Motivated by the need to prepare for the next generation of fingerprint spoofing, we applied the "proactive forensic science" strategy to the biometric field. The working concept, already successful in a few fields, aimed at adopting the sophisticated criminals' way of thinking, predicting their next move so that the crime-fighting authorities can be one step ahead of them and take preventive measures, against biometric spoofing in this instance. This strategy involved the design, production, and characterization of innovative polymeric materials that could possibly serve in advanced fingerprint spoofs.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThe literature view regarding the composition of deposited fingermarks has long been that the average water content is in the range of 98-99wt.%. This value has recently been challenged by Kent, claiming that it should be 20wt.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFForensic Sci Int Genet
January 2019
Latent fingermarks (FMs) present unique, and sometimes the only, evidence found at a crime scene. Several factors affect their quality, including deposition pressure (DP). Its effect on FM size and quality, and on STR amplification success rate, is an emerging area of interest in forensic science.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThe nuclear disasters of Chernobyl and Fukushima presented an urgent need for finding solutions to treatment of radioactive wastes. Among the by-products of nuclear fission is radioactive Cs, which evokes an environmental hazard due to its long half-life (>30 years) and high solubility in water. In this work, a water-soluble organic ligand, readily obtained from alloxan and 1,3,5-benzenetriol, has been found to selectively bind and precipitate Cs ions from aqueous solutions.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFForensic Sci Int
February 2017
1,2-Indanedione has been extensively researched since the discovery of its fluorogenic reaction with amino acids in 1997 by Joullié et al. [1]. This current study compares the development of fingermarks on used train tickets by the three leading reagents for amino acids-ninhydrin, DFO and 1,2-indanedione.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFDetection of latent fingermarks on various substrates is critical in crime investigations. Conventional chemical methods using reagents could contaminate or even destruct biological information of samples. Here, an optical method and successful case application of detecting latent fingermarks through long-wave ultraviolet (UV) fluorescence (300-400 nm) by shortwave UV laser excitation is reported.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFActa Crystallogr E Crystallogr Commun
July 2016
The title compound, [Cs(CH3COO)(C28H16O8)(C2H5OH)]·C2H5OH, is the product of the complexation between one vasarene analogue [1], bis ninhydrin naphthalene-1,3-diol and CsF, where the F(-) ion has reacted with residual acetic acid (AcOH), to form a [1]·CsOAc complex. The inter-molecular inter-actions with the multiple oxygen-containing functional groups of the ligand, as well as O-H⋯O hydrogen bonds involving the ethanol solvent mol-ecules, stabilize the complex, forming a chain along [100]. Additional parallel-displaced π-π stacking, with an inter-planar distance of 3.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFActa Crystallogr E Crystallogr Commun
March 2016
The reaction between bis-ninhydrin resorcinol and benzyl-tri-methyl-ammonium fluoride in ethanol has produced the title compound, 2C10H16N(+)·2C24H13O8 (-)·1.5H2O, which contains a unique centrosymmetric supra-molecular dimeric entity, where two deprotonated ligands are held together via two strong and short [O⋯O = 2.4395 (13) Å] [O-H-O](-) bonds of the type negative charge-assisted hydrogen bonds (-CAHB).
View Article and Find Full Text PDFA self-assembled supramolecular dimeric entity via an exceptionally short (2.404 Å) and strong (22.9 kcal mol(-1)) [O-H-O](-) hydrogen bond is the key to the special reactivity of vasarenes with fluoride salts.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThroughout the world, young children are worryingly found to be involved in both unintentional and intentional gun violence, rendering the forensic investigation of gun handling by children a highly important matter. The effectiveness of the PDT reaction for mapping iron traces on hands of children has been tested and compared to its application on adults. Counter-intuitively, children were found to produce considerably more intense PDT impressions than adults.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFNine new derivatives of cathinone, which are not covered by present illicit-drug laws in Israel and other countries have been synthesized and characterized. Unlike most of the modified cathinones on the illicit drug market, these compounds are obtained by modifying the carbonyl group of the parent compound. The new group contains cyclic ketals and thioketals, oximes and hydrazone, of cathinone and of cathinone phthalimide.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFDespite the significant improvement of the PDT test for detecting recent contact with firearms, there are still many occasions in which the modified reagent (Ferrotrace™) shows insufficient sensitivity. Two techniques have been devised and tested for the enhancement of the sensitivity of this process: exposure to water vapors and accelerated sweating. Exposure of the hand to water vapors after spraying with the reagent significantly improved the quality of the colored impressions.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFActa Crystallogr Sect E Struct Rep Online
May 2014
The title compound, C24H14O9·2CH3OH, displays a chair-shaped form. The two di-hydro-indenone ring systems are located above and below the central fused-ring system, the dihedral angles between the mean planes of di-hydro-indenone ring systems and the mean plane of central fused-ring system are 67.91 (5) and 73.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFGold nanoparticles, AuNPs, capped with mercaptocarboxylic acids followed by silver precipitation develop latent fingermarks on paper as high quality "negative" impressions. This effect stems from hydrogen bonding between the carboxylic group and the paper cellulose and may improve the yield of latent fingermarks since the results are less dependent on sweat composition.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFUrea nitrate (uronium nitrate, UN) is an improvised explosive that looks very much like sugar and is easily made from accessible starting materials, urea and nitric acid. During the last decade it has been frequently used by terrorists in the Israeli arena and in other countries as well. It is difficult to identify urea nitrate in post-explosion debris, since only a very small fraction survives the blast.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFMolecularly imprinted Au nanoparticles (NPs) composites are generated on Au-coated glass surfaces. The imprinting process involves the electropolymerization of thioaniline-functionalized Au NPs (3.5 nm) on a thioaniline monolayer-modified Au surface in the presence of a carboxylic acid, acting as a template analogue for the respective explosive.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFSeveral ink dating methods based on solvents analysis using gas chromatography/mass spectrometry (GC/MS) were proposed in the last decades. These methods follow the drying of solvents from ballpoint pen inks on paper and seem very promising. However, several questions arose over the last few years among questioned documents examiners regarding the transparency and reproducibility of the proposed techniques.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFWe explored the quality distribution of ninhydrin-developed prints on A4 bond paper in two groups of individuals, in Israel and in India. While the quality distributions of the developed marks in both countries had some dissimilarities, both groups showed the expected bell-shape distribution, with the majority of the donors belonging to the central zone, defined as "average" or "good." Attempt was made to correlate between a physiological feature, palmar moisture, and the fingerprint donorship.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFTraces of the improvised explosive urea nitrate can be characterized by a sensitive colorimetric reaction with p-dimethylaminocinnamalaldehyde (p-DMAC, UN-1 reagent). As recently shown, the dark red product has a structure of a protonated Schiff base. The unprotonated free base, previously postulated in the literature to be the colored product, was now prepared and fully characterized.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFIn this work we present our observations on the interaction between metallic (copper, aluminum, iron, brass, zinc) and non-metallic (glass and plastic) surfaces bearing latent fingermarks and several aqueous electrolytic solutions. Good quality fingermarks could be observed on some of the metallic and even on non-metallic surfaces after such treatment. The influence of factors such as time interval from deposition, pH of the electrolytes, wiping the latent marks prior to processing and the presence of a second metal on the quality and permanence of the developed impressions have been studied.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFIn this paper, we present our preliminary studies into naphthoquinones as novel reagents for the detection of latent fingermarks on paper. Latent fingermarks deposited on paper substrates were treated with solutions of selected naphthoquinones in ethyl acetate/HFE-7100, with subsequent heating. The selected compounds were 1,4-dihydroxy-2-naphthoic acid, 1,2-naphthoquinone-4-sulfonate, 2-methoxy-1,4-naphthoquinone and 2-methyl-1,4-naphthoquinone.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFIn the first part of a comprehensive research project towards more efficient application of nano-technology to fingerprint visualization, we investigated the possibility of more selective binding of gold nanoparticles (NP) to fingerprint material. We synthesized derivatives of ninhydrin and 1,2-indanedione containing loosely bound thiol groups. In particular: thiohemiketals (THK) of ninhydrin, and thioketals of 1,2-indanedione were prepared and tested as potential fingerprint reagents.
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