New test detects drug use from a single fingerprint
2015-05-15
(Press-News.org) Research published today in the journal Analyst has demonstrated a new, noninvasive test that can detect cocaine use through a simple fingerprint. For the first time, this new fingerprint method can determine whether cocaine has been ingested, rather than just touched.
Led by the University of Surrey, a team of researchers from the Netherlands Forensic Institute (NL), the National Physical Laboratory (UK), King's College London (UK) and Sheffield Hallam University (UK), used different types of an analytical chemistry technique known as mass spectrometry to analyse the fingerprints of patients attending drug treatment services. They tested these prints against more commonly used saliva samples to determine whether the two tests correlated. While previous fingerprint tests have employed similar methods, they have only been able to show whether a person had touched cocaine, and not whether they have actually taken the drug.
"When someone has taken cocaine, they excrete traces of benzoylecgonine and methylecgonine as they metabolise the drug, and these chemical indicators are present in fingerprint residue," said lead author Dr Melanie Bailey from the University of Surrey. "For our part of the investigations, we sprayed a beam of solvent onto the fingerprint slide (a technique known as Desorption Electrospray Ionisation, or DESI) to determine if these substances were present. DESI has been used for a number of forensic applications, but no other studies have shown it to demonstrate drug use."
Researchers believe that the applications for this test could be far-reaching. Drug testing is used routinely by probation services, prisons, courts and other law enforcement agencies. However, traditional testing methods have limitations. For example, blood testing requires trained staff and there are privacy concerns about urine testing. Where bodily fluids are tested, there can be biological hazards and often a requirement for particular storage and disposal methods. Often these tests also require analysis off-site.
"The beauty of this method is that, not only is it non-invasive and more hygienic than testing blood or saliva, it can't be faked," added Dr Bailey. "By the very nature of the test, the identity of the subject is captured within the fingerprint ridge detail itself."
It is anticipated that this technology could see the introduction of portable drug tests for law enforcement agencies to use within the next decade.
"We are only bound by the size of the current technology. Companies are already working on miniaturised mass spectrometers, and in the future portable fingerprint drugs tests could be deployed. This will help to protect the public and indeed provide a much safer test for drug users," said Dr Bailey.
INFORMATION:
ELSE PRESS RELEASES FROM THIS DATE:
2015-05-15
Great Neck, NY - While the consequences of osteoporosis are worse in men than women - including death - older males are far less likely to take preventive measures against the potentially devastating bone-thinning disease or accept recommendations for screening, according to startling new research by North Shore-LIJ Health System geriatricians.
Geriatric fellow Irina Dashkova, MD, designed and led a cross-sectional survey of 146 older adults in New York and Florida that showed stunning gender differences in perspectives, beliefs and behaviors surrounding osteoporosis, ...
2015-05-15
Great Neck, NY - With an aging Baby Boomer population and increasing numbers of childless and unmarried seniors, nearly one-quarter of Americans over age 65 are currently or at risk to become "elder orphans," a vulnerable group requiring greater awareness and advocacy efforts, according to new research by a North Shore-LIJ geriatrician and palliative care physician.
A case study and literature review by Maria Torroella Carney, MD, chief of geriatric and palliative medicine at the North Shore-LIJ Health System, zeroes in on staggering data on the prevalence and risks ...
2015-05-14
Researchers at the University of Birmingham have shed new light on the relationship between autistic tendencies and psychosis proneness in neurotypical adults.
If a similar pattern were found in people diagnosed with these conditions, their findings would suggest that a co-occurrence of both conditions might balance, and diminish problems associated with perspective-taking difficulties.
The study, published in the journal Proceedings of the Royal Society B, indicates that while increased tendencies for either condition are associated with perspective-taking difficulties, ...
2015-05-14
This news release is available in Japanese.
Though some large predatory fish, like tuna, have been shown to temporarily warm muscles or organs during pursuit, at least one fish may have done that one better by being able to internally generate heat that warms its heart and brain, a new study reports. This ability increases the fish's metabolic function in cold deep waters, and it shows that birds and mammals are not the only vertebrates with warm hearts. One thing that sets mammals and birds apart from vertebrates like fish is the ability to internally warm ...
2015-05-14
This news release is available in Japanese.
Allowing both males and females in hunter-gatherer groups to choose their living companions reduces the number of family members in individual hunter-gatherer camps, a new study shows. The results answer a longstanding mystery about why hunter-gatherer populations have evolved to comprise large numbers of unrelated individuals, especially since hunter-gatherers have shown a strong preference to live with kin. Previously, studies have pointed to pair-bonding, or lifelong monogamous relationships in which couples go ...
2015-05-14
This news release is available in Japanese. There's more than one explanation for how colony-living animals like bees evolve their unique social structure, according to a detailed genome analysis conducted by Karen Kapheim and colleagues. Bees are eusocial, meaning that some of their workers forego reproduction to care for their siblings. In some cases, this can lead to an elaborate and sophisticated "superorganism" of thousands of individuals. Kapheim and colleagues took a detailed look at the genomes of ten bee species to determine if the evolution of eusociality always ...
2015-05-14
New in the Hastings Center Report
Patient-satisfaction surveys: improving health care, or leading it astray? The downside of courage, right-to-try laws, and more in the May-June 2015 issue.
Patient-Satisfaction Surveys on a Scale of 0 to 10: Improving Health Care, or Leading It Astray?
Alexandra Junewicz and Stuart J. Youngner
It is increasingly common for patient-satisfaction surveys to be used as indicators of health care quality, as well as to influence the reimbursement paid to providers. But the authors argue that the surveys could eventually compromise the ...
2015-05-14
Many television advertisers voice fears that distracted viewers -- those increasingly frenetic multitaskers using smartphones, laptops and tablets while viewing TV - are becoming less receptive to advertisers' messages. A new study published in the online Articles in Advance section of Marketing Science, a journal of the Institute for Operations Research and the Management Sciences (INFORMS), refutes this conventional wisdom and concludes that the "second screen" puts a virtual store in every consumer's pocket. Multitasking viewers now visit, browse, and even buy advertised ...
2015-05-14
An anti-poverty program tested extensively on three continents has produced sustained gains in individuals' income, wealth, and well-being, according to a study published today in the journal Science.
The program provides very poor people with productive assets, such as livestock, as well as job training, life-skills coaching, and health information. Known as the "Graduation" program, its intention was to examine whether helping the poor in multiple ways simultaneously could be especially effective in fighting poverty.
Overall, with more than 20,000 people enrolled ...
2015-05-14
A new paper, co-authored by Woods Hole Research Center Senior Scientist Richard A. Houghton, entitled, "Audit of the global carbon budget: estimate errors and their impact on uptake uncertainty", was published in the journal Biogeosciences. The paper confirms that as carbon emissions continue to climb, so too has the Earth's capacity to absorb carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. About half of the emissions of CO2 each year remain in the atmosphere; the other half is taken up by the ecosystems on land and the oceans.
For Dr. Houghton, "There is no question that land ...
LAST 30 PRESS RELEASES:
[Press-News.org] New test detects drug use from a single fingerprint
