A comparison of plastic cable ties based on physical,chemical and stable isotopic measurements

Plastic cable ties can be utilised in a range of serious criminal activities and a comparison of cable ties, or fragments, may form part of the physical evidence presented to a Court of law. This research assessed the potential value of evidence based on the analysis of plastic cable ties. Twenty packets of black coloured plastic cable ties (nominally 200 mm × 4.8 mm) were purchased in pack sizes ranging from 25 to 100 individual cable ties (Brisbane, Australia, March 2015). Representative samples from each packet were visually examined, compared and tested to determine their physical dimensions, chemical compositions and stable isotopic compositions (δ²H, δ¹³C and δ¹⁵N).All of the individual cable ties from a given packet were found to be indistinguishable with respect to appearance, physical, chemical and isotopic measurements (within-batch variability). Individual cable ties were also found to be isotopically homogeneous with respect to hydrogen, carbon and nitrogen. All of the cable ties analysed were found to have very similar chemical compositions and to be manufactured predominantly from nylon 6,6. The elemental compositions of composite samples, prepared from each packet, were found to be highly variable and, as such, were of very limited value.Cable ties from ten of the twenty packets were uniquely characterised by physical appearance (between-batch variability). Physical measurements such as the width, thickness and tooth-count of the grip section did not provide additional discrimination. Cable ties from nineteen of the twenty packets were uniquely characterised by isotopic composition, based on δ²H and δ¹⁵N measurements. Samples from two packets of Crescent brand cable ties were found to be indistinguishable with respect to all of the tests applied in this study. These two packets were inadvertently purchased from the same retailer and had the same barcode and batch number. It was considered a reasonable assumption that these two packets originated from the same manufacturing batch.The authors reason that a likelihood ratio (that might be presented to a Court of law) can be derived from this type of discrete data based on a calculation of the possible combinations of distinguishable objects (unordered sampling with replacement) in a convenience sample collected from the background population. In this example, a database of 19 distinguishable objects can yield a likelihood ratio as high as 210, with a verbal equivalent of “moderately strong support” for a proposition that two cable ties have the same isotopic composition because they originate from the same batch rather than by random chance.     

Physical Injuries, Pain, and Psychological Trauma: Pathways to Disability

Because physical injuries occur so frequently and are associated with significant mortality and morbidity, these injuries have been acknowledged as a worldwide public health concern. While the greatest cost associated with physical injury is the loss of life, non-fatal injuries are associated with significant personal and societal costs. Traditionally, examinations of the personal costs of physical injuries have emphasized functional losses and limitations, in addition to resulting losses in work productivity and income earning power. Efforts to capture the societal costs associated with physical injury have emphasized medical expenditures related to their treatment as well as costs related to lost work performance and disability compensation. Less emphasized but possibly more relevant to post-injury functional outcomes is the experience of psychological distress that frequently accompanies injury-related changes in function and overall quality of life. Any calculation of the true cost of physical injuries must include a reckoning of their impact on psychological health and the interactive influence of physical and psychological injuries on immediate and long-term recovery of function. In the current article, we briefly summarize data pertaining to the prevalence and cost of physical injuries; we briefly describe the more common consequences of physical injury, including injury-related limitations in physical function, pain and pain-related limitations in physical function, occupational impairment, psychological distress, and impairment in interpersonal relating; we review select theoretical models that are considered to explain the transition from physical injury to disabilities and we identify the pre-, peri-, and post-injury influence of physical and psychological health on injury management, recovery of function, risk of re-injury, and disability.     

What is Politics? Robinson Crusoe, Deep Ecology and Immanuel Kant

This article considers the nature of politics. Robinson Crusoe is used to show that even the broadest understanding of politics found in the literature is inadequate, for the situation of Crusoe on his island is a political situation even though he is completely alone. An analogy is drawn between the deep ecological understanding of politics and the moral philosophy of Immanuel Kant. For Kantian ethics, also, is built on the idea of a solitary individual who is at least existentially isolated. It is concluded that what makes any situation political is the fact that in it some policy is required.     

Aquinas's Two Doctrines of Natural Law

This paper examines the role which the concept of natural law has to play in the political thought of Aquinas, as this is to be found in the Summa Theologiae . It focuses particularly on Aquinas's understanding of the relationship which exists between natural and positive law. It argues that Aquinas's views are inconsistent and that the Summa actually contains two quite different positions regarding this subject. One of these is inherited from the Stoic natural law tradition and the other from Aristotle. The former considers natural law to be a critical standard by means of which positive law can be evaluated by individuals, whereas the latter does not. On the contrary, it maintains that according to Aquinas the principles of natural law require interpretation, and that this interpretation is to be provided, not by the conscience of the individual moral agent, but by positive law. Focus on either one or the other of these two documents leads to quite different interpretations of Aquinas's political thought as a whole. One such interpretation sees Aquinas as being a distant forerunner of the liberal political tradition. The other associates Aquinas much more closely with the notion of authority and hence with conservatism in politics. The article concludes by commenting on the relevance of these different interpretations of Aquinas for the contemporary debate between liberals and communitarians.     

Trusts & Trustees, 2009, Vol 15, No 1

From opposite sides of the legal profession, and from oppositesides of the world, we began 2008 as editorial greenhorns. Althoughreasonably long in the tooth as trust lawyers, and as text bookauthors, we have come to understand and appreciate a great dealthat previously we had taken for granted. In "Winston Churchill as Historian", in Louis (ed) Adventureswith Britannia: Personalities, Politics and Culture in Britain(1995), 47, Lord Blake recorded the great man as having describedcultured people as "merely the glittering scum which floatsupon the deep river of production." Most trust lawyers are     

Exploring host perspectives towards younger international development volunteers

Research on international development volunteering has increased significantly in recent decades, but there is a need for greater depth of understanding in relation to host communities. This article examines the impact of younger volunteers from the perspectives of host community members, evaluating the positive and negative aspects in working with young people from the “UniVol” programme of Volunteer Service Abroad, New Zealand. It argues that further insights into host community experiences can play a key role in enhancing youth IDV volunteering, creating assignments that are more beneficial for hosts, and moving away from neo-liberal “volunteer-centric” youth volunteering.     

Aid,the Real Exchange Rate and Why Policy Matters: The Cases of Morocco and Tunisia

Abstract

Every form of foreign-exchange inflow, including aid, can potentially cause real-exchange rate appreciation, with adverse consequences for the production of tradables (‘Dutch Disease’). Whether it does so depends on the policy response to the inflow. This paper investigates the issue for Morocco and Tunisia, over 1980–2009. We find that aid led to a real appreciation in Morocco, but had no effect on Tunisia’s real exchange rate. This confirms the importance of the macroeconomic framework in which aid is provided, and the key role for infrastructure and other supply-side improvements in determining the final real-economy impact of aid and other inflows.     

Education,Internet Use,and Confidence in the Police: Testing the “Informed Citizen” Thesis in the Philippines

Asian Journal of Criminology - We applied the “informed citizen” thesis to public confidence in the police in the Philippines—a topic that has surprisingly received little...