Background Most deaths in closed-space fires occur due to inhalation of carbon monoxide, hydrogen cyanide, and other gases in the environment. Material and methods This study retrospectively examined 42 forensic autopsy reports and the associated crime scene reports of individuals who died in indoor fires. The autopsies were performed at the Morgue Department of the Forensic Medicine Institute in 2022 and 2023. Results Cyanide analysis was not conducted in 33.3 % of the 42 cases, and cyanide was detected in only 10.7 % of the 28 cases in which blood cyanide analysis was requested. All cases had positive carboxyhemoglobin levels, although 76.2 % of cases had HbCO values more than 10 %. More than half of the deaths occurred at the scene, primarily in the victims' homes. All cases had burns on their bodies, ranging from second degree to carbonization degree, and soot contamination in the upper and lower respiratory tracts was determined in 77.7 %. The toxicological analysis of blood from victims who received medical treatment, either in ambulances or hospitals, showed no evidence of antidote administration. Conclusion The findings of this study highlight the importance of collecting blood samples from the bodies of those who have died at the fire scene, administering cyanide antidotes to survivors via immediate intravenous injection after smoke exposure, and testing survivors for metabolites due to the short half-life of cyanide. For the prevention of cyanide poisoning exposure, and implementation of the administrative actions and training that medical professionals in Türkiye should undertake to assist victims who survive smoke exposure, a brief review is also provided of the legal requirements that must be followed in the construction and interior design of buildings where people congregate.

Authorship verification in social media text is a growing challenge in digital forensics, yet existing stylometric approaches rely on textual features that degrade substantially when reference and questioned texts originate from different communicative contexts. This study investigates whether emoji usage patterns-a pervasive but underexplored dimension of digital communication-can serve as viable stylometric markers for forensic authorship verification. We propose 20 novel emoji-based features organized into six thematic categories and evaluate them on a large-scale dataset of 4697 Reddit authors comprising 1023,826 comments (19.9% emoji-bearing, 325,746 emoji instances across 2604 unique types). Three models-emoji-only (20 features), classic stylometric baseline (27 features), and hybrid (47 features)-are compared across 49 configurations varying profile and test sample sizes from 5 to 500 comments. The emoji-only model achieves a diagonal accuracy range of 55.8-94.9%, the classic model 71.8-96.3%, and the hybrid model 72.4-98.2%, with the hybrid significantly outperforming the classic baseline at moderate sample sizes (concordant on the Holm-corrected McNemar test, the paired t-test, and likelihood-ratio cost at P = 25-100). Crucially, cross-subreddit robustness analysis reveals that emoji features maintain virtually identical accuracy across topical boundaries (Δ = -0.009), whereas classic features suffer a 26.6 %age point degradation-demonstrating that emoji features capture topic-independent authorial behavior resistant to the domain shifts that undermine traditional stylometry. Ablation analysis indicates that the distributional emoji features-corpus-level frequency divergences between authors-contribute the greatest non-redundant information to the hybrid model. Recasting the verification scores as calibrated likelihood ratios yielded well-calibrated forensic evidence, with the hybrid model achieving the lowest empirical cost (Cllr) at profile sizes up to 100 comments. These findings establish emoji-based stylometry as a complementary forensic tool with a distinctive advantage in cross-domain scenarios and provide empirically grounded data sufficiency thresholds for forensic casework.

This nationwide ecological study examined whether the availability of urban green infrastructure (UGI) and its seasonal dynamics are associated with age- and sex-specific suicide mortality rates across Turkiye. We delineated settlement polygons for all provincial and district centers. We paired them with Landsat-8-derived Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) to compute annual, summer, and winter mean greenness and intra-annual NDVI variance for 2013-2019. We then assembled age- and sex-stratified suicide rates and nine provincial covariates from the socioeconomic, hydroclimatic, and air quality domains. Analyses included correlations, ordinary least squares with robust errors, optimal-scaling CAT-PCA, pooled PCA with principal-components regression, and canonical correlation analysis. The national mean urban NDVI was 0.124 (whole-province mean: 0.184). Total suicide showed no consistent bivariate association with greenness; however, clear life-course differences were observed between men and women. A higher mean NDVI was associated with lower suicide rates in adolescents and, to a lesser extent, in adults aged 20-39 years. However, the association was positive from age 40 onward. NDVI variance showed a mirror pattern—associated with higher suicide rates in youth but slightly lower rates in older adults—suggesting that both the amount and seasonality of vegetation have age-specific associations with suicide rates in this Turkish setting. Multivariable models supported these gradients: provinces with warmer climates, greater greenness, and seasonally stable vegetation tended to have lower adolescent suicide rates but higher mid-to-late life suicide rates. Temperature variability was the only environmental factor positively associated with suicide across all age-sex strata. These ecological associations are consistent with the age-dependent relationship between UGI and suicide and may help generate hypotheses for age-targeted prevention strategies. However, the cross-sectional, province-level design precludes any causal inference. [Med-Science 2026; 15(2.000): 782-95]

Background The foramen magnum (FM) exhibits well-documented size-based sexual dimorphism, yet whether its shape independently differs between sexes remains unresolved. Previous attempts to characterize FM shape have relied on subjective visual classification into categorical types, producing inconsistent and irreproducible results. This study aimed to apply a comprehensive suite of computational geometric methods to CT-derived FM contours in order to objectively quantify shape variation and evaluate its discriminative capacity for sex estimation. Methods FM boundaries were automatically extracted from axial CT images of 473 adults (234 males, 239 females) from an Eastern Turkish population. Seven complementary geometric analyses—classical morphometry, Fitzgibbon and genetic-algorithm-optimized ellipse fitting, systematic polygon approximation (3–13 sides), normalized elliptic Fourier transform (20 harmonics), radial distance profiling, and Procrustes-based point-density heatmap construction—yielded 231 quantitative features per specimen. Sex differences were assessed using Mann–Whitney U tests with Bonferroni correction and Cohen’s d effect sizes. Classification performance was evaluated with linear discriminant analysis, support vector machines, and random forest under stratified 10-fold cross-validation. Within-sex morphological subtypes were explored using Gaussian mixture model clustering. Results Of 234 morphometric features, 92 (39.3%) showed significant sex differences after Bonferroni correction. Dimorphism was overwhelmingly size-driven: all six size measurements showed large effect sizes (Cohen’s d = 1.13–1.28, perimeter strongest at d = 1.284), while only 17 of 146 pure shape features (11.6%) reached significance and the FM index showed no sex difference (d = 0.088). The highest classification accuracy was 80.9% ± 4.9% (sensitivity 76.4%, specificity 85.3%), achieved by forward-selected shape features with LDA, outperforming size-only classification (75.6%). A novel Procrustes heatmap-based method yielded near-chance accuracy (54.1%), confirming size dominance. Gaussian mixture model analysis revealed greater male morphological heterogeneity (25.2% atypical variants) compared to more homogeneous female FM morphology (71.5% single dominant subtype). Conclusions FM sexual dimorphism is predominantly size-mediated, but computationally derived shape features provide incremental discriminative value that exceeds what size alone can achieve. This study introduces a fully automated, reproducible geometric morphometric pipeline that replaces subjective shape categorization with objective, continuous measurements. The framework is openly available and readily transferable to other skeletal structures amenable to CT-based contour analysis.

Background: Persistent metopic suture represents a normal anatomical variant that may persist into adulthood and can be misinterpreted as a frontal skull fracture, particularly in trauma-related forensic cases. Despite its clinical and medico-legal relevance, data derived from autopsy-based evaluations remain limited, with most prevalence studies relying on dry skull collections or radiological series. This study aimed to determine the prevalence and morphological characteristics of persistent metopic suture in adult autopsy cases and to evaluate its distribution according to age, sex, and cause of death. Methods: This cross-sectional study included 500 consecutive adult autopsy cases (≥18 years). The frontal bone was directly inspected during autopsy for the presence of metopic suture, which was classified as complete or incomplete. Descriptive statistics were applied, and associations between metopism and sex, age group, and cause of death were analyzed using chi-square or Fisher’s exact test, as appropriate. Results: Complete metopism was identified in 7 of 500 cases, corresponding to a prevalence of 1.4% (95% confidence interval: approximately 0.6–2.9%). No incomplete metopic sutures were observed. Metopism was slightly more frequent in females than males; however, no statistically significant association was found between metopism and sex, age group, or cause of death (p > 0.05). Conclusions: Persistent metopic suture is an uncommon but clinically and forensically relevant anatomical variant in adults. Its recognition during forensic autopsy is essential to avoid misinterpretation as a cranial fracture, particularly in trauma-related deaths, thereby preventing diagnostic and medico-legal errors.

BACKGROUND:Although preventive and therapeutic medical efforts to prevent unnatural child and adolescent deaths have made significant progress in reducing the rates of these deaths, high unnatural child and adolescent mortality rates remain a significant child and adolescent health problem. This study aims to identify patterns of injury that result in unnatural deaths among children and adolescents, describe previously underreported cases of unnatural deaths within the Istanbul population, and explore potential preventive measures. METHODS:Morgue Department autopsy reports between 2019 and 2023 were retrospectively reviewed, and 926 unnatural death cases of people aged ≤18 years were compared by classifying them according to years, seasons and months, age, gender, cause of death, place of death, scene of the accident, and duration of hospitalization. RESULTS:The main causes of unnatural deaths in children and adolescents, which were particularly prevalent in the summer months (34.7 %), were falls (27.3 %), traffic accidents (25.6 %), and asphyxia (24.6 %). Unnatural deaths were determined to especially affect male children (65.6 %) over the age of 14 and Turkish citizens (42.7 %), and female children (43.9 %) under the age of 4 and foreign nationals (47.1 %) were the most frequently exposed to unnatural deaths. CONCLUSION:The majority of these unnatural deaths are preventable, and most of them can be avoided by taking courageous and determined action and creating the required functional, legal, supervisory, and educational processes.

The pelvic inlet is one of the critical constraints within the relatively narrow birth canal for the passage of the fetal head. This study tested the hypothesis that the shape of the pelvic inlet differs between females and males, with the expectation that the female pelvic inlet is more elliptical than its male counterpart. Abdomino-pelvic computed tomography images from 600 cases, equally distributed by sex and age groups, were analyzed. Using 3D reconstruction, image processing, ellipse fitting, and a genetic algorithm, we evaluated whether the proposed measures of elliptical similarity in pelvic inlet shape varied by sex. Additionally, discriminant analysis was employed to assess the accuracy of sex determination based on these measures. The results demonstrated significant differences between the two sex groups for all proposed measures. Discriminant analysis achieved a maximum sex determination accuracy of 79.7%. These findings support the hypothesis that the female pelvic inlet has evolved to be more elliptical compared to the male pelvic inlet. If validated by future studies on diverse populations, this hypothesis may gain broader scientific acceptance.

Mandibular fractures are one of the most common maxillofacial bone fractures that can occur during many activities in daily life. The aim of this study was to provide data for practitioners and researchers about the variables and outcomes associated with mandibular fractures by examining the relationships between gender, age groups, trauma causes, side, type, and anatomic location of mandibular fractures and concomitant injuries. The demographic and clinical data of the patients were obtained from the hospital information management system of a university hospital. The hospital records for the 10-year period between 2014 and 2023 were examined retrospectively. The mandible fractures were classified according to type, side, and location and compared against gender, age group, and trauma cause. Evaluation was made of 142 patients with traumatic mandibular fracture, comprising 76.8% males and 23.2% females. Of these cases with mandible fracture, 82.4% were aged < 35 years, and 45.1% of the fractures occurred in road traffic accidents. The majority of mandibular fractures were caused by road traffic accidents in males and adults over the age of 18, whereas home, environmental, and leisure accidents were the major cause of mandibular fractures in females and persons under the age of 18. Compound fractures were determined in 59.2% of the cases, single fractures in 80.3%, and parasymphysis and symphysis fractures in 46.2%. The compound and parasymphysis/symphysis region fractures were more common in males, patients aged < 35 years, and those who had undergone any type of trauma. We consider the information obtained through this study could make significant contributions to the data bank for multicenter prospective in-depth epidemiological research in clinical and forensic sciences in the future.

Reducing traffic-related deaths and injuries by 50% by 2030 is the main objective of the General Assembly of the United Nations in 2020.The current study aimed to investigate the characteristics of motor vehicle accidents (MVAs) that occurred between 2013 and 2022 in Turkey and the factors influencing the number of injuries and fatalities in these MVAs, to determine how close this target is.Crude data for the study was taken from the Turkish Statistical Institute's (TUIK) public website.To enable secure comparisons, these crude data were proportionately standardized for this study.Both the number of MVAs per 1,000 registered vehicles and the number of injured and deceased victims per 100,000 people in Turkey decreased after peaking in 2015.Urban regions contributed to 76.2% of the MVAs which resulted in injuries and fatalities.Males accounted for 76.9% of all fatalities, 69.4% of all injured victims, 97.7% of dead drivers, and 92.5% of injured drivers.While most injuries and deaths occurred between the ages of 25 and 64, the highest risk of death was observed among individuals aged 65 and older in comparison with the 100,000 people.Most of the fatalities and injuries in MVAs happened in August, during weekends and daylight hours.Twilight MVAs had the highest fatality risk.Automobile MVAs were the most common cause of all MVAs, injuries, and deaths.Drivers were accountable for 88.5% of the faults that caused MVAs.In Turkey, the frequency of MVAs, together with the number of injuries and fatalities sustained, continues to be comparatively high.Therefore, a road safety committee should be established, and an emergency action plan for safe road vehicle traffic in Turkey should be designed.

Amaç: Dünya Sağlık Örgütü’nün 2023 tahminlerine göre, dünya genelinde 1,3 milyar kişi, diğer bir deyişle 6 kişiden 1’i veya toplam dünya nüfusunun %16’sı ciddi derecede fiziksel veya mental olarak engellidir. Değişen maluliyet, özürlülük, engellilik (MÖE) yönetmelik ve tüzükleri, aynı yaralanma için farklı olarak MÖE oranlarının çıkmasına neden olabilmektedir. Sunulan çalışma, herhangi bir yönetmelik/tüzük kapsamında değerlendirilmiş MÖE oranı tanımlanmış olguların bu oranlarının diğer yönetme-lik veya tüzükler kapsamında MÖE oranının değişip değişmediğinin, değişiyor ise bu değişimin hangi oranda olduğunun saptanması amaçlanmıştır. Materyal ve metod: Çalışmada iki farklı üniversitede 100 olgu üzerinde farklı yönetmelik ve tüzüklere göre hesaplanmış MÖE oranları, A,B,C ve D olarak dört gruba ayrılan farklı diğer yönetmelik ve tüzüklere göre de hesaplanarak, aralarındaki farklılıklar istatistiksel olarak hesaplanmıştır. Bulgular: Çalışmada 70 erkek ve 30 kadın olmak üzere, toplam 100 kişiye (ortalama yaş: 31,4±16,0) ait MÖE raporları değerlendirildi. Farklı diğer yönetmelik ve tüzüklere göre yapılan toplam altı karşılaştırmadan 5’inde istatistiksel olarak anlamlı farklılıklar saptandı. Sonuç: Tıp ve hukuk alanında ortak bilimsel toplantılar düzenlenerek MÖE hesaplamalarının uluslararası standartları ve kişinin mesleği, yaşı ve cinsiyeti gibi özellikleri de göz önüne alacak şekilde tek bir kılavuz altında toplanmasının hak kayıplarının olduğu kadar haksız kazançların da önüne geçeceği öngörüldü.

Previous studies on the sexual dimorphism of the mastoid triangle have typically focused on linear and area measurements. No studies in the literature have used mastoid air cell system volume measurements for direct anthropological or forensic sex determination. The aims of this study were to investigate the applicability of mastoid air cell system volume measurements and mastoid triangle measurements separately and combined for sex estimation, and to determine the accuracy of sex estimation rates using machine learning algorithms and discriminant function analysis of these data. On 200 computed tomography images, the distances constituting the edges of the mastoid triangle were measured, and the area was calculated using these measurements. A region-growing algorithm was used to determine the volume of the mastoid air cell system. The univariate sex determination accuracy was calculated for all parameters. Stepwise discriminant function analysis was performed for sex estimation. Multiple machine learning methods have also been used. All measurements of the mastoid triangle and volumes of the mastoid air cell system were higher in males than in females. The accurate sex estimation rate was determined to be 79.5% using stepwise discriminant function analysis and 88.5% using machine learning methods.

In this study, death rates for a metropolitan city were analyzed over a period of 33 years to investigate any potential relationship between the month of Ramadan and death rates. The study also aimed to obtain seasonally adjusted results using time series analysis. Ultimately, the total evaluation of the 33-year period revealed no significant variation in death rates between Ramadan and non-Ramadan periods. Separate analyses for each season with time series also yielded no significant findings for most parameters, with the exception that the number of female deaths during Ramadan in winter was significantly higher than expected. According to these results, the increase in the number of deaths observed among women during the winter Ramadan period requires further investigation to determine whether a causal relationship exists. The use of seasonally adjusted approaches and time series analyses in future Ramadan and health studies is crucial for the accuracy of the results.

The hyoid bone is one of the bones in the human body that shows sexual dimorphism. The anthropological and anthropometric characteristics that determine sexual dimorphism are influenced by demographic differences. The aim of this study was to investigate the rate of sexual dimorphism of the hyoid bone in the adult Eastern Turkish population from the examination of the 3D computed tomography images of 240 patients, using discriminant function analysis (DFA), support vector machines (SVM), and artificial neural networks (ANN). These evaluations were based on eight hyoid measurements that have been frequently used in previous CT studies. The results showed that all eight measurements were higher in males than in females (p = 0.000). It was determined that sex could be estimated accurately at up to 93.3 % using DFA, 93.8 % using SVM and 95.4 % using ANN. The maximum accuracy rate achieved to 94.2 % in males using SVM, and 95.8 % in females using ANN. These high rates of sexual dimorphism found using DFA, SVM, and ANN in this study indicate that characteristics of the hyoid bone can be utilized to determine sex in the Eastern Turkish population.

Background: Fractures are an important symptom of physical violence that will negatively affect the woman 's quality of life in the coming years. However, there is limited information in the literature about fractures in women exposed to domestic violence (DV). The aim of this study was to compare fracture development rates and age distributions in women exposed to DV and intimate partner violence (IPV), a component of DV, and women exposed to other physical violence (OV), to determine the incidence of DV cases with and without fractures, and to determine fracture locations in DV cases and to identify diagnostic lesions accompanying fractures. Methods: A retrospective review was made of patients injured as a result of IPV, other domestic violence (ODV) and OV. The data of cases with fracture were analyzed in terms of age groups of the victims and according to location and types of fractures. Results: Of the 854 female patients aged >18 years who were admitted to the hospital due to violence, 55.2% were exposed to DV. Most DV victims (87.9%) were assaulted by intimate partners. The incidence of fractures in IPV cases (7.2%), was nearly twice that of ODV and OV cases. The mean age of IPV cases with fractures (42.1 +/- 12.1 years) was significantly higher than that of IPV cases without fractures (33.1 +/- 11.8 years) (p < 0.05). Most IPV cases (61.8%) were aged <35 years. Most DV cases with fractures (75%) were aged <50 years. Facial/neck injuries (41.5%) and facial fractures (52.6%) were prominent in DV cases. Conclusion: The results of this study of the presence of facial fractures, especially in women aged <50 years, is an important finding that can alert doctors to potential cases of domestic violence.

Home accidents can cause serious injuries, disabilities, and deaths. Approximately 40 million people were treated in hospitals annually because of injuries occurring in homes, and these injuries were responsible for approximately 76% of preventable deaths. The aims of this study are to compare the home accidents in the one-year period during the pandemic and the home accidents in the one-year period before the pandemic, and to reveal how the home accidents are affected in which part of the home and in which types of injuries. A retrospective study was made of the records of patients injured in home accidents between pre-pandemic and pandemic one-year periods. The patients were classified according to age groups, gender, season, day and time of the home accident, accident type, part of the home, trauma localization and type, and severity of injuries. While 46.5% of the 581 injured patients were before the pandemic, 53.5% were in the pandemic period. The injuries increased as the number of households staying at home increased compared to the pre-pandemic period. Likewise, there was a significant increase in the number of falls from balconies and windows during the pandemic period. It is still not possible to make a definite prediction about the course of the pandemic. In this context, it is of great importance to provide information on prevention from home accidents, especially in television programs and distance education activities.Copyright © 2023, Yuzuncu Yil Universitesi Tip Fakultesi. All rights reserved.

Purpose:A significant increase in physical intimate partner violence (IPV) cases has been reported from many countries during the COVID-19 pandemic, and particularly during lockdown periods. The current study's objectives are to define the COVID-19 pandemic's impact on physical IPV against pregnant women in Ankara. Patients and Methods:During the one-year pre-pandemic and two-year pandemic, records of patients who sent by the judicial authorities to the Obstetrics and Gynecology Emergency Room (ER) at Ankara City Hospital were reviewed, and pregnant women who had been subjected to IPV were identified. Results:Of pregnant women 19.1% in the pre-pandemic period, 29.4% in the first year and 51.5% in the second year of the pandemic period exposed to IPV. The mean age of IPV victims was 28.8 ± 6.5 years. Most ER applications were in the evening hours (48.5%), and majority of assailants were the victim's husband (77.9%). Vast majority of victims were multigravida women (89.7), and most of the traumas were localized in abdomen and genitalia (50%). Three of the women (4.4%) had miscarriage. Conclusion:The increase in cases of IVP against pregnant women during the pandemic was striking, according to the current study. We think that this first study from Turkey on the IPV that pregnant women are exposed to during the pandemic can lead to extensive research focused on measures against IPV during pandemics, such as dissemination of telephone applications for IPV victims, increasing home visits by marriage therapists, and intensifying of education campaigns against violence.