Comparison of gasolines using gas chromatography-mass spectrometry and target ion response

Gas chromatography-mass spectrometry was used to compare gasoline samples obtained from different sources based on the difference in amounts of certain components found in the headspace of gasoline using target response data. Many suspected arson cases involve comparing an ignitable liquid extracted from fire debris to a liquid found in a suspect's possession to determine if they could have had a common source. Various component ratios are proposed for determining if an unevaporated gasoline sample could have originated from the same source as an evaporated gasoline extracted from fire debris. Fifty and 75% evaporated gasoline samples were both found to contain similar ratios of certain components when compared with its unevaporated source gasoline. The results of the comparisons in this study demonstrate that for cases involving gasoline that has been evaporated up to 50% and extracted from pine, it is possible to eliminate comparison samples as originating from the same source. The results of the 75% comparisons suggest it may be possible to apply the same type of comparison to cases involving 75% evaporated gasoline.     

The consequences of deregulation: A comparison of the experiences of UK building societies with those of US Savings and Loan Associations

It has been estimated that deregulation of US S&Ls will cost the US taxpayer ￡500bn in terms of the compensation paid out for the resulting scandals and failures. In contrast, the deregulation of UK building societies, although initially followed by a series of scandals and losses of ￡1bn., eventually resulted in substantially increased profitability. The social effects in the UK have been quite different to those in the US. As a result of the increased importance placed on profitability as opposed to mutuality, many homeowners have had their properties repossessed, and investors been mis-soId unsuitable investments. However, UK building societies, by a mixture of good luck and judgement, have avoided the principal regulatory pitfalls, which beset the S&Ls in terms of bankruptcies and fraud. This paper seeks to explain these different post-deregulation experiences. It extends to the UK the looting model of Akerlof and Romer (1993) and the managerial diversion model of Nichols (1972) which went so far to explain and anticipate, respectively, the US experience. This revised version was published online in July 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

The Political Economy of Facebook Advertising: Election Spending,Regulation and Targeting Online

Political advertising on Facebook is the latest in a long line of developments in campaign practice, and is a tool that has been mobilised extensively in elections around the world. In this article, we explore what we know about Facebook advertising at elections and ask what existing data from the UK Electoral Commission can reveal about current usage. Highlighting the principles behind Facebook advertising, we argue that existing metrics offer little insight into current campaign trends—posing analytical, methodological and normative challenges for academics and electoral regulators alike. Moreover, we argue that these challenges strike at the heart of debates about democratic responsibility and the degree to which governments should cede responsibility to commercial actors who may have differing understandings of fundamental democratic norms.     

Reconciling Sexism and Women’s Support for Republican Candidates: A Look at Gender,Class, and Whiteness in the 2012 and 2016 Presidential Races

Political Behavior - Much of the gender gap literature focuses on women’s greater average liberalism relative to men. This approach masks considerable heterogeneity in political identity and...     

Of Athenians and Spartans: Profiles of freedom and enlightenment in the leadership styles of criminal justice academic administrators: An essay

This essay examines the dubious relationship between the quality of criminal justice education and the kind of treatment faculty members and students receive from their academic administrators. It is based on three premises: criminal justice colleges and departments should be held to higher rational and moral standards not because they are qualitatively different from other liberal arts departments, but because they teach justice; if the virtues of criminal justice are worth teaching, then criminal justice faculty members and students should be treated in a manner consistent with these virtues; and treating criminal justice faculty members and students unfairly, disrespectfully, or irresponsibly makes them unable or disinterested in endorsing the noble nature of criminal justice. This article categorizes academic administrators as either Athenians or Spartans. The former are best suited intellectually and temperamentally to administer because they possess a talent for reasoning and act in good faith. The latter are unsuited because, regardless of how well they mask it, they practice domination, deception, favoritism, and indignity.This essay is a theoretical discourse based on the contiguity of modalities, experiences, and impressions generally shared by criminal justice educators and graduate students. Its logic is Humeian and its method is broadly ethnographic.     

The Dictator Game, Fairness and Ethnicity in Postwar Bosnia

This study considers the effects of ethnic violence on norms of fairness. Once violence is a foregone conclusion, will cooperative norms ever (re‐)emerge beyond ethnic boundaries? We use an experiment that measures how fairly individuals in a postconflict setting treat their own ingroup in comparison to the outgroups—in this case, examining the behavior of 681 Muslims, Croats, and Serbs in postwar Bosnia‐Herzegovina. To assess fairness, we use the dictator game wherein subjects decide how to allocate a sum of money between themselves and an anonymous counterpart of varying ethnicity. We find that the effects of ethnicity on decision making are captured by our experiments. Although results indicate preferential ingroup treatment, the incidence and magnitude of outgroup bias is much less than expected. We conclude that norms of fairness across ethnicity are remarkably strong in Bosnia, and we take this to be a positive sign for reconciliation after violent conflict.     

Gambling, substance use, and other problem behaviors among youth: A test of general deviance models

Understanding the relationships between youthful gambling, substance use, and other problem behaviors is of interest to researchers studying deviance and to policymakers developing improved prevention strategies. This study used first-order and second-order factor models to test the hypothesis that gambling, alcohol misuse, other drug use, and delinquency were manifestations of a single general deviance construct. Respondents were seventeen to twenty-one year-old youth who were interviewed in two separate general population studies. Contrary to the hypothesis, the second-order model with a single deviance construct did not fit as well as a model specifying only correlations among all first-order factors. A single latent variable representing general deviant behavior did not explain deviance as well as distinct types of problem behaviors. This was true for overall samples and for gender-specific subgroups. Thus, while problem behaviors were related, there also must be uncorrelated antecedents predicting distinct types of youthful problem behaviors.