ABSTRACT
The membrane interface probe (MIP) is an efficient and economical in-situ tool for chlorinated hydrocarbon (CH) contaminated site investigation. Given that the interpretation of MIP test is currently limited to a qualitative level, a theoretical model considering multiphase flow and multifield coupling is firstly proposed to simulate MIP test process. This model can consider phase change, membrane effect, adsorption and dissolution of the CH liquid, gas diffusion, and evaporation. Then, the model is used to study the changes in soil temperature and soil CH concentration during MIP test, as well as the influences of soil CH concentration and soil properties (initial water saturation, soil intrinsic permeability, and thermal properties) on MIP response. Finally, a simplified MIP interpretation model is developed based on parametric analysis results and verified against field and laboratory test data. It is found that the soil CH concentration, rather than soil properties, dominates the MIP response. The simplified interpretation model can deliver practical prediction of the CH concentration through the detected results by MIP, which may improve the applicability of MIP.
ABSTRACT
The development of an ink dating method requires an important investment of resources in order to step from the monitoring of ink ageing on paper to the determination of the actual age of a questioned ink entry. This article aimed at developing and evaluating the potential of three interpretation models to date ink entries in a legal perspective: (1) the threshold model comparing analytical results to tabulated values in order to determine the maximal possible age of an ink entry, (2) the trend tests that focusing on the "ageing status" of an ink entry, and (3) the likelihood ratio calculation comparing the probabilities to observe the results under at least two alternative hypotheses. This is the first report showing ink dating interpretation results on a ballpoint be ink reference population. In the first part of this paper three ageing parameters were selected as promising from the population of 25 ink entries aged during 4 to 304days: the quantity of phenoxyethanol (PE), the difference between the PE quantities contained in a naturally aged sample and an artificially aged sample (RNORM) and the solvent loss ratio (R%). In the current part, each model was tested using the three selected ageing parameters. Results showed that threshold definition remains a simple model easily applicable in practice, but that the risk of false positive cannot be completely avoided without reducing significantly the feasibility of the ink dating approaches. The trend tests from the literature showed unreliable results and an alternative had to be developed yielding encouraging results. The likelihood ratio calculation introduced a degree of certainty to the ink dating conclusion in comparison to the threshold approach. The proposed model remains quite simple to apply in practice, but should be further developed in order to yield reliable results in practice.
ABSTRACT
This study utilizes aspects of Ferraro's risk interpretation model in order to examine how social and physical vulnerabilities and victimization experiences relate to fear of online crime using Eurobarometer survey data. The results of the regression analyses show that individuals with prior cybercrime victimization experiences, women, and individuals with lower social status and lower confidence in their ability to use the Internet report higher levels of fear. Low social status and low confidence was found to have a significant interaction effect with prior victimization experiences in relation to fear of cybercrime. Prior victimization experiences with online fraud appear to increase fear of cybercrime in low social status individuals more than other groups. Experiences with hacked accounts or cyberattacks also intensifies the fear of those with low confidence more than those with a higher amount of confidence. Overall, the results of this study indicate that social and physical vulnerabilities as well as victimization have direct and indirect effects on fear of cybercrime, just as with traditional place-based crimes.