Ruling the Sea: Managing Maritime Conflicts through UNCLOS and Exclusive Economic Zones

Two primary mechanisms for managing competitive interstate claims to maritime areas are evaluated: the creation of private ownership of maritime zones in the form of Exclusive Economic Zones (EEZs) and the creation of a global institution, the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS), to establish standards for maritime claims and dispute resolution procedures. Analyses of maritime claims in the Western Hemisphere and Europe from 1900 to 2001 show that declared EEZs help states reach agreements over maritime conflicts in bilateral negotiations, while membership in UNCLOS prevents the outbreak of new maritime claims and promotes third-party management efforts of maritime conflicts. Neither mechanism influences the probability of militarized conflicts over maritime areas.     

International Institutions and Compliance with Agreements

The ultimate litmus test of compliance theories occurs in situations where states' interests are directly opposed, such as competing interstate claims over territory, maritime areas, and cross-border rivers. This article considers the extent to which the involvement of international institutions in the settlement of contentious issues between states bolsters compliance with agreements that are struck. Institutions may influence the prospects for compliance actively and passively . Active institutional involvement in the conflict management process increases the chances for compliance with agreements, particularly for binding institutional activities, relative to the active involvement of noninstitutional third parties. More passively, joint membership in peace-promoting institutions enhances the likelihood that states will comply with peaceful agreements to resolve contentious issues. Empirical analyses demonstrate the relevance of international institutions for resolving contentious interstate issues both actively and passively, although the results suggest that institutions are more effective conflict managers when they choose binding settlement techniques .     

The effect of sodium fluoride preservative and storage temperature on the stability of cocaine in horse blood, sheep vitreous and deer muscle

The in vitro stability of cocaine in horse blood, sheep vitreous humour (VH) and homogenised deer muscle is described. The stability of cocaine in horse blood was of interest because many toxicology laboratories utilise horse blood for the preparation of calibration and check standards and the latter are typically stored during routine use. The storage stability of cocaine in human VH and muscle has not been previously reported. In the absence of blank human VH and muscle, cocaine stability under varying conditions was demonstrated in animal tissues. Blood and VH were stored with and without addition of NaF at room temperature (RT), 4°C and -18°C for 84 days. Muscle homogenates were prepared in water, water/2% NaF, and phosphate buffer (pH 6.0)/2% NaF, and stored for 31 days at RT, 4°C and -18°C. Cocaine stability in human muscle obtained from cocaine positive forensic cases was assessed following storage at -18°C for 13 months. Cocaine and benzoylecgonine (BZE) were extracted using SPE and quantified by GC-MS/MS. Cocaine was stable for 7 days in refrigerated (4°C) horse blood fortified with 1 and 2% NaF. In the absence of NaF, cocaine was not detectable by day 7 in blood stored at RT and 4°C and had declined by 81% following storage at -18°C. At 4°C the rate of cocaine degradation in blood preserved with 2% NaF was significantly slower than with 1% NaF. The stability of cocaine in horse blood appeared to be less than that reported for human blood, probably attributable to the presence of carboxylesterase in horse plasma. Cocaine stored in VH at -18°C was essentially stable for the study period whereas at 4°C concentrations decreased by >50% in preserved and unpreserved VH stored for longer than 14 days. Fluoride did not significantly affect cocaine stability in VH. The stability of cocaine in muscle tissue homogenates significantly exceeded that in blood and VH at every temperature. In preserved and unpreserved samples stored at 4°C and below, cocaine loss did not exceed 2%. The increased stability of cocaine in muscle was attributed to the low initial pH of post-mortem muscle. In tissue from one human case stored for 13 months at -18°C the muscle cocaine concentration declined by only 15% (range: 5-22%). These findings promote the use of human muscle as a toxicological specimen in which cocaine may be detected for longer compared with blood or VH.     

Attachment,Coping, and Explanatory Style in Late Adolescence

Using self-report data from 157 college students, we tested hypotheses regarding the relative importance of perceived security in early parental relationships vs. security in adult (nonparental) relationships for understanding respondents' coping dispositions and explanatory styles. In general, more secure attachments were positively related to support-seeking and active problem-solving coping styles and to females' but not males' tendency to explain hypothetical successes and failures in a positive or self-enhancing manner. Security of adult (nonparental) attachments had stronger associations with young women's coping strategies than did security of early attachment to parents, whereas the reverse was true for males—a finding we interpret in terms of girls' earlier development of emotional autonomy from parents and closer ties to friends. Security of early attachment to father appeared to have important implications for young men's willingness to turn to others for support.     

Regulation and poverty: an empirical examination of the relationship between the incidence of federal regulation and the occurrence of poverty across the US states

Public Choice - We estimate the impact of federal regulations on poverty rates in the 50 US states using the recently created Federal Regulation and State Enterprise (FRASE) index, which is an...