Use of hand-held laser scanning in the assessment of craniometry

The intra- and inter-examiner reliability was evaluated for hand-held 3D laser scanning technology when it was combined with localization of landmarks for craniometry. The data from the laser surface scanning were compared with those of conventional direct measuring. Using thirty unidentified skulls requested for individual identification, measurements were taken of the line distances from lambda to 26 landmarks, and also for seven breadth parameters. For the laser surface scanning, two examiners performed replicate measurements with an interval of 1 week. In the conventional direct measuring, the first examiner took replicate measurements with a 1-week interval. To assess intra- and inter-examiner reliabilities, the intraclass correlation coefficient was used. Analysis of variance with repeated measures for each parameter was performed to compare the conventional method with the 3D scanning method. Both the 3D scanning and conventional methods showed excellent intra-examiner reliabilities, and the 3D laser scanning method also showed excellent inter-examiner reliability. A statistical difference between the two examiners was found only in nasal breadth in the 3D laser scanning method. There was no significant difference between the two measuring methods, though the 3D laser scanning method tended to give a slightly lower reading. Collectively, the 3D laser scanning method with point localization is a useful method with excellent reliability, and it can replace the conventional direct measuring method in craniometry.     

Rent-seeking contest when the prize increases with aggregate efforts

The objective of this article is to investigate contests in which efforts are productive. Tullock's standard rent-seeking model is extended by making the rent itself increase with the aggregate efforts. A positive externality is thereby introduced into the contest, because a contender's private effort in quest of the rent generates a benefit for other contenders. Coupled with a negative externality presented in the standard rent-seeking model, the net effect on the social efficiency of the contest is a priori ambiguous. It is shown that the extended contest generates socially wasteful, excessive aggregate efforts.     

Screening for Corticosteroid Adulterants in Korean Herbal Medicines

The objective of this study was to determine the presence of corticosteroids in illegal herbal medicines using ultra‐high‐performance liquid chromatography–tandem mass spectrometry. We collected 212 herbal medicine samples that were advertised as being effective for treatment of joint pain and bone aches. Samples were from the Korean commercial market during a span of four years (2010–2013), and the method was validated. The limits of quantification ranged from 0.47 to 15.0 ng/mL, and recoveries ranged from 80.6% to 119.5%. The intra‐ and interday precision ranged from 0.18% to 8.82% and from 0.09% to 8.96%, respectively. Among the samples, three samples (1.4%) were identified as adulterants. Dexamethasone was the only compound detected in the adulterated products. As the corticosteroid–adulteration of herbal medicines may become a major problem and lead to side effects, the continued development of screening procedures for herbal medicines is critical.     

The Impact of Radical Right-Wing Parties on the Positions of Mainstream Parties Regarding Multiculturalism

What are the political effects of rising radical right-wing parties (RRPs) in Western Europe? Does the rise of the parties drive mainstream parties (MPs) to become more restrictive on issues mobilised by RRPs, such as multiculturalism? Analysing manifesto data from 1981 to 2008, it is found that the rise of RRPs makes right-wing MPs adopt more restrictive positions regarding multiculturalism. However, left-wing MPs do so only when the opinion of party supporters on foreigners becomes more negative or when the parties lost more votes in the previous election than their opponent right-wing MPs did. The result implies that niche parties with extremist positions can benefit from their own electoral success by dragging MPs toward their own positions. However, the impact of rising niche parties on MPs should be understood against a broader background of party competition, and the impact can be dissimilar between MPs with different ideological commitment and strategic opportunities.     

Decoding the Evolutionary Path of Chinese Foreign Policy, 1949–2009: Assessments and Inferences

Chinese foreign policy has made a grand transition during the post-Mao reform era. Chinese foreign policy of the 21st century has become much more open and pragmatic in its relations with the outside world, more extensive in its reach and coverage, highly diversified in its functions and partners, more committed to international norms than before, and much more sophisticated in its dealing with the international community. Yet, the precise balance between the changes and continuities is still quite difficult to gauge. Furthermore, despite crucial visible changes, concerns and worries - even some fears - are discernible with regard to the rise of China. In the last 60 years, Beijing has sought hard to sustain consistencies (shizhong ruyi) in its foreign policy. Perhaps, that is the best clue the world has in inferring the future trajectory of Chinese foreign policy.     

Improved gas chromatography-negative ion chemical ionization tandem mass spectrometric method for determination of 11-nor-Δ9-tetrahydrocannabinol-9-carboxylic acid in hair using mechanical pulverization and bead-assisted liquid-liquid extraction

A gas chromatography-negative ion chemical ionization tandem mass spectrometric (GC-NCI-MS/MS) method was developed and validated for the determination of 11-nor-Δ(9)-tetrahydrocannabinol-9-carboxylic acid (THC-COOH) in human hair. After decontamination, hair samples were weighed (25mg), mechanically pulverized with a bead mill, and incubated in 0.7 mL of 1.0M sodium hydroxide at 95 °C for 30 min. Bead-assisted liquid-liquid extraction was performed with n-hexane:ethyl acetate (9:1, v/v), a method developed in our laboratory. The extract was evaporated to dryness, derivatized with pentafluoropropanol and pentafluoropropionic anhydride, and analyzed by GC-MS/MS in the negative ion chemical ionization mode using methane as the reagent gas. The linear ranges were 0.05-10.0 pg/mg for THC-COOH with the coefficient of determination (r(2) = 0.9976). The intra-day and inter-day precisions were within 1.7 and 13.8%, respectively. The intra-day and inter-day accuracies were -4.8 to 10.0% and -3.9 to 3.8%, respectively. The limit of detection and quantification were 0.015 and 0.05 pg/mg, respectively. The recoveries were in the range of 79.4-87.1%. The results indicate that the proposed method is simple, rapid, accurate, and precise for determination of THC-COOH in hair. The method identified THC-COOH in hair specimens from suspected marijuana abusers.     

Establishment of the measurement uncertainty of 11-nor-D9-tetrahydrocannabinol-9-carboxylic acid in hair

The quantitative analysis of 11-nor-D(9)-tetrahydrocannabinol-9-carboxylic acid (THCCOOH) in hair requires a sensitive method to detect a low-pg level. Before applying the method to real hair samples, the method was validated; in this study, we examined the uncertainty obtained from around the cut-off level of THCCOOH in hair. We calculated the measurement uncertainty (MU) of THCCOOH in hair as follows: specification of the measurand, identification of parameters using "cause and effect" diagrams, quantification of the uncertainty contributions using three factors, the uncertainty of weighing the hair sample, the uncertainty from calibrators and the calibration curve, and the uncertainty of the method precision. Finally, we calculated the degrees of freedom and the expanded uncertainty (EU). The concentration of THCCOOH in the hair sample with its EU was (0.60 ± 0.1) × 10(-4)ng/mg. The relative uncertainty percent for the measurand 0.60 × 10(-4)ng was 9.13%. In this study, we also selected different concentrations of THCCOOH in real hair samples and then calculated the EU, the relative standard uncertainty (RSU) of the concentration of THCCOOH in the test sample [u(r)(c0)], the relative uncertainty percent, and the effective degree of freedom (v(eff)). When the concentrations of THCCOOH approached the cut-off level, u(r)(c0) and the relative uncertainty percent increased but absolute EU and v(eff) decreased.