Analytical Characterization of Erythritol Tetranitrate,an Improvised Explosive

Erythritol tetranitrate (ETN), an ester of nitric acid and erythritol, is a solid crystalline explosive with high explosive performance. Although it has never been used in any industrial or military application, it has become one of the most prepared and misused improvise explosives. In this study, several analytical techniques were explored to facilitate analysis in forensic laboratories. FTIR and Raman spectrometry measurements expand existing data and bring more detailed assignment of bands through the parallel study of erythritol [¹⁵N₄] tetranitrate. In the case of powder diffraction, recently published data were verified, and ¹H, ¹³C, and ¹⁵N NMR spectra are discussed in detail. The technique of electrospray ionization tandem mass spectrometry was successfully used for the analysis of ETN. Described methods allow fast, versatile, and reliable detection or analysis of samples containing erythritol tetranitrate in forensic laboratories.     

Suicidal Nitrogen Inhalation by use of Scuba Full‐Face Diving Mask

A 29‐year‐old man was found dead lying on the bed in a hotel room in a famous Slovak mountain resort. He had a full‐face diving mask on his face, connected through a diving breath regulator to a valve of an industrial (nondiving) high‐pressure tank containing pure 100% nitrogen. The breath regulator (open‐circuit type) used allowed inhalation of nitrogen without addition of open air, and the full‐face diving mask assured aspiration of the gas even during the time of unconsciousness. At autopsy, we found the typical signs of suffocation. Toxicological analysis revealed 94.7% content of nitrogen in alveolar air. Following the completion of the police investigation, the manner of death was classified as a suicide. Within the medico‐legal literature, there has been only one similar case of suicidal nitrogen inhalation described (1).     

Understanding Open Data Policy: Evidence from Bulgaria

This paper provides an overview of Bulgaria’s policy on open data by using the framework of a novel Open Data stage model, showing that the country is still at the first stage of opening data. We also present a detailed overview of the data landscape of the public sector in the country and outline the first milestones and successes in its efforts to publish some of that data for reuse. A complete data audit reveals persistent technological and cultural barriers to publishing public sector information but also outlines the potential of doing so. The paper summarizes the limited knowledge about the actual benefits of open data and proposes moving beyond anecdotal evidence and usage metrics toward a more complete impact evaluation.     

Trading Refugees: The Governance of Refugee Settlement in a Decentralized Welfare State

In a decentralized welfare state, central and local governments need each other to settle refugees. Using the case of Norway, the article studies how these interdependencies have been governed over time, including through the 2015–2016 refugee crisis. Norway's refugee settlement programme is a conscious hybrid of market and network governance and it has remained essentially stable for more than 20 years, despite several changes in government, large fluctuations in the number of refugees, and long periods of poor performance vis-à-vis settlement targets. This surprising programme stability is explained by a combination of extraordinary political adherence to the democratic value of local government autonomy, the cupidity of local governments, and abundant state economic resources during the period under study.     

Prevalence of co-occurring disorders among juveniles committed to detention centers

The Practical Adolescent Diagnostic Interview (PADDI), a structured diagnostic interview designed to gather basic information about substance use disorders, mental health conditions, and related experiences, was used in routine evaluation of all adolescents committed to two juvenile detention centers. Anonymous data from 252 consecutively admitted adolescents were analyzed to assess the prevalence and severity of problem areas and to provide a preliminary exploration of interrelationships among those problems. Results demonstrated that a majority of adolescents manifested multiple problems. Whereas prevalence rates were high across gender, females displayed significantly greater mental health problems and maltreatment histories.     

‘Legal Critique’: Elements for a Genealogy

While teachers and students of law tend to take for granted that critical legal campaigning originates in the late 20th century, many historians suggest that the summons of law and its state of accusation before the tribunal of critique dates back to the days of the Enlightenment. I am arguing, in contrast, that, in the West, the history of legal critique is by no means shorter than the history of law; that Western legal evolution embraces and supposes anti-legalism or ‘antinomianism’ since the days of early Christianity and throughout; that, conversely, an adequate assessment of Christianity must stress its character as an anti-institutional, anti-legal, and anti-religious campaign; that the standard view of Humanism, Enlightenment, and Modernity, which tends to foreground their antagonism to Christian institutions and to deny their nature as instantiations of the Christian campaign, misses the crucial point both about them and about Christianity (and, implicitly at least, about geopolitics); that key concepts of political modernity thrust their roots, not only and not most importantly into Political Theology, but rather into Saint Paul’s legal ‘new deal’; that, far from giving rise, as intended, to a deactivation of law, Paul’s action has resulted, instead, in the interlinking build-up of a militant denial of law on the one hand, and an emerging intensification of law on the other hand. Let the reader be warned that the article strings together a bouquet of snap-shots from a work in progress.     

Criminal profiles of violent juvenile sex and violent juvenile non sex offenders: an explorative longitudinal study

Few studies have longitudinally investigated the criminal profiles of violent juvenile sex and violent juvenile non-sex offenders. To make up for this lack, this study used police records of juveniles to determine the nature of the criminal profiles of violent sex offenders (n = 226) and violent non-sex offenders (n = 4,130). All offenders committed their first offense in 1996 and were followed for 7 years. Results showed that violent sex offenders and violent non-sex offenders cannot be considered a homogeneous group because of different background characteristics and criminal profiles. Sex and violent offenses often constitute a small part of a broader criminal pattern. Further research is necessary to reveal in more detail the developmental and criminological patterns of violent and sexual delinquency. Treatment and intervention programs may benefit from this.