In 2006 a cast-iron coffin was discovered in an unmarked burial plot in Lexington, Missouri. A multifaceted investigation was conducted to provide historical documentation and possible identification of the individual. The coffin is an early Fisk Patent Metallic Burial Case. Osteological analyses indicate that the skeletal remains belong to a 20 to 30 year old white female who consistently ate an omnivorous diet with significant amounts of C4 plants or seafood. Rib morphology and her burial garments suggest she frequently wore restrictive clothing. No gross skeletal pathological lesions or trauma were observed except for a patch of reactive bone and an atypical pattern of bone remodeling on the visceral surface of the sixth rib. Subsequent bacterial DNA analysis of the ribs and sternum indicate the presence of tuberculosis infection. Although not conclusive, multiple lines of evidence are consistent with the skeletal remains representing Elizabeth (Triplett) Stewart who died in 1854 of pulmonary tuberculosis. This multidisciplinary research significantly contributes to the local history of Lexington, Missouri and provides a likely identification of the deceased individual for the Stewart Family.

Objective testing techniques, such as multiple-choice examinations, are a widely accepted method of assessment in gross anatomy. In order to deter cheating on these types of examinations, instructors often design several versions of an examination to distribute. These versions usually involve the rearrangement of questions and their corresponding answer choices. This study will determine whether the distribution of different versions of an examination affects student performance in a lower division anatomical science course. Students who receive the original version of an examination may be at an advantage over those that receive a shuffled version of an examination because of the systematic tendencies that go into examination construction. This study concludes that the shuffling of questions and answer choices to produce multiple versions of an examination does not affect student performance.

Investigating intrinsic properties as determinants of bone survival has major implications in forensic anthropology. It is useful in the incomplete recovery of a skeleton to know if certain bones that are missing are those that are expected to be missing. Assuming complete recovery, individual skeletal parts should have different recovery probabilities. This research examines the differential survivorship of human skeletal remains based on intrinsic properties (density, size, and shape) of bone. Fifty skeletons from the William M. Bass Forensic Skeletal Collection at the University of Tennessee-Knoxville were measured to determine bone length (cm) and shape (sphere, disc, rod, or blade) for twenty skeletal elements. Density measures (HUs) of skeletal parts were recorded for 11 skeletons from the Texas State University Donated Skeletal Collection. These intrinsic variables were then compared to recovery frequencies from a forensic sample of Arizona-Sonoran desert border crossers (n=380). This study found a correlation between bone length and frequency (rho= 0.46) and significant differences in the mean recovery frequencies for shapes (p less than 0.05). Though no correlation was found for skeletal part density and frequency (rho= -0.21), structurally dense midshafts of long bones are recovered with a greater frequency than their corresponding epiphyseal ends (p less than 0.001). Furthermore, structurally dense crania have the highest survivorship potential (89%). This study substantiates differences in mean recovery frequencies for skeletal elements according to anatomical location (p less than 0.05). Anatomical regions and recovery frequencies were used to produce a simple taphonomic model. Educating law enforcement on the value and appearance of high survivorship bones in the taphonomic model is a recommendation to improve policy and practice.