A comparison of six fingerprint enhancement techniques for the recovery of latent fingerprints from unfired cartridge cases

This work compared the effectiveness of six different enhancement methods on six different sizes of brass cartridges. One sebaceous fingerprint was deposited onto twenty-five of each size of cartridge to enable a statistical evaluation of the enhancement methods for each cartridge size to be undertaken. The enhancement methods compared were superglue followed by BY40, superglue followed by gun blue followed by BY40, gun blue only, superglue followed by palladium deposition, palladium deposition only, and powder suspension. The six different cartridges used in this study were .22s, .32s, 9mm, .38s, ribbed shotgun, and smooth shotgun. The study found that more potentially identifiable fingerprints were enhanced on the larger cartridge cases. This was due to the surface area on the smaller cartridges, and in particular the .22s provided little ridge detail. Two techniques provided the best results - superglue followed by gun blue followed by BY40, and superglue followed by palladium deposition. This showed that the combination of the cyanoacrylate fuming and the metal oxidation reactions is increasing the yield of potentially identifiable fingerprints compared with the use of the techniques separately. Both techniques were also found to give reproducible results. These two enhancement techniques were also compared statistically and no statistical difference in their effectiveness was found suggesting both techniques are equally as effective at enhancing fingerprints on brass cartridge cases

Determination of the most effective enhancement process for latent fingermarks on Clydesdale Bank and Royal Bank of Scotland £5 and £10 polymer banknotes

This article reports the outcomes of an MSc project carried out in 2018 as part of a collaboration between the University of Strathclyde's Centre for Forensic Science and SPA Forensic Services Mark Enhancement Laboratory. The results were also published in Forensic Science International in 2020

Money talks

An investigation into recovering fingerprints left on non-porous polymer bank notes will benefit future forensics. Carina Joannidis and Kenny Laing of the Scottish Police Authority joined with Dr Penny Haddrill at Strathclyde University, UK, to probe the prints

Determination of the most effective enhancement process for latent fingermarks on Clydesdale Bank and Royal Bank of Scotland £5 and £10 polymer banknotes

Fingermarks are commonly found at crime scenes and can be used to link an individual to an object and/or place. One common evidence type regularly encountered in the course of a criminal investigation is banknotes, and the recovery of fingermarks from these notes can give an indication of who has handled them. This study was carried out in order to determine the most effective sequential processing techniques for recovering latent fingermarks on the new £5 and £10 Clydesdale Bank and Royal Bank of Scotland polymer banknotes. No previous studies have been published on the recovery of latent fingermarks from these types of polymer notes; therefore, this work provides valuable insight into the challenges associated with these notes. Initial experimentation was done in order to determine the best light source to be used in combination with each sequential process tested. From this, infrared (730–800 nm) and ultraviolet (350–380 nm) light were chosen for use in the main study. Black iron oxide powder suspension and black magnetic powder were two of the enhancement treatments tested, both of which are recommended ‘Category A’ processes in the Fingermark Visualisation Manual produced by the Home Office. Superglue fuming – using PolyCyano UV—which is a Category C process was also used, as well as the recently developed infrared fluorescent powder, fpNATURAL®2. Three fingermark donors were selected for this study—one good, one medium and one poor—and each donor deposited a 10-mark depletion series onto both sides of each type of note. Superglue fuming (using PolyCyano UV) followed by black magnetic powder was found to be the most effective sequential process for enhancement of fingermarks on all note types tested. Infrared (730–800 nm) light with an 815 nm filter was the most effective light source for enhancing ridge detail for this enhancement sequence. This process is now being implemented for use with these note types in Scotland

A qualitative study of diverse providers' behaviour in response to commissioners, patients and innovators in England: research protocol

INTRODUCTION: The variety of organisations providing National Health Service (NHS)-funded services in England is growing. Besides NHS hospitals and general practitioners (GPs), they include corporations, social enterprises, voluntary organisations and others. The degree to which these organisational types vary, however, in the ways they manage and provide services and in the outcomes for service quality, patient experience and innovation, remains unclear. This research will help those who commission NHS services select among the different types of organisation for different tasks. RESEARCH QUESTIONS: The main research questions are how organisationally diverse NHS-funded service providers vary in their responsiveness to patient choice, NHS commissioning and policy changes; and their patterns of innovation. We aim to assess the implications for NHS commissioning and managerial practice which follow from these differences. METHODS AND ANALYSIS: Systematic qualitative comparison across a purposive sample (c.12) of providers selected for maximum variety of organisational type, with qualitative studies of patient experience and choice (in the same sites). We focus is on NHS services heavily used by older people at high risk of hospital admission: community health services; out-of-hours primary care; and secondary care (planned orthopaedics or ophthalmology). The expected outputs will be evidence-based schemas showing how patterns of service development and delivery typically vary between different organisational types of provider. ETHICS, BENEFITS AND DISSEMINATION: We will ensure informants' organisational and individual anonymity when dealing with high profile case studies and a competitive health economy. The frail elderly is a key demographic sector with significant policy and financial implications. For NHS commissioners, patients, doctors and other stakeholders, the main outcome will be better knowledge about the relative merits of different kinds of healthcare provider. Dissemination will make use of strategies suggested by patient and public involvement, as well as DH and service-specific outlets

Reassembling difference? Rethinking inclusion through/as embodied ethics

This paper considers inclusion through the lens of embodied ethics. It does so by connecting feminist writing on recognition, ethics and embodiment to recent examples of political activism as instances of recognition-based organizing. In making these connections, the paper draws on insights from Judith Butler’s recent writing on the ethics and politics of assembly in order to re-think how inclusion might be understood and practiced. The paper has three inter-related aims: (i) to emphasize the importance of a critical reconsideration of the ethics and politics of inclusion given, on the one hand, its positioning as an organizational ‘good’ and on the other, the conditions attached to it; (ii) to develop a critique of inclusion, drawing on insights from recent feminist thinking on relational ethics, and (iii) to connect this theoretical critique of inclusion, re-considered here through the lens of embodied ethics, to assembly as a form of feminist activism. Each of these aims underpins the theoretical and empirical discussion developed in the paper, specifically its focus on the relationship between embodied ethics, the interplay between theory and practice, and a politics of assembly as the basis for a critical reconsideration of inclusion

Intersubjectivity: Towards a Dialogical Analysis

Intersubjectivity refers to the variety of possible relations between perspectives. It is indispensable for understanding human social behaviour. While theoretical work on intersubjectivity is relatively sophisticated, methodological approaches to studying intersubjectivity lag behind. Most methodologies assume that individuals are the unit of analysis. In order to research intersubjectivity, however, methodologies are needed that take relationships as the unit of analysis. The first aim of this article is to review existing methodologies for studying intersubjectivity. Four methodological approaches are reviewed: comparative self-report, observing behaviour, analysing talk and ethnographic engagement. The second aim of the article is to introduce and contribute to the development of a dialogical method of analysis. The dialogical approach enables the study of intersubjectivity at different levels, as both implicit and explicit, and both within and between individuals and groups. The article concludes with suggestions for using the proposed method for researching intersubjectivity both within individuals and between individuals and groups

Modelling of the effect of ELMs on fuel retention at the bulk W divertor of JET

Effect of ELMs on fuel retention at the bulk W target of JET ITER-Like Wall was studied with multi-scale calculations. Plasma input parameters were taken from ELMy H-mode plasma experiment. The energetic intra-ELM fuel particles get implanted and create near-surface defects up to depths of few tens of nm, which act as the main fuel trapping sites during ELMs. Clustering of implantation-induced vacancies were found to take place. The incoming flux of inter-ELM plasma particles increases the different filling levels of trapped fuel in defects. The temperature increase of the W target during the pulse increases the fuel detrapping rate. The inter-ELM fuel particle flux refills the partially emptied trapping sites and fills new sites. This leads to a competing effect on the retention and release rates of the implanted particles. At high temperatures the main retention appeared in larger vacancy clusters due to increased clustering rate

Impact of fast ions on density peaking in JET: fluid and gyrokinetic modeling

The effect of fast ions on turbulent particle transport, driven by ion temperature gradient (ITG)/ trapped electron mode turbulence, is studied. Two neutral beam injection (NBI) heated JET discharges in different regimes are analyzed at the radial position ρ$_{t}$=0.6, one of them an L-mode and the other one an H-mode discharge. Results obtained from the computationally efficient fluid model EDWM and the gyro-fluid model TGLF are compared to linear and nonlinear gyrokinetic GENE simulations as well as the experimentally obtained density peaking. In these models, the fast ions are treated as a dynamic species with a Maxwellian background distribution. The dependence of the zero particle flux density gradient (peaking factor) on fast ion density, temperature and corresponding gradients, is investigated. The simulations show that the inclusion of a fast ion species has a stabilizing influence on the ITG mode and reduces the peaking of the main ion and electron density profiles in the absence of sources. The models mostly reproduce the experimentally obtained density peaking for the L-mode discharge whereas the H-mode density peaking is significantly underpredicted, indicating the importance of the NBI particle source for the H-mode density profile