Evaluating the efficiency and sensitivity of one-step cyanoacrylate fuming methods in the detection and visualisation of latent fingerprints on the adhesive side of tape

The evidential value of adhesive tape recovered from a crime scene plays a critical role in the criminal investigation as it could potentially contain things such as fibres, hair, DNA evidence, or fingerprints. Adhesive tape is a ubiquitous material that can be used in crimes that involve kidnapping and murder, as well as used to house cables in acts of terrorism. With regards to the adhesive side of tape, the sticky nature of this surface not only increases the likelihood of latent fingerprint deposits but has routinely proved to be a problematic substrate to work with. As latent fingerprints are generally invisible to the eye, enhancement methods are required to conduct adequate analysis on the fingerprint details. Despite several methods of fingerprint enhancement available, common issues including high background staining and low selectivity of fingerprint deposits create a difficult problem for forensic investigators to solve. Studies have shown that these issues can be overcome by utilising aqueous solutions of fingerprint powders, as well as traditional dye methods like gentian violet. Fluorescent dyes have also been explored and shown to be very effective when used on darker-coloured adhesive tapes. With regards to aged latent fingerprints, sticky-side powder and phase transfer catalysts have proven to be viable methods of detection and development. Traditional cyanoacrylate fuming was observed to be the best method of development in all reviewed cases, but the requirement of subsequent dye staining poses potential health issues to the user and the environment. One-step cyanoacrylate fuming has been proposed as a method incorporating the staining step into the cyanoacrylate fuming step, thus completing both steps simultaneously. As one-step cyanoacrylate fuming is a relatively new method of development, its potential application to the development of latent fingerprints on the adhesive side of tape has not been explored to its full extent and should be researched more extensively

Development and assessment of an instrument to measure equivocal situation and its causes in IS/IT project evaluation

Project evaluations are vital for organizations to manage and balance the costs and benefits of their IS/IT investment. Despite the importance of project evaluations, equivocal situation may limit the effectiveness of an evaluation and hinder decision-makers in generating purposeful resolutions. There is a dearth of empirical studies with regard to equivocal situation, which this study addresses by developing and measuring a construct of an equivocal situation and its causes. The equivocal situation construct is derived from the notion of equivocality and its causes are extracted from the extant literature. The developed constructs are subjected to empirical validation through Partial Least Squares (PLS) analysis by employing the data collected from knowledge professionals in IS/IT project management. The developed instrument provides a firm foundation for future studies of equivocality in IS/IT project evaluation

Development and assessment of an instrument to measure equivocal situation and its causes in IS/IT project evaluation

Project evaluations are vital for organizations to manage and balance the costs and benefits of their IS/IT investment. Despite the importance of project evaluations, equivocal situation may limit the effectiveness of an evaluation and hinder decision-makers in generating purposeful resolutions. There is a dearth of empirical studies with regard to equivocal situation, which this study addresses by developing and measuring a construct of an equivocal situation and its causes. The equivocal situation construct is derived from the notion of equivocality and its causes are extracted from the extant literature. The developed constructs are subjected to empirical validation through Partial Least Squares (PLS) analysis by employing the data collected from knowledge professionals in IS/IT project management. The developed instrument provides a firm foundation for future studies of equivocality in IS/IT project evaluation

Evaluating IS/IT Projects: Revealing the Causes of Equivocality

Evaluating IS/IT projects and deciding on their continuation has been hampered by the problem of equivocality. Equivocal situations hinder decision-makers to clearly recognise potential problems and implications of these decisions, as well as to decide the course of action in a purposeful fashion. However, little attention has been devoted to examine the causes of such situations. Extant literature was analysed and synthesised to identify typical characteristics of equivocal situations and uncover the potential causes of equivocality. We developed a framework based on this review and used it further to assist the investigation and to corroborate the causes of equivocality through expert interviews. In this paper, we investigated the causes of equivocality in practice by eliciting insights from different perspectives of decision-makers and their perceptions toward equivocal situations. We found that equivocal situations prevailed are much strongly related to the Challenges in project management, the Complexity in process and the Sophistication of technology within the Content of evaluation. Intriguingly, we found less solid relations with the Lack of standards and the Failure of evaluation methods as these two factors did not emerge as dominant causes during our discussions with the experts

Evaluating IS/IT Projects: Revealing the Causes of Equivocality

Evaluating IS/IT projects and deciding on their continuation has been hampered by the problem of equivocality. Equivocal situations hinder decision-makers to clearly recognise potential problems and implications of these decisions, as well as to decide the course of action in a purposeful fashion. However, little attention has been devoted to examine the causes of such situations. Extant literature was analysed and synthesised to identify typical characteristics of equivocal situations and uncover the potential causes of equivocality. We developed a framework based on this review and used it further to assist the investigation and to corroborate the causes of equivocality through expert interviews. In this paper, we investigated the causes of equivocality in practice by eliciting insights from different perspectives of decision-makers and their perceptions toward equivocal situations. We found that equivocal situations prevailed are much strongly related to the Challenges in project management, the Complexity in process and the Sophistication of technology within the Content of evaluation. Intriguingly, we found less solid relations with the Lack of standards and the Failure of evaluation methods as these two factors did not emerge as dominant causes during our discussions with the experts

A real-world Case Study in Information Technology for Undergraduate Students

Real-world case studies are important to complement the academic skills and knowledge acquired by computer science students. In this paper we relate our experiences with a course specifically designed to address this issue. The problem to be addressed is the replacement of a Hospital Information System (HIS) in a large regional hospital. The case mimics as close as possible the project as it really took place. The objectives of the course are threefold: to train management and communication skills, to integrate and apply knowledge gained at different previous courses, and to learn by experience the difference between a real-world problem and a textbook problem. Students’ evaluations show that the objectives of the course are met and that it is regarded as very useful. We found that the three objectives mutually reinforce each other, which is a decisive factor for the success of the course