The Current Status and Roles of State Advisory Commissions on Intergovernmental Relations in the U.S. Federal System

During the 1970s and 1980s, a number of states created entities commonly called advisory commissions on intergovernmental relations (ACIRs). Although as many as half the states at one time or another supported an ACIR, only about 10 do so today. Relying on face‐to‐face and telephone interviews, e‐mail correspondence, website analysis, and mailed surveys of directors and other staff members of active and terminated ACIRs, this study reports on the organization and structure, staffing and finances, and activities and performance characteristics of the state ACIRs still viable today. The study attempts to identify factors that seem most related to successful performance of these agencies, as well as to the termination of the agencies. In conclusion, it speculates on the continued role of state ACIRs.     

Neuropsychological performance of sexual assaulters and pedophiles

Persons who had been arrested for sexual assault were administered the Luria-Nebraska Neuropsychological Battery and the results compared to a group of normal controls. The sexual assaulters performed significantly worse on 7 of the 14 scales of the battery. The data were then broken down into three groups: (1) those who had forcibly assaulted postpubescent victims, (2) those subjects who had sexually molested a prepubescent child, and (3) normal controls. A discriminant analysis correctly classified 68% of the subjects on the basis of their neuropsychological performance alone.     

Identification of members of the genera Panaeolus and Psilocybe by a DNA test. A preliminary test for hallucinogenic fungi

Abuse of hallucinogens produced by the fungal genera Psilocybe and Panaeolus are a growing problem. Five species from each of the two genera were examined in this preliminary research and a method that will unambiguously identify fungal samples as being of one of these two genera has been developed. The method uses genus specific DNA sequences within the Internal Transcribed Spacer of the ribosomal gene complex. Amplification of a common DNA product and a genus specific product results in two identifiable products, which facilitates the unambiguous identification of material from these two fungi to generic level.