Review on the analysis of questioned documents

During the last years (2000-2014), many publications concerning the forensic analysis of questioned documents have been published, and new techniques and methodologies arenowadays employed to overcome forensic caseworks. This article reviews a comprehensive collection of the works focused on this issue, dating studies, the analysis of inks from pens andprinters, the analysis of paper, the analysis of other samples related to questioned documents and studies on intersecting lines. These sections highlight the most relevant analytical studies by a wide range of analytical techniques. Separation and spectrometric techniques are critically discussed and compared, emphasizing the advantages and disadvantages of each one. Finally, concluding remarks on the research published are included

Currency security and forensics: a survey

By its definition, the word currency refers to an agreed medium for exchange, a nation’s currency is the formal medium enforced by the elected governing entity. Throughout history, issuers have faced one common threat: counterfeiting. Despite technological advancements, overcoming counterfeit production remains a distant future. Scientific determination of authenticity requires a deep understanding of the raw materials and manufacturing processes involved. This survey serves as a synthesis of the current literature to understand the technology and the mechanics involved in currency manufacture and security, whilst identifying gaps in the current literature. Ultimately, a robust currency is desire

Non-destructive collection survey of the historical Classense Library. Part II: Conservation scenarios

The effects of environmental and conservation management scenarios on the permanence of the historical book collections housed at the Classense Library (Ravenna, Italy) were investigated. Non-destructive material surveys delivered paper pH and degree of polymerisation data that, in conjunction with the Collections Demography dose–response function, provide heritage managers with estimations of the predicted collection lifetimes in diverse environmental management scenarios. For the first time, quantitative measurements of paper properties obtained in a historical library collection were used to elaborate isochrone and demographic plots, evaluated against the long-term planning horizon of 500 years. The scenarios include preventive and interventive actions aiming to preserve the fitness-for-use of collection items in terms of their ability to withstand manual handling, and consider cooling, dehumidification and deacidification, as well as combinations thereof. The results inform the conservation decision-makers about the preservation outcomes of environmental management options, to be considered for further action, once environmental, economic and social sustainability of such scenarios is considered

Development of new methodologies for dating in the forensic field, combining analytical techniques with multivariate regression treatments

318 p.Whenever a crime is committed, there is always a unity of time, place and action that forensic experts will aim to demonstrate throughout the investigation. Determining the succession, simultaneity, frequency or duration of criminal activities as well as the age of objects, persons and traces is therefore one of the most important goals of forensics in reconstructing the crime scene or in finding and understanding the connections between the evidence and the suspects involved therein. However, time has been largely unexplored due to the complexity of the overall challenge at hand, not yet successfully overcome by single cutting-edge techniques. The coupling of such techniques with chemometrics, more specifically with multivariate regression methods, could turn this situation upside down thanks to the development of age quantitation methodologies based on the modelling of the modifications experienced by the evidence in its properties with respect to time. The potential applicability of these chemometric tools, however, remains poorly understood and underexploited due to their recent introduction into forensic dating research and the statistical background required for their optimal application. That is why this thesis focuses on highlighting the usefulness of multivariate regression methods in several forensicfields, such as questioned documents, art forgery and medico-legal death investigation, through the development and validation of dating methodologies in which non-destructive and micro-destructive techniques are applied together with the (orthogonal) partial least squares regression ((O)PLSR) method

Direct and indirect approaches based on paper analysis by Py-GC/MS for estimating the age of documents

The age of a relatively old document is one of the pending issues to be resolved in the field of forensic documentary examination. Although nowadays there are a variety of analytical methodologies focused in the analysis of inks for dating documents, the paper analysis has attained little attention. This work aims to develop two complementary approaches for estimating the age of documents based on paper analysis employing the pyrolysis technique coupled to gas chromatography with detection by mass spectrometry (Py-GC/MS): (i) a direct approach using the pyrolytic fingerprints and multivariate regression with artificially aged samples, and (ii) an indirect approach based on the identification of compounds characteristic of the document period. The direct approach has successfully allowed the age estimation of relatively old documents under police custody (up to 30 years of age) and the determination of a relation between the natural and the accelerated aging of paper under the used conditions. This approach is applicable to papers that have the same (or similar) composition and have been stored under comparable storage conditions. Additionally, the indirect approach is presented as an interesting perspective to ratify valuable information of the document age

Wine Cunterfeiting: Development of fast, non-destructive and multifactorial laser-based spectrochemical methods for authentication of bottled wine

378 p.La presente Tesis Doctoral pretende avanzar en el desarrollo de una herramienta analítica que permita certificar la autenticidad de un vino de forma inequívoca mediante técnicas analíticas no invasivas (es decir, prácticamente inapreciable a simple vista) como son la ablación laser con plasma de acoplamiento inductivo-espectrometría de masas (LA-ICPMS) y las espectroscopias Raman e Infrarroja, que permiten el análisis de una muestra sólida sin necesidad de procesarla y sin inducir degradación o alteración apreciable alguna. Mediante la metodología desarrollada se pretende establecer el perfil elemental y molecular del vidrio, el papel, la tinta y la cápsula de las botellas de vino

Digital watermarking and novel security devices

EThOS - Electronic Theses Online ServiceGBUnited Kingdo