Scientific Integrity in the Forensic Sciences: Consumerism, Conflicts of Interest, and Transparency

The goal of this paper is to discuss scientific integrity, consumerism, conflicts of interest, and transparency within the context of forensic science. Forensic scientists play crucial roles within the legal system and are constantly under various pressures when performing analytical work, generating reports based on their analyses, or testifying to the content of these reports. Maintaining the scientific integrity of these actions is paramount to supporting a functional legal system and the practice of good science. Our goal is to discuss the importance of scientific integrity as well as the factors it may compromise, so that forensic practitioners may be better equipped to recognize and avoid conflicts of interest when they arise. In this discussion we define terms, concepts, and professional relationships as well as present three case studies to contextualize these ideas

How do drugs affect the skeleton? implications for forensic anthropology

Forensic anthropologists rely on a number of parameters when analyzing human skeletal remains to assist in the identification of the deceased, predominantly age-at-death, sex, stature, ancestry or population affinity, and any unique identifying features. During the examination of human remains, it is important to be aware that the skeletal features considered when applying anthropological methods may be influenced and modified by a number of factors, and particular to this article, prescription drugs (including medical and non-medical use) and other commonly used drugs. In view of this, this paper aims to review the medical, clinical and pharmacological literature to enable an assessment of those drug groups that as side effects have the potential to have an adverse effect on the skeleton, and explore whether or not they can influence the estimation of age-at-death, sex and other indicators of the biological profile. Moreover, it may be that the observation of certain alterations or inconsistencies in the skeleton may relate to the use of drugs or medication, and this in turn may help narrow down the list of missing persons to which a set of human remains could belong. The information gathered from the clinical and medical literature has been extracted with a forensic anthropological perspective and provides an awareness on how several drugs, such as opioids, cocaine, corticosteroids, non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs, alcohol, tobacco and others have notable effects on bone. Through different mechanisms, drugs can alter bone mineral density, causing osteopenia, osteoporosis, increase the risk of fractures, osteonecrosis, and oral changes. Not much has been written on the influence of drugs on the skeleton from the forensic anthropological practitioner perspective; and this review, in spite of its limitations and the requirement of further research, aims to investigate the current knowledge of the possible effects of both prescription and recreational drugs on bones, contributing to providing a better awareness in forensic anthropological practice and assisting in the identification process of the deceased

An observational cohort study of the use of five-grass-pollen extract sublingual immunotherapy during the 2015 pollen season in France

Background:Allergic rhinitis affects around one quarter of the Western European population. Prophylactic allergen immunotherapy may be useful to reduce the risk of acute symptomatic attacks (hayfever). A five-grass pollen extract sublingual immunotherapy (5GPE-SLIT) has been developed for the treatment of allergic rhinitis to grass pollen. The objective of this study was to describe real-world treatment patterns with 5GPE-SLIT in France with respect to the prescribing information.Methods:This prospective cohort study was conducted by 90 community and hospital allergists. Adults and children (> 5 years old) starting a first treatment with 5GPE-SLIT prior to the 2015 pollen season were eligible. Data was collected at the inclusion visit and at the end of the pollen season. The primary outcome variable was compatibility of 5GPE-SLIT prescription with the prescribing information. This was determined with respect to four variables: (1) interval between 5GPE-SLIT initiation and onset of the pollen season ≥ 3 months, (2) age of patient ≥ 5 years, (3) intermittent symptoms or mild symptom severity (4) confirmatory diagnostic test. At study end, symptoms reported during the pollen season and any modifications to treatment or adverse events were documented.Results:280 adults and 203 children were enrolled. The prescribing information was respected for 82.5% of adults and 86.7% of children. A skin test was performed for all patients. 5GPE-SLIT was started 3-5 months before the pollen season for 85.3%. Treatment was discontinued before the start of the pollen season in 11.0% of patients overall, generally because of an adverse event (78.8% of discontinuations). The mean duration of treatment was 5.2 months in adults and 5.6 months in children. At the end of follow-up, symptoms during the pollen season were intermittent for 75.0% of adults and 85.7% of children, and severity was mild for 61.8 and 66.0% respectively. During 5GPE-SLIT, the following symptoms reported during the previous year were not reported again in > 50% of patients: nasal congestion, rhinorrhoea, repeated sneezing, conjunctivitis and nasal pruritus.Conclusions:5GPE-SLIT use was generally consistent with prescribing recommendations and was associated with an improvement of AR severity, with resolution of the principal AR symptoms in around half the patients treated.Trial registration EUPAS9358. Registered 13 May 2015. Not prospectively registered. http://www.encepp.eu/encepp/viewResource.htm?id=16229

A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis of the Effects of Race in the Criminal Justice System with Respect to Forensic Science Decision Making: Implications for Forensic Anthropology

Instances of racial disparities are well documented in the United States’ criminal justice system. This study reviewed the literature and conducted quantitative analyses on the role of race in forensic decision making among practitioners and other stakeholders in the criminal justice system. We hypothesized that Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (BIPOC) individuals will be significantly more likely to be associated with adverse outcomes than White individuals. A search strategy was developed and registered before the study commenced. Quantitative data were extracted from eligible studies to estimate the pooled effect size (odds ratio) for the effects of race. A final sample of 11 data sources (published study or dataset) was identified. Decision making by all stakeholders in the criminal justice system, including forensic practitioners, case investigators, and juries were evaluated in these studies. Two datasets evaluated the decision-making process involving forensic psychology or psychiatry, three focused on forensic evidence, four on forensic pathology, one involved forensic anthropology cases, and one involved clinical forensic medicine cases. The pooled odds ratio was estimated to be 1.10 (95% confidence interval: 0.67–1.81), indicating a trivial or negligible effect of race (i.e., BIPOC individuals were no more likely to be associated with adverse outcomes given the current evidence). Importantly, the results of this study do not indicate that bias or disparity related to race does not exist in forensic decision making in the criminal justice system. More research into systemic bias in forensic decision making, especially in relation to race, is needed. Forensic anthropologists are uniquely positioned to study and address racial disparities in the criminal justice system involving forensic science because of its interdisciplinary and multidisciplinary nature. This study highlights the need for further research and advocates for forensic anthropologists to be more involved in the study of the science and the impacts of forensic science rather than focusing on methodological advancement

Biosynthetic Analysis of the Petrobactin Siderophore Pathway from Bacillus anthracis

The asbABCDEF gene cluster from Bacillus anthracis is responsible for biosynthesis of petrobactin, a catecholate siderophore that functions in both iron acquisition and virulence in a murine model of anthrax. We initiated studies to determine the biosynthetic details of petrobactin assembly based on mutational analysis of the asb operon, identification of accumulated intermediates, and addition of exogenous siderophores to asb mutant strains. As a starting point, in-frame deletions of each of the genes in the asb locus (asbABCDEF) were constructed. The individual mutations resulted in complete abrogation of petrobactin biosynthesis when strains were grown on iron-depleted medium. However, in vitro analysis showed that each asb mutant grew to a very limited extent as vegetative cells in iron-depleted medium. In contrast, none of the B. anthracis asb mutant strains were able to outgrow from spores under the same culture conditions. Provision of exogenous petrobactin was able to rescue the growth defect in each asb mutant strain. Taken together, these data provide compelling evidence that AsbA performs the penultimate step in the biosynthesis of petrobactin, involving condensation of 3,4-dihydroxybenzoyl spermidine with citrate to form 3,4-dihydroxybenzoyl spermidinyl citrate. As a final step, the data reveal that AsbB catalyzes condensation of a second molecule of 3,4-dihydroxybenzoyl spermidine with 3,4-dihydroxybenzoyl spermidinyl citrate to form the mature siderophore. This work sets the stage for detailed biochemical studies with this unique acyl carrier protein-dependent, nonribosomal peptide synthetase-independent biosynthetic system

Euclid. III. The NISP Instrument

International audienceThe Near-Infrared Spectrometer and Photometer (NISP) on board the Euclid satellite provides multiband photometry and R>=450 slitless grism spectroscopy in the 950-2020nm wavelength range. In this reference article we illuminate the background of NISP's functional and calibration requirements, describe the instrument's integral components, and provide all its key properties. We also sketch the processes needed to understand how NISP operates and is calibrated, and its technical potentials and limitations. Links to articles providing more details and technical background are included. NISP's 16 HAWAII-2RG (H2RG) detectors with a plate scale of 0.3" pix^-1 deliver a field-of-view of 0.57deg^2. In photo mode, NISP reaches a limiting magnitude of ~24.5AB mag in three photometric exposures of about 100s exposure time, for point sources and with a signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) of 5. For spectroscopy, NISP's point-source sensitivity is a SNR = 3.5 detection of an emission line with flux ~2x10^-16erg/s/cm^2 integrated over two resolution elements of 13.4A, in 3x560s grism exposures at 1.6 mu (redshifted Ha). Our calibration includes on-ground and in-flight characterisation and monitoring of detector baseline, dark current, non-linearity, and sensitivity, to guarantee a relative photometric accuracy of better than 1.5%, and relative spectrophotometry to better than 0.7%. The wavelength calibration must be better than 5A. NISP is the state-of-the-art instrument in the NIR for all science beyond small areas available from HST and JWST - and an enormous advance due to its combination of field size and high throughput of telescope and instrument. During Euclid's 6-year survey covering 14000 deg^2 of extragalactic sky, NISP will be the backbone for determining distances of more than a billion galaxies. Its NIR data will become a rich reference imaging and spectroscopy data set for the coming decades