Daily Archives: June 10, 2023

Interview: Three Books That Make Tess Gunty Angry – The New York Times

Posted: June 10, 2023 at 8:26 pm

An incomplete list: Claudia Rankine, Anne Carson, Maggie Nelson, Yuri Herrera, Zadie Smith, Diane Williams, Valeria Luiselli, Olga Tokarczuk, Rachel Kushner, Elena Ferrante, Ben Lerner, Carmen Maria Machado, Joy Williams, Hanif Abdurraqib, Nuar Alsadir, Robin Coste Lewis, Natalie Diaz, Ocean Vuong, Sharon Olds, Morgan Parker, Tommy Pico, Terrance Hayes, Ada Limn, Tracy K. Smith, Annie Baker, Amy Herzog, Paula Vogel, Svetlana Alexievich, Rachel Aviv, Ed Yong, Matthew Desmond, Alexandra Kleeman, Susan Choi, Chris Ware, Tommy Orange, Javier Zamora, Jenny Offill, Annie Ernaux, Anne Enright, Lydia Davis, Raven Leilani, Mark Z. Danielewski, Jennifer Egan, George Saunders. I cant believe I get to share a time period with all of these people.

Whats the last book you read that made you cry?

Calling a Wolf a Wolf, by Kaveh Akbar, specifically the penultimate poem: I Wont Lie This Plague of Gratitude. Akbar alchemizes pain into beauty line after line, but it was an unexpected evocation of hope that made me cry. In this poem, the speaker is thunderstruck by a newfound plague of gratitude. The speaker says: Not long ago I was hard to even/hug ... I had to learn to love people one at a time/singing hey diddle diddle will you suffer me/a little ... now I am cheery/and Germanic like a drawer full/of strudel. Akbars describing a small psychological sanctuary a relief, permanent or fleeting, from everything that has haunted the speaker until now. The poem plunged me into that first miraculous flash of hope you enjoy after a long storm of bad brain chemistry. The moment you remember that it can be enjoyable to simply exist.

The last book that made you furious?

So many come to mind. I guess Im often furious? Im currently reading three impeccably researched works of nonfiction that are informing previously amorphous concerns. Poverty, by America, by Matthew Desmond, investigates structurally engineered poverty. One of the many memorable facts that this book delineates is that America spends over twice as much on tax benefits for the upper class as it does on national defense. Empire of Pain, by Patrick Radden Keefe, makes me enraged about the Sackler family, of course, but more generally about how vulnerable American health care and pharmaceutical systems are to bad actors worse, poorly regulated capitalism incentivizes bad actors to do harm. The Alignment Problem, by Brian Christian, makes me furious about the myopic tech boys currently pursuing immortality and godlike dominance by attempting to summon the existential threat of artificial general intelligence into the world. They are facilitated by an absence of legal restrictions and the primeval excuse that if We dont do it first, They will.

What book might people be surprised to find on your shelves?

My family is always shocked by how many books on neuroscience and quantum physics Ive amassed. They like to remind me that I am bad at science. Probably most surprising is that Im still under the delusion that I will someday read all 1,500 pages of The Matter With Things, by Iain McGilchrist a blend of neuroscience, metaphysics and epistemology about the hemispheres of the brain and the nature of consciousness. I think you start levitating as soon as you finish it.

Whats the best book youve ever received as a gift?

When I graduated college, my good friend Alex gave me a beautiful, professionally bound copy of the novella I wrote for my thesis. He even got a mutual friend to blurb it. The novella itself is a catastrophe a cluttered story about four characters from different centuries saddled with shared omniscient narration who meet in a Purgatory that resembles postindustrial Indiana. Eventually, it collapses into metafictional chaos. Flawed as the project is, I had transferred my 21-year-old spirit into its pages, and Alex knew that if I could hold a leatherbound copy of this effort in my hands, if I could see my name engraved in gold on the spine, some psychological chasm between the life I had and the life I wanted would begin to close. For years, as I submitted my fiction and accumulated rejections, losing faith that I would ever publish, I would catch a glimpse of this book on my shelf, and its presence would nourish me. It remains one of the most cherished gifts Ive ever received.

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Events Calendar School of Mathematics and Statistics Colloquium … – Carleton University

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When Information Theory Meets Algebra and Topology

In recent years, a few surprising connections have arisen between information theory, algebra, and topology. This talk is in a similar vein. We will discuss a certain correspondence between Shannon entropy and continuous functions on topological simplices that satisfy an equation akin to the Leibniz rule from Calculus. The correspondence relies heavily on a particular operad, which is an abstract tool with origins in algebraic topology. A broad goal for this talk is to unwind this result and to share why the confluence of these ideas is both unexpected yet intriguing.

Speaker Bio:

Headshot of SpeakerTai-Danae Bradley is currently a research mathematician at Sandbox AQ and a visiting professor of mathematics at The Masters University where she helps run the Math3ma Institute. She finished her PhD in mathematics in spring 2020 at the CUNY Graduate Center under the supervision of John Terilla and spent some time as a postdoctoral researcher at X, the Moonshot Factory (Google X). Her research interests lie in the intersection of quantum physics, machine intelligence, and category theory.

Links: https://www.sandboxaq.com/ https://www.masters.edu/ https://math3ma.institute/ https://qcpages.qc.cuny.edu/~jterilla/

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Events Calendar School of Mathematics and Statistics Colloquium ... - Carleton University

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Graphene and Quantum Computing: A Match Made in Heaven – CityLife

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Graphene and Quantum Computing: A Match Made in Heaven

Graphene, a single layer of carbon atoms arranged in a hexagonal lattice, has been hailed as a wonder material since its discovery in 2004. This ultra-thin, ultra-strong material has the potential to revolutionize industries ranging from electronics to medicine. One area where graphenes unique properties could have a particularly profound impact is in the realm of quantum computing.

Quantum computing is an emerging field that seeks to harness the strange and powerful properties of quantum mechanics to perform calculations far beyond the capabilities of classical computers. While still in its infancy, quantum computing has the potential to revolutionize fields such as cryptography, drug discovery, and artificial intelligence. However, the development of practical quantum computers has been hampered by a number of technical challenges, including the need for materials that can support and manipulate delicate quantum states.

This is where graphene comes in. Graphenes remarkable electronic properties make it an ideal candidate for use in quantum computing. For one, graphene is an excellent conductor of electricity, with electrons able to move through the material with very little resistance. This property could be used to create ultra-fast, low-power quantum computing devices.

Moreover, graphenes two-dimensional structure gives it unique quantum properties. Electrons in graphene behave as if they have no mass, allowing them to move at extremely high speeds and follow the rules of quantum mechanics rather than classical physics. This means that graphene could potentially be used to create quantum bits, or qubits, the fundamental building blocks of quantum computers.

Qubits are the quantum equivalent of classical bits, which represent information as either a 0 or a 1. However, qubits can exist in a superposition of both 0 and 1 simultaneously, allowing quantum computers to perform many calculations at once. This parallelism is what gives quantum computers their immense potential for solving complex problems.

One of the key challenges in building a quantum computer is maintaining the delicate quantum states of qubits. Quantum states are easily disturbed by their environment, leading to errors in calculations. This phenomenon, known as decoherence, is a major obstacle to the development of practical quantum computers.

Graphenes unique properties could help address this issue. The materials two-dimensional structure means that it can be easily integrated with other materials, such as superconductors, which are essential for maintaining quantum states. Additionally, graphenes high electron mobility could be used to create devices that can manipulate and control qubits with high precision.

Recent research has demonstrated the potential of graphene for quantum computing applications. In one study, scientists at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) were able to create a graphene-based device that could control the flow of electrons with a high degree of precision. This device, known as a valleytronics system, could potentially be used to create qubits that are less susceptible to decoherence.

In another study, researchers at the University of Cambridge were able to use graphene to create a new type of qubit that is both more stable and more easily controlled than existing designs. This topological qubit could be a major step forward in the development of practical quantum computers.

While there is still much work to be done, it is clear that graphene has the potential to play a crucial role in the development of quantum computing. The marriage of these two cutting-edge fields could lead to breakthroughs that were once thought to be the stuff of science fiction. As researchers continue to explore the potential of graphene and quantum computing, we may be on the cusp of a new era of technological innovation that will reshape our world in ways we can only begin to imagine.

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How generative AI language models are unlocking the secrets of DNA – Big Think

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Large language models (LLMs) learn from statistical associations between letters and words to predict what comes next in a sentence and are trained on large amounts of data. For instance, GPT-4, which is the LLM underlying the popular generative AI app ChatGPT, is trained on several petabytes (several million gigabytes) of text.

Biologists are leveraging the capability of these LLMs to shed new light on genetics by identifying statistical patterns in DNA sequences. DNA language models (also called genomic or nucleotide language models) are similarly trained on large numbers of DNA sequences.

DNA as the language of life is an oft-repeated clich. A genome is the entire set of DNA sequences that make up the genetic recipe for any organism. Unlike written languages, DNA has few letters: A, C, G, and T (representing the compounds adenine, cytosine, guanine, and thymine). As simple as this genomic language might seem, we are far from uncovering its syntax. DNA language models can improve our understanding of genomic grammar one rule at a time.

What makes ChatGPT incredibly powerful is its adaptability to a wide range of tasks, from generating poems to copy editing an essay. DNA language models are versatile too. Their applications range from predicting what different parts of the genome do to predicting how different genes interact with each other. By learning genome features from DNA sequences, without the need for reference genomes, language models could also potentially open up new methods of analysis.

A model trained on the human genome, for example, was able to predict sites on RNA where proteins are likely to bind. This binding is important in the process of gene expression the conversion of DNA into proteins. Specific proteins bind to RNA, limiting how much of it is then further translated into proteins. In this way, these proteins are said to mediate gene expression. To be able to predict these interactions, the model needed to intuit not just where in the genome these interactions will take place but also how the RNA will fold, as its shape is critical to such interactions.

The generative capabilities of DNA language models also allow researchers to predict how new mutations may arise in genome sequences. For example, scientists developed a genome-scale language model to predict and reconstruct the evolution of the SARS-CoV-2 virus.

In recent years, biologists have realized that parts of the genome previously termed junk DNA interact with other parts of the genome in surprising ways. DNA language models offer a shortcut to learn more about these hidden interactions. With their ability to identify patterns across long stretches of DNA sequences, language models can also identify interactions between genes located on distant parts of the genome.

In a new preprint hosted on bioRxiv, scientists from the University of California-Berkeley present a DNA language model with the ability to learn genome-wide variant effects. These variants are single-letter changes to the genome that lead to diseases or other physiological outcomes and generally require expensive experiments (known as genome-wide association studies) to discover.

Named the Genomic Pre-trained Network (GPN), it was trained on the genomes of seven species of plants from the mustard family. Not only can GPN correctly label the different parts of these mustard genomes, it can also be adapted to identify genome variants for any species.

In another study published in Nature Machine Intelligence, scientists developed a DNA language model that could identify gene-gene interactions from single-cell data. Being able to study how genes interact with each other at single-cell resolution will reveal new insights into diseases that involve complex mechanisms. This is because it allows biologists to pin variations between individual cells to genetic factors that lead to disease development.

Language models can have problems with hallucination whereby an output sounds sensible but is not rooted in truth. ChatGPT, for example, could hallucinate health advice that is essentially misinformation. However, for protein design, this creativity makes language models a useful tool for designing completely new proteins from scratch.

Scientists are also applying language models to protein datasets in an effort to build on the success of deep learning models like AlphaFold in predicting how proteins fold. Folding is a complex process that enables a protein which starts off as a chain of amino acids to adopt a functional shape. Because protein sequences are derived from DNA sequences, the latter determine how the former fold, raising the possibility that we may be able to discover everything about protein structure and function from gene sequences alone.

Meanwhile, biologists will continue to use DNA language models to extract more and better insights from the large amounts of genome data available to us, across the full range and diversity of life on Earth.

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DNA sucked into air filters can reveal what plants and animals are … – Lincoln Journal Star

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NEW YORK DNA is all around us even in the air we breathe. Now scientists found that air quality monitoring stations which pull in air to test for pollution also pick up lots of DNA that can reveal what plants and animals have been in the area.

The method could help solve the tricky challenge of keeping tabs on biodiversity, according to a recent study in the journal Current Biology.

The findings suggest biodiversity data has been collected "on massive scales literally for decades and nobody's noticed," said study author Elizabeth Clare, a biologist at Canada's York University.

As animals and plants go through their life cycles, they leave little bits of themselves in the environment scales, fur, feathers, pollen that carry their genetic signature.

Scientists have long known this kind of environmental DNA floats around in water and used it to track what species are swimming in lakes and rivers. It's been harder to get a genetic picture of what's roaming around on land, said Kristine Bohmann, who studies environmental DNA at the University of Copenhagen and was not involved with the latest study.

Air sampling filters stationed in June 2023 at the Auchencorth Moss research facility in Scotland.

In 2021, both Bohmann and Clare worked on similar projects to see whether they could pull animal DNA from the air. After setting up vacuum pumps in local zoos, the teams were able to sequence DNA from dozens of species.

"You can actually, in a Ghostbuster kind of way, vacuum DNA out of the air," Bohmann said.

Then researchers wanted to try that on a bigger scale.

For this latest study, Clare and her team tested air filters from two monitoring stations, one in London and one in Scotland, that are part of a national network to test for pollution.

After extracting DNA from pieces of the filter disks, the scientists were able to identify more than 180 different kinds of plants and animals, said study author Joanne Littlefair, a biologist at Queen Mary University of London.

The filters picked up on a wide range of wildlife, including grasses, fungi, deer, hedgehogs and songbirds along with "the ubiquitous pigeon," Littlefair said.

Now, the team hopes this method could track ecosystems all over the world. Even though biodiversity decline is a global issue, it's hard to test for on a large scale, Clare said.

It's easy to use systems that are already in place, pointed out James Allerton, an air quality scientist at the UK's National Physical Laboratory. Many countries have networks set up to monitor air quality, and some of them store their old filters for years or even decades an archive that could help show how ecosystems have changed over time.

More research is needed to see if the data from these filters can show real biodiversity trends over time, said Fabian Roger, who has been working on a similar project at ETH Zurich in Switzerland. Still, it's exciting that an existing system could be "co-opted" to monitor wildlife, he wrote in an email.

Alyssa Bennett, small mammals biologist for the Vermont Department of Fish and Wildlife, inspects a dead bat in a cave in Dorset, Vt.

Laura Kloepper, right, a visiting assistant professor at the University of New Hampshire, carries out research with students in a bat cave May 2 in Dorset, Vt.

Researchers shine light on clusters of bats roosting in a cave in Dorset, Vt., on May 2. Scientists studying bat species hit hard by the fungus that causes white nose syndrome, which has killed millions of bats across North America, say more bats that hibernate at the Vermont cave are tolerating the disease and passing protective traits on to their young.

Alyssa Bennett, small mammals biologist for the Vermont Department of Fish and Wildlife, points to a bat in a cave in Dorset, Vt., on May 2. Scientists studying bat species hit hard by the fungus that causes white nose syndrome, which has killed millions of bats across North America, say there is a glimmer of good news for the disease. Experts say more bats that hibernate at a cave in Vermont, the largest bat cave in New England, are tolerating the disease and passing protective traits on to their young.

Bats roost in a cave in Dorset, Vt., on May 2. Scientists studying bat species hit hard by the fungus that causes white nose syndrome, which has killed millions of bats across North America, say there is a glimmer of good news for the disease. Experts say more bats that hibernate at a cave in Vermont, the largest bat cave in New England, are tolerating the disease and passing protective traits on to their young.

Laura Kloepper, a visiting assistant professor at the University of New Hampshire in the Department of Biological Sciences and the Center for Acoustics Research and Behavior Lab, carries out research in a bat cave in Dorset, Vt., on May 2. Scientists studying bat species hit hard by the fungus that causes white nose syndrome, which has killed millions of bats across North America, say there is a glimmer of good news for the disease.

Bats roost in a cave May 2 in Dorset, Vt., where some of the mammals are tolerating a deadly disease and passing protective traits on to their young.

Alyssa Bennett, small mammals biologist for the Vermont Department of Fish and Wildlife, reaches toward roosting bats in a cave in Dorset, Vt., on May 2. Scientists studying bat species hit hard by the fungus that causes white nose syndrome, which has killed millions of bats across North America, say there is a glimmer of good news for the disease. Experts say more bats that hibernate at a cave in Vermont, the largest bat cave in New England, are tolerating the disease and passing protective traits on to their young.

Alyssa Bennett, small mammals biologist for the Vermont Department of Fish and Wildlife, stretches the wings of a dead bat in a cave in Dorset, Vt.

Alyssa Bennett, small mammals biologist for the Vermont Department of Fish and Wildlife, holds a dead bat in a cave in Dorset, Vt., on May 2, 2023. Scientists studying bat species hit hard by the fungus that causes white nose syndrome, which has killed millions of bats across North America, say there is a glimmer of good news for the disease. Experts say more bats that hibernate at a cave in Vermont, the largest bat cave in New England, are tolerating the disease and passing protective traits on to their young.

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BRIDGEcereal: Self-Teaching Web App Improves Speed, Accuracy … – Agricultural Research

Posted: at 8:26 pm

Contact: Kim Kaplan Email: Kim Kaplan

PULLMAN, WA, June 5, 2023Agricultural Research Service and Washington State University scientists have developed an innovative web app called BRIDGEcereal that can quickly and accurately analyze the vast amount of genomic data now available for cereal crops and organize the material into intuitive charts that identify patterns locating genes of interest.

With the rapid advancements in the field of genomics the past 25 years, a game-changer for crop improvement has emerged referred to as the pan-genome, defined as the assembled genome sequences from multiple varieties within a species. But understanding and enhancing crops based on the huge amount of data that have been generated also has created a challenge for researchers due to the lack of efficient and user-friendly bioinformatic tools, particularly ones designed to handle large volume DNA variations in a species.

Take wheat, for example. The standard reference wheat genomewhich was done for the wheat variety Chinese Springis five times larger than the human genome. In addition, researchers have long struggled with the wide variation in the locations of genes that control essential agronomic traits across wheat's 21 chromosomes. Right now, a dozen wheat genomes are publicly available.

This adds up to a huge amount of data, making analysis of it a tedious process even for researchers with advanced bioinformatic skills. It is particularly challenging to sort through all of the data to identify similar stretches of DNA that may control the same trait no matter where they are located on a chromosome.

BRIDGEcereal is designed to transform the process of identifying large DNA variation from tedious to efficient.

"By simply providing BRIDGEcereal with the sequence of DNA you are interested in, it will complete the search process in less than one minute." explained ARS research biologist Xianran Li, the leader of the BRIDGEcereal project. Li is with the ARS Wheat Health, Genetics, and Quality Research Unit in Pullman, Washington.

"And BRIDGEcereal will organize the data it finds and present it to you in easily understood charts that highlight any patterns of where that DNA is," Li added.

An innovative web app developed by ARS and Washington State University scientists is speeding up analysis of the huge amounts of genomic data now available about cereal crops such as wheat.

It only took a minute for BRIDGEcereal to identify a promising candidate gene as the controller of a wheat mutation that reduces the length of awns, the bristle-like extensions from the wheat grain head. It had been known since the 1940s that a gene on wheat chromosome 4A controls awn development, which is an iconic wheat trait. But the exact gene controlling that trait has remained unknown.

"By searching dozens of potential genes through BRIDGEcereal, we were able to quickly identify a gene with a large DNA variation as the one that has been eluding researchers," Li said.

The scientists also designed BRIDGEcereal to be self-teachingalso called unsupervised machine-learningmeaning BRIDGEcereal can autonomously learn to recognize new patterns without the need for explicit instructions to follow.

"So what we've developed is a one-stop gateway to efficiently mine publicly accessible cereal pan-genomes that will only get more efficient as the data continues to mount up," Li said.

Bosen Zhang, a postdoctoral research associate with Washington State University and co-developer of the web app, added, "Researchers will find BRIDGEcereal to be an invaluable tool for selecting and prioritizing candidate genes that control specific traits in cereal crops."

BRIDGEcereal was first developed to work with wheat. It has already been adapted to analyze similar data from barley, maize, sorghum, and rice. This research was published in the journal Molecular Plant.

The Agricultural Research Service is the U.S. Department of Agriculture's chief scientific in-house research agency. Daily, ARS focuses on solutions to agricultural problems affecting America. Each dollar invested in U.S. agricultural research results in $20 of economic impact.

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New bill would mandate continuing to use DNA to help stop … – Dailyleader

Posted: at 8:26 pm

Published 9:00 am Thursday, June 8, 2023

A new federal bill would require a DNA test to determine the relationship between illegal immigrants coming into the U.S. with children. The End Child Trafficking Now Act, reintroduced Wednesday by Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith (R-Miss.), of Brookhaven, and Sen. Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn.), comes on the heels of the Department of Homeland Security reportedly ending all DNA familial testing at the border on May 31, 2023.

The Biden administrations decision to end DNA familial testing ignores due diligence and common sense when it comes to protecting vulnerable children, who are too often being trafficked across the border by sex traffickers, gang members, or other bad actors, said Hyde-Smith, who serves on the Senate Homeland Security Appropriations Subcommittee. This bill would be a step toward strengthening border security and helping children.

As many as 30 percent of children DNA tested were found not to be related to the illegal immigrants posing as family members, Blackburn said. Meanwhile, drug cartels and gangs use minors to falsely present themselves as family units and seek asylum at our southern border. The Biden administrations decision to halt all DNA familial testing is a grave misstep that not only puts the safety of Americans at risk but also increases the number of migrant children being trafficked. My legislation would stop criminals in their tracks and help protect children from exploitation an idea we should all be able to support.

The End Child Trafficking Now Act would:

In 2019, the ICE Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) Executive Associate Directorsaid, It is clear on-site DNA testing has a strong deterrent effect, as HSI agents witnessed multiple instances of individuals confessing to faux families prior to being tested as well.

Additional original cosponsors include U.S. Senators Bill Hagerty (R-Tenn.), Thom Tillis (R-N.C.), Mike Lee (R-Utah), Ted Cruz (R-Texas), Joni Ernst (R-Iowa), J.D. Vance (R-Ohio), Steve Daines (R-Mont.), and Bill Cassidy, M.D. (R-La.), and John Hoeven (R-N.D.). U.S. Representative Lance Gooden (R-Texas) introduced the House companion bill.

In April, Hyde-Smith also joined Blackburn inintroducing the SAVE Girls Act (S.1200) that would authorize a grant program to provide resources to states, local governments, and nonprofit groups to help end the trafficking of young women and girls, including, but not limited to, vulnerable children who have been smuggled across our border.

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Persistence of Touch DNA for Analysis | National Institute of Justice – National Institute of Justice

Posted: at 8:26 pm

Since the first use of DNA evidence in a criminal case in 1986 [1], forensic scientists have considered biological material (such as hair, skin, and bodily fluids) to be relatively reliable physical evidence.

Listen as the researchers discuss their work in the webinar, Stability and Persistence of Touch DNA for Forensic Analysis

While early technology required a substantial amount of biological material to extract enough DNA to build an individual profile for analysis, researchers have since discovered that they can obtain reliable DNA from more than just bloodstains or visible fluids; they can also obtain it from touch DNA that is left behind on surfaces or objects such as doorknobs, window latches, or steering wheels. Although touch DNA can be essential for forensic casework, it also comes with its share of issues, including those related to:

The results from rigorous analysis of these complicated factors have important implications for how touch DNA is collected, analyzed, and interpreted.

In 2018, the Forensic Technology Working Group at NIJ called for comprehensive, systematic, well controlled studies that provide foundational knowledge and practical data about touch evidence persistence in the real world. That same year, Dr. Meghan Ramseys group at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) Lincoln Laboratory began quantifying how long touch DNA would persist on certain surfaces under specific conditions. Building on that knowledge, and in collaboration with Dr. Ramsey, scientists at South Dakota State University created predictive models of how DNA degrades on different surfaces under a range of environmental conditions.

The researchers addressed two central questions:

To address these questions, scientists deposited control DNA and touch DNA samples [2] onto steel bolts and cotton fabric swatches. Then, they examined the DNA residue over time, across varying temperature and humidity combinations, and under UV light exposure (Figure 1).[3, 4]

Researchers measured:

The ability to obtain a DNA profile using short tandem repeats (or STRs), commonly used in forensic genetic analysis.

Results indicated:

To predict the amount of DNA degradation over time, Dr. Ramsey worked with her collaborators to fit the DNA degradation data (based on temperature and humidity exposure) to a linear, mixed effects model.[5] In doing so, they found:

To further examine DNA degradation, Dr. Ramsey and colleagues compared the completeness whether the DNA profiles could be submitted to a database for a potential match of two DNA profiles: environmentally exposed touch DNA recovered from steel bolts and unexposed reference sample DNA from cheek cells (Figure 3).

Notably:

Throughout the course of this research, low and variable quantities of touch DNA collected remained a challenge; the low quantities of the initial touch DNA that scientists could recover made it difficult for researchers to evaluate the level of DNA degradation properly. Future work aims to increase the initial amount of touch DNA collected to record its degradation more accurately over time.

Still, those in forensics and law enforcement can glean valuable information from this ongoing research regarding the persistence of DNA in certain environmental conditions. For instance, investigators are more likely to recover useable DNA in cool and dry indoor environments than hot and humid outside conditions. Moreover, they may have better success obtaining DNA from stainless steel objects than fabric.

Collectively, these studies provide the most comprehensive information to date on the persistence of touch DNA evidence.

The work described in this article was supported by NIJ grant number 2018-DU-BX-0192 awarded to MIT Lincoln Laboratory.

This article is based on the grantee report, Persistence of Touch DNA for Forensic Analysis (pdf, 24 pages), by Meghan Ramsey.

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Day 8 of trial: SWAT officer testimony, DNA evidence and cell phone … – thejewishchronicle.net

Posted: at 8:24 pm

After SWAT officer Anthony Burke was shot in his right hand his dominant hand by the man who attacked three congregations in the Tree of Life building on Oct. 27, 2018, he asked another officer to place a pistol in his left hand so he could get back to work.

Burke testified that when he arrived at the Tree of Life building that morning, he joined an emergency team already forming outside, then entered the building to help protect first responders while they cleared the main sanctuary. The officers then headed to the second chapel where they saw a man who had been gunned down and heard a woman screaming erratically.

Burke was the ninth and final witness Thursday. His testimony followed that of FBI experts regarding data extracted from the defendants cell phone, DNA evidence from the crime scene, and items discovered in the defendants apartment. Other witnesses included New Light Congregations Co-President Stephen Cohen and Tree of Life Congregations President Alan Hausman.

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Burke described heading up the stairway in the Tree of Life building and hearing gunfire erupt rapid, multiple shots coming from a pitch-black classroom and his colleague and mentor Officer Timothy Matson screaming in pain. Matson had been shot in his legs.

Matson, Burke said, was trying to crawl out of the third-floor room, head-first. Burke grabbed a strap on Matsons vest to help drag him out of the room.

I could see muzzle flashes, Burke said, and dry wall fragments falling from the ceiling.

Thats when Burkes hand was struck by gunfire.

After he got Matson out of the room, Burke pushed him down a set of five stairs to safety, then tried to grab his rifle, but he couldnt.

My hand wasnt working, Burke said. There was a large wound on the top and bottom of my hand.

He let other officers know he was shot and they applied a tourniquet to help stop the bleeding.

A second round of gunfire began. Burke could hear officers communicating with the defendant, who said he was hurt and he wanted to give up, Burke recounted. He said he wanted us to come in and get him.

Burke said he heard the defendant say that he couldnt stand by and watch Jews do this to this country and all Jews had to die. Eventually, the officers convinced the shooter to crawl out of the room.

Burke had four surgeries to repair the damage to his hand, he said, and he couldnt return to work until December 2019. After his second surgery, a test showed that a nerve in his wrist was not carrying signals to his muscles, so it was replaced with a nerve from a cadaver. When that didnt work, he had a tendon removed from his leg and placed in his hand. While he can still perform his job duties, hes been left with sensory issues in two fingers, cant open his hand completely and has trouble with his fine motor skills, he said.

Earlier in the day, an FBI forensic examiner headquartered in Quantico, Virginia, detailed the analysis of DNA extracted from a Colt AR-15 rifle, two Glock pistols, a canvas bag, earmuffs and safety glasses found at the Tree of Life building and in the defendants vehicle. The probability that the DNA found on those items belonged to the defendant, is very strong, she said.

In fact, FBI forensic examiner Marcy Plaza said that it was 6 septillion times more likely that the defendants DNA was present on those items than that of an unknown, unrelated individual.

Another FBI expert from Quantico, Curtis Thomas, a digital forensic examiner for mobile phones and other electronic devices, testified about the information that was extracted from a cellphone belonging to the defendant, which was locked and encrypted. To gain access, the FBI had to figure out the password. But the phone had been programmed so that if a wrong password was guessed 15 to 30 times, all user data would be erased.

Thomas described the process and software used to override the number of times his team could try a password before the phone erased all data. Once they were successful in doing so and unlocking the phone, they found that, compared to a typical cell phone, there was a low amount of data used. For example, the defendant had only one contact entered, and it had been deleted. There were just nine text messages, which all had been deleted.

Cookies small pieces of data that websites or applications store to remember information about their users indicated that the user of the phone had been active on Gab.com on Oct. 27, 2018, from 9:47 to 9:48 a.m. Gab.com is a social media site popular among the alt-right and some extremists, and on which there is a lot of antisemitic content.

One photo extracted from the phone depicted the defendant making an OK hand gesture. The Anti-Defamation League has classified that gesture as a hate symbol associated with white supremacy and the far right. There were also several photos on the phone of guns and ammunition.

FBI Special Agent Cedric Jefferson, who worked out of West Virginia for the FBIs Pittsburgh team at the time of the shooting, testified he and his team were dispatched to the defendants residence, a one-bedroom apartment in Baldwin, the day of the shooting. Prosecutors displayed several photos of the defendants apartment showing what the FBI found there that day, including a paper target hanging on the living room wall depicting the image of a person, computers, three DVDs related to weapon use including one titled Top Ten Concealed Carry Mistakes and How to Avoid Them a substantial amount of ammunition and several firearms, Jefferson said.

The first witness of the day was New Light Congregations Co-President Stephen Cohen, who testified that the congregation began leasing space from Tree of Life * Or LSimcha in 2017 because the financial burden of maintaining its own building in Squirrel Hill had become too great. The three-year lease agreement with the probability of extension set the rent for the first year at $35,000, with provisions for it to rise each year. Cohen also testified that, after the massacre, the congregation had to find a new space in another congregation.

Tree of Life President Alan Hausman testified that his congregation suffered a financial loss of tens of thousands of dollars resulting from the attack, as it lost revenue from its long-term lease agreements with New Light and Congregation Dor Hadash, as well as from income from renting space to individuals and organizations for life cycle events, meetings and other programs.

Court is in recess until Monday, June 12. PJC Toby Tabachnick can be reached at [emailprotected]. This story is part of ongoing coverage of the Pittsburgh synagogue shooting trial by the Pittsburgh Jewish Chronicle and the Pittsburgh Union Progress in a collaboration supported by funding from the Pittsburgh Media Partnership.

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Tulsa Investigators Solve 15-Year-Old Rape Case With Grant … – News On 6

Posted: at 8:24 pm

Thursday, June 8th 2023, 6:15 pm

Tulsa Police Special Victim's unit has solved another old rape case, thanks to grant money that's letting them test old rape kits.

This is the second solved case in the past week and this one, was 15 years old.

Prosecutors have charged Isaias Barron with raping a woman at knife point in 2007, after her rape kit was tested and got a DNA match to Barron, who's already in prison for another rape.

Barron was convicted and sentenced to more than 38 years in prison for raping an 83-year-old woman in her Tulsa home back in 2020. Because he was convicted, his DNA was on file and detectives said that was key to solving the 2007 rape case.

In 2007, the victim told police a man offered her a ride, then demanded sex from her in exchange for money. Police said the victim said no, but said he raped her at knife-point.

That man wasn't identified until six months ago when investigators got a hit from a national DNA database they said connected Barron to the rape.

"Since he was convicted of a sexual assault and sentenced to prison, his DNA was taken at that time ergo now we have this match between this 2007 case and Mr. Barron, said Lieutenant Darin Ehrenrich with the Tulsa Police Special Victims Unit.

Investigators interviewed Barron in prison earlier this year and said, despite theDNA evidence, he denied everything.

"This is a specific example of how testing all kits regardless of the circumstances of each particular case, is going to show us these links and solve more of these cases and get more of these violent offenders off the streets, said Ehrenrich.

Tulsa Police had 3,000 untested rape kits in 2017 and they've tested nearly 1,000, which has led to three arrests this year alone.

Police arrested Alfred Wilson earlier this year after they said DNA evidence linked him to a 2003 rape.

Police then arrested Christopher Corn last week after they said DNA evidence linked him to a 1999 rape.

Officers said most sex offenders are habitual offenders; it's not a one time thing.

"Sexual assault is not just a one-off crime. It is not something someone does just once. It is a consistent pattern of behavior, generally, said Ehrenrich. "We are never going to give up on these cases. They are always there and they are always on our minds, and if there's something we can do to bring justice to these cases, we are going to do it."

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