Ultrastructural changes of the brain of rats that inhaled marijuana cigarettes for 8 weeks were examined by electron microscopy, simultaneously with immunohistochemical investigation for serotonergic neuronal activities in the nucleus accumbens (NAc), the hippocampus (CA-1) and the nucleus raphe dorsalis (NRD). In the animals that inhaled marijuana, numerous cored and coated vesicles were observed near the well-developed Golgi apparatus of the NRD neurons. The lamellar membranous structure was found frequently in the dendrite, and occasionally in the axon, and the synapse of the marijuana-smoking animals. The serotonin-immunostainability in neurons of the NRD was significantly stronger in the animals that inhaled marijuana than in the non-treated ones. The serotonin-immunostainability in nerve fibers and terminals of the NAc and the CA-1 showed an obvious decrease compared with that of the non-treated animals. These findings suggest that the neurons in the NRD that is the original nucleus of the serotonergic nerve system have become functionally hyperactive by Δ⁹-tetrahydrocannabinol, but it may induce the dysfunction of serotonin transmission from the original nucleus.

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  The face-to-face superimposition was experimentally performed to assess the reliability of the facial image comparison with the computer-assisted facial image identification system. For evaluating the match of the 3D and 2D facial images of the same person, the 3D facial image obtained from 25 examinees was compared to the 2D oblique facial image of the same examinees ten times, yielding 250 superimpositions. In the case of the different person, the 3D facial images of 25 examinees were each compared to the 2D facial images of other 24 examinees, yielding 600 superimpositions. The average distance obtained from the reciprocal point-to-point differences on sixteen anthropometrical points of the 3D and 2D images was used as a matching criterion.
  The results showed that the measuring system for the reciprocal point-to-point differences on the superimposition image was reproducible. The ranges of the average distance were 1.4-3.3 for the same person and 2.6-7.0 for a different person, respectively. The average distance and percentage error at the FP/FN crossover point were 3.1 and 4.2%. In this experiment, it was suggested that the facial image comparison using the reciprocal points matching was reliable when the threshold of the average distance was 2.5.

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  Three cannabinoids, Δ⁹-tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), cannabidiol (CBD) and cannabinol (CBN), were detected with an HPLC method using a post-column reaction with Fast Blue B salt (FBB). The detection limit of THC was 0.1 ng, which is ca. 1000 times more sensitive than TLC using FBB coloration. The calibration curve of THC was linear in the range 0.01-100 μg/ml, and the intermediate precisions of within-run and between-run assays were 0.93% and 1.12%, respectively. The proposed method is highly selective and quantitative.

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  Ninhydrin has been the most widely used reagent for developing a latent fingerprint on paper. And a few kinds of IIb metal salt are known to form fluorescent coordination complex with Ruhemann's purple (RP), the reaction product of ninhydrin with amino acid. In this paper, fifteen kinds of metal chloride including conventional zinc chloride have been evaluated on the coloriation intensing enhancement of RP obtained from L-glutamic acid with ninhydrin using a spectrophotometer. At B excitation (450-490 nm) and G excitation (510-560 nm), indium trichloride gave an excellent result. The absorption maximum of the complex obtained was observed at 510 nm. Furthermore, indium trichloride was applied to the RP from L-glutamic acid with 5-methoxyninhydrin. The absorption maximum was observed at 526 nm which was compatible with a 532 nm green line of a Nd:YVO₄ laser. Fluorescence of fingerprints of 5-methoxyninhydrin/indium trichloride treatment was considerably stronger than that of 5-methoxyninhydrin/zinc chloride treatment when excited by the green line. Furthermore, the fingerprints treated with ninhydrin/indium trichloride could also be excited by the laser and its fluorescence intensity was almost equivalent as to that treated with 5-methoxyninhydrin/zinc chloride. Ninhydrin/indium trichloride may be useful for the practical development of fingerprints.

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  In the present study we investigated heart rate and heart rate variability (HRV) in the guilty knowledge test (GKT). Participants were instructed to “steal” envelopes and hide them. Participants were then presented with questions focusing on certain aspects of the particular envelopes they had stolen. They were requested to respond with “no” to every question, thus denying their knowledge about the critical items. Heart rate, SCR, and HRV components of high-frequency (HF) and low-frequency (LF) were measured during the GKT examinations. Results showed that heart rate decreased in the critical items. They also showed that decrement of heart rate was most distinctive about 10-15 seconds after the onset of the questioning of the critical items. The results indicated that there is a characteristic response pattern between heart rate and HRV concerning the critical items. That is, heart rate decrement is accompanied by increment of HF component and decrement of LF component. Also, in order to examine which method would serve as the most effective measure for psychophysiological detection of deception, we compared among three different analytical methods: fast Fourier transform (FFT) analysis, peak-to-valley method, and complex demodulation (CDM) method, in assessing HRV, respectively. Results showed that the CDM method traced both HF and LF amplitudes were most effectively, and therefore would be the best indices for detection. Some hypotheses were discussed concerning psychophysiological responses in detection of deception, one of which was the implication that subjects might have adopted passive coping, in other words, hemodynamic reaction pattern-II, when presented with the critical items, because of the particular cardiovascular response pattern shown in the psychophysiological detection of deception.

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  Ethanol concentrations in the coagulated blood of a bovine, a rabbit and a human were measured by using PY-GC/MS attached with a double-shot pyrolyzer (Model PY-2010D, Frontier Laboratories Ltd., Japan). Pyrolysis of samples was performed at 260°C, and the vapor evaporated from the sample was introduced into the GC/MS directly. For the control experiments, the concentrations of ethanol in both the heparinized bovine and rabbit blood, and homogenized human coagulated blood were measured by headspace-GC.
  The values of ethanol in the coagulated blood of the bovine, the rabbit and the human obtained by PY-GC/MS analysis were almost equal to that of the control experiments. These results indicated that the method using PY-GC/MS could be useful to the ethanol analysis of the coagulated blood in a practical case. In addition, the overall analytical time was about 10 minutes and the sample volume necessary for analysis was only 1 mg.

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  Six short tandem repeat loci (DYS19, DYS388, DYS390, DYS391, DS392 and DYS393) on the nonrecombining portion of the human Y chromosome were examined to investigate the usefulness of Y-chromosome haplotyping for human identification purposes in the Japanese and Taiwanese populations. In addition to STR loci, a Y-chromosome Alu insertion polymorphism (YAP) was tested in the Japanese samples.

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  During the course of a search for suspects and missing persons, their facial photographs are usually circulated within the public. Two cases of facial reconstruction are described in this paper, case 1 of a middle-aged woman and case 2 of an infant female. The facial reconstruction was carried out taking into account the morphological changes during aging and growing processes.
  In case 1, after observing the morphological features of her face in 8 selected photographs, two photographs showing the frontal face and the oblique face were used for facial reconstruction. The major morphological features of the face were traced from each photograph. These features were then modified based on the various changes in her aging including hairstyle. The reconstructed face was found to be similar to the face in the photograph taken after her arrest, while her hairstyle and eyebrows were inconsistent.
  After observing her morphological features in case 2, five photographs taken in every year for the past three years before she became missing were used for facial reconstruction. The major morphological features of the face were traced from each photograph, and these five tracings were superimposed, giving a composite facial image. The reconstructed face was made based on the above assessment, and the morphological features of her parents' and younger sister's face. The infant remains missing, so the evaluation of the reconstructed face has not been made.

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