title: Chemical discrimination of lubricant marketing types using direct analysis in real time time-of-flight mass spectrometry.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  In comparison to other violent crimes, sexual assaults suffer from very low prosecution and conviction rates especially in the absence of DNA evidence. As a result, the forensic community needs to utilize other forms of trace contact evidence, like lubricant evidence, in order to provide a link between the victim and the assailant.
  
  
  METHODS
  In this study, 90 personal bottled and condom lubricants from the three main marketing types, silicone-based, water-based and condoms, were characterized by direct analysis in real time time of flight mass spectrometry (DART-TOFMS). The instrumental data was analyzed by multivariate statistics including hierarchal cluster analysis, principal component analysis, and linear discriminant analysis.
  
  
  RESULTS
  By interpreting the mass spectral data with multivariate statistics, 12 discrete groupings were identified, indicating inherent chemical diversity not only between but within the three main marketing groups. A number of unique chemical markers, both major and minor, were identified, other than the three main chemical components (i.e. PEG, PDMS and nonoxynol-9) currently used for lubricant classification. The data was validated by a stratified 20% withheld cross-validation which demonstrated that there was minimal overlap between the groupings.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Based on the groupings identified and unique features of each group, a highly discriminating statistical model was then developed that aims to provide the foundation for the development of a forensic lubricant database that may eventually be applied to casework. Copyright © 2017 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
authors.affiliation: National Center for Forensic Science, University of Central Florida, PO Box 162367, Orlando, FL, 32816-2367, USA.
authors.forename: Mark
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Maric
authors.affiliation: National Center for Forensic Science, University of Central Florida, PO Box 162367, Orlando, FL, 32816-2367, USA.
authors.forename: Lauren
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Harvey
authors.affiliation: National Center for Forensic Science, University of Central Florida, PO Box 162367, Orlando, FL, 32816-2367, USA.
authors.forename: Maren
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Tomcsak
authors.affiliation: National Center for Forensic Science, University of Central Florida, PO Box 162367, Orlando, FL, 32816-2367, USA.
authors.forename: Angelique
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Solano
authors.affiliation: National Center for Forensic Science, University of Central Florida, PO Box 162367, Orlando, FL, 32816-2367, USA.
authors.forename: Candice
authors.identifier: http://orcid.org/0000-0002-0472-3025
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Bridge