Photography and its contributions to the "business" of crime detection.

Thesis (M.B.A.)--Boston Universit

Theory of Optical Spatial Filtering and its Application to Enhance Low Contrast Fingerprint Images

Image improvement, through the use of the Fourier transform property of lenses using various frequency blocking filters, was investigated to determine possible utilization of this technique to enhance low contrast fingerprint image characteristics. Ten basic fingerprint patterns were degraded in contrast and then used as the object t(x,y) in an optical spatial filtering setup. A series of frequency blocking filters were used in an effort to improve the degraded object image. Visual comparison of the filtered images obtained by using a double band frequency blocking filter, which produced the most satisfactory images, shows improved overall contrast. Random ridge enhancement was achieved, which varied from pattern to pattern, but at the same time, degradation also occurred randomly from smeared-out and blemished sections. Although overall enhancement was not achieved, the enhanced partial areas are typical of the type used in identification work using fingerprints

Vera Rubin shines light on dark matter

Thesis (S.M. in Science Writing)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Humanities, Graduate Program in Science Writing, 2008.Includes bibliographical references (leaves 39-43).This thesis, a profile of astronomer Vera Rubin, highlights her scientific achievements, most notably the irrefutable evidence she gathered to persuade the astronomical community that galaxies spin at a faster speed than Newton's Universal Law of Gravitation allows. As a result of this finding, astronomers conceded that the universe must be filled with more material than they can see. Scientists call this mysterious substance dark matter. This submission explains the scientific history of dark matter, its acceptance, and the current research being done to test its existence. It also mentions counter theories to the dark matter hypothesis and looks at Vera Rubin's current work and how this research will help astronomers better understand the construction of the cosmos and its evolution.by Ashley Yeager.S.M.in Science Writin

Detecting Forgery: Forensic Investigation of Documents

Detecting Forgery reveals the complete arsenal of forensic techniques used to detect forged handwriting and alterations in documents and to identify the authorship of disputed writings. Joe Nickell looks at famous cases such as Clifford Irving\u27s autobiography of Howard Hughes and the Mormon papers of document dealer Mark Hoffman, as well as cases involving works of art. Detecting Forgery is a fascinating introduction to the growing field of forensic document examination and forgery detection. Seldom does a book about forgery come along containing depth of subject matter in addition to presenting clear and understandable information. This book has both, plus a readability that is accessible to those studying questioned documents as well as seasoned experts. -- Journal of Forensic Identification The author\u27s expertise in historical documents is unmistakably evident throughout the book. Once I began reading, I found it hard to put down. -- Journal of Questioned Document Examination Guides the reader through various methods and techniques of identifying fakes and phone manuscripts. -- Manchester (KY) Enterprisehttps://uknowledge.uky.edu/upk_legal_studies/1000/thumbnail.jp

Clue, Code, Conjure: The Epistemology of American Detective Fiction, 1841-1914

This dissertation posits American detective fiction between 1841 and 1914 as a meaningful category and interrogates forms of knowledge used in this genre. The conventional wisdom on detective fiction creates a dichotomy of British and American production, with British detective fiction in a rational style dominating in importance into the 1920s, and American detective fiction dominating in importance with the hard-boiled style of the 1930s and \u2740s (as described by Raymond Chandler). This dissertation argues that American detective fiction is a meaningful category before and beyond the hard-boiled style. Abductive reasoning, a form of logic based on observation, hypothesis, and confirmation, is the characteristic mode of detection in fiction. Abductive reasoning requires the use of background knowledge to draw conclusions. Therefore, cultural context and beliefs become part of the interpretive process. Works by Edgar Allan Poe, Metta Victor, Anna Katharine Green, Mark Twain, Pauline Hopkins, Edwin Balmer and William MacHarg, and Arthur B. Reeve are used in this study to demonstrate the wide variety of knowledge sources considered relevant in this period. The clearest unit of information in detective fiction is the clue: an object or occurrence that provides critical information toward solving the mystery. The detective figure is the master interpreter of clues, with the observational skills, knowledge base, and imagination to identify and interpret information that others do not. The period of 1841 to 1914 saw extensive industrialization, geographic expansion, and racial turmoil in the United States. Forensic science advanced both technically and culturally as part of a larger movement toward scientific management. The transition to scientific thinking as depicted in detective fiction is, however, significantly complicated by continuing reliance on sentimental and sensational elements such as magic, religion, and intuition and on community-based ethics

Santa Clara Review, vol. 105, no. 1

https://scholarcommons.scu.edu/sc_review/1019/thumbnail.jp

I walk to see, I walk to know: Walking to Wongawol. An exhibition and I walk to see, I walk to know: Walking to Wongawol. An exegesis

The context of my embodied project, I Walk to See, I Walk to Know: Walking to Wongawol, is an exploration into 1) the absence of Western Desert Aboriginal narratives via the act of walking as knowing and 2) my recently discovered ancestral connections, which were historically erased by the state. The location of my project is Wongawol Station in the Western Desert, Western Australia, where my Indigenous ancestors lived, and whose lives I draw upon to make connections with the narratives and sensations of the desert landscape. I use the methodology of walking to investigate the interconnectivity between body and space/place and how this might be interpreted in relation to my research. For Nandi Chinna (2014), walking defines the body as the sensory vessel that can experience the dimensions of told and untold narratives of life on earth. I further explore the act of walking through the lens of rhythmanalysis—an approach that refers to how movement is a primary way of “engaging with the world” (Chen, 2013, p. 531). This is illustrated by works such as Raban’s Fergus Walking (Chen, 2013), a structural film that experiments within a nonbinary representation of walking within disrupted notions of time and space. Expanding on this idea, I have incorporated Derrida’s concepts of absence/presence within language/text, time and space as informed by his deconstructionism and nonbinary phenomenology to disrupt accepted literary and philosophical dichotomies. Indigenous film maker Thornton (2018) is also examined from the perspective of cinematography techniques in relation to body, memory, history and the land. Anselm Kiefer’s artworks, which convey the effects of Nazi Germany’s holocaust, allow a potent comparison reflecting “an intimate involvement with destruction and apocalypse [which acts] to provoke and keep memory alive” (Spies, 2016, p. 17). Underpinning my practice-led research are the writings of phenomenologists Merleau- Ponty (1962, 2012) and Heidegger (1962), who believe that the body and the world cannot be separated and that the body is essentially the primary place of knowing and interpreting the world (Merleau-Ponty, 2012): “my existence as subjectivity is identical with my existence as a body and with the existence of the world” (p. 431). The resultant dynamism and potentialities of working with materials to define the place/space of my ancestors comprises the act of walking, field notes, archives, photographic processes, ceramics and print processes. Further, the knowledge gained from acute immersive processes, experiential outcomes in situ and references to government documents characterises this exegesis as preparatory work towards a much larger body of research yet to be undertaken

Visualizing childhood in Upper Palaeolithic societies: Experimental and archaeological approach to artists? age estimation through cave art hand stencils

This paper presents rock art as a collective action in which different strata of society took part, including children and subadults. Until recent decades archaeology of childhood has not been in the main focus of the archaeological research, much less the participation of those children in the artistic activity. The present study approaches the palaeodemography of artists in the decorated caves through the paleolithic rock art itself. The approximate age of these individuals has been calculated through the biometric analysis of hand stencils in the caves of Fuente del Salín, Castillo, La Garma, Maltravieso and Fuente del Trucho, using 3D photogrammetric models as reference. The results have been compared with a modern reference population in order to assign the Palaeolithic hands to certain age groups. It has been demonstrated the presence of hand stencil motifs belongs to infants, children and juveniles, revealing this stratum?s importance in the artistic activity.The present study has been conducted as part of the research project “Before art: social investment in symbolic expressions during the Upper Palaeolithic (B-Art)” (PID 2019-107262 GB-I00), funded by the Ministry of Science, Innovation and Universities (MCIN/ AEI /10.13039/501100011033), PI: Diego Garate. This study is also a part of the research project “From the Mind to the Wall: Tracing Sign Language in Palæolithic Hand Stencils (MIND2WALL)” (ANR-21-CE27-0005), funded by the French Ministry of Culture, PI: Aritz Irurtzun