Social policy and international interventions in South East Europe: conclusions

This book has brought together three fields of study; that concerned with the role of international actors and their influence on national polices; changes taking place to social policies in the context of globalisation, transnationalism and Europeanisation; and the political transformations taking place in South Eastern Europe. It has reported the results of empirical investigations into recent changes in social policy in the region and the ways in which transnational actors are influencing these changes. We divide this concluding chapter into three parts. The first part summarises the actual developments in social policy in the countries of the region and the several and diverse ways in which international actors have, to varying degrees, been influential. We then draw some analytical conclusions arguing how the case studies lead to changes in the ways social scientists should make sense of: the role of international actors engaged in transnational policy making including that of the EU; the role and nature of states in this “multi-level and multi-actor“ process; and the prospects for social policy and the diversity of welfare regimes. Finally we make suggestions about the kind of research that is needed to advance understanding in these inter-related areas

Chemical enhancement of soil-based marks on nonporous surfaces followed by gelatin lifting

This study assessed the use of processing techniques (potassium thiocyanate, 2-2-dipyridil, potassium ferrocyanide, ammonium pyrrolidinedithiocarbamate, safranin, magnetic powder) for the enhancement of soil-based marks on nonporous surfaces, followed by gelatin lifting for the recovery of these marks. Other variables in the study included the use of nonporous substrates with varying colors (ceramic tiles, glass, linoleum, plastic bags, leaflets) and different aging periods (1, 7, 14, and 28 days) prior to enhancement and gelatin lifting. A numerical grading system from -1 (deterioration) to 4 (recovery of all fine detail) was adopted to assess the quality of the enhancement achieved.In this study, the two most effective chemical enhancement techniques for soil-based marks on nonporous surfaces were safranin and potassium thiocyanate, specifically on grey linoleum and white ceramic tiles. One-day aging of soil-based marks provided poor results, whereas 28-day aging periods provided superior enhancement. In general, lifting with gelatin lifts provided further improvement on the initial enhancement, by means of contrast and sharpness. However, the use of gelatin lifting sometimes resulted in the deterioration of the original mark. Marks treated with safranin and lifted with white gelatin lifts provided even further improvement through fluorescence examination

A review of one-step fluorescent cyanoacrylate techniques

A review of recent research in the use of one-step fluorescent cyanoacrylate techniques is presented. Advantages and disadvantages of such techniques in comparison to two-step processes are discussed. Further studies and new experimental data are presented to aid this review: three one-step cyanoacrylate products (Lumicyano, PolyCyano UV and PECA Multiband) containing a fluorescent dye were tested to evaluate their effectiveness in developing latent fingermarks on polyethylene bags by means of a pseudo operational trial. The results were compared to the traditional two-step process of cyanoacrylate fuming followed by staining with ethanol-based basic yellow 40 (BY40). The study was conducted using sequential treatments of an initial fuming cycle, a second cycle and finally BY40 staining. LumicyanoTM and PolyCyano UV performed similarly before BY40 staining, with both providing good contrast and visibility under fluorescence. PECA Multiband, however, did not develop as many fingermarks and proved to be problematic for the fuming cabinet. Subsequent BY40 staining of fingermarks developed by all three one-step processes enabled the visualisation of new fingermarks

The effect of cyanoacrylate fuming on subsequent protein stain enhancement of fingermarks in blood

This study investigates the effect of cyanoacrylate (CA) fuming, at atmospheric and vacuum conditions, on subsequent protein stain (acid violet 17) enhancement of fingermarks in blood. Fingermark depletions in blood were deposited on three nonporous surfaces (e.g., plastic bag) and aged for a set period of time (up to 28 days) before enhancement with the water-ethanol-acetic acid and methanol formulations of acid violet 17 (AV17). All trials were carried out in duplicate. One depletion was pre-treated with CA fuming followed by the enhancement technique and the other depletion was treated with only the enhancement technique (control).As expected, atmospheric CA fuming hindered the subsequent enhancement of blood with the AV17 water-ethanol-acetic acid formulation but not the methanol formulation. The same observations were also recorded under vacuum CA fuming conditions. Preliminary work with vacuum metal deposition did not hinder subsequent AV17 protein stain enhancement with either formulation

Water-soaked porous evidence:a comparison of processing methods

This study compared the U.K. Home Office formulation for physical developer (PD) against Oil Red O (ORO) and a modified formulation of physical developer (MPD) that uses Tween 20 instead of Synperonic-N for enhancing fingermarks. Three different donors deposited fingermarks on porous surfaces (white paper, leaflets, and cardboard), with aging periods varying from 7 to 28 days. None of the techniques that were tested provided enhancement of latent fingermarks on leaflets, whereas poor-quality enhancement was observed on cardboard. In contrast, all techniques were more successful on white paper surfaces. The results obtained on white paper suggested that PD and MPD performed similarly, with PD detecting 82.3% of the deposited fingermarks and MPD detecting 86.5% of the deposited fingermarks. PD yielded a higher percentage (38.5%) of fingermarks with fine ridge detail (i.e., those with grade 2 or above) than MPD (35.4%). ORO, however, yielded poor results, enhancing only 4.5% of latent fingermarks, but showed no ridge detail in any of the enhancements (i.e., only showed grade 1 enhancements.

A comparison of the use of vacuum metal deposition versus cyanoacrylate fuming for visualisation of fingermarks and grab impressions on fabrics

Both vacuum metal deposition (VMD) and cyanoacrylate fuming (CAF) are techniques used to visualise latent fingermarks on smooth non-porous surfaces such as plastic and glass. VMD was initially investigated in the 1970s as to its effectiveness for visualising prints on fabrics, but was abandoned when radioactive sulphur dioxide was found to be more effective. However, interest in VMD was resurrected in the 1990s when CAF was also used routinely. We now report on studies to determine whether VMD or CAF is the more effective technique for the detection of marks on fabrics. Four different fabrics, nylon, polyester, polycotton and cotton, were utilised during this study, along with 15 donors who ranged in their age and ability to leave fingermarks, from good to medium to poor, thus reflecting the general population. Once samples were collected they were kept for a determined time (1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 14, 21 or 28 days) and then treated using either the gold and zinc metal VMD process or standard cyanoacrylate fuming.The smoother fabrics, such as nylon, consistently produced greater ridge detail whereas duller fabrics, like cotton tended only to show empty prints and impressions of where the fabric had been touched, rather than any ridge details. The majority of fabrics did however allow the development of touch marks that could be targeted for DNA taping which potentially could lead to a DNA profile. Of the two techniques VMD was around 5 times more effective than CAF, producing a greater amount of ridge detail, palmar flexion creases and target areas on more samples and fabrics

The effect of mark enhancement techniques on the presumptive and confirmatory tests for blood

An investigation into the effects of physical and chemical enhancement on subsequent presumptive and confirmatory tests for human blood is presented. Human blood was deposited onto porous (white 80gsm paper and brown envelope) and non-porous (tile and linoleum) substrates in a depletion series (30 depletions on non-porous and 20 on porous) and subjected to three ageing periods; 1, 7 and 28 days. A number of enhancement techniques were tested [fluorescence, black magnetic powder (BMP), iron-oxide black powder suspension (PS), cyanoacrylate (CA) fuming, acid violet 17 (AV17), acid yellow 7 (AY7), ninhydrin, DFO and Bluestar Forensic Magnum (BFM) luminol] to evaluate their potential effects on subsequent presumptive and confirmatory tests. AV17 and Bluestar provided the best enhancement and fully enhanced all depletions in the series. The sensitivity of the Kastle-Meyer (KM) (presumptive), Takayama and RSID-Blood tests (confirmatory) was initially investigated to determine the range of detectable depletions. The KM test detected all depletions, whereas the Takayama test detected up to depletion 6 and RSID-Blood detected up to depletion 20 (paper), 10 (envelope), 15 (tile) and 9 (lino). The abilities of these tests to detect blood after enhancement were then observed.A number of techniques resulted in little to no effect on any of the blood tests, whereas adverse effects were observed for others. Ninhydrin and CA fuming caused weak but instantaneous positive KM results whereas methanol-based AV17 and AY7 delayed the reaction by as much as 1 min. The Takayama test was not very sensitive, therefore, its performance was easily affected by enhancement and negative results were often observed. RSID-Blood tests were largely unaffected by chemical enhancement although a drop in positive results was observed for some of the techniques when compared to positive controls.Using a standard procedure for DNA extraction, all the tested blood samples (before and after enhancement) gave a detectable quantity of DNA and were successfully profiled. Out of the 45 samples processed for DNA profiling, 44 gave full profiles, while the remaining showed allele drop out in one or two loci

Visualisation of fingermarks and grab impressions on dark fabrics using silver vacuum metal deposition

Vacuum metal deposition (VMD) involves the thermal evaporation of metal (silver) in a vacuum, resulting in a uniform layer being deposited on the specimen being treated. This paper examines the use of silver on dark fabrics, thus offering a simpler operation and more obvious colouration to that of the traditional use of gold and zinc metals which must be evaporated separately. The aim of this study was to investigate the effect of fabric type, donor, mark age and method of fingermark deposition on the quality of marks visualised using silver VMD. This was achieved by collecting fingermark deposits from fifteen donors, of both sexes and various ages, by a grab or a press method. Four different fabrics: satin, polyester, polycotton and cotton were studied over a 10 day timeline of 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 14, 21 and 28 + days. It was found that satin and polyester gave the most positive results, with polyester often producing excellent ridge detail. Cotton and polycotton were less successful with no ridge detail being observed. The donors also had an observable effect on the results obtained probably due to variations in secretions produced or pressures applied during specimen collection. The age of the mark or the method of mark deposition had little influence on the results obtained. Silver VMD is a viable process for visualising marks on certain dark fabrics and has the advantage over gold/zinc VMD in that the marks visualised are light in colour which contrasts well against the dark background