Abstract
An autopsy is a procedure performed surgically that involves a thorough examination of a deceased body by dissection. The main aim of the autopsy procedure is to determine the mode and manner of the death or the cause of the death (Padar et al. 5). Currently, there has been a problem identifying some characteristics of a dead body in some of the forensic companies that have outdated imaging technology (Logan & Barry 159). Some of the features that can be hard to identify are the deceased person’s age, the time of death in the crime scene cases, gender, ethnicity, and height (Sutherland et al. 45). The study is aimed to determine different modernized technologies that can be used in the autopsy room to detect some specific crucial features in a deceased person for investigation purposes. It used an experimental research design whereby a dead and decomposed body was examined in a laboratory using the following methods: bullet detector rays, DNA methylation path rays, and a Forensic molecular clock. After the experiments, there was the identification of the age, gender, height, ethnicity, and the cause of the death. Therefore, any forensic firm can review the new advanced autopsy techniques and apply them in their practice to improve the autopsy results for complicated cases.
Introduction of The Study
Problem Statement
The use of outdated equipment in the autopsy room has led to incomplete investigation or failure to determine the causes of certain death. The use of obsolete equipment leads to slow autopsy procedures and makes it difficult for physicians to diagnose complicated cases (Kottner et al. 200). Some complex issues that include a decomposed body or burnt body require advanced equipment for the investigation to identify the related cause of death.
Purpose of the Study
The study was conducted to bring total confidence to forensic pathologists in the future due to the establishment of upgraded autopsy equipment hence improving autopsy accuracy. By establishing advanced equipment in the autopsy room, the pathologists will be confident enough to carry out more investigations due to the frequent positive results. The study also aimed to accurately determine the manner and cause of death as a central component of coronial and judicial systems.
The Gap to be Filled by the study
Through conducting this study, the need to implement advanced autopsy equipment in forensic firms was met. The study explains some of the modern technology that companies can implement and put into practice to upgrade their investigation strategies. By improving the technology used in autopsy rooms, there will be an improvement in the forensic department by carrying out more advanced investigations. Therefore, through this research study, some upgrades in autopsy procedures, such as identifying a decomposed body’s age and ethnicity, can be done.
Research Questions
- What can be used to identify the cause of death in the cases of violent crimes?
- How does bullet detector rays be used to determine the identity of a dead body?
- What can be used to identify when certain death occurred?
- How can DNA methylation be used to identify the gender of a decomposed body?
- What can be done during a routine autopsy to identify the age of a decomposed body?
Hypothesis
If the autopsy technology is upgraded, the autopsy results will always be accurate and positive.
Objectives
- To establish equipment that can be used to determine the age of a dead body during an autopsy.
- To establish methods on how the equipment used during autopsy can be improved.
- To determine the technology upgrade that can be used to determine the gender and age of a deceased person in an autopsy room in case the body has already decomposed.
- To establish more eased technology in forensic pathology that is not time-consuming.
Thesis
In autopsy rooms, the use of outdated equipment when carrying out autopsy procedures has been a great challenge since, most of the time, the equipment may not produce results as required by the physician (Alqahtani et al. 8). This research proposal will focus on using advanced techniques involving bullet detection rays and a biological clock to determine the cause and time of death, gender, ethnicity, and the initial height of a decomposed body.
Literature Review
Introduction
The review of this study reflects on an interpretation of published information in the form of articles, books, videos, and journals. The information from those sources helped establish the effect of the past studies in the research study’s scope, therefore contributing to the study’s primary objective. This study will apply critical analysis to highlight hindrances that did not contribute a lot to the objectives.
Research Sources
Improving Learning, Culture, and the Work System
According to Logan and Barry, health care organizations can focus on improving a working system that deals with diagnostic procedures to reduce diagnostic errors (157). Research shows that health care organizations that focus on continuous learning can steadily deliver consistent performance and continuously advance with each care experience and transition (Larson et al. 238). Padar argues that to support continued learning in the investigative process, health care administrations need to develop approaches to recognize diagnostic errors to implement response mechanisms on analytical performance (7).
Use of Advanced Imaging Technologies to Improve Autopsy Procedures
Researchers, forensic professionals, and physician’s partnerships boost teamwork in the comprehensive community of forensic radiology to address challenges and recognize possible resolutions for enacting progressive imaging types of machinery in medicolegal practice (Carew et al. 29). Several individuals have focused on the challenges and developments encountered when implementing research priorities and forensic radiology techniques (Ballester et al. 115). According to Alqahtani, the leadership and expertise offered by the working group have produced a series of priority areas, including reconstruction and age estimation, presentation and visualization, and multimodal imaging (10).
Critical Review
Previous studies have shown an effort to identify the improved technologies used in autopsy rooms to aid in a more detailed investigation. Although different researchers did this with varying points of view, they did not reach a satisfactory conclusion when examining a dead body for crime scene investigation (Logan & Barry 159). All the previous researchers have focused on the provision of services in general, but they have not identified the exact technology techniques; the information obtained did not cover much of the areas.
Research Gaps
There are many determining factors for upgrading technology in the biopsy room in the forensic study. However, the main factors addressed by the study’s objectives have not been adequately explored, and this leaves some critical gaps to be covered by other research companies. Some gaps, such as the thoughts of that person before they died, have not been tackled in this study; hence other researchers can establish more technologies that can determine the thoughts.
Summary
This chapter analyses the study literature review; the research sources explain previous studies on the determinants for forensic science implementing bullet detector rays and biological clocks. This makes the study broadly explore the past efforts made on the determinants for implementing advanced autopsy equipment for forensic pathology. Some research gaps that this study has left out have also been identified, such as the determination of thoughts.
Research Design and Methodology
Research Design
The research project was the general plan for conducting the study to respond to the research questions and achieve the study objectives. The design of the research study was experimental because it involved an autopsy experiment to compare different methods and analyze the results (Larson et al. 240). The empirical research design was appropriate in this type of study because the goal was to provide a systematic, faithful, and accurate experiment. The study included investigations and investigations into different kinds of facts.
Instruments used
- Rods
- Biomarkers
Bullet Detector Rays Procedure
The decomposed body was laid on an autopsy table, and the rods were inserted in the bullet holes visible on the head. A bullet detector was reconstructed digitally using CT data, whereby the forensic engineers created a matrix model. The matrix model was divided into numerous cubes whereby each cube of the traumatized head was compared with the same cube on the same anatomical position of a typical head.
Biological Clock Procedure
A blood sample was taken from the dead body and the concentration of melatonin and cortisol. The Mode of RNA markers was also monitored.
Findings and Discussion
After the bullet detector rays procedure showed that the victim was shot with three bullets in the neck, and only one was directly lethal. The bullet detector rays also showed the damaged anatomical structures, hence making the cause of death known (Carew et al. 25). From the description of the bones using this technique, the body was 172- 177 cm, was a male, and his ethnicity was Caucasian. For the biological clock procedure, the concertation of the melatonin and calcitonin in the dead body was to determine whether the death occurred at night or during the day (Ballester et al. 117). The RNA markers determined how long after the death occurred up to the autopsy date.
Works Cited
Alqahtani, Asmaa Saeed, et al. “Environments and System Types of Virtual Reality Technology in STEM: A Survey.” International Journal of Advanced Computer Science and Applications (IJACSA), 2017.
Ballester, Richdale AL., et al. “Sleep in Autism: A Biomolecular Approach to Etiology and Treatment Sleep in Autism: Biomolecular Perspective.” Sleep Medicine Reviews, 2020.
Carew, Rachael M., and David Errickson. “Imaging in Forensic Science.” Journal of Forensic Radiology and Imaging, 2019.
Kottner, Sören, et al. “Virtoscan-On-Rails–An Automated 3D Imaging System for Fast Post-Mortem Whole-Body Surface Documentation at Autopsy Tables.” Forensic Science, Medicine, and Pathology, 2019.
Larson, David B., et al. “Peer Feedback, Learning, and Improvement: Answering the Call of The Institute of Medicine Report on Diagnostic Error.” Radiology, 2017.
Logan, Barry K. “Past Perspectives and Future Directions in Forensic Toxicology.” The Future of Forensic Science, 2019.
Pádár, Zsolt. “Forensic DNA Technological Advancements as an Emerging Perspective on Medico-Legal Autopsy: A Mini-Review.” Post Mortem Examination and Autopsy-Current Issues from Death to Laboratory Analysis, 2018.
Sutherland, Justin, et al. “Applying Modern Virtual and Augmented Reality Technologies to Medical Images and Models.” Journal of digital imaging, 2019.