No / An increased number of police enquiries involving human remains buried with lime have demonstrated the need for more research into the effect of different types of lime on cadaver decomposition and its micro-environment. This study follows previous studies by the authors who have investigated the effects of lime on the decay of human remains in laboratory conditions and 6 months of field experiments. Six pig carcasses (Sus scrofa), used as human body analogues, were buried without lime with hydrated lime (Ca(OH)2) and quicklime (CaO) in shallow graves in sandy-loam soil in Belgium and recovered after 17 and 42 months of burial. Analysis of the soil, lime and carcasses included entomology, pH, moisture content, microbial activity, histology and lime carbonation. The results of this study demonstrate that despite conflicting evidence in the literature, the extent of decomposition is slowed down by burial with both hydrated lime and quicklime. The more advanced the decay process, the more similar the degree of liquefaction between the limed and unlimed remains. The end result for each mode of burial will ultimately result in skeletonisation. This study has implications for the investigation of clandestine burials, for a better understanding of archaeological plaster burials and potentially for the interpretation of mass graves and management of mass disasters by humanitarian organisation and DVI teams.

The paper decomposes average income differentials between Roma and non-Roma in South East Europe into the component that can be explained by group differences in income-related characteristics (characteristics effect), and the component which is due to differing returns to these characteristics (coefficients or discrimination effect). The decomposition analysis is based on Blinder (1973) and Oaxaca (1973) and uses three weighting matrices, reflecting the different assumptions about income structures that would prevail in the absence of discrimination. Heckman (1979) estimators control for selectivity bias. Using microdata from the 2004 UNDP household survey on Roma minorities, the paper finds that a large share of the average income differential between Roma and non-Roma is explained by human capital differences. Nevertheless, significant labour market discrimination is found in Kosovo for all weight specifications and in Bulgaria and Serbia for two weight specifications. (author's abstract)

This paper directs interest on country-specific labour market discrimination Roma may suffer in South East Europe. The study lies in the tradition of statistical Blinder-Oaxaca decomposition analysis. We use microdata from UNDP's 2004 survey of Roma minorities, and apply a Bayesian approach, proposed by Keith and LeSage (2004), for the decomposition analysis of wage differentials. This approach is based on a robust Bayesian heteroscedastic linear regression model in conjunction with Markov Chain Monte Carlo (MCMC) estimation. The results obtained indicate the presence of labour market discrimination in Albania and Kosovo, but point to its absence in Bulgaria, Croatia, and Serbia. (authors' abstract)