Impact of illustrated backgrounds on the automatic assessment of fingermark quality.

In the fingermark detection field, background illustrations may negatively impact the visibility of the marks in presence. They can indeed locally reduce the contrast or mask ridge details. When conducting a research project, the choice for plain or illustrated substrates is mostly driven by the research objectives as well as the development level of the investigated technique (e.

Use of automated quality assessment algorithms in fingermark detection research - Application to IND/Zn vs DFO.

When developing detection techniques for fingermarks, the detected fingermarks must be evaluated for their quality to assess the effectiveness of the new method. It is a common practice to compare the performance of the new (optimized) technique with the traditional or well-established ones. In current practice, this evaluation step is carried out by a group of human assessors.

A comparison of the natural and groomed fingermark lipid composition of different donors using GC/MS.

The lipid composition of natural fingermarks was studied and compared with the composition of groomed residue. Approximately 100 specimens were collected from 6 donors over three sessions (in October, December and July) and analysed using gas chromatography / mass spectrometry (GC/MS). The measured lipid content was generally lower and more variable in natural fingermarks than in groomed fingermarks.

Differentiating individuals through the chemical composition of their fingermarks.

Fingermark patterns are one of the oldest means of biometric identification. During this last decade, the molecules that constitute the fingermark residue have gained interest among the forensic research community to gain additional intelligence regarding its donor profile including its gender, age, lifestyle or even its pathological state. In this work, the molecular composition of fingermarks have been studied to monitor the variability between donors and to explore its capacity to differentiate individuals using supervised multi-class classification models.

Chemical composition of the fingermark residue: Assessment of the intravariability over one year using MALDI-MSI.

These past years, the chemical composition of fingermarks have attracted interest of researchers to meet multiple objectives like the determination of an individual's age, gender or lifestyle or the impact of some fingermark detection processes, to cite a few. These studies have highlighted the need to investigate the consistency of the fingermark composition over time. This research explores the evolution of the secretion residue composition of thirteen donors over one year, focusing on the intravariability.

Development of a printed quality control test strip for the analysis and imaging of fingermark composition.

In the last decade, there have been many scientific developments regarding the use of mass spectrometry to analyse the composition of fingermarks. In this context, the development of a dedicated quality control test strip would benefit the forensic community by providing a way to assess the reproducibility of the measures as well as to perform inter-laboratory comparisons. To accomplish this goal, the use of a chemical printer offers the possibility of combining a visual template with artificial fingerprint secretions.

Printed artificial sweat as replacement for natural fingermarks: Qualitative and quantitative approach considering an amino acid reagent.

The study presented in this paper aims at assessing how printed fingermarks can be used to generate realistic latent marks bearing varying quantities of materials to be detected. Considering dilution series of artificial sweat (eccrine secretion) and 1,2-indanedione/zinc as amino acid reagent, we assessed how printed marks behave in comparison to natural fingermarks provided by a set of 30 donors. The results were assessed in terms of relative intensity (contrast, luminescence) and expert grading (ridge details, overall quality).

Automatic assessment of fingermarks quality: Exploration of the possible application in the context of detection and comparison with human examiners.

In forensic science, particularly in the context of latent fingermarks detection, forensic scientists are often faced with the need to assess the quality of the detected fingermarks to quantitatively interpret their results and express conclusions. Today this process is mainly carried out by human examiners referring to guidelines or provided quality scales. The largest the set of fingermarks (e.

Interpol review of fingermarks and other body impressions 2016-2019.

This review paper covers the forensic-relevant literature in fingerprint and bodily impression sciences from 2016 to 2019 as a part of the 19th Interpol International Forensic Science Managers Symposium. The review papers are also available at the Interpol website at: https://www.interpol.

Providing illicit drugs results in five seconds using ultra-portable NIR technology: An opportunity for forensic laboratories to cope with the trend toward the decentralization of forensic capabilities.

The analysis of illicit drugs faces many challenges, mainly regarding the production of timely and reliable results and the production of added value from the generated data. It is essential to rethink the way this analysis is operationalised, in order to cope with the trend toward the decentralization of forensic applications. This paper describes the deployment of an ultra-portable near-infrared detector connected to a mobile application.

Effect of water immersion on multi- and mono-metallic VMD.

The use of vacuum metal deposition (VMD) for fingermark detection has been known for almost 40 years. The technique is applicable on a wide variety of substrates and on wetted items. Several publications compare the relative efficiency of VMD (conventionally based on a successive vaporization of gold followed by zinc) with other detection techniques, or its ability to detect marks on difficult substrates, but few are known about the application of monometallic VMDs and about the impact of immersion on the detection performances.

Further investigations into the single metal deposition (SMD II) technique for the detection of latent fingermarks.

Single metal deposition (SMD II), a recently proposed method for the development of latent fingermarks, was investigated by systematically altering aspects of the procedure to assess their effect on the level of development and contrast achieved. Gold nanoparticle size, temperature of the deposition solution bath, and orbital shaking during detection were shown to affect the levels of development and contrast obtained. Gold nanoparticles of diameter 15-21nm were found to be most effective for satisfactory visualisation of latent fingermarks, while solutions that were applied at room temperature were found to adequately balance the ratio between the contrast of the fingermark ridge detail and the level of background staining achieved.

Functionalised silicon oxide nanoparticles for fingermark detection.

Over the past decade, the use of nanotechnology for fingermark detection has been attracting a lot of attention. A substantial number of nanoparticle types has thus been studied and applied with varying success. However, despite all efforts, few publications present clear supporting evidence of their superiority over standard and commonly used techniques.

Cadmium-free quantum dots in aqueous solution: Potential for fingermark detection, synthesis and an application to the detection of fingermarks in blood on non-porous surfaces.

The use of quantum dots (QDs) in the area of fingermark detection is currently receiving a lot of attention in the forensic literature. Most of the research efforts have been devoted to cadmium telluride (CdTe) quantum dots often applied as powders to the surfaces of interests. Both the use of cadmium and the nano size of these particles raise important issues in terms of health and safety.

Detection of fingermarks by colloidal gold (MMD/SMD)--beyond the pH 3 limit.

This work is part of a continuing goal to improve the multimetal deposition technique (MMD), as well as the single-metal deposition (SMD), to make them more robust, more user-friendly, and less labour-intensive. Indeed, two major limitations of the MMD/SMD were identified: (1) the synthesis of colloidal gold, which is quite labour-intensive, and (2) the sharp decrease in efficiency observed when the pH of the working solution is increased above pH 3. About the synthesis protocol, it has been simplified so that there is no more need to monitor the temperature during the synthesis.

Use of quantum dots in aqueous solution to detect blood fingermarks on non-porous surfaces.

A new and original reagent based on the use of highly fluorescent cadmium telluride (CdTe) quantum dots (QDs) in aqueous solution is proposed to detect weak fingermarks in blood on non-porous surfaces. To assess the efficiency of this approach, comparisons were performed with one of the most efficient blood reagents on non-porous surfaces, Acid Yellow 7 (AY7). To this end, four non-porous surfaces were studied, i.

Identification of promising antigenic components in latent fingermark residues.

An analysis of latent fingermark residues by Sodium-Dodecyl-Sulfate PolyAcrylamide Gel Electrophoresis (SDS-PAGE) followed by silver staining allowed the detection of different proteins, from which two major bands, corresponding to proteins of 56 and 64 kDa molecular weight, could be identified. Two other bands, corresponding to proteins of 52 and 48 kDa were also visualizable along with some other weaker bands of lower molecular weights. In order to identify these proteins, three antibodies directed against human proteins were tested on western blots of fingermarks residues: anti-keratin 1 and 10 (K1/10), anti-cathepsin-D (Cat.

Fingermark detection based on the in situ growth of luminescent nanoparticles--towards a new generation of multimetal deposition.

The in situ deposition of zinc oxide on gold nanoparticles in aqueous solution has been here successfully applied in the field of fingermark detection on various non-porous surfaces. In this article, we present the improvement of the multimetal deposition, an existing technique limited up to now to non-luminescent results, by obtaining luminescent fingermarks with very good contrast and details. This is seen as a major improvement in the field in terms of selectivity and sensitivity of detection, especially on black surfaces.

SECM imaging of MMD-enhanced latent fingermarks.

Scanning electrochemical microscopy (SECM) has been used to image latent fingermarks enhanced by adsorption of gold nanoparticles onto which silver is chemically deposited, a process known as "multi-metal-deposition" (MMD).

Single-metal deposition (SMD) as a latent fingermark enhancement technique: an alternative to multimetal deposition (MMD).

This paper proposes an alternative solution to multimetal deposition (MMD) for the development of latent fingermarks on non-porous and porous surfaces. MMD offers a good sensitivity, however it is very time-consuming and requires many reagents to be carried out. Single-metal deposition (SMD) replaces the silver enhancement of the gold colloids by a gold enhancement procedure.

Use of gold nanoparticles as molecular intermediates for the detection of fingermarks.

Among the numerous methods dedicated to the detection of latent fingermarks, the MultiMetal Deposition (MMD) offers, as a main advantage, the ability to be applied on a great number of porous and non-porous surfaces, e.g., paper, plastic, glass, latex, and polystyrene, even if wetted.

Description of protein-DNA complexes in terms of electron-density topological features.

This paper presents a computer-modelling approach for the generation of low-resolution representations of two protein-DNA complexes, NF-kappaB and HIF-1. The representation is obtained by topological analysis of electron-density maps at 2.85 A crystallographic resolution, which leads to a set containing a limited number of critical points (CP).