The Needs and Financial Problems of Small and Rural Localities: The Case of West Virginia

The areas of Public Finance and Financial Management present potential problems for small and rural local governments. Responses from a survey of West Virginia local public officials were used to examine the severity of these two issues. Both issues were thought to be of equal importance Instead, the findings showed that Public Finance issues rated very high while Financial Management issues rated very low. Potential influences, such as type of locality, professionalism, and metropolitan area status, fail to explain the differences. Thus, it is concluded that for small and rural localities, Public Finance issues are more important than Financial Management issues     

Reconciling cultural diversity with a democratic community: Mestizaje as opposed to the usual suspects

A fascinating development within the liberal‐communitarian debate is how to deal with cultural diversity in increasingly heterogeneous democracies. Particularly noteworthy are Will Kymlicka's recasting of liberalism to deal with cultural minorities, especially the indigenous peoples of Canada and Charles Taylor's and Michael Walzer's articulation of a ‘deep diversity’ with regard to the federal relationship of Quebec to Canada as a whole. Both approaches, though, insufficiently address how combinations of cultures have been underway in the Americas for the past 500 years. Instead, I contend that mestizaje, the combination of cultures which has ensued in Mexico and the United States Southwest, articulates a ‘unity in diversity’ in which cultures transform each other without culminating in assimilation. To bolster my exegesis of mestizaje from the works of the Virgil Elizondo and Gloria Anzaldua, I accent how Jeremy Waldron's cosmopolitanism, Iris Marion Young's relational group theory, and Homi Bhabha's hybridity similarly illustrate how proposals such as Kymlicka's or Taylor/Walzer's insufficiently incorporate how integral heterogeneity is to cultural identity. In view of how ‘the border’ between the United States and Mexico exemplifies the growing intersection of diverse cultures from the developed and developing world, mestizaje offers that the intersection of multiple cultures in collaborative—not hegemonic—relations is intrinsic to realizing democratic citizenship.     

Re-Interpreting Cultural Nationalism

This article reviews standard and recent interpretations of cultural nationalism. It rejects "invention of tradition" perspectives, and assumptions that it is a surrogate statist movement, concerned with cultural homogeneity, that it is archaising in character, and that it is a transient movement, incompatible with full modernisation. It argues cultural nationalism seeks to "rediscover" an historically-rooted way of life; its concern is communitarian; that cultural nationalists act primarily as moral and social innovators; and that it is a recurring movement, embedded in the modern world.     

Electrospray and MALDI mass spectrometry in the identification of spermicides in criminal investigations.

Electrospray ionization (ESI) and matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionization (MALDI) mass spectrometry have been used to examine evidence in a sexual assault investigation. Because condoms are being used increasingly by sexual assailants and some condom brands include the spermicide nonoxynol-9 (nonylphenoxy polyethoxyethanol) in the lubricant formulation, the recovery, and identification of nonoxynol-9 from evidence items may assist in proving corpus delicti. A method was developed for the recovery of nonoxynol-9 from internal vaginal swabs and for its identification by reverse phase liquid chromatography/electrospray ionization mass spectrometry (LC ESI-MS), nanoelectrospray ionization (nanoESI) mass spectrometry, and high resolution MALDI Fourier transform mass spectrometry (MALDI-FTMS). The method was tested on extracts from precoitus, immediate postcoitus, and four-hours postcoitus vaginal swabs provided by a volunteer whose partner does not normally use condoms, but for this trial used a condom having a water-soluble gel-type lubricant that includes 5% nonoxynol-9 in its formulation. Subsequently, LC ESI-MS was used to identify traces of nonoxynol-9 from the internal vaginal swab of a victim of a sexual assault.