The individuality of fibres used to provide forensic evidence--not all blue polyesters are the same.

Fibres used in forensic casework suffer from a disadvantage common to other forms of trace evidence--it is not possible to state with absolute certainty that they originate from a specific source. Target fibre studies, population studies and research on 'blocks of colour' have effectively demonstrated the polymorphism of textile fibres (particularly man-made ones) and have shown that when a fibre is believed to have a specific putative source, the chance that it has originated from a different source purely by coincidence is extremely remote. A study by Houck MM (Houck MM, Inter-comparison of unrelated fibre evidence. Forensic Science International 2003; 135: 146-149) has shown that no coincidental matching fibres were recovered from items of clothing examined in 20 unrelated crimes. The study involved over two million comparisons. This work goes a step further, and using the example of blue polyester fibres shows that even within a very narrow segment of the whole general fibre population, many examples of a specific colour/type of man-made fibre taken from random sources can be compared and the chance of any two being the same is very low. These studies should help to show the specificity and value of transferred fibres in providing forensic evidence.     

Strengthening Green Global Governance in a Disparate World SocietyWould a World Environment Organisation Benefit the South?

The debate on the advantages and disadvantages of upgrading the United Nations Environment Programme to a 'world environment organisation' (WEO) has gained momentum in both academe and politics. This article contends that a WEO would further the interests especially of developing countries, because it would provide them, first, a high-level forum to unite their individual bargaining power against the major industrialised countries. Second, a WEO would assist Southern efforts to garner international support for environmental programmes in regions and sectors that are increasingly bypassed by economic globalisation. Third, a WEO would create a locus to politically institutionalise the influence of non-governmental lobbyists in a way that increases the balance of opinions and perspectives. The article then addresses special challenges and caveats for developing countries in the upcoming negotiation process, in particular whether an upgraded UNEP would address only 'global' issues, thus absolving the international community from assisting developing countries in mitigating the more pressing local environmental issues in the South; whether the new body would have powerful sanctioning mechanisms, which might disproportionally affect developing countries; and what decision-making procedures the new body would have.     

Blocks of colour IV: the evidential value of blue and red cotton fibres.

Samples of blue and red cotton fibres were examined using light and fluorescence microscopy as well as UV/VIS microspectrophotometry and fluorescence microspectroscopy. The degree of fluorescence and spectral variation was recorded. Particular attention was paid to the recurrence of certain spectral patterns. The importance of spectral information in the UV range is emphasized again. Colour plays a critical role in the comparison of cotton fibres in forensic sciences. Normally, fibres producing spectral patterns that are frequently seen will tend to have a lower evidential value in criminal cases as the choice of putative sources is theoretically greater and vice versa. Besides black cotton, blue and red cotton fibres are very frequent in fibre casework. The very high discriminating power using a combination of light microscopy, fluorescence microscopy and UV/VIS microspectrophotometry shows that even blue and red cotton fibres can provide excellent evidence when involved in fibre transfer cases.     

The use of indigo derivatives to dye denim material.

Recently, attention was again drawn to the use of microspectrophotometry to distinguish between fibres dyed with indigo and seven derivative dyes. Under normal circumstances, fibres dyed with indigo (Vat Blue 1 or CI Number 73000) are not included in fibre-transfer examinations as, being ubiquitous, they do not usually have any evidential value. Indigo substitutes are used for fashion dyeing. If their use is widespread, the assumption that all denim material is dyed with Vat Blue 1 may need revising. A positive finding might make it necessary to reconsider the use of certain denim fabrics as capable of providing target fibres. Fibres from 160 samples of denim articles in current use were examined by microspectrophotometry to determine whether either indigo derivative dyes, or other dyes, had been used instead of the traditional indigo.     

Coercive Europeanization: the EU's struggle to contain secessionism in the Balkans

Secessionism is still the predominant conflict type in Europe. Even though the European Union (EU) extended the enlargement perspective to the Balkans 15 years ago, secessionist ambition remains pervasive, especially in Bosnia, Kosovo, Macedonia and Serbia. How does secessionism affect Europeanization and how does Europeanization affect secessionism? It is argued here that in cases of unattained statehood domestic power struggles among deeply divided elites over status and territorial control undermine the consensus needed for Europeanization. In cases of attained de facto statehood the conflict focuses on recognition, which likewise polarizes societies and marginalizes reform. In such high-resistance scenarios, where the inclusionary EU norms clash with the exclusionary norms of the secessionists, the EU vigorously works to marginalize the secessionists by relying mainly on denial, punishment and imposition. Still, the EU's leverage is often insufficient in moving the conflicting parties towards within-state solutions and reform. A study of Bosnia's transformation since Dayton reveals, however, that the EU's leverage varies over time and that the EU at times itself inadvertently fans secessionism.     

Earth system governance: a research framework

The Earth System Science Partnership, which unites all major global change research programmes, declared in 2001 an urgent need to develop “strategies for Earth System management”. Yet what such strategies might be, how they could be developed, and how effective, efficient and equitable such strategies would be, remains unspecified. It is apparent that the institutions, organizations and mechanisms by which humans currently govern their relationship with the natural environment and global biochemical systems are not only insufficient—they are also poorly understood. This article presents the science programme of the Earth System Governance Project, a new 10-year global research effort endorsed by the International Human Dimensions Programme on Global Environmental Change (IHDP). It outlines the concept of earth system governance as a challenge for the social sciences, and it elaborates on the interlinked analytical problems and research questions of earth system governance as an object of study. These analytical problems concern the overall architecture of earth system governance, agency beyond the state and of the state, the adaptiveness of governance mechanisms and processes as well as their accountability and legitimacy, and modes of allocation and access in earth system governance. The article also outlines four crosscutting research themes that are crucial for the study of each analytical problem as well as for the integrated understanding of earth system governance: the role of power, knowledge, norms and scale.     

The deployment of conditional probability distributions for death time estimation

The temperature based algorithm known as the Nomogram Method for the determination of a 95.45% death-time interval can be combined with non-temperature based (NTB) findings in the so called Compound Method (CM). The impact of such integration on the probability yielded by the resulting interval has however neither been described nor exploited. In fact the interval after integration of NTB findings rarely yields 95.45% probability. We present a method, based on the conditional probability distribution that can be calculated if the NTB findings are taken into account, which ensures the probability inside the interval to be 95.45%. The method was successfully applied to a set of 53 cases published by Henssge et al. and led to a reduction of the interval width up to more than 15% compared to the CM interval, whereas in other cases the interval width increased due to probability content of the CM intervals below 95.45%. A spreadsheet file in which the method proposed in this paper is implemented can be obtained upon email request from the authors.