A new thin layer chromatographic (TLC) method has been developed to identify urinary stains of human being and animals. For this experiment, three TLC plates (silicagel, cellulose and RP-18) and several developing solvents were investigated. The cellulose plate was selected as a TLC plate for good coloration and methanol—pH 9.18 boric acid buffer (3 : 1, v/v) was selected as the developing solvent for good separation.
The Rf values (and coloration) of urea, allantoin, uric acid and creatinine as urine standard substances were 0.62 (red), 0.44 (red), 0.20 (dark blue) and 0.60 (orange), respectively. Some animals (dog, cat, hamster, etc.) and human urine were identified easily by the comparison of detection of uric acid and allantoin.
On the experiment of human and dog urinary stains, urea, uric acid and creatinine were detected in human urinary stains which had been two weeks old. On the other hand, urea and allantoin were cleary detected in the dog urinary stains which were two months old. This method is a simple and rapid analysis technique for the identification of urinary stains.

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Regarding the case of a homicide and abandoning of a corpse, we tried to carry out various inspections for the bloodstain on the T-shirt, which was worn by the adipocere corpse that had been buried for about one month in the ground. In spite of having the smell and color tone of decomposition, the blood type of the sample by the absorption-elution test and DNA type inspection (MCT118 and nine kinds of STR) could be determined. However, the determination for human blood inspection, in which hemoglobin had been targeted as an index, failed. Considering the color tone and bad smell, this bloodstain was thought to be polluted by certain bacteria. Thus, we tried to isolate them and succeeded in getting two kinds of bacteria, A and B from this bloodstain. PCR amplification of 16SrRNA gene (16SrDNA) was performed using universal primer sets for general bacteria. Both sequences of the amplified fragments showed high similarities to Bacillus sp.. Next, isolated Bacillus sp. cultured in the medium with human hemoglobin and its serological stability was monitored. The result showed that these Bacillus sp. decomposed human hemoglobin quickly. The remarkable degradation of DNA was not observed and the influence of Bacillus sp. on DNA stability was checked. It was found that the bloodstain was positive to genetic inspection of amelogenine gene, another index for human and beast judgment, although the bloodstain was negative to serological inspection of human blood.
As a conclusion we propose a slight improvement of human blood inspection process: when blood sample has been possibly contaminated by bacteria by having been buried in the ground for a long time, total judgment of human blood identification should be included, in addition to serological inspection.

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The purpose of this study was to examine heart rate (HR) changes in detection of deception using the Guilty Knowledge Test (GKT) paradigm. The effects of verbal responses and the serial position of items on HR were investigated. Seventeen healthy adult men and women participated in the study. They participated in experiments with differing conditions. In a verbal condition, participants were asked to say “no” and to click the “mouse” after each item. In a non-verbal condition, they were requested just to click the “mouse” without giving an oral answer after each item. Every participant was given one of 6 items and subjected to a polygraph test under both conditions. Each participant was presented with 5 items at random in one set. Six sets of questions were carried out under both conditions. Each item was presented once in each set. The order of items was different for every set. The results showed a greater change in HR in the verbal experiment than in the non-verbal experiment. In both experiments, however, HR decreased more significantly 5-10 seconds after the onset of clicking in the case of critical items (CR) compared to noncritical items (nCR). The results indicated that verbal response did not undermine the accuracy of detection of deception, though verbal response could affect HR. In regard to the effect of the position of the items, the present study indicated that serial position of items could affect HR because HR decreased gradually through out the set.

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JPEG images are degraded by blocking artifacts and mosquito noise caused by quantization on the block DCT domain. The purpose of this paper is reduction of image quality degradation by means of the image restoration method instead of the smoothing method after the simple decoding. This proposed method is based on the edge-adaptive restoration method; the regularizing operator depends on the edge orientation, and the regularizing parameter depends on the local activity. The variance of the quantization on the block DCT domain is taken into consideration.

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A D1S80 typing method using 310 Genetic Analyzer is described. To improve the resolution in capillary electrophoresis, we designed new primers, which amplicon lengths were 125 bp smaller than those obtained with Kasai's original primers. The PCR amplification was performed using a DNA polymerase for long and accurate (LA) PCR to enhance the amplification of the larger allele of a heterozygote sample. When large amounts of DNAs were amplified, we observed “stutter-like” peaks that may be derived from the incomplete denaturation of the PCR products before the injection into the 310 Genetic Analyzer. However, “stutter-like” peaks were not detected, when the PCR products were diluted. The heterozygote peak height ratio (HPR), sensitivity, detection limit ratio in the mixed DNAs, sizing precision, and the concordance of the newly designed primers with Kasai's original primers were evaluated. Our D1S80 typing method was confirmed to be a reliable and useful method.

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A fully automated identification system for 35 benzodiazepines and their 29 metabolites was developed by gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS) with a DB-5MS fused silica capillary column after trimethylsilyl (TMS) and trifluoroacetyl (TFA) derivatization, followed by registering both their retention times and mass spectra as the standard library data.
All the analytes except for rilmazafone and haloxazolam were detectable with and/or without TMS derivatization. TFA derivatization was found to be more effective in the more sensitive analysis of oxazolo-benzodiazepines except for flutazolam. Also, correction of their retention times by alkanes enabled to accurately identify on the different GC-MS systems with different lots of columns.
The present system allowed us to identify benzodiazepines and their metabolites in urine and blood more readily in a much shorter time, and it will be a powerful system for the analysis of benzodiazepines in the forensic chemistry and toxicology fields.

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In this paper, a method for automatic identification of newspaper fonts by template matching is proposed. In template matching between the font images, the genetic algorithm (GA) is used to search the optimum parameters of the translation, the rotation, and the magnification of the template image efficiently. This search processing is executed for many template images, and the template image having the maximum fitness value (the maximum matching rate) is selected as the identification result.
As the result of the identification experiment using two representative Japanese characters of 68 newspapers, the fitness value between the same fonts was higher than that between different fonts. This difference of the fitness values made it possible to specify almost all of these newspaper fonts. When the original font was used, the name of the newspaper could almost be specified. In the case of using the same font in the affiliated publishers, the group name of the publishers could be specified.
In executing the identification program, no complicated setting operation is required. Only by reading in an input image with the scanner and starting the program after trimming the image, the font image is identified automatically. It takes about 2 hours and 50 minutes to execute the font matching for an input image.

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Fibers seized from a crime scene are one of the most important evidence by providing useful information of the contact between the victim and the suspect, furthermore the suspect and the crime scene. A timeconsuming screening test is required before the following systematic identification. In the case of screening, the test for white fiber is more difficult, because the test includes visible color observation and morphological test of the cross section. Therefore, a fluorescent screening test of white fiber becomes extremely important for the forensic discrimination.
In this paper, the new method for making the cross section is examined. First, about 5 mm length of single fiber is bonded to an adhesive tape (1 cm × 1 cm). Secondly, the tape is put on the side of a slide glass so that the fiber becomes vertical to the slide glass. Finally, the fiber on the adhesive tape is cut with a razor which could be used as a substitution blade. The obtained specimen can be used both for the observation of the cross section and for the fluorescent screening test. A fluorescent microscopy (340-380 nm) can be available for these purposes. This new method combining the observation of cross section and the measurement of fluorescence is quite useful for the forensic screening test of single fibers.

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Typing of sperm DNA found in vaginal fluid is an important component of investigations of sexual crimes. A standard, two-step differential extraction of sperm and vaginal epithelial cells from vaginal fluid mixed with semen is usually used for DNA isolation. However, this method is considerably time-consuming and, due to often insufficient separation of sperm and vaginal pithelial DNA in the centrifugation process, DNA contamination may occur. Therefore, we have developed a new and more reliable method of sperm DNA extraction from vaginal fluid. Using a three-step, complete digesion of vaginal fluid with deoxyribonuclease I (DNase I) we were able to isolate pure sperm DNA in a shorter time. It can be expected that this improved method of sperm DNA isolation will lead to more reliable DNA typing and, significantly improve the efficiency of scientific criminal investigation such as DNA typing.

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For the purpose of investigating the relation between hair root morphology and STR (Short tandem repeat) typing, the root morphology of head hairs collected by sweeping, combing and pulling from twenty Japanese males was classified as follows. Hair roots swept or combed were classified into four types; A: with no root sheath, B: with little root sheath at the proximal end, C: with medial root sheath at the proximal end or little root sheath around the telogen club, and D: with much root sheath around the telogen club. Hair roots pulled were classified into three types; E: with no root sheath, F: with little root sheath, and G: with much translucent root sheath tissue around the anagen growth bulb.
Histomorphological examination of hair roots showed that root sheaths were not observed around telogen clubs of type A, and root sheaths were abundantly observed around anagen growth bulbs of types F and G. In roots of type E, root sheaths were scarcely observed but nuclei were observed in the hair cortex of the anagen growth bulb. In roots of telogen or catagen phases such as types B and C, distinct root sheaths were not observed but translucent process-like structures with blue-stained nuclei were observed at the bottom part of the telogen club. When roots that adhered materials observed around the root of type D were opaque, nuclei were almost never observed.
From the hair roots of eleven individuals arbitrarily selected from twenty Japanese males, STR typing was examined using the AmpFlSTR profiler kit. As a result, no STR loci were detected from all eleven individuals in roots of type A, but all STR loci were detected from them in roots of types E, F and G. In roots of types B, C and D, the STR loci of each hair showed a multifarious detection pattern. When roots adhered materials at the proximal end of the root were translucent, the possibility of STR detection was relatively high. But, when roots adhered materials not at the proximal end of the root and were opaque, the possibility of detection became low.
These results suggest that the detection of STR loci from hair root samples is not influenced by the quantity but the quality of adhered materials observed in the hair roots.

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As a child was crossing a street, he was run over by a van. The driver of the van claimed that he had not seen the child crossing in front of him and stated that he was not at fault because the child went under the car between the left front and rear wheels. There were two tire marks on the child's head and back of the trousers clearly indicating that the child was run over by a car. This kind of accident is rather simple, but if the police or examiner does not analyze the information regarding both the autopsy findings and vehicle investigation, the traffic accident reconstruction will be failed. In this case, we found two patheays of tire marks on the victim. One pathway was on the head and the other was on the trousers and they were almost paralleled. as one tire of a car could not make two paralleled pathways, we could conclude that the van ran over the child with the front and rear tire. It is clear that the child did not go under the car between the left front and rear wheels and he was not at fault. So, here we introduce the detail procedure of analysis of two tire marks on the victim.

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