Variability and Similarity of Gait as Evaluated by Joint Angles: Implications for Forensic Gait Analysis

Closed‐circuit television (CCTV) footage is used in criminal investigations to compare perpetrators with suspects. Usually, incomplete gait cycles are collected, making evidential gait analysis challenging. This study aimed to analyze the discriminatory power of joint angles throughout a gait cycle. Six sets from 12 men were collected. For each man, a variability range VR (mean ± 1SD) of a specific joint angle at a specific time point (a gait cycle was 100 time points) was calculated. In turn, each individual was compared with the 11 others, and whenever 1 of these 11 had a value within this individual's VR, it counted as positive. By adding the positives throughout the gait cycle, we created simple bar graphs; tall bars indicated a small discriminatory power, short bars indicated a larger one. The highest discriminatory power was at time points 60–80 in the gait cycle. We show how our data can assess gait data from an actual case.     

Paternity Testing Commission of the International Society of Forensic Genetics: recommendations on genetic investigations in paternity cases

The International Society for Forensic Genetics (ISFG) has established a Paternity Testing Commission (PTC) with the purpose of formulating international recommendations concerning genetic investigations in paternity testing. The PTC recommends that paternity testing be performed in accordance with the ISO 17025 standards. The ISO 17025 standards are general standards for testing laboratories and the PTC offers explanations and recommendations concerning selected areas of special importance to paternity testing.     

Subsidization as exchange

The relationship between a subsidy-receiving firm and the government granting the subsidy can be conceptualized as an agency relation, with the government in the role of the principal, and the firm in the role of the agent. The economic theory of agency relations suggests what formal characteristics of the subsidy scheme and what conditions of the subsidy contracts are to be expected if the government wants to discipline effectively the behaviour of subsidy-receiving firms. These expectations are discussed using the example of a Dutch research subsidy scheme. It appears that most, of the expected conditions are indeed embodied in the formal subsidy scheme and in the subsidy contracts. However, there are signs that the informal relationship between the parties concerned deviates in important ways from what the formal documents would make us believe. Conclusions pertaining to the usefulness as well as the limitations of the proposed conceptualization of subsidy relations are drawn, and recommendations with regard to the design and implementation of subsidy schemes are made.     

The Status of Forensic Anthropology in Europe and South Africa: Results of the 2016 FASE Questionnaire on Forensic Anthropology

One of the goals of the Forensic Anthropology Society of Europe (FASE) is to map the existing education and practice opportunities in the field of forensic anthropology in order to support the development of the discipline and to optimize the training courses provided by the Society. To address this goal, an online questionnaire was sent to European and South African practitioners of forensic anthropology and related disciplines in 2016. The results of the questionnaire showed that the status and roles of forensic anthropologists vary depending on the national legal systems, education, and employment status of the practitioners. Despite the fact that the expertise of forensic anthropologists has been increasingly requested in a variety of investigations and the spectrum of tasks has become broader, including identification of living persons, specialized education in forensic anthropology is still restricted to a few graduate and postgraduate programs in European countries and to annual FASE courses.     

Föderalismus, Dezentralisierung und Performanz. Eine makroquantitative Analyse der Leistungsfähigkeit territorialer Politikorganisation in entwickelten Demokratien

Does federalism matter? We develop a theoretical model on the causal relationships between federalism, decentralization and system performance by merging the two literatures on political and fiscal federalism. The model is then tested in a quantitative analysis, including the OECD countries. We find that, consistent with our model, federalism and decentralization are different dimensions of the territorial organization of politics. Decentralization has positive effects; federalism tends to result in either no or a negative performance effect.     

Images Revisited – Postmodern Perceptions of Power and Democracy: Political Empowerment in the Danish Case

This article discusses postmodern perceptions of power and democracy based on a Danish study. Danes appear to have a nuanced perception of societal power and former and well known images of society seem out-faded. Politicians, media, capital, interest organisations and experts are all experienced as powerful. Most people, however, conceptualise power as being blurred, systemic and structural. Nevertheless, the Danes generally do not feel powerless or distant from power. Paradoxically, while experiences of power as 'system' are common, the actors appear to be both resourceful and active – there is a high degree of empowerment. Confidence in indi-vidual capacity to make a difference is considerable. Ordinary Danes seem to believe that it can pay to exercise one's influence – that one is able to make a difference.     

Validation of the New Interpretation of Gerasimov's Nasal Projection Method for Forensic Facial Approximation Using CT Data,

The most common method to predict nasal projection for forensic facial approximation is Gerasimov's two‐tangent method. Ullrich H, Stephan CN (J Forensic Sci, 2011; 56: 470) argued that the method has not being properly implemented and a revised interpretation was proposed. The aim of this study was to compare the accuracy of both versions using a sample of 66 postmortem cranial CT data. The true nasal tip was defined using pronasale and nasal spine line, as it was not originally specified by Gerasimov. The original guidelines were found to be highly inaccurate with the position of the nasal tip being overestimated by c. 2 cm. Despite the revised interpretation consistently resulting in smaller distance from true nasal tip, the method was not statistically accurate (p > 0.05) in positioning the tip of the nose (absolute distance >5 mm). These results support that Gerasimov's method was not properly performed, and Ullrich H, Stephan CN (J Forensic Sci, 2011; 56: 470) interpretation should be used instead.     

Automated extraction of DNA from reference samples from various types of biological materials on the Qiagen BioRobot EZ1 Workstation

We have validated and implemented a protocol for DNA extraction from various types of biological materials using a Qiagen BioRobot EZ1 Workstation. The sample materials included whole blood, blood from deceased, buccal cells on Omni swabs and FTA Cards, blood on FTA Cards and cotton swabs, and muscle biopsies. The DNA extraction was validated according to EN/ISO 17025 for the STR kits AmpF?STR^® Identifiler^® and AmpF?STR^® Yfiler^® (Applied Biosystems). Of 298 samples extracted, 11 (4%) did not yield acceptable results. In conclusion, we have demonstrated that extraction of DNA from various types of biological material can be performed quickly and without the use of hazardous chemicals, and that the DNA may be successfully STR typed according to the requirements of forensic genetic investigations accredited according to EN/ISO 17025.     

Heteronormative Foundations of Modern Citizenship in Early-twentieth-century Denmark

During 1906–1907 the Great Morality Scandal shocked Copenhagen’s general public by disclosing a handful of respectable bourgeois men as secret homosexuals. This article examines how the city’s working-class newspapers attempted to politicize the scandal by questioning the bourgeoisie’s privileged citizen status on the grounds of their supposed homosexuality, and by claiming that the partly disenfranchised working classes were worthy of full citizen status since they were heterosexual members of society. The article draws upon a theoretical framework that includes queer theoretical critiques of heterosexual norms and ideas of citizenship as a series of performative acts. It argues that working-class writings about the Great Morality Scandal constructed access to full Danish citizenship around the embodiment and enactment of heterosexual desire. They thus contributed to the foundations of modern Danish citizenship as distinctly heteronormative.