Aims: The aim was to analyze the homicide pattern in South Kerala from autopsies conducted between 2002 and 2016. Objectives: Exploring the age and gender distribution of death due to homicide, the type and distribution of injuries according to the region of the body, and trends of homicide. We also tried to study the pattern of defense wounds in homicidal cases and characteristics in dyadic deaths (homicide-suicide). Materials and Methods: It was a retrospective descriptive study. The setting was the Department of Forensic Medicine, State Medico-Legal Institute, Government Medical College (GMC), Thiruvananthapuram. All cases of autopsies with an alleged history of homicide, between 2002 and 2016, done at Mortuary of GMC, Thiruvananthapuram, were included in the study. Records of all cases of an alleged history of homicide from January 1, 2002 to December 31, 2016 were perused. Results: 957 cases were analyzed. The annual incidence of homicide is declining after 2012. Young adult males (31–40 years) are the most common group involved (24.97%). Head injury was the most common cause of death (43.68%). The head was the most common area to be affected in fatal blunt force injuries (49%) while the chest was involved commonly in fatal sharp force injuries (36%). Females were more often the homicide victims in murder-suicides. Husband–wife and father–child combination was the most common pairs in dyadic deaths. Conclusion: The characteristics which were associated with the homicides were generally in agreement with the existing forensic literature. The findings encourage examining the motives of homicide and potential sociocultural factors affecting the victims and possibly the assailants. We also found that the murder-suicide cases differed from the homicides requiring a separate domain of understanding and subsequent investigations.

Introduction: Children residing in orphanages are a disadvantaged section of the population. Inadequate care can impair the quality of life of orphan children. Aim: The aim of this study was to assess the oral health-related quality of life and dental caries status among institutionalized orphan children. Materials and Methods: Children without parents, aged 6–14 years, were selected from government-run orphanages. Children who were willing to participate were included. Data on oral health-related quality of life were collected by personal interviews by a single investigator. Following, intraoral examination of each child was carried out in an adequate natural light using a sterilized mouth mirror and probe. Dental caries was assessed according to the World Health Organization criteria. The data obtained were subjected to statistical analysis. Results: The Decayed, Missed and Filled teeth (DMFT) score of males was 0.41 ± 0.86 and females was 0.97 ± 1.44, and the difference was statistically significant. The mean of oral symptoms, functional limitation, emotional well-being, and social well-being was 26.49 ± 4.48, 37.75 ± 3.63, 33.31 ± 4.18, and 47.92 ± 3.37, respectively. Conclusions: The prevalence of dental caries was low among these orphan children. The quality of life of these children was not affected by their dental caries status.

Conventional analytical methods, such as gas chromatography, high performance liquid chromatography (LC), ultra-violet, and others, are ineffective in addressing the increasing number of problems in forensic toxicology. Hyphenated analytical methods, wherein the separation method are coupled or combined with spectral methods, with the help of a proper interface, are the available alternative options. The key benefits of these methods are the requisites of low limits for detection, shorter analytical time, the possibility of automation, better reproducibility, and high precision and repeatability. This review discusses on some of the hyphenated analytical methods that involve LC as the separation tool, for their most recent applications in the area of forensic toxicology focusing on the screening of drugs of abuse, the usage of alternative matrices for monitoring drug abuse, analysis of chemical warfare agents, determination of doping agents and related substances, natural toxins, environmental poisons, and examination of food produce adulteration. The incorporation of the more user-friendly LC-interfaces, such as atmospheric pressure chemical ionization, and electrospray ionization in the LC- mass spectrometry has increased the popularity of this technique tremendously among scientists of different disciplines. Hyphenated approaches have extremely low constraints regarding the identification and quantification, and offer high reproducibility, with unparalleled potential.

The relevance of the study is forensic expert activity in terms of forensic examinations have been so transformed that existing theoretical provisions do not already solve traditional problems in some fields; their solvation requires new approaches of both theoretical and practical nature. In this regard, the purpose of this study is to analyze the content of new innovative directions in forensic examinations, including criminalistic ones, and the possibility of their effective application in forensic expert activity. The methodological basis of the study is the dialectical method of scientific knowledge, which allowed the authors to consider the theoretical and scientific, and practical foundations of modern trends in forensic examinations, including criminalistic ones. It also helped to identify promising fields of examinations necessary for crime prevention. Therefore, authors singled out the following advanced fields: biometric and computer forensic analyses, polygraph, and odor and trace evidence analyses. The materials of the article are of practical value for forensic experts and criminologists, law enforcement agencies.

The European Convention on Human Rights proclaims the right of everyone to privacy of information about their state of health, which is a particularly important issue during the COVID-19 pandemic. The aim of the study is to determine the essence of the ECtHR's activity as a guarantee of information culture, highlight the main elements of its activities in this aspect, and analyze the right to medical secrecy in the practice of the European Court of Human Rights. The formal-logical method was used to analyze the norms of the European Convention on Human Rights, determine the content of basic concepts, and systematize the material in order to obtain generalizing conclusions within the framework of the stated problem. The predictive method was used to determine the prospects for the development of legislation aimed at creating a system of effective legal provision for the confidentiality of patient information. The European Court of Human Rights has more than once drew attention to the enormous importance of protecting personal, in particular medical data, so that a person can enjoy his or her right to private and family life with satisfaction. That is why public authorities must ensure the confidentiality of information about the health of individuals. It should not be disclosed or processed without the prior informed consent of the person concerned. There are a lot of cases of unlawful disclosure of information about the patient's health and liability for unlawful disclosure.

Objectives: The author collected several samples with Chinese characters and utilized the 3D property of stroke indentation to explore how pen strokes left on the paper can assist with forensic investigation. Methods: We chose to collect the three-dimension property of handwriting strokes and analyze strokes indentation. In this study, the author extracted stroke indentation through focus variation microscopy as implemented by AB8000. Results and Conclusion: Upon experimenting with different types of pens and different writing surface, the author found that this result can tell with a great degree of certainty whether the sample is formed with a left-hand or right-hand writer and how the pen was being held. Although there are variations among the test results, the discovered pattern generally holds for different types of pens and writing surfaces, except that the result from using felt tip pens or extremely hard surfaces are less satisfactory. These findings are expected to be able to assist in narrowing down who wrote a certain handwriting sample.