221 research outputs found
The recoverability of fingerprints on paper exposed to elevated temperatures - Part 1: comparison of enhancement techniques
This research investigates the recoverability of fingerprints which have been exposed to elevated temperatures in order to mimic the environment a piece of paper may be exposed to within an arson scene. Arson is an expensive crime, costing the UK economy, on average, ÂŁ53.8 million each week [1]. Anything which may give rise to the identity of the fire setter should be analysed and as such, unburnt paper may be a potential source of fingerprints. While it is true that even a moderate fire will obscure and render partially useless some types of evidence, many items, including fingerprints, may still survive [2-4]. This research has shown that fingerprints are still retrievable from paper which has been subjected to the maximum testing conditions of 200ËC for 320min. In fact, some fingerprints naturally enhance themselves by the heating process. This investigation has also shown that the most effective enhancement technique was found to be 1,8-diazafluoren-9-one (DFO) for exposure temperatures upto 100ËC. Physical developer (PD) is the most effective enhancement technique for exposure temperatures from 100ËC to 200ËC. For porous surfaces, there are fingerprint development techniques which are effective at enhancing fingerprints exposed upto a temperature of 200ËC, irrespective of the firefighting extinguishing technique, as PD, in addition to developing fingerprints exposed to high temperatures, is one of the few processes which will enhance fingermarks on wetted surfaces
The recoverability of fingerprints on paper exposed to elevated temperatures - Part 2: natural fluorescence
Previous work by the authors [1] investigated the recoverability of fingerprints on paper which had been exposed to elevated temperatures by comparing various chemical enhancement techniques (ninhydrin, 1,8-diazafluoren-9-one (DFO), and physical developer (PD)). During that study, it became apparent, as a consequence of observations made in operational work [2], that fingerprints on paper subjected to 150ËC fluoresced under examination with green light of waveband 473-548nm with a 549nm viewing filter. This work examined the three types of prints (eccrine, sebaceous, and ungroomed) after 20 min exposure to the temperature range 110ËC to 190ËC (in 10ËC increments) and found that the eccrine fingerprints fluoresced more brightly. This indicated that it was a component of the eccrine deposit which was causing the fluorescence. Luminance measurements found that the maximum fluorescence was experienced at 170ËC on both types of paper. As a consequence, eccrine heat-treated fingerprints were viewed under violet-blue (350-469nm), blue (352-509nm), and green light (473-548nm) which indicated that the greatest luminance intensities were obtained under blue light and the smallest under green light. In order to determine what component of the eccrine fingerprint was causing this fluorescence, five of the most prevalent amino acids (alanine, aspartic acid, glycine, lysine, and serine) [3-4] were exposed to this temperature range. The luminance measurements were taken under exposure to the green light in order for the minimum fluorescence to be observed, with an assumption that blue-violet or blue illumination will provide brighter fluorescence in practice. The results indicated that four of the amino acids are behaving similarly across the temperature range, but with slightly different luminance measurements, but all are exhibiting some level of fluorescence. Thermal degradation products of alanine and aspartic acid have been suggested by Richmond-Aylor et al. [5]. The structure of these thermal degradation products is cyclic in nature, and as such, there is a possibility that two of these products would fluorescence. Sodium chloride and urea were also exposed to the temperature range and they also fluoresced to some extent. This work shows that eccrine fingerprints that have been exposed to temperatures of between 130ËC to 180ËC will fluoresce under violet-blue, blue, and green light. This level of fluorescence for ungroomed fingerprints is much less but this will be dependent on the individual, the more eccrine the deposit, the stronger the fluorescence. This work shows that the amino acids, sodium chloride, and urea present in fingerprint deposits are all contributing to the fluorescence of the print, but may not be the sole contributor as other eccrine components have not yet been tested
The discourse of Olympic security 2012 : London 2012
This paper uses a combination of CDA and CL to investigate the discursive realization of the security operation for the 2012 London Olympic Games. Drawing on Didier Bigoâs (2008) conceptualisation of the âbanopticonâ, it address two questions: what distinctive
linguistic features are used in documents relating to security for London 2012; and, how is Olympic security realized as a discursive practice in these documents? Findings suggest that the documents indeed realized key banoptic features of the banopticon: exceptionalism, exclusion and prediction, as well as what we call âpedagogisationâ. Claims were made for the
exceptional scale of the Olympic events; predictive technologies were proposed to assess the
threat from terrorism; and documentary evidence suggests that access to Olympic venues
was being constituted to resemble transit through national boundarie
Internationalisation and religious inclusion in United Kingdom higher education
Although not new, the concept of internationalisation, the inclusion of intercultural perspectives and the development of cross-cultural understanding, has gained particular currency and support across the United Kingdom (UK) higher education sector over the last decade. However, within the academic literature, as well as within institutional policy and practice, there has been little disaggregation of the concept of âcultureâ; rather there appears to be a tacit belief that all aspects of studentsâ cultures should be valued and âcelebratedâ on campus. Through the stories told by fifteen Sikh, Muslim, Jewish and Christian students studying at a UK post-1992 university the paper highlights the ways in which religion, a fundamental aspect of the cultural identity, values and practices of many students, is rarely recognised or valorised on campus. This lack of recognition can act to âotherâ, marginalise and isolate students and thus undermine the aims of internationalisation, in particular cross-cultural understanding. The paper concludes by arguing that religion should be considered within debates around internationalisation so that all students are represented within a multicultural institutional ethos and to ensure meaningful cross-cultural engagement for all students
Population Objects: Interpassive Subjects
While Foucault described population as the object of biopower he did not investigate the practices that make it possible to know population. Rather, he tended to naturalise it as an object on which power can act. However, population is not an object awaiting discovery, but is represented and enacted by specific devices such as censuses and what I call population metrics. The latter enact populations by assembling different categories and measurements of subjects (biographical, biometric and transactional) in myriad ways to identify and measure the performance of populations. I account for both the object and subject by thinking about how devices consist of agencements, that is, specific arrangements of humans and technologies whose mediations and interactions not only enact populations but also produce subjects. I suggest that population metrics render subjects interpassive whereby other beings or objects take up the role and act in place of the subject
Circles of support and accountability: the characteristics of core members in England and Wales
Background
Circles of support and accountability, or Circles, use community volunteers to help reintegrate sex offenders at risk of reoffending in the community.
Aims
The aims of this study are to describe the first 275 male sex offenders (âcore membersâ) in England and Wales supported by a Circle and to compare those attending the five largest Circles.
Methods
As part of their monitoring activity, 10 Circles extracted data from case files, anonymised it and submitted it to Circles UK, the national oversight body.
Results
Circles have expanded rapidly with 165 (60%) of Circles commencing in the three years 2011â2013 compared with 110 in the nine years 2002â2010. Most core members were referred from the Probation Service (82%). Circles were provided to men with a range of predicted risks of reoffending â from low (26%) to very high (12%). There were some positive changes between the beginning and end of Circles, such as fewer men being unemployed and more living in their own chosen accommodation.
Conclusions/implications for practice
Circles have been used to support the reintegration of a wide range of sex offenders. Given their rapid growth and flexibility, consistent recording standards are required across. These standards should be reviewed periodically to ensure all important fields of change are captured, including frequency of attendance, length per session and quality of engagement in the work
Lysergic acid diethylamide (LSD) and Psilocybin for the Management of Patients with Persistent Pain: A Potential Role?
Recently, there has been interest in lysergic acid diethylamide (LSD) and psilocybin for depression, anxiety and fear of death in terminal illness. The aim of this review is to discuss the potential use of LSD and psilocybin for patients with persistent pain. LSD and psilocybin are 5-hydroxytryptamine receptor agonists and may interact with nociceptive and antinociceptive processing. Tentative evidence from a systematic review suggests that LSD (7 studies, 323 participants) and psilocybin (3 studies, 92 participants) may be beneficial for depression and anxiety associated with distress in life-threatening diseases. LSD and psilocybin are generally safe if administered by a healthcare professional, although further investigations are needed to assess their utility for patients with persistent pain, especially associated with terminal illnes
Britain: racial violence and the politics of hate
Drawing on empirical research into racist attacks in three cities in England, this article reveals a changing geography of racial violence (in terms of new areas and targets), and sets this in the context of the socially destructive impact of neoliberalism as well as government policies to manage the UKâs changing demographic make-up. With racial violence officially defined as a form of âhate crimeâ, it is divorced from any wider political context or racialised climate and reduced to a matter of individual pathology. The changing parameters of racism and the stateâs responses present a challenge which the Left and anti-racists have been slow to meet
Torture and the UKâs âwar on asylumâ: medical power and the culture of disbelief
When the now âiconicâ images of shackled, humiliated and dehumanised detainees in the Abu Ghraib prison complex in Iraq were broadcast globally, in the mid-2000s, the relationship between medical power and torture in the âwar on terrorâ was also thrust sharply into focus. Graphic images of coalition troops photographing and posing in front of hooded, naked prisoners forced into a âhuman pyramidâ, and of people made to wear animal collars, indicated a regime in which degradation had a defining role. The photograph of a soldier gloating over the corpse of a man who had died as a result of torture was just one picture of a network of interrogation camps in which detention by coalition forces could be fatal. Yet if there were any expectations that the presence of medical personnel may have checked this violence, these were shattered by the fact that clinicians â in some cases at least â were integral to its practice. «It is now beyond doubt that Armed Forces physicians, psychologists, and medics were active and passive partners in the systematic neglect and abuse of war on terror prisoners», wrote Steven Miles in 2009 (Miles 2009, X). And as he continued, this involved providing interrogators «with medical information to use in setting the nature and degree of physical and psychological abuse during interrogations». It involved monitoring «interrogations to devise ways to break prisoners down or to keep them alive». It involved pathologists holding back death certificates and autopsy reports in order to minimise the number of fatalities or cover up torture-related deaths as deaths by natural causes (Ibid). Procedures including «cramped conïŹnement, dietary manipulation, sleep deprivation, and waterboarding» were among the practices that were «at times (âŠ) legally sanctioned due to medical supervision» in the context of the âwar on terrorâ, according to Hoffman (2011, 1535). He continued to suggest that doctors are not just important to «modern torture methods», they are «irreplaceable».
In this context, the âwar on terrorâ is no aberration. As the revolutionary psychoanalyst and philosopher Frantz Fanon documented in 1959, for example, certain medical practitioners had an integral role in the military occupation of Algeria, and «There are, for instance, psychiatrists ⊠known to numerous prisoners», he suggested, «who have given electric shock treatments to the accused and have questioned them during the waking phase, which is characterized by a certain confusion, a relaxation of resistance, a disappearance of the person's defences.» (Fanon 1959/1965, 138). Indeed, in his analysis of the Algerian revolution, he discussed how resistance to and struggles over the meanings of medical power were integral to the revolution itself. However, while the role of medical power in the practice of torture has been subjected to sustained critique in the context of the âwar on terrorâ, what follows examines the relationship between medical power and torture in the context of what has been depicted â metaphorically â as another (although to some extents related) âwarâ: the âwarâ on asylum. According to the UNHCR (2017, 3), between 5 and 35 per cent of those asylum seekers who have been granted refugee status have survived torture. And focusing on the UK as a case study, this chapter examines the institutional and legal structures prohibiting torture and inhuman and degrading treatment, particularly as they apply to those subject to immigration control in this context. But further, it also examines the ideological and political conditions within which claims by those seeking asylum that they have been subjected to torture prior to arrival can be (and have been) ignored, downplayed and denied. It examines how medical expertise has frequently been undermined in the asylum process when this expertise is utilised to add weight to asylum seekersâ claims to have experienced torture. It examines how there have been attempts to narrow the definition of torture in ways which exclude people from the protections to which torture survivors are entitled. But it also explores the ways in which segments of the medical profession have been complicit in riding roughshod over existing safeguards to prevent further harm to those who have experienced torture, thus potentially compounding its effects. In particular, it examines claims that in certain contexts clinicians have administered dangerous âcareâ in order to ensure the removal of people from the UK, despite them claiming that they â or their family members â face serious harm and persecution on arrival as a result of this.
In a historical discussion of medical involvement in torture, Giovanni Maio (2001, 1609) has noted that from its earliest incarnations one of the features of torture has been its use as an «oppressive instrument used in the preservation of power». Furthermore, whilst methods of torture have certainly «developed», and continue to do so, he argues, this «function» of torture is «especially relevant today». This chapter argues that the (mis)treatment of those in the UK who say they have been tortured, preserves and is bound up with a particular manifestation of state power: the aims, rationale and dictates of immigration control. Its claims are perhaps much more mundane than the forms of direct medical complicity in torture alluded to above. But they are nonetheless important. For it is argued that the acts of omission and commission documented in this chapter expose the tensions between the rights of certain âcategoriesâ of migrants to be afforded adequate clinical care on the one hand, and the goals and aims of immigration control itself on the other. This poses profound questions about the functions of clinical care and the ethical duties, responsibilities and obligations of clinicians, it is suggested. But as this chapter also crucially explores, this is a form of power that many within the medical profession have historically challenged, and continue to do so
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