Mass spectrometry as an aid in the detection and identification of piperidyl benzilates and related glycolates.

On the basis of the data presented above the following conclusions may be drawn. 1. The molecular ion peaks of most of the compounds examined are relatively weak but usually easily discernible to permit molecular weight determination. 2. The mass spectra of benzilate esters exhibit a relatively intense peak at m/e 183, and monitoring of this ion can serve as a means for preliminary screening for the presence of this type of a system. 3. Related esters exhibit a similar type of fragmentation resulting in a fragment ion analogous to m/e 183 but shifted by the appropriate number of mass units according to the substituents present. 4. Cleavage of the piperidine ring-ester oxygen bond in 3 and 4-substituted isomers is followed by selective losses of hydrogen radicals to produce ions of type e, f, and g as indicated above. It is significant that in a related piperidine ring system (methylphenidate) substituted in the 2 position, the same type of cleavage results in no further hydrogen losses [16] because of charge stabilization from the ring nitrogen (ion j, Fig. 17) [17]. In other words, the tendency to form a conjugated ion following initial bond cleavage can serve as a means for identifying the position of substitution on the ring and for distinguishing positional isomers.     

Does police patrol in large areas prevent crime? Revisiting the Kansas City Preventive Patrol Experiment

Research Summary

The Kansas City Preventive Patrol Experiment (KCPPE) was seen by its developers to have produced “consistent evidence of the lack of effects of any consequence on crime,” a conclusion that was to have a strong impact on assumptions about police patrol for almost half a century. We identified the original official crime data from the KCPPE, and reanalyzed outcomes focusing on a comparison of the “proactive” versus “control” beats (“reactive beats” were criticized because of violations of treatment integrity); examining broad categories of crime (to increase statistical power); and using count regression models. Our findings are not unequivocal, but point to modest impacts of police patrol on crime in police beats.

Policy Implications

Our findings suggest that lessons drawn for half a century from the KCPPE need to be revisited. The KCPPE does not show that police patrol in large areas has no influence on crime, and this finding is consistent with several more recent studies. At the same time, we note that the effects of patrol in the KCPPE using our analysis strategy, and those found in other studies of preventive patrol in larger areas, are about half that found in hot spots policing studies. This suggests that police agencies ideally should invest in focused hot spots policing initiatives. However, absent an ability to manage such initiatives, or the crime analysis capabilities to identify crime hot spots routinely, simpler preventive patrol schemes to utilize uncommitted patrol time can be seen as potentially effective in preventing crime.     

Polls as Public–Politic Linkage: A Comparative Analysis of Poll Use and Roles of MPs in Parliamentary Debate

Opinion polls as a linkage mechanism between the public and politics have rarely been examined in a parliamentary context. In our comparative study (Germany, New Zealand, Switzerland and the United Kingdom) we analyse if and how polls are invoked by MPs with different roles in parliamentary debates. Focusing on three theoretical aspects (responsiveness, populism and deliberation), we find that polls are indeed invoked to bring the views of the public into parliamentary debate to some degree, but they are also often used merely to support policies already developed in the political realm. Fears of the populist effect of polls are exaggerated; polls, in fact, have a positive influence on the discursive quality of parliament. Looking at parliamentary roles, we find very different patterns of poll use: while MPs oriented towards their constituencies use polls in the most direct and participatory vein, others mediate public opinion as displayed by polls through different institutions (the party, the parliament) or through expertise.     

Online Tallies and the Context of Politics: How Online Tallies Make Dominant Candidates Appear Competent in Contexts of Conflict

In this article, we extend the classical notion of online tallies to shed light on the psychology underlying the rapid emergence of dominant political leaders. Predicated on two population-based panel surveys with embedded experiments, we demonstrate that citizens (1) store extremely durable tallies of candidate personalities in their long-term memory and (2) retrieve different tallies depending on the context. In particular, we predict and demonstrate that when contexts become more conflict-ridden, candidate evaluations rapidly shift from being negatively to positively associated with online impressions of candidate dominance. Although the notion of online tallies was originally proposed as an explanation of why citizens are able to vote for candidates on the basis of policy agreement, we demonstrate how the existence of context-sensitive online tallies can favor dominant candidates, even if the candidate is otherwise unappealing or does not share policy views with citizens on key issues.     

Psychical and physical symptoms after torture. A prospective controlled study

This is the first controlled study of torture victims published. Ten persons who alleged subjection to torture were examined by two different medical teams during the first months after torture. The testimonies of the probands were found to be credible and the method of examination was found to be reliable. The state of health of the probands was inferior to that of the control persons (P less than 0.01) which reflects the effect of torture on health. The most frequent symptoms were psychological: depression, anxiety, emotional lability, reduced ability for contact, disturbed sleep, nightmares, impaired concentration and memory.