária, os clínicos necessitam apenas de uma fração das categorias encontradas na CIF. No conflito entre a generalização e a necessidade de captar detalhes, a CIF deve ser adaptada às perspetivas e necessidades de diferentes utilizadores. Esta necessidade surge como a principal motivação por detrás do projeto dos Core Sets, que tem como objetivo extrair uma seleção de categorias de toda a classificação que são relevantes para condições específicas de saúde. Após o desenvolvimento da primeira versão dos Core Sets da CIF para a OA, os autores realçaram a importância desta ser testada sob a perspetiva de diferentes profissionais, em diferentes países e ainda segundo a perspetiva dos indivíduos. Objetivos: Identificar os problemas percecionados pelos indivíduos com OA, da região centro de Portugal e verificar em que medida estes aspetos se encontram compreendidos no Comprehensive e Brief Core Set da CIF, para esta condição de saúde. Metodologia: Foi realizado um estudo qualitativo, recorrendo a uma amostra de conveniência, indivíduos com OA no joelho e/ou anca. A recolha de dados consistiu em entrevistas individuais, e o seu processamento foi efetuado segundo o protocolo de Coenen (2008). Resultados: Foram incluídos 20 indivíduos, perfazendo uma média de idades de 69,65 (±9,8) anos, dos quais 9 são mulheres e 11 homens. Foram identificadas 34 das 55 categorias contempladas no Comprehensive Core Set da CIF e 9 das 12 categorias do Brief Core Set da CIF, 61,82% e 75%, respetivamente. Conclusões: Tendo em conta os resultados, conclui-se que os Comprehensive e Brief Core Sets da CIF para a OA abrangem a perspetiva da população portuguesa, contudo não contemplam alguns dos problemas percecionados pelos indivíduos. Além disso, ainda se verifica que integra algumas categorias não relevantes para esta população

Endotoxin levels in forklift’s filters and the importance of maintenance enforcement

Projeto IPL/2016/W2E_ESTeSL, 02/SAICT/2016 – Projeto 23222Many studies have already linked endotoxin exposure, especially in workplaces, to airways disease, yet threshold limit values have not been set, nor a standardized procedure for the analysis of endotoxin levels. Inhaled endotoxins may cause bronchial asthma and may increase the allergic response in hypersensitive people. Endotoxins are biologically active lipopolysaccharides (LPSs) produced by the most external layer of cellular walls of gram (−) bacteria. They are commonly found at workplaces where large amounts of bioaerosols are generated, like in waste sorting plants, where microorganisms growing on organic residue are present at high concentration in the air. Endotoxins are relatively heated stable so they are released into the air during cell growth and after cells’ death when the integrity of the cell wall is ruptured. Up to the present, endotoxin values are measured with non-uniform methods and therefore values are of limited benefit for assessment and limits’ establishment. In this study, eleven filters belonging to the filtration system from forklifts operating in one waste sorting industry located in the Lisbon region and one control filter were analyzed.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Understanding the molecular basis behind hair morphology: development of new strategies to modulate hair from the follicle

Book of Abstracts of CEB Annual Meeting 2017info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Auto-Disinfectant Acrylic Paints Functionalised with Triclosan and Isoborneol - Antibacterial Assessment

This article belongs to the Special Issue Advanced Polymeric FilmsEnvironmental surface contamination with microorganisms is a serious concern worldwide. Triclosan and isoborneol present good antimicrobial activity. Their immobilisation to paint substrates allows for development of a material that stays effective over a longer time. In this work, we disclosed the preliminary studies to evaluate the antimicrobial activity of the active molecule after being functionalised with isocyanates for further immobilisation on the paint substrate. Overall, the newly developed non-release antimicrobial coating provides an effective way of preventing the spread of diseases and has been proven to inhibit bacterial growth and with a considerable antimicrobial activity towards S. aureus, E. coli, and K. variicola at the tested concentrations.This research was funded by Programa Operacional Competitividade e Internacionalização–COMPETE2020/FEDER, towards the project B-Safecoat (POCI-01-0247-FEDER-017875), and by FCT (Fundação para a Ciência e Tecnologia) through the PhD grant attributed to MMQ (SFRH/BD/130203/2017).info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Time-dependent effect of tamoxifen on melanogenesis in normal human melanocytes

In medical literature, occasional case reports describe gray hair re-pigmentation in patients after administration of certain drugs, such as tamoxifen, supporting the possibility of reversing pigmentation loss associated with ageing. This work aimed to study, in vitro, the effect on melanin production in primary human melanocytes of tamoxifen, an antagonist of the estrogen receptor in breast tissue, and of its most bioactive derivative, 4-hydroxy-tamoxifen. Adult normal human epidermal melanocytes (NHEM) were exposed to physiological concentrations of tamoxifen and 4-hydroxy-tamoxifen for 72 hours. The results showed that tamoxifen and 4HO-tamoxifen treatments promoted melanin extrusion. The transcript levels of genes coding for premelanosome protein and melan- A, directly related to skin and hair pigmentation, showed an increased tendency upon tamoxifen and 4-hydroxy-tamoxifen treatment. Induction of catalase gene expression in NHEM points towards a promelanogenic effect mediated by reactive oxygen species. According to the results, these compounds seem to act as melanogenesis stimulators at a molecular level. Our data suggests that SERMs might be a new tool for increasing melanogenesis and might be of great interest for topical formulations in cosmetic industry

Self-Disinfecting Paints with the Natural Antimicrobial Substances: Colophony and Curcumin

This article belongs to the Special Issue Nature Inspired Antibiotic Adjuvants to Face the Problem of Multidrug Resistance and Biofilm InfectionsThe risk of infection arising from indirect sources-namely, contaminated surfaces-has been proved, particularly in healthcare facilities. In the attempt to minimize this problem, innumerable research projects involving the development of surfaces with self-disinfecting properties are being conducted. In this work, wall-paints with self-disinfecting properties were developed with the scope of being applied in environments prone to contamination, such as those at healthcare settings. Our approach was to develop new paint formulations containing two natural plant-based products with known antimicrobial activity-colophony (CLF) and curcumin (CUR). The natural substances were separately incorporated on a commercial paint and their antibacterial activity was evaluated with several bacterial species following ISO 22196. To assess the paints' safety, cytotoxicity tests were performed on HaCaT and A549 cell lines, using tests on extracts and direct contact tests, as suggested by the standardized protocol ISO 10993. In general, both paints containing CLF and CUR were able to reduce the bacterial growth after 24 h, compared with the control, the commercial unmodified paint. Colophony was even able to reduce the number of culturable bacteria by over 2 log for Staphylococcus aureus, Escherichia coli, and Bacillus cereus. Regarding the cytotoxicity tests performed (WST-1, NRU, and LDH), both formulations revealed promising results regardless of the methodology used.This research was funded by Programa Operacional Competitividade e Internacionaliza‐ ção-COMPETE2020/FEDER, towards the project B‐Safecoat (POCI‐01‐0247‐FEDER‐017875), and by FCT (Fundação para a Ciência e Tecnologia) through the PhD grant awarded to M.M.Q. (SFRH/BD/130203/2017).info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio