Trace analysis of urea nitrate in post-blast debris by GC/MS

Urea nitrate (uronium nitrate, UN) is an improvised explosive that looks very much like sugar and is easily made from accessible starting materials, urea and nitric acid. During the last decade it has been frequently used by terrorists in the Israeli arena and in other countries as well. It is difficult to identify urea nitrate in post-explosion debris, since only a very small fraction survives the blast. Also, in the presence of water, it readily decomposes to its original components, urea and nitric acid, two ubiquitous substances with relatively low evidential value. By further modifying McCord's recent version of Clark's method for the detection of minute amounts of urea, we were able to identify with high degree of certainty traces of uronium ion, the main characteristic factor of urea nitrate, in post-blast residues by GC/MS. The analytical process is based on the initial formation of xanthenyl urea by the reaction of uronium cation with xanthydrol, followed by reaction with alcohol to form xanthylurethane, which is readily identified by GC/MS. The reaction mechanism was corroborated by the use of labeled ¹⁵N-urea. By applying the technique to residues collected from scenes of controlled firing experiments, 4 out of 16 samples showed the presence of uronium cation as indicated by the formation of the corresponding xanthylurethane. Potential interferences such as urea and ammonium nitrate did not respond under standard conditions. However, under strongly acidic conditions (pH < 2), urea is converted into uronium ion, which is a nuisance, since it behaves as an authentic uronium cation. Such conditions, however, do not prevail at common crime scenes.     

The Process Matters: Fairness in Repository Siting For Nuclear Waste

Siting contested infrastructure such as repositories for nuclear waste very often faces strong local resistance. One major reason for this opposition may arise because siting processes do not appropriately consider fairness issues such as transparency, the availability of options, or the sufficient involvement of concerned and affected people. The aim of this study was to analyze people’s concerns related to justice in siting nuclear waste. Besides procedural aspects, both distributive justice and outcome valence are considered important and therefore the “total fairness model” by T?rnblom and Vermunt (Soc Justice Res 12:39–64, 1999) was used as a framework. In three quasi-experimental studies (N ₁ = 53; N ₂ = 56; N ₃ = 83) applying conjoint analysis, respondents ranked 11 vignettes with the three attributes procedural justice, distributional justice, and outcome valence. Each vignette represents a realistic scenario of a site selection process for the disposal of nuclear waste in Switzerland. All the three studies yield a consistent result: vignettes representing a situation with a fair process are top-ranked by respondents; situations with negative outcome valence are ranked lowest; distributive issues turned out to be of minor importance. We conclude that procedural fairness should be given more attention in any kind of contested infrastructure siting and that real-world examples like the one discussed here can inform justice research.     

Structural weaknesses and the role of the dominant political party: democratic backsliding in Croatia since EU accession

ABSTRACT

Croatia is regarded as a success story of the EU’s enlargement policy. However, this narrative conflicts with the situation on the ground and with expert surveys, which depict incremental, yet persistent democratic backsliding in recent years. A shift towards illiberal practices, primarily focused on the liberal part of the liberal-democratic nexus, is taking place. This research aims to explore the prevalence and causes for the re-emergence of illiberal practices in Croatia by employing an interpretive method to evidence gathered from media articles and research reports published 2013–2019. The use of illiberal policies by the governing Croatian Democratic Union (HDZ) in three areas of the political system – the capture of independent agencies, control of the judiciary, and the weakening of independent media – is found to be the driver of democratic backsliding. Causes are found in structural reasons linked to the dominant party. Without either internal power-sharing constraints or external EU conditionality pressure, the HDZ has been able to take advantage of structural weaknesses of the system it built and shaped during the 1990s.     

Distance travelled and offence characteristics in homicide,rape, and robbery against business

Purpose. We aimed (1) to describe distances from home to offence locations (journey‐to‐crime) of offenders in difficult‐to‐solve homicides and rapes as well as robberies against businesses; (2) to see whether the distances in these offences differ from each other; and (3) to test whether selected features related to the offence would be associated with the distances. Methods. Lists of difficult‐to‐solve (DTS) homicides (N = 99) and rapes (N = 56) as well as robberies against businesses (N = 275) from the city of Milan (Italy) were acquired. The collected data consisted of home and offence location coordinates with information on the behaviour of the offenders (for rapes and homicides). The journey‐to‐crime functions were calibrated using the journey‐to‐crime module of CrimeStatIII©. Results. Most distances were short. In homicides, distances were below 1 km, in rapes below 2 km whereas in robberies against businesses almost 6 km. Some crime features were correlated with the distances in rape and homicide cases. Combining the behavioural information to a spatial behaviour measure allowed for better prediction of travelled distances compared to using single variables. Conclusions. The results have practical implications for crime investigations as the crime features explored were, as a rule, such that they would be known by the police prior to the offender being identified. A general theoretical framework for binding together journey‐to‐crime distances and offender crime scene behaviour and other important crime features is needed.     

Y-chromosome STR haplotype diversity in Brazilian populations

A sample of 198 unrelated males distributed among the five geopolitical regions in Brazil were typed for the minimal Y-STR haplotype composed of microsatellite loci DYS19, DYS385I/II, DYS389I, DYS389II, DYS390, DYS391, DYS392 and DYS393. Gene frequency data, gene diversity, haplotype diversity and power of discrimination were estimated. An AMOVA indicated that 99.97% of the haplotypic variation is found within regions and only a small 0.03% and non significant variation is found among the five regions (Fst=0.00031, P-value=0.43). This result suggests that a single national database of Y-STR haplotypes can be used in the quantitative assessment of matches in forensic casework in the Brazilian population. A significant haplotype diversity of 99.8% was found and 172 different haplotypes were observed in 198 chromosomes. Haplotype (14-11, 14-13-29-24-11-13-13) with five occurrences in 198 chromosomes was the most frequent in Brazil.