Trump's Promise: Withdrawing from the Paris Climate Agreement

On June 1^st, 2017, President Trump announced that the United States will be withdrawing from the Paris Climate Agreement, a move he has promised to make since his early campaign days. This move came as a shock to many people all over the world. The Paris Agreement is the world's first comprehensive climate agreement that aims to take proactive measures towards global warming. In order to fully understand this withdrawal, we must familiarize ourselves with its parent-treaty, the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, and the constitutional precedent involved with such a change.     

Victim participation at the Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia: are retributive and restorative principles enhancing the prospect for justice?

This article assesses the utility of victim participation in the trials before the Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia, in fostering reconciliation and realizing restorative justice. Specifically, it investigates the parameters of a legal mechanism designed to give ‘victims of atrocity’ a voice, whilst striking a vital balance between rights of victims and rights of defendants to a fair trial. Where participation affords victims the opportunity to present their views and observations, thereby enhancing prospects for retributive and restorative justice, this article submits that participation affords the international community an historic opportunity to meet Rome Statute objectives to ‘not only to bring criminals to justice but also to help the victims themselves obtain justice’ (See Victims Witness Section at the ICC Victims Witness Section at the ICC, < http://www.icc-cpi.int/Menus/ICC/Structure+of+the+Court/Victims>  [Google Scholar], < www.icc-cpi.int/Menus/ICC/Structure+of+the+Court/Victims>). Indeed while concrete benefits of participation remain to be seen, victim participation in the ECCC's case offers promise for breaking new ground, setting international standards and establishing precedence for other ad hoc and hybrid tribunals as well as the permanent International Criminal Court.     

Validating TrueAllele® DNA mixture interpretation

Abstract: DNA mixtures with two or more contributors are a prevalent form of biological evidence. Mixture interpretation is complicated by the possibility of different genotype combinations that can explain the short tandem repeat (STR) data. Current human review simplifies this interpretation by applying thresholds to qualitatively treat STR data peaks as all‐or‐none events and assigning allele pairs equal likelihood. Computer review, however, can work instead with all the quantitative data to preserve more identification information. The present study examined the extent to which quantitative computer interpretation could elicit more identification information than human review from the same adjudicated two‐person mixture data. The base 10 logarithm of a DNA match statistic is a standard information measure that permits such a comparison. On eight mixtures having two unknown contributors, we found that quantitative computer interpretation gave an average information increase of 6.24 log units (min = 2.32, max = 10.49) over qualitative human review. On eight other mixtures with a known victim reference and one unknown contributor, quantitative interpretation averaged a 4.67 log factor increase (min = 1.00, max = 11.31) over qualitative review. This study provides a general treatment of DNA interpretation methods (including mixtures) that encompasses both quantitative and qualitative review. Validation methods are introduced that can assess the efficacy and reproducibility of any DNA interpretation method. An in‐depth case example highlights 10 reasons (at 10 different loci) why quantitative probability modeling preserves more identification information than qualitative threshold methods. The results validate TrueAllele^® DNA mixture interpretation and establish a significant information improvement over human review.     

Understanding juror perceptions of forensic evidence: investigating the impact of case context on perceptions of forensic evidence strength

The most widely accepted model of juror decision making acknowledges the importance of both the case-specific information presented in the courtroom, as well as the prior general knowledge and beliefs held by each juror. The studies presented in this paper investigated whether mock jurors could differentiate between evidence of varying strengths in the absence of case information and then followed on to determine the influence that case context (and therefore the story model) has on judgments made about the strength of forensic DNA evidence. The results illustrated that mock jurors correctly identified various strengths of evidence when it was not presented with case information; however, the perceived strength of evidence was significantly inflated when presented in the context of a criminal case, particularly when the evidence was of a weak or ambiguous standard. These findings are discussed in relation to the story model, and the potential implications for real juries.     

The Relationship Between Deprivation and Forensic Material Recovered from Stolen Vehicles: Is it Affected by Vehicle Condition and Tidiness?

Previous research has shown that as crime scene location deprivation increases (lower socioeconomic status), the recovery of forensic material, principally DNA and fingerprints, also increases. However, this increase does not result in more crimes being solved by forensic means. In this study, we analyze stolen vehicle data and find a statistically significant positive association between deprivation and the amount of forensic material that matched either the victim or an associate of the victim on a criminal database. The nature of this association was investigated further by inspecting recovered stolen vehicles to establish whether the condition of a stolen vehicle and the tidiness of its interior influenced the recovery of forensic material that was attributed to the victim or an associate. Contradictory results suggest that other factors may contribute to understanding the association between the recovery of victim- or associate-attributable forensic material and crime scene location deprivation.     

Multiplex short tandem repeat amplification of low template DNA samples with the addition of proofreading enzymes

Abstract:  With <100 pg of template DNA, routine short tandem repeat (STR) analysis often fails, resulting in no or partial profiles and increased stochastic effects. To overcome this, some have investigated preamplification methods that include the addition of proofreading enzymes to the PCR cocktail. This project sought to determine whether adding proofreading polymerases directly in the STR amplification mixture would improve the reaction when little template DNA is available. Platinum Taq High Fidelity and GeneAmp High Fidelity were tested in Profiler Plus? STR reactions alone and in combination with AmpliTaq^® Gold. All reactions included the additional step of a post‐PCR purification step. With both pristine low template DNA and casework samples, the addition of these polymerases resulted in comparable or no improvement in the STR amplification signal. Further, stochastic effects and artifacts were observed equally across all enzyme conditions. Based on these studies, the addition of these proofreading enzymes to a multiplex STR amplification is not recommended for low template DNA work.     

Predestination and Hierarchy: Vallabh��c��rya��s Discourse on the Distinctions Between Blessed, Rule-Bound, Worldly, and Wayward Souls (the Pu??iprav��hamary��d��bheda)

The Pu??iprav??hamary??d??bheda (PPM) by Vallabh??c??rya (1479?C1531?) is a brief work (25 verses) written in Sanskrit in about the year 1500, which is accompanied by four Sanskrit commentaries and one Hindi (Brajbh????) commentary. The most important and authoritative commentary is by Puru?ottama, written about two centuries after the original text. The article contains a translation of the PPM with long extracts from the commentaries, particularly the one composed by Puru?ottama. After an introduction placing the PPM??s doctrine of the hierarchy of embodied souls (j??vas) and their eligibility to obtain states of devotion (bhakti) in a wider context of Vai??ava sectarian and philosophical schools, the text is presented along with the translation and notes to the text (including extracts from the commentaries). The article concludes with reflections on the PPM??s doctrine of predestination, comparing it with those of other Indian religious sects and within the wider context of predestination in Western religions, where these discussions have been ongoing for more than 1500 years. An extensive bibliography is included at the end.