title: Introducing Human Mandible Identification [(hu)MANid]: A Free, Web-Based GUI to Classify Human Mandibles.
abstract: Statistical programs have revolutionized the way in which forensic anthropologists conduct casework by allowing practitioners to use computationally complex analytics at the click of a button. Importantly, the products of these statistical programs are reproducible and contain measures of error or uncertainty, thereby strengthening conclusions. This paper is an introduction to (hu)MANid, a free, web-based application that uses linear and mixture discriminant function analyses to classify human mandibles into one of many worldwide and/or periodic reference groups. The mechanics, development, and use of the application will be discussed. Further, the program was tested against other software to compare model performances and classifications. Total correct classifications among the test cases and programs were identical. Ten mandibles were tested using both statistical procedures. Mixture discriminant analysis improved classification by an average of 9.3% and correctly identified three more mandibles than LDA. Therefore, we believe (hu)MANid will be an asset to the anthropological community.
authors.affiliation: Central Identification Laboratory, Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency, 590 Moffet Street, JBPHH, HI.
authors.forename: Gregory E
authors.initials: GE
authors.lastname: Berg
authors.affiliation: Central Identification Laboratory, Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency, 590 Moffet Street, JBPHH, HI.|Department of Anatomy, University of Pretoria, Private Bag x323, 0007, Arcadia, South Africa.
authors.forename: Michael W
authors.initials: MW
authors.lastname: Kenyhercz
mesh_terms: D016208:Databases, Factual; D016002:Discriminant Analysis; D018732:Forensic Anthropology; D006801:Humans; D020407:Internet; D008334:Mandible / Q000033:anatomy & histology*; D012984:Software; D013223:Statistics as Topic
keywords: forensic anthropology; forensic science; graphical user interface; linear discriminant function analysis; mandibular morphology; mixture discriminant analysis