Detection of Gamma-Hydroxybutyric Acid in Various Drink Matrices via AccuTOF-DART*

Abstract: A new screening method for detecting gamma-hydroxybutyric acid (GHB) in drink matrices, using the IonSense, Inc. (Saugus, MA) direct analysis in real time (DART) ion source coupled to a JEOL exact mass time-of-flight mass spectrometer (AccuTOF), was validated and compared with the current screening methodology. The DART ion source allows for analysis of samples under ambient conditions with little to no sample preparation. Fifty drink specimens were spiked at levels of 1, 2, 3, and 4 mg/mL GHB, and analyzed on the AccuTOF-DART. Positive detection of GHB occurred for each of the samples at each concentration level, giving 100% accuracy for the samples tested. Twenty-five of the 50 drink specimens were spiked at 1 mg/mL GHB and tested using a color test known as the GHB Color Test #3. Only two of these 25 specimens tested positive for the presence of GHB, giving only 8% accuracy. Implementation of this new methodology as a screening tool for GHB analysis will quickly eliminate negative specimens allowing the examiner to focus analysis time on those that screened positive.     

Dynamics Without Drama: New Options and Old Compromises in Egypt's Foreign Policy

Western policymakers have come to take Egypt's foreign policy orientation for granted in recent decades. After President Anwar Sadat's dramatic split from the Soviet bloc and embrace of peace with Israel in the 1970s, Egypt became a reliable but rarely exciting diplomatic partner. Little appreciated has been the centrality of foreign policy to Egypt's internal interests as well as its external ones, and the extent to which changes in either the domestic or international environment could trigger the Egyptians to reassess their stance. The present article examines the interests that Egyptian foreign policy serves, and it analyses factors that could prompt a future Egyptian government to adopt different policies in order to serve those interests more effectively.     

Business Routes of Influence in Brussels: Exploring the Choice of Direct Representation

This paper presents one of the first statistical analyses of the factors that determine the extent to which direct influence strategies are used by companies. New survey evidence and multivariate analysis is used to assess seven hypotheses to explain direct influence strategies. The factor of greatest significance is company size since direct influence is open only to large companies. But the extent to which direct influence is followed by large companies depends on their sector, its extent of organization, the sector's size and 'weight', and the form of the business association relevant to the sector. Direct influence is more likely where associations cover large corporate businesses (rather than owner-managers, professionals, federations or mixed associations), in sectors with a high degree of market concentration within large companies, and where their associations are relatively small. These findings are related to the logic of collective action suggesting that in sectors where there is the least chance to opt out of an association, there is a greater chance of a business also directly lobbying in order to assure itself that its interests are not being diluted and so that it can gain direct specific information or influence benefits.     

Objectivity,Interpretation, and Rights: A Critique of Dworkin

Law and Philosophy -     

Racial disproportionality in state prison admissions: Can regional variation be explained by differential arrest rates?

Recent studies have found that states in the Midwest incarcerate Blacks at a higher rate than those in the South. This article examines the extent to which this regional pattern of racial disproportionality in incarceration rates could be explained by controlling for race-specific arrest rates. The findings showed that the level of racial disproportionality in imprisonment decreased among all of the regions after controlling for race-specific arrest rates, but previously observed regional differences remained. These findings indicate that differences in the level of racial disproportionality in incarceration rates among regions were due to differential involvement in serious crimes by race resulting from a higher concentration of Blacks in urban areas relative to Whites in the Midwest.