The National Partnership for Environmental Priorities Program

The National Partnership for Environmental Priorities (NPEP) program was created by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (USEPA) to reduce or eliminate the nation's production of hazardous wastes and products. The NPEP is a voluntary program that provides incentives to public, private, and federal organizations that minimize their use and generation of thirty-one priority chemicals. These chemicals are considered to be persistent, bioaccumulative, and toxic in the environment and present health risks to human and ecological receptors. The USEPA estimates that 90 percent of priority chemicals are used or produced during manufacturing of various household and industrial products and, as a result, end up in municipal and industrial waste streams. Ultimately, these chemicals find their way back into the environment through wastewater discharges, incineration, or other disposal practices. The NPEP program supports the goals of the National Waste Minimalization Program by encouraging simple waste minimalization solutions such as recycling, replacement, or elimination of wastes or products that contain priority chemicals, and cradle-to-cradle management of waste. Although the USEPA does not limit waste minimalization practices to only the priority chemicals, the program has set specific goals to track the elimination of these thirty-one chemicals to the environment on an annual basis.     

Chlorinated Opium Alkaloid Derivatives Produced by the Use of Aqueous Sodium Hypochlorite During the Clandestine Manufacture of Heroin

Abstract:  A clandestine chemist was observed producing heroin from crude morphine utilizing a solution of sodium hypochlorite during the process. Numerous chlorinated opium alkaloid derivatives were created when the morphine acetylation reaction was quenched and neutralized with a solution of sodium hypochlorite and ammonium hydroxide. Four of these compounds, 1-chloroheroin, 1-chloroacetylcodeine, 1-chloro-O⁶-monoacetylmorphine, and 2'-chloropapaverine, were characterized via preparative isolation, gas chromatography/mass spectrometry, nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy, and independent synthesis. These chlorinated derivatives were formed via electrophilic aromatic substitution with free chlorine during the illicit process. Although no illicit heroin exhibits containing these compounds have been observed in seizures to date, mass spectral data are provided for several of these compounds for their identification should they be seen within future seizures of illicit heroin.     

Programs for Men who Perpetrate Domestic Violence: An Examination of the Issues Underlying the Effectiveness of Intervention Programs

This review paper seeks to explore some of the reasons why rehabilitation programs for male perpetrators of domestic violence appear to be less effective in reducing recidivism than programs for other offender groups. It is argued that while the model of systems response to domestic violence has predominated at the inter-agency level, further consideration might be given to way in which men’s intervention groups are both designed and delivered. It is concluded that the program logic of men’s domestic violence programs is rarely articulated leading to low levels of program integrity, and that one way to further improve program effectiveness is to incorporate some of the approaches evident in more general violence prevention programs and from what is know about good practice in general about offender rehabilitation.

Asian Male Domestic Violence Victims: Services Exclusive for Men

The main reasons abused men do not seek social services include their strong endorsement of social/cultural values and avoidance of gender role conflict. Through internet-based service connections, we did not find sources in Asia, Australia, or New Zealand that advertised programs exclusively for male victims of domestic violence (DV). Nine social services in Hong Kong and Singapore describe their work with men in DV situations, but the main focus is “men as perpetrators.” Targeting men as victims, 32 sources in Canada, the United States, and the United Kingdom describe services designed especially for male DV victims. Findings demonstrate that services for male victims must address such factors as secretiveness, cultural values, masculine identity, tolerance, shame, and loss of face.     

Between market forces and knowledge based motives: the governance of defence innovation in the UK

The purpose of this contribution is to examine the evolutionary transformations that have characterised the UK defence innovation system since the mid 1980s. It focuses on the central and challenging issue faced by the Ministry of Defence (MoD) in implementing effective governance mechanisms emerging from the continuous trade-off between short-term market driven measures motivated by efficiency arguments, and more long term and relational considerations in terms of knowledge economics. Furthermore, in terms of technology transfer, this evolution has been accompanied by a gradual shift from an initial logic of spin-off to society expected from government driven military projects, to a logic of spin-in where the main concern of the military sector is to broaden its industrial and R&D base.

Wikitopia: Balancing intellectual property rights within open source research databases

Wiki “communities” based on the open access ideology allow any visitor to easily add, remove or edit content. However, there are a slew of ethics and policy challenges inherent in their use. Open source software developers are faced with the dilemma of openly sharing their intellectual property and prevent others from claiming proprietary rights from the code they freely shared to the public? Intellectual Property rights licensing, ironically, is the route by which open software developers have chosen to regulate their free code in cyberspace. Open source code is generally free on the surface; but in reality, it comes with obligations which are enforceable by law. Aside from the potential liability for intellectual property infringement, the use of open software raises competition law and tort liability issues. The European Union has developed the European Public License which is written in conformity with the copyright, product liability and consumer protection laws of the 27 member states. The EU Commission has also proposed a new Directive which will extend the principles of consumer protection rules to cover licensing agreements of products like software. This paper will address the various legal issues that may arise in open source community sharing.     

Reliability of a two-dimensional footprint measurement approach

Although footprint evidence can be taken from the scene of a crime, the science underpinning such measurement in forensic science has not been fully explored.A literature search revealed various measuring approaches, all of which demonstrated either little or no measurement rigour in terms of reliability. The aim of this study was to apply a robust measurement approach for testing the reliability of two-dimensional footprint impressions.Three dynamic and three static footprints were taken from the right foot of thirty female and thirty one male volunteers using the ‘Inkless Shoeprint Kit’. The images were digitised. Lengths, widths and angles were measured using a selection of currently employed methods.An investigation of the reliability of the chosen measuring method suggested high intra-rater agreement: for example, the length measurement suggested an intraclass correlation coefficient (ICC) 0.99, 95% Confidence Interval (CI) ? 0.28 to 0.01, standard error of measurement (SEM) 0.07, Limits of Agreement (LOA) ? 0.91 to 0.65.Inter-rater reliability between three operators was also high: SEM ranged from 0.05 mm to 0.07 mm, ICC 0.99.Our study has established a reliable two-dimensional measuring technique that could be used for footprint comparison in further research.     

Thatcherism and the Conservative Party

Neither spatial models of party competition nor the 'Westminster' model of British politics explain the phenomenon of Thatcherism. One explanation of its success, examined by Crewe and Searing, suggests that Mrs Thatcher sought to convert the Conservative party and the wider electorate to her distinctive brand of liberal Whiggism and traditional Toryism. They found little evidence of the success of this, however, among the British electorate as a whole. In this paper, data from the first national survey of Conservative party members demonstrates that she had little success in converting the Conservative party to these ideas either, although she did have a secure ideological base within the party. The results also suggest that her successor, John Major, has a rather different support base within the party from that of Mrs Thatcher. The implications of these findings for spatial models of party competition and the Westminster model of British politics are discussed.     

Mass Political Behaviour: Is There More to Learn?

Research progress in voting studies and party competition, the mass media, work on social movements, interest groups and collective action, is reviewed for the last decade. Theoretical impetus in applied work seems weak in British studies; sub-fields of research are being pursued in isolation. In electoral studies at least there are signs of over-specialization and loss of valuable interconnections with the mainstream of political science. A number of pathways for improving the state of the art are identified, focusing on a renewal of theoretical input, the correction of some 'system biases', greater methodological pluralism and more integration of demand-side and supply-side studies.     

Emergency relief programmes for pastoral communities

This article makes the case that emergency relief programmes in pastoral areas of Africa do little to relieve the fundamental effect of famine, which is destitution. It argues that traditional mechanisms of coping with drought are often disrupted by food-aid programmes, especially Food-For-Work. Three case studies from Sudan and Kenya are used to support the argument. The article concludes by making policy recommendations for emergency programmes to be more effective in meeting the primary need of pastoralists following severe drought, which is to rebuild herds and therefore their livelihoods.