Showing papers in "Science & Justice in 2012"

TL;DR: An experimental methodology is presented which is intended to establish minimum standards for those carrying out finger mark enhancement research (at least within the United Kingdom) and bring some consistency to the process.

TL;DR: Three complementary approaches are highlighted and described to formalise a preliminary framework that can be applied for the dating of traces, objects, persons and indirectly events.

TL;DR: The balanced scorecard is a performance measurement matrix designed to capture financial and non-financial metrics that provide insight into the critical success factors for an organization, effectively aligning organization strategy to key performance objectives.

TL;DR: Desorption electrospray ionization-mass spectrometry (DESI-MS) shows potential as a rapid, sensitive, and selective technique for forensic analysis of spiked beverages which are typical evidence of drug facilitated sexual assault and robbery cases.

TL;DR: SEM-EDX analysis has detected particulate by random particle fallout onto substrates at firework displays and to assess the impact this may have on GSR evidence, with firework particle population at large providing a solid ground for discrimination from GSR.

TL;DR: The study seems to indicate that this technique is highly reliable and user friendly, even on subadults, where growth processes seem not to affect the specific morphology of palatal rugae.

TL;DR: A gas chromatographic method was developed to facilitate simultaneous quantification of eight target analytes commonly found in illicit heroin seized in Malaysia within a 12 min run time and demonstrated high selectivity with the use of an HP Ultra 2 capillary column.

TL;DR: Carbon isotope signatures are within 0.3‰ of pre-blast values, indicating that carbon isotope values are largely preserved during an explosion, and could provide additional discrimination among tape samples.

TL;DR: The application of social network theory to understanding the nature and occurrence of multiple transfers of particulate evidence is demonstrated to be a useful means of identifying the prevalence of such transfers and to add valuable insights into the behaviour of this form of evidence.

TL;DR: The combination of Fourier transform infrared microspectroscopy and scanning electron microscope/energy dispersive X-ray mapping has provided a reliable method for sequencing intersecting lines of red seal ink and laser toner and more importantly, this method may be a basis for sequencing superimposed lines from other writing instruments.

TL;DR: Results presented herein show that the existing recommended chemistries and the 1,2 indandione/ZnCl(2) process are all more effective than this new latent finger mark enhancement reagent, while a preliminary sequencing study shows the effectiveness of the existing DFO-ninhydrin sequence over dual action reagents.

TL;DR: It became evident that the preferred approach varied depending on the fabric type being tested but that more often than not, wetting both the fabric and the test paper had a detrimental effect on the recovery of spermatozoa.

TL;DR: An analysis of previously published UK allele frequencies for white Caucasian, Afro-Caribbean and Indo-Pakistani populations and the implication of the five additional loci is considered and a procedure for reporting likelihood ratios for 15-plex STR profiles is suggested.

TL;DR: The results demonstrated that the combination of the trabecular volume and cortical width acted as predictors of the age in subjects which did not suffer from any deterioration of bone and/or mineral metabolism.

TL;DR: It is concluded that pattern match alone is of considerable evidential value even when the print is partial, and more importantly the NAS report on forensic sciences is discussed.

TL;DR: Leaving AP test papers for longer will allow the detection of greater dilutions of semen and as the amount of ejaculation is not reliably known in most casework situations and levels of AP activity can vary in different men, this will increase the seminal detection rate in sexual offence allegations.

TL;DR: It seems probable that a shared European electronic ballistic system will be of a very limited value at present and further improvements of existing systems to reach compatibility are encouraged.

TL;DR: Practical experience underlines the potential of Bayesian networks to support and clarify foundational principles of probabilistic procedures for forensic evaluation as well as highlighting the gap with respect to writings that focus on foundational aspects.

TL;DR: Controlling the variable of pressure for the production of test impressions in this study demonstrated that the differences observed were visual (due to the amount of contaminant transferred and subsequent enhancement) and did not affect the replication of outer sole characteristics.

TL;DR: This survey provides scientists with an updated data set for reference when considering the strength of paint evidence and is compared with the previously published survey of Pearson, May and Dabbs (1971).

TL;DR: A general framework based on the Bayes' factor as the quantitative measure of evidentiary strength is presented from which it can be deduced whether the direct application of a likelihood ratio is reasonable or not and a solution to the problem of communicating to the court the evidentiarystrength of a DNA match when a close relative has a non-negligible prior probability of being the source of the DNA.

TL;DR: Sensitivity studies found that the 0.1% w/v DMAC solution currently used for urine identification detects levels of urea found in other body fluids, potentially resulting in false positives.

TL;DR: In this article, the issue of bias and other cognitive influences in interpretation of mixture DNA is examined. But, the issue is of a sensitive nature and presents complex experimental challenges, and neither type of studies has ever been conducted to examine bias in mixture DNA interpretations.

TL;DR: The aim of this work was to compare the ability of black and green teas containing antioxidants to cause false negative results during chemiluminescent bloodstain detection.

TL;DR: Tapings taken from car seats were examined for car seat fibres, various types were found showing that these fibres are expected to shed from the fabric albeit in low numbers, unless the vehicle is older.

TL;DR: In this paper, a number of dyed acrylic and acetate fiber samples were examined with plane polarized light on their dichroic behavior by optical light microscopy (OLM) and microspectrophotometry with MSP-PPL.

TL;DR: It is thought that it is possible to interpret genetic risk for developing early diagnostic methods and treatment strategies by comprehensive linkage and association studies for alcohol dependence.

TL;DR: It is suggested that the dichroic behaviour of pigmented fibres depends strongly on the crystal structure (shape of the pigment grains) and the draw ratio (orientation of the polymer chains).

TL;DR: Information compiled from eight years of requested defense review of cases with biological and DNA evidence is taken and summarizes the cases where errors have been discovered and discusses the scientific implications of these errors.