Forensic examination of plastic drinking straws based on their physical characteristics and manufacturing marks.

This work highlights the evidential value of examining plastic drinking straws to establish linkages between multiple sources for forensic intelligence, investigative or prosecution purposes. Plastic drinking straws are commonly encountered in drug cases, either as inhalational paraphernalia or as packaging material. However, to the best of our knowledge, systematic studies on the evidential value of straws have not previously been carried out.

Snap-lock bags with red band: A study of manufacturing characteristics, thermal and chemical properties.

Drug packaging is commonly submitted to the Forensic Chemistry and Physics Laboratory of the Health Sciences Authority, Singapore, for examination. The drugs seized are often packaged in plastic bags. These bags are examined for linkages to provide law enforcement with useful associations between the traffickers and drug abusers.

New approach for multilayered microstructures fabrication based on a water-soluble backing substrate.

We demonstrate a new approach for woodpile microstructure fabrication. The method involves the use of polyvinyl alcohol (PVA) as a sacrificial substrate for the transfer of SU-8 films to prepatterned structures. The surface activated PVA substrate allows good wettability of SU-8 film and its solubility in water eliminates the need of delaminating SU-8 structures from the substrate.

Design of single peptides for self-assembled conduction channels.

Self-assembly of peptides provides the possibility of achieving relatively long range order on surfaces. These ordered peptides can also form channels that can be used as conduction channels. In the past, studies were focused on electron conduction through the secondary structure and amine bond of peptides and these restrict conduction of electrons over a short range (a few nanometers).