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We explored the quality distribution of ninhydrin-developed prints on A4 bond paper in two groups of individuals, in Israel and in India. While the quality distributions of the developed marks in both countries had some dissimilarities, both groups showed the expected bell-shape distribution, with the majority of the donors belonging to the central zone, defined as "average" or "good." Attempt was made to correlate between a physiological feature, palmar moisture, and the fingerprint donorship. As a rule, high fingermark quality could be associated with sweating hands, but there were individuals with moist palms whose fingermarks had a low score and vice versa. This finding supports the logical but hitherto unproven assumption that besides the amount of palmar sweat, the other physiological factor governing the prints' quality is the total amount of substrate, amino acids in this case, in the latent deposits, which depends on the substrate concentration in the sweat., (© 2010 American Academy of Forensic Sciences.)

Small particle reagent (SPR) is a widely used method to develop latent fingerprints on non-porous and wet surfaces. Conventionally, molybdenum disulfide based SPR has been used for the development of latent fingerprints while some SPR based on other materials such as charcoal powder, zinc carbonate and titanium dioxide have been reported. Fluorescent preparations of molybdenum disulfide based SPR have also been reported. In the present work, a number of SPR based on zinc carbonate have been developed in combination with various fluorescent dyes to develop latent fingerprints on a number of non-porous surfaces. The quality of the developed fingerprints have been evaluated and found to be reproducible. The shelf life of the reagents developed is found to be acceptable for case work purposes. The relationship between the immersion period of the substrate bearing the latent fingerprints and reagent has also been examined.

Chance fingerprints may be found on every type of surfaces of contact and when they are latent, need to be developed by various methods. The type of surface on which latent prints are to be developed is one of the important factors when a choice for a method of development is to be made. The matter becomes more crucial when the surface is unique like a compact disc containing digital data. In this case, to develop the fingerprints is not the only matter to be taken care of but also, is very important to select such a method which may not effect the stored data and its retrieval. In present investigation, various methods have been tried to develop fingerprints on the writing surface of a CD and results are discussed with respect to their development as well as its effect on stored data and data retrieval.

Purpose Fingerprints of an individual are considered as mark of his/her identity. The identity of a person from fingerprints is based upon dermal ridges which have very large variations in the form of ridge characteristics. Though only few people have been reported for not having dermal ridges on their palmer and plantar surfaces, quite large number of population is reported with hand and foot deformities causing effect on dermal ridges also. Some of these deformities can be classified as syndactyly, polydactyly and polysyndactyly. In present work, cases of such deformities have been studied with respect to dermal ridges on distal phalanges of the fingers which are used for fingerprinting. Method Inked Fingerprints of affected fingers were obtained along with photographs of the hands with deformities. The pattern types, flow of ridges were recorded and relationship of these with deformity was attempted. Results Very interesting findings have been observed and have been reported in the paper, as commonness of ridge pattern or no pattern type of the ridges etc. It seems that there is a relationship between pattern type and type of deformity. Conclusion In spite of being brief study, it is hoped that it may lead to a study at larger scale to understand the dermal ridges configuration on hands with deformities. In the field of crime investigation when fingerprints having supernumerary finger are found at the crime scene, additional information about the culprit is available to draw the inferences. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]