Optional (Facultative) Choice of Law? Reflections from a Dutch Perspective

Netherlands International Law Review -     

Differentiation of hydrocephalic calf and human calvariae

Occasionally, partial calvariae of hydrocephalic calves are found in forensic contexts and mistakenly identified as human. Such specimens can be properly identified through immunological assessment of associated soft tissue, microscopic analysis of associated hair, and morphological comparison with documented museum specimens. Morphological comparison should focus on the form of the occiput, supraorbital grooves, and bulbous vault and presence of coronal processes.     

"Sexing" deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) on DNA fingerprint gel: an internal control for DNA fingerprint evidence

Deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) isolated from male and female fresh blood samples was processed exactly as for routine DNA fingerprint analysis; that is, the DNA was digested with particular restriction endonucleases and fractionated by agarose gel electrophoresis. Ultraviolet (UV) visualization of ethidium-bromide (EtBr)-stained gels revealed a sex-specific banding pattern, which depended only on the restriction enzyme used. By means of this test, which is based on direct detection of particular sex-specific restriction fragments in human DNA digests, the authors succeeded in determining the sex of DNA obtained from biological specimens recovered as criminal evidence in rape cases. The data obtained demonstrate that direct sexing of DNA on DNA fingerprint gel appears to be useful as an intermediate control step in DNA fingerprinting analysis used for the purpose of assailant identification.     

The transfer and persistence of trace particulates: experimental studies using clothing fabrics.

A series of experiments were conducted using various types of pollen grain, powder and metal particulates to determine their persistence on a range of different types of materials. The decay curves generated in the repeated experiments all broadly conform to those obtained and already presented in the literature for fibres and glass particulates. The experiments presented in this paper were conducted for up to 647 hours for individual runs and it was found that a general rule existed that it was the material type rather than the particulate type that was the major controlling factor in the persistence of particles. For the pollen grain experiments the overall theory is sustained; there is a significant loss initially followed by a slower decay although this is not precise given the varied nature of palynomorph types. The manner by which the particulates were introduced onto the material had an initial immediate effect, however, the persistence of these particulates over longer periods of time was generally unaffected.