Interdisciplinary Practices in Forensics within American Law Enforcement: The International Context

As forensic evidence has come to be of paramount importance within the American criminal justice system, it becomes pertinent to explore current standards, education, and training conducted within forensic investigation units who are actively engaged in crime scene recovery methods. After review of the current state of research within the field both domestically and internationally, an exploratory study was conducted through national surveying of American law enforcement agencies at the municipal, county, state, and federal level. Results indicate the need for reform though development of uniform standards, required educational levels, and enhanced interdisciplinary training in order to ensure the highest levels of documentation, collection, and preservation of forensic evidence. Recommendations regarding future research include evaluative procedures aimed at developing standardization, reforming required educational levels, evaluating available training programs, and increasing knowledge pertaining to the value of national certification

Calculation of AGARD Wing 445.6 Flutter Using Navier-Stokes Aerodynamics

An unsteady, 3D, implicit upwind Euler/Navier-Stokes algorithm is here used to compute the flutter characteristics of Wing 445.6, the AGARD standard aeroelastic configuration for dynamic response, with a view to the discrepancy between Euler characteristics and experimental data. Attention is given to effects of fluid viscosity, structural damping, and number of structural model nodes. The flutter characteristics of the wing are determined using these unsteady generalized aerodynamic forces in a traditional V-g analysis. The V-g analysis indicates that fluid viscosity has a significant effect on the supersonic flutter boundary for this wing

GROUNDWATER RESOURCES MANAGEMENT IN ARID COUNTRIES

no abstract availabl

Radical Prostatectomy: An Option for High-Risk Prostate Cancer

Introduction. High-risk prostate cancer represents a therapeutic challenge. The role of radical prostatectomy (RP) in patients with extreme PSA values is under discussion. Material and Methods. We retrospectively analysed our data of 56 consecutive patients with preoperative PSA ≥ 40 mg/mL undergoing open radical retropubic prostatectomy from 1999 to 2009. Patient survival and time to PSA recurrence were recorded, and the Kaplan-Meier survival analysis was performed. Postoperative quality of life and functional status were investigated using a SF-12 questionnaire and determining the number of pads used per day. Results. Overall 56 patients were available for followup after a median time of 83.84 months. Locally advanced carcinoma was present in 84% while 16% of patients had organ-confined stages. A positive nodal status was observed in 46%. Overall survival was 95% at five and 81% at 10 years. Cancer-specific survival was 100% for five years and 83% for 10 years. Corresponding biochemical recurrence-free survival was low (52% and 11%, resp.). Quality of life and functional outcomes were favourable. Conclusions. In patients with PSA ≥ 40 mg/mL, RP allows long-term control, exact planning of adjuvant treatment, and identification of curable disease

Toward a spatial understanding of staple food and nonstaple food production in Brazil

Brazilian agricultural census data at the municipal level are used to develop and map a simple index of staple food versus nonstaple food agriculture for Brazil over time (1996-2006). The results show spatial variation in the direction and degree of the shift toward or away from staple food cropping across Brazil. The index is presented as an important methodological step toward a systematic geographic understanding of crop share changes surrounding food versus fuel and other nonfood crop production. (1996 ?? 2006 ?) Los datos del censo agropecuario brasileno a nivel municipal se utilizan para desarrollar y cartografiar un indice simple de la agricultura de alimentos esenciales versus la de alimentos no esenciales del Brasil durante un tiempo (1996-2006). Los resultados muestran variacion espacial en la direccion y grado del cambio hacia cultivos para alimentacion esencial, o lo contrario, en Brasil. El indice se presenta como un paso metodologico importante hacia un entendimiento geografico sistematico de cambios hacia un tipo de cosecha compartida que privilegia la produccion de alimentos, contra las cosechas para combustibles y otra produccion no alimentaria66224925

Phenomenology of supersymmetric models with a singlet

The supersymmetric extension of the standard model with an additional gauge singlet is analysed in detail in the light of the recent experimental bounds on supersymmetric particles. The useful part of the parameter space and the particle spectrum are displayed. We find that once the recent bounds on the chargino mass are imposed, all other new particles practically satisfy the present experimental limits. Special attention is given to particles to be searched for in the future experiments. The singlet fields tend to decouple and give rise to an effective MSSM, enlarging the validity of many phenomenological analyses based in the minimal field content. However, in some ranges of the parameters the singlino is the lightest neutralino, which modifies the signature for susy particles. Simple analytical approximations are developed that qualitatively explain the numerical results.Comment: 32 pages, 1 table, 6 figures, LaTeX2

Proliferation of anomalous symmetries in colloidal monolayers subjected to quasiperiodic light fields

Quasicrystals provide a fascinating class of materials with intriguing properties. Despite a strong potential for numerous technical applications, the conditions under which quasicrystals form are still poorly understood. Currently, it is not clear why most quasicrystals hold 5- or 10-fold symmetry but no single example with 7 or 9-fold symmetry has ever been observed. Here we report on geometrical constraints which impede the formation of quasicrystals with certain symmetries in a colloidal model system. Experimentally, colloidal quasicrystals are created by subjecting micron-sized particles to two-dimensional quasiperiodic potential landscapes created by n=5 or seven laser beams. Our results clearly demonstrate that quasicrystalline order is much easier established for n = 5 compared to n = 7. With increasing laser intensity we observe that the colloids first adopt quasiperiodic order at local areas which then laterally grow until an extended quasicrystalline layer forms. As nucleation sites where quasiperiodicity originates, we identify highly symmetric motifs in the laser pattern. We find that their density strongly varies with n and surprisingly is smallest exactly for those quasicrystalline symmetries which have never been observed in atomic systems. Since such high symmetry motifs also exist in atomic quasicrystals where they act as preferential adsorption sites, this suggests that it is indeed the deficiency of such motifs which accounts for the absence of materials with e.g. 7-fold symmetry