Application of the Electrical Network Frequency (ENF) Criterion. A case of a digital recording

One of the new methods of investigating the authenticity of evidential digital audio recordings uses the Electrical Network Frequency (ENF) Criterion. It is based on analysing the signal corresponding to the fundamental frequency of the current in the electrical network, which is present in a recording and comparing it with appropriate, reliable reference. Studies carried out at the Institute of Forensic Research in Cracow were aimed at validating this method, that is, assessing its usefulness in forensic examinations of evidential digital recordings in Poland. These studies enabled us to develop and implement a procedure for using the ENF Criterion method to assess the integrity of digital recordings and to establish when these recordings were made.     

Postmortem urine immunoassay showing false-positive phencyclidine reactivity in a case of fatal tramadol overdose

This is a report of postmortem false-positive reactivity using an enzyme-multiplied urine phencyclidine (PCP) immunoassay (EMIT II+) due to a single-agent fatal tramadol overdose. An autopsy of a 42-year-old male who died alone at home revealed no identifiable lethal anatomic abnormalities, thus leading to toxicologic analysis. Femoral blood was obtained for drug testing by high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) and showed a tramadol level of 14.0 mg/L, 2 orders of magnitude greater than the therapeutic range (0.1 to 0.3 mg/L). Urine was also obtained and EMIT II+ immunoassay revealed positivity for PCP at 88 mAU/min. However, confirmatory testing by HPLC failed to identify PCP in either the urine or serum. To verify the suspicion that this was a false-positive PCP result, stock solutions of tramadol and its major metabolite (O-desmethyltramadol) at concentrations of 100 mg/L in 10% methanol/H2O were compared with a blank solution (10% methanol/H2O) for EMIT II+ PCP reactivity and demonstrated reactivities of 44 mAU/min and 27 mAU/min, respectively. While these individual results were below the cutoff reactivity for a positive EMIT II+ PCP result (ca. 85 mAU/min), they were much more reactive than the blank calibrator (set at 0 mAU/min). Therefore, we conclude that the immunoreactivity of tramadol and its metabolites in aggregate is responsible for the PCP immunoassay interference and false-positive result.     

Passing it on: should health care professionals be permitted to disclose patients' genetic information to their reproductive partners?

This article considers whether Australian law should permit health care professionals to disclose patients' genetic information to their reproductive partners without the patients' consent. The issue is addressed with reference to four genetic disorders (Huntington Disease, Familial Adenomatous Polyposis, Multiple Endocrine Neoplasia Type 2A and Cystic Fibrosis) which illustrate differences in inheritance traits and availability of effective treatments. The article explores the familial nature of these disorders and the notion that genetic information has implications which extend beyond the individual patient to third parties such as reproductive partners. It addresses the opinions of legal academics and regulatory bodies regarding the potential amendment of Australian laws to permit such disclosure. Ultimately, it is submitted that the application of current laws regarding medical information to the needs of genetics is unlikely to generate adequate results. To allow for a more appropriate response to this debate, health care professionals' duties to patients should be qualified when it concerns reproductive partners.     

Privatizing the Police-State: The Case of Poland

Netherlands International Law Review -     

Constituting Liberty,Healing the Nation: revolutionary identity creation in the Arab world's delayed 1989

The amazing scenes that were beamed from Cairo's Tahrir Square in January and February 2011 conveyed an important revelation about the ingenuity and resourcefulness of the human spirit. In particular, they highlighted the miraculous power of joint public action not only to carve out spaces for freedom, but to forge a new shared identity which is indispensable for the establishment of a durable democratic order. No less significant, however, is that revolutionary action by pro-democracy insurgents has provided concrete answers to many puzzles that had exercised democracy theorists and Middle East experts for decades. By showing how such action can overcome the divisions and obstacles theorists have seen as an impediment to democratisation, the preoccupation with ‘prerequisites’ for democracy has been revealed as a diversion. From the American Revolution to Tahrir Square, pro-democracy revolutionary action has the power not just to overthrow tyranny, but also to refashion the nation, starting with the revolutionaries themselves. It can also ‘overthrow’ theory.     

Further insights into the construct of criminal social identity: validation of a revised measure in a prison population

The current study objective was to develop a revised version of the Measure of Criminal Social Identity (MCSI) with an increased number of indicators to more reliably capture three MCSI dimensions. Dimensionality and construct validity of the Measure of Criminal Social Identity – Revised (MCSI-R) was examined among a sample of systematically selected inmates (N = 2192). Four competing models of the MCSI-R were specified and tested using Mplus with weighted least squares with mean and variance adjustment estimation. Bifactor model with three meaningful factors (cognitive centrality, in-group affect and in-group ties) while controlling for the general factor was the best fit for the data. Good composite reliability of the three MCSI-R dimensions was established. The three subscales of the MCSI-R evidence differential predictive utility for prisonization, number of incarcerations, self-esteem and violent offending. Practical implications and directions for future research are discussed.     

How can “Katowice as European City of Science” change Silesia region: Recognising perspectives of private companies

The study analyses, the perception of the European City of Science (ECS) initiative planned event in Katowice in the context of the city and region's development in the eyes of private companies. It has been argued that this honour may change the city's prestige and become the source of the city and the region's development, not only through building the city's recognisable brand but also its social capital. Using focus research as a method enables not only to collect empirical data but can also be treated as a form of public participation. The study results contribute to the growing body of literature on public engagement and co-creation as well as place branding. The study's findings show the companies' expectations concerning the role of universities and their participation in the region's development. They were the foundation for preparing a set of suggestions for local governments to successfully implement the ECS initiative. This paper is the first to examine the process of preparing a city to become an ECS, as demonstrated through the case study of Katowice.     

Tell Me Who Is Your Leader,and I Will Tell You Who You Are: Foreign Leaders’ Perceived Personality and Public Attitudes toward Their Countries and Citizenry

The increasing visibility of prominent political leaders in news media is well documented in political science literature. The main concern that has been raised in this connection is that the complexity of political processes is being reduced to achievements and standpoints of individual politicians, and the importance of rational opinion building is discounted. The results of the current study provide the first empirical evidence to account for the misgivings about emotional effects of personalized political information on media audiences. Using data from an online experiment, this study shows that news coverage regarding behaviors and personal characteristics of a foreign leader influences (a) evaluations of personal characteristics typical of his or her nation's citizens and (b) emotional perceptions of that leader's country (sentiment and respect). This effect is shown to reflect a psychological phenomenon whereby people project their emotions and perceptions regarding a leader's personal characteristics onto his or her country and people.     

other mothers: encountering in/visible femininities in migration and urban contexts

Whereas much has been written about migrants’ visibility, the multiple and complex layers of migrants’ invisibility invite further exploration. Migrants’ in/visibility is not clear-cut: it differs across various locations and, as such, demands a comparative, intersectional analysis. This paper seeks to explore it by investigating how recent migrants make sense of their own appearance, as well as those of others they encounter in their new places of residence. Specifically, I inquire into the notion of femininity as it is performed and perceived by Polish migrant mothers living in German and British cities. I discuss whose performances of femininity are visible and whose femininity is rendered invisible in the eyes of my research participants, and what implications this may carry for urban and migration research. Strikingly, the women I interviewed only seem to recognise white British and German women’s performances of femininity for what they are. Non-white and Muslim femininities remain, at best, invisible or, in the not infrequent cases of racism and Islamophobia, are stripped not only of their unique gendered features, but of humanity altogether. As seemingly peaceful interactions in urban space do not exclude privately harboured racial, ethnic, religious and class prejudice, a feminist revision of encounters with diversity provides valuable insight into the structure of such metropolitan paradoxes, yielding new understandings of how racism, classism and sexism persist alongside ostensibly inclusive urban cultures.