•Forensic scientists often need to communicate their opinions to non-scientists.•Effective communication depends on accurate and transparent reporting.•Scholars have recommended certain ...scientifically robust reporting styles.•Despite this, forensic scientists continue to engage in poor reporting practices.•There are numerous barriers that may prevent them from using recommended practices.
Forensic scientists endeavour to explain complex scientific principles to legal decision-makers with limited scientific training (e.g., police, lawyers, judges, and jurors). Much of the time this communication is limited to written opinions in expert reports. Notwithstanding considerable scientific research and debate about the best way to communicate forensic science opinions, it is unclear how much of the advice has translated into forensic science practice. In conducting this descriptive study, we examined the reporting practices adopted by forensic scientists across a range of forensic science disciplines. Specifically, we used a quantitative content analysis approach to identify the conclusion types and additional information submitted by forensic scientists in proficiency tests during 2016 (“What would be the wording of the Conclusions in your report?”). Our analysis of 500 randomly selected responses in eight disciplines indicated that the conclusion type which has received the most criticism in recent years (categorical statements) remains the preferred means of expression in a clear majority of responses. We also found that the provision of additional information often considered necessary for rational evaluation of the evidence (e.g., information about reliability and validity) was rarely reported. These results suggest limited engagement with recent recommendations and are concerning given the gravity of the legal decisions that hinge on accurate and transparent forensic science communication.
Improving face identification with specialist teams Balsdon, Tarryn; Summersby, Stephanie; Kemp, Richard I. ...
Cognitive research: principles and implications,
06/2018, Letnik:
3, Številka:
1
Journal Article
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People vary in their ability to identify faces, and this variability is relatively stable across repeated testing. This suggests that recruiting high performers can improve identity verification ...accuracy in applied settings. Here, we report the first systematic study to evaluate real-world benefits of selecting high performers based on performance in standardized face identification tests. We simulated a recruitment process for a specialist team tasked with detecting fraudulent passport applications. University students (
n
= 114) completed a battery of screening tests followed by a real-world face identification task that is performed routinely when issuing identity documents. Consistent with previous work, individual differences in the real-world task were relatively stable across repeated tests taken 1 week apart (
r
= 0.6), and accuracy scores on screening tests and the real-world task were moderately correlated. Nevertheless, performance gains achieved by selecting groups based on screening tests were surprisingly small, leading to a 7% improvement in accuracy. Statistically aggregating decisions across individuals—using a ‘wisdom of crowds’ approach—led to more substantial gains than selection alone. Finally, controlling for individual accuracy of team members, the performance of a team in one test predicted their performance in a subsequent test, suggesting that a ‘good team’ is not only defined by the individual accuracy of team members. Overall, these results underline the need to use a combination of approaches to improve face identification performance in professional settings.
Photo‐identification is based on the premise that photographs are representative of facial appearance. However, previous studies show that ratings of likeness vary across different photographs of the ...same face, suggesting that some images capture identity better than others. Two experiments were designed to examine the relationship between likeness judgments and face matching accuracy. In Experiment 1, we compared unfamiliar face matching accuracy for self‐selected and other‐selected high‐likeness images. Surprisingly, images selected by previously unfamiliar viewers – after very limited exposure to a target face – were more accurately matched than self‐selected images chosen by the target identity themselves. Results also revealed extremely low inter‐rater agreement in ratings of likeness across participants, suggesting that perceptions of image resemblance are inherently unstable. In Experiment 2, we test whether the cost of self‐selection can be explained by this general disagreement in likeness judgments between individual raters. We find that averaging across rankings by multiple raters produces image selections that provide superior identification accuracy. However, benefit of other‐selection persisted for single raters, suggesting that inaccurate representations of self interfere with our ability to judge which images faithfully represent our current appearance.
•Lay people and practitioners view forensic evidence as highly reliable.•Lay people appear to underestimate false positive errors.•Both groups appear to overestimate reliability compared to known ...values.
We do not know how often false positive reports are made in a range of forensic science disciplines. In the absence of this information it is important to understand the naive beliefs held by potential jurors about forensic science evidence reliability. It is these beliefs that will shape evaluations at trial. This descriptive study adds to our knowledge about naive beliefs by: (1) measuring jury-eligible (lay) perceptions of reliability for the largest range of forensic science disciplines to date, over three waves of data collection between 2011 and 2016 (n=674); (2) calibrating reliability ratings with false positive report estimates; and (3) comparing lay reliability estimates with those of an opportunity sample of forensic practitioners (n=53). Overall the data suggest that both jury-eligible participants and practitioners consider forensic evidence highly reliable. When compared to best or plausible estimates of reliability and error in the forensic sciences these views appear to overestimate reliability and underestimate the frequency of false positive errors. This result highlights the importance of collecting and disseminating empirically derived estimates of false positive error rates to ensure that practitioners and potential jurors have a realistic impression of the value of forensic science evidence.
In order to capture and preserve eyewitness memory, psychologists have developed cued recall tools that witnesses can fill out immediately after a critical incident. This study assesses the efficacy ...of a novel tool, 'iWitnessed'. iWitnessed is a smartphone application that elicits information from witnesses about the event using a guided recall procedure. Naïve undergraduate participants (N = 72) witnessed a staged theft and were then randomly allocated to one of three immediate recall conditions: no recall (control), free recall, or iWitnessed. One week later all participants returned to the lab and were interviewed about the theft they had witnessed. The results showed that iWitnessed increased the amount of correct information reported in the participants' immediate accounts (Hedge's g = 1.26) without compromising overall accuracy. However, iWitnessed did not improve delayed recall relative to the free recall and control groups.
This research shows that novel technological advancements can be used to capture and preserve accurate and detailed eyewitness accounts.
Epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT) is an embryonic programme implicated in cancer stem cells, metastasis and therapeutic resistance. Its role in cancer progression remains controversial because ...the transition can be partial or complete in different models and contexts.
Using human colon cancer DLD-1 cells, we engineered a cell line with a single-copy of Snail that was doxycycline-inducible and compared it to existing EMT models in DLD-1. The effect of Snail upregulation was characterised functionally, morphologically, and by transcriptional profiling and protein expression.
Induction with doxycycline increased Snail expression to a level similar to that observed in cancer cell lines spontaneously expressing Snail and results in partial EMT. In comparison, higher levels of overexpression arising from introduction of episomal-Snail, results in complete EMT. DLD-1 cells with partial EMT show chemoresistance in vitro, increased tumour growth in vivo and decreased apoptosis.
These findings highlight that the amount of bioavailable Snail can dictate phenotypic outcome and that partial EMT may be a preferred outcome of models operating within a natural range of Snail overexpression.
We investigated the means and timing by which mutations become fixed in the human colonic epithelium by visualizing somatic clones and mathematical inference. Fixation requires two sequential steps. ...First, one of approximately seven active stem cells residing within each colonic crypt has to be mutated. Second, the mutated stem cell has to replace neighbors to populate the entire crypt in a process that takes several years. Subsequent clonal expansion due to crypt fission is infrequent for neutral mutations (around 0.7% of all crypts undergo fission in a single year). Pro-oncogenic mutations subvert both stem cell replacement to accelerate fixation and clonal expansion by crypt fission to achieve high mutant allele frequencies with age. The benchmarking of these behaviors allows the advantage associated with different gene-specific mutations to be compared irrespective of the cellular mechanisms by which they are conferred.
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•Colonic stem cell dynamics predict lifetime mutant allele frequencies•Mutant clone fixation in colonic crypts takes years due to slow stem cell turnover•Crypt fission enables lateral expansion of mutant clones•Biases in both fixation and expansion increase age-related pro-oncogenic burden
Winton and colleagues describe stem cell dynamics in normal human colon to identify the efficiency of clone fixation within the epithelium and the rate of subsequent lateral expansion. Against these benchmarks biased stem cell behaviors advantaged in both fixation and expansion can be quantified to predict the age-related burden of pro-oncogenic mutation.
Dogs were the first animal to become domesticated by humans, and they represent a classic model system for unraveling the processes of domestication. We compare Australian dingo eye contact and ...socialization with Basenji and German Shepherd dog (GSD) breeds. Australian dingoes arrived in Australia 5,000-8,000 B P, and there is debate whether they were domesticated before their arrival. The Basenji represents a primitive breed that diverged from the remaining breeds early in the domestication process, while GSDs are a breed dog selected from existing domestic dogs in the late 1800s. We conducted a 4-phase study with unfamiliar and familiar investigators either sitting passively or actively calling each canid. We found 75% of dingoes made eye contact in each phase. In contrast, 86% of Basenjis and 96% of GSDs made eye contact. Dingoes also exhibited shorter eye-gaze duration than breed dogs and did not respond to their name being called actively. Sociability, quantified as a canid coming within 1 m of the experimenter, was lowest for dingoes and highest for GSDs. For sociability duration, dingoes spent less time within 1 m of the experimenter than either breed dog. When compared with previous studies, these data show that the dingo is behaviorally intermediate between wild wolves and Basenji dogs and suggest that it was not domesticated before it arrived in Australia. However, it remains possible that the accumulation of mutations since colonization has obscured historical behaviors, and dingoes now exist in a feralized retamed cycle. Additional morphological and genetic data are required to resolve this conundrum.
Palladium complexes of the novel unsymmetrical phosphine pyrazole-containing pincer ligands PCNH (PCNH = 1-3-(di-tert-butylphosphino)methylphenyl-1H-pyrazole) and PCNMe (PCNMe = ...1-3-(di-tert-butylphosphino)methylphenyl-5-methyl-1H-pyrazole) have been prepared and characterized through single-crystal X-ray diffraction and multinuclear 1H, 13C{1H}, and 31P{1H} NMR spectroscopy. In preparations of the monomeric hydroxide species (PCNH)Pd(OH), an unexpected N detachment followed by C–H activation on the heterocycle 5-position took place resulting in conversion of the monoanionic {P,C–,N} framework into a dianionic {P,C–,C–} ligand set. The dinuclear hydroxide-bridged species (PCNH)Pd(μ-OH)Pd(PCC) was the final product obtained under ambient conditions. The “rollover” activation was followed via 31P{1H} NMR spectroscopy, and dinuclear cationic μ-OH and monomeric PdII hydroxide intermediates were identified. DFT computational analysis of the process (M06//6-31G*, THF) showed that the energy barriers for the pyrazolyl rollover and for C–H activation through a σ-bond metathesis reaction are low enough to be overcome under ambient-temperature conditions, in line with the experimental findings. In contrast to the PCNH system, no “rollover” reactivity was observed in the PCNMe system, and the terminal hydroxide complex (PCNMe)Pd(OH) could be readily isolated and fully characterized.
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