Analysis of Δ-tetrahydrocannabinol in oral fluid samples using solid-phase extraction and high-performance liquid chromatography–electrospray ionization mass spectrometry

An analytical method using solid-phase extraction (SPE) and high-performance liquid chromatography–mass spectrometry (LC–MS) has been developed and validated for the confirmation of Δ⁹-tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) in oral fluid samples. Oral fluid was extracted using Bond Elut LRC-Certify solid-phase extraction columns (10 cm³, 300 mg) and elution performed with n-hexane/ethyl acetate. Quantitation made use of the selected ion-recording mode (SIR) using the most abundant characteristic ion [THC + H⁺], m/z 315.31 and the fragment ion, m/z 193.13 for confirmation, and m/z 318.00 for the protonated internal standard, [d₃-THC + H⁺]. The method proved to be precise for THC, in terms of both intra-day and inter-day analyses, with coefficients of variation less than 10%, and the calculated extraction efficiencies for THC ranged from 76 to 83%. Calibration standards spiked with THC between 2 and 100 ng/mL showed a linear relationship (r² = 0.999). The method presented was applied to the oral fluid samples taken from the volunteers during the largest music event in Portugal, named Rock in Rio-Lisboa. Oral fluid was collected from 40 persons by expectoration and with Salivette^®. In 55% of the samples obtained by expectorating, THC was detected with concentration ranges from 1033 to 6552 ng/mL and in 45% of cases THC was detected at concentrations between 51 and 937 ng/mL. However, using Salivette^® collection, 26 of the 40 cases had an undetectable THC.     

公共服务、公共管理与法国公共行政的现代化

本文基于胡德(Hood)的新公共管理思想和霍尔(Hall)与赖特(Wright)的新历史制度主义观点,分析了法国最近的几次改革及其相关理念,认为如果不同的政府都采用私营部门的管理方法来解决相似的问题,那么,改革的具体内容则依每个国家自身的环境,或先天条件而定.     

Surnames,marriage, and consanguinity in eighteenth and nineteenth century haute-provence

A study of the stem family system in a group of villages in Haute-Provence during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries reveals the existence of a high degree of isonymy (same-namedness). The sources employed were marriage contracts and parish registers permitting genealogical reconstitution. Does isonymy always signify a marriage between close relatives bearing the same name? In fact, although the spouses might share a common ancestor, that ancestor might date back many generations. The relatively frequent occurrence of marriages among homonymous spouses should not be interpreted as absolute proof of a union between close relatives. Indeed, heteronymic alliances, even exogamic ones, can hide a marriage between first cousins, if consanguinity is transmitted by the mothers.     

The origins and development of the Jihadist movement: from anti-communism to terrorism

Gilles Kepel is Professor, Institute of Political Studies, Paris (1985 to present); Senior Researcher, CNRS (National Board for Scientific Research), Paris (1984 to present); Director of the Doctoral Program on the Muslim World, Institute of Political Studies (1994 to present). He was Visiting Professor, Columbia University, New York (1996–1997); Researcher, CEDEJ (Egyptian–French Center for Scientific Cooperation), Cairo, Egypt (1980–1983). He is the author of several books on Islam, including Jihad: The Trail of Political Islam, published by IB Tauris in 2002 (reviewed in this issue of Asian Affairs, p. 158) and Bad Moon Rising: A Chronicle of the Middle East Today (Saqi, 2003). An earlier version of this article was published in Ramse`s, 2003     

Les réformes des finances publiques en France : évolutions et enjeux

Abstract: France, like many other countries, has undertaken an in‐depth reform of its public finances over the past few years. The originality of the French system lies in the fact that the reforms focused strongly on the three sub‐systems of public finance (i.e., government finance, local finance and social finance). The reforms are designed, on the one hand, to streamline the French public financial system and to provide a certain consistency for addressing its inherent complexity and, on the other, to clarify the roles of the various public stakeholders in order to allow for better management of the country's public finances.     

Social relations and agricultural production in Nepal's Terai

The analysis of the process of surplus production, expropriation and realisation is central to the understanding of both the development process and the forces which are leading to transformation, particularly those arising from the relations of production [Frank, 1967; Laclau, 1971; Amin, 1974]. A central argument of this paper is that the details of the production relations, especially in agriculture, can vary very considerably, not only for historical reasons, but because of specific conditions in the technology of production and the conditions existing in the economy external to the actual process of production described. Institutions to control labour and property relations which best fit in with the maximisation of the expropriation of surplus value may not be those which are conventionally associated with industrial capitalism. This paper explores surplus production and expropriation in a specific situation: the production of the agricultural surplus in Nepal's Terai, in order to explain the social formations occurring within it.