Simultaneous analyses of cocaine, cocaethylene, and their possible metabolic and pyrolytic products

A method was developed for simultaneously analyzing cocaine (COC), benzoylecgonine (BZE), norbenzoylecgonine (BNE), norcocaine (NCOC), ecgonine (ECG), ecgonine methyl ester (EME), m-hydroxybenzoylecgonine (HBZE), anhydroecgonine methyl ester (AEME), cocaethylene (CE), norcocaethylene (NCE), and ecgonine ethyl ester (EEE) in blood, urine, and muscle. Available deuterated analogs of these analytes were used as internal standards. Proteins from blood and muscle homogenate were precipitated with cold acetonitrile. After the removal of acetonitrile by evaporation, the supernatants and urine were subjected to solid-phase extraction. The eluted analytes were converted to their hydrochloride salts and derivatized with pentafluoropropionic anhydride and 2,2,3,3,3-pentafluoro-1-propanol. The derivatized products were analyzed by a gas chromatograph (GC)/mass spectrometer by selected ion monitoring. The limit of detection (LOD) for COC, BZE, NCOC, EME, CE, NCE, and EEE was 2ng/ml, while the LODs for BNE, ECG, HBZE, and AEME were 25, 640, 50, and 13 ng/ml, respectively. This method was successfully applied in analyzing 13 case samples from aviation accident pilot fatalities and motor vehicle operators. AEME concentrations found in the 13 samples were consistent with those produced solely by the GC inlet pyrolysis of COC controls in blood. Anhydroecgonine cannot be used as a marker for the abuse of COC by smoking because it is also pyrolytically produced from COC metabolites on the GC inlet. The developed method can be effectively adopted for analyzing COC and related compounds in urine, blood, and muscle by a single extraction with increased sensitivity through formation of hydrochloride salts and using a one-step derivatization.     

How High-Yield Farming Saves Nature

High-yield farming—more agricultural output per acre of farmland—has been a boon to mankind and to nature. If today’s agricultural efficiency was the same as in the 1950s, the world would need three times the cropland to produce today’s food supply. That would mean that 15-16 million mi² of forest would have been destroyed—all the global forest area available today. Rising population and increased affluence will require a tripling of agricultural efficiency in the next 50 years if we are to protect wildlife at the same time. More investment in agricultural research and education will be required, but this is what produced the previous green revolution.

Gordon Tullock and Public Choice

Gordon Tullock is one of the founders of the field of public choice, of the Public Choice Society, and of the Public Choice Center. He is a coauthor with James M. Buchanan of one of the true classics in the public choice field—The Calculus of Consent. He has been one of the field’s most prolific scholars, with his research spanning virtually all dimensions of the public choice field. This article surveys his major contributions.     

Drug-facilitated sexual assault using tetrahydrozoline

Drug-facilitated sexual assault (DFSA) has been defined as the use of a chemical agent to facilitate a sexual assault. We report two cases of the use of tetrahydrozoline for DFSA. We believe this is the first report with urinary quantification of tetrahydrozoline levels postassault. Blood and urine were obtained c. 20 h postexposure in two cases of reported DFSA. Tetrahydrozoline was not detected in blood but was identified in urine in both victims. After initial identification in the urine using the 2010 update to the AAFS mass spectrometry database library, tetrahydrozoline was quantified at 114 and 150 ng/mL, respectively, using GC/MS. Two unique clinical features reported in these cases were intermittent periods of consciousness and postexposure vomiting. Use of GC/MS was successful in identifying tetrahydrozoline in the 100 ng/mL range up to 20 h postexposure. For victims with late presentation, urine may be a better sample for evaluation for tetrahydrozoline.     

Building group capacity for problem solving and police–community partnerships through survey feedback and training: a randomized control trial within Chicago’s community policing program

Objectives

To examine whether group capacity for problem solving and partnership building could be enhanced at police–community meetings by providing the results from community surveys and training for group facilitators.

Methods

A randomized control trial was conducted in 51 police beats in Chicago’s community policing program, CAPS. Unlike control beats, results from web-based community surveys were provided at beat meetings in the feedback and training beats, with facilitators in training beats also receiving training and exercises to guide problem solving about survey results. Analysis included OLS and logistic regression of data from questionnaires administered to police and resident participants, as well as observations at beat meetings, which measured resident capacity, attitudes about the police–community partnership, and problem-solving activities.

Results

Support for hypothesized effects was found with greater resident confidence in their ability to achieve outcomes and solve local problems, as well as officers viewing their relationships with residents at beat meetings more favorably. Effects, however, were inconsistent and limited to the feedback group. While additional training and support provided in training beats indicated fuller engagement in problem solving, possible negative effects on attitudes were observed.

Conclusions

Failure to find more effects is discussed in terms of implementation and resistance. Officer resistance to and a shift in organizational priorities away from community policing worked against achieving full program implementation. The beat meeting context provided a traditional framework for police–resident interactions that precluded more comprehensive use of community data and possibly heightened dissatisfaction with the level of problem solving that occurred.     

What's mine is mine and what's yours is mine too: Converging U.S. intellectual property exhaustion doctrines

With the increasing dispersion of intellectual property comes the intellectual property rights owner's continued desire to retain that part of the equation for which the bargain was struck. In terms of patents, the patentee strikes a deal to disclose the invention to the public in exchange for a monopoly over its use for a limited term. Copyright holders contribute their works to the intellectual pool receiving value by sale, lease or license. In 2012–13, the U.S. Supreme Court was tasked with delineating the realms of two intellectual property exhaustion doctrines and answering the question of where to draw the line with regard to an IP owner's ability to control the protected invention or work via patent or copyright, respectively. In one case, the Court permitted the intellectual property owner to restrict a subsequent purchaser's use of the product subject to protection, while in the other case the Court rejected the intellectual property owner's attempt to control the downstream use or resale of the product. This article discusses the relevant intellectual property exhaustion doctrines, analyzes and reconciles the Court's decisions in these cases, and provides guidance for navigating restrictions on use of U.S. protected products and works around the globe.     

Collective Resistance under Authoritarianism: Elite–Mass Strategies in an Experimental Game

We create a collective resistance game in which elites control the distribution of resources if the masses are compliant. However, if the masses unanimously protest elite allocations, they can capture a greater share of resources for themselves. We study how Chinese villagers, randomly assigned to the role of elites and masses, play this game in repeated interactions under varying information conditions. We find significant variation in the extent to which participants gave weight in their decisions to (1) the amount of the elite allocation and (2) their beliefs about the likely choices of fellow group members. Many individuals made their decisions based primarily on the size of the elite allocation, choosing to protest if the elite offer fell below some threshold level. Only a small proportion of the respondents were attuned consistently to the behavioral intentions of fellow group members in deciding whether to protest the elite allocation. This heterogeneity of preferences among participants has significant implications for their prospects of achieving and sustaining collective action. Knowledge of the amount of resources controlled by elites at the start of the game affected mass calculations of the fairness of distributions and increased the frequency of mass protests. However, the elites exploited the decision rule of many mass members by buying off those individuals with the lowest thresholds, thus preempting or dissolving collective action. This research sheds light on elite–mass interactions under authoritarianism, and in particular on contentious politics in contemporary China.