Prediction and preliminary standardization of fire debris constituents with the advanced distillation curve method

The recent National Academy of Sciences report on forensic sciences states that the study of fire patterns and debris in arson fires is in need of additional work and eventual standardization. We discuss a recently introduced method that can provide predicted evaporation patterns for ignitable liquids as a function of temperature. The method is a complex fluid analysis protocol, the advanced distillation curve approach, featuring a composition explicit data channel for each distillate fraction (for qualitative, quantitative, and trace analysis), low uncertainty temperature measurements that are thermodynamic state points that can be modeled with an equation of state, consistency with a century of historical data, and an assessment of the energy content of each distillate fraction. We discuss the application of the method to kerosenes and gasolines and outline how expansion of the scope of fluids to other ignitable liquids can benefit the criminalist in the analysis of fire debris for arson.     

Incarceration, education and transition from delinquency

Purpose

Much of what is known regarding the transition away from crime is limited to young adulthood and specific life events and samples of non-serious offenders comprised mainly of white males.

Methods

The current study assesses the potential links between educational achievement, post-release schooling, and re-arrest for a cohort of 4,147 incarcerated youths drawn from 115 Florida juvenile institutions and followed for two years post-release.

Results

Incarcerated youths with higher levels of educational achievement are more likely to return to school after release, and those youths who returned to and attended school regularly were less likely to be rearrested within 12 and 24 months. Moreover, among youths who were rearrested, those youth who attended school regularly following release were arrested for significantly less serious offenses compared to youths who did not attend school or attended less regularly.

Conclusions

The study concludes with discussion of the importance of educational achievement as an important turning point for juvenile offenders as they transition into young adulthood.     

Inter-Korean cooperation in the fisheries industry: modeling trust and peace building on the ECSC

The predecessor of the European Union (EU), the European Coal and Steel Community, was successful in its dual goal of providing peace and prosperity to the European subcontinent in large part because its institutions fostered enduring relations between government officials. Mirroring the European focus on coal and steel, this paper suggests inter-Korean cooperation in the fisheries industry. The Yellow Sea border and the disputed Northern Limit Line has been the scene of deadly clashes between the two Koreas. Cooperation in the fisheries industry would provide economic benefits while it can build trusting relations between the two Koreas as a necessary condition for political cooperation. As coal and steel were only a start for the EU, and implemented clearly with greater political goals in mind, so can the integration of the fishery industries provide a similar starting point in the search for peace and security for the Korean peninsula.     

Integrating Europe’s PSI re-use rules - Demystifying the maze

Despite various studies evincing the huge potential locked up in public sector information (PSI), this potential is far from being fully exploited. To a large extent, this failure is caused by the immensely complex legal labyrinth surrounding PSI re-use. This complexity works in two ways: public sector bodies do not comply with the regulatory framework and re-users do not avail themselves of the legal instruments offered, resulting in unexploited economic potential. What makes the legal framework so complex is the transcending nature of PSI re-use, as it blends four areas of law - freedom of information law, ICT law, intellectual property law and competition law - that, throughout the years, have been regulated at a European, national and even at a sectoral level, but in isolation. The fundamental impact that ICT developments have on our society, subsequently also rocking the legal rules and underlying principles and axioms, makes the picture even more complicated. Taking the maximization of utility of PSI as a starting point in this article, I will anatomize each of these legal frameworks and demonstrate how they interact, culminating in a conceptual framework that may help public sector bodies and re-users, and courts where necessary, to apply and rely on the rules involved and to bring to the surface areas for policy action, both at the national and European level.     

Trace analysis of urea nitrate by liquid chromatography-UV/fluorescence

In this paper we have adapted a technique, previously used to determine the presence of urea in aqueous samples of wine and urine, to detect trace levels of urea nitrate explosives. The procedure involves the reaction of the uronium ion (protonated urea) with a fluorophore, xanthydrol. By modification of the procedure to utilize non-aqueous reagents, in neutral conditions, it can be made specific to the presence of the urea nitrate ion pair. The procedure includes selective detection of derivatization products by UV and fluorescence following separation by High-Performance Liquid Chromatography (HPLC). Analytical method development included optimization of HPLC conditions (solvent, gradient), UV and fluorescence wavelengths, and derivatization parameters (xanthydrol amount, reaction times, temperature). The extraction of urea nitrate from surfaces was also investigated and optimized. For best quantification, it was shown that an internal standard was required; this resulted in a quantification limit around 0.17mM (21mg/L). The entire procedure could be performed in less than 30min per sample and potential interferences such as ammonium, nitrate, and urea did not produce a response under standard conditions.     

Spectroscopic characterization of 3,4-methylenedioxypyrrolidinobutyrophenone: a new designer drug with α-pyrrolidinophenone structure

This study presents and discusses the infrared spectroscopic, the nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopic and mass spectrometric data of the designer drug 3,4 methylenedioxypyrrolidinobutyrophenone (MDPBP), a homolog of 3,4 methylenedioxypyrovalerone (MDPV). MDPBP was first seized in Germany in the year 2009. The structure elucidation of the aliphatic part of MDPBP was carried out by product ion spectrometry of the immonium ion with m/z=112 formed after electron ionization, and by one- and two-dimensional (1)H- and (13)C NMR spectroscopy.     

El Título en la Mano: The Impact of Titling Programs on Low‐Income Housing in Texas Colonias

This article analyzes the impact of The Community Resources Group Receivership Program undertaken from 1998 to 2002 that provided clean property titles to residents in several informal housing colonias (subdivisions) in South Texas. Survey data were gathered from 260 low‐income households comprising two populations: those who had secure title from the outset, and those who were beneficiaries of the land titling program. Focus group interviews were conducted to explore how the beneficiaries construct the meaning of ownership before and after title “regularization.” Formal titling consolidates understandings of absolute property relations in comparison with de facto rights born of use (legal or not), which strengthens people's sense of self‐esteem and potential for political involvement. We found that, contrary to conventional wisdom, title provision per se appears to have little direct impact either upon home improvement or upon residents' receiving enhanced access to credit and financial services. We also found evidence that informality and illegality is likely to reemerge as owners die intestate, and as they revert to informal land market property transfers.     

An introduction to the law and economics of class action litigation

The consolidation of similar claims for compensation into a single large class of plaintiffs is referred to as “class action litigation.” This practice can have both social costs and social benefits. For an example of the social benefits of consolidating separate claims, if the facts giving rise to the claims are substantially similar, then there may be significant savings in litigation and court administrative costs from presenting those facts once rather a multitude of times. There may, however, be significant social costs to creating a class of litigants and consolidating their claims. For example, this practice may empower those with frivolous negative expected-value claims to wring an unwarranted settlement from the defendant or defendants. The article surveys other sources of social cost and benefit from class-action litigation, reviews the empirical literature on these actions, and examines recent U.S. policy debates about reforming class-action litigation. The article concludes that class-action litigation can have substantial net social benefits but only if courts assiduously oversee the class certification process so as to identify and forestall the social-cost-generating aspects of class-action litigation.