Determination of Common Characteristics in Handwriting of Close Genotypic Family Members Submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the award of the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Forensic Science 2017 Submitted By Vaibhav Saran Department of Forensic Science Sam Higginbottom University of Agriculture, Technology And Sciences Deemed to be University Allahabad, U.P., India ID. No. 09PHFS103 Dedicated to my Loving Family and Friends for their Unconditional Love, Support and Encouragement Scanned by CamScanner Scanned by CamScanner Acknowledgements The completion of my Ph.D. has been a long journey. It’s true that “Life is what happens” when you are completing your thesis. Life doesn’t stand still, nor wait until you are finished and have time to manage it. Much as happened and changed in the time I’ve been involved with this project. Many have questioned whether I would finish my thesis, as have doubted my commitment to it. I, on the other hand, barring losing confidence so many times I’ve lost count, getting writer’s block just as many times, beginning another relationship, computers crashing, needing to work as much as possible, and pure frustration in general, knew I’d complete my Ph.D. I just had to do it in my own time and on my own terms. My thesis has always been a priority, but as most know, there are several priorities in a person’s life at any one time. Unfortunately due to life’s challenges and the changes that followed, my thesiscould not always be the number one priority. At any rate, I have finished, but not alone, and am elated. A doctoral thesis is often described as a solitary endeavor; however the list that follows definitely proves the opposite. I could not have succeeded without the invaluable support of several. Without these supporters, especially the select few I’m about to mention, I may not have gotten to where I am today, at least not sanely. To this select group, I’d like to give special thanks, to all those who somehow associated to me and encouraged me throughout this journey. The journey begins with my enrollment to an esteemed Institution with a glorified 107 years at its back, the Sam Higginbottom University of Agriculture, Technology & Sciences, Allahabad, the success of University is a result of tremendous efforts and contribution of numerous peoples but there is one person whose dynamic personality, futuristic vision and spiritual approach made the institution what it is today. Its indeed my proud privilege to thankfully acknowledge the efforts and vision of Our Honourable Vice Chancellor, Most Rev. Prof. (Dr.) Rajendra B. Lal who provided an ecumenical institute for multidisciplinary studies for students across the globe. I shall remain indebted to him for the Research scholarships scheme of Yeshu Darbar initiated by him for in service candidates. I would like to express the deepest appreciation to Dr. Sayeed Ahmed for his advice during my doctoral research endeavor for the past few years. As my supervisor, he has constantly forced me to remain focused on achieving my goal. To work with him has been a real pleasure to me, with heaps of fun and excitement. He have been a steady influence throughout my Ph.D. career; he always oriented and supported me with promptness and care, and had been patient and encouraging in times of new ideas and difficulties; he always listened to my ideas and discussions with him frequently led to key insights. His ability to select and to approach compelling research problems, his high scientific standards, and hard work set an example. I admire his ability to balance research interests and personal pursuits. Above all, he made me feel a friend, which I appreciate from my heart. I extend my deep sense of profound gratitude to the External Examiner Dr. R.M. Tripathi, Dy. Director & Scientist D, CFSL, Chandigarh for his valuable suggestion which made the thesis more informative. I am deeply grateful to my Co-Advisor Dr. A. K. Gupta, Professor and Head, Department of Forensic Science, SHUATS, Allahabad. His observations and comments helped me to establish the overall direction of the research and to move forward with investigation in depth. Under his guidance I successfully overcame many difficulties and learned a lot. Despite of his hectic schedule, he used to review my thesis progress, give his invaluable suggestions and made corrections wherever required. His unflinching courage and convictionalways inspired me, and I hope to continue to work with his noble thoughts I thank him for providing me with the opportunity to work with him. It would not have been possible to write this doctoral thesis without the help and support of my advisory committee members Dr. P. W. Ramteke, Head, Deptt. Of Biological Sciences, SHUATS & Dr. Ajit Paul, Head Department of Mathematics & Statistics, SHUATS, their unsurpassed knowledge, good advice, supports and Suggestions, had been invaluable on both academic and personal level, for which I am extremely grateful. My intellectual debt is to Mr. P. L. Gupta, for his Assistance in makingme understand the concepts of MatLab, without his guidance and persistent help this thesis would not have been possible. I’d also like to give a heartfelt, special thanks to Dr. Amit Chattree. Head Department of Chemistry (Former Head Department of Forensic Science) He was not only the Head of the department until his tenure in the department, but a mentor and source of Inspiration. His patience, flexibility, genuine caring and concern, and faith in me during the thesis process enabled me to attend to life while also earning my Ph.D. He’s been motivating, encouraging, and enlightening. He has never judged nor pushed when he knew I needed to juggle priorities. We’ve laughed together and he’s also been kind when I needed to cry. When others doubted, he remained a fan. When I became too serious, his humor and friendly sarcasm allowed me to laugh and lightened my perspective. Even after his tenure, he remained a supporter and provided insight and direction-right up to the end. For this, I cannot thank him enough. I am forever grateful. Thank You Dr. Chattree! I appreciate the feedback offered by Dr. Lav Kesharwani and Dr.Munish Mishratheir constructive comments, warm encouragement suggestions had contributedgreatly to the final copy. A journey is easier when you travel together. Interdependence is certainly more valuable than independence. Many thanks to my Friends Dr. Jonathan A. Lal, Dr. Suneet Kumar, Dr. Rajeev Kumar, Er. Ashwani Chandra and Dr. Vijay Tripathi they provided decisive and energetic support during the write-up stage, clearing the path towards thesis completion in their solution-oriented way. They were always there when I really needed. Thank you doesn’t seem sufficient but it is said with appreciation and respect to both of them for their support, encouragement, care, understanding and precious friendship. The loyal assistance of Vinay Singh, Kriti Nigam, Anurag Srivastava and other Research Scholars, ofthe Department who enabled me to bypass the more persistent obstacles to thesis completion and for all their suggestions, support and creating a pleasant atmosphere for me here is thankfully acknowledged. The assistance rendered by Mr. Ajay Wilson Das, & Mr. Rajendra Kumar, Lab Attendants Department of Forensic Science is thankfully acknowledgements as they made possible the difficult task of my experiments by providing the necessary facilities in lab whenever required. Of course no acknowledgments would be complete without giving thanks to my parents Mr. Vijay Shanker Srivastava & Mrs. Manju Srivastava. Both have instilled many admirable qualities in me and given me a good foundation with which to meet life. They’ve taught me about hard work and self-respect, about persistence and about how to be independent. Mom, especially, was a great role model of resilience, strength and character. Both have always expressed how proud they are of me and how much they love me. I too am proud of them and love them very much. I am grateful for them both and for the ‘smart genes’ they passed on to me. In addition I’m thankful to my SiblingsMr. Vishal Saran, Dr. (Mrs.)Vibha Saranfor their motivations and unconditional love and support which persuaded me to accomplish this task. Special thanks to My Loving Nephew Mr. Vihaan, looking at his innocence and pain relieving gestures always made me forget the tiredness of the work. I will be failing in my duties if I do not mention the support & blessings of my Extended family which have always been a source of inspiration especially My Tau & Tai Ji who always inspired me to complete my thesis. I extend a sincere thanks to all my extended family membersand “The Saran Empire” who have always been a source of motivation and provided unconditional support whenever required. Last, but certainly not least, I must acknowledge with tremendous and deep thanks my Life Partner My Wife, Mrs. Rituja Srivastava. Through her love, patience, support and unwavering belief in me, I’ve been able to complete thislong thesis journey. She is my biggest fan and supporter. She has taken care of whatever needed tending to without complaining, just so I could focus on completing my thesis. She has patiently endured many, many long hours alone while I worked on my thesis. At the same time, she has also given me so many happy and beautiful memories throughout this journey. We have laughed and cried, traveled and played, built and settled, and planned and discussed our lives. I could not have completed this journey withoutRituja by my side. She went through every excruciating step and mood change with me, as well as read my study as many times as I, yet somehow made everything less burdensome. Her wit has kept me smiling and her sarcasm has given me a different view of the world that has helped keep things in perspective. Rituja has been central to my completion of this study as she has given me confidence and motivated me in so many ways. Through her eyes I’ve seen myself as a capable, intelligent man who could do anything once I made up my mind. There are no words that can express my gratitude and appreciation for all you’ve done and been for me. As I ramble, I still have not found the words that describe or express how I feel for this woman and what her presence in my life has meant. She loves me like no one else has and has changed me for the better. Thank you with all my heart and soul. I love you and am forever indebted to you for giving me life, your love, and your heart. Your complete and unconditional love carries me through always. Above all I would like to thank the Almighty GOD, who stood with me at every stages of life and bestowed His choicest blessings upon me; it is HE who made anything and everything possible. Regrettably, but inevitably, the list of names is incomplete, and I hope that those who are missing will forgive me, and will still accept my sincere appreciation of their influence on my work. Date: Place: Allahabad Vaibhav Saran Abstract The study entitled “Determination of Common Characteristics in Handwriting of Closed Genotypic Family Members” was carried out at the Department of Forensic Science, SHUATS, Allahabad with the major objectives, To determine the similar and different characteristics in handwriting of closely related genotypic family members, To study the similarities in handwriting due to same copy book form, To establish a relationship between the similarity and differences in handwriting due to hereditary and due to adaptability and To provide a modified and enhanced examination method for questioned document examination. Since there are several Legal Issues in Handwritten Document Examination which includes Individuality Problem that is whether the handwriting of every Individual is distinct. The Validation Problemthat is whether the procedures used by examiners are repeatable and the Uncertainty Problem that iswhether the inevitable uncertainty in individualization /exclusion can be quantified.To minimize this Statistical Testscan be used to address the individuality problem. The method can be formalized to validate existing methods as being repeatable and the use of computing the methods of analysis by which various probabilities of interest in quantifying uncertainty in the opinioncan be computed. In the first phase of the workthe chi square value for the observed frequency of writers of family were observed and the results were computed as per Pearson chi square test with an alternate hypothesis that different handwriting combinations of parent has a significant effect on child’s handwriting, The second phase of the thesis deals with the chi square value for the observed frequency of writers among school students who have studied the same copy copybook form, were collected from different English medium schools of Allahabad and the observations were made after detailed examination of each set of writing. The results were computed as per Pearson chi square test to test the Hypothesis considered. The third phase of the work deals with the analysis to check the statistical significance of the observations made during the study in order to establish a relationship between the similarity and differences in handwriting due to hereditary and due to adaptability. The last part the thesis deals with the computational analysis where 10 families handwriting were computed in order to observe the similarities among parent and their offspring, the handwriting were analyzed by a Graphical User Interface tool developed in MatLab, which computes the values in pixel according to defined mathematical formula. LIST OF TABLE Table Particulars Page No. No. 3.1 Scanner Specification 20 3.2 System requirements for MatLab 24 3.3 Handwriting feature and their combinations selected for the study 27 3.4 Skeleton for ANOVA table 29 4.1.1 Chi Square distribution of writers in family with Left X Left Slant Parents 44 4.1.2 Chi Square distribution of writers in family with Left X Right Slant Parents 45 4.1.3 Chi Square distribution of writers in family with Left X Vertical Slant Parents 46 4.1.4 Chi Square distribution of writers in family with Right X Right Slant Parents 47 4.1.5 Chi Square distribution of writers in family with Right X Vertical Slant Parents 48 4.1.6 Chi Square distribution of writers in family with Vertical X Vertical Slant Parents 49 Chi Square distribution of writers in family with Uphill X Uphill Alignment 4.2.1 50 Parents Chi Square distribution of writers in family with Uphill X Parallel Alignment 4.2.2 51 Parents Chi Square Distribution of writers in family with Uphill X Downhill Alignment 4.2.3 52 Parents Chi Square Distribution of writers in family with Downhill X Parallel Alignment 4.2.4 53 Parents Chi Square Distribution of writers in family with Downhill X Downhill Alignment 4.2.5 54 Parents Chi Square Distribution of writers in family with Parallel X Parallel Alignment 4.2.6 55 Parents Chi Square Distribution of writers in family with Cursive X Cursive Writing Style 4.3.1 56 Parents Chi Square Distribution of writers in family with Cursive X Printed Writing Style 4.3.2 57 Parents Chi Square Distribution of writers in family with Printed X Printed Writing Style 4.3.3 58 Parents 4.4.1 Chi Square Distribution of writers in family with Taller T Writing Style Parents 59 Chi Square Distribution of writers in family with Taller T & Taller H Writing Style 4.4.2 60 Parents Chi Square Distribution of writers in family with Taller T & Equal TH Writing 4.4.3 61 Style Parents 4.4.4 Chi Square Distribution of writers in family with Taller H Writing Style Parents 62 Chi Square Distribution of writers in family with Taller H&Equal T&H Writing 4.4.5 63 Style Parents Chi Square Distribution of writers in family with Equal T&H Writing Style 4.4.6 64 Parents Chi Square Distribution of writers in family with Tall X Tall Writing Style 4.5.1 65 Parents Chi Square Distribution of writers in family with Tall X Short Writing Style 4.5.2 66 Parents 4.5.3 Chi Square Distribution of writers in family with Tall X Regular Writing Style 67