I-Corps Teams: Application of in situ Shallow Subsurface Soil Spectroscopy (S4) to the Discovery of Clandestine Human Burials

I-Corps 团队：应用原位浅层地下土壤光谱 (S4) 发现秘密人类墓葬

• 批准号: 1912165
• 负责人: David Perry
• 金额: $ 5万
• 依托单位: University of Akron
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2019
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2019-02-01 至 2021-06-30
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1912165&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Corps; Teams; Application; situ; Shallow

The broader impact/commercial potential of this I-Corps project will be quicker and more reliable discovery of human burial sites. The proposed product will help law enforcement officers at municipal, county, state and federal levels discover clandestine human burials thereby aiding in the solution of crimes and enhancing public safety. Likewise, applications in the military arena would enable discovery of the remains of soldiers missing in action (MIAs), mass graves created during genocide, and other casualties of conflict. Because the technology of the product has a very general capability, a product based on the same hardware and software may be customized for a variety of commercial applications. These include: (1) environmental mapping and remediation efforts; (2) cultural resource or heritage management, e.g., by documenting Native American burial grounds; (3) characterization of soil chemistry for agribusiness applications; (4) mapping of sites in archaeology. All of these applications would create greater demand with resulting commercial and employment opportunities. Finally, since successful applications will receive media attention, they will provide the opportunity to educate the public about the nature of the science, the value of scientific research to the public good, and technology involved in the product.This I-Corps project involves a novel adaptation of existing technologies (spectroscopy, push-probe soil tests) to a new application within forensic science. The basic concepts of the technologies are well-established. The product, a robotic mobile device, pushes a probe into the ground at the test locations. The probe has a window that allows the soil to be illuminated with visible and near infrared light. Reflected light is collected by fiber optics which carry the light to the surface to be analyzed. The fraction of each color of light that is absorbed by the soil carries the signature of the chemical content of the soil at each underground location. These data are then interpreted in terms of the decay products (mainly fatty acids) that indicate the presence of human cadavers. PI?s earlier research was successful in identifying burials in both controlled mock crime scenes and in real forensic contexts involving disturbed human graves. The proposed product will provide real-time, reliable interpretation of the data to indicate the presence of a 'hit', an essential part of the value proposition of the product for law enforcement applications. This marks a very significant improvement over current lab-based analyses.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.

这个I-Corps项目更广泛的影响/商业潜力将是更快和更可靠地发现人类埋葬地点。 拟议的产品将帮助市、县、州和联邦各级的执法人员发现秘密的人类埋葬，从而帮助解决犯罪问题和加强公共安全。 同样，在军事竞技场中的应用将使人们能够发现在行动中失踪的士兵的遗骸、在种族灭绝期间造成的万人坑以及冲突中的其他伤亡。 由于产品的技术具有非常通用的能力，因此基于相同硬件和软件的产品可以针对各种商业应用进行定制。 这些措施包括：（1）环境测绘和补救工作;（2）文化资源或遗产管理，例如，通过记录美洲原住民墓地;（3）农业综合企业应用的土壤化学特性;（4）考古遗址的测绘。 所有这些应用程序将创造更大的需求，从而带来商业和就业机会。 最后，由于成功的应用程序将受到媒体的关注，他们将提供机会，教育公众有关的科学性质，科学研究的公共利益的价值，并在产品中所涉及的技术。这个I-Corps项目涉及一个新的适应现有技术（光谱，推探针土壤测试）在法医科学的新应用。 这些技术的基本概念已经确立。 该产品是一种机器人移动终端，将探测器推入测试地点的地面。 探测器有一个窗口，允许土壤被可见光和近红外光照亮。 反射光由光纤收集，光纤将光传送到待分析的表面。 每种颜色的光被土壤吸收的部分携带着每个地下位置土壤化学成分的特征。 然后，这些数据被解释为衰变产物（主要是脂肪酸），表明人类尸体的存在。 派？他早期的研究成功地在受控的模拟犯罪现场和涉及被扰乱的人类坟墓的真实的法医环境中识别了埋葬。 拟议的产品将提供实时，可靠的数据解释，以指示“命中”的存在，这是该产品用于执法应用的价值主张的重要组成部分。 该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。