Efficient DNA Sampling in Burglary Investigations

In terms of crime scene investigations by means of forensic DNA-analyses, burglaries are the number one mass crime in Switzerland. Around one third of the DNA trace profiles registered in the Swiss DNA database are related to burglaries. However, during the collection of potential DNA traces within someone’s residence after a burglary, it is not known whether the sampled DNA originated from the perpetrator or from an inhabitant of said home. Because of the high incidence of burglaries, crime scene investigators usually do not collect reference samples from all the residents for economical and administrative reasons. Therefore, the presumably high probability that a DNA profile belonging to a person authorized to be at the crime scene ends up being sent to a DNA database for comparison, has to be taken into account. To our knowledge, no investigation has been made to evaluate the percentage of these non-perpetrator profiles straying into DNA databases. To shed light on this question, we collected reference samples from residents who had been victims of recent burglaries in their private homes. By comparing the profiles established from these reference samples with the profiles generated from trace DNA, we can show that the majority of the DNA samples collected in burglary investigations belong to the residents. Despite the limited number of cases included in the study, presumably due to a crime decline caused by the pandemic, we further show that trace DNA collection in the vicinity of the break and entry area, in particular window and door glasses, is most promising for sampling perpetrator instead of inhabitant DNA.

APPLICATION OF LOW-COST PARTICULATE MATTER SENSORS FOR MEASUREMENT OF POLLUTANTS GENERATED DURING 3D PRINTING

This work presents measurement results of pollutants generated during 3D printing. The measure of pollutants is the concentration of particulate matter with a diameter of up to 2.5 μm (PM2,5). Materials acrylonitrile-butadiene-styrene (ABS), polyactide (PLA) for a 3D printer and low-cost particulate matter concentration sensors PMS3003, PMS7003 were used in the research. Research results show that low-cost sensors can be useful for monitoring pollution during 3D printing in offices, laboratories or private homes.

Popular Opera in Eighteenth-Century France

This is the first book for a century to explore the development of French opera with spoken dialogue from its beginnings. Musical comedy in this form came in different styles and formed a distinct genre of opera, whose history has been obscured by neglect. Its songs were performed in private homes, where operas themselves were also given. The subject-matter was far wider in scope than is normally thought, with news stories and political themes finding their way onto the popular stage. In this book, David Charlton describes the comedic and musical nature of eighteenth-century popular French opera, considering topics such as Gherardi's theatre, Fair Theatre and the 'musico-dramatic art' created in the mid-eighteenth century. Performance practices, singers, audience experiences and theatre staging are included, as well as a pioneering account of the formation of a core of 'canonical' popular works.

Effect of Dementia Educational Program on Formal Caregivers Burden in Elderly Homes

Background: Dementia disease is usually identified among older patients, but it is not a part of the normal aging process. The number of Dementia's patients in the Arab countries is increasing due to increased longevity and improvement in the health care system. This study aimed to assess the effect of an educational program on Formal Caregivers Burden in Elderly Homes. Methodology: This study employed a quasi-experimental one-group pre-test-post-test design. The study was conducted in three elderly nursing private homes in Amman, Jordan using purposive sampling of 50 formal caregivers. Results: Dementia patient’s caregivers’ burden was decreased after program implementation, with statistically significant between pre- post, and three months after program implementation (p<.001). Findings demonstrated that the formal Dementia caregiver’s education program can effectively decrease burden among caregivers. Recommendation: Conducting continuing education program for Dementia patient’s caregivers in the nursing homes to promote their practices and decrease their burden.

Praying through the pandemic: Religion, uncertainty, and care

Throughout the Covid-19 pandemic, Roma Pentecostal converts in England continued to meet for religious gatherings and communal prayer, either outdoors or in private homes of church members, despite measures put in place by the British government that limited the number of social contacts between individuals and at times forbade visiting other households. Among the members of the Life and Light church are many who belong to one of the high-risk categories for complications from Covid-19. Why would converts take part in activities that involved increased risk of virus transmission and increase their possibility of getting ill? This paper draws on informal online and in-person conversations with Roma that took place during the summer and autumn of 2020 and reflects on religion and communal prayer as a strategy of coping with the heightened uncertainty brought by the pandemic. It argues that participating in religious meetings where people jointly pray for others, both those who present and those who are absent, is an intangible form of care that helps to forge, shape, and maintain social relationships and creates a sense of belonging and continuity. In addition, praying is an embodied expression of one’s relationship to a transcendental entity, Jesus, and of placing oneself into the caring hands of God and Jesus. Lastly, the Church provides material support for members who are in a difficult financial situation. Participating in Church activities like prayer meetings is an expression of belonging to a religious collectivity and can help gain access to this material help in situations when access to state-provided care and material support is limited or absent, thus opening for church members the possibility of tangible forms of care. The paper looks at the role of religion in dealing with the uncertainty that Roma migrants experience when dealing with the state and going about their everyday lives and the upheaval and increased uncertainty brought by the pandemic.

Television Sharknados and Twitter Storms: Cult Film Fan Practices in the Age of Social Media Branding

<p>This thesis examines the Syfy channel’s broadcast of the television movie Sharknado and the large number of tweets that were sent about it. Sharknado’s audience engaged in cult film viewing practices that can be understood using paracinema theory. Paracinema engagement with cult films has traditionally taken place in midnight screenings in independent movie theatres and private homes. Syfy’s audience was able to engage in paracinematic activity that included making jokes about Sharknado’s low quality of production and interacting with others who were doing the same through the affordances of Twitter. In an age where branding has become increasingly important, Syfy clearly benefited from all the fan activity around its programming. Critical branding theory argues that the value generated by a business’s brand comes from the labour of consumers. Brand management is mostly about encouraging and managing consumer labour. The online shift of fan practices has created new opportunities for brand managers to subsume the activities of consumers. Cult film audience practices often have an emphasis on creatively and collectively engaging in rituals and activities around a text. These are the precise qualities that brands require from their consumers. Sharknado was produced and marketed by Syfy to invoke the cult film subculture as part of Syfy’s branding strategy. This strategy can be understood using the theory of biopolitical marketing. Biopolitical marketing creates brands by encouraging and managing consumer activity on social media. Instead of simply promoting itself, a brand becomes an online platform through which consumers can engage. An active consumer base raises a brand’s profile and puts forward the image of happy, loyal customers. An equally important advantage of biopolitical marketing is that it can mask the marketing aspect of branding. Consumers who are cynical towards marketers may be less defensive towards a group of fellow consumers enjoying a product online. Developing a consumer community around a business where every consumer interaction enhances the brand and there is no semblance of marketer involvement is the end goal of biopolitical marketing. The subculture around cult films not only has brand-friendly practices, but is also positioned as being rebellious, a quality that can be particularly valuable in trying to mask the presence of marketing.</p>

Television Sharknados and Twitter Storms: Cult Film Fan Practices in the Age of Social Media Branding

<p>This thesis examines the Syfy channel’s broadcast of the television movie Sharknado and the large number of tweets that were sent about it. Sharknado’s audience engaged in cult film viewing practices that can be understood using paracinema theory. Paracinema engagement with cult films has traditionally taken place in midnight screenings in independent movie theatres and private homes. Syfy’s audience was able to engage in paracinematic activity that included making jokes about Sharknado’s low quality of production and interacting with others who were doing the same through the affordances of Twitter. In an age where branding has become increasingly important, Syfy clearly benefited from all the fan activity around its programming. Critical branding theory argues that the value generated by a business’s brand comes from the labour of consumers. Brand management is mostly about encouraging and managing consumer labour. The online shift of fan practices has created new opportunities for brand managers to subsume the activities of consumers. Cult film audience practices often have an emphasis on creatively and collectively engaging in rituals and activities around a text. These are the precise qualities that brands require from their consumers. Sharknado was produced and marketed by Syfy to invoke the cult film subculture as part of Syfy’s branding strategy. This strategy can be understood using the theory of biopolitical marketing. Biopolitical marketing creates brands by encouraging and managing consumer activity on social media. Instead of simply promoting itself, a brand becomes an online platform through which consumers can engage. An active consumer base raises a brand’s profile and puts forward the image of happy, loyal customers. An equally important advantage of biopolitical marketing is that it can mask the marketing aspect of branding. Consumers who are cynical towards marketers may be less defensive towards a group of fellow consumers enjoying a product online. Developing a consumer community around a business where every consumer interaction enhances the brand and there is no semblance of marketer involvement is the end goal of biopolitical marketing. The subculture around cult films not only has brand-friendly practices, but is also positioned as being rebellious, a quality that can be particularly valuable in trying to mask the presence of marketing.</p>

In Writing and in Sound

Copies of Dalāʾil al-Khayrāt (Proofs of Good Deeds) by the Moroccan Sufi saint Muḥammad b. Sulaymān al-Jazūlī (d. 870/1465) were in high demand in the eighteenth- and nineteenth-century Ottoman Empire. This required producing manuscripts in large numbers and, later, printing the text. These mostly lithographic copies and corpora of the Dalāʾil al-Khayrāt, when combined with references to biographical dictionaries, inheritance records, inventories, library catalogues, and endowment deeds, reveal a great deal of information about the public and private prevalence of the text, within and beyond the empire. The Dalāʾil al-Khayrāt appealed to many individuals, from Ottoman sultans to royal women, and from madrasa students to members of the learned class. Its copies were endowed to mosques and libraries, held in different book collections of the Topkapi palace, and were available from booksellers. Be it silently or aloud, the Dalāʾil al-Khayrāt could be read in private homes and in mosques from Istanbul to Medina, a feature of pious soundscapes across the empire.

Soziolinguistische Perspektiven auf Praktiken des Semiotic Landscaping in Zeiten der Coronavirus-Pandemie.

The Covid-19 pandemic has left an impact on the semiotic landscapes of both rural and urban environments. The present study analyses two corpora of signs which emerged as a direct result of the pandemic in the rural environment of Krummhörn, a municipality in northern Germany, and in the city of Essen (Ruhr Metropolis) between March and July 2020. In addition to regulatory and informative signage, the data revealed a high proportion of affective signs which were displayed mainly by individuals around private homes, intended as boosters of collective moral in times of crisis. The analysis shows that slightly different semiotic strategies were applied when comparing a rural with an urban environment.

Nature calls: intelligence and natural foraging style predict poor welfare in captive parrots

Understanding why some species thrive in captivity, while others struggle to adjust, can suggest new ways to improve animal care. Approximately half of all Psittaciformes, a highly threatened order, live in zoos, breeding centres and private homes. Here, some species are prone to behavioural and reproductive problems that raise conservation and ethical concerns. To identify risk factors, we analysed data on hatching rates in breeding centres (115 species, 10 255 pairs) and stereotypic behaviour (SB) in private homes (50 species, 1378 individuals), using phylogenetic comparative methods (PCMs). Small captive population sizes predicted low hatch rates, potentially due to genetic bottlenecks, inbreeding and low availability of compatible mates. Species naturally reliant on diets requiring substantial handling were most prone to feather-damaging behaviours (e.g. self-plucking), indicating inadequacies in the composition or presentation of feed (often highly processed). Parrot species with relatively large brains were most prone to oral and whole-body SB: the first empirical evidence that intelligence can confer poor captive welfare. Together, results suggest that more naturalistic diets would improve welfare, and that intelligent psittacines need increased cognitive stimulation. These findings should help improve captive parrot care and inspire further PCM research to understand species differences in responses to captivity.