ORCID Profile
0000-0001-5539-4914
Current Organisation
Schoodic Institute
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Publisher: Elsevier BV
Date: 07-2008
DOI: 10.1016/J.FORSCIINT.2008.03.014
Abstract: South Africa currently has a high homicide rate. This results in a large number of unidentified bodies being recovered each year, many of which are referred to the forensic examiner. This situation has resulted in considerable growth of forensic anthropological research devoted to devising standards for specific application in South African medico-legal investigations. The standards suitable for Black South Africans now encompass a wide variety of skeletal elements (e.g. cranium, humerus, pelvis, femur, patella, talus, calcaneus), each with differing degrees of accuracy. Apart from a preliminary investigation of the Zulu local population, however, we note that there appears to be no established metric mandible discriminant function standards for sex determination in this population. The purpose of the present study is to undertake a comprehensive analysis of sexual dimorphism in the mandible of Black South Africans, incorporating in iduals from a selection of the larger local population groupings the primary aim is to produce a series of metrical standards for the determination of sex. The s le analyzed comprises 225 non-pathological mandibles of Black South African in iduals drawn from the R.A. Dart Collection. Nine linear measurements, obtained from mathematically transformed three-dimensional landmark data, are analyzed using basic univariate statistics and discriminant function analyses. All of the measurements examined are found to be sexually dimorphic the dimensions of the ramus and corpus lengths are most dimorphic. The sex classification accuracy of the discriminant functions ranged from 70.7 to 77.3% for the univariate method, 81.8% for the stepwise method, and 63.6 to 84% for the direct method. We conclude that the mandible is a very useful element for sex determination in this population.
Publisher: The Royal Society
Date: 12-04-2017
Abstract: Over the past two decades, the development of methods for visualizing and analysing specimens digitally, in three and even four dimensions, has transformed the study of living and fossil organisms. However, the initial promise that the widespread application of such methods would facilitate access to the underlying digital data has not been fully achieved. The underlying datasets for many published studies are not readily or freely available, introducing a barrier to verification and reproducibility, and the reuse of data. There is no current agreement or policy on the amount and type of data that should be made available alongside studies that use, and in some cases are wholly reliant on, digital morphology. Here, we propose a set of recommendations for minimum standards and additional best practice for three-dimensional digital data publication, and review the issues around data storage, management and accessibility.
Publisher: Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Date: 10-11-2007
DOI: 10.1007/S12024-007-9015-7
Abstract: Methods for skeletal identification have a long history in physical and forensic anthropology. Recent literature demonstrates that new methods are constantly being developed, concurrent with refinements to those already commonly employed. The present study concerns the application of geometric morphometrics to assess the potential of mandibular morphology as a developmental marker for estimating age at death in subadult human skeletal remains. The s le comprises 79 known age and sex subadult in iduals of South African Bantu and African American origin 38 bilateral three-dimensional landmarks were designed and acquired using a portable digitizer. Linear regression was used to predict age using the multivariate descriptors of mandible size and shape based on configurations of three-dimensional landmarks. Our results show that the mandible can be used to predict age in the subadult skeleton with accuracy comparable to standards based on the dentition (standard error rates are between +/-1.3 and +/-3.0 years). These results closely parallel our previous study using the linear measurement of ramus height, but suggest that geometric morphometrics may be slightly more accurate when adolescents are included in the s le.
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 07-12-2006
DOI: 10.1111/J.1556-4029.2006.00311.X
Abstract: There have been numerous attempts, with varying degrees of success, to differentiate males from females on the basis of the immature skeleton. We investigate here whether the mandible can discriminate immature in iduals by sex the techniques we apply are from the field of geometric morphometrics. The application of these methods in forensic anthropology is still relatively new thus, an important aspect of this research is that it demonstrates potential applications in this discipline. The s le comprises 96 known age and sex subadult in iduals the three-dimensional coordinates of 38 landmarks are analyzed using the shape analysis software morphologika. Multivariate regressions indicated no significant sexual dimorphism in the subadult s le this result is supported by poor cross-validated classification accuracy (59%). Our results suggest that the subadult mandible is not dimorphic (to the extent that dimorphism is not evident within the s le we studied) thus, sex determination using previously described criteria is likely to yield poor results.
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 14-08-2022
Abstract: The Arctic is warming at a faster rate than any other biome on Earth, resulting in widespread changes in vegetation composition, structure and function that have important feedbacks to the global climate system. The heterogeneous nature of arctic landscapes creates challenges for monitoring and improving understanding of these ecosystems, as current efforts typically rely on ground, airborne or satellite‐based observations that are limited in space, time or pixel resolution. The use of remote sensing instruments on small unoccupied aerial systems (UASs) has emerged as an important tool to bridge the gap between detailed, but spatially limited ground‐level measurements, and lower resolution, but spatially extensive high‐altitude airborne and satellite observations. UASs allow researchers to view, describe and quantify vegetation dynamics at fine spatial scales (1–10 cm) over areas much larger than typical field plots. UASs can be deployed with a high degree of temporal flexibility, enabling observation across diurnal, seasonal and annual time‐scales. Here we review how established and emerging UAS remote sensing technologies can enhance arctic plant ecological research by quantifying fine‐scale vegetation patterns and processes, and by enhancing the ability to link ground‐based measurements with broader‐scale information obtained from airborne and satellite platforms. Synthesis . Improved ecological understanding and model representation of arctic vegetation is needed to forecast the fate of the Arctic in a rapidly changing climate. Observations from UASs provide an approach to address this need, however, the use of this technology in the Arctic currently remains limited. Here we share recommendations to better enable and encourage the use of UASs to improve the description, scaling and model representation of arctic vegetation.
Location: United States of America
No related grants have been discovered for Peter Nelson.