Media analyses based on Microsoft NTFS file ownership

The ever-increasing size of digital media presents a continuous challenge to digital investigators who must rapidly assess computer media to find and identify evidence. To meet this challenge, methods must continuously be sought to expedite the examination process. This paper investigates using the file ownership property as an analytical tool focusing on activity by individuals associated with the computer. Research centered on the New Technology File System (NTFS), which is the default file system in Microsoft Windows Operating System (OS). This was done because Microsoft's worldwide market penetration makes Windows and NTFS the most likely OS and file system to be encountered in digital forensic examinations. Significantly, digital forensic software now allows examination of NTFS file attributes and properties including the ownership property. The paper outlines potential limitations regarding interpreting ownership findings, and suggests areas for further research. Overall, file ownership is seen as a potentially viable new digital forensic tool.     

The political economy of regulatory change: The case of British merger control

This article aims to explain the broader evolution of British merger control. To this end it outlines a novel critical political economy perspective on regulation and regulatory change which differs from established political economy approaches, such as the regulatory capitalism/state perspectives, in three main ways: it places regulatory ideas at the heart of the analysis, it differentiates between different degrees of regulatory change, and it links regulatory change in delineated issue areas with changing power balances between fractions of capital and labor. The application of this perspective to the analysis of the evolution of British merger control provides some important new insights, most notably that the content, form, and scope of merger control in Britain have been deeply transformed in accordance with neoliberal ideas since the 1980s and that this process, which was part of a broader regulatory and ideational shift, was premised on the ascendancy of transnational capital.     

Geophysical Monitoring of Simulated Clandestine Graves Using Electrical and Ground‐Penetrating Radar Methods: 0–3 Years After Burial*,†

Abstract: This study provides forensic search teams with systematic geophysical monitoring data over simulated clandestine graves for comparison to active cases. Simulated “wrapped” and “naked” burials were created. Multigeophysical surveys were collected over a 3‐year monitoring period. Bulk ground resistivity, electrical resistivity imaging, multifrequency ground‐penetrating radar (GPR), and grave and background “soil‐water” conductivity data were collected. Resistivity surveys revealed the naked burial had consistently low‐resistivity anomalies, whereas the wrapped burial had small, varying high‐resistivity anomalies. GPR 110‐ to 900‐MHz frequency surveys showed the wrapped burial could be detected throughout, with the “naked” burial mostly resolved. Two hundred and twenty‐five megahertz frequency GPR data were optimal. “Soil‐water” analyses showed rapidly increasing (year 1), slowly increasing (year 2), and decreasing (year 3) conductivity values. Results suggest resistivity and GPR surveys should be collected if target “wrapping” is unknown, with winter to spring surveys optimal. Resistivity surveys should be collected in clay‐rich soils.     

Die Dimensionalität der Reichstage der Weimarer Republik von 1920 bis 1932

We analyse the dimensionality and the positioning of parliamentary party groups and single MPs in the parliament (“Reichstag”) of the Weimar Republic on the basis of all recorded votes between 1920 and 1932. On the basis of studies on the milieu-boundedness of German parties and theoretical accounts on the dimensionality of parliaments in general we develop hypotheses regarding the number and characteristics of dimensions that structured voting behaviour in the Weimar Reichstag. The expectations are tested with a full sample of recorded parliamentary votes. The results, which are based on item response models, show that two dimensions structured MP’s decision-making: this is, first, an economic left-right axis and, secondly, a pro vs. contra Weimar Republic dimension. Additionally, our results provide support for recent studies on intra-party conflict inside the German national conservatives.