Bioinformatics Approach to Assess the Biogeographical Patterns of Soil Communities: The Utility for Soil Provenance,

Soil DNA profiling has potential as a forensic tool to establish a link between soil collected at a crime scene and soil recovered from a suspect. However, a quantitative measure is needed to investigate the spatial/temporal variability across multiple scales prior to their application in forensic science. In this study, soil DNA profiles across Miami‐Dade, FL, were generated using length heterogeneity PCR to target four taxa. The objectives of this study were to (i) assess the biogeographical patterns of soils to determine whether soil biota is spatially correlated with geographic location and (ii) evaluate five machine learning algorithms for their predictive ability to recognize biotic patterns which could accurately classify soils at different spatial scales regardless of seasonal collection. Results demonstrate that soil communities have unique patterns and are spatially autocorrelated. Bioinformatic algorithms could accurately classify soils across all scales with Random Forest significantly outperforming all other algorithms regardless of spatial level.     

福利的本质与公共福利的多元循义供给——兼论需求溢出理论的福利观及永续福利国家

在世界范围内,福利及社会福利的概念都存在多重内涵。需求溢出理论认为,作为不同福利概念内涵的最大公约数,福利的本质即需求保障;而属于公共事务范畴的公共福利的公共性则有实质公共性和形式公共性之分;公共福利的供给主体包括作为元主体的个人和作为衍生主体的四类广义社会组织,公共福利的供给呈现出多元路径或多元机制的嵌入式混合并用。需求溢出理论的福利观主张,我国应建立多元循义供给的永续福利国家,通过公共福利定向供给的退出机制使有劳者的福利总水平(私人福利+公共福利)始终高于不劳者的福利总水平,从而在为民众提供高品质的公共福利的同时,避免落入西方传统福利国家的养懒人陷阱。     

Crime Mapping and the Training Needs of Law Enforcement

This paper explores some of the more recent developments within crime mapping and the broader application of geographical information technology within law enforcement. The information technology (IT) revolution and the reduction in computing costs since the 1980s has brought a range of analytical tools within the budgets of most police services, and one of the most significant changes has been in the way that spatial data are handled. Law enforcement has strong geographic currents at all levels of the organisation, and this paper examines three applications of geographical information systems (GIS) within policing: hotspot mapping; CompStat; and geographic profiling. The paper concludes by discussing the future training needs using a simple model of intelligence-led crime reduction. This model suggests that training for managers to enable a greater understanding of the analyses presented to them, and how to use mapping to further crime prevention and reduction, may be as important as increasing the technical ability of crime analysts. The challenge for the immediate future of crime reduction practice in law enforcement is less to worry about the training of analysts, and more to address the inability of law enforcement management to understand and act on the crime analysis they are given.     

Impurities,adulterants and cutting agents in cocaine as potential candidates for retrospective mining of GC-MS data

Cocaine is one of the most widely used illicit drugs worldwide. Cocaine powders seized by the Police may contain numerous other substances besides the drug itself. These can be impurities originating from the coca plant or the production process, or be purposely added to the drug formulation as adulterants and cutting agents. In forensic laboratories, identification of cocaine is routinely done through GC-MS analysis, but other components are often ignored even if the method allows for their detection. Yet, they can provide valuable insight into the history of a seizure and its potential connection to other samples. To explore this idea, an extensive review of common impurities and adulterants encountered in cocaine is presented. Based on their incidence, concentration in the end product and compatibility with GC-MS methods, their overall usefulness as candidates for the statistical investigation of existing forensic data is evaluated. The impurities cis- and trans-cinnamoylcocaine, tropacocaine, norcocaine and N-benzoylnormethylecgonine as well as the adulterants lidocaine, procaine, tetracaine, benzocaine, caffeine, acetylsalicylic acid, phenacetin, ibuprofen, levamisole, hydroxyzine and diltiazem are promising candidates to provide additional forensic intelligence. Future research on optimized routine GC-MS methods, signal reproducibility, comparison, statistics and databases is suggested to facilitate this concept. Ultimately, such an approach may significantly advance the amount of information that is extracted from routine casework data, elucidate developments in the cocaine markets in the past and facilitate Police work in the future. Preliminary assessment of existing data from the forensic laboratory of the Amsterdam Police has been included to show that the detection of the identified target impurities is feasible, and that small adjustments to the analysis method could significantly increase the detectability of these analytes in prospective drug screenings. Forensic intelligence based on retrospective data mining of cocaine containing casework samples may thus be realized with minimal additional laboratory efforts by using already available instrumentation, samples and data.     

流体隐喻思维的日汉对比研究

隐喻是人类认识、加工客观世界的一种基本模式。通过隐喻的跨语言对比研究能揭示出不同语言理解事物时不同的思维方式。以日语「流れ/流れる」的用法为例,从隐喻广度和隐喻深度两个维度,研究、透视日语和汉语在名词概念化方式上的差异,会发现:虽然汉语也能够通过流体思维对时间等名词进行表征,但在日语里这种思维模式是一种基本认知模式,因此,日语对政治故事比赛沉默等抽象名词的理解均建基于流体隐喻思维。通过跨语言对比不难发现,借助流体隐喻思维对外部事物进行理解是日语的一大显著特征。     

Utility validation of extraction of genomic DNA from hard tissues, bone and nail, using PrepFiler™ Forensic DNA Extraction Kit

STR profiling using hard tissues obtained from a severely decomposed body is sometimes a laborious work. There is now on a market a new DNA extraction kit, PrepFiler™ Forensic DNA Extraction Kit (AppliedBiosystems), and we tested it for missing persons. Postmortem intervals ranged from weeks to several years. Fifteen bone fragments and eleven nails were used in this report. Genomic DNA was quantified by QuantiFiler^® DUO Quantification Kit (AppliedBiosystems), and STRs were analyzed using AmpFlSTR^® Identifiler^® PCR Amplification Kit (AppliedBiosystems). The profiling of 16 STR loci was successful in all nail samples. However, STR profiling was successful in only 6 of 15 bone materials. Nine cases failed to analyze STR polymorphisms using another DNA extraction kit, the QIAamp DNA Mini Kit (QIAGEN). For bone samples, it seems that STR profiling depends on the quality of samples.     

Chemical profiling of heroin recovered from the North Korean merchant vessel Pong Su

Heroin samples, seized from the North Korean merchant vessel Pong Su in Australian waters, were analyzed to determine geographic origin. Duplicate samples were analyzed by the National Measurement Institute's Australian Forensic Drug Laboratory and the United States Drug Enforcement Administration's Special Testing and Research Laboratory. Alkaloid ratios were determined by both liquid chromatography-diode array detection (LC-DAD) and capillary electrophoresis-diode array detection (CE-DAD) techniques. Acid/neutral manufacturing by-products were determined by solvent extraction followed by gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS). Solvents, trapped in the heroin particles during manufacture, were detected by both static headspace GC-MS and purge and trap GC-MS. The alkaloid ratios obtained were consistent with heroin of a Southeast Asian (SEA) origin and principal component analysis of the alkaloid results demonstrated the presence of at least four subgroupings within the seizure. The solvent analysis detected diethyl ether and ethyl acetate, solvents typically seen in SEA heroin. However, the acid/neutral analysis revealed compounds not normally seen in heroin of a SEA origin. Furthermore, sterol-like molecules, always detected in the acid/neutral analysis of SEA heroin, were absent from the Pong Su samples. The Pong Su heroin, although similar to SEA heroin, has sufficient differences to classify it as having an unknown origin at the time of this writing.     

国外犯罪地理画像简介

犯罪地理画像是一种犯罪调查方法系统,它通过利用犯罪地和犯罪人基地之间的联系,以发现犯罪人最有可能的基地所在。国外犯罪地理画像的研究和应用已有较长时间,并有较大发展,其理论依据是环境犯罪学、坎特理论和犯罪的地理惯技。我国公安侦查工作可在应用范围、应用方法和步骤等方面借鉴国外的犯罪地理画像方式。     

DRIVING WHILE BLACK: BIAS PROCESSES AND RACIAL DISPARITY IN POLICE STOPS*

We estimate the degree of racial disparity in police vehicular stops separately for local and state police in North Carolina in the year 2000. We introduce four mechanisms that might produce racial disparities in police stops—racial profiling, race sensitive police deployment, cognitive bias and stereotyping, and prejudice. We then model the relative odds of police vehicle stops as a function of race, driving behavior, and other demographic statuses separately by police organization type, with controls for omitted variable bias at both the driver and spatial level. We find only weak evidence of racial disparity in stops by officers of the state highway patrol but stronger evidence in those made by local police officers.