Visualizing the invisible hands: the shadow economy in North Korea

Abstract

The outside world is well aware of the totalitarian side of North Korea. Much less well-known is the shadow economy of the country which has enveloped the everyday lives of ordinary North Koreans for the last fifteen years or so. Based on refugee testimonies, this article aims to shed light on this heretofore unexamined aspect of the country, by visualizing the invisible hands of the ever-growing shadow economy in North Korea. In particular, we will investigate who the main actors are (the agency question), how they obtain their items (the supply mechanism), how they move items from one place to another (the distribution mechanism) and who consumes these items (the consumer question) in contemporary North Korean society.     

Lifting Bloody Footwear Impressions Using Alginate Casts Followed by Chemical Enhancement

A method for lifting bloody footwear impressions using alginate casts and enhancing the lifted impressions with amido black is presented. On rough or dark substrates, background interferences may conceal significant details of footwear impressions. Illumination with alternative light sources and chemically enhancing the bloody footwear impressions may reveal additional details, but sometimes, lifting footwear impressions prior to enhancing is the only way to expose hidden details (by using blood reagents not adequate on the original). Several cast formulations were tested for lifting the footwear impressions. The best results were achieved using Aroma fine^®. Enhancement of the footwear impressions was attempted with several reagents prior to lifting, during the casting process, and on the lifted footwear impressions. Applying amido black to footwear impressions lifted with alginate produced the sharpest and most detailed footwear impressions. Alginate castings followed by chemical enhancement with amido black may produce high‐quality footwear impressions for comparison.     

“三鹿奶粉”系列案定性探疑

"三鹿奶粉"系列案涉及的、含有三聚氰胺的所谓"蛋白粉"是有害物质而不是有毒物质,添加者故意将其添加到原牛奶中并卖给"三鹿集团"的行为,在性质上属于生产、销售有害食品。制造并销售"蛋白粉"的行为不应当如法院判决的那样构成以危险方法危害公共安全罪,而应当与添加者的行为构成生产、销售有害食品罪的"连锁共犯"。"三鹿集团"的行为,应当以2008年8月1日检测报告出具明确结论为界分为两个阶段:在前一阶段,其直接负责的主管人员构成重大责任事故罪,在后一阶段,"三鹿集团"的行为在性质上属于生产、销售有害食品,与生产销售伪劣产品罪存在法条竞合;根据《刑法》第149条关于择一重罪处罚的规定,应按第140条的规定构成生产、销售伪劣产品罪;对"三鹿集团"直接负责的主管人员两个阶段的罪行应当数罪并罚。     

纳米粉末显现水果和蔬菜表面手印

目的研究纳米粉末显现水果和蔬菜表面的手印。方法纳米Fe3O4粉末的显现方法同常规磁性粉末;纳米ZnO粉末则是撒粉于可疑表面,然后用吸耳球轻轻吹掉多余的粉末直到手印显出,利用多波段光源,在紫外一可见光范围内拍照;并与松花粉显现法比较。结果纳米Fe3O4粉末可以清晰显现4种检材表面的手印;纳米ZnO粉末可显现除土豆之外的3种检材表面的手印,尤其显现西红柿表面手印的效果最好;与松花粉相比,纳米粉末显现的手印纹线流畅、细腻,细节特征清晰。结论利用纳米粉末可以有效显现水果蔬菜表面的手印,显出的纹线在紫外－可见光范围内拍照均可以得到反差较大的影像。     

Simulating transfer and persistence of a chemical marker powder for Lycopodium clavatum spores

In this research a chemical marker powder, based on Lycopodium clavatum spores, was studied to determine its transfer and persistence on a T-shirt. Such chemical marker powders are used to provide evidence that a person has handled a covertly marked object, such as a drug package. The powder was found to transfer readily between a marked item and the person handling it. The powder was found to persist on a T-shirt for up to 13 h; however, there was only a very small amount of powder remaining at this time. The rate of loss of the L. clavatum spores was found to follow a decay curve. The largest decrease in spores from the T-shirt was seen in the first 2 h after the marked item had been handled.     

食品安全与国家安全

近年来连续不断地发生食品安全事件,伤害了消费者的身心健康,影响了中国产品的出口贸易,丑化了中国产品的国际形象,在一定程度上威胁了我国的国家安全.从国家安全的角度来分析食品安全问题,预防和减少食品安全事件的发生,就要加强国家间交流,积极建立合作平台;对内提升食品安全意识,对外改善食品国际形象;建立国家食品安全体系,加强政府监管,提高我国的食品质量,从而更有效地维护国家安全.     

In the Line of Fire—21st-Century Approach to an Ancient War Injury

Abstract:  Authentic black-powder muzzle-loader weapons or replicas are used today primarily for re-enactments of historic battles. A lay actor playing the role of a Prussian infantryman sustained life-threatening gunshot injuries during a recent re-enactment of a historic battle of the Sixth Coalition. As only blank historic muzzle-loading weaponry was used, the origin of the missile causing the wounding was initially unclear. Further investigation revealed a ramrod that had been propelled out of the barrel of another gunner's smooth-bore gun as cause of injury. The ramrod was hurled on a trajectory of more than 20 m, breaking the victim's shouldered barrel and hitting the victim resulting in severe abdominal, thoracic, and upper limb injuries. The critical incidents while handling muzzle-loading weaponry leading to premature discharge are elucidated. Furthermore, this report demonstrates how actual diagnostics and subsequent surgical treatment enabled this infantryman to survive an injury to which his comrades-in-arms would have succumbed 200 years ago.     

交通事故黑点的鉴别方法集成创新

交通事故黑点的有效鉴别可以显著降低交通事故的发生率与损失后果。黑点鉴别方法不仅要求鉴别出道路交通事故发生的显著点（段）,还需要对其诱因作具体分析,然后在界定了道路某段（点）交通事故的高发生率的基础上,针对此点采用多指标的综合评价的方法,运用多种技术,实现黑点鉴别理论的集成创新。     

Souls intact: The soul performances of Audre Lorde,Aretha Franklin,and Nina Simone

This article redefines and regenders the meaning of soul in black expressive culture. The author argues that by the late 1960s the term encodes a narrative whereby racialized struggle yields a culturally superior style, and it shows how black women artists use literary and musical techniques to perform this recuperative alchemy. Reading Audre Lorde’s 1982 biomythography Zami as a paradigmatic soul text, the author contends that this text invites us to deprioritize concerns about the commodification of soul and to show instead how precisely black women artists such as Lorde, Nina Simone, and Aretha Franklin draw energy from the movement of the spiritual into the secular to create virtuosic, inclusive, and transformative forms of survivorship; the article suggests that they do so by weaving many genres together to create a home out of no home in the body, on the page, and on the stage. This analysis challenges interpretations of soul that privilege its marketization and appropriation and that reproduce a masculinist, heteronormative account, either as “fact,” in histories of popular music, or as the grounds for critique, in recent scholarship on “post-soul aesthetics.”     

TDS-GC/MS法检测黑色中性笔墨迹中挥发性溶剂的历时性变化

目的 应用热脱附-气相色谱/质谱(TDS-GC/MS)分析,研究7支黑色中性笔墨迹中挥发性溶剂的历时性变化规律.方法 选取7支不同品牌的黑色中性笔,分别在A4纸和笔记本上进行一次制样,然后在不同时间点取样,应用所建TDS-GC/MS方法分析墨迹中乙二醇、二甘醇和三甘醇在200余天内的含量变化.结果 6支笔中的乙二醇、三...