Planning Grant: I/UCRC for Center for Interdisciplinary Forensic Science Research

跨学科法医科学研究中心法医科学的技术进步使在犯罪活动的调查和裁决中提供证明性信息成为可能。随着以科学为基础的证据的影响越来越大，提供客观的、经过充分研究的和可辩护的科学数据的责任也随之而来。司法系统对法医科学的日益依赖也加强了对实验室检查程序和技术、从业人员的道德标准以及科学证词的技术准确性的审查。大众媒体和科学专家记录了法医实验室面临的问题和限制。为了确定和实施必要的改进措施，加强在法律诉讼中应用科学，以应对这些挑战，产学研合作是至关重要的。关于拟议研究的更广泛影响，这组研究人员设想作为应用法医学研究的主要来源，通过为司法系统提供对法律问题的更明确答案，使社会受益。它们的伙伴关系具有跨学科性质，有可能解决目前法医学方法方面的局限性，这些局限性可能阻碍或阻碍司法行政。从广义上讲，该组织寻求通过提高司法系统的准确性和可靠性来改进犯罪解决工具，并在罪犯再次犯罪之前阻止他们，从而节省社会因犯罪增加而产生的成本。法医科学效率的提高降低了政府提供这项服务的成本。例如，通过更多地使用自动化来提高效率，私营企业可以将其发展为基于大学研究的商业产品。为跨学科法医科学研究中心提出了几个初步项目。这些项目的重点是化学、生物学和生物力学工程方法，以及解决法医学相关问题的方法。在法医生物学应用方面，研究人员将开发一种方法，帮助描述特定类型的伤害或事件的血迹模式。在其他非特异性血迹模式中识别特定的伤口细胞可以从许多可能的机制或伤口部位揭示出血的一个真实原因或来源。研究人员还提议开发一种可消化的棉签，以优化生物证据的收集。虽然棉签在从溶解污渍中捕获生物物质方面是有效的，但它们存在问题，因为在标准提取程序之后，大量样本可以保留在棉签上。重要的是，回收样品的数量对检测有直接影响。在法医化学应用方面，研究人员将进行研究，重点是与微量证据样本相关的表面修饰处理。目前的仪器方法缺乏检测超薄层的灵敏度。然而，新的技术方法有可能显著提高对各种痕迹证据材料的法医分析，包括纤维、油漆、爆炸物残留物和表面改性玻璃。此外，还将对清漆样品中的紫外线吸收剂和未染色纤维的紫外线显微光谱进行全面研究，以分类这些常见材料的紫外线特性。此外，医疗保健专业人员，特别是护理人员篡改药品是一个严重且日益严重的问题。研究人员将探索提供一种负担得起、便携、坚固、可靠和现场筛选测试的方法来检测被篡改的药物。法医毒品分析员遇到的另一个问题是各种异构体毒品的身份。研究人员将探索方法，当与可搜索的数据库相结合时，提供关于特定异构体的特定身份和特征的确证数据。拟议的方法将被设计来区分天然来源和合成来源、合成路线以及受控物质样品的非法来源和合法来源。研究人员将开发分析设备，从干尿液中提取滥用药物。在法医生物力学工程应用方面，他们将设计研究，以促进对骨折模式分析的基本理解，以便进一步了解损伤的机制，如弯曲、压缩或扭转，以及施加在身体部分的力的方向和作用的位置。将开发能够控制样本之间差异的模型。这些模型将被用来构建与外部载荷条件和特定于受试者的生物因素相联系的骨折模式“地图”。另一个生物力学工程项目建议研究血迹模式分析和解释，以提高血迹模式分析的准确性(例如，原产地)，减少分析时间，并拥有一种非接触性的证据文件分析方法。这笔规划拨款由美国国家科学基金会和美国国家司法研究所共同支持。

Center for Interdisciplinary Forensic Science ResearchTechnological advances in the forensic sciences have made it possible to provide probative information in the investigation and adjudication of criminal activity. With the growing influence of science-based evidence comes the responsibility to provide objective, well researched, and defensible scientific data. The increasing reliance on forensic science by the justice system has also intensified the scrutiny of laboratory examination procedures and technology; the ethical standards of practitioners; and the technical accuracy of scientific testimony. The popular media and scientific experts have documented the issues and limitations confronting forensic laboratories. A coordinated industry-university research effort is essential to identify and implement improvements needed to strengthen the application of science to legal proceedings in order to address these challenges. With respect to the broader impacts of the proposed research, this group of researchers envisions serving as a primary source for applied forensic science research that will benefit society by providing the justice system with more definitive answers to legal questions. The interdisciplinary nature of their partnerships has the potential to address current limitations in forensic science methodologies, which may have impeded or prevented the administration of justice. In a broad sense, the group seeks to improve crime-solving tools through the increases the accuracy and reliability of the justice system and stop criminals before they re-offend, thereby saving society the costs of increased crime. Improvements in forensic science efficiencies reduce costs to governments to provide the service. For example, efficiency improvements occur through greater use of automation, which private enterprise may develop into a commercial product based on university-based research. Several initial projects are proposed for the Center for Interdisciplinary Forensic Science Research. These projects focus on chemistry, biology, and biomechanical engineering methods as well as on approaches to address forensic science related problems. With respect to forensic biology applications, the researchers will develop a method that will assist in characterizing bloodstain patterns to a specific type of injury or event. The identification of particular wound cells in an otherwise non-specific bloodstain pattern can reveal the one true cause or source of the bloodshed from many possible mechanisms or wound sites. The researchers also propose to develop of a digestible swab to optimize the collection of biological evidence. While cotton swabs are effective in capturing biological material from solubilized stains, they are problematic in that significant amounts of sample can be retained on the swab following standard extraction procedures. Importantly, the amount of recovered sample has direct impact on testing. With respect to forensic chemistry applications, the researchers will conduct studies that focus on surface modification treatments associated with trace evidence samples. Current instrumentation methods lack the sensitivity to detect ultra-thin layers. However, newer technology methods have the potential to significantly improve the forensic analysis of various trace evidence materials, including fibers, paint, explosive residues, and surface modified glass. In addition, a comprehensive study on UV absorbers in clearcoat paint samples and UV micro-spectra of undyed fibers will be conducted in order to catalog the UV characteristics of these commonly encountered materials. Further, the tampering of pharmaceuticals by healthcare professionals, particularly paramedics, is a serious and growing problem. The researchers will explore methods to provide an affordable, portable, robust, reliable, and in situ screening test to detect tampered drugs. Another issue encountered by forensic drug analysts is the identity of the various isomeric forms of drugs. The researchers will explore methods to provide confirmatory data on the specific identity and characterization of particular isomers when coupled to a searchable database. The proposed methods will be designed to distinguish natural vs. synthetic source, route of synthesis, and illicit vs. legal source to controlled substance samples. The researchers will develop analytical devices to extract drugs of abuse from dried urine. With respect to forensic biomechanical engineering applications, they will design studies to advance fundamental understanding of the analysis of fracture patterns in order to provide further insight into the mechanism of an injury, such as bending, compression or torsion, and the direction of applied force and location of applied load on the body part. Models will be developed that are capable of controlling specimen-to-specimen variation. These models will be used to construct fracture pattern "maps" linked with external loading conditions and subject-specific biological factors. An additional biomechanical engineering project proposes to investigate blood stain pattern analysis and interpretation in order to improve the accuracy of blood stain pattern analysis (area of origin, for example), reduce the analysis time, and to have a non-contact method of evidence documentation for analysis. This planning grant is jointly supported by NSF and the National Institute of Justice.