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Forensic Science

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Displaying 151 - 175 of 525

Forensic Applications of DART-MS: A Review of Recent Literature

June 17, 2021
Author(s)
Edward Sisco, Thomas Forbes
The need for rapid chemical analyses and new analytical tools in forensic laboratories continues to grow due to case backlogs, difficult to analyze cases, and identification of previously unseen materials such as new psychoactive substances. To adapt to

The use of lateral flow immunoassays for the detection of fentanyl in seized drug samples and postmortem urine

June 17, 2021
Author(s)
Daniel J. Angelini, Tracey Biggs, Amber M. Prugh, Jessica A. Smith, Jennifer A. Hanburger, Bob Llano, Raquel Avelar, Angela Ellis, Brady Lusk, Abdallah Naanaa, Edward Sisco, Jennifer W. Sekowski
The opioid crisis has continued to progress in the United States and the rest of the world. As this crisis continues, there is a pressing need for a rapid and cost-effective method for detecting fentanyl. Recent studies have suggested that lateral flow

Forensic Handwriting Examination and Human Factors: Improving the Practice Through a Systems Approach

June 1, 2021
Author(s)
Melissa Taylor, Brett Bishop, Ted Burkes, Michael Caligiuri, Bryan Found, Carolyne Bird, Wesley Grose, Lauren Logan, Kenneth Melson, Mara Merlino, Larry Miller, Linton Mohammed, Jonathan Morris, John Paul Osborn, Nikola Osborne, Brent Ostrum, Christopher Saunders, Scott Shappell, H. David Sheets, Sargur Srihari, Reinoud Stoel, Thomas Vastrick, Heather Waltke, Emily Will
For some 6,000 years, humans have made an indelible mark on history through the loops, strokes, and other characters that constitute the written form of language - handwriting. The study of handwriting is also an important part of forensic science. By

Environmental Source Tracking of Per- and Polyfluoroalkyl Substances within a Forensic Context: Current and Future Techniques

May 13, 2021
Author(s)
Alix Rodowa, Joseph A. Charbonnet, Jennifer L. Guelfo, Jennifer A. Field, Gerrad D. Jones, Christopher P. Higgins, Damian E. Helbling, Erika F. Houtz
The source tracking of per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFASs) is a new and increasingly important field within environmental forensics. We define PFAS source tracking as the accurate characterization and differentiation of multiple sources

Iris Recognition on Noah Kalina's Everyday

April 26, 2021
Author(s)
James Matey
In January 2000, Noah Kalina began taking a photograph of himself every day – and has continued for more than 20 years. A time-lapse video of his images can be seen online: EveryDay. These images, and images from similar projects, provide us with

Sequence-based U.S. population data for 7 X STR loci

April 26, 2021
Author(s)
Lisa Borsuk, Carolyn R. Steffen, Kevin M. Kiesler, Peter Vallone, Katherine Gettings
The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) U.S. population sample set of unrelated individuals was used to determine allele and haplotype frequencies for seven X-chromosome short tandem repeat (STR) loci in four linkage groups. DXS7132

Best practices in the collection and use of biometric and forensic datasets

March 24, 2021
Author(s)
Melissa Taylor, Austin Hicklin, George Kiebuzinski
This document discusses issues that arise in the collection, dissemination, and use of datasets for use in biometric and forensic science research, and provides recommendations on how to best address the issues raised. A variety of factors should be

National Institute of Standards and Technology Environmental Scan 2020

February 9, 2021
Author(s)
Heather Evans, Kristen K. Greene, William M. Healy, Elizabeth Hoffman, Kate Rimmer, Anna V. Sberegaeva, Neil M. Zimmerman
The 2020 National Institute of Standards and Technology Environmental Scan provides an analysis of key external factors that could impact NIST and the fulfillment of its mission in coming years. The analyses were conducted through four separate lenses

A Highly-enriched 244Pu Reference Material for Nuclear Safeguards and Nuclear Forensic Measurements

January 26, 2021
Author(s)
Richard Essex, Ross W. Williams, Kerri C. Treinen, Amelie Hubert, Marc A. Humphrey, Jeremy D. Inglis, William S. Kinman, Joel Maassen, Maxim V. Penkin, Robert E. Steiner
A highly-enriched 244Pu isotope dilution reference material has been prepared and characterized for metrologically traceable measurements of very small quantities of plutonium. The amount of plutonium in samples associated with nuclear safeguards and

A new highly enriched 233U reference material for improved simultaneous determination of uranium amount and isotope amount ratios in trace level samples

January 26, 2021
Author(s)
Richard Essex, Ross W. Williams, Kayron T. Rogers, Cole R. Hexel, Tashi Parsons-Davis, Kerri C. Treinen
A highly-enriched 233U reference material (>0.99987 n(233U)/n(U)) has been prepared and characterized for use as an isotope dilution mass spectrometry spike. An ion exchange separation was performed on 1 gram of high purity 233U to further reduce trace

An Interlaboratory Study Evaluating the Interpretation of Forensic Glass Evidence Using Refractive Index Measurements and Elemental Composition

January 12, 2021
Author(s)
Ruthmara Corzo, Tricia Hoffman, Troy Ernst, Tatiana Trejos, Ted Berman, Sally Coulson, Peter Weis, Aleksandra Stryjnik, Hendrick Dorn, Edward Chip Pollock, Michael Scott Workman, Patrick Jones, Brendan Nytes, Thomas Scholz, Huifang Xie, Katherine Igowsky, Randall Nelson, Kris Gates, Jhanis Gonzalez, Lisa-Mareen Voss, Jose Almirall
Seventeen laboratories participated in three interlaboratory exercises to assess the performance of refractive index, micro X-ray Fluorescence Spectroscopy (µXRF), and Laser Induced Breakdown Spectroscopy (LIBS) data for the forensic comparison of glass

NIST Scientific Foundation Reviews

December 18, 2020
Author(s)
John M. Butler, Hariharan K. Iyer, Richard A. Press, Melissa Taylor, Peter Vallone, Sheila Willis
The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) is a scientific research agency that works to advance measurement science, standards, and technology and that has been working to strengthen forensic science methods for almost a century. In recent

2018 Media Forensics Challenges (MFC18): Summary and Results

November 12, 2020
Author(s)
Yooyoung Lee, Amy Yates, Haiying Guan, Jonathan G. Fiscus, Daniel Zhou
The interest of forensic techniques capable of detecting many different manipulation types has been growing, and system developments with machine learning technology have been evolving in recent years. There has been, however, a lack of diverse data

Media Forensics Challenge Image Provenance Evaluation and State-of-the-Art Analysis on Large-Scale Benchmark Datasets

October 26, 2020
Author(s)
Xiongnan Jin, Yooyoung Lee, Jonathan G. Fiscus, Haiying Guan, Amy Yates, Andrew Delgado, Daniel F. Zhou
With the development of storage, transmission, editing, and sharing tools, digital forgery images are propagating rapidly. The need for image provenance analysis has never been more timely. Typical applications are content tracking, copyright enforcement

Two-temperature preparation method for PDMS-based canine training aids for explosives

October 8, 2020
Author(s)
William A. MacCrehan, Mimy Young, Michele M. Schantz, T C. Angle, Paul Waggoner, Terrance Fisher
Training aids based on vapor capture-and-release into a flexible polymer, polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS), have proven successful in canine detection of explosives that have volatile or semi- volatile odorants. To enhance the rate of odor capture for less

Firearm examination: Examiner judgments and computer-based comparisons

September 24, 2020
Author(s)
Erwin J. Mattijssen, Cilia Witteman, Charles Berger, Xiaoyu Alan Zheng, Johannes A. Soons, Reinoud Stoel
Forensic firearm examination provides the court of law with information about the source of fired cartridge cases. We assessed the validity of source decisions of a computer-based method and of 73 firearm examiners who compared breechface and firing pin

NIST Cloud Computing Forensic Science Challenges

August 25, 2020
Author(s)
Martin Herman, Michaela Iorga, Ahsen Michael Salim, Robert H. Jackson, Mark R. Hurst, Ross Leo, Richard Lee, Nancy Landreville, Anand K. Mishra, Yien Wang, Rodrigo Sardinas
This document summarizes research performed by the members of the NIST Cloud Computing Forensic Science Working Group and aggregates, categorizes, and discusses the forensics challenges faced by experts when responding to incidents that have occurred in a
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