A validated SPME-GC-MS method for simultaneous quantification of club drugs in human urine

A solid-phase microextraction-gas chromatographic-mass spectrometric (SPME-GC-MS) method has been developed and validated for measuring four club drugs in human urine. These drugs include gamma-hydroxybutyrate (GHB), ketamine (KET), methamphetamine (MAMP), and methylenedioxymethamphetamine (MDMA). These drugs are referred to as 'club drugs' because of their prevalence at parties and raves. Deuterium labeled internal standards for each of the four drugs was included in the assay to aid in quantitation. The drugs were spiked into human urine and derivatized using pyridine and hexylchloroformate to make them suitable for GC-MS analysis. The SPME conditions of extraction time/temperature and desorption time/temperature were optimized to yield the highest peak area for each of the four drugs. The final SPME parameters included a 90 degrees C extraction for 20min with a 1min desorption in the GC injector at 225 degrees C using a splitless injection. All SPME work was done using a 100microm PDMS fiber by Supelco. The ratio of pyridine to hexylchloroformate for derivatization was also optimized. The GC separation was carried out on a VF-5ht column by Varian (30m, 0.25mm i.d., 0.10microm film thickness) using a temperature program of 150-270 degrees C at 10 degrees C/min. The instrument used was a ThermoFinnigan Trace GC-Polaris Q interfaced with a LEAP CombiPal autosampler. The data was collected by using extracted ion chromatograms of marker m/z values for each drug from the total ion chromatograms (TIC) (full scan mode). Calibration curves with R(2)>0.99 were generated each day using the peak area ratios (peak area drug/peak area internal standard) versus concentration. The validated method resulted in intra-day and inter-day precision (% R.S.D.) of less than 15% and a % error of less than 15% for four concentrations in the range of 0.05-20microg/mL (MAMP) and 0.10-20microg/mL (GHB, KET, and MDMA). This method has the advantage of an easy sample preparation with acceptable accuracy and precision for the simultaneous quantification of these four drugs of abuse and shows no interference from the urine matrix.     

小城镇服务业人才培养问题研究

劳动力市场人才资源的配置问题是小城镇服务业发展中急需解决的重要问题之一。本文从用人单位满意度分析的基础上,采用模糊综合评价法对当前小城镇服务业劳动力需求与人才培养对接问题现状进行了评价,发现劳动力市场人才资源的配置与人才培养供给之间出现了严重的失衡。人才培养只有遵循劳动力市场需求,动态地调整培训方案与体系,才能够健康持续地发展。     

The Importance of Contract Design

This article examines the contract design decisions of three federal agencies—the Departments of Health and Human Services, Defense, and Homeland Security—using five years of data from the Federal Procurement Data System. Three basic contract design elements are charted—type (fixed price versus cost reimbursement), length, and value—across simple to complex products. All three agencies use short‐term, fixed‐price contracts for the majority of the purchases that they make. This basic contract design allows agencies to tap the benefits of competition: innovation and cost‐efficiency. However, the Departments of Defense and Homeland Security often dramatically increase the length and value of contracts through modifications to initial agreements. This approach forgoes the benefits of competition and may expose the agency to the risk of cost overruns, delivery delays, and diminished product quality.     

The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse: Understanding Human Security

Since the end of the Cold War, security studies have broadened to take into account a wide range of non‐military threats ranging from poverty to environmental concerns rather than just national defence. Security scholars, backed by international organizations and a growing number of national governments, have developed the concept of ‘human security’, focusing on the welfare of ordinary people against a broad range of threats. This has aroused vigorous debate. The first part of this article proposes an analytical model of human security. The second part argues that it is important to measure how ordinary people perceive risks, moving beyond state‐centric notions of human security. New evidence is examined that draws upon survey items specially designed to monitor perceptions of human security, included for the first time in the sixth wave of the World Values Survey (WVS), with fieldwork conducted in 2010–12. The third part demonstrates that people distinguish three dimensions – national, community and personal security – and then explores some structural determinants driving these perceptions. The fourth part discusses why perceptions of human security matter, particularly for explaining cultural values and value change around the world. The conclusion argues that the shift from a narrow focus on military security toward the broader concept of human security is a natural response to the changing challenges facing developed societies, in which the cost‐benefit ratio concerning war has become negative and cultural changes have made war less acceptable. In this setting, valid measures of perceptions of human security have become essential, both to understand the determinants of the concept among ordinary people and to analyze their consequences.     

东南亚国家的经济外交与地区安全秩序的重塑

冷战结束后,塑造东亚地区安全秩序的力量来源主要有两个:一是雅尔塔体系的遗产,二是东南亚国家的经济外交。一方面,中国与俄罗斯通过上海合作组织构建了在安全等领域的合作,而美国在美日同盟的基础上强化了其在东亚的单边及多边同盟体系。因此,雅尔塔体系遗产的组织化程度较以往明显提高。另一方面,东南亚诸国通过在东盟"10+"合作框架、亚太经合组织以及亚欧会议等平台实施经济外交,比较成功地把主要大国及区域集团力量牵绊在东亚地区,并藉此影响了冷战后东亚地区的政治、安全秩序。     

MORALITY,MARKETS, AND THE ASC: 2011 PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESS TO THE AMERICAN SOCIETY OF CRIMINOLOGY*

This Presidential Address explores the possibilities for fruitful multilevel theorizing in criminology by proposing an integration of insights from situational action theory (SAT), a distinctively micro‐level perspective, with insights from institutional anomie theory (IAT), a distinctively macro‐level perspective. These perspectives are strategic candidates for integration because morality plays a central role in both. IAT can enrich SAT by identifying indirect causes of crime that operate at the institutional level and by highlighting the impact of the institutional context on the perception‐choice process that underlies crime. Such multilevel theorizing can also promote the development of IAT by revealing the “micro‐instantiations” of macro‐level processes and by simulating further inquiry into the social preconditions for institutional configurations that are conducive to low levels of crime. Finally, drawing on Durkheim's classic work on occupational associations, I point to the potential role of professional associations such as the American Society of Criminology in promoting and sustaining a viable moral order in the advanced capitalist societies.