The role of forensic geoscience in wildlife crime detection

The increase in both automation and precision in the analysis of geological materials has had significant impact upon forensic investigations in the last 10 years. There is however, a fundamental philosophical difference between forensic and geological enquiry. This paper presents the results of forensic geoscientific investigations of three cases of wildlife crime. Two cases involve the analysis of soils recovered after incidents of illegal badger baiting in the United Kingdom. The third case involves the illegal importation of Eleonora's Falcon (Falco eleonorae) into the United Kingdom from the Mediterranean. All three cases utilise the analysis of soils by a variety of physical, chemical and biological techniques. These involve mineral and grain size analyses, cation and anion compositions, pH, organic content and pollen analysis.The independent analysis undertaken by specialists in each of these three main fields conclude firstly, that there is a significant similarity between sediments taken at the crime site at both badger setts and with sediments recovered from various spades, shovels and clothing belonging to suspects and secondly, that the soils analysed associated with the removal of the falcon eggs in the Mediterranean contained characteristics similar in many respects to the soils of the breeding areas of E eleonorae on the cliffs of Mallorca. The use of these independent techniques in wildlife crime detection has great potential given the ubiquitous nature of soils and sediments found in association with wildlife sites. (c) 2006 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved

Seeing social enterprise through the theoretical conceptualisation of ethical capital

Objectives: Current conceptualisations of social enterprise fail to fully satisfy an understanding of the movement. A focus on the economic implies a business model where deep tensions lie. A focus on social capital offers a different frame of reference, yet both these conceptualisations fail to fully identify the phenomena that is social enterprise. The objective of this paper seeks to fill that gap. Ethical capital is offered here as the missing conceptualisation in the field of social enterprise. Prior work: Pearce (2003) describes social enterprises as part of the third system, closer to the first system (private business), than the second system (public provision), yet primarily social and secondly a business. Social Enterprises are described as trading organisations in a market (Pearce 2003). A focus and operationalisation for social enterprises to be ‘business-like’ and ‘entrepreneurial’ is well documented (Leadbeater 1997; Dees 1998; Nicholls 2006b). Approach: Yet, if as part of the third sector, social enterprises are as Dart (2004) suggests; ‘blurring the boundaries between non-profit and profit’, but what blurs? What is compromised? What exactly is lost (or gained)? What challenges are there for social enterprises? And is a managerialist ideology taking precedence over the social? This paper provides a conceptual paper that seeks to outline the arguments on the table and develop an ethical capital conceptualisation of social enterprise. Results: This paper very much aims at starting the process of intellectual debate about the notion of ethical capital in social enterprises. The conclusions of this paper outline further research questions that need to be addressed in order to fully develop this concept. Implications: The current ideology of the neo-classical economic paradigm it is argued in the paper pursues interests towards the self and towards the erosion of the moral basis of association. The outcome leaves society with a problem of low ethical virtue - the implications of this paper are that social enterprises maximise ethical virtue beyond any other form of organisation and as such hold great value beyond their missions and values. Value: This paper offers great value in the understanding of social enterprise through fresh insight into the conceptualisation. A critical perspective to the current literature is taken and discussed but though the introduction of ethical capital this paper takes our understanding of the value of the sector into another light, providing practitioners, business support agencies and academics alike with a different level of conceptualisation that has not been explored before.</p

Time does tell : an analysis of observable audience responses from the 2016 American presidential campaigns

In this study a microanalysis of OAR (Observable Audience Responses) in the 2016 U.S. Presidential Election was conducted. OAR were coded into dimensions including response rate (frequency per minute), response type, and categorised as either a unitary (a single response), composite (two or more simultaneous response types) or sequential (a unitary or composite response that is followed by a different response type) response form. It was found that U.S. audiences made use of all three response forms (unitary, composite, and sequential) and that certain response forms had been under-represented when contrasted with findings from previous research. This study was also the first to measure the duration of OAR in the context of an election, and it was observed that response form significantly affected the duration of response. It was inferred from this that the audiences might select different responses as a means to control the force of reply. This study failed to replicate previous research that had found a correlation between response rate (affiliative OAR per minute) and voter share on polling day, but instead found a stronger, significant correlation between the duration of OAR and voter share. It was interpreted that duration of OAR may be a superior indicator of wider voter enthusiasm as it captures the length of response as well as the incidence

“You’re important, Jeremy, but not that important” : personalised responses and equivocation in political interviews

This study was an assessment of personalised equivocation in political interviews, namely, politicians’ responses to questions which, in lieu of an explicit reply, are directed personally at the interviewer. Twenty-six interviews with recent UK party leaders were analysed in terms of questions, replies, and personalisation. The majority of personalised responses contained elements of criticism, although over a quarter were more amicable. For the eight featured politicians, the use of such responses was adjudged to be more about individual communicative style than their position on the political spectrum. Only one politician did not respond in this manner, indicating a more widespread use of personalisation than was previously suggested. Furthermore, an evaluation of interviewer follow-ups showed its effectiveness as a diversionary tactic in the face of troublesome questions. In terms of the proportion of questions which receive a full reply, a general reply rate analysis highlighted how recent political leaders have changed little from their predecessors

Cleaning foregrounds from single-dish 21 cm intensity maps with Kernel principal component analysis

The high dynamic range between contaminating foreground emission and the fluctuating 21 cm brightness temperature field is one of the most problematic characteristics of 21 cm intensity mapping data. While these components would ordinarily have distinctive frequency spectra, making it relatively easy to separate them, instrumental effects and calibration errors further complicate matters by modulating and mixing them together. A popular class of foreground cleaning method are unsupervised techniques related to principal component analysis (PCA), which exploit the different shapes and amplitudes of each component's contribution to the covariance of the data in order to segregate the signals. These methods have been shown to be effective at removing foregrounds, while also unavoidably filtering out some of the 21 cm signal too. In this paper we examine, for the first time in the context of 21 cm intensity mapping, a generalized method called Kernel PCA, which instead operates on the covariance of non-linear transformations of the data. This allows more flexible functional bases to be constructed, in principle allowing a cleaner separation between foregrounds and the 21 cm signal to be found. We show that Kernel PCA is effective when applied to simulated single-dish (auto-correlation) 21 cm data under a variety of assumptions about foregrounds models, instrumental effects etc. It presents a different set of behaviours to PCA, e.g. in terms of sensitivity to the data resolution and smoothing scale, outperforming it on intermediate to large scales in most scenarios

Finite element analysis of stress distribution and the effects of geometry in a laser-generated single-stage ceramic tile grout seal using ANSYS

Optimisation of the geometry (curvature of the vitrified enamel layer) of a laser-generated single-stage ceramic tile grout seal has carried out with a finite element (FE) model. The overall load bearing capacities and load-displacement plots of three selected geometries were determined experimentally by the indentation technique. Simultaneously, a FE model was developed utilising the commercial ANSYS package to simulate the indentation. Although the load-displacement plots generated by the FE model consistently displayed stiffer identities than the experimentally obtained results, there was reasonably close agreement between the two sets of results. Stress distribution profiles of the three FE models at failure loads were analysed and correlated so as to draw an implication on the prediction of a catastrophic failure through an analysis of FE-generated stress distribution profiles. It was observed that although increased curvatures of the vitrified enamel layer do enhance the overall load-bearing capacity of the single-stage ceramic tile grout seal and bring about a lower nominal stress, there is a higher build up in stress concentration at the apex that would inevitably reduce the load-bearing capacity of the enamel glaze. Consequently, the optimum geometry of the vitrified enamel layer was determined to be flat

Development and flight test of a helicopter compact, portable, precision landing system concept

An airborne, radar-based, precision approach concept is being developed and flight tested as a part of NASA's Rotorcraft All-Weather Operations Research Program. A transponder-based beacon landing system (BLS) applying state-of-the-art X-band radar technology and digital processing techniques, was built and is being flight tested to demonstrate the concept feasibility. The BLS airborne hardware consists of an add-on microprocessor, installed in conjunction with the aircraft weather/mapping radar, which analyzes the radar beacon receiver returns and determines range, localizer deviation, and glide-slope deviation. The ground station is an inexpensive, portable unit which can be quickly deployed at a landing site. Results from the flight test program show that the BLS concept has a significant potential for providing rotorcraft with low-cost, precision instrument approach capability in remote areas