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This book offers an in-depth analysis of the concept of the direct enforcement of foreign restraint and confiscation orders, a crucial step in the process of asset recovery, including existing legal approaches and related challenges. In order to provide a balanced and informed overview, 31 jurisdictions, representing different United Nations regional groups and legal systems (civil law / common law / mixed systems), were selected as the focus of the analysis. This approach provides a meaningful picture of the situation worldwide from which generally applicable guidance could be drawn. The study suggests a series of practical steps and good practices for consideration by (1) countries exploring the possibility to introduce a direct enforcement mechanism into their domestic legal frameworks and (2) countries already in a position to directly enforce foreign confiscation orders but that are considering options to streamline processes and maximize results obtainable via direct enforcement approaches. This new StAR Initiative knowledge product is addressed to a broad range of law enforcement, justice, and asset recovery practitioners, as well as bodies involved in legislative and regulatory processes, and will be useful tool in their work.

Future smart agents, like robots, should produce personalized behaviours based on user emotions and moods to fit more in ordinary users’ activities. Besides, the emotions are also linked to human cognitive systems, thus their monitoring could be extremely useful in the case of neurodegenerative diseases such as dementia and Alzheimer. Literature works propose the use of music tracks and videos to stimulate emotions, and cameras to recorder the evoked reactions in human beings. However, these approaches may not be effective in everyday life, due to camera obstructions and different types of stimulation which can be related also with the interaction with other human beings. In this work, we investigate the Electrocardiogram, the ElectroDermal Activity and the Brain Activity signals as main informative channels, acquired through a wireless wearable sensor network. An experimental methodology was built to induce three different emotional states through social interaction. Collected data were classified with three supervised machine learning approaches with different kernels (Support Vector Machine, Decision Tree and k-nearest neighbour) considering the valence dimension and a combination of valence and arousal dimension evoked during the interaction. 34 healthy young participants were involved in the study and a total of 239 instances were analyzed. The supervised algorithms achieve an accuracy of 0.877 in the best case.

Objective: The objectives of this paper are to develop and test the ability of a wearable physiological sensors system, based on ECG, EDA, and EEG, to capture human stress and to assess whether the detected changes in physiological signals correlate with changes in salivary cortisol level, which is a reliable, objective biomarker of stress. Methods: 15 healthy participants, eight males and seven females, mean age 40.8 ± 9.5 years, wore a set of three commercial sensors to record physiological signals during the Maastricht Acute Stress Test, an experimental protocol known to elicit robust physical and mental stress in humans. Salivary samples were collected throughout the different phases of the test. Statistical analysis was performed using a support vector machine (SVM) classification algorithm. A correlation analysis between extracted physiological features and salivary cortisol levels was also performed. Results: 15 features extracted from heart rate variability, electrodermal, and electroencephalography signals showed a high degree of significance in disentangling stress from a relaxed state. The classification algorithm, based on significant features, provided satisfactory outcomes with 86% accuracy. Furthermore, correlation analysis showed that the observed changes in physiological features were consistent with the trend of salivary cortisol levels (R2 = 0.714). Conclusion: The tested set of wearable sensors was able to successfully capture human stress and quantify stress level. Significance: The results of this pilot study may be useful in designing portable and remote control systems, such as medical devices used to turn on interventions and prevent stress consequences.

We report on the preliminary results obtained out of a wearable module designed to be encompassed within a ring-shaped system aimed at providing healthcare services. The module is composed of two sensors for the measuring of Galvanic Skin Response (GSR) and Heart Rate Variability (HRV). A first device validation was carried out by involving four subjects who were asked to perform tasks providing different stress-related statuses. A comparison of physiological parameters measured by the module with those measured by a commercial HRV-GSR sensor chosen as gold standard was made. Two out of the three HRV parameters and all of the GSR parameters measured with the module resulted consistent (mostly differing less than 10%) with the same parameters measured by the gold standard. The work reported in this paper set a milestone for the realization of a system exploiting sensor fusion to provide active ageing, stress detection, activity recognition and e-health services has been achieved.

The chapter highlights some challenges and constraints that the law enforcement community faces when addressing illicit trade as a distinctive phenomenon, framing the discussion within the paradigm of organized crime today and current perceptions of illicit trade among practitioners. Notably, the discussion centers on advocating a change in cultural attitudes as a pre-requisite for effective law enforcement action. In addition, a detailed overview of the four major paths that could be followed to create useful deterrents against illicit trade is provided. Those paths include: legislative reform, notably to ensure that appropriate penalties are applied; the use of organized crime legislation in illicit trade related investigations; systematic resort to criminal justice treaties as global legal tools to facilitate the international exchange of evidence, in particular the UN Convention against Transnational Organized Crime; and using more resources on intelligence-driven investigations and preventive criminal proceedings for the purpose of disrupting illicit trade operations “in the making†. Each path is considered as an integral part of a coordinated policy and law enforcement based strategy.

This paper introduces HighChest, an innovative smart freezer designed to promote energy efficient behavior and the responsible use of food. Introducing a novel human–machine interface (HMI) design developed through assessment phases and a user involvement stage, HighChest is state of the art, featuring smart services that exploit embedded sensors and Internet of things functionalities, which enhance the local capabilities of the appliance. The industrial design thinking approach followed for the advanced HMI is intended to maximize the social impact of the food management service, enhancing both the user experience of the product and the user’s willingness to adopt eco- and energy-friendly behaviors. The sensor equipment realizes automatic recognition of food by learning from the users, as well as automatic localization inside the deposit space. Moreover, it provides monitoring of the appliance’s usage, avoiding temperature and humidity issues related to improper use. Experimental tests were conducted to evaluate the localization system, and the results showed 100% accuracy for weights greater or equal to 0.5 kg. Drifts due to the lid opening and prolonged usage time were also measured, to implement automatic reset corrections.

In Res. 1373 (2001), the Security Council laid down the duty to bring terrorists to justice and to deny them safe haven. Whereas such duty expressed a clear political imperative in the aftermath of 11 September 2001, it is less clear how national authorities are supposed to translate it into a set of enforceable legal obligations. If it is interpreted as ‘obliging’ states to prosecute and try terrorists, as the Security Council Counter Terrorism Committee seems to suggest, the power of prosecutors to decide whether or not to bring a case to court may be severely impaired. An unconditional obligation to bring terrorists to court would not necessarily strengthen states’ judicial response to the threat of international terrorism. A sensible exercise of prosecutorial discretion may be instrumental in articulating a flexible and more effective response in various circumstances. Moreover, a rigid interpretation of the requirement to bring terrorists to justice does not find support in Security Council and General Assembly resolutions on terrorism. Far from mandating that alleged offenders be unconditionally brought to trial, the universal counter-terrorism conventions and protocols limit themselves to requiring that the jurisdiction of national courts be established, which is conceptually different from imposing its actual exercise.

Pectus Excavatum is an anatomical deformation characterized by a depression of the anterior chest wall. Nuss technique (representing the current clinical golden standard) consists in the introduction of a corrective metal bar, in order to raise the sternum in its anatomic natural position. Nowadays, the bar plays purely a mechanical/corrective action and is kept implanted for about three years, supporting up to a maximum force of 250 N. Our study aims at optimizing the procedure of correction, in terms of monitoring the bar effect, minimizing the body response, and facilitating the bar removal. The sensorized Nuss bar prototype inserted in a platform for telemedicine described in this article is able to monitor in vitro pressure data variations, with more than 150 discrete measurements during the operating period. This behavior is promising for future clinical applications, in which the device could be exploited to monitor the forces at work, thus, providing a customized therapeutic protocol, which in turn may optimize the period of implant. The sensorized bar was also provided with a polymeric coating, able to influence human dermal fibroblast behavior in vitro. This highlights the possibility to minimize, in future in vivo applications, tissue fibrotic responses.