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                            Library & Multimedia
 Substrate Pyrolysis Database Expansion, Evaluation, and Use
NCJ Number
              253892

Author(s)
          Michael Sigman
Date Published

October 2018
Length
              12 pages
Annotation
              This is the Final Summary Overview of the findings and methodology for a research project with the goal of producing an additional 1,500-substrata pyrolysis records for the Substrate Database (SD).
Abstract
              The SD assists fire debris analysts in casework, provides an extensive comparative cross-tabulation of pyrolysis/combustion products to ignitable liquid components, and affords a more comprehensive understanding of the parameters that affect statistical classification models. The current project had the following four goals: 1) development of a set of three standard burning methods that produce pyrolysis/combustion products; 2) an increase in the number of records in the SD by preparing 10 records for 150 new substrate materials; 3) a cross-tabulation of the frequency of occurrence based on identified compounds in ignitable liquids and pyrolysis/combustion products of substrate materials and a Naïve Bayes classification for the presence of ignitable liquid residue; and 4) the development of better fire debris models to incorporate into statistical methods that enable analysts to assess objectively the evidentiary value of fire-debris samples from casework. The project design and methods are described in this report. The report of project findings focuses on substrate database modifications, compound identification and frequency of occurrence for major peaks, compound identification-frequency of occurrence-Naïve Bayes classification, and the evidential value of fire debris data. The report on the latter finding addresses model effects on likelihood ratios. This report concludes that the expansion of the SD is having a direct impact on fire-debris casework in the United States and internationally by providing additional samples of pyrolysis products that were generated under different burn conditions. 1 figure and 3 cited works
      
  
          Additional Details
Grant Number(s)
        2015-DN-BX-K051


  
  
        
  Agencies
        NIJ-Sponsored


  
  
        
  Publication Type
        Research (Applied/Empirical)
                                Report (Study/Research)
                                Report (Grant Sponsored)
                                Program/Project Description


  
  
        
  Award
        Substrate Pyrolysis Database Expansion, Evaluation and Use
    
  
  
Date Published: October 1, 2018
    
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