Outline Shape Analysis on the Trochlear Constriction and Olecranon Fossa of the Humerus: Insights for Sex Estimation and a New Computational Tool,

Sex estimation through visual analysis of the distal humerus can contribute to establishing the biological profile of an unidentified skeletal individual. Using statistical shape modeling, the trochlear constriction open curves and olecranon fossa closed outlines of 151 humeri were digitized and analyzed. The shape configurations exhibited strikingly different degrees of sexual dimorphism when evaluated using linear discriminant analysis with leave‐one‐out cross‐validation. The trochlear constriction performed poorly, correctly classifying 63.6% of the individuals. However, the olecranon fossa showed high sexual dimorphism, presenting a 94.0% accuracy. A simpler model using only two principal components was also generated. While the accuracy is slightly inferior (88.1%), it has the advantage of being constrained to bidimensional components that were translated into morphoscopic variables within a simulator interface. This allowed us to implement the method through a web application that does not require users to be trained in landmark digitization or have knowledge of geometric morphometrics.     

The spectre of Haiti: structural antiblackness,the far-right backlash and the fear of a black majority in Brazil

Abstract

This article situates the far-right backlash in Brazil within the larger Latin American context, including its colonial legacy, leftist governments’ failure to deliver promises of inclusion, and the US–China geopolitical dispute over the region’s strategic natural resources. By situating Bolsonaro’s electoral victory within these dynamics, our analysis presents an alternative to two common perspectives. First, studies of the region’s political moment and of Brazilian society in particular do not pay enough attention to institutional and everyday racism, and instead focus mostly on comparative analysis of governmental policies and social class dynamics. Second, critical perspectives that take into account racial inequalities are often not attuned to structural dynamics of gendered antiblackness, and instead present racism as a broad set of practices that negatively affect non-white people in related manners. Our context-specific analysis of the electoral reemergence of the far right in Brazil aims at contributing to an understanding of persistent dynamics of racial inequality within the region as part of a long, enduring and foundational odium of Black people.     

Predictive Soil Provenancing (PSP): An Innovative Forensic Soil Provenance Analysis Tool

Soil is a common evidence type used in forensic and intelligence operations. Where soil composition databases are lacking or inadequate, we propose to use publicly available soil attribute rasters to reduce forensic search areas. Soil attribute rasters, which have recently become widely available at high spatial resolutions, typically three arc‐seconds (~90 m), are predictive models of the distribution of soil properties (with confidence limits) derived from data mining the inter‐relationships between these properties and several environmental covariates. Each soil attribute raster is searched for pixels that satisfy the compositional conditions of the evidentiary soil sample (target value ± confidence limits). We show through an example that the search area for an evidentiary soil sample can be reduced to <10% of the original investigation area. This Predictive Soil Provenancing (PSP) approach is a transparent, reproducible, and objective method of efficiently and effectively reducing the likely provenance area of forensic soil samples.     

Differential Ability of Necrophagous Diptera to Colonize Concealed Resources: Empirical Evidence From a Field Experiment in Brazil

Field studies in forensic entomology seem to assume that a cadaver is a resource equally accessible to flies, irrespective of the species’ size, behavior, and sensorial capacity. We aimed to challenge this assumption by experimentally manipulating baited traps in order to test whether the accessibility to decomposing baits is related to the following: (i) the diversity of necrophagous dipterans; (ii) the body size of adults; and (iii) the female sexual maturity stage. The experiment was performed in a rainforest fragment in Northeastern Brazil, in an area characterized by high levels of homicides. Traps baited with decomposing chicken liver had three levels of access: easy (six openings on the trap), intermediate (three), and difficult (one). A total of 750 adults of Calliphoridae, Fanniidae, Muscidae, Phoridae, and Sarcophagidae were collected. Of the 18 species recorded, Megaselia scalaris was the most abundant (46.8%) followed by Lucilia eximia (29.7%) and Chrysomya megacephala (9.8%). The number of species increased significantly with the accessibility level, but overall abundance did not differ, as a consequence of the numerical dominance of M. scalaris. A strong female bias (>91%) was observed in all traps. For Calliphoridae specimens, 90% of the females caught in traps under intermediate and difficult access were sexually mature. By empirically demonstrating that limitation of access and exclusion of visual stimuli do not deter several dipteran species from reaching a substrate, we expand the knowledge on the factors that can shape the colonization of concealed human cadavers, including variables such as insect size and stage of sexual maturity.     

Evidence About Harm: Dual Status Victim Participant Testimony at the International Criminal Court and the Straitjacketing of Narratives About Suffering

Criminal Law Forum - Although victims at the International Criminal Court (ICC) are not parties, they can apply to become “victim participants” and may be authorized by an ICC Chamber...     

Judicial review of regulatory decisions: Decoding the contents of appeals against agencies in Spain and the United Kingdom

Despite the important role that courts play to supervise the legality of regulatory agencies' actions, only few comparative studies analyze the contents of judicial appeals against regulatory decisions within European countries. This paper builds on the comparative administrative law scholarship and administrative capacities literature to analyze the content of 2,040 rulings against decisions issued by competition and telecommunications regulators in Spain and the United Kingdom. To understand the substance of the appeals, the study classifies cases according to the alleged administrative principles under breach and the regulatory capacities under challenge. Findings show a clear country-sector variation regarding the information contained in judicial disputes for both dimensions of analysis, which can be explained as a result of existing differences between the institutional settings of courts. These results offer a more in depth understanding of the political role of judicial oversight over regulatory agencies embedded in different institutional arrangements and policy sectors.     

Trials by video link after the pandemic: the pros and cons of the expansion of virtual justice

China-EU Law Journal - The Covid-19 pandemic has led to an enormous increase in the use of technology in the courtroom. This development raises the important question on the potential effects of...     

Prevention From Afar: Gendering Resilience and Sustaining Hope in Post-UNMIL Liberia

ABSTRACT

This article argues that resilience programmes in conflict-affected areas of limited statehood could be understood as much as an effort to equip vulnerable populations with tools to mitigate the effects of poverty, discrimination, lack of opportunities and manage gender inequalities than as an opportunity for the international community to prolong their interventions, consolidate local partnerships and sustain hope. We demonstrate our argument through an examination of the implementation in post-UNMIL Liberia of the ‘Spotlight Initiative’, a new multi-year multi-million programme of the European Union (EU) and the United Nations (UN) focused on the complete elimination of harmful practices and violence against women.