Local Venues for Change: Legal Strategies for Healthy Environments

Mounting evidence documents the extraordinary toll on human health resulting from the consumption of unhealthy food products and physical inactivity. In response to America's growing obesity problem, local policymakers have been looking for legal strategies that can be adopted in their communities to encourage healthful behaviors. In order to provide practical tools to policymakers, this article examines four possible venues for local policy change to improve the health of a community: (1) the school environment (2) the built environment (3) community facilities and (4) the point of sale environment. Finally, the article examines the use of taxes or fees as a means of paying for nutrition policy work as well as potentially reducing the consumption of unhealthy products. This article illustrates that local laws and policies can be a valuable tool in changing a community's environment in order to improve nutritional options and increase opportunities for physical activity.     

Enforcing the Child's Right to Know Her Origins: Contrasting Approaches Under the Convention on the Rights of the Child and the European Convention on Human Rights

The justification of the child's right to know her origins andthe fundamental interests underlying it have attracted a lotof attention in recent years. This article goes one step furtherand assesses that right's enforcement in practice together withits guiding principles. It starts by restating what the rightconsists in and what interests it protects according to differentinternational human rights instruments. It then reveals theconflicts of rights that lie at the heart of the implementationof the right to know and explain its complexity. After consideringthe competing interests present, the article argues that noneof these interests and rights should be regarded as absoluteand suggests ways in which they can be balanced against eachother. The recent evolution in the European Court of Human Rights(ECtHR) case law with its more nuanced balancing of the competingrights is contrasted with the Convention on the Rights of theChild (CRC)'s focus on the child's paramount interest. The articleargues that these different approaches are reflected in nationallegal orders in Europe. By tracing the origins of this divergenceback to those conflicting international legal paradigms andby proposing abstract adjudication principles to guide the concretebalancing of competing rights, the article hopes to contributeto a better understanding and ultimate reconciliation of thechild's multiple identities – social and biological.     

Nineteenth century newspaper accounts of a murder committed by an inmate of a Scottish asylum

This study explores an incident from the late nineteenth century in which an inmate at the Royal Dundee Lunatic Asylum murdered a fellow patient while working in the hospital grounds. The incident was reported extensively in the local press in the days following the event. Analysis of these reports reveals a picture, which while recognisable to the twenty-first century newspaper reader, does however depart from contemporary media reporting in some important ways. We argue that while the image of the unpredictable dangerousness of the lunatic has a long history and is deeply embedded in popular conceptions of mental disorder, shaping public perceptions of those with mental illnesses, it is the manner in which this is presented by the media that has bearing upon how the case is understood by wider society.     

Statelessness,identity cards and citizenship as status in the case of the Nubians of Kenya

Statelessness as a legal and political problem has attracted increasing attention from scholars and international advocacy organisations in recent years. This attention has predominantly focussed on the legal aspects of statelessness, and has generally held the acquisition of citizenship documentation as the primary goal in remedying citizenship deprivation. This article explores the merits of this focus through a case study of the Nubians of Kenya, widely considered stateless until recently. The article connects the focus on citizenship as documented status to a liberal conception of citizenship. The article identifies the ways in which this approach is helpful, that is, as a means of pursuing legal status and possession of individual rights. It then goes on to identify more important ways in which a liberal conception of citizenship falls short of accounting for the Nubians' citizenship problems by neglecting the more collective dimensions of citizenship practice and recognition.     

Liked by Peers or Liked by Teachers: Differential Patterns of Bullying over Time

ABSTRACT

We examined the tendency for high status children to bully their classmates. Children liked by peers only (LPO), liked by teachers only (LTO), liked by both (Both), liked by neither (Neither), and children with average peer and teacher liking (Average) were compared on self-, teacher-, and peer-reported bullying. Participants were 676 fourth-grade children (50.7% girls). Children in the Neither group evinced the highest level of bullying, which increased significantly from fall to spring. We found little evidence that children in the Both group differed from other groups or that their bullying increased over time. Self-reported physical bullying increased for boys in the LPO and Average groups and for girls in the LTO and Neither groups. Gender-specific findings have implications for researchers and practitioners.     

An innovative transfer DNA experimental design and qPCR assay: Protocol and pilot study

Forensic “touch” DNA samples are low-quantity samples that are recovered from surfaces that have been touched by single or multiple individuals. These samples can include DNA from primary contributors who directly touched the surface, as well as secondary contributors whose DNA was transferred to the surface through an intermediary. It is difficult to determine the type of transfer, or how often and under what conditions DNA transfer occurs. In this paper, we present an innovative protocol that combines (1) a paired male and female transfer DNA experimental design in which the presence of male DNA indicates secondary transfer and (2) a cost-effective quantitative PCR (qPCR) assay of a sex-specific region in the Amelogenin gene to detect male and female DNA. We evaluate the ability of the Amelogenin qPCR assay to detect low concentrations of male and female DNA in mixed samples. We also test experimental DNA samples using our transfer DNA protocol to differentiate primary and secondary DNA transfer. Male DNA was detected in the majority of known mixed samples, even in samples with 4× more female DNA—this result demonstrates the ability to detect low concentrations of male DNA and the presence of secondary transfer DNA in our experimental design. Primary DNA transfer was detected in 100% of our experimental trials and secondary DNA transfer was detected in 37.5% of trials. Our innovative protocol mimics realistic case scenarios to establish rates of primary and secondary DNA transfer in an inexpensive and simplified manner.     

Using sketch drawing to induce inconsistency in liars

Purpose. Consistency as a cue to detecting deception was tested in two experiments using sketch drawing and verbal reports in repeated interviews. Liars were expected to be less consistent than truth‐tellers. Methods. In Expt 1, 80 undergraduate students reported truthfully or deceptively about an alleged lunch date – they sketched the layout of the restaurant and then answered spatial questions about objects in the restaurant. Ratings were given for the consistency between sketches and verbal reports. In Expt 2, 34 undergraduate students reported truthfully or deceptively about completing a series of unrelated tasks – they answered spatial questions about objects in a room and then sketched the layout of the room. Proportions were calculated for the consistency between verbal reports and sketches. Results. Expt 1. Liars were rated as less consistent than truth‐tellers. Up to 80% of truth‐tellers and 70% of liars could be correctly classified. Expt 2. Liars were less consistent than truth‐tellers on consistency proportions. Up to 100% of truth‐tellers and 77% of liars could be correctly classified. Conclusions. Using sketches to induce inconsistency may be a reliable, resource efficient way to help investigators detect deception.     

Raman spectroscopy of blood samples for forensic applications

We investigated Raman scattering from human blood as a function of parameters that are relevant for forensic field analysis, such as substrate, sample dilution, individual from which the sample originates, and age of the sample. Peaks characteristic of blood components and in particular the hemoglobin peaks were routinely detected when blood was deposited on substrates that are not strongly luminescent, such as plastic, metal utensils and dry wall. Raman scattering from blood proved quite sensitive and blood samples with a dilution up to 1:250 could be measured for an excitation power of ～2 mW measured at the sample plane. The sensitivity of Raman scattering to diluted blood allowed measurement using blood reconstituted from fabric substrates, thereby alleviating issues related to luminescence and scattering from the substrate. The dependence of Raman scattering on sample age and individual was also investigated. We found that the relative intensities of scattering peaks depended on sample age and history. For example, the relative intensity of oxyhemoglobin peaks decreases after blood has dried. Fresh blood drawn directly from a donor without intermediate storage exhibits also scattering peaks at 1155 and 1511 cm(-1) which disappear after drying. The origin of these peaks is under investigation. We noticed, however, that they were not found in blood that had been stored for longer than one week in EDTA containers before analysis, thus requiring the use of fresh blood for future studies and validation purposes. The relative intensity of scattering peaks was also found to be somewhat dependent on the donor and, for a same donor, on the day on which blood was drawn.     

The Direction of Deception: Neuro-Linguistic Programming as a Lie Detection Tool

There is a myth in popular psychology, often echoed in police literature, but as yet untested, that specific eye movements pertain to lying and truth telling. According to this line of thought, eye movements to the sender??s right indicate lying, as the sender??s eyes are drawn to the side of his/her brain where their fabrication is being created. We have put this hypothesis, derived from ??Neuro-Linguistic Programming?? to the test in two experiments. In Experiment 1, a total of 204 participants (all air passengers) were interviewed at an international airport about their forthcoming trip. All participants answered one question truthfully and one question deceptively. Some participants answered a third question truthfully, whereas others answered the same question deceptively. No conclusive evidence was found for a relationship between specific eye movements and deception. In Experiment 2, a total of 31 participants discussed their real occupation in one interview and a pretend occupation in another interview. Only three of the 31 participants revealed the eye movement pattern predicted by NLP. Reasons for the existence of the myth that liars display specific eye movements are discussed.