Diary of an astronaut: examination of the remains of the late Israeli astronaut Colonel Ilan Ramon's Crew Notebook recovered after the loss of NASA's space shuttle Columbia

Two months after the fatal re-entering into the Earth's atmosphere of Columbia flight STS-107, the remains of Israeli astronaut Colonel Ilan Ramon's Crew Notebook were found strewn in a field in San Augustine County, TX. The random pile of papers was found to have survived the calamity of the Shuttle's disintegration remarkably well. Most of the papers recovered were torn and/or washed out to varying degrees but only mildly charred around the edges. The sheets of paper could be categorized into four groups: Group I: eight sides of paper written while in space in black ink and in pencil--Ramon's personal diary; the writing on these eight sides of paper survived well and is only missing where the pages were torn. Small fragments found in the field were physically matched to holes in the pages thus locating their original positions in the text. Group II: six sides of technical preparation notes written by Ramon before the mission. The writing on these pages was washed out entirely, but much of it was visualized using infrared luminescence. Group III: eight sides of personal notes prepared by Ramon before the mission written in blue ink. The writing on these pages was barely visible to the naked eye and not visualized by infrared luminescence, but was made largely legible by digital enhancement imaging. Group IV: a few sides of printed technical information. These pages were mostly intact and were not examined at length as they contained standard printed material. After completion of examinations at the Questioned Document Laboratory of the Israel Police, the diary was transferred to the Paper Conservation Department of the Israel Museum for preservation and strengthening treatments.     

SNPs in paternity investigation: The simple future

Based on the 52 SNP-plex developed by the SNPforID Consortium, we designed two 10-plex to study single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) for human identification and to establish its usefulness in paternity casework. This 20 autosomal SNP set was studied in 56 paternity investigation cases from South Portuguese resident population, also analyzed with 17 Short Tandem Repeats (STRs). Results obtained with both methodologies were consistent with each other, except for one case where the alleged father could not be excluded by SNPs. No mutation was found in the SNP loci, whereas a mismatch in STRs was detected. The use of SNPs as a complement to the analysis of autosomal STRs in paternity casework can result in paternity index and paternity probability values equivalent or higher than those obtained with more STR loci, but with lower costs. This study shows that instead of using additional STR loci, the analysis of 20 autosomal SNPs, as a complement technique to standard methodologies, is an appealing alternative in paternity investigation cases.     

Extraction and isolation of cannabinoids from marijuana seizures and characterization by 1H NMR allied to chemometric tools

Marijuana, a drug derived from the Cannabis sativa L. plant, is the world's most consumed illicit drug. In this paper, a total of 156 marijuana samples seized in the state of Espírito Santo (ES), Brazil were studied and analysed by proton nuclear magnetic resonance (¹H NMR) spectroscopy to identify the major cannabinoids present. A crude extract of all samples was purified using high performance liquid chromatography so that these compounds could serve as reference substances. Nine fractions were obtained and analysed by ¹H NMR and gas chromatography–mass spectrometry (GC–MS), with five presented cannabinoids. ?⁹-THC (Δ⁹-trans-tetrahydrocannabinol), ?⁹-THCA (?⁹-tetrahydrocannabinolic acid), ?⁸-THC (?⁸-tetrahydrocannabinol), 11-hydroxycannabinol, CBV (cannabivarin), and CBN (cannabinol) were found, and their chemical structures were confirmed by GC–MS. The latter compound was obtained with high purity (≈100%), while the others were obtained as less complex mixtures with purity higher than 75% (except for Δ⁸-THC). Principal component analysis (PCA) was used on the ¹H NMR spectra of the 156 samples, and it was found that the samples were grouped according to the months, differentiating into two groups (from July 2014 to January 2015 and from February 2015 to July 2015), where non-grouping was observed from four macro-regions of the ES state (North, Central, Metropolitan, and South). The chemical profile of the seized samples was correlated to the ¹H NMR spectrum of an isolated CBN sub-fraction, in which the group formed by samples seized in the year 2015 presented lower CBN content in the chemical composition. From the PCA score plot, two groups of samples were confirmed using the partial least squares discriminant analysis and orthogonal projections to latent structures classification methods.     

Seen but Not Heard? Parallels and Dissonances in the Treatment of Rape Narratives across the Asylum and Criminal Justice Contexts

A significant proportion of women seeking refugee status in the United Kingdom will claim to have been raped in their country of origin. Even where this is not the sole basis of an asylum claim, it may be relevant to its determination. While criminal justice responses to rape have been the subject of extensive academic criticism and legislative reform, the processes of disclosure and credibility assessment in the asylum context have received little attention. This article explores possible parallels and dissonances in the treatment of rape across the asylum and criminal justice contexts, drawing in particular on the findings of a 2007 pilot study. It considers how problems such as the underreporting of rape, the inability of the victim to 'tell the story' in her own words, a hostile adjudicative environment, and the tendency to regard factors such as late disclosure, narrative inconsistency, and calm demeanour with suspicion – may be replicated and compounded in asylum cases. It also acknowledges the complex intersection of race, gender, culture, and nationality in this context.     

How do interests,ideas, and institutions affect multisectoral governance? The case of tobacco governance in two Pacific small island developing states

Multisectoral governance has been recognized to be vital to regulate harmful commodity industries, yet countries struggle with reaching policy coherence due to government agencies' conflicting mandates and industry interference. Limited empirical evidence is available on how interests, ideas, and institutions intersect and influence multisectoral governance in low- and middle-income countries, particularly in Pacific small island developing states (PSIDS), often exploited by vested industry interests and whose non-communicable disease crisis commands urgent action to regulate harmful commodities. This study assessed the ways interests, ideas, and institutions intersect and shape multisectoral tobacco governance in PSIDS. Interviewee data collected in Fiji and Vanuatu show that the idea of individual responsibility, the limited recognition of commercial determinants of health, the centralization of authority, and the vulnerabilities of small island developing states, (including small population, land, economy, geographic isolation, and status as a developing economy), prevent these states from achieving policy coherence in multisectoral tobacco governance.     

A comparison of weighted and unweighted analyses in the national Crime Victimization Survey

The National Crime Victimization Survey (NCVS) data tapes include several variables of weights that reflect how many households or persons are represented by a given data record. While these sampling weights are crucial for estimating overall victimization rates, they do not have as much of an effect on methodological models, because weights in the NCVS are used primarily in ratio estimation adjustments and to compensate for a relatively low nonresponse rate. The general use of weights is discussed, and several examples are given that indicate that although there may be some differences in the coefficients, the basic conclusions drawn from the models are the same with or without weights. It is recommended that weighted analyses in the NCVS be used primarily as a tool in model development.