During the last decade, our ability to extract, and reliably quantitate, drugs from blood and tissue has increased drastically. Yet in spite of these advances, it is increasingly apparent that toxicologic measurements, taken in isolation, cannot be used to discriminate between individuals who died as a consequence of drug use and those who did not. The situation is not much better in the living...

The creation of facial images by eyewitnesses using composite-production systems can be important for the investigation of crimes when the identity of the perpetrator is at issue. Despite technological advances, research indicates that composite-production systems produce poor likenesses of intended faces, even familiar faces. Furthermore, producing a composite appears to harm later recognition...

Topic Maps is a standards-based technology and model for organizing and integrating digital information in a range of applications and domains. Drawing on notions adapted from current discourse theory, this article focuses on the communicative, or explanatory, potential of topic maps. It is demonstrated that topic maps may be structured in ways that are “text-like” in character and, therefore, ...

the stalled negotiations on the future of the international Whaling commission have highlighted the extent to which ‘scientific research’ continues to be used as a smokescreen for slaughter on the high seas. When, as a scientist, i read in the popular press that Japan has been allowed to cull up to 1,000 minke whales per year since 1988 for the purpose of scientific research, i naturally assume...

354 which has a course in forensic biology and toxicology. Forensic entomology is potentially useful in cases of child neglect (Benecke & Lessig, 2001) and neglect of the elderly (Benecke et al, 2004), in addition to cases of murder. Similarly, palynology, the analysis of pollen and spores in criminal investigations, can complement forensic DNA by either proving or disproving that people or obj...

The widely cited five-fold classification scheme of serial murderers 2 proposed by Holmes and Holmes (1998) is tested empirically. The crime scene evidence available on one hundred serial murderers, each identified as the third in a distinct series, committed in the United States, was content analyzed. The co-occurrence of content categories derived from the crime scene material was submitted t...

The STANDUP project has developed and evaluated interactive software which allows children with language and speech impairments to engage in building simple punning riddles. The session will reflect on the role that humour plays in language development and the difference between humour appreciation and comprehension. The Keyword Manipulation Task will be presented as a tool for measuring the un...

A strenuous debate continues to rage over the use of DNA typing as forensic evidence (1-5). One of the most contentious issues has been how to calculate the probability of a coincidental match between the DNA of a suspect and DNA taken from the scene of a crime (and thought to belong to the perpetrator). In principle, this probability depends upon the genetic structure of the human population, ...

“Let us, then, be introduced to the actors in a placid way; let us see them going about their ordinary business, undisturbed by forebodings, pleased with surroundings; and into this calm environment ominous thing put out its head, unobtrusively at first, then more insistently, until it holds stage.”Montague Rhodes James, introduction Ghosts Marvels My father had an extensive repertoire of fragm...

Rules offer a convenient means of limiting the operational scope of our AI programs so as to not transgress predictable moral boundaries. Yet the imposition of an operational morality based on mere rules will not turn our machines into moral agents, just the unthinking tools of moral designers. If we are to imbue our machines with a profound functional morality, we must first gift them with a m...