Visualization of latent fingerprints using fluorescence lifetime imaging on paper emitting strong fluorescence

Latent fingerprints were successfully visualized using fluorescence lifetime imaging (FLIM) on paper which emits strong fluorescence with a lifetime close to that of fingerprints and thus from which it is difficult for time-resolved spectroscopy to visualize fingerprints. Latent fingerprint samples on paper were excited using a 450 nm or 532 nm nanosecond pulsed-laser, and time-resolved fluorescence images were obtained at a delay time of 6–16 ns in intervals of 1 ns, to the excitation pulse. The excitation beam was expanded using a lens, and the fluorescence from the fingerprints was captured using an intensified CCD camera. Because of the large fluorescence intensity of the background paper of approximately two to four orders of magnitude larger than that of the fingerprint, the fingerprint was not visualized on each fluorescence image by time-resolved spectroscopy. However, the fingerprint was visualized in a FLIM image constructed using a series of the fluorescence images for the case with the fluorescence intensity of the background paper being four orders of magnitude larger than that of the fingerprint. The difference in fluorescence lifetime in the FLIM image of the visualized fingerprint and background paper was in the order of 0.1 ns, which was an order of magnitude smaller than the inherent fluorescence lifetime of a few nanoseconds for the fingerprints and paper. It was demonstrated that, at a background fluorescence intensity with a certain order of magnitude larger than that of fingerprints, FLIM has the potential to visualize latent fingerprints which cannot be visualized by time-resolved spectroscopy.     

Book reviews

Social Policy Research, Martin Bulmer (ed.), London, Macmillan, 1978, pp. 373, £5.95.

Making Budgets, James N. Danziger, Sage Publications, 1978, pp. 255, £8.50 cloth edition and £4.25 paperback.

Universality, Selectivity and Effectiveness in Social Policy, Bleddyn Davies (in association with Mike Reddin), Heinemann, London, 1978, pp. viii &; 264, £9.50.

Implementation in a Bureaucracy, Control in a Bureaucracy, Andrew Dunsire, Oxford, Martin Robertson, 1978, pp. Vol.1260, Vol. II 263, £15 each.

Planning the Social Services, N. Falk and J. Lee, Saxon House, Farnborough, 1978, pp. x &; 113, £7.50.

Policy Analysis: A Political and Organisational Perspective, W. I. Jenkins, London, Martin Robertson, 1978, pp. 278, £8.95.

Interactions and Interventions in Organizations, Iain L. Mangham, John Wiley &; Sons, 1978, pp. 150, price not known.     

“A Trivial and Unimportant Ally”? Britain and the West German-Soviet Treaty Negotiations, 1970

ABSTRACT

This analysis explores British perceptions and roles regarding the negotiation of the West German-Soviet Moscow treaty of 1970. Whilst supportive of West German Ostpolitik, Britain has received a very marginal role in the historiography of the treaty. By exploring the consultation process in the so-called Bonn Group of the United States, Britain, France, and West Germany, this exegesis explains that Britain played a leading role in building consensus and forming schemes to resolve the issue of the treatment of Quadripartite Rights and Responsibilities concerning Berlin in the Moscow treaty package. As background, this essay also explains the policies of the Harold Wilson’s Labour government and Edward Heath’s Conservative government regarding European détente in Europe, including West German Ostpolitik.     

Residential mortgage foreclosure and neighborhood change

Abstract

We use New Orleans as a case study to explore residential mortgage foreclosure as one mechanism linking prior black population and changes in employment levels with changes in aggregate income, housing tenure, vacancy rates, and black population size. Mortgage foreclosure data are merged with 1980 and 1990 census data aggregated at the block group level.

Structural equation modeling results indicate that both economic change and prior racial composition are associated with reductions in median block group incomes. Racial transition and loss of employment and income also increased foreclosure rates. Economic change and prior racial composition together impact neighborhoods through their effects on income and foreclosure rates, which in turn differentially affect vacancy rates, the change in black population, and the housing tenure status of residents. The differential effects of these variables point to the persistence of a dual housing market for blacks and whites in New Orleans.