Identification and age estimation of blood stains on colored backgrounds by near infrared spectroscopy

Non-destructive identification and subsequent age estimation of blood stains are significant steps in forensic casework. The latter can provide important information on the temporal aspects of a crime. As previously shown, visible spectroscopy of blood stains on white backgrounds can successfully be used for their identification and age estimation. The use of this technique however, is hampered by dark backgrounds. In the present study the feasibility to use near infrared (NIR) spectroscopy was evaluated for blood stain identification and age estimation on dark backgrounds. Using NIR reflectance spectroscopy, blood stains were distinguished from other substances with 100% sensitivity and 100% specificity. In addition, Partial Least Squares Regression analysis was applied to estimate the age of blood stains on colored backgrounds. The age of blood stains up to 1 month old was estimated successfully with a root mean squared error of prediction of 8.9%. These findings are an important step toward the practical implementation of blood stain identification and age estimation in forensic casework, where a large variety of backgrounds can be encountered.     

Ahmadis or Indonesians? The polarization of post-reform public debates on Islam and orthodoxy

Since the fall of Suharto in 1998, Indonesian public discourse about “mainstream” Muslim identity and practice has polarized sharply into various factions. This article offers a detailed analysis of a subset of this discourse that focuses on the Ahmadiyya in order to grasp how the new normative contours of Islam are being shaped in Indonesia. I make three arguments: First, the discourse is homogenizing what was once a wide spectrum of identitarian positions, and that consequently, Islamic diversity in Indonesia is shrinking. Second, the various internally homogenized sets of arguments for and against the Ahmadiyya mis-engage with each other in a way that produces social fragmentation and further polarization. Third, these arguments produce exclusionary mechanisms that reinforce each other. Both the opponents of the Ahmadiyya and their defenders exclude Ahmadis from conceptions of an Indonesian “majority.” This dynamic in Indonesian public discourse has resulted in the acceleration of the marginalization of the Ahmadiyya within an increasingly fragmented Indonesian society.     

Death on a sauna stove

A 67-year-old woman noticed a strange smell from the cellar of her house. When she followed the smell, she found her 64-year-old husband with the face and upper part of his body lying on the stove of the private sauna. He was dead when the emergency doctor arrived. The autopsy revealed upper gastrointestinal bleeding from mucosal lesions in the esophagus with an agonal fall on the sauna stove as the cause of death. In addition, there were signs of chronic alcohol and drug abuse.     

An extreme case of undoing and posing in a case of murder-suicide. A forensic pathological approach to crime scene investigation

A 7-year-old boy was killed by his father by manual strangulation during a murder-suicide. After the killing of the son, the father showed typical "undoing" behaviour: He changed the boy's clothes and laid him down on the bed. Then he placed candles around his head, put pictures of the parents' wedding around him and a crucifix and a picture of the family into his hands. He broke off a rose in a vase next to the bed, lit the candles and took photographs of his dead son. Later he called his wife, threatened to kill the son and finally called the police to confess the murder and to announce his forthcoming suicide.     

Intellectual property,indigenous knowledge,and biodiversity

ABSTRACT

This is Part 1 of an article arguing for an extended application of Karl Marx’s insight that the apparent reciprocity of free market exchange is to be understood as an ideology that obscures material processes of exploitation and accumulation. Rather than to confine this insight to the worker’s sale of his or her labor-power for wages, and basing it on the conviction that labor-power is uniquely capable of generating more value than its price, the article argues that capital accumulation also relies on asymmetric transfers of several other biophysical resources such as embodied non-human energy, land, and materials. It proposes that the very notions of “price” and “value” serve to obscure the material history and substance of traded commodities. Such a shift of perspective extends Marx’s foundational critique of mainstream economics by focusing on the unacknowledged role of ecologically unequal exchange, but requires a critical rethinking of the concept of “use-value.” It also suggests a fundamental reconceptualization of the ontology of technological progress, frequently celebrated in Marxist theory. Part 1 of the article introduces the argument on unequal exchange, the ideological function of money, some concerns of ecological Marxism, and the conundrum posed by three contradictory understandings of “use-value.”     

Book Reviews

Andrea C. Bianculli and Andrea Ribeiro Hoffmann, eds., Regional Organizations and Social Policy in Europe and Latin America: A Space for Social Citizenship? New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2016. Abbreviations, figures, tables, bibliography, index, 317 pp.; hardcover $109, ebook $84.99. Barry Cannon, The Right in Latin America: Elite Power, Hegemony and the Struggle for the State. New York: Routledge, 2016. Tables, bibliography, index, 182 pp.; hardcover $127.50, paperback $44.59. Jordi Díez, The Politics of Gay Marriage in Latin America: Argentina, Chile, and Mexico. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2015. Bibliography, index, 301 pp.; hardcover $48.99, paperback $29.99, ebook $24. Julio Ríos‐Figueroa, Constitutional Courts as Mediators: Armed Conflict, Civil‐Military Relations, and the Rule of Law in Latin America. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2016. Illustrations, figures, tables, bibliography, index, 256 pp.; hardcover $110, paperback $34.99, ebook $88. María Soledad Segura and Silvio Waisbord, Media Movements: Civil Society and Media Policy Reform in Latin America. London: Zed Books, 2016. Bibliography, index, 224 pp.; hardcover $95, paperback $29.95, ebook $23.96. Lee J. Alston, Marcus André Melo, Bernardo Mueller, and Carlos Pereira, Brazil in Transition: Beliefs, Leadership, and Institutional Change. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2016. Illustrations, tables, abbreviations, bibliography, index, 280 pp.; hardcover $39.50, ebook. Sean W. Burges, Brazil in the World: The International Relations of a South American Giant. Manchester: Manchester University Press, 2017. Figures, tables, bibliography, index, 296 pp.; hardcover $115, paperback $32.95, ebook. Alejandro Velasco, Barrio Rising: Urban Popular Politics and the Making of Modern Venezuela. Berkeley: University of California Press, 2015. Maps, figures, notes, bibliography, index, 321 pp.; paperback $29.95. Tiffany D. Barnes, Gendering Legislative Behavior: Institutional Constraints and Collaboration. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2016. Map, figures, tables, bibliography, index, 274 pp.; hardcover $99.99, paperback $34.99, ebook $28. Judith Teichman, The Politics of Inclusive Development: Policy, Sate Capacity, and Coalition Building. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2016. Figures, bibliography, index, 261 pp.; hardcover $109, ebook $84.99.     

Flemish population data using the AmpF/STR Profiler PCR amplification kit

Population frequency data for nine short tandem repeats (STR) (D3S1358, VWA, FGA, TH01, TPOX, CSF1PO, D5S818, D13S317 and D7S820) were determined from 280 unrelated Caucasians from the North region of Belgium (Flanders). The data were obtained using the AmpF/STR Profiler kit from Applied Biosystems.