Transfer of nitroglycerine to hands during contact with commercial explosives

The techniques of thin-layer chromatography, gas chromatography with electron capture detection, and gas chromatography/mass spectrometry were used to analyze hand swab extracts for the presence of nitroglycerine. Both the amount of nitroglycerine transferred to the hands after handling commercial explosives and its persistence were measured. Gas chromatography-electron capture detection was found to be the most accurate and sensitive technique for making such determinations, especially if the extract was partially purified by thin-layer chromatography prior to analysis. The lowest limit of detection was 10 ng of nitroglycerine, and residues could be detected over 20 h after handling the raw explosive.     

An investigation of bulk and surface refractive indices for flat window glasses,patterned window glasses and windscreen glasses

The bulk and surface refractive indices have been measured for 20 float window glasses, 20 non-float window glasses, 20 patterned window glasses and 20 toughened float windscreen glasses.The refractive index of the tin-contact surface of the float glasses was always greater than that of the bulk, typically by 0.002 (range 0.00053–0.00307). In contrast the refractive indices of the two surfaces and the bulk of the sheet window glasses were in agreement within accepted experimental error in each case. A number of patterned window glasses showed significantly different refractive indices between the plain and patterned surfaces, the largest difference obtained (0.00021) being an order of magnitude smaller than that found for a typical float glass.Nine of the 40 float glasses examined yielded abnormal fragments from the upper surface in the sense that they did not disappear at the match temperature of the bulk glass. The refractive index measured from these abnormal fragments for two of these glasses was lower than the refractive index from the bulk glass.The variation in the bulk refractive index for the sheet and float window glasses produced an estimated standard deviation (E.S.D.) of 1.2 × 10^?5. However, the patterned glasses were nearly three times as variable (E.S.D. = 3.3 × 10^?5) and the toughened float glasses were, on average, almost seven times as variable (E.S.D. = 8.0 × 10^?5).The value of making surface as well as bulk refractive index measurements in routine casework is discussed in the light of the above results.     

Simultaneous electrophoretic determination of phosphoglucomutase subtypes, adenosine deaminase, erythrocyte acid phosphatase, and adenylate kinase enzyme phenotypes

Many of the conventional agarose phosphoglucomutase (PGM) subtyping systems presently in use fail to provide a good separation between the 1 + and 2- bands as well as the 2+ band and the more anodic moving bands. Use of a 1-mm-thick gel composed of 1% ISO GEL (FMC Corp.) and phosphate-citric acid gel and tank buffers with a pH of 5.3 provided exceptionally good separation between all four of the major subtyping bands. The additional criteria for this procedure is a voltage of 21 V/cm and a run time of 4 h. Utilization of this procedure using case samples of varied ages proved the reliability of the procedure. Also examined were the effects of several reducing agents on the enzyme band patterns and the use of this system for the simultaneous determinations of the adenosine deaminase (ADA), erythrocyte acid phosphatase (EAP), and adenylate kinase (AK) enzyme phenotypes.     

Decomposition of buried bodies and methods that may aid in their location

This is the second report on an ongoing study conducted to collect data on the decompositional rates of human cadavers and the first on buried cadavers. Six unembalmed human cadavers were buried separately in unlined trenches of various depths and allowed to naturally decompose for a time period ranging from a month to a year. During the period of burial, data were collected daily on the air, soil, and cadaver temperature at each burial site. At the end of each specified burial period the cadavers were exhumed and examined for the degree of decomposition which had taken place as well as changes in the soil pH, surface vegetation, and carrion insect activity. Analysis of the data shows that the decomposition rate of buried cadavers is highly dependent on the depth of burial and environmental temperatures. The depth at which the cadaver was buried also directly affected the degree of soil and vegetational changes as well as access by carrion insects. Application of this information can contribute to a more accurate estimation of time since death of a buried corpse and may aid in the location of such corpses.