Heavy Metal Music and Adolescent Suicidal Risk

This study probes the differentiating characteristics (family relationships, social–psychological attitudes, drug use, and suicidal risk) of youth who prefer heavy metal (HM) music, worship music, and use music for vicarious release. Data analysis was based on a sample of 275 secondary school students between the ages of 14 and 18. Logistic regressions revealed that HM music preference and worshipping is not significantly related to suicidal risk when controlling for other risk factors. These findings were found for both boys and girls. Surprisingly, the use of music for vicarious release was inversely related to suicidal risk for girls. These findings are discussed within the framework of Arnett's alienation theory (Arnett, J. (1991). J. Youth Adolesc. 20(6): 573–592) and Roe's uses-gratification theory (Roe, K. (1995). J. Youth Adolesc. 24(5): 617–631) regarding adolescent socialization and media purposes.     

Aspects of local government and politics in china: 1955–58

This study, based on work in six villages, seeks insights into the likely effect of the introduction of prospective land‐, water‐, and crop‐management technologies, being researched at the International Crops Research Institute for the Semi‐Arid Tropics, on the existing village labour‐use patterns in one major relevant region: peninsular India. Explicit attention is given to the similarities and differences between small and large farms and their relevance to the adoption of the prospective new technologies.

Regional variation in labour utilisation reveals a tremendous employment‐creating potential in the existing tank and well irrigation systems in the Alfisols of peninsular India. The prospective technologies should increase employment, compared with existing technologies, by at least 100 per cent in the Alfisols and by over 300per cent in the deep Vertisols— but with some increase in the seasonal variability of labour demand. Given the existing availability of labour, there will be, with the improved watershed technologies, major farm labour bottlenecks. These should eventually generate increased wage rates and employment potentials. However, even temporary adverse effects on the timelessness of operations could be critical to the success of a double‐cropping and/or intercropping technology aiming at greatly increased yields. This would create demands for selective mechanisation, for example, of threshing.     

The role of venture capital firms in Silicon Valley's complex innovation network

Abstract

We still poorly understand why Silicon Valley has originated so many breakthrough innovations and large companies. The durability of Silicon Valley's innovative competence over the last seventy years also needs more explanation. The failure of several policy-makers around the world to reproduce the Silicon Valley cluster reveals the misunderstanding of the innovative dynamic in Silicon Valley. This study uses complex network theory – CNT (Barabási, Newman & Watts, 2006; Jen, 2006; Thompson, 2004a) to analyse the complex innovative capability of Silicon Valley and to understand the heterogeneity of agents and the multiplexity of ties that support creation and development of high-tech start-ups. As proposed by Barabási (2002, p. 200), we view the economy as a complex network, whose nodes are companies and whose links represent the various economic and financial ties connecting them. Innovation and entrepreneurship are understood as resulting from the interactions of numerous economic agents.

In a systemic perspective, by definition, the presence of a specific agent in a network induces specific interactions with other agents that could not take place if this agent were not there. Thus, the diversity of agents influences the dynamics of the system. The presence of venture capital (hereafter VC) firms in an innovative cluster opens potential specific interactions with other agents in the network (universities, large companies, laboratories) that determine a particular dynamic of innovation. In this perspective, what is distinctive about Silicon Valley is its complete and robust complex system of innovation supported by social networks of interdependent economic agents in which the VC firms have a specific function. Our perspective examines five different contributions of VC firms to Silicon Valley: financing, selection, collective learning, embedding and signalling. These five functions are different ways for the VC firms to interact with the other members of the complex network of innovation and to support the robustness of the system.     

An original cause of drowning in an industrial environment

We describe an original case of drowning in a wax tank in an industrial setting. The causes of death were multiple, with the association of drowning, mechanical asphyxia, and extensive superficial burns. To our knowledge, it is the first report of drowning in wax, and only 7 previous related observations of drowning in industrial environments were reported in the international literature. These accidents are more often fatal, with multiple associated causes of death due to the incriminated media. Although exceptional, these serious accidents must be prevented in potentially risky industries.     

Simultaneous analysis of six amphetamines and analogues in hair, blood and urine by LC-ESI-MS/MS. Application to the determination of MDMA after low ecstasy intake

A rapid and sensitive method using LC-MS/MS triple stage quadrupole for the determination of traces of amphetamine (AP), methamphetamine (MA), 3,4-methylenedioxyamphetamine (MDA), 3,4-methylenedioxymethamphetamine (MDMA, "ecstasy"), 3,4-methylenedioxyethamphetamine (MDEA), and N-methyl-1-(3,4-methylenedioxyphenyl)-2-butanamine (MBDB) in hair, blood and urine has been developed and validated. Chromatography was carried out on an Uptisphere ODB C(18) 5 microm, 2.1 mm x 150 mm column (Interchim, France) with a gradient of acetonitrile and formate 2 mM pH 3.0 buffer. Urine and blood were extracted with Toxitube A (Varian, France). Segmented scalp hair was treated by incubation 15 min at 80 degrees C in NaOH 1M before liquid-liquid extraction with hexane/ethyl acetate (2/1, v/v). The limits of quantification (LOQ) in blood and urine were at 0.1 ng/mL for all analytes. In hair, LOQ was <5 pg/mg for MA, MDMA, MDEA and MBDB, at 14.7 pg/mg for AP and 15.7 pg/mg for MDA. Calibration curves were linear in the range 0.1-50 ng/mL in blood and urine; in the range 5-500 pg/mg for MA, MDMA, MDEA and MBDB, and 20-500 pg/mg for AP and MDA. Inter-day precisions were <13% for all analytes in all matrices. Accuracy was <20% in blood and urine at 1 and 50 ng/mL and <10% in hair at 20 and 250 pg/mg. This method was applied to the determination of MDMA in a forensic case of single administration of ecstasy to a 16-year-old female without her knowledge during a party. She suffered from hyperactivity, sweating and agitation. A first sample of urine was collected a few hours after (T+12h) and tested positive to amphetamines by immunoassay by a clinical laboratory. Blood and urine were sampled for forensic purposes at day 8 (D+8) and scalp hair at day 60 (D+60). No MDMA was detected in blood, but urine and hair were tested positive, respectively at 0.42 ng/mL and at 22 pg/mg in hair only in the segment corresponding to the period of the offence, while no MDA was detectable. This method allows the detection of MDMA up to 8 days in urine after single intake.     

Usefulness of Systematic Histological Examination in Routine Forensic Autopsy*

Abstract: The forensic community does not agree on the need to perform histological examination at forensic autopsy. The aim of our study was to determine the usefulness of systematic standard histology in forensic autopsies. A prospective study was carried out on 428 autopsy cases for which standard histological examination was systematic. Mechanism of death not shown by gross anatomic findings was discovered by histology in about 40% of the cases. Cause of death was established by only histology in 8.4% of the cases. Microscopic findings affected the manner of death in 13% of the cases. Histology provided complementary information about prior medical condition of the deceased in about 49% of the cases. Traumatic lesions were better documented by histology in about 22% of the cases. According to the results of our study, systematic standard histology for the main organs should be used in routine forensic autopsies.