Tracing the global origins of black tea using rapid XRF techniques coupled with advanced machine learning

Having robust traceability of black tea is important to help prevent tea fraud. Developing rapid, accurate, environmentally friendly, and user-friendly methods to distinguish the geographical origins of black tea, is of great significance for safeguarding geographic indication (GI) products. In this study, the elemental contents of 791 authentic black tea samples from ten major tea-producing regions worldwide were quantified using X-ray fluorescence spectroscopy. The concentration of 15 elements in tea products was measured, and the characteristic elemental profiles for the ten GI regions were established. In addition, two unsupervised analysis techniques were used to visualize high-dimensional data, and six supervised models were employed to discriminate the ten GI regions. The results show that the machine learning models, including random forest, support vector machine, k-nearest neighbours, linear discriminate analysis, and the deep learning multilayer perceptron (MLP) model, demonstrated superior predictive capabilities compared to the traditional partial least squares discriminant analysis model, with the F1 score of identifying Assam tea improved from 66.1 % to a range of 87–97.7 %. The MLP model achieved the highest performance, with a 97.7 % overall F1 score in predicting the geographical origins of 532 authentic samples across ten GI regions. This research lays the foundation for establishing a comprehensive global black tea traceability system which has major implications for preventing tea fraud worldwide.<br/

Extending EU Crimes to include hate crime and hate speech

This chapter argues that there is a critical need to integrate hate crime and hate speech within Article 83(1) of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union (TFEU). Hate-motivated criminal activities not only infringe upon individual rights but also erode the foundational EU values of freedom, democracy, equality, and the rule of law, contributing to societal fear and fragmentation. The transnational nature of these offences, amplified by digital platforms, necessitates a cohesive legal framework under Article 83(1) TFEU to bolster member state collaboration, ensuring stringent accountability and victim protection. Such an alignment would also reinforce the EU's adherence to international human rights obligations and solidify its global leadership in the protection of fundamental rights. Nevertheless, significant obstacles persist, including the challenge of achieving unanimous consensus within the Council of the European Union amidst diverse cultural and political landscapes. Various alternative procedural mechanisms are explored, though their effectiveness remains uncertain, illustrating the complex and contentious process of enacting legislation on hate crime and hate speech at both the EU and national levels

Harmful objects (beloved subjects): colonial family archives

This is an essay on colonial documents and photos from 1950s and 1960s, that were kept in the attic of my childhood home in Northern Ireland. Most names to which they relate were unrecorded. They were produced by my grandparents, Douglas Crozier (1908-1976) and Ann Hobbs (1907-1981), who migrated to Hong Kong in the 1930s as teachers; and by their son (my father), Julian (1935-2006), who worked (1958-1964) as a district officer in Zambia (then Northern Rhodesia), and mother, Maurna Frizzell (1942-2015), who joined him there in 1961. Before Maurna’s rapid decline, I had intended to engage in museological PhD research on colonial material culture in Ireland. However, domestic upheaval following her death led me to reconsider colonial identities in my own family; and also, the political and anthropological implications of inheriting possessions emanating from the colonial past. As a result, the PhD became autoethnographic. This led to my interest and current research in participant autoethnography as a means of collaboratively exploring the social impacts of imperialism. As a means of conversing with others about the uses of the method, I discuss a selection of colonial family documents here

Children born of sexual and gender-based violence in conflict: exploring the boundaries of international criminal law

Thousands of children have been born as a result of sexual and gender-based violence perpetrated in recent conflicts, often discriminated against in their own societies. Despite the fact that these children are born out of crimes international criminal law has been designed to punish and redress, these children have received limited attention in the international criminal arena. This paper addresses this gap by arguing that international criminal law has the symbolic and reparative potential to respond to the plight of these children and that peace agreements should be used to complement any criminal justice response; thus, ensuring that such children are integrated into their post-conflict societies