Toxicological findings in a death involving dextromethorphan and terfenadine.

A case of fatal self-poisoning with dextromethorphan, an antitussive, and terfanadine, an antihistamine H1, is reported. Both drugs were quantified in several postmortem tissues and fluids using capillary gas chromatography coupled to mass spectrometry. Results are discussed in the light of the existing literature.     

Hair analysis: a worthless tool for therapeutic compliance monitoring

Hair analysis has been presented by some authors as a possible tool of investigation for estimating patients' compliance to long-term therapies. This paper summarises the different publications that have been devoted to this topic and highlights the available statistical data presented to support this proposition. Qualitative results of such determinations may be of some interest but due to the enormous interindividual variations of quantitative data, the idea of using hair analysis to ascertain whether a patient has taken his treatment exactly as prescribed, clearly appears to be inapplicable.     

Le contrôle politique des organismes autonomes à fonctions régulatrices et quasi-judiciaires

Sommaire. Le contrǒle politique des organismes autonomes à functions régulatrices et quasi-judiciaires est celui qu'exercent le Parlement et le gouvernement sur l'opportunité des mesures qu'adoptent ces organismes et qui doivent ětre appréciées en regard de l'intérět général. L'octroi d'un large pouvoir discrétionnaire en matière d'élaboration et d'application de la politique suivant un processus qualifié par notre droit de quasi-judiciaire soulève des difficultés considerables qui nous obligent à revoir les principes měmes qui régissent les rapports entre ces « tribunaux administratifs » et l'autorité politique parlementaire et gouvernementale. Les techniques de contrǒle utilisées dans la législation relative aux grandes régies fédérales notamment, la cct , le crtc , l’one , sou-lèvent également des difficultés. Ainsi, lorsqu'existe un droit d'appel au gouverneur en conseil ou au ministre, on s'interroge sur la portée de ces recours par rapport aux recours à la Cour fédérale prévus par la Loi sur la Cour fédéraLe ou d'autres lois particulières. De měme lorsque la législation prévoit des moyens de contrǒle à priori, tel le pouvoir d'émettre des directives, on se demande quelles sont les sanctions possibles dans le cas où le tribunal refuse ou néglige d'y donner suite. Ces problèmes sont au coeur des recherches en cours sur certains aspects du développement des principaux tribunaux administratifs ou organismes autonomes à functions régulatrices et quasi-judiciaires. Abstract. Political control of autonomous regulatory and quasi-judicial bodies is the control exercised by Parliament and the government over the actions of these bodies to assess their opportunity in regard to the general interest. The granting of wide discretionary power in the elaboration and application of policies following a procedure qualified in law as quasi-judicial raises considerable difficulties with respect to the very principles which determine the relations between these administrative tribunals and parliamentary and governmental political authority. With respect to the control techniques employed in the legislation relating especially to the major federal commissions such as the ctc , the crtc and the neb , these difficulties are particularly evident. On the one hand, when a right of appeal to the Governor-in-Council or the Minister exists, what is the extent of these remedies in relation to the recourse to the Federal Court granted by the Federal Court Act or other special statutes? When legislation provides for a priori controls such as the power to issue directives, what are the possible sanctions in the event that the tribunal refuses or neglects to follow them? These problems are at the very heart of present research on certain aspects of the development of the major administrative tribunals and autonomous bodies exercising regulatory and quasi-judicial functions.     

The power of international criminal courts: Strategic behavior and accountability networks

International criminal courts are often given mandates without the authority or resources to enforce those directives. Given this, how do they achieve their objectives? We argue that in the case of the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY), the court strategically developed an accountability network comprised of governmental and nongovernmental actors, using its expertise and position to provide information and a framework of accountability. Simultaneously, it reached out to a range of actors to ensure that governments and international organizations would push Balkan states to cooperate with the ICTY, thereby amplifying the court's power. Utilizing correspondence data, we create a unique dataset that traces the development of this accountability network, demonstrating how this institution engaged networks to pursue its goals. In general, we demonstrate that, although institutions may lack compulsory power, they can engage in strategic behavior using networks to project their productive power.     

Successful DNA typing of ultrafiltered urines used to detect EPO doping

Endogenous and exogenous erythropoietin (EPO) present in urine can be distinguished according to their isoelectric profiles. This methodology requires urine samples to be concentrated about 200 to 1000 times with manipulations that should remove most of the cells occurring in the original sample. In this study, we tried to obtain DNA profiles from 10 ultrafiltered urines (retentates) in order to evaluate whether a formal genetic identification was technically feasible. No nuclear DNA profiles could be established from retentates, despite 34 PCR-cycles amplifications. Contrastingly, mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) profiles were obtained for 9 out of the 10 retentates. Apart from some particularities, retentate mtDNA profiles were all distinct and matched mtDNA profiles of corresponding reference samples.     

Explaining race,poverty, and gender disparities in advanced course‐taking

We use panel data on Florida high school students to examine race, poverty, and gender disparities in advanced course‐taking. While white students are more likely to take advanced courses than black and Hispanic students, these disparities are eliminated when we condition on observable pre–high school characteristics. In fact, black and Hispanic students are more likely than observably similar white students to take advanced courses. Controlling for students' pre–high school characteristics substantially reduces poverty gaps, modestly reduces Asian–white gaps, and makes little dent in female–male gaps. Black and Hispanic students attend high schools that increase their likelihood of taking advanced courses relative to observably similar white students; this advantage is largely driven by minorities disproportionately attending magnet schools. Finally, recent federal and state efforts aimed at increasing access to advanced courses to poor and minority students appear to have succeeded in raising the share of students who take advanced courses from 2003 to 2006. However, secular trends (or spillovers of the policies to non‐poor, non‐minority students) have spurred faster growth for other students, contributing to widening demographic gaps in these years. © 2009 by the Association for Public Policy Analysis and Management.     

Simultaneous identification and quantification of several opiates and derivatives by capillary gas chromatography and nitrogen selective detection

A capillary column gas chromatographic method is described for the simultaneous determination of morphine, codeine, heroin, 3- and 6-monoacetylmorphine, nalorphine, naloxone, ethylmorphine, and naltrexone. The drugs were extracted from 2 ml plasma, urine, or other biological samples, including tissue under alkaline conditions in chloroform-isopropanol-n-heptane (50:17:33, v/v), with levallorphan as an internal standard. The drugs were extracted into acid and then reextracted into chloroform after the acid had been alkalinized. After derivatization with trifluoroacetic anhydride, an aliquot was injected into a 25m capillary column equipped with a nitrogen phosphorus detector. The lower limits of detectability, extraction recovery, and the within-run and day-to-day precision of results were determined for each drug. Our results indicate that the procedure is suitable for use in overdose screening and therapeutic drug monitoring.     

Elevated and similar urinary testosterone/epitestosterone ratio in all samples of a competition testing: suspicion of a manipulation

The case of seven urine samples collected for anti-doping purposes during a cycling stage race with moderately elevated testosterone and epitestosterone ratio (T/E) is reported. The very low probability of having all seven urine samples with such similar elevated T/E ratio (from 3.2 to 4.7) was very suspicious. Different pattern classification tools were tested to categorize the most similar steroid profiles, but none of the models enabled a clear classification of the different urine samples. Subsequently, genetic profiling of all urine samples was performed and demonstrated that three of the seven samples were collected from the same cyclist. Finally, the International Federation confirmed DNA profiling results. This suggests that urinary steroid data using several methodologies are not appropriate for identification purposes and to an extent not unique to individuals.