Quantification of Maxillary Dental Arcade Curvature and the Estimation of Biological Ancestry in Forensic Anthropology

Previous studies suggest that palate shape is a useful indicator of biological ancestry in human remains. This study evaluates interobserver error in ancestry estimation using palate shape and explores palate shape variation in Gullah (descendants of West Africans) and Seminole (Indigenous American) population samples using geometric morphometric analysis. Ten participants were asked to ascribe biological ancestry and shape to 28 dental casts based on a classification scheme employed in previous studies. The mean correct classification was 42.0%, indicating that the likelihood of assigning the correct ancestry is very poor and not significantly different from random assignment (p = 0.12). The accuracy analysis based on categorical classification of the casts was complemented by geometric morphometric analysis of nine 3D landmarks reflecting palate shape of 158 casts. Principal component analysis results show no difference between populations regarding palate shape, and cross‐validated discriminant function analysis correctly classified only 62.0% of the specimens. Combined, these results show that previous methods to estimate ancestry are inaccurate and that this inaccuracy is probably due to a lack of palate shape differences between groups, rather than limitation of the analytical method per se. Therefore, we recommend caution should be used when choosing to apply the analysis of palate shape in forensically relevant contexts.     

Multivariate Classification of Original and Fake Perfumes by Ion Analysis and Ethanol Content

The increased marketing of fake perfumes has encouraged us to investigate how to identify such products by their chemical characteristics and multivariate analysis. The aim of this study was to present an alternative approach to distinguish original from fake perfumes by means of the investigation of sodium, potassium, chloride ions, and ethanol contents by chemometric tools. For this, 50 perfumes were used (25 original and 25 counterfeit) for the analysis of ions (ion chromatography) and ethanol (gas chromatography). The results demonstrated that the fake perfume had low levels of ethanol and high levels of chloride compared to the original product. The data were treated by chemometric tools such as principal component analysis and linear discriminant analysis. This study proved that the analysis of ethanol is an effective method of distinguishing original from the fake products, and it may potentially be used to assist legal authorities in such cases.     

Moving Up the Value Chain in ICT: ASEAN Trade With China

The rise of China increased competition for foreign direct investment and exports for the ASEAN economies. It also increased ASEAN trade with China. But, are ASEAN countries able to move up the value chain in their trade with China? The objectives of this article are to examine upgrading in the information and communications technology (ICT) value chain through changes in the product quality of parts and components (PNC) exports from ASEAN to China and the influence of these changes on their ICT trade with China. The main findings indicate that there is little or no product upgrading in the most important SITC 776 sub-component of the PNC exports from the four major ASEAN economies (ASEAN-4) to China after 2005. It is also found that improvements in product quality are more apparent for SITC 772 but this product group constitutes a small share in total manufactured exports from the ASEAN-4 to China. Lastly, with little or no product upgrading, exporters from the ASEAN-4 have shifted to exports of non-PNC goods to China. This shift has enabled the overall ICT exports from the ASEAN-4 to China to continue to grow for the period of this study.     

Effect of Substrate Interferences from High‐Density Polyethylene on Association of Simulated Ignitable Liquid Residues with the Corresponding Liquid

The effect of substrate interferences from high‐density polyethylene (HDPE) on the ability to associate an ignitable liquid residue with the corresponding liquid standard, using statistical procedures, is demonstrated. Gasoline, kerosene, and lighter fluid, at three different evaporation levels, were spiked onto HDPE and subsequently burned to generate simulated ignitable liquid residues (ILRs). Samples were extracted using a passive headspace procedure and analyzed by gas chromatography–mass spectrometry. The total ion chromatograms were subjected to data pretreatment procedures prior to principal components analysis and Pearson product moment correlation. Using the combination of these statistical procedures, simulated ILRs were successfully associated with the corresponding liquid type, despite the presence of compounds inherent to the HDPE substrate, as well as those resulting from pyrolysis of the substrate.     

论教唆犯的处罚根据

评析国内外刑法学界关于教唆犯处罚根据的学说,认为处罚教唆犯的哲学根据在于教唆犯相对的意志自由,法学根据在于教唆行为符合修正的犯罪构成。     

THE DYNAMICS OF CRIME REGIMES*

Crimes have many features, and the mix of those features can change over time and space. In this article, we introduce the concept of a crime regime to provide some theoretical leverage on collections of crime features and how the collections of features can change. Key tools include the use of principal components analysis to determine the dimensions of crime regimes, visualization methods to help reveal the role of time, summary statistics to quantify crime regime patterns, and permutation procedures to examine the role of chance. Our approach is used to analyze temporal and spatial crime patterns for the city of Los Angeles during an 8‐year period. We focus on the number of violent crimes over time and their potential lethality.     

中国省域法制现代化进程非均衡差异及其相关社会影响因素的实证研究——基于计量经济分析法学的中国法制现代化进程演化模拟

中国的法制现代化是一个从传统人治社会向现代法治社会的转型过程,是中华法律文明的成长与跃进过程。通过构建由地方立法、诉讼、律师和地方法学教育等4方面组成的中国省域法制现代化进程实证评价指标体系,采用主成分分析与层次聚类分析相结合的综合集成评估方法,对中国省域法制现代化进程进行评估与比较,将中国31个省域的法制现代化进程分为领先型、挑战型、追赶型和后进型4个集团,并通过采用灰色相关度分析的方法,将4项法律指标分别与人均GDP、城市化、城乡差距、教育指数等4项社会指标进行灰色相关分析与比较。研究发现我国各省域的法制现代化进程在东中西部地区之间是极端不均衡的。在中国省域法制现代化进程各法律指标的相关社会影响中,影响的效果从强到弱的排序依次是人均GDP、城市化、城乡差距、教育指数。从各省域法制现代化进程的层面和影响省域法制现代化进程的各个因素层面出发,我们应采取缩小我国各省域法制现代化进程非均衡差异的相应对策。     

片面共犯成立之根据探析

关于具有片面合意的犯罪人能否成立共同犯罪的问题,中外刑法理论界历来存在肯定说与否定说之争。在对上述理论论争作出简要介绍的基础上,重点从其理论基础、修正的构成要件、便利司法操作三个层面上剖析片面共犯成立的根据。     

构树皮总黄酮提取及抗菌活性研究

目的 提取构树皮有效的抑菌活性部位。方法 采用正交试验法优化构树皮黄酮最佳超声提取工艺,并采用AB-8大孔吸附树脂富集构树皮总黄酮提取物活性部位,用平皿药基法比较不同部位的抑菌效果。结果 构树皮总黄酮的最佳提取工艺为：以10倍体积的70%乙醇为溶剂,超声提取20 min,功率300 W。经AB-8大孔吸附树脂富集分离后,70%乙醇洗脱部位对浅部真菌红色毛癣菌和白色念珠菌均有良好的抑制作用。结论 所采用的工艺操作简单、耗能低、总黄酮提取率高,抑菌作用强。     

Combination of Face Regions in Forensic Scenarios

This article presents an experimental analysis of the combination of different regions of the human face on various forensic scenarios to generate scientific knowledge useful for the forensic experts. Three scenarios of interest at different distances are considered comparing mugshot and CCTV face images using MORPH and SC face databases. One of the main findings is that inner facial regions combine better in mugshot and close CCTV scenarios and outer facial regions combine better in far CCTV scenarios. This means, that depending of the acquisition distance, the discriminative power of the facial regions change, having in some cases better performance than the full face. This effect can be exploited by considering the fusion of facial regions which results in a very significant improvement of the discriminative performance compared to just using the full face.