The Wadi al-Hawarith affair (Emek Hefer): disputed land and the struggle for ownership: 1929–33

The Wadi al-Hawarith (Emek Hefer) affair was considered to be one of the prominent land disputes between Jews and Arabs in Palestine during the British mandate period. The region in which the dispute broke out was found south of Hadera in Emek Hefer.

The purchase of lands of Wadi al-Hawarith, by Jewish bodies, had already started at the end of the nineteenth century and continued for four decades, and during this there were disputes between the Jews and Arabs, which were accompanied by legal hearings.

The Jewish National Fund tried to reach an arrangement by means of compensation for the Bedouin tenants who dwelled on the lands of the valley, in exchange for their willingness to leave the territory. From time to time, the Bedouins agreed to this, but they went back on their agreement.

Despite the effort to reach compensation arrangements with the Bedouins, the Palestinian political leadership was interested in inflaming the opposition of the Bedouins to leaving the land. This is what caused a long string of trials, which continued for many years.     

The discourse and study of terrorism in decolonised states: the case of Pakistan

The existing literature in the terrorism field does not address the absence of terrorism scholarship in developing countries. This article focuses on this intellectual gap using the case of Pakistan. It argues that most decolonised states, including Pakistan, are yet to grasp the complexities of traditional approaches to the study of terrorism, let alone its critical dimensions. The article explores some of the prevailing conditions in developing countries, specifically decolonised states such as Pakistan, which prevent the development of a robust academic discourse on terrorism and the development of a strong field of study. It suggests that the main barriers that account for this shortfall include the state’s legitimacy deficit, a flawed education system that nurtures fictions as truth and inhibits knowledge production, the institutionalised role of conspiracy theories in national politics and the multiplicity of terrorism discourses among government and sociopolitical entities. The conclusion highlights a number of reasons that might help to explain this persistent condition and offers a few policy recommendations.     

Practical benzylation of N,N-substituted ethanolamines related to chemical warfare agents for analysis and detection by electron ionization gas chromatography–mass spectrometry

The benzylation of three low molecular weight N,N-disubstituted ethanolamines related to chemical warfare agents (CWAs) to furnish derivatives with improved gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS) profiles is described. Due to their low molecular weight and polar nature, N,N-disubstituted ethanolamines are notoriously difficult to detect by routine GC-MS analyses during Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) proficiency tests (PTs), particularly in scenarios when they are present at low levels (~1–10 ppm) amidst more abundant interferences. Our studies revealed that the optimal derivatization conditions involved the treatment of the ethanolamine with benzyl bromide in the presence of an inorganic base (e.g., Na₂CO₃) in dichloromethane at 55°C for 2 h. This optimized set of conditions was then successfully applied to the derivatization of N,N-dimethylethanolamine, N,N-diethylethanolamine and N,N-diisopropylethanolamine present separately at 1 and 10 μg/mL concentrations in a glycerol-rich matrix sample featured in the 48th OPCW PT. The benzylated derivatives of the three ethanolamines possessed retention times long enough to clear the massive glycerol-containing matrix interferences. The protocol herein is introduced as an alternative method for derivatization of these CWA and pharmaceutically important species and should find broad applicability in laboratories where routine forensic analysis is carried out.     

A statistical approach to aid examiners in the forensic analysis of handwriting

We develop a statistical approach to model handwriting that accommodates all styles of writing (cursive, print, connected print). The goal is to compute a posterior probability of writership of a questioned document given a closed set of candidate writers. Such probabilistic statements can support examiner conclusions and enable a quantitative forensic evaluation of handwritten documents. Writing is treated as a sequence of disjoint graphical structures, which are extracted using an automated and open-source process. The graphs are grouped based on the similarity of their shapes through a K-means clustering template. A person's writing pattern can be characterized by the rate at which graphs are emitted to each cluster. The cluster memberships serve as data for a Bayesian hierarchical model with a mixture component. The rate of mixing between two parameters in the hierarchy indicates writing style.     

Collecting touch DNA from glass surfaces using different sampling solutions and volumes: Immediate and storage effects on genetic STR analysis

Touch DNA has become increasingly important evidence in todays' forensic casework. However, due to its invisible nature and typically minute amounts of DNA, the collection of biological material from touched objects remains a particular challenge that underscores the importance of the best collection methods for maximum recovery efficiency. So far, swabs moistened with water are often utilized in forensic crime scene investigations for touch DNA sampling, even though an aqueous solution provokes osmosis, endangering the cell's integrity. The aim of the research presented here was to systematically determine whether DNA recovery from touched glass items can be significantly increased by varying swabbing solutions and volumes compared with water-moistened swabs and dry swabbing. A second objective was to investigate the possible effects of storage of swab solutions prior to genetic analysis on DNA yield and profile quality when stored for 3 and 12 months, as is often the case with crime scene samples. Overall, the results indicate that adapting volumes of the sampling solutions had no significant effect on DNA yield, while the detergent-based solutions performed better than water and dry removal, with the SDS reagent yielding statistically significant results. Further, stored samples showed an increase in degradation indices for all solutions tested, but no deterioration in DNA content and profile quality, allowing for unrestricted processing of touch DNA samples stored for at least 12 months. One further finding was a strong intraindividual change in DNA amounts observed over the 23 deposition days which may be related to the donor's menstrual cycle.     

Evaluating expertise in forensic anthropology

The medicolegal system relies on the ability of experts and non-experts alike to make judgments about expertise and use those judgments to reach consequential decisions. Given the lack of standard criteria, mandatory certification, or licensure for establishing expertise required to practice forensic anthropology and testify as an expert witness, we sought to understand how individuals assess and identify expertise in forensic anthropology by using a social science tool called the Imitation Game. This tool assesses immersion in a specific area of study via discourse, with the premise that some individuals lacking expertise themselves imitate or attempt to pass as experts. For this project we recruited volunteers with varying expertise in forensic anthropology to participate in interviews which asked questions about the practice and structure of the discipline. Those interviews were transcribed, anonymized, and evaluated by other recruited individuals with varying expertise in forensic anthropology. Results found that judges who were experts in forensic anthropology performed better than non-expert judges in determining who was not an expert in forensic anthropology based on their anonymized responses; however, nearly half of the non-experts were still able to pass as experts in forensic anthropology. The difficulties in assessing expertise based on discourse interactions demonstrates the value and need for well-defined credentials and mandatory certification to practice forensic anthropology. This study demonstrates that accurately identifying expertise in forensic anthropology may be challenging for both experts and non-experts, especially when relying solely on interactional expertise rather than formal assessments of competency which directly elucidate contributory expertise.     

Detection of methamphetamine in mouse femurs exposed to high temperature

Bone samples are valuable for examining the cause of death and circumstance leading up to death when body fluids are not available for forensic toxicological analysis. Examined were heat-induced changes in methamphetamine and amphetamine concentrations in femurs removed from methamphetamine-injected mice to determine if the burned bones could be used for toxicology testing. The femurs were heated at 100°C, 300°C, or 500°C for 10 or 30 min. The tissue structure of the heated femurs was preserved at 100°C for 30 min but was destructed at higher temperatures. Methamphetamine and amphetamine were detected in femurs heated at 100°C for 10 min, 100°C for 30 min, and 300°C for 10 min (with methamphetamine and amphetamine concentrations ranging from 0.36 to 35 μg/g and 0.54 to 47 μg/g, respectively). Methamphetamine and amphetamine were detectable when heated above their decomposition temperature as a result of limited heat transfer do to protection provide by the femoral muscle. Thus, the bone could be a useful analytical sample in cases of burn-related deaths, where it is difficult to collect body fluids.     

Modification of the Marmarou and Foda model of diffuse axonal injury (DAI) improves percentage survival of rats at 24 h and increases the amount of DAI identified

More than two decades ago, Marmarou published a valid model for producing diffuse axonal injury (DAI) in rats. Since then, both mild and severe injuries have been obtained by researchers using the original method and a weight of 450 g. However, the diffuse brain injuries produced in rats were only similar to those seen in humans when the rats sustained severe brain injuries. In these cases, rat mortality in the original article was around 50%, and the cause of death was prolonged apnea post-impact. Rat survival after impact is critical for studying the progression of DAI. In order to explain the cause of death in human victims with cranial trauma who do not show gross brain injury, testing for the presence of DAI is essential. Thus, in order to minimize local and cervical injuries to increase rat survival, attention should be paid to the following aspects: a wider head protector disc should be used, the head of the rat should be elevated at the time of impact, and the foam bed should be soft enough to allow the movement caused by acceleration. With our modified method, rat survival increased by 30% compared to the original model (80% versus 50%). Moreover, 85.7% of rats demonstrated DAI after 24 h of survival. With these modifications, injuries appear in the same locations as in humans; thus, the method is suitable for the study of traumatic DAI in humans.     

Alternative direct-to-amplification cell lysis techniques for forensically relevant non-sperm cells

While efforts have been made to reduce the pervasive backlog of sexual assault evidence collection kits, the actual laboratory process remains very time-consuming due to the requirement of a differential lysis step before DNA purification, as well as intricate mixture analysis towards the end of the DNA workflow. Recently, an alternative, direct-to-amplification sperm lysis method (using 1 M NaOH) was identified. However, a direct cell lysis method for non-sperm cells has not been identified yet. Thus, the primary objective of this work was to find an alternative method that is quick, inexpensive, and does not require multiple purification steps for the lysis of non-sperm cells in sexual assault samples. In this study, vaginal swab samples were lysed with the control method, prepGEM™, as well as six alternative reagents: alkaline buffer with 25–200 mM NaOH, high-salt stain extraction buffer, modified radioimmunoprecipitation assay (RIPA) buffer, mammalian protein extraction reagent (M-PER™), digitonin buffer, and urea/thiourea buffer. Quantification using Quantifiler® Trio of vaginal and semen lysates revealed that the alkaline (25 mM NaOH) and M-PER™ methods were efficient for the lysis of vaginal epithelial cells without substantial sperm cell lysis. Following quantification, analysis of STR profiles from vaginal lysates revealed that the M-PER™ method showed promising results across all metrics examined, including the percentage of detected STR alleles, mean peak heights, peak height ratio, and interlocus balance. Thus, this method was recommended as an alternative to the traditional differential lysis method for non-sperm cells given its ability to produce amplification-ready lysates without any DNA purification step.