Teaching legal techniques

Starting from the position that it is necessary to have some model of the learning process, if legal education is going to respond to pressures for change in a useful way, the article introduces John Dewey and his model of learning. It identifies shared concerns and techniques that informed Dewey's understanding of the learning process and that inform legal processes. Traditional and clinical approaches to legal education are mapped against the model of learning supplied by Dewey, with the hope of providing an intermediate level linkage between his learning theory and the task of curriculum design in legal education at institutions of Higher Education in the UK.     

A 'cyanoacrylate case' for developing fingerprints in cars.

A portable case has been developed by which cyanoacrylate (super glue) fuming can be used inside a vehicle suspected of being involved in serious crime. The car itself serves as a fumigation chamber and the cyanoacrylate vapours are fed into the car via a hose. Connected to the hose and suspended inside the car is a vapour diffuser. The cyanoacrylate originates from a portable case where there is a sealed heater and also a command panel with hygrometer and thermometer for a technician to control the process. There is also space inside the case for other necessary equipment.     

The use of buffered celite columns in drug extraction techniques and their proposed application in forensic toxicology

The recoveries of acidic, basic, and neutral drugs through buffered celite columns are reported. The methods are rapid, simple, clean, and efficient, especially with compounds having a high volatility.     

What challenges offers nanotechnology to bioethics?

Though nowadays science means progress, for some people it means a moral danger. However, the progress should not be suppressed, and in every case, it should be controlled. These authors uphold that science and morality are closely linked and complementary. That is, technology, society and morality, by themselves, do not have the absolute truth and must be complemented among them without any of the three being suppressed.     

Inferring ancestral origin using a single multiplex assay of ancestry-informative marker SNPs

Tests that infer the ancestral origin of a DNA sample have considerable potential in the development of forensic tools that can help to guide crime investigation. We have developed a single-tube 34-plex SNP assay for the assignment of ancestral origin by choosing ancestry-informative markers (AIMs) exhibiting highly contrasting allele frequency distributions between the three major population-groups. To predict ancestral origin from the profiles obtained, a classification algorithm was developed based on maximum likelihood. Sampling of two populations each from African, European and East Asian groups provided training sets for the algorithm and this was tested using the CEPH Human Genome Diversity Panel. We detected negligible theoretical and practical error for assignments to one of the three groups analyzed with consistently high classification probabilities, even when using reduced subsets of SNPs. This study shows that by choosing SNPs exhibiting marked allele frequency differences between population-groups a practical forensic test for assigning the most likely ancestry can be achieved from a single multiplexed assay.     

Nothing to Lose: An Insurance Company's Duty of Good Faith and Fair Dealing,Punitive Damages,and The Legacies of Campbell

This article explores the potential evisceration of the deterrence function of punitive damages, one of the only economic incentives that deters insurance companies from opportunistically breaching their insurance policies. Readers will gain an understanding of why large punitive damages awards are essential in the insurance coverage field and how such awards may implicate due process standards. The article explains the constitutional limitations set forth by the U.S. Supreme Court in imposing punitive damages, and provides a roadmap of how lower courts and practitioners are presently applying these rules.     

Identifying a suitable mounting medium for use in forensic fibre examination.

As the result of a previous study many laboratories have used XAM neutral medium-improved white mounting medium in textile fibre examination for more than 20 years. Due to European Directive 98/79/EC, XAM is no longer available and an alternative needed to be found. A list of desirable properties was formulated and a number of mounting media were tested against this. Entellan New was identified as the best mounting medium, and performed similarly to XAM in all aspects.