The detection of drugs of abuse in fingerprints using Raman spectroscopy I: latent fingerprints

This paper describes the application of Raman spectroscopy to the detection of exogenous substances in latent fingerprints. The scenario considered was that of an individual handling a substance and subsequently depositing a contaminated fingerprint. Five drugs of abuse (codeine phosphate, cocaine hydrochloride, amphetamine sulphate, barbital and nitrazepam) and five non-controlled substances of similar appearance, which may be used in the adulteration of drugs of abuse (caffeine, aspirin, paracetamol, starch and talc), were studied in both sweat-rich and sebum-rich latent fingerprints. The substances studied could be clearly distinguished using their Raman spectra and were all successfully detected in latent fingerprints. Photobleaching was necessary to reduce the fluorescence background in the spectra of some substances. Raman spectra obtained from the substances in sweat-rich latent fingerprints were of a similar quality to spectra that obtained from the substances under normal sampling conditions. Interfering Raman bands arising from latent fingerprint material were present in the spectra obtained from the substances in sebum-rich fingerprints. These bands did not prevent identification of the substances and could be successfully removed by spectral subtraction. The most difficult aspect of the detection of these substances in latent fingerprints was visually locating the substance in the fingerprint in order to obtain a Raman spectrum.     

Structural Projections on JBW*-Triples

A linear projection R on a Jordan*-triple A is said to be structuralprovided that, for all elements a, b and c in A, the equality{Rab Rc} = R{a Rbc} holds. A subtriple B of A is said to becomplemented if A = B + Ker(B), where Ker(B) = {aA: {B a B}= 0}. It is shown that a subtriple of a JBW*-triple is complementedif and only if it is the range of a structural projection. A weak* closed subspace B of the dual E* of a Banach space Eis said to be an N*-ideal if every weak* continuous linear functionalon B has a norm preserving extension to a weak* continuous linearfunctional on E* and the set of elements in E which attain theirnorm on the unit ball in B is a subspace of E. It is shown thata subtriple of a JBW*-triple A is complemented if and only ifit is an N*-ideal, from which it follows that complemented subtriplesof A are weak* closed, and structural projections on A are weak*continuous and norm non-increasing. It is also shown that everyN*-ideal in A possesses a triple product with respect to whichit is a JBW*-triple which is isomorphic to a complemented subtripleof A.