Fingermark detection based on the in situ growth of luminescent nanoparticles--towards a new generation of multimetal deposition

The in situ deposition of zinc oxide on gold nanoparticles in aqueous solution has been here successfully applied in the field of fingermark detection on various non-porous surfaces. In this article, we present the improvement of the multimetal deposition, an existing technique limited up to now to non-luminescent results, by obtaining luminescent fingermarks with very good contrast and details. This is seen as a major improvement in the field in terms of selectivity and sensitivity of detection, especially on black surfaces.     

Headspace solid-phase microextraction (HS-SPME) and liquid-liquid extraction (LLE): comparison of the performance in classification of ecstasy tablets. Part 2

Headspace solid-phase microextraction (HS-SPME) is assessed as an alternative to liquid-liquid extraction (LLE) currently used for 3,4-methylenedioxymethampethamine (MDMA) profiling. Both methods were compared evaluating their performance in discriminating and classifying samples. For this purpose 62 different seizures were analysed using both extraction techniques followed by gas chromatography-mass spectroscopy (GC-MS). A previously validated method provided data for HS-SPME, whereas LLE data were collected applying a harmonized methodology developed and used in the European project CHAMP. After suitable pre-treatment, similarities between sample pairs were studied using the Pearson correlation. Both methods enable to distinguish between samples coming from the same pre-tabletting batches and samples coming from different pre-tabletting batches. This finding emphasizes the use of HS-SPME as an effective alternative to LLE, with additional advantages such as sample preparation and a solvent-free process.     

Of Austerity,Human Rights and International Institutions

Austerity measures have led to the denial of social rights and widespread socio‐economic malaise across Europe. In the case of countries subjected to conditionality imposed by international institutions, the resultant harms have highlighted a range of responsibility gaps. Two legal developments come together to expose these gaps: Greece's argument in a series of cases under the European Social Charter that it was not responsible for the impact on rights brought about by austerity measures as it was only giving effect to its other international obligations as agreed with the Troika; and the concern to emerge from the Pringle case before the European Court of Justice that European Union (EU) institutions could do outside of the EU what they could not do within the EU ‐‐disregard the Charter of Fundamental Rights. That the Commission and the European Central Bank were in time answerable to international organisations set up to provide financial support adds an additional layer of responsibility to consider. Taking Greece as a case study, this article addresses the imperative of having international institutions respect human rights.     

Identification of gunshot residue: a critical review

A review of the scientific papers published on inorganic gunshot residue (GSR) analysis permits to study how the particle analysis has shown its capability in detection and identification of gunshot residue. The scanning electron microscope can be the most powerful tool for forensic scientists to determine the proximity to a discharging firearm and/or the contact with a surface exposed to GSR. Particle analysis can identify individual gunshot residue particles through both morphological and elemental characteristics. When particles are detected on the collected sample, the analytical results can be interpreted following rules of a formal general interpretative system, to determine whether they come from the explosion of a primer or from other possible sources. The particles on the sample are compared with an abstract idea of "unique" GSR particle produced by the sole source of the explosion of a primer. "Uniqueness" is not the only problem related to GSR detection and identification for a forensic scientist. With "not-unique" particles interpretation of results is extremely important. The evidential strength of "not-unique" particles can increase with a more fruitful interpretative framework based on Bayes rule. For the assessment of the value of a GSR in linking a suspect and a crime, it is important to compare two hypothesis: the first can be that of the evidence if the suspect has been shooting in a specific situation, the second that of the evidence if the suspect was not involved in this shooting. This case specific or case-by-case approach is closer to what the court is interested in. The authors consider that a "case-by-case" approach should be followed whenever possible. Research of models and data such as those developed in other trace evidence material (fibres, glass, etc.) using a Bayesian approach is suggested in the interpretation of GSR.     

“Who Is a Homosexual?”: The Consolidation of Sexual Identities in Mid‐Twentieth‐Century American Immigration Law

This essay uses court records to trace the federal government's attempts to regulate homosexuality among immigrants in the mid-twentieth century, asserting that such attempts illustrate the state's struggle to make homosexuality visible, to produce a homosexuality that could be both detected and managed. I focus on the process by which two competing paradigms for understanding homosexuality (status and conduct) were consolidated into a single model in which homosexual identity could be deduced from homosexual acts. Federal officials and the courts initially treated homosexuality as a form of conduct, most commonly deporting homosexual aliens for having committed crimes of moral turpitude. Later, these same government entities relied on status provisions, deporting immigrants charged with homosexuality as aliens "afflicted with psychopathic personality." While the "psychopathic personality" terminology supported the notion that the homosexual was a kind of person rather than a set of behaviors, it also depended upon psychiatrists to support the claim that homosexuals were by definition psychopathic. When many psychiatrists distanced themselves from that idea, the government refused psychiatric opinion that differentiated psychopaths from homosexuals by arguing that these terms connoted legal-political rather than medicalized identity categories. While this conception arose out of a conservative impulse by immigration officials and the courts to fix homosexuality as identity so that it could be regulated (by bureaucrats rather than psychiatrists), I argue that the emphasis on legal-political identity categories licensed a conception of the homosexual as a kind of citizen that had some emancipatory as well as repressive effects.