Blow Flies from Forest Fragments Embedded in Different Land Uses: Implications for Selecting Indicators in Forensic Entomology

Given the general expectation that forest loss can alter biodiversity patterns, we hypothesize that blow fly species abundances differ in a gradient of native vegetation cover. This study was conducted in 17 fragments across different landscapes in central Brazil. Different land cover type proportions were used to represent landscape structure. In total, 2334 specimens of nine species of Calliphoridae were collected. We used principal component analysis (PCA) to reduce dimensionality and multicollinearity of the landscape data. The first component explained 70%, and it represented a gradient of forest‐pasture land uses. Alien species showed a wide distribution in different fragments with no clear relationship between the abundance values and the scores of PCA axes, whereas native species occurred only in areas with a predominance of forest cover. Our study revealed that certain native species may be sensitive to forest loss at the landscape scale, and they represent a bioindicator in forensic entomology.     

Advancing measures of innovation in the United States

This paper introduces major themes addressed in this special issue, which is based on NSF's Division of Science Resources Statistics (SRS) workshop Advancing Measures of Innovation—Knowledge Flows, Business Metrics, and Measurement Strategies, held on June 6-7, 2006 near Washington, D.C. The first two sections describe the workshop and provide a brief background on R & D and innovation metrics. The last section introduces the papers. They are based on selected workshop presentations along with additional invited papers.

The trade‐offs in developing public affairs metrics

This paper examines the place of metrics in the assessment of a corporation's public affairs practice. It describes how public affairs metrics are situated in the larger context of organisational performance assessment, examines the range of metrics available to the CPA practitioner, and identifies the critical trade‐offs associated with why public affairs metrics utilisation has not achieved the level of application that some experts have encouraged. Copyright © 2003 Henry Stewart Publications     

Latent Print Proficiency Testing: An Examination of Test Respondents,Test-Taking Procedures,and Test Characteristics

Proficiency testing is a key component of quality assurance programs within crime laboratories and can help improve laboratory practices. However, current proficiency testing procedures contain significant limitations and can be misinterpreted by examiners and court personnel (Garrett & Mitchell, 2018). To evaluate some of these limitations, we surveyed latent print examiners (n = 198) after they completed a Collaborative Testing Services, Inc. proficiency test. Additionally, we evaluated test performance and used a quality metric algorithm to evaluate the quality of test prints. Results do not suggest that respondents are dissimilar to the broader examiner population, although they may engage in different behaviors when completing tests versus casework. Findings show that proficiency testing contains prints of high quality and is perceived as both relatively easy and representative of casework. The test discriminated between inexperienced and experienced respondents, and verification procedures were largely ineffective in reducing errors. Objective quality metrics may provide a path forward to improving proficiency testing in a measurable manner.     

How do latent print examiners perceive proficiency testing? An analysis of examiner perceptions,performance, and print quality

Proficiency testing has the potential to serve several important purposes for crime laboratories and forensic science disciplines. Scholars and other stakeholders, however, have criticized standard proficiency testing procedures since their implementation in laboratories across the United States. Specifically, many experts label current proficiency tests as non-representative of actual casework, at least in part because they are not sufficiently challenging (e.g., [1], [2], [3], [4]. In the current study, we surveyed latent print examiners (n = 322) after they completed a Collaborative Testing Services proficiency test about their perceptions of test items. We also evaluated respondents’ test performance and used a quality metric algorithm (LQMetrics) to obtain objective indicators of print quality on the test. Results were generally consistent with experts’ concerns about proficiency testing. The low observed error rate, examiner perceptions of relative ease, and high objective print quality metrics together suggest that latent print proficiency testing is not especially challenging. Further, examiners indicated that the test items that most closely resembled real-world casework were also the most difficult and contained prints of the lowest quality. Study findings suggest that including prints of lower quality may increase both the difficulty and representativeness of proficiency testing in latent print examination.     

Managing the grassroots and assessing its performance

This paper examines the increasingly popular advocacy activity of grassroots management. The success of many US government relations programmes depends heavily on the involvement and support of the organisation's grassroots networks. This paper provides a brief introduction to the grassroots, provides a number of methods for understanding and assessing grassroots performance and examines some of the key organisational considerations for institutionalising grassroots performance assessment into an organisation. Copyright © 2003 Henry Stewart Publications     

Does image editing improve the quality of latent prints? An analysis of image-editing techniques in one crime laboratory

Field research within latent print comparison has remained sparse in the context of an otherwise growing body of literature examining the discipline. Studies examining how ACE-V procedures are implemented within active crime laboratories are especially lacking in light of research suggesting significant variability in examiner practices despite standardized ACE-V procedures. To date, no studies have examined a potentially important aspect of the Analysis phase: digital image editing. We provide information on the prevalence and types of latent print image editing within one laboratory (i.e., Houston Forensic Science Center), examine the potential effect of image editing on objective print quality and clarity (i.e., LQMetrics scores), and explore potential examiner differences in editing effectiveness. Results indicate that most latent prints are edited in some manner, and that image editing improves the quality and clarity of print images as defined by an objective quality metric, although examiners varied in their ability to improve the clarity of print images. Findings suggest that formal guidance or documentation of standard editing procedures would likely improve the reliability of examiner conclusions early in the latent print comparison process.     

Quantitative evaluation of the results of digital forensic investigations: a review of progress

Unlike conventional forensics, digital forensics does not at present generally quantify the results of its investigations. It is suggested that digital forensics should aim to catch up with other forensic disciplines by using Bayesian and other numerical methodologies to quantify its investigations’ results. Assessing the plausibility of alternative hypotheses (or propositions, or claims) which explain how recovered digital evidence came to exist on a device could assist both the prosecution and the defence sides in criminal proceedings: helping the prosecution to decide whether to proceed to trial and helping defence lawyers to advise a defendant how to plead. This paper reviews some numerical approaches to the goal of quantifying the relative weights of individual items of digital evidence and the plausibility of hypotheses based on that evidence. The potential advantages enabling the construction of cost-effective digital forensic triage schemas are also outlined.

Key points

• The absence of quantified results from digital forensic investigations, unlike those of conventional forensics, is highlighted.
• A number of approaches towards quantitative evaluation of the results of digital forensic investigations are reviewed.
• The significant potential benefits accruing from such approaches are discussed.