Pattern detection in forensic case data using graph theory: application to heroin cutting agents

Pattern recognition techniques can be very useful in forensic sciences to point out to relevant sets of events and potentially encourage an intelligence-led style of policing. In this study, these techniques have been applied to categorical data corresponding to cutting agents found in heroin seizures. An application of graph theoretic methods has been performed, in order to highlight the possible relationships between the location of seizures and co-occurrences of particular heroin cutting agents. An analysis of the co-occurrences to establish several main combinations has been done. Results illustrate the practical potential of mathematical models in forensic data analysis.     

Stratégies syndicales et renouvellement des élites: le syndicat FTMH face à la crise des années 1990

En nous centrant sur le cas de la FTMH entre 1970 et 2004, nous analysons l'adaptation des syndicats dans le contexte de leur affaiblissement au cours des années 1990. Selon nous, l'affaiblissement du syndicat dans la sphère économique a donné lieu à un déplacement de l'action syndicale vers la sphère politique. Il est possible de dégager deux axes dans la redéfinition de la stratégie de la FTMH, dont le premier concerne le renouvellement des élites: des nouveaux dirigeants, universitaires et marqués par leur appartenance au PSS, remplacent les “élites traditionnelles” du syndicat. Ce renouvellement a appuyé un deuxième changement: un nouveau rapport à l'état et une diversification des registres d'action du syndicat. Les négociations collectives s'accompagnent désormais de stratégies de politisation, mais aussi de mobilisations, ainsi que d'une volonté de s'assurer une meilleure visibilité médiatique. L'ensemble de ces évolutions témoignent d'un rapprochement avec le PSS.     

Zwischen Ökonomie und Politik. Zur diskursiven Konstruktion des Begriffs „Sozialmodell“ im Sarkozy-Wahlkampf 2005–2007

In “general economic-political discourses”, actors from the spheres of politics, economics and mass media struggle over the valid perception of the relations between the economy, politics, and society as a whole. The discourse on the “modèle sociale français“ provides a case in point: A concept that had been associated for many years with the economic success of the fifth republic, but in the 2000s became a central element of a crisis-rhetoric that helped to pave the way for the reform agenda of Nicolas Sarkozy. Building on this example, the article analyzes how economic-political discourses are established and transformed. On the one side, it reflects upon the importance of discourse research for economic sociology in general; on the other, it shows how general economic-political discourses help to legitimize certain positions in public debates, and how they depict specific scientific problems as relevant for society. Mediators of public and scientific debates benefit from this, just as political and economic actors do as they generate public approval for their corresponding reform-agendas.     

What do ESDP actors want? An exploratory analysis

Abstract

This paper analyzes the preferences of European defense actors vis-à-vis the European security and defense policy (ESDP) with a view to identifying the main ideational points of convergence and fault lines that structure this policy domain. In an exploratory analysis that relies on an original data-set compiled from systematic interviews conducted with 73 ESDP actors in France, the UK, Germany, and Brussels, we address two research questions. First, what do ESDP actors think about ESDP? Second, can we classify their preferences according to sociological factors that underpin the ESDP domain? To conceptualize the belief system of ESDP actors, we propose a typology that distinguishes (1) the social context in which ESDP actors are embedded and (2) the specific ESDP aspects about which preferences are shaped. Our results suggest that both national and occupational variables play an important role in explaining the preferences of ESDP actors.     

A. Tzanakopoulos,Disobeying the Security Council. Countermeasures against Wrongful Sanctions,Oxford University Press,Oxford 2011, xxxii + 243 pp. ISBN 978-0-19-960076-2. doi:10.1017/S0165070X12000083

Netherlands International Law Review -