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.

Environmental effects on magnetic fluorescent powder development of fingermarks on bird of prey feathers

A comparison study of the effects of environmental conditions on the development of latent fingermarks on raptor feathers using green magnetic fluorescent powder was undertaken using both sebaceous loaded and natural fingermark deposits. Sparrowhawk feathers were stored in indoor conditions for 60 days (Study 1), and buzzard feathers were left exposed to two different environmental conditions (hidden and visible) for 21 days (Study 2), with developments made at regular ageing periods. In Study 1, latent fingermarks were successfully developed (Grade 1–4) on the indoor feathers up to 60 days after deposition – 98.6% of the loaded deposits and 85.3% for natural deposits. Under outdoor conditions in Study 2, both loaded and natural deposits were affected by environmental exposure. Latent fingermarks were successfully developed up to 14 days after deposition on the outdoor feathers, with some occasional recovery after 21 days. The visible feathers recorded 34.7% (loaded) and 16.4% (natural) successful developments (Grade 1–4), whereas the hidden feathers recorded 46.7% (loaded) and 22.2% (natural) successful developments, suggesting that protection from the environment helps to preserve latent fingermarks on the surface of a feather. Environmental exposure accelerated the deterioration of ridge detail and the number of successful developments

Primary care in Malta : the patients’s expectations in 2009

Given the strong literature base to support the positioning of Primary Care at the core of a sustainable National Health Service, this study examines what the Maltese general public prefer, and expect, from their family doctor, and explores their preferred systems of care changes.peer-reviewe

Towards intelligent early form design and prototyping, questionnaire results and analysis

Currently, the Department of Manufacturing Engineering (DME), University of Malta and the Istitito per la Matematica Applicata e Tecnologie Informatiche (IMATI), Genoa are conducting research on how simple components represented by sketches on normal paper can be converted to computer models. One of the key issues in developing a sketch recognition system is precisely to handle the trade-off between ease of computer recognition and the preservation of sketching freedom. With an attempt to address this issue, two sketching methods (or sketching languages) have been developed by the DME. This report presents the results of a questionnaire about the sketching activity itself and also about the two proposed sketching languages. An analysis of the results obtained is also presented with the scope to identify what should be the future directions that might contribute to enhance the usefulness of the two sketching approaches

Observations of an extreme storm in interplanetary space caused by successive coronal mass ejections

Space weather refers to dynamic conditions on the Sun and in the space environment of the Earth, which are often driven by solar eruptions and their subsequent interplanetary disturbances. It has been unclear how an extreme space weather storm forms and how severe it can be. Here we report and investigate an extreme event with multi-point remote-sensing and in-situ observations. The formation of the extreme storm showed striking novel features. We suggest that the in-transit interaction between two closely launched coronal mass ejections resulted in the extreme enhancement of the ejecta magnetic field observed near 1 AU at STEREO A. The fast transit to STEREO A (in only 18.6 hours), or the unusually weak deceleration of the event, was caused by the preconditioning of the upstream solar wind by an earlier solar eruption. These results provide a new view crucial to solar physics and space weather as to how an extreme space weather event can arise from a combination of solar eruptions.Comment: 23 pages, 7 figure

STEREO and Wind observations of a fast ICME flank triggering a prolonged geomagnetic storm on 5-7 April 2010

On 5 April 2010 an interplanetary (IP) shock was detected by the Wind spacecraft ahead of Earth, followed by a fast (average speed 650 km/s) IP coronal mass ejection (ICME). During the subsequent moderate geomagnetic storm (minimum Dst = -72 nT, maximum Kp=8-), communication with the Galaxy 15 satellite was lost. We link images from STEREO/SECCHI to the near-Earth in situ observations and show that the ICME did not decelerate much between Sun and Earth. The ICME flank was responsible for a long storm growth phase. This type of glancing collision was for the first time directly observed with the STEREO Heliospheric Imagers. The magnetic cloud (MC) inside the ICME cannot be modeled with approaches assuming an invariant direction. These observations confirm the hypotheses that parts of ICMEs classified as (1) long-duration MCs or (2) magnetic-cloud-like (MCL) structures can be a consequence of a spacecraft trajectory through the ICME flank.Comment: Geophysical Research Letters (accepted); 3 Figure

Optimized Grad-Shafranov Reconstruction of a Magnetic Cloud Using STEREO-Wind Observations

We present results on the geometry of a magnetic cloud (MC) on 23 May 2007 from a comprehensive analysis of Wind and STEREO observations. We first apply a Grad – Shafranov reconstruction to the STEREO-A plasma and magnetic field data, delivered by the PLASTIC and IMPACT instruments. We then optimize the resulting field map with the aid of observations by Wind, which were made at the very outer boundary of the cloud, at a spacecraft angular separation of 6°. For the correct choice of reconstruction parameters such as axis orientation, interval and grid size, we find both a very good match between the predicted magnetic field at the position of Wind and the actual observations as well as consistent timing. We argue that the reconstruction captures almost the full extent of the cross-section of the cloud. The resulting shape transverse to the invariant axis consists of distorted ellipses and is slightly flattened in the direction of motion. The MC axis is inclined at −58° to the ecliptic with an axial field strength of 12 nT. We derive integrated axial fluxes and currents with increased precision, which we contrast with the results from linear force-free fitting. The helical geometry of the MC with almost constant twist (≈1.5 turns AU−1) is not consistent with the linear force-free Lundquist model. We also find that the cloud is non-force-free (|J ⊥ |/|J ∥ |\u3e0.3) in about a quarter of the cloud cross sectional area, particularly in the back part which is interacting with the trailing high speed stream. Based on the optimized reconstruction we put forward preliminary guidelines for the improved use of single-spacecraft Grad – Shafranov reconstruction. The results also give us the opportunity to compare the CME direction inferred from STEREO/SECCHI observations by Mierla et al. (Solar Phys. 252, 385, 2008) with the three-dimensional configuration of the MC at 1 AU. This yields an almost radial CME propagation from the Sun to the Earth

Jump conditions for pressure anisotropy and comparison with the Earth's bow shock

International audienceTaking into account the pressure anisotropy in the solar wind, we study the magnetic field and plasma parameters downstream of a fast shock, as functions of upstream parameters and downstream pressure anisotropy. In our theoretical approach, we model two cases: a) the perpendicular shock and b) the oblique shock. We use two threshold conditions of plasma instabilities as additional equations to bound the range of pressure anisotropy. The criterion of the mirror instability is used for pressure anisotropy p \perp /p\parrallel > 1. Analogously, the criterion of the fire-hose instability is taken into account for pressure anisotropy p \perp /p\parrallel < 1. We found that the variations of the parallel pressure, the parallel temperature, and the tangential component of the velocity are most sensitive to the pressure anisotropy downstream of the shock. Finally, we compare our theory with plasma and magnetic field parameters measured by the WIND spacecraft