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The aim of this study is to validate the FIDBv2 online procedure for adult age-at-death estimation using root dentine translucency (RDT) and periodontal retraction (PR) of single-rooted teeth in a worldwide sample. The sample includes 4810 teeth of 2559 individuals from 16 countries of America, Europe and Asia. Bias and inaccuracy between documented (DA) and estimated ages (EA) were calculated. Pearson and Intraclass Correlation Coefficients were computed to assess the strength of agreement between pairs of data, while Kolmogorov-Smirnov Z was used to evaluate the statistical significance of the differences. The percentages of correctly estimated cases within different age ranges were obtained to find trends in the reliability of the results. Most of the biases (-4.61-1.31 years) and inaccuracies (4.81-9.72 years) are low. The dispersion of EA increases with age and almost all the DA-EA correlations are above 0.75. DA-RDT and DA-PR correlations are positive, most of the former being high (0.74-0.91), and the latter being low (0.11-0.54). The highest percentages of correct estimations are identified for the ±7.5 and ±10 years ranges, and most comparisons of bias and inaccuracy between countries are non-significant. The high correlations between DA and EA suggest that the method is robust and reliable for a global application. Mean errors are low, with the best results found in the 30-69-year-old cohort. This research supports that the method is effective and accurate for age estimation in forensic contexts worldwide, thus reaffirming it is a generalizable procedure locally and internationally., Competing Interests: Declaration of Competing Interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper., (Copyright © 2024 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)

Sex estimation is essential in both bioarchaeological and forensic research. Based on bibliographical research, this study aims to systematize and compare the existing methods and glance at the future on this research topic. The survey in Web of Science and Google Scholar revealed 37 papers describing the generation of original procedures, and 25 validation studies. The results show that the pelvis, namely the ilium, is the most analyzed anatomical region, followed by the deciduous teeth, the cranium, the mandible, and the long bones. The morphometric approaches are addressed in greater proportion, both as original methods (n = 19) or validations (n = 24). Only one of the 19 approaches that require expensive equipment (conventional radiology, computer tomography, geometric morphometrics and 3D modelling) was tested. Most of them were generated during the 21 st century; however, 24 have not been tested yet. Comparing all the methods tested, the percentages of correctly estimated cases are always lower in validation studies. It is suggested that the most promising ones be tested in documented samples by a group of researchers. Thus, the interobserver error would be evaluated and may also lead to new methodological proposals and refinements.

Since the publication of Lamendin's age estimation technique, the root dentin translucency has received increasing attention as an important indicator of age. Recently, Parra and colleagues presented the Forensic International Dental Database (FIDB), a proposal to estimate age at death in adults based on Bayes theorem by applying the criteria of Lamendin's technique. The present study aims to update the procedure and to evaluate a new version of the method (named FIDBv2) using two control samples from Colombia and Greece. The performance of this new version was acceptable and suggests that the method is suitable for age at death estimation in adult individuals from different forensic contexts. The best approximations to chronological age were obtained for individuals between 30 and 60 years old, with errors less than 10 years. The age estimations calculated on control samples suggest the adequate performance of FIDBv2 on individuals from varied populations. It can be stated that the FIDBv2 constitutes a solid alternative to be used in contexts where no additional data are available. Here we reinforce the initial idea that this model for estimating age at death in adults may be generalizable to any forensic context in the world., Competing Interests: Declarations of interest The authors declare no conflict of interest in the writing of this article., (Copyright © 2023 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)

Age-at-death estimation is a difficult task in fragmented or incomplete contexts. The generation and testing of methods are needed to identify their potential application in different types of osteological samples. This paper proposes a new method for age estimation using the first rib. Four hundred and fifteen individuals from the Coimbra Identified Skeletal Collections (Portugal) were studied; the sample was divided in two groups (reference and test samples), used to develop the procedure and to evaluate its reliability. The three rib joints and two variables (surface texture and topography, and periarticular margins and subsidence of the surface) were recorded. Statistical analyses were performed to test the procedure reproducibility, and side and sex variations. Posterior probabilities were calculated following Bayesian statistics and used to estimate the most likely age-at-death in the test sample. The results show the reproducibility of the method is adequate, left and right ribs can be indistinctly recorded, and both sexes show similar change patterns. The costal face and the head epiphyseal region offered satisfactory results and the percentages of correct estimations are greater for younger individuals, decreasing as ages-at-death are higher. This method is more effective among individuals in the 20-50 years cohort; nevertheless, it also offered satisfactory estimates in older ones. Overestimations in individuals younger than 40 years and underestimations in individuals older than 75 years were identified. In conclusion, the first rib offer adequate estimates when a basic probabilistic approach is chosen. Whenever possible, this proposal must be included in a multifactorial perspective with other age markers., (© 2022 American Academy of Forensic Sciences.)

This study tests the hypothesis that the incorporation of cultigens about ca. 2000 years BP substantially changed hunter-gatherer subsistence and mobility in the Atuel River valley (Central-Western Argentina), where the frontier of pre-Hispanic domesticated resource dispersion was defined. Degenerative joint disease and entheseal change markers were analyzed on skeletal remains from Cañada Seca-1, a burial archaeological site with commingled skeletal remains dated about ca . 1500 years BP (MNI = 24). The results show lower mobility in comparison with hunter-gatherer remains from the neighboring Pampa region and quite different manual activities compared to low-level producers. These trends are explained as a result of a mixed subsistence strategy and mobility in an area where the incorporation of domesticated plants was neither a linear nor a fast process, and a stereotypical view proves to be insufficient to understand it. Although further information is required for future discussions, the present research highlights the potential of commingled skeletal remains for this kind of study.

In forensic science, the information that teeth provide to the age estimation process is very important. In adults, one of the most widely used indicators of skeletal age is the Root Dentin Translucency (RDT), mainly through the Lamendin technique, which is used in various Latin American contexts. Recently, Parra et al. (2020) have developed a Bayesian regression model using the Lamendin technique to establish standardized criteria for estimating age-at-death in adults in various forensic contexts. In this study, we evaluate the applicability of this proposal together with the proposal by Lamendin et al. (1992) and Prince and Ubelaker (2002) in Latin American contexts. A sample of single-rooted teeth belonging to 805 individuals from six Latin American countries was used. The results of the three proposals considered were analyzed taking into account factors such as age, sex, origin, and the tooth surface on which the variables were surveyed. Of the factors that would affect the estimates, it was found that the age of the individuals had the greatest influence. However, it was confirmed that the sex and surface of the teeth on which the measurements were taken did not influence the final result. On the other hand, as we expected, the application of the analyzed proposals would also be possible in other forensic contexts, as shown by the results obtained according to the origin. This research expands the FIDB with more information on Latino contexts., (© 2021 American Academy of Forensic Sciences.)

Sex estimation of adult skeletons is an important step in forensic analysis. Although the femur has been metrically studied for sex assessment around the world, very limited information is actually available on modern populations of Argentina. In this paper, the estimation of sex based on the metric evaluation of the supero-inferior femoral neck diameter (SID) in a reference osteological collection from the contemporary Chacarita Cemetery of Buenos Aires City (Argentina), is evaluated. Protocols generated using SID in other three reference skeletal samples are also tested on this collection. One hundred and sixty-four individuals of both sexes and between 24 and 96 years old are analyzed. Inter and intra observer errors suggest that the replicability of the procedure is adequate. The sectioning point calculated from the direct measurements is 30.86 mm and results show a high degree of dimorphism. The proportions of correct sex discrimination and the likelihoods of correct allocation obtained with the direct measurements, along with the results of a discriminant function, a binary logistic regression and a Bayesian approach, are all higher than 0.85 (0.85-0.93 for females, 0.88-0.91 for males). When the formulae from other samples are used in the Chacarita Collection, the percentages of correct estimations range between 72.41% and 81.03% for females and between 80.46% and 88.50% for males, while the likelihoods are between 0.73 and 0.81 for females and between 0.79 and 0.82 for males. As the values for the estimations obtained using the statistical procedures generated in the present research are higher than those available for other collections, the method is more adequate to use in the analysis of contemporary skeletal remains from Buenos Aires and surrounding areas. The trends identified highlight the importance of population-specific metric methodologies in forensic contexts and deserve future testing in contemporary samples from neighbouring regions., (Copyright © 2021 The Chartered Society of Forensic Sciences. Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)

Non-adult sex estimation is an active field of forensic inquiry as morphological variations between males and females are subtle, but observable, even from intrauterine development. The objectives of this study are threefold: to test the validity of the auricular surface method for sex estimation (Int J Osteoarchaeol 27:898-911, 2017) in fetuses and children under the age of 5 years old; to evaluate if health conditions, reported as the cause of death, influence its accuracy; and to detect possible secular trends in sexual dimorphism. One-hundred and ninety-seven skeletal individuals from the Lisbon and Granada Identified Collections were studied. Individuals were divided according to the hormonal peaks (< 0, 0-2, < 2, and 2.1-5 years old), cause, and year of death (before and after 1960). As in previous studies, two ratios (FI/CF and DE/AD) and two qualitative variables (OM and MRS) showed the highest frequencies of correct estimation (0.81-0.86). The correct sex allocations increased when the discriminant function (0.85) and logistic regression (0.86) were applied. Males of the age groups < 0 and 2.1-5 years were all correctly sexed by both formulae, and the same was observed for the female probabilities of adequate allocation. The cause and year of death were identified as variables without statistical significance. It is proposed that this method can be incorporated with confidence into the multifactorial laboratory protocols for non-adult sex estimation from skeletal remains.

The Mycobacterium tuberculosis complex (MTC) has affected South American populations since ca. 200 years BCE. In Argentina, possible cases date from ca. 1000-1400 Common Era (CE). This paper describes the oldest (905-1030 CE) confirmed case of tuberculosis (TB) in a young adult male from Lomitas de Saujil (Tinogasta, Catamarca, Argentina). Osteolytic lesions on the bodies of the lower spine were macroscopically and radiographically identified. Bilateral new bone formation was seen on the visceral vertebral third of several ribs and in long bones, compatible with hypertrophic osteoarthropathy. Representative rib and hand bones gave profiles for MTC-specific C 27 -C 32 mycocerosic acid lipid biomarkers; these were strongest in one heavily-lesioned lower rib, which also had MTC-diagnostic C 76 -C 89 mycolic acids and positive amplification of MTC-typical IS6110 aDNA fragments. During the first millennium CE, the intense social interaction, the spatial circumscription of villages among the pre-Hispanic societies in the mesothermal valleys of Catamarca and the fluid contacts with the Eastern lowlands, valleys and puna, were factors likely to favor disease transmission. It is proposed that TB arrived from northern Chile and dispersed towards the northeast into the Yocavil valley, where several cases of TB infection were macroscopically identified for a later chronology., (Copyright © 2020 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.)

Objectives: Sex is usually not estimated in skeletonized non-adult individuals because sexual dimorphism is considered minimal before puberty. In 2017, a new approach based on the shape of the auricular surface was proposed, showing that this anatomic area of the ilium is dimorphic. This study tests the reproducibility and evaluates the accuracy of the method in a bigger sample., Materials and Methods: Thirty males and 31 females from the Lisbon Collection (1 day-18 years old) were analyzed by two researchers, one experienced, and the other without previous knowledge of the method. The sample was divided into three groups according to prepubertal and pubertal hormonal peaks (<2, 0-12, and 13-18 years old). Two metric variables (DE/AD and FI/CF ratios), two morphological features (Overall Morphology, OM and Morphology of the Retroauricular End of the Superior Demiface, MRS), and two formulae were tested based on the adequate results obtained in the original article., Results: Data shows a low interobserver error (ICC > 0.92; K > 0.74). Morphological features provide better results than the metrics (DE/AD = 77.05%; FI/CF = 73.77%; OM = 80.33%; MRS = 85.24%). The discriminant function correctly classified 86.66% of the males and the logistic regression, 83.33%. The method was equally reliable in 0-12 and 13-18 years-old age groups and more accurate in males. The accuracy of most of the variables reached 100% for males under 2 years-old, and the probabilities were higher than for older individuals. The percentages of correct estimations are not influenced by the age, year, and cause of death., Discussion: Despite the relatively small sample size, this study confirms the usefulness of the auricular surface for non-adult sexual estimation, especially for those younger than 2 years old. Additional validation tests in documented individuals from other geographic regions are suggested., (© 2020 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.)

Background: The latest Difficult Airway Society (DAS) guidelines recommend that all anaesthesiologists should to be trained in the performing of a surgical cricothyrotomy (CtQ). The aim of this study was to analyse the learning results of a CtQ workshop by assessing the success rate and time to perform CtQ on a porcine tracheal model., Material and Methods: A workshop was designed in which each student completed a questionnaire with demographic data and theoretical knowledge about surgical approaches of airway. During the following hour, a review was presented theoretical aspects of CtQ. The model was shown and a CtQ was performed using a classical technique. Afterwards, in groups of 3-4 students with an instructor, each one of the students performed 6 CtQ. A record was made on whether the ventilation was correct, the time to perform CtQ, and the ease of performing the CtQ by the students and instructors. Finally, students completed a questionnaire on the theoretical aspects. Students and instructors performed a workshop debriefing. A statistical analysis was performed, considering a P-value <0.05 as statistically significant., Results: A total of 8 workshop sessions were held with a total of 91 students. At first attempt, 86% of students performed a CtQ with successful ventilation, and 92% at the sixth attempt (P<.0001). Time taken was 163 [107-211] seconds at first attempt, and 70 [55-85] seconds at the sixth (P<.0001). At the end of workshop, students had improved their theoretical knowledge (P<.0001) and perception of the ease of the technique., Conclusion: Workshop performance improved theoretical knowledge and competence in surgical cricothyrotomy., (Copyright © 2018 Sociedad Española de Anestesiología, Reanimación y Terapéutica del Dolor. Publicado por Elsevier España, S.L.U. All rights reserved.)

The use of dental metrics as a reliable tool for the assessment of biological distances has diversified dramatically in the last decades. In this paper some of the basic assumptions on this issue and the potential of cervical measurements in biodistance protocols are discussed. A sample of 1173 permanent teeth from 57 male and female individuals, recovered in Chenque I site (western Pampas, central Argentina), a Late Holocene hunter-gatherer cemetery, is examined in order to test the impact of exogenous factors that may have influenced the phenotypic manifestation and affected dental crown sizes. The statistical association between dental metric data, obtained by measuring the mesiodistal and buccolingual diameters of the crown and cervix, and the quantification of hypoplastic defects as a measure to evaluate the influence of the environment in the dental phenotypic expression is evaluated. The results show that socioenvironmental stress did not affect dental metrics and that only the more stable teeth (first incisors, canines, first premolars and first molars) and three variables (buccolingual diameter of the crown and both mesiodistal and buccolingual measurements of the cervix) should be included in multivariate analyses. These suggestions must be strengthened with additional studies of other regional samples to identify factors of variation among populations, so as to develop general guidelines for dental survey and biodistance analysis, but they are a first step for discussing assumptions usually used and maximizing the available information for low-density hunter-gatherer societies., (Copyright © 2015 Elsevier GmbH. All rights reserved.)

Osteological reference collections play a key role in bioanthropological research; they allow the development and testing of methods for sexing and ageing individuals using various bone and dental attributes. This paper presents the first stage results of the ongoing Chacarita Research Project, which aims to generate and study a reference collection of adult skeletons representative of the contemporary population of Buenos Aires city. The Chacarita Collection consists of unclaimed human remains of individuals of known nationality, sex, age, cause and date of death from the Chacarita Public Cemetery. Unlike other similar endeavours, this sample has been completely exhumed using archaeological techniques. So far, a total of 146 adult skeletons have been recovered (60 females - 41.1% and 86 males - 58.90%), the majority of which have ages-at-death in the range of 71-90 years. They were born primarily in Argentina (n=133; 91.1%), although other nationalities are also represented. Dates of death range between 1987 and 2000. In the short term, the osteological study of this collection will allow assessment of the performance of classical methods of sex determination and age-at-death estimation in a local setting. A special priority will be given to the study of osteological changes in individuals over 50 years. As the sample is being retrieved by exhumation, the impact of taphonomic agents on the most diagnostic bone structures is also being assessed. In the long term, this osteological collection will be available to generate new population-specific techniques and to develop comparative biological studies., (Copyright © 2012 Elsevier GmbH. All rights reserved.)

The aim of this paper is to conduct a historical analysis of the research-oriented studies related to dental anthropology in Argentina, evaluate its current state and discuss future expectations and perspectives. In this country, anthropological studies based on analysis of dentition have been scarce and even temporarily discontinued, since they began in the late nineteenth century, simply following the course of the predominant theoretical and methodological approaches over time. Early papers, guided mainly by evolutionary ideas, were oriented towards establishing the taxonomic position of humans through the description and comparison of morphological and morphometric aspects of the dental crown and root. Later studies mainly described types of intentional modifications (i.e. dental mutilations) and tooth wear in the context of Historic-Cultural School. However, they failed to constitute valid lines of research over time. In recent years, there has been a significant change in dental studies, mainly as a result of the interest in evaluating the adaptive aspects of human populations within biocultural settings. One of the most relevant lines of studies has been the bioarchaeological analysis of health and stress indicators, such as enamel hypoplasia, caries and tooth wear in hunter-gatherer and farmer societies. More recently, the study of discrete and metric dental traits began, with a goal to contribute to the study of evolution and inter-populational biological relations among South American groups. Since teeth contain valuable information not only about the environment in which the individual lived, but also about the action of neutral and non-neutral factors on human groups, the consolidation of ongoing studies will contribute to knowledge of various aspects of the adaptation and evolution of native American populations., (Copyright © 2011 Elsevier GmbH. All rights reserved.)