Artificial Intelligence in Violence Risk Assessment: Addressing Racial Bias and Inequity.

Although there has been no shortage of technological innovation in recent decades, a solution to sociodemographic disparities in the forensic setting has remained elusive. Artificial intelligence (AI) is a uniquely powerful emerging technology that is likely to either exacerbate or mitigate existing disparities and biases. This column argues that the implementation of AI in forensic settings is inevitable, and that practitioners and researchers should focus on developing AI systems that reduce bias and advance sociodemographic equity rather than attempt to impede the use of this novel technology.

Method Development for a Short-Term 7-Day Toxicity Test with Unionid Mussels.

The US Environmental Protection Agency's short-term freshwater effluent test methods include a fish (Pimephales promelas), a cladoceran (Ceriodaphnia dubia), and a green alga (Raphidocelis subcapitata). There is a recognized need for additional taxa to accompany the three standard species for effluent testing. An appropriate additional taxon is unionid mussels because mussels are widely distributed, live burrowed in sediment and filter particles from the water column for food, and exhibit high sensitivity to a variety of contaminants. Multiple studies were conducted to develop a relevant and robust short-term test method for mussels. We first evaluated the comparative sensitivity of two mussel species (Villosa constricta and Lampsilis siliquoidea) and two standard species (P. promelas and C. dubia) using two mock effluents prepared by mixing ammonia and five metals (cadmium, copper, nickel, lead, and zinc) or a field-collected effluent in 7-day exposures. Both mussel species were equally or more sensitive (more than two-fold) to effluents compared with the standard species. Next, we refined the mussel test method by first determining the best feeding rate of a commercial algal mixture for three age groups (1, 2, and 3 weeks old) of L. siliquoidea in a 7-day feeding experiment, and then used the derived optimal feeding rates to assess the sensitivity of the three ages of juveniles in a 7-day reference toxicant (sodium chloride [NaCl]) test. Juvenile mussels grew substantially (30%-52% length increase) when the 1- or 2-week-old mussels were fed 2 ml twice daily and the 3-week-old mussels were fed 3 ml twice daily. The 25% inhibition concentrations (IC25s) for NaCl were similar (314-520 mg Cl/L) among the three age groups, indicating that an age range of 1- to 3-week-old mussels can be used for a 7-day test. Finally, using the refined test method, we conducted an interlaboratory study among 13 laboratories to evaluate the performance of a 7-day NaCl test with L. siliquoidea. Eleven laboratories successfully completed the test, with more than 80% control survival and reliable growth data. The IC25s ranged from 296 to 1076 mg Cl/L, with a low (34%) coefficient of variation, indicating that the proposed method for L. siliquoidea has acceptable precision. Environ Toxicol Chem 2021;40:3392-3409. © 2021 SETAC.

Simultaneous extraction and cleanup of high-lipid organs from white sturgeon (Acipenser transmontanus) for multiple legacy and emerging organic contaminants using QuEChERS sample preparation.

The objective of this research was to utilize the QuEChERS (Quick, Easy, Cheap, Effective, Rugged, and Safe) method to extract a broad range of persistent organic pollutants from sturgeon organs (liver and gonad) as indicators of exposure. The analyte list was prioritized to include carcinogenic polyaromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), the most commonly occurring polybrominated diphenyl ethers (PBDEs) and polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), persistent bioaccumulative and toxic chemicals (PBTs), and emergent contaminants of concern (ECCs) as indicators of human sewage exposure. White sturgeon (Acipenser transmontanus) were selected for this study to support a larger ecotoxicological study to monitor contaminants as an assessment of fish health. Organ tissues contained high lipid content with percentages of 15% and 34% for liver and gonad, respectively. Overall recoveries from fortified sturgeon tissues were high, 71-98% for PAHs, 60-107% for PBDEs and PCBs, 86-107% for PBT chemicals, and 88-107% for ECCs with the exception of octinoxate (28%) from liver tissues. Analyte recovery trends decreased as analyte lipophilicity and molecular weight increased. These recoveries demonstrate that extraction using QuEChERS can be used for screening of the most common bioaccumulating organic compounds in high lipid fish tissue using a single extraction and analysis.

High efficiency 3D video coding using new tools based on view synthesis.

We propose a new coding technology for 3D video represented by multiple views and the respective depth maps. The proposed technology is demonstrated as an extension of the recently developed high efficiency video coding (HEVC). One base views are compressed into a standard bitstream (like in HEVC). The remaining views and the depth maps are compressed using new coding tools that mostly rely on view synthesis. In the decoder, those views and the depth maps are derived via synthesis in the 3D space from the decoded baseview and from data corresponding to small disoccluded regions. The shapes and locations of those disoccluded regions can be derived by the decoder without any side information transmitted. To achieve high compression efficiency, we propose several new tools such as depth-based motion prediction, joint high frequency layer coding, consistent depth representation, and nonlinear depth representation. The experiments show high compression efficiency of the proposed technology. The bitrate needed for transmission of two side views with depth maps is mostly less than 50% than that of the bitrate for a single-view video.