Surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy enables confirmatory detection of dyes on hair submerged in hypolimnion water for up to twelve weeks

Difficulties in the localization of bodies of homicidal or drowning victims in natural water result in their submergence for weeks if not months. Water insects and microbes drastically change the body's appearance, which significantly changes the determination of a victim's identity. DNA analysis is commonly used for identifying the decedent; however, this PCR-based approach is time-consuming and destructive of the evidence. Considering that nearly half of the people in the world dye their hair with a variety of permanent and semi-permanent dyes, one can expect that confirmatory identification of dyes on the body's hair can be used to shed light on the victim's identity. A growing body of evidence suggests that surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy (SERS) can be used to detect and identify hair dyes. In this study, we investigated the extent to which SERS could be used to detect black and blue, permanent and semi-permanent dyes on hair submerged in hypolimnion water for up to twelve weeks. We found that SERS enabled 100% accurate identification of analyzed dyes on hair submerged in hypolimnion water for up to 8 weeks, whereas, on average, 87% accurate identification of the hair dyes could be achieved on hair exposed for 10 weeks and 50% for hair exposed 12 weeks in hypolimnion water. We also found that the aqueous environment caused progressive fading of some dyes, whereas other dyes showed substantial spectral transformations after prolonged submergence. Finally, we found that changes in the intensity of vibrational bands of dyes could be used to predict the duration of submergence of colored hair in hypolimnion water.     

Management and safety of a medical mission: occupational hazards of volunteering

Medical aid missions involve travel to conflict or danger zones, posing safety risks in addition to the usual occupational risks arising from daily medical work. The note reports on a volunteer mission, using personal reports, anecdotal experiences, and the formal annual report to undertake an assessment similar to worksite assessments for hazards and control measures. Hazards were found to be prevalent, including physical noise and heat, infectious exposure from patients and local vectors, poor water sanitation, and psychosocial stress from unfamiliar environments and large patient numbers with limited means. Implementable preventative measures include increasing awareness with appropriate protective equipment usage and safety guidelines. Mission planning and management should also involve occupational health input.     

Teaching law in Scotland

ABSTRACT

The theory of threshold concepts has become a popular way to describe the difficulties students face when trying to grasp fundamental ideas in a discipline. In law authors have suggested a range of concepts as thresholds. However these suggestions conflict with each other, and have not emphasised the way in which students repeatedly encounter such thresholds. Using variation theory and the concept of knowledge capability this article suggests that the Threshold Capability Integrated Theoretical Framework may be a way to resolve those differences and to highlight the ongoing nature of liminality in becoming a professional. Students may grasp initial threshold concepts early in a degree or subject, develop the ability to manipulate and use them in a variety of settings towards the end of the degree, and develop a lifelong professional ability to use them in diverse settings after graduation. Law students, lawyers and indeed law teachers may be best seen as in a constant state of learning. The uncertainty that goes with that learning is to be embraced, and encouraged as part of the way we teach law.     

An Economic Justification for Open Access to Essential Medicine Patents in Developing Countries

This paper offers an economic rationale for compulsory licensing of needed medicines in developing countries. The patent system is based on a trade-off between the "deadweight losses" caused by market power and the incentive to innovate created by increased profits from monopoly pricing during the period of the patent. However, markets for essential medicines under patent in developing countries with high income inequality are characterized by highly convex demand curves, producing large deadweight losses relative to potential profits when monopoly firms exercise profit-maximizing pricing strategies. As a result, these markets are systematically ill-suited to exclusive marketing rights, a problem which can be corrected through compulsory licensing. Open licenses that permit any qualified firm to supply the market on the same terms, such as may be available under licenses of right or essential facility legal standards, can be used to mitigate the negative effects of government-granted patents, thereby increasing overall social welfare.     

Ownership versus competition: Efficiency in public enterprise

Certainly the introduction of product market competition into potentially competitive or, at least contestable, markets can improve performance. To take just one example, Morrison and Whinston (1986, 1986) estimate that even in the imperfectly contestable U.S. airline industry, the annual U.S. welfare gains from deregulation have been around $6 billion.But this paper argues, and further buttresses empirically, that ownership also matters and matters a lot. This does not necessarily imply that private ownership is always preferable to public ownership. PCs also engage in rent-seeking where possible, but they will try to maximize realizable rents by (relatively) keeping down production costs. Of course, where there are massive economies of scale and scope, high entry barriers, or externalities, public ownership may be preferred. (see Vickers and Yarrow, 1988).     

Costs and benefits through bureaucratic lenses: Example of a highway project

This article characterizes the perceptions of government bureaucrats about cost-benefit analysis (CBA). The observations arise after working with government officials on various projects and leading many executive seminars for government employees over the last decade on the principles and practice of CBA. Government employees tend to adopt one of three conceptual lenses: Guardians, Spenders, and Analysts. These perspectives differ sharply from one another, resulting in completely different meanings to the words benefits and costs. The orientation of Guardians is to “revenue-expenditure” analysis, while Spenders are oriented to “constituency-support” analysis. Analysts are oriented to standard CBA. The differences in perspectives are illustrated using an ex ante CBA of a proposed toll highway project.     

Iraq: A 'Never-Ending Nightmare'?

Malone, D. (2006) The International Struggle over Iraq: Politics in the UN Security Council 1980–2005 . Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Tyner, J. (2006) The Business of War . Aldershot: Ashgate.
Herring, E. and Rangwala, G. (2006) Iraq in Fragments: The Occupation and its Legacy . London: Hurst & Co.
Parsi, V. E. (2006) The Inevitable Alliance: Europe and the United States beyond Iraq . Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan.
Dumbrell, J. and Ryan, D. (eds) (2007) Vietnam in Iraq: Tactics, Lessons, Legacies and Ghosts . London: Routledge.     

Public‐private partnerships in Canada: Theory and evidence

Abstract: This article develops some theory on and examines the implementation and performance of Canadian public‐private partnerships (P3s). It focuses primarily on infrastructure projects and addresses three questions: 1) What goals do governments expect to achieve through P3s? 2) How effective are P3s likely to be at delivering value to governments and citizens? 3) What lessons can be derived from the use of P3s? The article reviews the government's intended social goals for P3s and evaluates how effective P3s have been in fulfilling them. It then formulates a more comprehensive framework and outlines a “positive theory” perspective of P3s that takes into account the divergent goals of the partners – profit maximization goals of private‐sector participants and the political goals of the public sector. The article evaluates and summarizes the findings and implications of ten Canadian P3s. The appropriate test of success, from a social (normative) perspective, is whether P3s have lower total social costs, including production costs and all of the transaction costs and externalities associated with the project. The ten case studies indicate that the potential benefits of P3s are often outweighed by high contracting costs due to opportunism generated by goal conflict. These costs are particularly high when construction or operating complexity is high, revenue uncertainty (use‐risk) is high, both of these risks have been transferred to the private‐sector partner, and contract management effectiveness is poor. In infrastructure projects, it rarely makes sense to try to transfer large amounts of risk to the private sector. Sommaire: Le présent article élabore une théorie et examine la mise en œuvre et la performance de partenariats des secteurs public/privé canadiens (P3). Il se penche essentiellement sur des projets d'infrastructure et aborde quatre questions : 1) quels objectifs les gouvernements prévoient‐ils atteindre en ayant recours aux P3 ? 2) Dans quelle mesure les P3 seront efficaces à fournir de la valeur aux gouvernements et aux citoyens ? 3) Quelles leçons peut‐on tirer des P3? L'article passe en revue les justifications normatives avancées par le gouvernement pour les P3 et examine leur efficacité. Ensuite, il formule un cadre normatif plus exhaustif. Puis, il présente les grandes lignes d'une perspective de «théorie positive» des P3 en tenant compte des objectifs divergents des partenaires : à savoir, les objectifs de maximisation des profits pour les participants du secteur privé et les objectifs politiques du secteur public. Par la suite, l'article passe en revue et évalue dix études de cas de P3 canadiens. Le test du succès, selon une perspective (normative) sociale, consiste à déterminer si les P3 ont des coûts sociaux totaux inférieurs, y compris les coûts de production, et tous les coûts de transactions et coûts externes associés au projet. Les dix études de cas indiquent que les avantages potentiels des P3 sont souvent surpassés par les frais élevés de passation de contrats dûs à l'opportunisme généré par les conflits en matière d'objectifs. Ces coûts sont particulièrement élevés lorsque la complexité de la construction ou de l'exploitation est élevée et que l'incertitude des revenus (le risque d'utilisation) est forte, que ces deux risques ont été transférés au partenaire du secteur privé, et que l'efficacité de la gestion du contrat est médiocre. Dans les projets d'infrastructure, il est souvent absurde d'essayer de transférer de grands montants de risque d'utilisation au secteur privé.