A Legacy of Harm: Punitive Drug Policies and Women’s Carceral Experiences in Canada

There is limited research on the gendered impacts of drug policies in Canada, despite the fact that women, Indigenous women in particular, are the country’s fastest growing prisoner population, with many incarcerated for drug-related crimes. This article highlights the results of a larger qualitative study with former prisoners in Ontario and community and medical experts from across the country. Focusing on the women research participants, we consider the lack of adequate and culturally-relevant substance use and harm reduction programming in federal prisons, and suggest a reformulation of Canada’s punitive drug policies toward a health and social welfare approach.     

Discrimination of Geographical Origin of Asian Garlic Using Isotopic and Chemical Datasets under Stepwise Principal Component Analysis

Isotopic compositions of δ²H, δ¹⁸O, δ¹³C, and δ¹⁵N and concentrations of 22 trace elements from garlic samples were analyzed and processed with stepwise principal component analysis (PCA) to discriminate garlic's country of origin among Asian regions including South Korea, Vietnam, Taiwan, and China. Results indicate that there is no single trace‐element concentration or isotopic composition that can accomplish the study's purpose and the stepwise PCA approach proposed does allow for discrimination between countries on a regional basis. Sequentially, Step‐1 PCA distinguishes garlic's country of origin among Taiwanese, South Korean, and Vietnamese samples; Step‐2 PCA discriminates Chinese garlic from South Korean garlic; and Step‐3 and Step‐4 PCA, Chinese garlic from Vietnamese garlic. In model tests, countries of origin of all audit samples were correctly discriminated by stepwise PCA. Consequently, this study demonstrates that stepwise PCA as applied is a simple and effective approach to discriminating country of origin among Asian garlics.     

Sequencing,resistance and forced innovation: a longer view of china's financial reforms

Gradualist in nature, China's economic reform has been criticized as being wrongly sequenced. Serious problems of inertia and delayed changes, particularly in the macroeconomic and financial spheres have built up since 1979. To rectify the situation, the Chinese government launched in 1994 major reform initiatives covering taxation, central and commercial banking, and the foreign exchange system. This paper looks at the historical background to these financial reforms from the perspective of sequencing and examines the factors behind their partial and uneven successes.     

An extremely sensitive species-specific ARMs PCR test for the presence of tiger bone DNA

The survival of the tiger (Panthera tigris) is seriously threatened by poaching to provide raw materials for Traditional Chinese Medicines (TCMs). Most highly prized are the tiger's bones, which are used in combination with other animal and plant derivatives in pills and plasters for the treatment of rheumatism and other ailments. Hundreds of patent remedies have been produced which claim to contain tiger bone, but proof of its presence is needed, if legislation prohibiting the trade in endangered species is to be enforced. A highly sensitive tiger-specific real-time PCR assay has been developed to address this problem. Using primers specific to the tiger mitochondrial cytochrome b gene, successful amplification has been reliably achieved from blood, hair and bone as well as from a range of TCMs spiked with 0.5% tiger bone. Although capable of detecting fewer than 10 substrate molecules, the seven varieties of TCM pills and plasters tested showed no detectable trace of tiger DNA before spiking. Furthermore, sequencing several "tiger bone" fragments seized from TCM shops has shown that they actually originated from cattle and pigs. The potential effects of traditional bone preparation methods, evidence that much lower concentrations are used than alleged on TCM packaging, and substitution of bones from other species all suggest a low likelihood of detecting tiger DNA in patent medicines. Despite this, the basic methods have been thoroughly proven and can be readily applied to derivatives from other CITES protected species providing a rapid and highly sensitive forensic test for species of origin. Potential applications to the monitoring of wild populations are demonstrated by the successful identification of shed hairs and faecal samples.     

条约演化解释方法的最新实践及其反思

演化解释俨然已成为条约解释的一个新趋势,但在实践运用中,该方法却存在武断、机械和片面等问题。未遵循条约解释的基本原理是导致这些问题的主要原因。演化解释方法和当时意义解释方法的关系密切,应在综合考虑各个解释要素的基础上,对这两种方法权衡后再作选择。运用演化解释方法,应在条约已有概念的基础上进行,并且不得违背条约的目的和宗旨。演化解释方法的运用可沿循一定的路径进行。     

Drug addiction in Poland and criminalistic traces

The authors describe the most popular drugs and their substitutes being used in Poland. The paper also presents the problem of developing and examining criminalistic traces in biological and some non-organic materials.     

青少年吸毒者对艾滋病风险的认知及行为状况研究——以江苏省调查为例

对于吸毒和艾滋病的防控问题,是一个关系到如何确保中华民族的人口质量、避免由流行病的蔓延而危及人口安全的重大问题.这一问题的研究在保护青少年群体的公共卫生安全方面尤为重要.由于这一群体基于生理和心理的因素常表现为性活跃群体,而且其中一些人对于诸如毒品的诱惑和避免各种高危行为的自制力相对薄弱,因而他们容易发生共用针具吸毒和无保护性行为等高危行为,从而加大了感染艾滋病的风险.本文基于对南京和无锡吸毒人群的艾滋病风险意识的调查,来反映青少年吸毒者群体在艾滋病相关知识、性规范和生活态度、对艾滋病风险的认识,以及与其他年龄组群体相比所存在的差异.基于对调查资料的分析,我们力图寻找对于吸毒青少年进行行为矫正以帮助他们降低艾滋病感染风险的有效途径.     

Idealism versus realism in institutional choice: Explaining electoral reform in Poland

One of the most significant, yet not fully explained, institutional decisions in post‐Communist Europe was Poland's adoption of a moderate proportional representation system for the 1993 general election. This article argues that the new electoral system was not entirely based on any normative notion of democratic governance, and that the adoption did not immediately follow from the assumptions of rational choice theory. The 1993 electoral system was largely attributable to patterns of interaction between political parties that had become known, been practised and accepted since the fall of Communism. In reality, the eventual system was built up incrementally in several stages, but the Polish way of ‘muddling through’, albeit contentious and protracted, seems to have worked well for the Polish people.