A novel method for cyanide quantification in human whole blood using ion chromatography with amperometric detection and its application to cyanide intoxication cases

Cyanide is a highly toxic agent that has been frequently used for suicide in South Korea. It is also used in various industrial fields, such as metal plating, in which many accidental cyanide intoxications have occurred. To overcome the disadvantages of conventional cyanide analysis methods, a simple and fast method for the analysis of cyanide in whole blood using ion chromatography (IC) with amperometric detection was developed in this study. Whole blood samples were deproteinized, diluted, and analyzed using an IC–amperometric detection system. The limits of detection and quantitation were 0.1 and 0.2 mg/L, respectively. The method showed good linearity in the range of 0.2 to 50 mg/L with R² > 0.99. The intra- and inter-assay precision and accuracy values were <10%. The established method was successfully applied to analyze whole blood samples from three cyanide intoxication cases.     

Sample Mining and Data Mining: Combined Real-Time and Retrospective Approaches for the Identification of Emerging Novel Psychoactive Substances

Novel psychoactive substances (NPS) are synthetic drugs that pose serious public health and safety concerns. A multitude of NPS have been identified in the United States, often implicated in forensic investigations. The most common and effective manner for identifying NPS is by use of mass spectrometry and the true utility lies within nontargeted acquisition techniques. During this study, a liquid chromatography quadrupole time-of-flight mass spectrometry (LC-QTOF-MS) assay was developed, validated, and implemented for forensic toxicology testing. A SCIEX TripleTOF™ 5600 + with SWATH^® acquisition was used. Resulting data were compared against an extensive library database containing more than 800 compounds. The LC-QTOF-MS assay was applied to the reanalysis of biological sample extracts to discover emergent NPS. More than 3,000 sample extracts were analyzed, and more than 20 emerging NPS were detected for the first time. Among these were isopropyl-U-47700, 3,4-methylenedioxy-U-47700, fluorofuranylfentanyl, N-methyl norfentanyl, 2F-deschloroketamine, 3,4-methylenedioxy-alpha-PHP, eutylone, and N-ethyl hexedrone.     

全覆盖预算绩效管理的内容建构和路径探讨

经济新常态下,预算绩效管理已不再仅是对支出效率评估的工具,而是成为了实现国家治理现代化的保障机制。全覆盖预算绩效管理作为构建预算绩效管理体系的重要组成部分,以目标导向为原则,一方面旨在弥补传统预算绩效中存在的问题,另一方旨在构建起包括一般公共预算绩效管理体系、其它政府预算绩效管理体系和解决政府与社会企业的"五种合作模式"存在的部分问题的预算绩效管理体系。为推动全覆盖预算绩效管理的践行,应积极推进全覆盖与全方位预算绩效管理格局紧密配合、与全过程预算绩效管理链条有机联动的路径机制。同时,弥补全覆盖预算绩效管理相关的法律不足、建立健全全覆盖预算绩效考评监督体系等相关配套措施的顶层设计,从而推进"绩效管理平面化"向"绩效管理立体化"转变、实现财政支出效率和预算绩效管理的战略规划目标。     

Red Tape,Rule Burden,and Legitimate Performance Trade-Offs: Results from a Vignette Experiment

Abstract

Goals in the public sector are complex and managers can face situations in which pursuing one legitimate goal necessitates performance trade-offs in other areas. This study tests how knowledge of legitimate performance trade-offs shapes the perception of red tape. Using a vignette experimental design and a sample of university students, between group t-tests and regression analyses suggest that, when evaluating increased rule burden, individuals that are provided with information about how objectively burdensome rules serve alternative values such as equity and effectiveness associate them with lower levels of red tape. A series of Monte Carlo simulations suggest that this effect is substantial.     

论科学发展观视野中的地方政府绩效评价体系的优化

科学发展观的提出受到各界的普遍关注并得到了高度的评价。为确保科学发展观的贯彻落实,地方政府绩效评价体系的优化显得尤其重要。首先,要按照科学发展观的要求,构建科学的评价指标体系;其次,要完善评价主体结构;再次,要开发利用科学的评价技术与方法;最后,必须制定完善的法律法规,规范地方政府绩效评价活动。     

死者生前债务法律处置初探

我国实行限定继承的继承制度,又采取的是直接继承的方式,在缺乏对继承人有效监督的情况下,对债权人的保护极为不利,有必要对继承人予以限制。死者生前和死后都可能达成债务承担协议,实现债务全部或部分转移。由此,极可能引发纠纷。这些问题又恰恰是法律所未规定或规定不全面而为司法实践所常见者。因此从解决实际问题出发,本文对此略作探讨。     

High performance liquid chromatographic determination of alcohols with reference to body distribution of methanol

A method has been developed on reverse phase high performance liquid chromatography for simultaneous determination of methyl, ethyl and isopropyl alcohols under refractive index detection using pure water as the mobile phase. A good separation has been achieved between these alcohols. Detector response was linear with a detection limit of 5 mg/100 ml. Recovery studies were performed by adding known amounts of methyl and ethyl alcohols to blood, lung and liver within the range 80–90%. The reproducibility of the results was always >90%. The quantitative distribution of methyl alcohol in postmortem body tissues and fluids has been reported in three cases of poisoning.     

The effect of board size and composition on European bank performance

Banks are “special” financial institutions generating distinct corporate governance challenges. The present paper examines the relationship between two of the most pertinent corporate governance factors—that is, the size of the Board of Directors and the proportion of non-executive directors—and firm performance on a sample of 58 large European banks over the period 2002–2004. The empirical analysis embraces a number of bank-specific variables. Our results reveal that bank profitability is negatively related to the size of the Board of Directors, while the impact of Board composition, although positive in all models, is, in most cases, insignificant. The results are robust after controlling for firm-specific variables.      

Acidic and neutral drugs screen in blood with quantitation using microbore high-performance liquid chromatography–diode array detection and capillary gas chromatography–flame ionization detection

Blood previously acidified with aqueous saturated ammonium chloride solution was extracted with ethyl acetate. The dried extract was subjected to acetonitrile–hexane partition. The acetonitrile portion was analysed for the presence of acidic and neutral drugs by HPLC–DAD (200 mm×2.1 mm I.D. microbore ODS-Hypersil column) and GC–FID (25 m narrow-bore×0.25 mm I.D. HP-5 column with 0.33 μm film thickness). The protocol was found to be suitable for both clinical toxicology (including emergency toxicology) and postmortem toxicology. At least 66 drugs of interest were unequivocally identified by RRTs (HPLC) and UV spectra (DAD) match while another 12 were unequivocally identified by double RRTs match (HPLC and GC). Quantitation was facilitated by incorporating calibration blood standards in each assay batch. The five drugs most commonly encountered in clinical blood specimens (1150 cases) were: paracetamol (47.4% of the cases); chlormezanone (6.6%), theophylline (1.74%), naproxen (1.65%) and mefenamic acid (1.56%). The following drugs were detected in toxicologically significant quantities in postmortem blood specimens (245 cases): phenobarbitone (1.22% of the cases), naproxen (0.82%), chlormezanone (0.82%), theophylline (0.82%), carbamazepine (0.41%) and paracetamol (0.41%).     

稳压电源性能测试仪研制

针对线性稳压电源的性能指标测试过程繁琐、测量结果不理想等问题，我们采用单片机技术实现了全自动测量，将测量中所需的自耦调压器、滑线变阻器、各种测量仪表（交流电压表、精密直流电压表、精密电流表、交流毫伏表）分别设计成智能仪表，自动输出和测量稳压电源需要的工频信号和输出的电压、电流信号，同时进行指标的计算，实时显示稳压电源的性能指标，根据需要可由微型打印机输出测量结果。