A Changing UK in a Changing Europe: The UK State between European Union and Devolution

Two issues currently dominate the UK's constitutional landscape: the UK's membership of the European Union (EU) on the one hand; and the unsettled constitutional settlements between the UK and the devolved administrations of Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland on the other. This article considers these two issues in concert. It stresses the distinct relationships between the EU and the devolved territories within the UK—concerning both devolved and non‐devolved policy areas—highlighting the salience of a devolved perspective in any consideration of UK–EU relations. Despite its importance, sensitivity to this has been lacking. The article explores the implications of a ‘Leave’ or ‘Remain’ outcome on the future of the internal territorial dynamics within the UK. While there are too many unknowns to be certain of anything, that there will be knock‐on effects is, however, beyond doubt.     

A Practical Guide for the Formulation of Propositions in the Bayesian Approach to DNA Evidence Interpretation in an Adversarial Environment

The interpretation of complex DNA profiles is facilitated by a Bayesian approach. This approach requires the development of a pair of propositions: one aligned to the prosecution case and one to the defense case. This note explores the issue of proposition setting in an adversarial environment by a series of examples. A set of guidelines generalize how to formulate propositions when there is a single person of interest and when there are multiple individuals of interest. Additional explanations cover how to handle multiple defense propositions, relatives, and the transition from subsource level to activity level propositions. The propositions depend on case information and the allegations of each of the parties. The prosecution proposition is usually known. The authors suggest that a sensible proposition is selected for the defense that is consistent with their stance, if available, and consistent with a realistic defense if their position is not known.     

Capital and Labour Mobility and their Impacts on Mexico's Regional Labour Markets

Abstract

This paper studies the effects of capital and labor mobility on real wages across Mexican states for the period 1997–2006. Employing dynamic panel data methods, we find: (1) strong positive effects on real wages from foreign direct investment (FDI) and from migration; (2) domestic and foreign migration provide similar wage effects; and (3) alternative partitions indicate that real wages are more sensitive to FDI-related fluctuations across states with relatively lower wages and migration levels. Overall, these results provide support that real wages respond positively to fluctuations in capital flows and labour movements as predicted from the theory.     

Miserly Developments

We measure the level of poverty in the midst of affluence using what we denote the miser index. We calculate the index of poverty-induced polarisation for a number of countries. The most miserly countries are in Southern Africa and Latin America. Miserly countries tend to be socially fractionalised, bureaucratically inefficient, and politically corrupt. They provide low levels of healthcare and education. Considering the world as a single entity, we find a dramatic rise in global miserliness over the last 30 years going from the level of Colombia to that of South Africa.

For one very rich man, there must be at least five hundred poor, and the affluence of the few supposes the indigence of the many. (Adam Smith, 1776: 232)     

The role of a Proof of Concept Center in a university ecosystem: an exploratory study

The Proof of Concept phase in university technology transfer is considered to be critical for the success of both licensing and the creation of spin-off companies. In the United States, Proof of Concept Centers are emerging as successful structures to address the challenges of this phase. In this paper, we present a framework to assess the role for such a structure in a university ecosystem. The framework is built from previous references that we use to explicitly link the features of Proof of Concept Centers with the challenges of the Proof of Concept phase, and establish their specific contributions to the overall technology commercialization efforts of a university. We illustrate the application of this framework in a case study of the University of Coimbra, in Portugal, and develop a characterization that is representative of the role that a Proof of Concept Center can play in comparable university ecosystems that feature conventional technology commercialization structures, and struggle with the challenges of the Proof of Concept phase. Our study suggests that there is in fact a possible role for a Proof of Concept Center in the regional ecosystem of the University of Coimbra, with a potentially very relevant impact in the technology commercialization process, through networking outside academia and research environments, funding of Proof of Concept activities, and technology entrepreneurship education for the development of entrepreneurial skills for researchers.     

Finding our way: early learning from the Compass Project,an Intensive Intervention Risk Management service for women

Abstract

Intensive Intervention Risk Management (IIRM) services are commissioned under the Offender Personality Disorder strategy to contribute to a psychologically informed pathway by supporting individuals ‘through the gate’. This paper reports some of the learning from the first IIRM service for women and outlines how those involved have sought to understand the challenges that were faced by this project in its early days. This paper argues that these challenges help to clarify the role of IIRM services for women and that the ambition for these services should be to facilitate coherent, holistic management. We suggest that IIRM services for women offenders are likely to be most effective if they are well integrated and responsive to the social context, underpinned by a partnership approach and have clear processes for service delivery. Finally, we argue that IIRM services for women should be characterised by a commitment to involvement at every level.     

Assessing the Effectiveness of NICHD Protocol Training Focused on Episodic Memory Training and Rapport-Building: a Study of Korean Police Officers

The present study examined the effectiveness of 2-day training programs utilizing the NICHD Protocol, with a particular focus on the episodic memory training and rapport-building phases. Ninety-seven police officers were allocated to one of four training conditions (protocol only, protocol and rapport-building, protocol and memory training, protocol and other interview issues), and mock interviews were conducted both before and after the training. The results showed that the proportions of invitations and directive questions asked significantly increased after training, whereas the proportions of option-posing and suggestive questions decreased. Although the different training programs changed interviewing behavior similarly, college students interviewed by police officers who had additional training in rapport-building and episodic memory training were more satisfied with their interviewers than those who were interviewed by police officers in the other conditions.     

Fast LC-MS/MS method for the determination of amphetamine, methamphetamine, MDA, MDMA, MDEA, MBDB and PMA in urine

A fast method was designed for the simultaneous determination of amphetamine (A), methamphetamine (MA), PMA, MDA, MDMA, MDEA and MBDB in urine. The drugs were analysed by LC (ESI)-MS/MS, after a simple liquid-liquid extraction in the presence of the deuterated analogues. Reverse phase separation on an Atlantis dC18 Intelligent Speed column was achieved in less than 4 min under gradient conditions, and the total run time was 8 min. The method was fully validated, including linearity (1-1000 ng/mL for A, MDMA, MDEA and MBDB; 2-1000 ng/mL for MDA and PMA; 1-200 ng/mL for MA; r2>0.99 for all compounds), recovery (>80%), within-day and between-day precision and accuracy (CV and MRE<12.7% for intermediate level and ULOQ, and <17.2% for LLOQ), limit of detection (0.2 ng/mL for MDMA, MDEA and MBDB; 0.5 ng/mL for A, MA and PMA; 1 ng/mL for MDA) and quantitation (1 ng/mL for A, MA, MDMA, MDEA and MBDB; 2 ng/mL for MDA and PMA) and relative ion intensities. No matrix effect was observed. The procedure proved to be sensitive, specific and rapid, and was applied to real forensic cases.