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Introduction: The prevalence of suicide presents a significant public health challenge globally, affecting diverse populations around the world. This study is motivated by the urgency to tackle suicide as a crucial public health issue on a global level, according to the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals and the General Programme of Work and Mental Health Action by the World Health Organization. Materials and Methods: The research was performed at the Forensic Unit of Hospital Canselor Tuanku Muhriz, spanning a retrospective analysis covering 2012 to 2021. A descriptive analysis was conducted to analyse the patterns of suicide and the sociodemographic characteristics of the cases. Results: The findings show monthly variations and a recent increase in suicide rates, especially during the pandemic of COVID-19. Analysis of suicide methods indicates that hanging is the most common suicide method, which accounts for almost half of the sample population, followed by jumping from a height and burning charcoal. Adult males are primarily implicated in suicidal acts, and the study reveals unique trends among different age groups, genders and employment statuses. Conclusion: This study aims to offer thorough insights and comprehension into suicide within the Malaysian sociodemographic framework. Consequently, it could furnish valuable insights for public health authorities and governmental bodies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduction: Assessment of the human mandible has been a component of biological identification in forensic anthropological practice. We employed the digital geometric morphometric analysis, a statistical analysis using Cartesian landmark coordinates for this assessment. In this report, the proposed geometric morphometric approaches have been structured into systematic steps to study the sexual dimorphism of the mandible from two-dimensional (2-D) digital images. Based on the newly developed imaging technique, the variation of mandible size and shape is compared between males and females. Furthermore, the allometry patterns of the mandible could be visualized. Materials and methods: A total of 113 human adult mandibles (65 males, 48 females) were sampled. Twelve selected significant landmarks were plotted on the 2-D image by landmarking software and subsequently subjected to MorphoJ analysis. Results: The initial five principal components accounted for a substantial morphological variance, representing 84.2% of the cumulative variance in the overall dataset (PC1 27.0%, PC2 22.5%, PC3 20.9%, PC4 7.9%, PC5 5.9%). The variance visualization showed a significant difference between the mandible shape of males and females with classification accuracy of 92.0% and cross validation accuracy of 85.7%. Conclusion: This study provides compelling evidence that digital geometric morphometric analysis can serve as an alternative or complementary method for studying sexual dimorphism in the human mandible. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]