Determination of the Chronological Order of a Laser Printing and Gel Pen Writing Without any Crossing Strokes

Laser printers and writing instruments are being exploited by the forgers to produce fabricated documents. They often produce such documents by appending genuine signature on a blank sheet and later printing on it. Often these fabricated documents do not contain intersection of strokes and may pose a difficulty to forensic document examiners in analyzing cases related to such documents. Keeping in mind the limited research work done on nonintersecting strokes, the present study has been conducted with an aim to determine the sequence of nonintersecting strokes of gel pens and laser printers. Three hundred samples of nonintersecting strokes of gel pen ink and laser printing were prepared. Of these 300, 150 had laser-printed text below the gel pen strokes and the remaining 150 were prepared with gel pen stokes below the laser-printed text. The samples have been analyzed using Nikon SMZ 800N stereomicroscope. Three micro-conformation features, that is, pattern of toner distribution, ink distribution, and fiber distribution have been observed in the samples. The results demonstrate the successful establishment of sequence of nonintersecting strokes in case of gel pen and laser-printed documents by the determination of micro-conformation features.     

Initial Study for the Determination of the Sequence of Intersecting Lines between Gel Pens and Seals by Optical Coherence Tomography*

Determining the sequence of intersecting lines is a significant issue in the forensic document examination that can reveal the fraud or distinguish between different allegations. Optical coherence tomography (OCT) is a high-resolution cross-sectional imaging technique that has been introduced into forensic science field recently. The potential of OCT as a novel method to determine the sequence of intersecting lines was examined for the first time. In this study, a spectral-domain OCT system with a center wavelength of 900 nm was employed to perform nondestructive examination on determining the sequence of 18 heterogeneous intersecting line samples produced using three types of gel pens and three brands of stamp pad ink seals. Two-dimensional (2D) cross-sectional, and three-dimensional (3D) volumetric images of the intersecting lines were obtained by the OCT system. Several features were noted and analyzed to successfully determine the sequence of all the 18 samples. Blind tests were also conducted to demonstrate the effectiveness of OCT technique. The results illustrate that OCT technology can provide an effective and accurate method for sequencing intersecting lines of gel pen ink and seal ink, which may complement the conventional methods used in the examination of questioned documents.     

Narrating a Global Crisis from Guayaquil in Real Time: Early Literary Responses to the COVID-19 Outbreak in Latin America

This article identifies and provides initial insight into the early literary responses to the COVID-19 outbreak in Latin America. It focuses on the case of Guayaquil, the epicentre of the pandemic in Ecuador, to examine how writers responded to the health emergency in real time by using online platforms. I argue that, while the virus was spreading, the death toll was rising, and the lockdown was at its most severe, a body of writing deeply engaged with the crisis was taking shape in digital outlets. Its study enables a uniquely contextual understanding of the global crisis from a Latin American perspective.     

There is No Debriefing Without Prior Briefing: Writing a Briefing Memo as a Preparatory Activity to Make the Most of the Pedagogical Potential of Simulations

Simulations are traditionally divided into three phases, namely preparation, interaction, and debriefing. This article argues that the first phase has been neglected. The preparation phase is indeed widely seen as necessary but merely instrumental to the interaction phase of simulations rather than as a self-contained activity that may also provide an opportunity to make the most of their pedagogical potential. This article explains how writing a briefing memo to prepare a simulation challenges this taken-for-granted view. After outlining the reasons why I asked the students of my Introduction to International Relations module to write a briefing memo about the conflict in South Sudan in preparation for a simulation of the negotiation of a peace agreement, the article explains how it can be used to generate a stimulating class discussion. It then emphasizes how the three phases of the simulation fruitfully complement each other and allow teachers to go beyond the instrumentalist conception of the preparatory phase. Finally, the conclusion reflects about the “portability” (Kollars and Rosen 2016 Kollars, Nina and Amanda Rosen. 2016. “Bootstrapping and Portability in Simulation Design.” International Studies Perspectives 17(2): 202–213.[Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]) of the briefing-negotiation-debriefing format outlined in this article.     

Teaching Students to Engage with Evidence: An Evaluation of Structured Writing and Classroom Discussion Strategies

In their transition to college, students often struggle to identify and make connections between the main arguments, evidence, and empirical findings of articles from academic journals commonly assigned on political science syllabi. Which active learning techniques are most effective for teaching students to recognize and evaluate social science evidence? To address this question, we conducted an experiment with students from two first-year writing seminars in political science. Students were randomly assigned to either an in-class writing activity or a group discussion, both of which required them to summarize an article’s use of evidence. We find limited evidence that group discussions are more effective for teaching students to engage with evidence.     

Women's rights in democratic transitions: A global sequence analysis, 1900–2012

What determines countries’ successful transition to democracy? This article explores the impact of granting civil rights in authoritarian regimes and especially the gendered aspect of this process. It argues that both men's and women's liberal rights are essential conditions for democratisation to take place: providing both women and men rights reduces an inequality that affects half of the population, thus increasing the costs of repression and enabling the formation of women's organising – historically important to spark protests in initial phases of democratisation. This argument is tested empirically using data that cover 173 countries over the years 1900–2012 and contain more nuanced measures than commonly used. Through novel sequence analysis methods, the results suggest that in order to gain electoral democracy a country first needs to furnish civil liberties to both women and men.     

词块教学法应用于大学英语写作教学的行动研究

区别于传统的教学模式,词块教学法在改善语言使用的连贯性、地道性、流畅性方面具有一定的优势.通过阶段性的课堂教学的行动研究,调查了解了学生的词块掌握能力;通过教学活动的不断调整和改进,试图寻找一种更有效的方法来提高学生的词块意识及其在写作中的词块运用能力.     

Unveiling the Forbidden: Same-sex Love as a Motif in Lydia Wahlström’s Writing

This article investigates how the historian and writer Lydia Wahlström (1869–1954) wrote about same-sex passions in a time when homosexuality was forbidden by law and tabooed in literature. There were of course also, during the first decades of the 1900s, many people who lived in same-sex relationships, some of them openly enough that this can still be discerned in the historical material. Lydia Wahlström was among them. She was active in the suffragist movement and one of its most prolific leaders, speakers, and writers. Wahlström was awarded a doctorate in history in 1898 and then became the director of studies at the Åhlinska School for girls in Stockholm. Alongside this, she wrote numerous articles and non-fiction books on a wide range of subjects as well as three romans-à-clef. In these novels, she wrote about the love that dared not speak its name, but she had to draw a veil over the forbidden motif in order to write about it. The interesting thing is that Wahlström did not mask the controversial motif more than that the observant contemporary reader could understand the underlying meaning in the novels and that it becomes even clearer to those who read her autobiography that was published many years later. This article deals with writing about same-sex love in a profoundly homophobic time.     

改造与成长:"十七年"知识分子题材小说的书写规约

在工农兵形象成为文坛主角的十七年文学语境中,知识分子题材小说为了获得合法的生存空间,建立了自己的书写规约———改造与成长的模式。书写规约建立的过程,也是知识分子题材小说获得资格认证、从而被准入的过程。但是,这一书写规约并没有使该题材小说免于被批判,因为,规约的表象之下蕴含着诸多难以解决的内在矛盾。     

猪带绦虫六钩蚴TSOL16基因的克隆与序列分析

利用RT-PCR技术,从猪带绦虫六钩蚴中成功地克隆了TSOL16基因。序列分析表明,猪带绦虫六钩蚴TSOL16基因的开放阅读框(ORF)为402 bp,编码134个氨基酸,与报道的T.ovisTO16基因同源性为95.9%,推导的氨基酸序列同源性为92.6%。同时利用生物信息学和分子生物学软件对TSOL16基因编码的蛋白进行结构预测。结果表明该蛋白为一结构松散的球状蛋白。