Impact of humidity on latent print processing and recovery

The goal of this study was to determine if environmental factors impact the quality of detail in latent prints on non-porous and porous surfaces. Specifically, this study focused on how humidity impacts latent print processing, development, and analysis on tile and paper. Latent prints are prints deposited on surfaces in sweat (James, Nordby & Bell, 2014). As humidity is water vapor in the air, it is expected that increased humidity would have a noticeable impact on the quality of latent prints. To date, no research has been conducted comparing how humidity impacts latent prints on porous and non-porous surfaces at consistent temperatures. In this study, latent prints were deposited on a non-porous surface (white tile) and a porous surface (paper) and subjected to 30%, 50% and 90% humidity at a consistent temperature range (70-74 degrees Fahrenheit) to assess if humidity causes a noticeable change in the quality of latent prints. Once collected, prints were uploaded into the Automated Fingerprint Identification System (AFIS), which was set to automatically mark minutiae. Minutiae were then edited by an experienced latent fingerprint examiner to ensure accuracy. The edited minutiae count generated from AFIS was used to determine what category each print fell under: low quality (0-6 minutiae), moderate quality (7-12 minutiae), or high quality (13 and above minutiae). Multiple statistical tests were performed to determine statistical significance between different variables. This included comparing tracked humidities, tracked temperature ranges, overall minutiae count between humidities, and change in minutiae count over time. Based on the results, humidity did appear to have an impact on the quality of the prints over time for both surfaces, porous and non-porous. Overall, quality decreased with increased levels of humidity. At each humidity, a decrease in quality was also observed over time. The only prints that deviated from this were the prints on the tile at 90% humidity tile. These prints stayed at a consistent low quality. This leads to the conclusion that prints recovered on white tile with black powder and prints recovered on paper with ninhydrin decrease in quality with increased levels of humidity and also decrease over time at set humidities

Technological development and concentration of stock exchanges in Europe

This paper provides an explanation of technical inefficiencies of financial exchanges in Europe as well as an empirical analysis of their existence and extent. A single-stage stochastic cost frontier approach is employed, which generates exchange inefficiency scores based on a unique unbalanced panel data set for all major European financial exchanges over the period 1985–1999. Overall cost inefficiency scores reveal that European exchanges operate at 20–25% above the efficiency benchmark. The results also affirm that size of exchange; market concentration and quality; structural reorganisations of exchange governance; diversification in trading service activities; and adoption of automated trading systems significantly influence the efficient provision of trading services in Europe. Over the sample period, European exchanges notably improved their ability to efficiently manage their production and input resources.Europe; financial exchanges; panel data; technical efficiency

Automated Feedback for 'Fill in the Gap' Programming Exercises

Timely feedback is a vital component in the learning process. It is especially important for beginner students in Information Technology since many have not yet formed an effective internal model of a computer that they can use to construct viable knowledge. Research has shown that learning efficiency is increased if immediate feedback is provided for students. Automatic analysis of student programs has the potential to provide immediate feedback for students and to assist teaching staff in the marking process. This paper describes a “fill in the gap” programming analysis framework which tests students’ solutions and gives feedback on their correctness, detects logic errors and provides hints on how to fix these errors. Currently, the framework is being used with the Environment for Learning to Programming (ELP) system at Queensland University of Technology (QUT); however, the framework can be integrated into any existing online learning environment or programming Integrated Development Environment (IDE

Computerization of workflows, guidelines and care pathways: a review of implementation challenges for process-oriented health information systems

There is a need to integrate the various theoretical frameworks and formalisms for modeling clinical guidelines, workflows, and pathways, in order to move beyond providing support for individual clinical decisions and toward the provision of process-oriented, patient-centered, health information systems (HIS). In this review, we analyze the challenges in developing process-oriented HIS that formally model guidelines, workflows, and care pathways. A qualitative meta-synthesis was performed on studies published in English between 1995 and 2010 that addressed the modeling process and reported the exposition of a new methodology, model, system implementation, or system architecture. Thematic analysis, principal component analysis (PCA) and data visualisation techniques were used to identify and cluster the underlying implementation ‘challenge’ themes. One hundred and eight relevant studies were selected for review. Twenty-five underlying ‘challenge’ themes were identified. These were clustered into 10 distinct groups, from which a conceptual model of the implementation process was developed. We found that the development of systems supporting individual clinical decisions is evolving toward the implementation of adaptable care pathways on the semantic web, incorporating formal, clinical, and organizational ontologies, and the use of workflow management systems. These architectures now need to be implemented and evaluated on a wider scale within clinical settings

Application of ERTS-1 data to integrated state planning in the state of Maryland

There are no author-identified significant results in this report

Total factor productivity growth in European stock exchanges: A non-parametric frontier approach

This paper examines progressive changes in productivity of the European stock exchange industry using non-parametric frontier techniques. Within the framework of Malmquist indices, total factor productivity growth is decomposed into technological progress and technical efficiency change for a balanced panel of all major European stock exchanges over the period 1993–1999. The principal findings indicate an overall rise in productivity over the sample period, which is driven more by technological innovation than by efficiency improvements. According to organisational setup, technological innovation is more pronounced for exchanges with the following characteristics: automation, equity and derivatives trading, for-profit governance structure, large or medium-size capitalised markets. Technological progress can be interpreted as a sign of the dynamic nature of the whole exchange industry, in which stock exchanges take advantage of intense diffusion of new cost-effective technologies and information systems to leverage themselves onto a higher production frontier.stock exchanges; productivity; technological progress; Europe

Continuous ink-jet printing electronic components using novel conductive inks

To reduce the cost of electronics fabrication and to take advantage of numerous potential specialized applications, a novel process of manufacturing three-dimensional electronic products is introduced in the present investigation. This process, which is currently being patented by the University of Pittsburgh, utilizes specialized continuous ink jet (CIJ) printing technology and innovative conductive inks that are capable of producing high-resolution conductive traces. Unlike drop-on-demand (DOD) techniques that are aimed at more precise features sizes (1 micron or less) and smaller scale applications, the present investigation demonstrates that the new process can be used in mass production applications where larger feature sizes (~50 microns) are sufficient. It has been found that the traces produced by the process have excellent adherence and have an electrical resistivity of only 2.9 times of bulk silver after curing. The major advantage of the proposed CIJ process is that it not only provides a fast and cost-effective method for applying electronic components (conductors, diodes, capacitors and resistors) on existing products, but it also allows the printing of conductive traces in three-dimensional space. With a throw distance that exceeds 10 cm, it demonstrates how the new fabrication process is not only suitable for desktop microfabrication, but also for large volume applications such as automotive glass.Mechanical Engineerin