From alcohol to liquid ecstasy (GHB)--a survey of old and modern knockout agents. Part 2: benzodiazepines and other sedatives/hypnotic drugs

Owing to the rapid progress in the development of synthetic pharmaceuticals, the classical knockout drugs such as chloroform and diethyl ether have been superseded by highly effective sedative and hypnotic drugs (e. g. methyprylone, clozapine and especially benzodiazepines). These are frequently given to the victim unnoticed by adding them to an alcoholic drink. In this way, alcohol still plays an important role as an interaction partner. The article presents relevant case examples together with their criminalistic background.     

From alcohol to liquid ecstasy (GHB)--a survey of old and modern knockout agents. Part 3: gamma-hydroxybutyric acid ("liquid ecstasy")

Currently, gamma-hydroxybutyric acid (GHB/"liquid ecstasy") is frequently abused as a knockout substance. Its detection and the interpretation of the results present numerous problems which are illustrated by case reports. In this context, hair analysis and the increasing significance of gamma-butyrolactone (GBL) are also discussed.     

Doped hydrophobic silica nano- and micro-particles as novel agents for developing latent fingerprints

Novel hydrophobic silica based particles have been developed to visualise latent fingerprints. The composition of the particles has been designed to maximise both hydrophobic and ionic interactions between a variety of coloured and fluorescent reporter molecules and the silicate backbone within the particles. The resulting doped particles retain the incorporated dyes with high affinity. In addition, a variety of sub-particles have also been embedded to again produce coloured or magnetisable hydrophobic particles. The particles can be harvested as nanoparticles or microparticles. The former are applied to latent fingerprints as an aqueous suspension and the latter as a dusting agent using brushes or a magnetic wand. Examples of the prints produced using these agents are given. The resulting prints have good definition.     

Trustees versus fiscal agents and default risk in international sovereign bonds

Over the last 10?years, organisations such as the IMF have launched several initiatives to change market practice with respect to sovereign bond contract drafting to ease restructuring after defaults. The first of these, the universal adoption of collective action clauses, was embraced by the market after some hesitation. Another proposal??the more widespread appointment of trustees to represent bondholders in times of crisis, to centralise enforcement action against the debtor and thus to facilitate debt relief??has so far failed to have the desired impact. Amongst other potential reasons for this failure, the argument has been made that to vest enforcement rights in the trustee, as opposed to individual bondholder rights, would be to reduce the deterrence against opportunistic defaults and thus to exacerbate moral hazard. Using a sample of secondary market bond spreads and information on default status, this paper assesses empirically whether sovereign bonds issued under a trust structure indeed carry a higher default risk. It finds no systematic evidence of either a spread premium or higher actual default rates for bonds with collective enforcement rights.     

Legal outcomes and legal agents

Although a number of theories of law stress the importance of examining the characteristics of deviance processing agents for understanding criminal sanctioning, empirical studies have generally neglected these variables. Using data from a sample of convicted felons, this study looks at (1) both the additive and interactive effect of the probation officer's gender on sentencing recommendations accorded male and female offenders and (2) whether the social and political context, measured by the time span 1965–1980, alters any noted dyadic effects. The results indicate that both male and female officers recommend that female offenders receive the less severe sentences. Moreover, the context in which these recommendations are made has almost no appreciable effect. The implications of the findings for both the available theoretical frameworks and policy considerations are discussed.     

Social entrepreneurs as change agents: a case study on power and authority in the water sector

In view of urgent social and environmental problems, it is important to understand the political dynamics that may promote sustainable development and to identify the agents that make changes in this direction happen. We examine the role and authority of a new type of actor that has recently emerged on the global stage—the social entrepreneur, who tackles social and ecological problems with entrepreneurial means. We consider them as agents that perform functions and provide services that have been considered to be the sole authority of states. For instance, the provision of water services has long been considered an exclusive task of the state. The water sector therefore serves as a good example to explore how these agents come up with their own missions and political agendas. Via an illustrative sample of social entrepreneurs from around the world, we explore their relation to water governance in general and the hydraulic mission in particular. We propose that their innovative potential serves as their main source of authority. Their local embeddedness along with their educational efforts, participatory goals, and accreditation as “social entrepreneur” provide additional sources of authority.     

Rodents as taphonomic agents: bone gnawing by brown rats and gray squirrels

Passive infrared technology was used to film diurnal and nocturnal scavenging behavior of brown rats and gray squirrels at the University of Tennessee's Anthropological Research Facility. This direct documentation demonstrated that brown rats modified fat-laden cancellous bone while gray squirrels generally gnawed the thicker bone cortices only after fats had leached away. A case study placed in a shaded portion of the Facility indicated the postmortem interval for initial gnawing by gray squirrels was slightly over 30 months. An examination of 53 human skeletons in the William M. Bass Forensic Skeletal Collection revealed that 10 cases had gnaw marks consistent with those made by gray squirrels. One of the 10 cases had been gnawed within 16 months of time-since-death, while the remaining nine had postmortem intervals >30 months. Additional observed modifications made to nonhuman bone by gray squirrels indicate that squirrel gnaw marks on bone can serve as a minimal estimate of time-since-death in a temperate environment similar to that of East Tennessee.     

Medicines and psychoactive agents in traffic users—the medico-legal problem in Poland

The increasing number of traffic accidents connected with rapid development of motorization makes us think of their causes. Regulations by law binding in Poland demand traffic users to be checked up on the presence of agents similar ethyl alcohol. Commonly abused medicines, especially sedative and psychotropic but also hypnotic and analgesic are a great traffic problem. Up to the present analytical procedures and a model medico-legal opinion on the influence of medicines on psychophysical efficiency have not been standardised.In the paper the authors have presented the results of their research on agents negatively influencing the human psychophysical efficiency carried out in the Forensic Medicine Department, Silesian University of Medicine, Katowice. The research comprised individuals involved in both traffic crashes and accidents who (as checked) either where not under the influence of ethyl alcohol or the concentration of ethanol was low (1‰). Positive cases most often showed only one sort of medicines (barbiturates, benzodiazepines or opiates). In other cases barbiturates and benzodiazepines, benzodiazepines and opiates as well as derivatives of benzodiazepine and tricyclic antidepressants were determined. Blood concentrations of all these substances were in a wide range of therapeutic doses.     

Drug identification problems in two suicides with neuromuscular blocking agents

Cases of suicide committed with neuromuscular blocking agents have been investigated. Both cases involved anesthesiologists who took the muscle relaxants suxamethonium chloride (Sukolin) or pipecuronium bromide (Arduan) and a rapid-acting barbiturate, 5-sec-butyl-5-ethyl-2-thiobarbituric acid (Inactin). The examinations were performed by using gas chromatography and mass spectrometry. The quantitative data obtained showed that doses useful in general anesthesiological practice were applied. Metabolites were found despite their fast metabolizing character.     

Foreign agents or agents of justice? Private foundations,backlash against non-governmental organizations,and international human rights litigation

The premise of Russia's 2012 “Foreign Agents” Law, one of the first such laws restricting foreign funding for non-governmental organizations (NGOs), is that foreign monies equal foreign agendas. Since then, over 50 countries have adopted similar laws using a similar justification. This paper interrogates this claim of foreign donor influence through examining legal mobilization by human rights NGOs at the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR). We track donor support for litigation by providing an overview of all foundation grant flows relating to strategic litigation for 2013–2014, and then matching the granting activities of two major U.S. foundations over 14 years to human rights NGO participation in cases before the ECtHR. Further, through case studies of Russian NGOs, we assess the causal role that donor support has played in facilitating their increased involvement in ECtHR litigation. The combined analysis indicates broad patterns of private foundation support to litigating NGOs, but uncovers no evidence that foreign donors were “pushing” NGOs toward litigation as a strategy, but instead more evidence suggesting that NGOs convinced donors to support human rights litigation. Despite the inaccuracy of the justification underpinning Russia's foreign agent law, the law threatens the survival of human rights organizations.     

A tailored anger management program for reducing citizen complaints against traffic agents

Anger management programs have been used to address a range of clinical problems, but empirical tests of their effectiveness in the workplace have been limited. This study presents the results of a cognitive-behavioral anger management program employed with New York City traffic enforcement agents. Traffic agents issue summonses for vehicular and parking violations and have frequent conflicts with members of the public who are angry about receiving these summonses. Conflicts with the public are a significant source of job stress for agents and may increase their risk for physical injury. When members of the public are dissatisfied with the agents' actions, they can file a complaint with the agents' employer, the New York City Police Department. Complaints can reference the agent's interpersonal behavior or an administrative problem. The multi-component group intervention was provided to 114 agents, with a group of 184 agents served as the untreated comparison group. There was a significant Group (Treatment versus Control) by Time (Pre-test versus Post-test) interaction for the total rates of civilian complaints against agents (p<.03) and, more specifically, for the rates of civilian complaints related to the agents' interpersonal behavior (p<.01). Rates of civilian complaints against agents who participated in the treatment program decreased significantly over the testing period, whereas rates of complaints for agents in the control group did not change. The results suggest that this manualized program can produce changes in behavior relevant for the individual as well as the agency. Authors' Note: The authors wish to thank the many individuals at the New York City Police Department and the New York City Department of Transportation who provided support for this project. The project was funded through a grant from the New York State Department of Labor to the Communications Workers of America. We would also like to acknowledge the statistical advice of Joseph Schwartz, Ph.D., of SUNY Stonybrook.     

Automated consent through privacy agents: Legal requirements and technical architecture

The changes imposed by new information technologies, especially pervasive computing and the Internet, require a deep reflection on the fundamental values underlying privacy and the best way to achieve their protection. The explicit consent of the data subject, which is a cornerstone of most data protection regulations, is a typical example of requirement which is very difficult to put into practice in the new world of “pervasive computing” where many data communications necessarily occur without the users' notice. In this paper, we argue that an architecture based on “Privacy Agents” can make privacy rights protection more effective, provided however that this architecture meets a number of legal requirements to ensure the validity of consent delivered through such Privacy Agents. We first present a legal analysis of consent considering successively (1) its nature; (2) its essential features (qualities and defects) and (3) its formal requirements. Then we draw the lessons of this legal analysis for the design of a valid architecture based on Privacy Agents. To conclude, we suggest an implementation of this architecture proposed in a multidisciplinary project involving lawyers and computer scientists.     

Pattern detection in forensic case data using graph theory: application to heroin cutting agents

Pattern recognition techniques can be very useful in forensic sciences to point out to relevant sets of events and potentially encourage an intelligence-led style of policing. In this study, these techniques have been applied to categorical data corresponding to cutting agents found in heroin seizures. An application of graph theoretic methods has been performed, in order to highlight the possible relationships between the location of seizures and co-occurrences of particular heroin cutting agents. An analysis of the co-occurrences to establish several main combinations has been done. Results illustrate the practical potential of mathematical models in forensic data analysis.     

Impurities,adulterants and cutting agents in cocaine as potential candidates for retrospective mining of GC-MS data

Cocaine is one of the most widely used illicit drugs worldwide. Cocaine powders seized by the Police may contain numerous other substances besides the drug itself. These can be impurities originating from the coca plant or the production process, or be purposely added to the drug formulation as adulterants and cutting agents. In forensic laboratories, identification of cocaine is routinely done through GC-MS analysis, but other components are often ignored even if the method allows for their detection. Yet, they can provide valuable insight into the history of a seizure and its potential connection to other samples. To explore this idea, an extensive review of common impurities and adulterants encountered in cocaine is presented. Based on their incidence, concentration in the end product and compatibility with GC-MS methods, their overall usefulness as candidates for the statistical investigation of existing forensic data is evaluated. The impurities cis- and trans-cinnamoylcocaine, tropacocaine, norcocaine and N-benzoylnormethylecgonine as well as the adulterants lidocaine, procaine, tetracaine, benzocaine, caffeine, acetylsalicylic acid, phenacetin, ibuprofen, levamisole, hydroxyzine and diltiazem are promising candidates to provide additional forensic intelligence. Future research on optimized routine GC-MS methods, signal reproducibility, comparison, statistics and databases is suggested to facilitate this concept. Ultimately, such an approach may significantly advance the amount of information that is extracted from routine casework data, elucidate developments in the cocaine markets in the past and facilitate Police work in the future. Preliminary assessment of existing data from the forensic laboratory of the Amsterdam Police has been included to show that the detection of the identified target impurities is feasible, and that small adjustments to the analysis method could significantly increase the detectability of these analytes in prospective drug screenings. Forensic intelligence based on retrospective data mining of cocaine containing casework samples may thus be realized with minimal additional laboratory efforts by using already available instrumentation, samples and data.     

Analytical strategy for detecting doping agents in hair

Lists of banned classes of doping agents are released by the International Olympic Committee, adopted by other sports authorities and updated regularly, including the substance classes stimulants, narcotics, diuretics, anabolic agents, peptide hormones, beta-blockers etc. There are different classes of restriction: anabolic and masking agents (anabolic steroids, diuretics etc.) are always banned for athletes regardless of their topical activity (training or competition) several substances are permitted with certain restrictions (caffeine below a cut-off value, or inhalation of some beta 2 agonists) beta-blockers are prohibited in competitions of certain sports disciplines the majority of the substances (stimulants, narcotics etc.) is prohibited during competitions, so that they do not have to be analysed in out-of-competition samples. A differentiation between training and competition period is impossible by means of hair analysis due to the uncertainty of (especially short-term) kinetic considerations related to hair growth. Therefore, the analytical identification of doping relevant substances in hair is not always a sufficient criterion for a doping offence and the identification of stimulants, beta-blockers etc. in hair would be entirely irrelevant. The most interesting target substances are certainly the anabolic agents, because their desired action (enhanced muscle strength) lasts longer than the excretion, leading to sophisticated procedures to circumvent positive analytical results in competition control. Besides the analysis of out-of-competition control samples, the long term detection of steroids in hair could provide complementary information. An analytical approach to the identification of exogenous steroids in hair requires consideration of the presence of many other steroids in the hair matrix interfering the analysis at trace levels, and of a limited chemical stability. The analysis of endogenous steroids in hair appears to be even more complicated, because the possibility of many biotransformation reactions from (into) other precursors (metabolites) has to be taken into account. Precursor substances of anabolic steroids (especially esters as application forms) are very promising analytical targets of hair analysis, because they can only be detected after an exogenous intake. The quantitative evaluation of active parent compounds like testosterone (which is actively involved in physiological processes of hair growth) in hair is still controversial. Clinical applications under reproducible conditions can be useful, but the biovariability of these parameters will probably prevent the definition of acceptable cut-off levels as a criterion of abuse.     

Changes in DNA induced by toxic agents

This is a preliminary report on significant alterations in the DNA profile caused by toxic substances which potentially has profound implications for the use of DNA techniques in identification. Acute DNA changes in the globus pallidus of the brain in man caused by carbon monoxide poisoning were detected by DNA profiling with probe 33.15. Chronic DNA changes in rabbits caused by methamphetamine were detected by DNA profiling with probe 33.15, AmpFLP on D1S80, TH01, CSF1PO and TPOX loci. Pre-intoxication bands appeared, disappeared or were discoloured after intoxication. With PCR-dot blot hybridization testing for HLADQα, pre-intoxication positive spots became negative after intoxication and pre-intoxication negative spots became positive after intoxication. Intravenous injection of 10 mg/kg of methamphetamine every 2 days for 2 weeks was a large enough dose for inducement of genetic changes. In this investigation, clear changes in DNA due to intoxication were confirmed.     

Possession, use, and transfer of select agents and toxins. Final rule

This document establishes a final rule regarding possession, use, and transfer of select agents and toxins. The final rule implements provisions of the Public Health Security and Bioterrorism Preparedness and Response Act of 2002 and is designed to protect public health and safety. In a companion document published in this issue of the Federal Register, the United States Department of Agriculture has established corresponding final rules designed to protect animal and plant health and animal and plant products.     

An economic analysis of contracts signed between tour operators and travel agents

The tour operating process is based on many phases, one of which is the distribution of tourist products through the telephone, websites (direct sale) and through the traditional channel of exploiting travel agents’ skills and experience (indirect sale). This paper provides an economic analysis of contracts characterizing the relationship between tour operators and travel agents by taking into account risk-sharing, incentives and flexibility of contractual alternatives. The first part focuses attention on existing agreements regulating commercial and marketing aspects of the economic relationship with tour operators of both independent agents and agents belonging to a network, something whose importance is increasing over time. After the analysis of standard contracts, the paper describes controversial factors limiting the use of a potential compensation system based on a relative performance evaluation that, given the characteristics of the tourist market, could give firms a number of advantages. JEL classification D86. L14. L83     

The forensic chemical determination of antidiabetic agents

Method of detection, purification and determination of some antidiabetic agents (ADA)--bucarban, butamid, glybenclamid, glybutide, methformine, prediane, chlorpropamide, chlocyclamide, cyclamide in biological material was developed. Microcrystalline reaction with 10% alcoholic potassium iodide, colour reactions and investigation by TLC method both native substances and nitration products were developed to identify ADA. The assay is performed by spectrophotometry. Detection limit is 2-5 mg of each substance in 50 g of the material.     

A shot in the arm for the military: consent to immunisation against biological warfare agents

The risk to Britain's Armed Forces from Biological Warfare (BW) is low but without protection their use would be devastating. Available protective measures include immunisation. The Government owes a legal duty of care to Servicemen to provide protection against a range of hazards, including those of BW. The State also owes Servicemen a duty of care to allow free and informed consent or free and informed refusal to medical procedures, including immunisation. However, refusal by key personnel to accept BW immunisation could degrade operational capability. Resolution between these two, potentially conflicting, duties of care may be controversial. To override a soldier's expressed interests would rank society's needs higher than those of the individual. Yet there are circumstances, such as exposure of Servicemen to BW used by an aggressor, where this would be ethically acceptable. The State's interests, combined with the best interests of the Servicemen, provide adequate ethical argument for both occupational immunisation (where it is an entry criterion for the Armed Forces) and mandatory immunisation (where disciplinary action may be taken against the non-compliant). Historically, both approaches have been used for public health immunisations and the legal framework already exists for both.