Author, as appears in the article.: Hortolà P
Department: Història i Història de l'Art
URV's Author/s: Hortolà i Gómez, Policarp
Keywords: Red blood cells Haemotaphonomy Forensics Ethnography Blood smears Archaeology haemotaphonomy forensics ethnography blood smears archaeology
Abstract: © 2019 Elsevier Ltd The forensic interest on human bloodstains derives from their relation to crime investigation, whereas an archaeological and ethnographic concern arises from their occurrence because of warfare and ritual. The development of digital reflected light microscopes provided an opportunity to use ligh microscopy to study surface topographies in a more accurate way than previously. However, this enhancement has been focused on increasing magnification rather than resolution. An advanced type of light microscope is the confocal laser scanning microscope (CLSM). Its potential as an alternative to scanning electron microscopes (SEMs) for imaging human bloodstains was tested. A fragment of stone (brown chert) was smeared with human peripheral blood, air-dried, and stored indoors. After nearly two years, the sample was examined and imaged using an Olympus LEXT OLS4000 CLSM. The surface detail of CLSM images appeared to be comparatively lower than that of SEM micrographs of coated bloodstains taken at high-vacuum mode and high accelerating voltage, similar to that of SEM micrographs of uncoated bloodstains taken at low-vacuum mode and high accelerating voltage, and similar to or even higher than that of SEM micrographs of uncoated bloodstains taken at high-vacuum mode and low accelerating voltage. These results suggest that a CLSM is a practical alternative to SEMs for imaging human bloodstains when a very-high level of surface detail is not required.
Thematic Areas: Zootecnia / recursos pesqueiros Structural biology Saúde coletiva Química Physics and astronomy (miscellaneous) Physics and astronomy (all) Odontología Nutrição Microscopy Medicina veterinaria Medicina iii Medicina ii Medicina i Materials science (miscellaneous) Materials science (all) Materiais Interdisciplinar Geografía General physics and astronomy General medicine General materials science Farmacia Ensino Engenharias iv Engenharias iii Engenharias ii Ciências biológicas iii Ciências biológicas ii Ciências biológicas i Ciências ambientais Ciências agrárias i Cell biology Biotecnología Biodiversidade Astronomia / física Antropologia / arqueologia
licence for use: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/es/
Author's mail: policarp.hortola@urv.cat
Author identifier: 0000-0003-2867-6531
Record's date: 2024-02-03
Papper version: info:eu-repo/semantics/acceptedVersion
Link to the original source: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0968432819303737
Papper original source: Micron. 130 (UNSP 102821): 102821-
APA: Hortolà P (2020). Microscopic imaging of human bloodstains: testing the potential of a confocal laser scanning microscope as an alternative to SEMs. Micron, 130(UNSP 102821), 102821-. DOI: 10.1016/j.micron.2019.102821
Licence document URL: https://repositori.urv.cat/ca/proteccio-de-dades/
Article's DOI: 10.1016/j.micron.2019.102821
Entity: Universitat Rovira i Virgili
Journal publication year: 2020
Publication Type: Journal Publications
Repositori URV