Rapid and non-destructive approach for characterization and differentiation of sealing wax using ATR-FTIR spectroscopy

Sealing wax is used for maintaining the integrity and authenticity of a document or physical evidence. Any tampering with the seal calls into question the overall integrity and authenticity of the tangible evidence or document. In these circumstances, determining the authenticity of the sealing material (physical and chemical) becomes imperative. In this study, ATR-FTIR spectroscopy supported by chemometrics has been used to differentiate sealing wax samples belonging to 12 different brands available across India. All the samples were first melted, cooled, and then analyzed using ATR-FTIR spectroscopy in the mid-infrared region (4000–600 cm⁻¹). The obtained spectra were first examined visually for the presence of different functional groups. Principal component analysis (PCA) and principal component analysis-linear discriminant analysis (PCA-LDA) were employed to analyze the sample clustering patterns and to categorize them into their respective groups, respectively. For classification, a PCA-LDA training model was applied, and it demonstrated 95.83% accuracy. The validation test resulted in an accuracy of 83.33%. PCA-LDA model offered 100% accurate prediction for samples on various substrates, including cloth, cardboard, and paper. A blind study was also performed using five unknown samples, which were accurately classified into their respective groups. PCA-LDA model will be helpful in providing investigative leads by linking a questioned sealing wax sample with its respective group.     

Jumping Together: A Fatal Suicide Pact

In suicide pact, two or more victims mutually agree and execute to end their lives together by predetermined method, preferably by hanging, drowning, gunshot, or poisoning. The victims are usually spouses, lovers, or friends, and the reasons behind such steps are various. In this reported suicide pact, husband–wife duo jumped from the terrace of a 12‐meter‐high building with their wrist bound to each other. Although they jumped together, the injury patterns were completely different. The man landed on head sustaining mainly craniocerebral injuries, and the wife landed on feet sustaining long bone injuries. They left a suicide note pointing out sudden demise of their only child as the reason for the suicide, and it was signed by both of them. Jumping from a height in suicide pact has not been reported in the scientific literature yet.     

Impact of labour attributes and probability of employability in Indian labour market: A sectoral analysis

The structural transition of an economy helps the nations to move from primary to secondary and then to tertiary sector for the total output and employment generation. However, the absence of this systematic structural transition could lead the nation into long‐term imbalances for employment and output. This is happening with India as its economy has directly moved from primary to tertiary sector for both output and employment generation. The present study helps to identify the main reasons about why India is still stagnating with its sluggish primary sector for employment generation. This will also show the existing pattern of occupational choices for the people of different labour attributes. The study usages the fourth and fifth survey of employment and unemployment conducted by the Labour Bureau in 2012–13 and 2014–15 over 1,087,968 individuals of India. The study applies both multinomial logit model and binary logit model for analysing the employment probabilities of the individuals for working in the primary, secondary, and tertiary sectors. The study finds that location and education are the most important factor affecting the employment choices of the individuals, whereas caste and gender are also important but with moderate impact. The location is found crucial factor for primary and secondary sector occupation, whereas secondary sector is neutral in this regard. The service sector is found to have the highest incidences of caste discrimination and favouritism in the labour market. The education has the highest impact on the service sector jobs.     

Pharmacological interventions for drug-using offenders: an update to a systematic review and meta-analysis

Journal of Experimental Criminology - This updated systematic review assesses the effects of pharmacological interventions for drug-using offenders. Systematic review protocols and conventions of...     

Sustainability labelling as a tool for reporting the sustainable development impacts of climate actions relevant to Article 6 of the Paris Agreement

The architecture of global carbon markets has changed significantly since the Paris Agreement and the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development Goals were both agreed in 2015. Voluntary, international cooperative approaches established in Article 6 of the Paris Agreement allow Parties to work together to achieve the targets set out in their respective Nationally Determined Contributions to limit global warming to an increase below 1.5–2 °C. In Article 6.4, a sustainable mitigation mechanism is established for which rules, modalities and procedures will be developed internationally considering the experience and lessons learned from existing mechanisms, such as the Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) and its Sustainable Development (SD) Tool. Historically the issue of making integrated assessments of sustainable development and mitigation actions has been politically and methodologically controversial for many reasons: developing countries fear that an international definition of SD will interfere with their sovereignty and therefore their ability to define their own development pathways; players in the carbon market fear that markets can only handle one objective, namely mitigation outcomes; and sustainable development is regarded as too complex and costly to be measured and quantified. In an effort to address these concerns, the article proposes a new methodology for the sustainability labelling of climate mitigation actions relevant to Article 6 approaches. The article draws on an application of the CDM SD tool to analyse 2098 Component Programme Activities that had entered the CDM Pipeline by January 2017. The article demonstrates that assessment of the sustainable development benefits of climate actions can be graded and labelled based on the analysis of qualitative data, which is less costly than applying a quantitative approach.

     

Dynamics of governance,gross capital formation,and growth: Evidence from Brazil,Russia, India,China, and South Africa

This study investigates the impact of governance index and gross fixed capital formation on the economic growth of Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa (BRICS) using annual data from 2002 to 2019. This study employs Fixed Effect Model, Driscoll and Kraay standard error with fixed effect, Fully Modified Ordinary Least Square, Dynamic Ordinary Least Square (DOLS) and Panel Dumitrescu Hurlin Causality test. The study has divided the variables into two models where model I includes the impact of governance index (jointly) on economic growth while model II examines the impact of governance index on economic growth individually. The findings demonstrate that the governance index, gross fixed capital formation, population, control of corruption, and governance effectiveness have a positive and significant impact on economic growth, whereas regulatory quality showed a significant and negative impact on economic growth. Furthermore, regarding the Panel test, we notice the presence of unidirectional causality among the constituent variables. Therefore, this study suggests that the government should encourage economic development in the BRICS countries and move away from outdated ideas and poor institutional quality in favor of a new comprehensive reform to achieve excellent governance, population growth control, labor law changes, and corruption control.