Bullying and Depressive Symptomatology Among Low-Income,African–American Youth

Utilizing a risk and protective factors approach, this research examined the relationship between self-reported depressive symptomatology, group membership (bully, victim, bully–victim) risks, and protection among a sample of African–American youths. Self-report data were collected in spring, 2002. Youth in grades 5–12 were sampled (n = 1,542; 51% female) from an urban school district in the Southeast. African–American youths self-identifying as bullies, victims, or bully–victims, reported higher levels of depressive symptoms compared to their nonbullied–nonvictimized counterparts. Additionally, multivariate results highlight a significant set of risk and protective factors associated with depressive symptomatology, even after controlling for the effects of self-identified group membership. These findings further contribute to our general understanding of the interplay among bullying, victimization, risk and protective factors, and their effects on depressive symptoms among a group of understudied African–American youth.     

From Boundary Drawing to Transitions: the Creation of Normativity under the EU Directive on Integrated Pollution Prevention and Control

This article aims to make a contribution to debates about how to conceptualise normativity. It argues that normativity can not be just understood through defining it and in particular through identifying conceptual boundaries around the normative and the non-normative. Instead the article suggests that it is important to explore how transitions between the non-normative and the normative occur in practice. This argument is developed through a critical examination of literature on legal pluralism and an analysis of qualitative empirical data on the drafting of technical guidance documents under the European Union Directive on Integrated Pollution Prevention and Control (96/61/EC).     

Dating human skeletal remains using a radiometric method: biogenic versus diagenetic 90Sr and 210Pb in vertebrae

In forensic science, there is a strong interest in determining the post-mortem interval (PMI) of human skeletal remains up to 50 years after death. Currently, there are no reliable methods to resolve PMI, the determination of which relies almost exclusively on the experience of the investigating expert. Here we measured (90)Sr and (210)Pb ((210)Po) incorporated into bones through a biogenic process as indicators of the time elapsed since death. We hypothesised that the activity of radionuclides incorporated into trabecular bone will more accurately match the activity in the environment and the food chain at the time of death than the activity in cortical bone because of a higher remodelling rate. We found that determining (90)Sr can yield reliable PMI estimates as long as a calibration curve exists for (90)Sr covering the studied area and the last 50 years. We also found that adding the activity of (210)Po, a proxy for naturally occurring (210)Pb incorporated through ingestion, to the (90)Sr dating increases the reliability of the PMI value. Our results also show that trabecular bone is subject to both (90)Sr and (210)Po diagenesis. Accordingly, we used a solubility profile method to determine the biogenic radionuclide only, and we are proposing a new method of bone decontamination to be used prior to (90)Sr and (210)Pb dating.     

A review of the analysis of vegetable oil residues from fire debris samples: analytical scheme, interpretation of the results, and future needs

This paper reviews the literature on the analysis of vegetable (and animal) oil residues from fire debris samples. The examination sequence starts with the solvent extraction of the residues from the substrate. The extract is then prepared for instrumental analysis by derivatizing fatty acids (FAs) into fatty acid methyl esters. The analysis is then carried out by gas chromatography or gas chromatography-mass spectrometry. The interpretation of the results is a difficult operation seriously limited by a lack of research on the subject. The present data analysis scheme utilizes FA ratios to determine the presence of vegetable oils and their propensity to self-heat and possibly, to spontaneously ignite. Preliminary work has demonstrated that it is possible to detect chemical compounds specific to an oil that underwent spontaneous ignition. Guidelines to conduct future research in the analysis of vegetable oil residues from fire debris samples are also presented.     

The modern holy shroud

Testimonies disclosed that a 44-year-old pedestrian was struck head-on by a truck while she was roaming on the motorway; at the time of collision, the truck was travelling at a speed of about 90 km/h. In the second phase of the collision, the pedestrian was projected about 100 m before her body was run over by the truck and then by a car. The autopsy revealed extensive mutilations, making it impossible to verify the testimonies of witnesses to the collision as regards the pedestrian's position at the moment of the first impact. However, the reports produced by the technical expert and the forensic pathologist were able to confirm the testimonies, based on an impact zone on the front panel of the cab of the truck, where part of the pedestrian's face was reproduced like a "modern holy shroud".