New method has promise for accurate, efficient soil carbon estimates

Agroecosystem Sustainability Center researchers share the strategy and data publicly.

Peer-Reviewed Publication

UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS AT URBANA-CHAMPAIGN INSTITUTE FOR SUSTAINABILITY, ENERGY, AND ENVIRONMENT

 

IMAGE: RESEARCH TECHNICIAN MICHAEL DOUGLASS AND POSTDOCTORAL RESEARCHER NAN LI CONDUCTING DEEP SOIL CORING FOR QUANTIFYING SOIL ORGANIC CARBON STOCKS ON A FARM IN PIATT COUNTY, ILL. CREDIT: DAN SCHAEFER view more 

CREDIT: DAN SCHAEFER

Earth’s soil contains large stocks of carbon — even more carbon than in the atmosphere. A significant portion of this soil carbon is in organic form (carbon bound to carbon), called soil organic carbon (SOC). However, SOC has historically been greatly diminished by agricultural activity, releasing that carbon into the atmosphere as carbon dioxide, contributing to climate change.

To monitor and sustainably manage SOC stocks under agricultural land use, an accurate way to measure SOC is essential. However, current methods of accurately estimating SOC are resource- and cost-intensive. In their new study, published in Geoderma, Agroecosystem Sustainability Center (ASC) researchers tested a new sampling method in hopes of improving the ability to estimate SOC stocks.

The team’s previous research suggested that readily available spatial information in public databases could improve the efficiency of SOC sampling in agricultural fields. This study, led by ASC's Eric Potash, a Research Scientist in the Department of Natural Resource & Environmental Sciences (NRES) at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, tested that hypothesis in eight fields across Illinois and Nebraska.

Measuring SOC is challenging due to its variability. The SOC stock at two locations just a few feet apart can differ significantly. This means that many locations need to be sampled to estimate the total SOC stock, which translates to a lot of work in the lab and in the field.

“Past studies, including one that we did one year ago, proposed ways of reducing the number of samples needed,” Potash said. “But it was unknown just how much more efficient those methods were. We put those methods to the test using a new high-quality dataset our research team put together.”

The team found that SOC stocks in agricultural fields can be more efficiently measured by using a method called doubly balanced sampling, which accounts for auxiliary information available in elevation maps, satellite images, and previous surveys. Doubly balanced sampling is a modern strategy that improves on the classic method of stratified sampling by selecting locations that are more representative of the field in terms of this auxiliary information.

“Quantifying soil carbon stock through soil sampling is a hard and expensive task, but our approach was found to reduce the number of soil samples needed by a very promising 30 percent,” said Kaiyu Guan, project lead and coauthor, Founding Director of ASC, and NRES Associate Professor. "We believe this is a significant advancement for improving soil sampling efficiency and should be promoted in future practices by carbon project developers or researchers."

The work is made possible by unique field-level, high-resolution soil samples collected by scientists from different projects.

“I am glad that our hard work and collected soil sampling data enables the development of this approach,” said DoKyoung Lee, another coauthor and a Professor of Crop Sciences at the U of I.

The team has made its methods and data publicly available so that the scientific community can benefit from, and collaborate on, further improving the understanding of SOC.

“I am especially excited that we are publicly sharing the data for this study,” Potash said. “I hope that this will foster increased collaboration to accelerate progress on soil carbon research.”

In addition to Potash, Guan, and Lee, co-authors on this publication include Andrew Margenot, Crop Sciences Associate Professor and ASC Associate Director; Arvid Boe, Professor of Agronomy, Horticulture & Plant Science at South Dakota State University; Michael Douglass, ASC and Crop Sciences Research Technician; Emily Heaton, Professor of Crop Sciences; Chunhwa Jang, Crop Sciences Postdoctoral Researcher; Virginia Jin, USDA-ARS Research Soil Scientist at University of Nebraska; Nan Li, ASC and Crop Sciences Postdoctoral Research Associate; Rob Mitchell, USDA Research Agronomist and Adjunct Professor of Agronomy at University of Nebraska; Nictor Namoi, ASC and Crop Sciences Graduate Research Assistant ; Marty Schmer, USDA-ARS Research Agronomist at University of Nebraska; Sheng Wang, ASC and NRES Research Assistant Professor; and Colleen Zumpf, Bioenergy and Ecosystem Services Specialist at Argonne National Laboratory.

Read the full article in Geoderma >>>

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JOURNAL

Geoderma

DOI

10.1016/j.geoderma.2023.116587 

METHOD OF RESEARCH

Data/statistical analysis

SUBJECT OF RESEARCH

Not applicable

ARTICLE TITLE

Multi-site evaluation of stratified and balanced sampling of soil organic carbon stocks in agricultural fields

ARTICLE PUBLICATION DATE

28-Jul-2023

A visual feast

Computer scientists bring fascinating new methods to SIGGRAPH 2023

Reports and Proceedings

INSTITUTE OF SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY AUSTRIA

 

IMAGE: 3D LIGHT SCULPTURES. PREVIEWING COLOR TATTOOS. TSUNAMI WAVES ON A BEACH. CONTRIBUTIONS FROM THE INSTITUTE OF SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY AUSTRIA (ISTA) TO THE 2023 SIGGRAPH CONFERENCE. view more 

CREDIT: © ISTA (PCBEND/M.PIOVARČI/C.WOJTAN)

3D light sculptures. Tsunami waves on a beach. Previewing color tattoos. Contributions from the Bickel and Wojtan groups at the Institute of Science and Technology Austria (ISTA) to the 2023 SIGGRAPH conference tackle an impressive variety of classic and novel questions. While their focuses range from computer graphics to fabrication methods, the computer scientists are united in finding cost-effective, innovative solutions and empowering users.

SIGGRAPH is the top worldwide annual convention for computer graphics and interactive techniques, bringing together the latest developments in the field. This year saw broad participation from scientists at the Institute of Science and Technology Austria (ISTA) once again.

 

PCBend: A New Accessible Pipeline for 3D Light Sculptures
In this day and age, the importance of light as an element in design, art, and architecture is undisputed.  However, designing and manufacturing light-covered 3D objects has been both prohibitively expensive and tedious for the average user. This problem caught the attention of Manas Bhargava, a PhD student in the Bickel group at ISTA, who set about developing an easy-to-use and affordable pipeline to create and fabricate such structures. Now, Bhargava and colleagues at ISTA as well as the University of Lorraine, France, have introduced PCBend, a system that achieves exactly that.

Flat (2D) LED circuit boards are inexpensive and easily produced, unlike curved (3D) circuits. To keep costs low and make use of existing manufacturing chains, the team first found a method to “flatten” the target object design. “Unfolding a 3D object made of triangles is a classic problem, with solutions inspired by origami,” explains Bhargava. “But we also had to account for the physical constraints imposed by the circuit connections between two triangles—unlike folded paper, they can break.” Using woodworking techniques, the team created special hinges that would allow the printed circuit board to bend without severing the circuits. The team’s program further solved the circuit layout problem, connecting all the LEDs along a single path.

Once the 2D design mesh is set, it is manufactured and the user reassembles and programs the light patterns. “Our pipeline is simple to use, so others can easily try out their own ideas,” continues Bhargava. “I can’t wait to see what they do!” Possible applications could be in art, theatre, and show elements of concerts.

Watch the accompanying video on YouTube.

New Wave Simulation Method Bridges Deep and Shallow Waters
The next project dives into previously unreachable depths. Equations describing fluid motion have been known since the 1800s. However, though mathematically beautiful, these equations are too computationally expensive to be of use in water wave simulations. In the past, scientists and graphic designers have therefore turned to Airy theory, which describes wave patterns perfectly in deep water, or the shallow water equations, which can handle anything near a shore. Each excels in their respective area but fails in the other. Previously, graphics experts had to choose one type of equation and used additional effects to hide any glaring visual errors. Now, Professor Chris Wojtan along with long-time collaborator and ISTA alumnus Stefan Jeschke have come up with the first practical method capable of simulating both deep and shallow water effects, as well as interactions between deep and shallow water. Essentially, they combine the two models, taking advantage of the strengths of each while minimizing their weaknesses.

Though “gluing” the models together is in one sense what the collaborators did, deciding which model to use where (i.e. what constitutes deep versus shallow water) required finesse and a profound knowledge of the mathematical equations behind the models. “Depth in the simulations is not just the distance from surface to floor,” Wojtan explains. “The wavelength—the distance from one wave peak to the next—also plays a role.” With their new method, the team can simulate previously unachievable effects such as deep-water tsunami waves flooding a beach or the wake of a boat running up the shoreline—all in real time. “On a practical level, the new model is still well suited for parallel processing, allowing us to achieve real-time frame rates on modern graphics processing units,” adds Jeschke.

Watch the corresponding video here.

 

Tattoo Previews
Another publication by the Bickel group demonstrates the variety of topics presented at SIGGRAPH. Anticipating how colors will look when tattooed depends on an artist’s experience, but the permanence of tattoos means artists are unable to experiment. Now, the Bickel group and a collaborator have developed the first-ever model that accurately predicts how a tattoo will appear on various substrates. Michael Piovarči, a postdoc in the Bickel group, led the project, combining a deep understanding of color modeling with practical fabrication and programming methods.

To develop the predictive color models, Piovarči took standard equations and adapted them to fit the tattooing environment. His key observation was that the substrate acts as an additional color that mixes with the tattooed inks. Once the basic models were established, they defined the model’s parameters by performing actual tests. To do so, Piovarči built a programmable tattooing apparatus and developed a silicone-cornstarch substrate to tattoo. “For me, the most surprising—and satisfying—part was the range of colors we were able to achieve, once we understood how to optimize the ink combinations for each substrate,” says Piovarči.

The team programmed additional features, such as suggestions for alternative, complementary colors that are more visible than the original design, as well as optimized color selection for tattoo cover-ups. This could further augment artists’ abilities to create tattoos in beautiful colors.

Their technique is not just valuable for its potential applications: “Scientifically, it’s exciting to gain a better understanding of how inks embedded in skin influence the light transport, as well as computationally modeling the appearance and validating the model experimentally,” concludes Professor Bernd Bickel.

Watch the corresponding video on YouTube.

 

Additional Work at SIGGRAPH
The Bickel and Wojtan groups will present several other works at SIGGRAPH 2023. The papers, accompanying videos, and other resources can be found on the Visual Computing website, and include projects such as:
•    Gloss-Aware Color Correction for 3D Printing
•    Stealth Shaper: Reflectivity Optimization as Surface Stylization
•    Procedural Metamaterials
The last project, a collaboration between the Institute of Science and Technology Austria (ISTA) and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), presents a novel, easy-to-use interface for designing metamaterials with unique properties. Additional information is available in this MIT press release.

 

Publications   
Marco Freire, Manas Bhargava, Camille Schreck, Pierre-Alexandre Hugron, Bernd Bickel, & Sylvain Lefebvre. 2023. PCBend: Light Up Your 3D Shapes With Foldable Circuit Boards. ACM Transactions on Graphics (SIGGRAPH 2023). DOI: https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3592411

Stefan Jeschke & Chris Wojtan. 2023. Generalizing Shallow Water Simulations with Dispersive Surface Waves. ACM Transactions on Graphics (SIGGRAPH 2023). DOI: https://doi.org/10.1145/3592098

Michal Piovarči, Alexandre Chapiro, & Bernd Bickel. 2023. Skin-Screen: A Computational Fabrication Framework for Color Tattoos. ACM Transactions on Graphics (SIGGRAPH 2023). DOI: https://doi.org/10.1145/3592432

Funding information
PCBend: Light Up Your 3D Shapes With Foldable Circuit Boards: This project was supported by the European Research Council (ERC) under the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation program (Grant Agreement No. 715767 -– MATERIALIZABLE).
Generalizing Shallow Water Simulations with Dispersive Surface Waves: This project was funded in part by the European Research Council (ERC Consolidator Grant 101045083 CoDiNA).
Skin-Screen: A Computational Fabrication Framework for Color Tattoos: This work was graciously supported by the FWF Lise Meitner (Grant M 3319).

PCBend explained: From Flat to [VIDEO] |

From Flat to Cat. The 2D circuit boards out by the PCBend program are folded and programmed to create stunning 3D LED light sculptures.

CREDIT

© PCBend Project Members

New Wave Simulation Method Bridges Deep and Shallow Waters

Breadth and Depth. Jeschke and Wojtan’s new model combines the advantages of earlier simulation methods and can simulate a range of water effects previously out of reach.

CREDIT

© ISTA/Chris Wojtan

The Tattoo Fabrication Setup. The Bickel group at ISTA developed a specialized tattoo apparatus to test and refine their color models.

CREDIT

© ISTA/Michael Piovarči

 

Wildfire exposure decreases chances of survival for vulnerable cancer patients, study shows

Peer-Reviewed Publication

EMORY HEALTH SCIENCES

(ATLANTA) – People exposed to a wildfire within a year after having lung cancer surgery have significantly lower chances of survival compared to lung cancer patients who are not exposed to wildfires, researchers from Emory University, the American Cancer Society and Yale University found.

For the study, 499,912 individuals who underwent surgical removal of non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) between 2004-2019, were selected from the National Cancer Database. Of those individuals, 168,645 (36%) were exposed to wildfires within a year of being discharged from the hospital, according to ZIP-code level data from NASA’s Fire Information Resource Management System. 

The findings, published Thursday in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) Oncology, found those patients had worse overall survival than the other individuals in the study and that their chances of survival decreased the sooner the wildfire exposure occurred following their surgery. Individuals whose zip code overlapped with a wildfire event within three months of NSCLC surgery were 48% less likely to survive compared to patients not exposed to a wildfire event.  Patients exposed to wildfires 4-6 months (38%) and 7-12 months (17%) following surgery also had lower survival rates than unexposed patients.

“This study shows that the health impact of climate change-related extreme weather events such as wildfires is multi-faceted and further-reaching than we typically think,” says Yang Liu, PhD, chair and Gangarosa Distinguished Professor in Gangarosa Department of Environmental Health at Emory’s Rollins School of Public Health.

Satellite data provided by NASA, which also funded the study, enabled researchers to identify wildfire events globally and for an extended period.

“In addition to the health consequences of inhaling fire smoke, the interruption of care, anxiety due to property loss or financial hardship, as well as the mental trauma associated with experiencing a fire event can work together to negatively affect people’s health and well-being,” Liu adds. “The impact of smaller fires in the eastern U.S. also shouldn’t be ignored as they are often much closer to people.”

Lung cancer is the second most common cancer diagnosis in the United States and the leading cause of cancer-related deaths. Meanwhile, exposure to air pollution decreases the chance of lung cancer survival, and wildfire smoke is a major contributor to air pollution. 

“Surgery for lung cancer is a major operation with serious side effects and recovery takes months,” says Leticia Nogueira, PhD, scientific director of health services research at the American Cancer Society. “During recovery, individuals struggle with physical (diminished pulmonary and physical function, decreased mobility, increased fatigue), psychological (stress, anxiety, depression), and socioeconomic (out-of-pocket costs, ability to remain employed or maintain income levels, etc.) consequences of surgery, which can impact patients’ ability to prepare and respond to the threats posed by an approaching wildfire.”

However, air pollution was only one of several health threats — such as water and soil contaminations, increased stress and mental health issues, displacement and disruption to health care access – posed by wildfires that can negatively impact the long-term survival of individuals recovering from lung cancer surgery. 

“While wildfire smoke contributes to worsening air quality, which has been associated with increased cancer risk, proximity to wildfires poses several challenges that go beyond inhaling polluted air,” adds Nogueira. “These include the stress associated with the threat wildfires pose to property and life, the financial resources necessary to evacuate or shelter in place, and the health hazards associated with exposure to contaminated water and dust.  The additional challenges are especially concerning for cancer patients and survivors, who are already dealing with the physical, psychological, and socioeconomic consequences of cancer diagnosis and treatment.”

The researchers warn the health risks from wildfires will only intensify in the era of climate change.

“Climate change will result in reduced rainfall, higher temperature, and dryer soil in much of western North America, further exacerbating wildfire activity in the region,” Liu says. “We will see a longer fire season and more frequent, more intense fires.”

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JOURNAL

JAMA Oncology

DOI

10.1001/jamaoncol.2023.2144 

ARTICLE TITLE

Association of Wildfire Exposure While Recovering From Lung Cancer Surgery With Overall Survival

UIC leads field study on home, water safety after Ohio chemical spill 

UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS CHICAGO

NEWS RELEASE 2-AUG-2023

In February, the train derailment and subsequent chemical spill and fires in East Palestine, Ohio, caused an environmental emergency that led thousands of people to evacuate their homes. A multi-university study led by the University of Illinois Chicago will investigate the aftermath of that disaster, collecting data on the experiences of nearby residents and the effectiveness of communication from authorities about water, soil and air quality.

For the study, the researchers will conduct surveys and interviews with residents in and near East Palestine, including counties in Ohio, Pennsylvania and West Virginia. They will ask questions about how the crisis affected residents’ lives and homes, the information they sought and received about environmental contamination and testing, and their trust in that material and its sources. 

The project, funded through a grant from the National Science Foundation, will contribute new findings about the relationship between people and critical infrastructure during and after a crisis, said Lauryn Spearing, assistant professor of civil, materials and environmental engineering at UIC and lead investigator of the study.

“We want to create a network of the different stakeholders and how information was transferred, from whoever was actually in the creek taking samples down to community members,” Spearing said. “The endgame of the entire project is tracing this information and figuring out where there were roadblocks and where things went well, so that we can make recommendations for future disasters.” 

The interdisciplinary collaboration with Andrew Whelton at Purdue University and Clayton Wukich at Cleveland State University took shape when Spearing joined Whelton to sample air, water and soil around East Palestine, Ohio, in the weeks following the derailment. While those samples were collected from households, Spearing interviewed people living there about their experience during and after the crisis, seeking the research questions that would most benefit the community and future disaster response.

She heard that residents often were concerned about environmental sampling and data, asking questions such as: “Is my well water safe?,” “How often should I be testing?” and “Can I eat the food grown in my garden?” They also mentioned unclear communication from authorities about where and when sampling would take place and what the results of those tests meant for resident safety.  

“There was just so much confusion with testing. People were getting their water quality results with little information about what this meant for their safety,” Spearing said.  

In the coming months, the team will return to East Palestine, Ohio, and 10 surrounding counties to collect more information about these community impacts and challenges. Residents of the area are invited to complete an online survey and, if they wish, volunteer for interviews with researchers. 

Team members also will interview stakeholders from the many agencies involved in the crisis response and aftermath, including local emergency personnel, community leaders and government agencies. 

“We are trying to understand what happened so that we can better voice people’s opinions,” Spearing said. “By systematically documenting experiences, you can often bring quantitative data to policymakers and spur change, to emphasize that there were impacts here and that we need to do better next time.” 

The project is funded by National Science Foundation Rapid Response Research Award No. 2329409.

Written by Rob Mitchum

 

August issues of American Psychiatric Association journals cover alcohol use disorder, interventions for PTSD and psychedelics in psychiatry

Peer-Reviewed Publication

AMERICAN PSYCHIATRIC ASSOCIATION

The latest issues of three of the American Psychiatric Association’s journals, The American Journal of Psychiatry, Psychiatric Services and Focus are now available online.

The August issue of The American Journal of Psychiatry on the neurodevelopmental origins of psychopathology is focused on early-life adversity and genetics as mediators of the risk to develop psychiatric illnesses. Highlights include:

• Overview of Alcohol Use Disorder.
• A Comprehensive Multilevel Analysis of the Bucharest Early Intervention Project: Causal Effects on Recovery from Early Severe Deprivation. (Co-investigators Lucy King and Katelyn Humphries are the featured guests on August’s AJP Audio podcast episode.)
• Genetic Underpinnings of the Transition from Alcohol Consumption to Alcohol Use Disorder: Shared and Unique Genetic Architectures in a Cross-Ancestry Sample.

The issue also includes a summary of an APA Resource Document on the treatment of opioid use disorder in the general hospital.

The August issue of Psychiatric Services features  

•     Ethical and Practical Considerations for the Use of Psychedelics in Psychiatry.

•     Therapeutic and Economic Benefits of Service Dogs Versus Emotional Support Dogs for Veterans With PTSD.

•     The Effectiveness of Peer Support in Personal and Clinical Recovery—Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis.

•     Pathways Through Early Psychosis Care for U.S. Youths From Ethnically and Racially Minoritized Groups: A Systematic Review.

•     DSM-5-TR: Rationale, Process, and Overview of Changes.

 

Volume 21, Issue 3 of Focus is a special issue on Novel Mechanisms and Interventions for PTSD, helmed by Guest Editor Negar Fani, Ph.D. The issue features the following:

•     Assessment of Traumatic Stress Symptoms During the Acute Posttrauma Period.

•     A Review of MDMA-Assisted Therapy for Posttraumatic Stress Disorder.

•     Ketamine for Treatment of Posttraumatic Stress Disorder: State of the Field.

•     Interoception in Fear Learning and Posttraumatic Stress Disorder.

•     Treating Motivational and Consummatory Aspects of Anhedonia.

•     Ethical and Legal Aspects of Trauma Evaluation.

Journalists who wish to access the publications should email press@psych.org.

American Psychiatric Association
The American Psychiatric Association, founded in 1844, is the oldest medical association in the country. The APA is also the largest psychiatric association in the world with more than 38,000 physician members specializing in the diagnosis, treatment, prevention and research of mental illnesses. APA’s vision is to ensure access to quality psychiatric diagnosis and treatment. For more information, please visit www.psychiatry.org.

 

Eyewitnesses to Arctic Change

AWI Director Antje Boetius leads Polarstern expedition to the Central Arctic

Business Announcement

ALFRED WEGENER INSTITUTE, HELMHOLTZ CENTRE FOR POLAR AND MARINE RESEARCH

 

IMAGE: RV POLARSTERN IN CENTRAL ARCTIC OCEAN IN 2012 view more 

CREDIT: ALFRED-WEGENER-INSTITUT/STEFAN HENDRICKS

On Thursday, 3 August 2023, the research vessel Polarstern is scheduled to set off from Tromsø, Norway, towards the North Pole. For two months, a good fifty scientific expedition participants will explore the Arctic in transition as sea ice extent reaches its annual minimum in September. They will explore the biology, chemistry and physics of sea ice as well as the effects of sea ice retreat on the entire ocean system from the surface to the deep sea. Eleven years ago, Antje Boetius was part of the largest ever sea ice minumum in the Arctic and its consequences for life in the deep sea. Now she is returning with her team to compare the state of the Arctic today - also with the data from the MOSAiC expedition 2019/20. 

“I am very excited to see how sea ice and ocean life have changed over the last decade,” says Antje Boetius. “In 2012, we were on site during the lowest documented summer sea ice extent to date and were able to see significant impacts on the entire ecosystem of the central Arctic Ocean, down to over four kilometres of water depth,” explains the Director of the Alfred Wegener Institute, Helmholtz Centre for Polar and Marine Research (AWI). “At the moment, I am monitoring the sea ice situation at www.meereisportal.de particularly intensively. We don’t yet know whether a new minimum will be reached, given the globally hot year 2023 and the fact that the sea ice in Antarctica is at a record low.”

The head of the sea ice physics team and MOSAiC expert Dr Marcel Nicolaus reports: “The ice currently covers an area of just under 7.5 million square kilometres, similar to that of the past two years. This means that there is still about one million square kilometres more ice than in 2012. However, the summer melt is in full swing, and the wind in particular will determine how the porous, brittle ice continues to be distributed in the coming weeks.”

The expedition team is investigating in detail how the composition of the sea ice is changing on site: Helicopter-towed sensors are used to measure sea ice thickness, ice cores allow the sea ice composition to be analysed and algae living in the ice to be studied. An underwater robot measures how much light passes through the ice into the ocean when its surface is still covered by snow or already by melt water ponds. The light is available to micro algae (phytoplankton) as a source of energy for photosynthesis, which live in the upper water layers. What happens to the carbon they bind is being researched (micro-)biologically, chemically and physically from the water surface to the deep-sea floor. The planktologists on board want to follow the path of life directly under the ice into the deep sea, for which they bring out various camera systems as well as autonomous samplers. 

Several so-called ice stations are planned for the work: “The ship docks at a floe, then the ice researchers go onto the floe, we deploy various robots and free-fall devices and, in parallel, we look at the creatures at the bottom with the zoologists, more than 4000 metres below. In this way, we recognise connections in all levels of the ocean from the sea ice to the seabed,” explains Antje Boetius. In doing so, the team is returning to the same working areas as in 2012 for comparative studies: to the particularly productive marginal ice zone and regions with perhaps still perennial ice cover in the central Arctic. A range of proven but also new technologies will be used for the work, for example lander systems, deep-sea crawlers and the Ocean Floor Observation and Bathymetry System (OFOBS) developed at the AWI. The return takes place after the summer ice melt, when the autumn sea ice formation begins. 

Among the participants is a camera team from UFA Documentary GmbH, which is filming the expedition. The television documentary, which is being produced in cooperation with NDR, is scheduled to be broadcast on ARD at the turn of the year. Already during the expedition, interested parties can gain impressions from on board in the radio program of Radio Bremen and of course also follow the expedition in the Polarstern app https://follow-polarstern.awi.de/?lang=en and on the social media channels of the Alfred Wegener Institute. Polarstern is scheduled to return to its home port of Bremerhaven on 1 October.

 

Duct tape evidence holds up in court using innovative method from WVU forensic scientists

Peer-Reviewed Publication

WEST VIRGINIA UNIVERSITY

 

IMAGE: WEST VIRGINIA UNIVERSITY RESEARCHERS HAVE DEVELOPED A METHOD TO STANDARDIZE PROTOCOL FOR EXAMINING DUCT TAPE AND COMPARING PIECES OF TRACE EVIDENCE. PICTURED HERE IS CLAIRE DOLTON, A SENIOR STUDYING FORENSICS. view more 

CREDIT: WVU PHOTO/BRIAN PERSINGER

Duct tape found at crime scenes can provide forensic scientists with important information, but no standardized protocol for analyzing it has ever existed.

Now, Tatiana Trejos, assistant professor in the West Virginia University Department of Forensic and Investigative Science, and graduate student Meghan Prusinowski have developed a one-of-a-kind method that can help piece together a crime scene by literally piecing the evidence together. Or not.

The method provides a systematic approach for comparing pieces of trace evidence that appear to be from the same source. Prusinowski, a graduate research assistant, recently published the findings in Forensic Chemistry. Aldo Romero, Eberly Distinguished Professor of Physics and Astronomy, and statistician Cedric Neuman, Battelle Memorial Institute, contributed to the project.

Trace evidence is usually invisible to the naked eye but is likely to be transferred at a crime scene. This may come from contact between individuals or objects and may include things like fibers, glass or paint polymers.

“Duct tapes, in particular, are used very often to gag victims,” Trejos said. “So, when we have traces that are left, they can tell us about who was there, who tore it apart and so forth.

“In doing that, they need to separate the tape, and when they do that, they can leave fingerprints. They can leave DNA from the suspect, from the victim. But sometimes they are smart enough that they use gloves, so there are no fingerprints and there is no DNA.”

However, when a material like duct tape is separated into pieces, it leaves what forensic scientists call “fracture edges,” which can be evaluated and examined to see if there is a physical fit.

“A physical fit is putting the two fracture edges together and demonstrating that they have enough individual characteristics to indicate that they were once together,” Trejos said.

In forensic science, some types of evidence — DNA and fingerprints, for example — are extremely unlikely to have come from a source other than the one indicated. Physical fit has a similarly high level of association because of the random nature of the edge features left in the fracture edges.

“It is very unlikely that we can reproduce all the microscopic features of a torn edge,” Trejos said. “We can tear apart thousands and thousands of pieces, and we have demonstrated it’s very unlikely that there will be, just by random chance, a perfect fit in pieces that were not once together.”

Until now, there was little scientific basis to demonstrate that assumption. Trejos’ research will help the forensic community build a foundation to evaluate the error rates in this field. It considers the probability of having a random physical fit match, as well as performance rates and error rates and what factors might influence them.

Trejos said every forensic discipline has a group of experts that develop standards that can be used across the world.

“If I do a forensic examination here in West Virginia and I follow that protocol, the results should be the same if a colleague conducts the same examination in Australia,” she said. “For many other disciplines, we rely on our instruments. The analytical data is there and it’s very hard science. But in physical fit examination, the instrument is our brain. And our brain is fantastic at identifying those relevant, individual features, but we are also prone to subjectivity and bias if we don’t follow careful protocols.”

Trejos’ method allows examiners to qualify and quantify features and characteristics that are commonly observed during physical fit examinations. Then, the examiners follow the criteria to provide a score metric of how similar the tape edges are, estimate probabilities and use an Excel template to systematically document the features of the physical fit.

“I will write the report, but it’s not only my opinion, especially when we have something that depends on my judgment,” she said. “It will have to be separately and independently reviewed by a second examiner, who will follow the same protocol and have similar documentation templates. We can compare our opinions, and if we have disagreement, we can transparently discuss which was the criteria for that disagreement and defend those results in the courtroom.”

Using the method, Trejos and her students found the error rate was extremely low in duct tape physical fit examinations. The next step, she said, will be to teach forensic examiners how to follow the method.

“Historically, examiners have been very good at correctly identifying fits,” Prusinowski said. “But until recently, there hasn’t been much research identifying what can cause misidentifications, and there really haven’t been many studies that recommend a particular method for edge comparisons. So that’s what started the basis of my research.”

The team has led a series of interlaboratory studies to test the method using practitioners involved in physical fit examinations for years or even decades. Prusinowski also said the guidelines that help analyze physical fit will help researchers focus on pattern recognition in other trace evidence materials.

Trejos expects to see these methods adopted in forensic laboratories within a few years. The next step will be to provide other forensic labs with the scientific foundation the WVU team has established.

“They’ll have all the resources they need to present evidence in court,” Trejos said. “Because that can make the difference between sending an innocent person to jail or not.”

WVU experts have developed a new way to uncover clues from duct tape found at crime scenes.

CREDIT

WVU Photo/Brian Persinger

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JOURNAL

Forensic Chemistry

DOI

10.1016/j.forc.2023.100487 

ARTICLE TITLE

Forensic interlaboratory evaluations of a systematic method for examining, documenting, and interpreting duct tape physical fits