Fluorophores-rich natural powder from selected medicinal plants for detection latent fingerprints and cyanide.

Forensic science is currently fast-growing for the development detection of the latent fingerprint. Currently, chemical dust quickly enters the body through touch or inhalation and will be affected by the user. In this research, a study on the comparison of natural powder from four species of medicinal plants (Zingiber montanum, Solanum Indicum L., Rhinacanthus nasutus, and Euphorbia tirucall) for the detection of latent fingerprints is carried out that has fewer adverse effects on the user's body by using such natural substances instead. In addition, the fluorescence properties of the dust have been found in some natural powder for sample detection and appear on multi-colored surfaces to show that the latent fingerprints are more pronounced than ordinary dust. In this study, medicinal plants have also been applied to detect cyanide, as it has been known that it is hazardous for humans and can be used as a poisonous compound to kill someone. The characteristics of each powder have also been analyzed using naked-eye detection under UV light, Fluorescence spectrophotometer, FIB-SEM, and FTIR. All the powder obtained can then be used for high potential detection of latent fingerprints on the non-porous surface with their specific characteristics and trace amounts of cyanide using turn-on-off fluorescent sensing method.

Fingerprint matching using the onion peeling approach and turning function.

Fingerprint, as one of the most popular and robust biometric traits, can be used in automatic identification and verification systems to identify individuals. Fingerprint matching is a vital and challenging issue in fingerprint recognition systems. Most fingerprint matching algorithms are minutiae-based. The minutiae points are the ways that the fingerprint ridges can be discontinuous. Ridge ending and ridge bifurcation are two frequently used minutiae in most fingerprint matching algorithms. This article presents a new minutiae-based fingerprint matching using the onion peeling approach. In the proposed method, fingerprints are aligned to find the matched minutiae points. Then, the nested convex polygons of matched minutiae points are constructed and the comparison between peer-to-peer polygons is performed by the turning function distance. Simplicity, accuracy, and low time complexity of the onion peeling approach are three important factors that make it a standard method for fingerprint matching purposes. The performance of the proposed algorithm is evaluated on the database FVC2002. Since the fingerprints that the difference between the number of their layers is more than 2 and the a minutiae matching score lower than 0.15 are ignored, better results are obtained. KEYWORDS: Fingerprint Matching, Minutiae, Convex Layers, Turning Function, Computational Geometry.

Reconstructing sexual divisions of labor from fingerprints on Ancestral Puebloan pottery.

An understanding of the division of labor in different societies, and especially how it evolved in the human species, is fundamental to most analyses of social, political, and economic systems. The ability to reconstruct how labor was organized, however, especially in ancient societies that left behind few material remains, is challenged by the paucity of direct evidence demonstrating who was involved in production. This is particularly true for identifying divisions of labor along lines of age, sex, and gender, for which archaeological interpretations mostly rely upon inferences derived from modern examples with uncertain applicability to ancient societies. Drawing upon biometric studies of human fingerprints showing statistically distinct ridge breadth measurements for juveniles, males, and females, this study reports a method for collecting fingerprint impressions left on ancient material culture and using them to distinguish the sex of the artifacts' producers. The method is applied to a sample of 985 ceramic sherds from a 1,000-y-old Ancestral Puebloan community in the US Southwest, a period characterized by the rapid emergence of a highly influential religious and political center at Chaco Canyon. The fingerprint evidence demonstrates that both males and females were significantly involved in pottery production and further suggests that the contributions of each sex varied over time and even among different social groups in the same community. The results indicate that despite long-standing assumptions that pottery production in Ancient Puebloan societies was primarily a female activity, labor was not strictly divided and instead was likely quite dynamic.

Distinct Urinary Metabolic Profile in Rheumatoid Arthritis Patients: A Possible Link between Diet and Arthritis Phenotype

OBJECTIVE: We undertook this study to investigate the discriminant metabolites in urine from patients with established rheumatoid arthritis (RA), systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE), and from healthy individuals. METHODS: Urine samples were collected from 148 RA patients, 41 SLE patients and 104 healthy participants. The urinary metabolomic profiles were assessed using 1H nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy. The relationships between discriminant metabolites and clinical variables were assessed. Collagen-induced arthritis was induced in mice to determine if a choline-rich diet reduces arthritis progression. RESULTS: The urinary metabolic fingerprint of patients with established RA differs from that of healthy controls and SLE patients. Markers of altered gut microbiota (trimethylamine-N-oxide, TMAO), and oxidative stress (dimethylamine) were upregulated in patients with RA. In contrast, markers of mitochondrial dysfunction (citrate and succinate) and metabolic waste products (p-cresol sulfate, p-CS) were downregulated in patients with RA. TMAO and dimethylamine were negatively associated with serum inflammatory markers in RA patients. In particular, patients with lower p-CS levels exhibited a more rapid radiographic progression over two years than did those with higher p-CS levels. The in vivo functional study demonstrated that mice fed with 1% choline, a source of TMAO experienced a less severe form of collagen-induced arthritis than did those fed a control diet. CONCLUSION: Patients with RA showed a distinct urinary metabolomics pattern. Urinary metabolites can reflect a pattern indicative of inflammation and accelerated radiographic progression of RA. A choline-rich diet reduces experimentally-induced arthritis. This finding suggests that the interaction between diet and the intestinal microbiota contributes to the RA phenotype.

Preparation of Artificial Blood from the Extract of Legume Root Nodules, and the Creation of Artificial Latent Fingermarks in Blood Using Artificial Blood.

Distribution of homogeneous fingermarks in blood is essential for conducting proficiency tests in forensic science. Hence, the artificial blood was prepared using the root nodule extract of Glycine max plants. The reactivity of the artificial blood with widely used human blood detection reagents was tested. Artificial latent fingermarks in blood were printed using an inkjet cartridge case filled with artificial blood solution. The artificial latent fingermarks in blood were developed with amino acid-sensitive reagents and could obtain development as prominent as the image of the master fingermark saved on the computer. Therefore, it has been confirmed that the extract of legume root nodules can be used as artificial blood, and the artificial blood can be used for the preparation of artificial latent fingermarks or footmarks in blood.

Understanding Physical Developer (PD): Part II--Is PD targeting eccrine constituents?

Physical developer (PD) is a fingermark development technique that deposits silver onto fingermark ridges. It is the only technique currently in routine operational use that gives results on porous substrates that have been wet. There is a reasonable understanding of the working solution chemistry, but the chemical constituent(s) contained in fingermark residue that are specifically targeted by PD are largely unknown. A better understanding of the PD technique will permit a more informed selection of alternative or complementary detection methods, and greater usage in operational laboratories. Recent research by our group has shown that PD does not selectively target the lipids present in the residue. This research investigated the hypothesis that PD targets the eccrine constituents in fingermark residue. This was tested by comparison of PD and indanedione-zinc (Ind-Zn) treated natural fingermarks that had been deposited successively, and marks that had been deposited with a ten second interval in between depositions. Such an interval allows for the regeneration of secretions from the pores located on the ridges of the fingers. On fingermark depletions with no time interval between depositions, PD and Ind-Zn treated depletions successively (and comparatively) decreased in development intensity as the amount of residue diminished. Short time intervals in between successive depletions resulted in additional secretions from the pores intermittently occurring, the increased development of which was visualised by treatment with both PD and Ind-Zn. The changes in development intensity were seen with both techniques on the same split depletions in a series, comparably and proportionately. These results indicate that the components targeted by PD are contained in the material excreted by the friction ridge pores through its mirrored development with Ind-Zn. Repetition of the experiments on marks that only contained eccrine material showed good Ind-Zn development but poor results with PD. This indicates that there are other constituents contained in "natural" fingermarks that are required to be present for PD to be able to target constituents in the eccrine sweat. It may be that the required constituents in the natural residues are non-water soluble, and that these protect the eccrine constituents from solubilisation in the aqueous washes employed in the PD method. Further research is being undertaken to determine whether PD is targeting specific compounds in the pore secretions, or a mixture of compounds consisting of the eccrine material, epidermal lipids and sebaceous lipids typically present in latent fingermark residues.

Gold nanoparticle-enhanced target for MS analysis and imaging of harmful compounds in plant, animal tissue and on fingerprint.

Gold nanoparticle-enhanced target (AuNPET) was used for detailed investigation of various materials of biological origin - human fingerprint, onion bulb and chicken liver. Analysis of these objects was focused on toxic and harmful compounds - designer drug containing pentedrone, diphenylamine in onion and potentially cancerogenic metronidazole antibiotic in liver. Detection of large quantity of endogenous compounds from mentioned objects is also shown. Most of analyzed compounds were also localized with MS imaging and relationship between their function and location was discussed. Detected compounds belong to a very wide range of chemical compounds such as saccharides, ionic and non-ionic glycerides, amino acids, fatty acids, sulfides, sulfoxides, phenols etc. Fingerprint experiments demonstrate application of AuNPET for detection, structure confirmation and also co-localization of drug with ridge patterns proving person-drug contact.

Anti-inflammatory Activities of Lupane-triterpenoids In Vitro and Their Phytochemical Fingerprinting from Leaves of Acanthopanax gracilistylus

The activities on the inhibition of NO on LPS-induced RAW 264.7 macrophages were investigated in this work. A simple and sensitive method has been developed and validated for fingerprinting analysis of leaves of Acanthopanax gracilistylus W.W. Smith (AGS). The cytotoxicity and inhibition of NO on LPS-induced RAW 264.7 cells of the extract and triterpenoids were determined. Optimal conditions of HPLC analysis were established as follows. The separation was performed with an ODS-C18 column at 30 degrees C, the detected wavelength was 210 nm, the flow rate was 1 mL/min, and the mobile phase consisted of acetonitrile (0.05% phosphoric acid) -0.05% phosphoric acid solution with gradient elution. Our results showed that impressic acid and acankoreaogenin was more effective on the inhibition of NO than the methanol extract and other compounds. There were seventeen peaks coexisted with similarities above 0.95 and nine lupane-triterpenoids including acankoreaogenin and impressic acid detected and identified. The result of anti-inflammatory activities provides a potential explanation for the use of AGS leaves as a herbal medicine in the treatment of inflammatory diseases. Our results also show that acankoreanogenin and impressic acid may be potentially useful in developing new anti-inflammatory agents. In addition, the fingerprint chromatography clearly illustrated and confirmed the material basis for the anti-inflammatory activities of this plant.

The effects of polymer pigmentation on fingermark development techniques.

The effectiveness of latent fingerprint development techniques is heavily influenced by the physical and chemical properties of the deposition surface. The use of powder suspensions is increasing for development of prints on a range of surfaces. We demonstrate that carbon powder suspension development on polymers is detrimentally affected by the presence of common white pigment, titanium dioxide. Scanning electron microscopy demonstrates that patches of the compound are clearly associated with increased levels of powder adhesion. Substrates with nonlocalized titanium dioxide content also exhibit increased levels of carbon powder staining on a surface-wide basis. Secondary ion mass spectrometry and complementary techniques demonstrate the importance of levels of the pigment within the top 30 nm. The association is independent of fingermark deposition and may be related to surface energy variation. The detrimental effect of the pigment is not observed with small-particle reagent (MoS2 SPR) or cyanoacrylate (superglue) fuming techniques that exploit different development mechanisms.

Development of high-performance liquid chromatographic fingerprint for quality analysis of Hedysari Radix.

In this study, a simple, sensitive and reliable fingerprint analysis method by high-performance liquid chromatography coupled with diode array detection was developed for raw materials of Hedysari Radix, which is a famous traditional Chinese medicine and widely used as a restorative food. Then the developed method was subsequently applied to analyse 48 samples collected or purchased from different origins. Twenty-six common fingerprint peaks, including six definitely identified peaks, were found in total, and were involved for further characterisation and quality evaluation of Hedysari Radix. The chemical quality of commercial samples and samples collected in spring varied obviously, while those of the cultivated samples collected in autumn were relatively stable, indicating that it is better to harvest Hedysari Radix in autumn and that more attention should be paid to the standardisation of the process of harvesting, manufacturing and storage of Hedysari Radix.

Time-course measurements of caffeine and its metabolites extracted from fingertips after coffee intake: a preliminary study for the detection of drugs from fingerprints.

The aim of this study was to determine whether an ingested drug and its metabolites could be detected in the subject's fingerprints. Caffeine (CF) was chosen as the model drug. Three healthy subjects were asked to consume a cup of coffee (ca. 100 mL) containing 80 micro micro mg CF as the total dose, which is the normal amount in one cup of coffee. After washing hands with water to remove external contaminants, each subject pressed the index fingertip to a collecting matrix just before consuming the test cup of coffee, and then again pressed the index fingertip to the collecting matrix after 1, 3, 5, and 7 h. The time curve of the amounts of CF and its metabolites-theobromine (TB), paraxanthine (PX), and theophylline (TP)-in fingerprints and blood was determined using liquid chromatography/tandem mass spectrometry (LC/MS). A filter paper wetted with water (50 µL) was an efficient collecting matrix for extracting the analytes from the fingertip. With optimized sample preparation and LC/MS conditions, the total operating time, from taking the fingerprints to obtaining the analytical result, was approximately 10 min. The lower limits of quantification for CF, TB, PX, and TP were 0.5, 5, 0.5, and 5 ng/fingerprint, respectively. The amount of CF or PX determined in fingerprints obtained over 7 h after coffee intake was significantly greater than the amount determined in fingerprints taken before drinking coffee. Fingerprints were a more efficient source for drug testing than other biological samples, such as blood and sweat, because the procedures for sampling and extracting the drugs were simpler and took less time. The method could be used to prove drug intake in criminal investigations.

[Study on water-soluble constituents of Fritillaria unibracteata by HPLC fingerprints].

OBJECTIVE: To establish a HPLC fingerprint of water-soluble constituents of Fritillaria unibracteata. METHOD: Zorbax SB Aq C18 chromatographic column (4. 6 mm x 250 mm, 5 microm) was adopted for gradient elute with the mobile phase consisting of methanol and water. The flow rate was 1.0 mL x min(-1); the detection wavelength was 260 nm, and the temperature of sample manager was set at 25 degrees C. Similarity Evaluation System for Chromatographic Fingerprint of traditional Chinese medicine (version 2.0) published by the State Pharmacopeia Committee of China was adopted for the fingerprint analysis on the 11 batches of F. unibracteata herbs. RESULT: The 11 batches of F. unibracteata herbs had 14 common peaks, nine of which were identified with good separating degrees. The similarities of the 11 batches were more than 0. 970, with good quality homogeneity. CONCLUSION: The method is so accurate, highly reproducible and stable that it is suitable for the comprehensive quality evaluation of F. unibracteata herbs.

Styryl dye coated metal oxide powders for the detection of latent fingermarks on non-porous surfaces.

Conventional fingermark powders rely on contrast induced by absorption/reflection (e.g. black powder) or luminescence in the visible region (e.g. Blitz Green(®)). In most cases, these powders provide sufficient contrast; however, in some circumstances surface characteristics can interfere with the visualisation of powdered fingermarks. Visualisation in the near infra-red (NIR) region, however, has been shown to eliminate interferences commonly encountered in the visible region. In this study, a mixture of rhodamine 6G and the NIR laser dye styryl 11 (STaR 11) was coated onto an aluminium oxide nanopowder and then mixed with silver magnetic powder to develop and visualise fingermarks in the NIR. When compared to Blitz Green(®), it was determined that the STaR 11 magnetic powder was better suited for marks deposited on textured surfaces and for older marks, whereas Blitz Green(®) performed better on smooth glossy surfaces. The ability of the STaR 11 mixed dye formulation to be visualised in both the visible and NIR regions also provides a significant advantage over conventional luminescent fingermark powders.

Diacetylene copolymers for fingermark development.

In 1979, Miller and Patel showed that a solution containing two diacetylene monomers, 2,4-hexadiyne-1,6-bis(phenylurethane) (HDDPU) and 2,4-hexadiyne-1,6-bis(p-chlorophenylurethane) (HDDCPU) could be used to develop latent fingermarks on a non-porous surface. In the current work, the same mixture (HDDPU:HDDCPU=10:1, in acetone solution) was used to develop fingermarks on a wide variety of surfaces, both non-porous and porous, including paper. An airbrush system was optimized for the application of the reagent solution. Once the solution evaporates on a surface, the monomers co-crystallize in different ways, depending upon a number of factors, including the surface residue. "Active" co-crystallization leads (with heat or radiation) to the formation of purple polymer, while "inactive" crystallization results in a non-polymerizable white deposit. Fingermark contrast was achieved as a result of active co-crystallization (giving purple polymer) in either the ridges or the furrows, depending upon the surface and other factors. A general observation (supported by spot tests with linseed oil, salt and amino acid solutions) was that on paper, oily materials are more likely to lead to the formation of the purple polymer, while the presence of water inhibits polymerization. However, these observations are not consistent across all other substrates. It is hypothesized that water disrupts hydrogen bonding between diacetylene molecules, and thus prevents the topochemical polymerization of the diacetylenes, which occurs in the solid state between favourably aligned monomers. An interesting observation was the development of fingermarks deposited on paper that had already been treated with the diacetylene reagent.

Study on water-soluble constituents of Fritillaria unibracteata by HPLC fingerprints / 中国中药杂志

<p><b>OBJECTIVE</b>To establish a HPLC fingerprint of water-soluble constituents of Fritillaria unibracteata.</p><p><b>METHOD</b>Zorbax SB Aq C18 chromatographic column (4. 6 mm x 250 mm, 5 microm) was adopted for gradient elute with the mobile phase consisting of methanol and water. The flow rate was 1.0 mL x min(-1); the detection wavelength was 260 nm, and the temperature of sample manager was set at 25 degrees C. Similarity Evaluation System for Chromatographic Fingerprint of traditional Chinese medicine (version 2.0) published by the State Pharmacopeia Committee of China was adopted for the fingerprint analysis on the 11 batches of F. unibracteata herbs.</p><p><b>RESULT</b>The 11 batches of F. unibracteata herbs had 14 common peaks, nine of which were identified with good separating degrees. The similarities of the 11 batches were more than 0. 970, with good quality homogeneity.</p><p><b>CONCLUSION</b>The method is so accurate, highly reproducible and stable that it is suitable for the comprehensive quality evaluation of F. unibracteata herbs.</p>

The reliability of the Associate Platinum digital foot scanner in measuring previously developed footprint characteristics: a technical note.

OBJECTIVE: An ink pad and paper, pressure-sensitive platforms, and photography have previously been used to collect footprint data used in clinical assessment. Digital scanners have been widely used more recently to collect such data. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the intra- and interrater reliability of a flatbed digital image scanning technology to capture footprint data. METHODS: This study used a repeated-measures design on 32 (16 male 16 female) healthy subjects. The following measured indices of footprint were recorded from 2-dimensional images of the plantar surface of the foot recorded with an Associate Platinum (Foot Levelers Inc, Roanoke, VA) digital foot scanner: Staheli index, Chippaux-Smirak index, arch angle, and arch index. Intraclass correlation coefficient (ICC) values were calculated to evaluate intrarater, interday, and interclinician reliability. RESULTS: The ICC values for intrarater reliability were greater than or equal to .817, indicating an excellent level of reproducibility in assessing the collected images. Analyses of variance revealed that there were no significant differences between raters for each index (P > .05). The ICC values also indicated excellent reliability (.881-.971) between days and clinicians in all but one of the indices of footprint, arch angle (.689), with good reliability between clinicians. The full-factorial analysis of variance model did not reveal any interaction effects (P > .05), which indicated that indices of footprint were not changing across days and clinicians. CONCLUSIONS: Scanning technology used in this study demonstrated good intra- and interrater reliability measurements of footprint indices, as demonstrated by high ICC values.

[End point determination by HPLC chromatographic fingerprint in processing prepared Rehmannia].

To establish HPLC chromatographic fingerprints to control the quality of Chinese herbal medicine. In this study, fingerprints were established based on HPLC-DAD chromatographs. And with these fingerprints, content variations of three important active components catalpol, 5-hydroxymethylfurfural and acteoside in Rehmannia rhizome were analyzed during processing, as well as changes of the fingerprints. Fingerprints comparing with the standard prepared Rehmannia fingerprints which came from the mean of prepared ones randomly chosen for standard was done to seek optimal processing time. The results indicated that catalpol decreased quickly as braising prolonged and almost vanished in the end. While the active component of 5-HMF increased linearly throughout the process of braising. And the content of acteoside did not show obvious change. Similarity to standard prepared Rehmannia reached summit after braising for 26 hours. So 26 hours could be considered to be the optimum time for braising prepared Rehmannia. Chromatographic fingerprint is convenient for revealing changes of constituents and for accurately controlling quality during processing prepared Rahmannia.

[Research on X-ray diffraction fingerprints of crude and processed pyritum].

OBJECTIVE: To establish the X-ray diffraction fingerprints of crude and processed pyritum. METHOD: X-ray diffraction fingerprint was used to analyze the crude and processed pyritum of different habitat and batch. RESULT: The crude pyritum has 19 common peaks, while the processed ones has 11. CONCLUSION: The X-ray diffraction can express characteristic of the crude and processed pyritum, which is specificity, accuracy and reliability and can be used for the quality control of crude and processed pyritum.

In situ growth of gold nanoparticles on latent fingerprints-from forensic applications to inkjet printed nanoparticle patterns.

Latent fingerprints are made visible in a single step by in situ growth of gold nanoparticles on ridge patterns. The chemicals, among the essential components of human sweat, found responsible for the formation and assembly of gold nanoparticles are screened and used as ink to write invisible patterns, using common ball pen and inkjet printer, which are then developed by selectively growing gold nanoparticles by soaking them in gold salt solution.

Improvement in latent fingerprint detection on thermal paper using a one-step ninhydrin treatment with polyvinylpyrrolidones (PVP).

Most thermosensitive surfaces of thermal paper turn black when they come into contact with polar organic solvents such as are used in ninhydrin petroleum benzin solution. This dark staining reduces the contrast between the developed fingerprint and the background to such an extent that the identification process becomes very difficult. Integrating polyvinylpyrrolidones (PVP) into a ninhydrin solution prevents the black staining, and the developed fingerprints appear in clear contrast to the background. The new ninhydrin solution containing PVP is successful compared to the two-step ninhydrin-acetone washing method for thermal paper which is popular in Germany.