An American Advantage? How American and Swiss Criminal Defense Attorneys Evaluate Forensic DNA Evidence

AbstractCritics of the American system of justice sometimes perceive “inquisitorialism” as an attractive alternative. In this article we will report a comparative study investigating the way forensic DNA evidence is handled in criminal prosecutions in the Swiss and American systems, focusing particularly on the behavior of criminal defense lawyers. We will argue that the successes and failures of American and Swiss lawyers in this context offer important insights into the relative strengths and limitations of adversarial and non-adversarial legal systems

Nonlinear behaviour of pulsating white dwarfs

Bibliography : p. 199-207.Using a phenomenological approach, I have investigated the nonlinear properties of the pulsations of two white dwarfs, namely DA G29-38 and DB GD358. The data at my disposal comprised numerous single- and multi-sites time series photometric campaigns, including light curves from four Whole Earth Telescope runs conducted respectively in 1988 and 1992 on G29-38, and in 1990 and 1994 on GD358. Thanks to their length and quality, several of these individual data sets have the beating between the excited eigenmodes resolved. Amplitude changes are nevertheless visible between these various amplitude spectra, suggesting the presence of intrinsic nonlinear processes. However, I showed that only when the spectral changes are drastic have time-dependent nonlinear phenomena to be invoked; no matter how long the data sets, mild seasonal amplitude variations can often be accounted for by beating between the eigen-modes and high order cross-frequencies when harmonic distortion is strong enough. From third order of perturbation, cross-frequencies naturally appear in the direct vicinity of the normal modes, which not only alter the simple eigenmultiplet structures thus rendering the mode identification more difficult, but also generate long and complex beating processes. In GD358, for instance, 153 such third order combination frequencies are expected to appear in the frequency range of each eigentriplet; a light curve spanning at least 9 months is thus necessary to resolve the period structure of this star. Drastic spectral changes were nevertheless recorded in both G29s38 and GD358 which could not be accounted for by such high order beating processes. I could securely conclude that the pulsations of both these stars experience intrinsic amplitude variations on time-scales ranging from days to years, suggesting that different nonlinear processes dominate the evolution of the pulsations at different time

Comparing modern and Pleistocene ENSO-like influences in NW Argentina using nonlinear time series analysis methods

Higher variability in rainfall and river discharge could be of major importance in landslide generation in the north-western Argentine Andes. Annual layered (varved) deposits of a landslide dammed lake in the Santa Maria Basin (26 deg S, 66 deg W) with an age of 30,000 14C years provide an archive of precipitation variability during this time. The comparison of these data with present-day rainfall observations tests the hypothesis that increased rainfall variability played a major role in landslide generation. A potential cause of such variability is the El Nino/Southern Oscillation (ENSO). The causal link between ENSO and local rainfall is quantified by using a new method of nonlinear data analysis, the quantitative analysis of cross recurrence plots (CRP). This method seeks similarities in the dynamics of two different processes, such as an ocean-atmosphere oscillation and local rainfall. Our analysis reveals significant similarities in the statistics of both modern and palaeo-precipitation data. The similarities in the data suggest that an ENSO-like influence on local rainfall was present at around 30,000 14C years ago. Increased rainfall, which was inferred from a lake balance modeling in a previous study, together with ENSO-like cyclicities could help to explain the clustering of landslides at around 30,000 14C years ago.Comment: 11 pages, 9 figure

Digital evidence, 'absence' of data and ambiguous patterns of reasoning

In this paper we discuss the use of digital data by the Swiss Federal Criminal Court in a recent case of attempted homicide. We use this case to examine drawbacks for the defense when the presentation of scientific evidence is partial, especially when the only perspective mentioned is that of the prosecution. We tackle this discussion at two distinct levels. First, we pursue an essentially non-technical presentation of the topic by drawing parallels between the court's summing up of the case and flawed patterns of reasoning commonly seen in other forensic disciplines, such as DNA and particle traces (e.g., gunshot residues). Then, we propose a formal analysis of the case, using elements of probability and graphical probability models, to justify our main claim that the partial presentation of digital evidence poses a risk to the administration of justice in that it keeps vital information from the defense. We will argue that such practice constitutes a violation of general principles of forensic interpretation as established by forensic science literature and current recommendations by forensic science interest groups (e.g., the European Network of Forensic Science Institutes). Finally, we posit that argument construction and analysis using formal methods can help replace digital evidence appropriately into context and thus support a sound evaluation of the evidence

Krishna Sobti’s Views on Literature and the Poetics of Writing

The Hindi writer Krishna Sobti (1925-2019) carved out a special place for herself within the post-Partition Hindi literary sphere thanks to her idiosyncratic use of language and her bold choices of topics. Known primarily as a novelist, she is also the author of essays and other non-fictional texts. Focusing on the main themes of Sobti’s oeuvre, this study analyses the relationship between her views on poetics and her own literary practice