Soil can provide important information to criminal investigations as transfer evidence because many criminal cases take place under circumstances such that soil transfers to a criminal or victim. The variation in soils from place to place makes soil valuable evidence to prove linkage between a suspect and a crime scene. Soil is a complex mixture with a variety of mineralogical, chemical, biological, and physical properties. Considering such complexity, a variety of methods have been developed for forensic science purposes. Because minerals are an important component of soils, mineralogical examination is essential in forensic soil identification. Additionally, many other methods can be applied to raise the discriminating power, but not all kind of methods need to be used. What is important is that examiners select an appropriate combination of methods by considering the context of the soil samples. This report summarizes a wide range of reports on the analysis of soil components and of closely related materials such as plant fragments, pollen and spores, and diatoms, with emphasis on the importance of screening tests consisting of several simple techniques. The soil formation process involves parent materials, temperature, water condition, vegetation, time, and the chemical processes of solution, oxidation, reduction, and even human activities. The history of a soil's development as the results of such complex soil formation process is strongly reflected in soil color. The systematic observation of multiple soil colors is especially useful for screening.

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  In this paper, in order to clarify the temperature changes of falling small steel balls heated to a high temperature which simulate scattering particles produced during welding works, we have studied a method for continuous temperature measurement of the balls using the photographic phometry technique. The results are summarized as follows:
  1) The best combination of the low pass filter (j) and the high pass filter (k), can be determined using transmittance of filters and calculated transmitted energy.
  2) Denoting the flux of incident light and transmitted light through low pass and high pass filters as F₀, F_j and F_k respectively, flux ratios (F_j/F₀) and (F_j/F_k) are represented as a function of the temperature T and the exposure time Δt as follows:
  F_j/F₀=U(T, Δt), F_j/F_k=V(T, Δt)
  3) These two flux ratios can be determined experimentally by recording two line images of falling small steel balls heated to a high temperature using the best filter combination.
  4) By solving the above two equations, the temperature T can be obtained. It is confirmed that the best filter combination is effective for estimating the temperature of the balls.

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  A procedure for the analysis of mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) using capillary electrophoresis instead of former gel-based methods is described. The procedure requires less manual manipulation in terms of electrophoresis and, therefore, reduces the chance of either human- or gel-related failures. Thus, the method is suitable for performing mtDNA typing from limited amounts of forensic samples.
  We also performed mtDNA typing of hair samples using this method, and were successful in typing from both hair roots and hair shafts as well as saliva and nail samples. The amount of PCR product indicated that the amount of mtDNA in the tip side of the hair shaft was less than that in the root side. However, one hair sample showed equal amounts of PCR products in both the tip and the root side. For the analysis of a sample derived from an individual with heteroplasmic mtDNA, the proportions of heteroplasmy from the saliva and nail samples were different from those from hair samples. For analyses of hairs from the same individual, each region of the hair showed different proportions of heteroplasmy and the results indicated the possibility of the different sequences in the same hair sample. Therefore, mtDNA analysis of hair samples will require additional investigation of procedures for heteroplasmic mtDNA. These results strongly suggest that the application of the developed method for hair samples will require careful treatment of the samples and a rigorous analysis of the results.

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  In this study, we examined the STR (short tandem repeat) typing of forensic mixed samples. Unrelated 97 Japanese DNA samples were amplified by the AmpFlSTR Profiler Kit (Applied Biosystems) and analyzed by a fragment analyzer according to its technical protocols. Heterozygous loci of each sample were selected by the Genescan and Genotyper softwares (Applied Biosystems). The peak height ratios of selected heterozygous loci were calculated by right (second) peak height/left (first) peak height. The average peak height ratios of each locus were 0.94-0.98. Applying the average peak height ratios ±3 SD (SD: standard deviation) as a criteria in this study, approximately 97-100% heterozygous loci in 97 DNA samples were met.
  Using this criteria, types of the major component of the experimental mixed DNA samples were correctly estimated up to 5:1, 10:1, 20:1 in ratio of mixed DNA samples. These results suggested that the STR typing by peak height ratio was useful for typing of the major component in forensic mixed samples.

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  Microscopic observation was applied to nacreous nail enamel samples collected from domestic and foreign cosmetics manufacturers. Using reflected and transmitted light, some kinds of nacreous pigments in nail enamel samples could be identified enabling us to classify them into three types: bismuth oxychloride, mica and mica+bismuth oxychloride.
  Microscopic observation by reflected and transmitted light of nacreous pigments and other coloring pigments allowed us to discriminate all of the nacreous nail enamel samples.

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  Universal immuno-peroxidase polymer (UIP) technique on the ABO blood grouping was applied to samples of 4 μm thick cross sections obtained from human scalp and pubic hairs by using a microtome.
  The UIP technique consists of amino acid polymers which are conjugated to multiple molecules of peroxidase and anti-mouse Immunoglobulin that is reduced to its Fab' fragment. Advantages of the UIP technique are: a) more intense staining, b) skipping two steps of staining and c) lower background staining. This technique was carried out using monoclonal antibodies, mouse anti-A (diluted 1:10), anti-B (diluted 1:10) and anti-H as the primary antibodies. With this technique, specific staining was shown as dark brown precipitates within the medulla of hair samples, and depending on the staining, respective blood groups were able to be determined.
  From this investigation, it seemed that the present technique was of practical use for the ABO blood grouping of a sample from human scalp and pubes hairs.

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  A coloring reaction of leucomarachite green with hemoglobin (Hb) and horseradish peroxidase (HRP) under various concentrations of hydrogen peroxide was examined. The optimum concentration of hydrogen peroxide at the reaction with HRP was 0.25 mM, being lower than that with Hb. With 75 mM of hydrogen peroxide, the coloring reaction of leucomarachite green with HRP was not observed and the spectrum of HRP with 75 mM of hydrogen peroxide showed “Compound III”, which is known as an inactive-intermediate of HRP produced by excess hydrogen peroxide. These results suggest that HRP was inactivated under the concentration of hydrogen peroxide (180 mM) used at a preliminary test for bloodstain. Thus, the concentration of hydrogen peroxide used in the preliminary test may be related to the specificity of leucomarachite green test for Hb.

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  ‘OC-Hemocatch’, an immunochromatographic test for the detection of fecal occult blood was evaluated for the forensic identification of human blood. ‘OC-Hemocatch’ showed positive results for human blood to a dilution of 1:500,000 and provides the strongest detection line for a dilution of 1:20,000. On the other hand, the human blood diluted to 1:100 was negative for ‘OC-Hemocatch’ because of the high dose hook effect. While heating at over 150°C, long term exposing to sunlight, washing and bleaching of bloodstains prevented the detecting of human hemoglobin using ‘OC-Hemocatch’, contamination of blood with various body fluids did not affect it. Furthermore, ‘OC-Hemocatch’ detected human hemoglobin from old bloodstains stored for 15 years at room temperature when 5% ammonia was used for extraction. These results demonstrate that ‘OC-Hemocatch’ can be effectively applied to forensic identification of human blood.

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  This report is a case in which some bloodstains found in a crime scene were A₃B variant of the ABO blood group. A man was killed in a car and thrown into the sea. Five months later, several bloodstains were discovered in the car where he was killed. The reaction of those bloodstains by the absorption-elution test showed that A-antigenicity was much weaker than B-antigenicity. Therefore, it could not be decided whether the blood type of the bloodstain was AB or B. We investigated to get information about his blood type, because the blood group of the bloodstain were inexplicable. In the postmortem, his blood type and the characteristic of his teeth had been investigated to confirm him. It was estimated that his blood type was AB by the results of the absorption-elution test using decayed blood in his thoracic cavity.
  On the other hand, his ABO genotyping was judged to be AB type by gene analysis using DNA of the pulp of a tooth. Also, his blood type was AB, exarmined using the blood from the hospital. These information could not convince us, and we further investigated his blood type. As a result, we found that his blood group had been elucidated to be an A₃B type at a hospital that he was hospitalized at in the past. It was found that the cause of the indefinite blood type reaction was a variant.

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