Evaluation of DNA Extraction Methods for Processing Fingerprint Powder-Coated Forensic Evidence

In unison, fingerprinting and DNA analysis have played a pivotal role in forensic investigations. Fingerprint powders that are available on the market can come in a range of colors and with specific properties. This study evaluated the efficiency of DNA extraction from samples coated with 3 brands of fingerprint powders: Lightning, Sirchie, and SupraNano, covering a range of colors and properties. A total of 23 fingerprint powders were tested using the Chelex, Promega DNA IQ™, and Applied Biosystems™ PrepFiler™ DNA extraction protocols. The DNA IQ™ and PrepFiler™ methods extracted higher yields of DNA in comparison to Chelex, which also accounted for better quality of PowerPlex x00AE; 21 DNA profiles recovered. There were no signs of degradation or inhibition in the quantification data, indicating that samples returning low DNA yield was due to interference during DNA extraction and not PCR inhibition. DNA profiles were recovered from the majority of fingerprint powders with only a single powder, Sirchie Magnetic Silver, failing to produce a profile using any of the methods tested. A link was observed between the DNA extraction chemistry, fingerprint powder property, that is, nonmagnetic, magnetic and aqueous, and the brand of fingerprint powder. Overall, the DNA IQ™ method was favorable for nonmagnetic fingerprint powders, while magnetic fingerprint powders produced more DNA profiles when extracted with the PrepFiler™ chemistry. This study highlights the importance of screening DNA extraction chemistries for the type of fingerprint powder used, as there is not a single DNA extraction method that suits all fingerprint powder brands and properties.     

Meeting peasants where they are: cultivating agroecological alternatives in neoliberal Guatemala

ABSTRACT

Social movements increasingly embrace agroecology as an integral part of food sovereignty. This essay has two related aims: first, to highlight the barriers to agroecology and explore how these can be overcome; second, to deepen understandings of how agroecology can strengthen movements for food sovereignty or extend neoliberal governance. I ground these questions by examining state and social movement agroecological programs in Guatemala. I argue that strict rejection of conventional inputs and market production, in addition to insufficient state investment and redistribution, creates barriers to participation among a rural peasantry whose livelihoods have been transformed by decades of scientific, market-led development. Facing these limits, agroecology can work to strengthen food sovereignty movements, but can also reinforce the neoliberal food regime by promoting resilience and indigenous agriculture as sufficient to resolve the food crisis.     

Age‐Dependent Fracture Characteristics of Rigid and Compliant Surface Impacts on the Infant Skull—A Porcine Model*,†

Abstract: This study documents skull fracture characteristics on infant porcine specimens under known impact conditions with respect to age and interface. A single impact causing fracture was conducted on the skull of porcine specimens aged 2–28 days (n = 76). Paired rigid and compliant impacts at the same energy were conducted at each specimen age. Impact force, impact duration, and fracture length were recorded. Energy required to initiate skull fracture increased with specimen age. For a given energy, impact of the skull with a compliant interface caused more fracture damage than with a rigid interface for specimens aged under 17 days, but less damage for specimens aged 24–28 days. The documentation of energy required to cause fracture and resulting fracture propagation with respect to impact interface and age may be of critical importance in forensic investigations of infant skull trauma.     

Towards a Model Public Sector Integrity Commission

This article examines the current debate in Australia about public sector integrity and the idea of a standing anticorruption commission. From this debate the article outlines a specific type of ‘public sector integrity commission’ that in principle should have the necessary powers and techniques at its disposal to minimise corruption while ensuring efficiency and fairness. The debate has been most active in jurisdictions that have not had an anticorruption commission – mainly in Victoria, South Australia and Tasmania – but debate about integrity commissions has occurred in all jurisdictions. The authors argue that anticorruption commissions are essential to ensure the integrity of the public sector and that a model commission should: cover all elements of the public sector; independently investigate serious and mid‐level complaints; have own motion powers to investigate any matter; have summary authority to apply administrative sanctions; make use of a range of investigative tools; not be tasked with combating major and organised crime; and be held accountable to citizens through a parliamentary committee and a parliamentary inspector.     

A Genetic Basis for Social Trust?

A propensity to believe that fellow citizens will not act against our interests in social and economic transactions has been identified as key to the effective functioning of democratic polities. Yet the causes of this type of ‘generalized’ or ‘social’ trust are far from clear. To date, researchers within the social and political sciences have focused almost exclusively on social-developmental and political/institutional features of individuals and societies as the primary causal influences. In this paper we investigate the intriguing possibility that social trust might have a genetic, as well as an environmental basis. We use data collected from samples of monozygotic and dizygotic twins to estimate the additive genetic, shared environmental, and non-shared environmental components of trust. Our results show that the majority of the variance in a multi-item trust scale is accounted for by an additive genetic factor. On the other hand, the environmental influences experienced in common by sibling pairs have no discernable effect; the only environmental influences appear to be those that are unique to the individual. Our findings problematise the widely held view that the development of social trust occurs through a process of familial socialization at an early stage of the life course.     

Research and development project selection in the public sector

This article argues for an innovative methodology to appraising (ex ante) longer-term strategic research and development (R&D) investments. This methodology reflects the inherent value of such R&D in terms of opening up opportunities (but not obligations) for investment in new technological areas with potentially substantial returns. Although corporate R&D managers and public administrators describe the merits of long-term research on these grounds, only recently has the qualitative argument been replaced by the foundations of a methodology capable of quantifying this inherent value of R&D. Such a methodology could also facilitate a transition toward the use of more appropriate discount rates other than the unvarying rates of traditional methodologies.     

Survival of the Fairest: Examining HUD Reviews of Assessments of Fair Housing

ABSTRACT

In 2015, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) issued the Affirmatively Furthering Fair Housing (AFFH) Rule, arguably the most significant federal effort in a generation to address place-based disparities in access to opportunity and to advance fair housing. In 2018, HUD suspended the rule, it said in part because of the resources it was expending to implement it and in part because of the large share of municipal plans that HUD determined had failed to meet the rule’s requirements. In this article, we present the first analysis of the fair housing plans that HUD did not accept, examining how municipalities failed to meet the rule's requirements, what those failures imply about advancing fair housing, and the extent to which HUD’s enforcement strategy was working before the suspension. Our analysis shows that HUD engaged in detailed reviews of municipalities’ Assessments of Fair Housing and provided constructive feedback. The most common issue with which municipalities struggled was setting realistic goals that would actually advance fair housing and creating measurable metrics and milestones to gauge progress. Several municipalities neglected to conduct thorough regional analyses or analyses of all relevant disparities in access to opportunity. Both shortcomings reflect broader challenges municipalities face in advancing fair housing, particularly in identifying strategies that address interconnected causes of disparities in access to opportunity and in building regional support to address those causes.     

Correction to: Crafting anti-corruption agencies’ bureaucratic reputation: an uphill battle

Crime, Law and Social Change - A Correction to this paper has been published: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10611-021-09948-z