Search

Smalls arms propellants (SAP) also known as canister powders are readily accessible and cost-effective materials that firearms enthusiasts can acquire for the legitimate assembly of ammunition. These attributes also make SAPs advantageous for the construction of improvised explosive devices (IEDs). Thus, there is a need to develop robust metrics for the characterization of propellants to provide investigative leads as well as for comparisons between known and recovered residues. The goal of this research was to investigate the utility of a high-throughput, non-destructive, and low-cost quantitative automated image analysis routine for the characterization and discrimination of SAP. For this project, 204 one-pound canisters of smokeless propellant (powder) were acquired from local and online sources. These samples represent nine manufacturers and 154 unique brands. From this set, five brands were selected to assess the intra- and inter-lot variability. Eight parameters, which encompass size- and shape-dependent metrics were measured for each sample. A total of ∼85,000 granules (∼680,000 measurements) were analyzed using linear discriminant analysis. A detailed assessment of the variables shows that the size-dependent metrics provide the greatest amount of sample discrimination. Overall accuracy of the method to correctly classify a test subset of data to the brand level is ∼84.72%. The results from this study provide a framework in which to interpret smokeless propellant micromorphometry in the context of intelligence purposes for initial stages of criminal investigations, and for traditional comparisons between known and unknown samples., Competing Interests: Declaration of Competing Interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper., (Copyright © 2023. Published by Elsevier B.V.)

A postmortem root band (PMRB) is a distinct microscopic feature that is postulated to occur in hair remaining in the follicle during the postmortem interval [1] (Petraco et al., 1998). The scientific validity of this premise has been highlighted in two recent high-profile criminal cases involving PMRBs [2,3] (State of Florida v. Casey Marie Anthony, 2008; People v. Kogut, 2005). To better understand the fundamental aspects of postmortem root banding, the microscopical properties of known PMRBs 1 were characterized by light microscopy, and scanning electron microscope (SEM) imaging of microtomed sections of hairs showing root banding. The results from this study show that the appearance of the PMRB may be due to the degradation of the chemically labile, non-keratin intermacrofibrillar matrix (IMM) in the pre-keratin/keratogenous region of anagen hairs. In addition, this degradation is confined to the cortex of the hair, with no apparent damage to the layers of the cuticle. These results could provide valuable information for determining the mechanism of band formation, as well as identify a set of microscopic features that could be used to distinguish hairs with known PMRBs from similarly looking environmentally degraded hairs., (Published by Elsevier Ireland Ltd.)

Fingerprint evidence can benefit in image quality if transformed using digital image processing techniques. This is especially true when considering prints that cannot be easily lifted (such as those deposited on porous paper substrates), or when the mechanism of lifting does not effectively reduce background interferences. In these instances, frequency filtering is one type of mathematical transformation that can serve to increase image clarity and the ability to extract minutiae relevant to pairwise comparisons. To quantify the impact of frequency filtering on image quality, high quality and low quality (noisy) prints were collected. The high quality prints served as exemplars that were compared to the low quality prints both pre- and post-filtering. The resulting pairwise match scores indicate that: (1) frequency filtering has a low probability of creating false positive associations, (2) 90% of the post-filtered images result in a normalized gain in match score, (3) frequency filtering doubled the probability of obtaining match scores greater than 30% (for the automated algorithm employed in this study), and (4) filtering can double the probability of obtaining 10 or more matching minutiae when comparing same source prints. Overall, the research indicates a reasonable and quantifiable payoff in increased clarity, matching minutiae and pairwise similarity for post-filtered images when compared to known-match exemplars., (Copyright © 2014 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.)