HIP 1.0 - Novel software for sex determination using traditional and geometric morphometrics of human hip bone

In adults, hip bone is acclaimed to be the most appropriate skeletal element for reliable sex determination in identification of skeletal remains. The aim of this paper is to present a novel tool for sex determination in human hip bone - HIP 1.0 (High-sensitive Innominate Processing), an open source computer program created in C++ and R languages. The reference sample consisted of app. 600 hip bones from more than 300 individuals of known sex from three documented skeletal collections - Charles University (Prague, CZ), Masaryk University (Brno, CZ) and National and Kapodistrian University of Athens (Athens, GR). The hip bones were scanned by a standard desktop scanner in two standardized positions - from pubic and iliac view. On each digital image, x and y coordinates of landmarks were recorded. Subsequently, size and shape variations were explored using multivariate methods of both traditional and geometric morphometrics (stepwise linear discriminant analysis, Procrustes superimposition) in order to develop new predictive models for sex assessment. Program HIP 1.0 is based on inter-landmark distances and advanced shape analysis including standard statistical procedures (permutation procedures, jackknife and cross-validation) and outputs (posterior probability, graphical visualization). Thus, contrary to traditional approaches, in the forensic settings it allows to assess biological sex in unknown skeletal remains purely on shape-based sexual dimorphism without biases due to population-specific size differences. The program environment is well-arranged, friendly for beginners without previous experience in computer aided morphometric methods and freely available at http://www.sci.muni.cz/lamorfa/veda-a-vyzkum#projekty.