Italian population data on two new short tandem repeat loci: D2S1338 and Penta E

A population study on two new short tandem repeat (STR) loci D2S1338 (a tetranucleotide repeat) and Penta E (a pentanucleotide repeat) was performed on 208 unrelated Italian Caucasians. The DNA was amplified by polymerase chain reaction (PCR) and separation and detection of the amplified STR fragments were carried out by use of a PE/ABD PRISM 377 DNA Sequencer 377 automated system (Applied Biosystems Division/Perkin-Elmer). Both loci meet Hardy-Weinberg expectations. There is no evidence for departures from expectations between the two loci. The combined Probability of Discrimination and Probability of Exclusion for the two STR loci are 0.999155 and 0.944925, respectively. The results demonstrate that these two regions can be useful for differentiating among individuals, particularly in concert with other STR loci.     

Information Improves Provider Behaviour: A Replication Study of a Community-Based Monitoring Programme in Uganda

In ‘Power to the People: Evidence from a Randomised Field Experiment on Community-Based Monitoring in Uganda’ (2009), Björkman and Svensson show that a relatively simple intervention – providing community-level health service delivery information and guidance on community-based monitoring – improved provider behaviour, health care utilisation, and health outcomes. In this paper we conduct a pure replication of the original study and extend the original analysis. Overall, we find that the intervention modified healthcare provider behaviours and utilisation, but that the results surrounding the programme’s impact on health outcomes appear less robust.     

Offshore financial centres: the political economy of regulation

This paper claims that the regulation profile of the Offshore Financial Centres (OFCs) with respect to the international standards defined to prevent potentially harmful phenomena—such as aggressive taxation, financial instability, money laundering and terrorism finance—depends on their specific structural features. In the designing of the regulatory framework the OFCs policymakers define the optimal degree of compliance maximizing a political cost benefit function. A simple model shows that the policymaker convenience to establish an OFC jurisdiction can depend on peculiar country endowments, consistently with a path-dependency approach. The model is empirically tested using a 222 countries’ sample, using different classifications of OFCs. On the one hand we find that the probability to be an OFC is greater with higher political stability, lower crime level, lower voice in international organizations, and if the country is characterized by a Common Law juridical system. Furthermore a low resource endowment seems to have a slightly influence on the choices to be an OFC. On the other hand it seems not to be crucial to use English as official language, to be a former colony, and also the geographical position it is not fundamental. The results are used for an overall assessment of the adequacy of the international policy aimed to fill the regulation gap, raising doubts on the persistency of the name and shame approach.

Metal objects mapping after small charge explosions. A study on AISI 304Cu steel with two different grain sizes

Evidence of exposure of a metal component to a small charge explosion can be detected by observing microstructural modifications; they may be present even if the piece does not show noticeable overall plastic deformations. Particularly, if an austenitic stainless steel (or another metal having a face-centered cubic structure and a low stacking fault energy) is exposed to an explosive shock wave, high-speed deformation induces primarily mechanical twinning, whereas, in nonexplosive events, a lower velocity plastic deformation first induces slip. The occurrence of mechanical twins can be detected even if the surface is damaged or oxidized in successive events. In the present research, optical metallography (OM) and scanning electron microscopy (SEM), and scanning tunneling microscopy (STM) were used to detect microstructural modifications caused on AISI 304Cu steel disks by small-charge explosions. Spherical charges of 54.5 or 109 g TNT equivalent mass were used at explosive-to-target distances from 6.5 to 81.5 cm, achieving peak pressures from 160 to 0.5 MPa. Explosions induced limited or no macro-deformation. Two alloy grain sizes were tested. Surface OM and SEM evidenced partial surface melting, zones with recrystallization phenomena, and intense mechanical twinning, which was also detected by STM and X-ray diffraction. In the samples' interior, only twins were seen, up to some distance from the explosion impinged surface and again, at the shortest charge-to-sample distances, in a thin layer around the reflecting surface. For forensic science locating purposes after explosions, the maximum charge-to-target distance at which the phenomena disappear was singled out for each charge or grain size and related to the critical resolved shear stress for twinning.     

False and Reluctant Friends? National Money Laundering Regulation,International Compliance and Non-Cooperative Countries

In the aftermath of September 11th, growing attention has been paid to the role of Non-Cooperative Countries and Territories (NCCT) in money laundering and terrorist financing. The paper, applying the new political economy approach in the law and economics field, provides a model to describe, through the policymaker payoff maximization, the relationships between specific country features and endowments, on the one hand, and lax financial regulations, on the other hand. Given that in the real world relatively lax regulation means a non-cooperative attitude in the international fight against money laundering and terrorist financing we empirically test the above theoretical relationship in the case of the NCCT jurisdictions. The policy consequences on the pros and cons of international blacklisting procedures are discussed.JEL K42, G28     

In Offense of Usury Laws: Microfoundations of Illegal Credit Contracts

Several European countries base their anti-usury laws on the definition of interest ceilings. Underlying this approach is the identification of high interest rates with the usurious nature of the relative credit contract; hence usury is nothing more than a particularly onerous credit contract. The present paper contradicts this traditional view by presenting a general micro-founded model of credit contracts that arrives at a few conclusions, before in a static and then in a dynamic contest. Firstly, it demonstrates the specificity of the usury contract with respect to the bank contract, pointing up the particular nature of those who supply and demand usurious credit. Secondly, it demonstrates that in environmental situations with little protection of property rights and a propensity to illegality, the decision of a borrower to turn to a usurer may be efficient from the Pareto standpoint and thus not the result of a rationing equilibrium in the bank credit market, as is commonly thought. Thirdly, it deduces from this the insubstantial link between interest rate level and the usurious nature of the contract. Hence two consequences for policy: (a) it is more effective to combat usury by improving the laws and law enforcement to better protect property rights, rather than introduce rate ceilings; and (b) in any case, the usury market can be reduced but not eliminated, since it is a meeting place for particular borrowers and lenders of funds.     

Engines need transmission belts: the importance of people in technology transfer offices

The Journal of Technology Transfer - Over the last 20 years, universities and Public Research Organizations have increased their efforts to transfer their research results towards...     

Organized crime,money laundering and legal economy: theory and simulations

This paper proposes a dynamic model to simulate the relationships between the profits of organized crime, money laundering and legal investments. We develop a macro framework in which organized crime can increase its possibilities to invest in the legal sector by resorting to effective but costly money laundering schemes. The model explores the conditions under which the effectiveness of money laundering causes a positive trend in the legal assets owned by the criminal organizations. We use the model to simulate the total amount of legal wealth generated by organized crime through drug trafficking in different world regions, with particular attention to Europe.     

Photogrammetry vs CT Scan: Evaluation of Accuracy of a Low-Cost Three-Dimensional Acquisition Method for Forensic Facial Approximation

Photogrammetry is a three-dimensional acquisition method potentially applicable to the forensic field. This possibility requires the verification of its accuracy. In this study, 3D volumes of skulls are generated to compare the photogrammetry versus the CT scan. In order to provide eligible material to the photogrammetric software, photographs were captured at a distance of 30 cm from the skull placed on a support 1 m in height and illuminated with diffused laboratory ceiling artificial light. A Nikon Coolpix P7100 camera was used. Photographs capture common elements with the previous and the next photograph so as to allow the photogrammetric software to recognize these common points between photographs and create a 3D puzzle. The Zephyr Lite (3DFlow©) software was employed to register the 3D volume. CT-based skulls are taken as a metric reference. The photogrammetry-based skulls are then enlarged according to the measurements of some landmarks or Zygion and Zygion, the distance between end of nasal and base of nasal pyramid for frontal projection, and minimum breadth of the mandibular ramus for the right lateral projection. The accuracy of the photogrammetry is compared to that of the CT scan by measuring the 3D volumes of the skulls studied. Specific landmarks are used as reference points for the measures in both frontal and lateral views. Bland–Altman graph shows homogeneity. The mean difference (1.28 mm) indicates that the measurements taken on the photogrammetry-based skull tend to slightly overestimate compared with the measurements taken on the CT-based skull.