Black women in American policing: An advancement display

This article is a display of the advancement of black women in American municipal policing. Outlined are research findings which denote the current status of black female officers through a national overview and analysis of their numbers and assignment and rank distributions in relation to geographic region and city population size. The supervisory and command representations of black women among the sworn personnel of five major municipal police agencies are examined.     

Human genetic research databases and biobanks: towards uniform terminology and Australian best practice

This article examines international best practice for the establishment, maintenance and use of human genetic research databases (HGRDs), particularly focusing on large-scale population biobanks, and considers the measures that should be taken in Australia to comply with this best practice. These HGRDs play a pivotal role in basic research aimed at understanding the basis of human disease at the genetic level, and applied research aimed at putting that basic knowledge into practical application. In particular, the large-scale biobanks are vital research tools in the drive to uncover the causes and consequences of human health and disease. Biobanks are being established at regional, national and international levels throughout the world. Although their governance structures are uniformly complex, some best practices are emerging with regard to consent (particularly consent to future research and withdrawal of consent), privacy and data protection and intellectual property ownership and access. Best practices with regard to benefit-sharing are emerging much more slowly. This article reviews these international best practices with the aim of providing guidance for the development of appropriate regulatory structures in Australia.     

‘Getting out of the closet’: scientific authorship of literary fiction and knowledge transfer

The Journal of Technology Transfer - Some scientists write literary fiction books in their spare time. If these books contain scientific knowledge, literary fiction becomes a mechanism of knowledge...     

Biased contests

We examine the effects of providing more accurate information to a political decision-maker lobbied by competing interests. We investigate how this bias in the direction of the correct decision affects efficiency, measured (inversely) by both the probability of taking an incorrect decision, and the amount of social waste associated to lobbying activities. We present a benchmark model in which increasing the bias always improves efficiency. However, this result is fragile as slight changes in the contest success function lead to slightly different models in which under either criterion there is no guarantee that more accurate information improves the decision.     

Divergent genetic strata in five Bahamian islands

Based on historical records, the genetic landscape of the Bahamian archipelago is presumed to be complex and to exhibit island-specific characteristics, yet the genetic composition of the island chain, which could corroborate or refute these past accounts, remains poorly defined. As such, the current investigation was undertaken to genetically characterize 5 Bahamian populations representing the Northwest (Grand Bahama and Abaco) and Central (Eleuthera, Exuma and Long Island) Bahamas across the 15 autosomal Identifiler loci routinely employed in forensic analyses. Altogether, our findings suggest that Bahamians are a genetically heterogeneous group, with each island sampled receiving differential contributions from African, European, East Asian and Native American sources. Even though the strongest genetic signal in all 5 collections emanates from continental Africa, inter-island differentiation is noted in both the Structure and admixture analyses. The presence of alleles not in common among the 5 insular populations also signals genetic heterogeneity among the islands of the archipelago. This is especially the case when considering the Long Island population, which exhibits statistically significant genetic differences in relation to the other Bahamian collections and the New World groups of African descent (Afro-American and Afro-Caribbean) in the G-test pair-wise comparisons, even after application of the Bonferroni adjustment.     

Distribution of Venlafaxine,O‐desmethylvenlafaxine,and O‐desmethylvenlafaxine to Venlafaxine Ratio in Postmortem Human Brain Tissue

Venlafaxine (VEN) and its metabolite O‐desmethylvenlafaxine (ODV) inhibit reuptake of serotonin and norepinephrine. This study examines whether VEN is differentially distributed in postmortem brain and examines relationships between brain and femoral blood concentrations from donors prescribed VEN for treatment of depression. Using high‐pressure liquid chromatography‐ultraviolet detection, VEN and ODV concentrations were measured in temporal, occipital, and cerebellar cortex of six postmortem brains. The ODV/VEN ratio was calculated as a relative measure of drug metabolism within each region where higher ratios indicated a greater conversion of VEN to ODV. Compared to the other regions examined, the cerebellum showed decreased VEN (p = 0.056), ODV (p = 0.006), and ODV/VEN (p = 0.027) ratios. In parts per million, VEN was higher in temporal and occipital cortex, but not cerebellum, as compared to femoral blood concentration. These observations suggest that VEN and ODV are differentially distributed in the brain, and metabolism of VEN to ODV may vary across brain regions.     

Routine activities of delinquent and non-delinquent victims of violent crime

The link between criminal victimization and offending has become increasingly well documented in recent years. Unfortunately, the empirical and theoretical enmeshment of these variables makes it difficult to determine the effect of specific activities purely on victimization. This paper provides an examination of the effect of engaging in specific risky activities on the violent victimization experiences of delinquent and non-delinquent youth. Our results show that there are some modest differences in the effects of risky behaviors on the likelihood of violent victimization for delinquents and non-delinquents.     

Institutional Regimes for Sustainable Collective Housing Stocks

The influence of public policy, property rights and contracts on the sustainability of residential buildings remains largely unknown. This research will use the analytical framework of the housing institutional regime to study the sustainability over time of the housing stock. We aim to produce an inventory of the housing institutional regime in Switzerland, a comparison with the German and Catalan regimes, and policy suggestions to achieve a better sustainability of the housing stock.     

Between Immigration and Policing: Cross Recognition

Abstract: This article looks at the development of the UK's policies towards asylum‐seekers who are to be returned to some country other than the one where they fear persecution (its ‘safe third country’ policy). The Dublin Convention of 1990 addressed some of the problems which this policy created, but left others unresolved. Domestic legislation has progressively reduced the opportunities for challenging safe third‐country removals, especially to an EU state. The incorporation of the European Convention on Human Rights into UK law has generated new possibilities for challenging safe third‐country decisions where removal might damage physical or mental health. Articles 3 and 8 have been invoked in particular. The Dublin machinery established ‘rules’ to decide which member state was responsible for considering the asylum claim and the procedure to be followed. The article examines why the UK courts have said that these provisions are not justiciable in the English courts. Finally the article considers whether the experience with Dublin provides any useful guidance as to the approach that will be taken to European arrest warrants and extradition requests.     

The application of anodic stripping voltammetry to forensic science. II. Anodic stripping voltammetric analysis of gunshot residues

Non-destructive analysis of gunshot residues on hands was studied by anodic stripping voltammetry using a low-cost home-constructed polarograph. The washing solution was 0.5 M HCl. Antimony was first analyzed in 4 M HCl solution; and zinc, lead and copper were then simultaneously analyzed in 0.2 M acetate buffer (pH 5.9 ± 0.1).