Chemical signature of ecstasy volatiles by comprehensive two-dimensional gas chromatography

A method for ecstasy volatiles 'signature' analysis based on two-dimensional gas chromatography separation and time-of-flight mass spectrometry detection (GC×GC-TOFMS) is presented. Organic impurity volatiles were extracted by head space solid phase microextraction (HS-SPME). The final column phase choice of the four different column combinations tested was a low-polarity 5% phenyl polysilphenylene-siloxane coupled with a polyethylene glycol phase, which best displayed the complex impurity profile. Second dimension ((2)D) retention time reproducibility was found to be about 1% RSD, and area reproducibility of SPME sampling was just over 5% RSD for compounds with S/N ratio of about 100. High similarity of TOFMS spectra of impurities was obtained against commercial MS libraries. 16 components from the two-dimensional profiles were selected for comparison of the 24 ecstasy tablets, most of which proved to be benzodioxole derived compounds. All tablets were correctly classified in eight groups according to their post-tabletting characteristics, when appropriate data pre-treatment was applied. Principal component analysis revealed clustering of samples according to the country of origin. Samples from Macedonia were elevated in N-formyl-MDMA and N-acetyl-MDMA while samples from Australia were elevated in 3,4-methylenedioxypropane and 3,4-methylenedioxyacetophenone. Furthermore, three components were found to be unique for one of the source countries. The additional separation of components on the (2)D column, increased response due to modulation, high acquisition rate with full mass spectra using TOFMS detection, and MS deconvolution extend the possibility of detecting additional markers and route-specific components, especially of low abundant, polar components.     

A novel platform for the modular integration of forensic assay setup and medium- to high-throughput purification of nucleic acids

With its extraction and assay setup modules, the QIAsymphony^® provides a highly flexible solution for processing forensic samples in a medium- to high-throughput scale. We tested the sensitivity of extraction, precision of sample processing, and accuracy of automated assay setup of this integrated system. Results attest to QIAsymphony's ability to isolate DNA from a spectrum of common forensic samples and process these samples without cross-contamination. Furthermore, accurate assay setup for downstream applications, like PCR, make this system highly suited for enhancing laboratory workflow.     

Model United Nations and Deep Learning: Theoretical and Professional Learning

This article demonstrates that the purposeful subject design, incorporating a Model United Nations (MUN), facilitated deep learning and professional skills attainment in the field of International Relations. Deep learning was promoted in subject design by linking learning objectives to Anderson and Krathwohl’s (2001 Anderson, Lorin W., and David R. Krathwohl (eds.). 2001. A Taxonomy for Learning, Teaching, and Assessing: A Revision of Bloom’s Taxonomy of Educational Objectives. New York: Longman. [Google Scholar]) four levels of knowledge or cognition: factual, conceptual, procedural, and metacognitive. Students demonstrated improvement in all four areas; however, this article focuses on outcomes in the conceptual and metacognitive realms as these were where students showed the most growth. In the conceptual realm, the subject aimed to increase students’ capacity to apply international relations theories. Students tended to utilize the traditional theories of realism and liberalism; however, their explanations and applications of these theories showed deep learning. In the metacognitive realm, students were able to analyze their own negotiation styles and to explain how it influenced their approach to the Model UN, thus demonstrating strong professional skills development and metacognitive growth. Learning was enhanced by the use of open access online subject materials and online communications. The subject was designed and run in a context where simulations in teaching politics and international relations are not common.     

HOW MUCH COLLUSION? A META-ANALYSIS OF OLIGOPOLY EXPERIMENTS

Oligopoly has been among the first topics in experimental economics.Over half a century, some 150 papers have been published. Eachindividual paper was interested in demonstrating one effect,but in order to do so, experimenters had to specify many moreparameters. Thus they have generated a huge body of evidence,untapped so far. This meta-analysis makes this evidence available.More than 100 of the papers lend themselves to calculating anindex of collusion. The database behind this paper covers some500 different settings. The experimental results may be normalizedas a percentage of the span between the Walrasian and the Paretooutcomes. In the same way, results may be expressed as a percentageof the distance between the Nash and the Pareto outcomes. Foreach and every one of the parameters, these two indices makeit possible to answer two questions: How far is the market outcomeaway from the competitive equilibrium? And how good is the Nashprediction? Most importantly, however, the meta-analysis shedslight on how features of the experimental setting interact witheach other. Most main effects and many interaction effects areindeed statistically significant.     

Frame Spillover: Media Framing and Public Opinion of a Multifaceted LGBT Rights Agenda

Between May and July 2003, a shift in how the US public viewed the legality of consensual homosexual sex occurred. While in May the largest percentage of respondents to date supported decriminalizing such activity, that percentage dropped eleven points two months later. Similar declines in support were evident in the same period over a range of gay and lesbian rights claims. The ruling in Lawrence v. Texas (2003) decriminalizing homosexual sex is the obvious intervening event. To explain this pattern, coding of print and televised news coverage of the ruling throughout 2003 was undertaken. Coverage was not overtly negative in terms of antigay rhetoric or hostility toward the judiciary; rather, the dominant media frame focused on the implications of Lawrence for an entirely separate rights issue: marriage equality. This article examines the dynamic of frame “spillover,” or the idea that media focus on a distinct and not widely supported rights claim in a multifaceted rights agenda might depress support across the entire rights agenda. The findings call for further research, and they have implications for scholarship on public opinion, social movement framing, and ideational development and policy debate as studied within the broader field of American political development.     

Globalization and the Decline of Legal Consciousness: Torts, Ghosts, and Karma in Thailand

This study analyzes the transformation of legal consciousness associated with the process of globalization. It examines changing conceptions of injury and compensation in northern Thailand, where global economic and cultural flows have had a dramatic impact over the past twenty years. In their "injury narratives," ordinary Thai people describe the harm they have suffered, the causes they identify, the issues of responsibility with which they struggle, the obligations and remedy systems they consider relevant, and the role of law as they perceive it. These accounts, as well as litigation records from the Chiangmai Provincial Court, suggest that a transformation of Thai legal consciousness has indeed occurred, but not in the direction one might have expected. Rather than embracing liberal legalism or conceptualizing their grievances in terms of rights, injury victims in post-globalization Thailand are now less inclined to perceive their experiences in legal terms and more inclined to rely on a new form of religious discourse in which Buddhist precepts justify the injured person's decision to refrain from the pursuit of compensation. This article offers an explanation of why globalization appears to have pushed legal consciousness in the direction of religiosity rather than rights.