Forensic sciences

This course serves as an overview of the trace evidence discipline for the crime laboratory administration. This is the fourth webinar in the ASCLD Train the Director Webinar Series.

This webinar was presented by the NIJ Forensic Technology Center of Excellence on February 14, 2019.

This course explains transitioning from 17025:2005 to 17025:2017 and the lessons Learned. This is the fifth webinar in the ASCLD Train the Director Webinar Series.

This webinar was presented by the NIJ Forensic Technology Center of Excellence on February 21, 2019.

SWGDAM recently issued recommendations on genotyping results reported as likelihood ratios, designed to promote consistency among laboratories. Members of the committee will discuss the recommendations and their foundations.

This webinar was presented by the NIJ Forensic Technology Center of Excellence on October 18, 22018.

This webinar will demonstrate the use of the open source 3D Slicer software platform (https://www.slicer.org/) for visualizing 3D medical imaging datasets and collecting quantitative data from those images, including linear/angular, landmark-based, and volumetric data.

This webinar was presented by the NIJ Forensic Technology Center of Excellence on October 28, 2020.

In the third webinar, participants will learn about the image data included in the New Mexico Decedent Image Database, including how to open and view an image series, the different viewing functions, and how to access detailed information about the images.

This webinar was presented by the NIJ Forensic Technology Center of Excellence on October 21, 2020. 
 

Based on the review of various forms of STR typing results and factors that impact the presence or condition of DNA on evidence, instructors in this installment of Probabilistic Genotyping of Evidentiary DNA Typing Results lay a foundation for the interpretation of forensic DNA typing results. The session will begin with background information on forensic DNA analysis, including terminology and mechanisms, to help all participants comprehend the material covered in this series.

This first webinar is an introduction to NMDID. Attendees will learn about the history of the database and the team that developed it. There will be a tour of the website, including data use agreement, “how to use” videos, descriptions of basic data types, and an introduction to the data dictionary.

This webinar was presented by the NIJ Forensic Technology Center of Excellence on October 7, 2020. 

This webinar will provide an evaluation of the DEPArray™, a system that enables the identification, separation, and recovery of single cells or groups of cells from heterogeneous mixtures. The workflow described in this webinar will highlight the impact this instrument, with standard forensic processes, will have on processing sexual assault evidence and improving the success of single cell analyses.

Many working with genomic DNA can afford to lose large portions of it during its extraction without negatively impacting downstream analysis.  However, with work targeting highly degraded DNA sources, retention of every molecule can be key to successful analyses.   This webinar addressed the insufficient documentation of absolute efficiencies of extraction methods and the nature of DNA loss associated with the study of low copy number and degraded DNA samples.

This webinar introduced the importance of network forensics, which included capturing network traffic and reconstructing digital artifacts. Presenters discussed big data challenges, open-source tools, and the new toolkit FileTSAR.

This webinar was presented by the NIJ Forensic Technology Center of Excellence on August 12, 2020.

This webinar focused on the use of PACE™, a method developed by Syracuse University, to perform artifact management and probabilistically predict the number of contributors (NOC) in forensic DNA samples. This is performed using a combination of biological modeling and machine learning, permitting high accuracy NOC calls (greater than 90%) of complex mixtures. It does so rapidly (seconds to minutes) without the need for high performance computing resources.

This webinar discussed intact low explosives analysis with a focus on microscopical methods. It covered terminology for explosives, the rationale of low explosives analysis for most crime laboratories, six categories of low explosives, and examples of three analyses using microscopical methods.

This webinar was presented by the NIJ Forensic Technology Center of Excellence on July 16, 2020.

This webinar highlighted the results of a full developmental validation of a method that estimates the A Posteriori Probability (APP) of the number of contributors in a DNA sample(NOC), and demonstrated that estimating the APP based on peak heights outperforms methods that rely on binary determinations alone. This presentation focused on including the true NOC in Likelihood Ratio interpretations and on repeatability.

This webinar was presented by the NIJ Forensic Technology Center of Excellence on July 14, 2020.

This webinar covered management challenges unique to a digital forensics unit in a laboratory and offer practical solutions to overcome these challenges.

This webinar was presented by the NIJ Forensic Technology Center of Excellence on July 1, 2020.
 

Residential structure fires are predominantly fueled by synthetic contents and commonly become ventilation-limited.  Therefore accounting for the impact of ventilation on fire is important. Examining flow paths within the structure can aide in fire pattern analysis.

This webinar was presented by the NIJ Forensic Technology Center of Excellence on June 10, 2020. 

Using a typical OEM paint system, the PDQ Maintenance Team will walk through the best practices to efficiently use the database and spectral libraries to identify the most likely source of an unknown paint system. Details gathered from this process include manufacturing plant, year range, and models.

This webinar discussed the role of emergent technologies for both separation and detection techniques employed in chromatographic systems to increase selectivity for the identification of emerging drugs. Techniques include supercritical fluid chromatography, multi-dimensional liquid chromatography, multi-modal liquid chromatography, nano liquid chromatography, vacuum ultraviolet detection, and cold electron ionization mass spectrometry.

This webinar was presented by the NIJ Forensic Technology Center of Excellence on March 19, 2020.

This presentation described, presented the results of, and discussed a recent black box study to establish an error rate estimate for palm comparisons. These results provided the first step in establishing the foundational validity of palmar comparisons, as defined by the President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology (PCAST) report.

This webinar was presented by the NIJ Forensic Technology Center of Excellence on March 12, 2020. 

Improving the overall response to sexual assault includes understanding how touch DNA evidence impacts groping sexual assault cases. This webinar will illustrate the importance of these cases and highlight proposed guidelines for evidence collection.

This webinar was presented by the NIJ Forensic Technology Center of Excellence on February 27, 2019.

This webinar built on the concepts presented in the webinar “The Time to Collect is Now: DNA Evidence in Groping Sexual Assault Cases” presented by Dr. Julie Valentine.

Awareness of how to provide culturally appropriate and trauma informed services to the American Indian/Alaska Native (AI/AN) community is important for forensic examiners. This webinar discussed includes jurisdictional factors affecting examinations, pertinent laws to consider, and health care services that may be available to AI/AN populations.

This webinar was presented by the NIJ Forensic Technology Center of Excellence on February 27, 2020.
 

Given the vital role of medical examiners and coroners (ME/C) in recognizing emerging trends in drug overdose deaths, partnering epidemiologists with ME/C offices can greatly enhance the utility of the significant volume of data generated by medicolegal death investigation. Epidemiologists from three unique ME jurisdictions—North Carolina, New Mexico and Virginia—share their experiences with monitoring drug overdose deaths, trends observed, and how best to utilize ME/C data to inform public health policy.