The goal of this presentation is to describe a case of sexual abuse realized by an institutionalized patient toward a young visitor. This presentation will impact the forensic community and/or humanity by focusing on elderly sexual offenders, in order to better understand the mechanisms and factors that lead to elder sexual offenses in both family and formal care settings. Background. More commonly, older people are the victims of sexual abuse but they can be also the perpetrators. The phenomenon is complex, consisting of institutional mistreatment toward all residents or individual neglect toward a single patient. The reasons older adults commit sexual offenses, in particular against children, are still an unsolved problem in order to understand the motivations and distinguish between senile or pedophile. Such offenses can occur in the family as well as within the hospital, nursing home facility, or a residential care home for elderly. This case report describes an episode of sexual offense by an elderly institutionalized patient toward a young visitor. Case Report. A 70-year old man in a residential care home was accused of sexual abusing a 6-year old girl who was with her mother to see the grandmother. In the late afternoon, the grandmother reported to staff members that the male resident had come to her room and, promised the child some candy, and had then taken her with him to his room. Once back in her grandmother's room, the girl disclosed that the man had lowered her underwear and touched her private parts. The elderly suffered of Parkinson's disease since several years, first treated with dopamine agonists, then, for the appearance of long-term treatment syndrome and gambling, with atypical neuroleptics. By interview the child was able to mimic the abuse perpetrated, by using a doll, and by psychodiagnostic tests performed she was found to be reliable in reporting the sexual abuse. On genital examination, no injuries were observed except for some hyperemia. The analysis of the micro-traces on her underwear gave negative results for the presence of seminal fluid but it was able to detect a DNA profile consistent with that of the old-man. The man was found guilty and sentenced to 5 years in prison. A civil action was also brought against the staff of the nursing home for inadequate supervision of the resident. Discussion. The elderly are often unrecognized victims of sexual abuse but also at risk of perpetrating abuse on vulnerable targets like children or frail elderly co-residents because of many factors associated with aging. Mental illness and cognitive disturbances (related to dementia, other neurological or iatrogenic factors), as well as a range of problems in addition to physiological or pathological sex behaviors (ie, pedophilia) are just some of the several age-related factors that can lead to such offending. Recently evidence has been found linking antiparkinson therapy and disorders in the impulsive-compulsive spectrum among which gambling and hypersexuality as well as dopamine dysregulation syndrome. A distinguishing characteristic of elderly sex offenders is that the illegal activity will usually take place in a private place, such as the home of either the offender or the victim, or in a hospital or residential care home. Because of the aging of our population, elderly sexual offenders are becoming an increasing concern to clinicians and criminal justice agencies. Conclusions. It is important to have a fuller understanding of the factors leading to elder mistreatment and sexual offenses in both family and formal care settings. Caregivers have responsibilities to ensure the safety of dependent elders and to protect them from elder abuse and also to ensure they do not pose a risk to those they are living with and any visitors they may have. Moreover it is necessary to better understand the motivations and psychological factors relating to elderly sex offenders, to prevent these offenses, and

We report the case of a 45-year-old railway worker who was literally decapitated during a work shift. He was working with his colleagues close to a Ballast Cleaning Machine (BCM) behind the driver. This case occurred during the night time, under artificial light that probably allowed this traumatic event. The workplace investigation revealed the victim's head and the right arm were detached from the remains of the body. Probably the cutter bar of the BCM caught his jacket and trapped him in the right arm of the machinery, cutting off his head. The external examination of the body and the following medico-legal autopsy showed excoriated streaks and de-epithelialization area on all over the body, fractures and laceration of the cervical region and of the right arm. Toxicological analyses were negative for alcohol or drug abuse. To the best of our knowledge, no other similar cases have been reported in the international literature

Abstract Background: Exposure to formaldehyde (FA) causes irritative effects and induces nasopharyngeal cancer; the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC, Lyon) classified FA as carcinogenic to humans, Group 1. Many studies have been published so far concerning the occupational exposure of industrial workers, embalmers, pathologists and anatomists to FA but very few data regarding medical examiners are available. Methods: To assess the extent to which subjects were exposed to FA, airborne concentrations of this chemical were measured by High Performance Liquid Chromatography (HPLC). In September-October 2006 we examined the personnel, which worked in an autopsy room (medical examiners) and in three laboratories of pathologic anatomy of the University Medical School of Bari, Policlinico Hospital, Southern Italy. Irritative effects were also investigated. Results: All the personal exposure data obtained exceeded the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health Threshold Limit Value-Time Weighted Average (NIOSH TLV-TWA: 0.02 mg/m3) and, in a few cases, even the American Conference of Industrial Hygienists Threshold Limit Value-Ceiling level (ACGIH TLV-C: 0.37 mg/m3). Conclusion: Irritative effects in more than 50% of the workers enrolled, increasing the risk of injuries.

After attending this presentation, attendees will be able to use a modified DNA extraction protocol useful on degraded specimens of bones, teeth, and other various tissues. This presentation will impact the forensic science community presenting factual details that ancient DNA research shares a common problem with forensics and other approaches requiring analyses of museum and non-invasively collected specimens; the amount of endogenous DNA available in the samples is often limited. Thus, extraction techniques that retrieve as much DNA as possible from a specimen are of crucial importance. A wide range of techniques has been published to date, all of which aim to maximize DNA yields, while minimizing the co-extraction of PCR inhibitors. Due to low levels of endogenous DNA, environmental, bacterial, and postmortem DNA damage, as well as the potential presence of environment-borne inhibitors that co-extract with DNA, the recovery of DNA data from degraded specimens can still pose a significant challenge. Previously, DNA extraction from the dental pulp samples was performed following a modified protocol of a Total RNA isolation system, suitable for DNA extraction from samples containing only a small number of nucleated cells. The same method was used for the bone samples. The protocol was partially modified by lengthening the incubation time of the cell lysis step: each sample of dental pulp was placed, overnight, at room temperature, in a single microtube containing 350 L of SV RNA Lysis Buffer. These protocols were applied to five skeletons discovered in Canosa di Puglia (Bari, Italy), during the archaeological excavations of tombs. These protocols do not allow for a complete characterization of genetic systems; however, even though the results obtained were satisfactory considering that the bones were ancient dated between the sixth and seventh centuries. The extraction method on bones, teeth and various tissue fragments of human remains, making some changes to previous protocols used were tested. Following this, the success of amplifying ancient DNA was estimated. Five cases are presented: In the first case, human remains were found in the Apulian countryside in 2002. They most probably belonged to a man who disappeared in 1989 according to the results of parentage testing by forensic hemogenetic investigations performed on the remaining members of the alleged missing man’s family. In the second case, human remains were found in 2006 on an Italian highway which probably belonged to a man reported as missing. Identification was made by comparing the DNA of the remains to a blood sample taken from a brother. The third case involved human remains, discovered in 2009 near a rest home for the elderly in the province of Bari, most likely belonging to an 84-year-old man who disappeared in 1995. In this case identification was carried out by comparing the genetic profile of the remains to a blood sample taken from the son of the missing man. The fourth case involved the remains of two unknown skeletonized individuals discovered two meters underground. They were discovered in the small town of Marsicovetere, in southern of Italy where a trench for an oil duct was being excavated. In this case, the remains consisted of two full human skeletonized bodies that were highly fragmented. They were presumed to be from a prehistoric period because of their extreme lightness and porosity: they were extremely fragile. The skeletons were removed from the trench by digging around the remains and taking them out along with the soil. The last case concerned remains found in the attic of a church in Potenza in March 2010. DNA extracted from the human remains was compared with the DNA extracted from the blood of members of the missing girl’s family in order to establish identification. The modified method for extracting the DNA genome, followed

The 17 Y-STR loci included in the AmpFLSTR Yfiler PCR Amplification Kit were analyzed in 98 unrelated healthy males from Apulia (Southern Italy). A total of 97 different haplotypes were identified, of which 96 haplotypes were unique and 1 occurred twice. Allele frequencies for each Y-STR locus in pooled sample and estimated value of gene diversity (GD) were evaluated. The lowest value of GD was observed for DYS392 (0.126) and the highest one (0.936) for DYS385. The HD (haplotype diversity) for the studied Y-STR set showed a value of 0.9994, with an HMP (haplotype match probability) value of 0.0006, while the overall DC was 98.98%. Microvariant alleles were found for the DYS458 and DYS385 markers and sequenced. Furthermore, Φ st-based genetic distance computation and pair-wise analysis of molecular variance (AMOVA) test were carried out. When comparing our population with the Apulia sample previously investigated, the AMOVA analysis detected no evidence for significant differentiation. The comparison with all Italian populations submitted to the YHRD website showed no relevant differences with all Southern Italian populations (San Giorgio La Molara, Belvedere, Trapani and Catania) and significant genetic deviation with all Northern Italian populations (Udine, Biella, La Spezia, Modena, Ravenna, Marche and North Sardinia). Moreover, the other populations and meta-populations belonging to the whole Mediterranean area (Croatia, Macedonia, Albania, Greece, Turkey, Israel, Libya, Tunisia, Algeria, Morocco and Spain) were different from our Apulia sample. The data were submitted to YHRD.