The Process of Leaving an Abusive Relationship: The Role of Risk Assessments and Decision-Certainty

Seventy female residents of an urban domestic violence shelter were interviewed to examine a series of hypotheses concerning two factors relevant to the process of leaving an abusive relationship: risk assessments and decision-certainty. Participants' subjective estimates of their own risk of returning to the batterer were examined relative to their perceptions of the likelihood that most battered women will return to the batterer, their certainty regarding the decision to leave the batterer, and their status on known risk factors for returning to an abusive relationship. As hypothesized, battered women's perceptions of personal risk for returning to the batterer were biased by unrealistic optimism; specifically, personal risk was estimated as significantly lower than the risk of most battered women and was not correlated with actual risk factors. Further, the magnitude of the optimistic bias was significantly greater among women expressing high certainty about their decision to leave than among women who expressed less certainty. The clinical implications of these findings are discussed.     

The Protection of Traditional Foods in the EU: Traditional Specialities Guaranteed

Since the dawn of the common market, the European Union has enacted abundant legislation regulating the employment of specific food names. This process has led to the introduction of a regulatory framework for wines and spirits, and four quality schemes for food products: protected denominations of origin (PDO), protected geographical indications (PGI), traditional specialities guaranteed (TSG), and optional quality terms (OQT). This paper focuses on the TSG. It will first determine the collocation of this quality scheme in the EU legal framework; second, it will conduct a legal exegesis of the norms regulating the TSG under the previous Regulation 509/06 and analyse the ways in which they have been interpreted and applied; third, it will suggest reasons for the limited success of this scheme in the past; and fourth, it will explore the recently enacted Regulation 1151/12, seeking to establish whether it addresses the pre‐existing flaws that fettered the TSG.     

Europäische und nationale Regulierung der Bioenergie und ihrer ökologisch-sozialen Ambivalenzen

Zusammenfassung  Europ?isches und deutsches Recht setzen neuerdings stark auf eine ausgebaute Biomassenutzung zur Strom-, W?rme- und Treibstoffgewinnung. Die Biomassenutzung weist eine Reihe ?kologisch- sozialer Vor-, aber auch Nachteile auf. Das bisherige, aber auch das zur Verabschiedung anstehende neue europ?ische und deutsche Bioenergierecht l?st diese nicht immer hinreichend auf. Nachhaltigkeitskriterienkataloge k?nnen diese Rolle auch strukturell nur begrenzt übernehmen, unter anderem weil sie die n?tige Komplexit?t nicht abbilden, Verlagerungseffekte nicht vermeiden und bestimmte zentrale Aspekte (etwa das Weltern?hrungsproblem) erst gar nicht abbilden k?nnen; und wenn, dann müssten die Kataloge über die aktuellen EU-Vorschl?ge hinausgehen. Wirkungsvoller für die Bioenergienutzung selbst wie auch in der Energiepolitik insgesamt w?re aber eine einschneidende Energieeffizienzpolitik – die den Gesamtverbrauch senken und damit die ?kologisch-sozialen Ambivalenzen überschaubarer machen würden, wenn langfristig die erneuerbaren Energien 100% der Versorgung in einer “kohlenstofffreien Wirtschaft” übernehmen. In Verbindung mit der Analyse der Ambivalenzen bietet der vorliegende Beitrag zugleich einen kurzen überblick über das Bioenergierecht.     

Evaluation of a semi-automated, magnetic bead-based DNA extraction method for genetic fingerprinting of forensic casework samples

In order to cope with the demanding workload for DNA profiling of forensic casework samples a concept for a semi-automated processing system was developed at the Landeskriminalamt (Office of Criminal Investigation) Baden-Württemberg, Germany [K. Vollack, et al., Implementation of a semi-automated processing system for DNA profiling of forensic casework samples, this issue]. The applied magnetic bead extraction method is based on ChargeSwitch^® Technology (CST) from Invitrogen and was established on a liquid handling workstation Freedom EVO^® 150 from Tecan.     

SEM/EDS analysis and characterization of gunshot residues from Brazilian lead-free ammunition

The exposition to heavy metal-rich airborne due to fire practicing has forced to the development of heavy metal-free environmental ammunition primers all over the world. Here we characterize the GSR elements present in the Brazilian lead-free ammunition produced by Companhia Brasileira de Cartuchos (CBC) and commercialized by MagTech in the U.S. and Europe under the name CleanRange centerfire cartridges. Both first and second generations of CleanRange in calibers 9 mm Luger, .40 S&W, .380 AUTO and .38 SPL were analyzed and compared to regular Brazilian CBC ammunition by scanning electron microscopy/energy dispersive spectroscopy. Differences in composition and morphology of GSR particles from the two generations of CleanRange were observed. The first generation ammunition (found in Europe) presented spherical particles, being strontium the only unique element detected. The second generation (found in the U.S.) produced irregular particles composed mostly by potassium, aluminum, silicon and calcium. We can conclude that identification of GSR derived from CBC second generation lead-free ammunition in suspects' hands may be impossible without the addition of a distinct metallic taggant in the primer composition by the manufacturer.