Adolescent Sexual Activity: Links Between Relational Context and Depressive Symptoms

Little is known about the impact of the relational context of adolescent sexual activity on depressive symptoms. The present study examined trajectories of depressive symptoms among 6,602 adolescents (44% male, 60% White) taken from a nationally representative study (Add Health). Sexually active youth in romantic and casual relationships were first compared to virgins and then to each other by relational context. Longitudinal, multilevel models examined differences in the course of depressive symptoms based on sexual activity separately by gender and age group (ages 12–14 and 15–18). Results indicated that when compared to virgins, any differences in depressive symptoms by relational context of sex were present prior to youth’s sexual debut. The few significant differences found between youth who had sex in romantic relationships verses those who had casual sex were present before sexual initiation and not maintained over time, suggesting that casual sex in adolescence is not associated with long-term risks for depressive symptoms.

The Influence of Individual and Partner Characteristics on the Perpetration of Intimate Partner Violence in Young Adult Relationships

This study examines individual and partner characteristics associated with the perpetration of intimate partner violence (IPV) in young adult relationships with opposite sex partners. Using data from Waves 1 and 3 of the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health, this study examined 1,275 young adults’ heterosexual romantic relationships. Controlling for the effects of family and school correlates measured in adolescence, we examined the extent to which participants’ general violent behavior in young adulthood and their partners’ use of violence in their relationship influence participants’ IPV perpetration. We found that both having general violent tendencies and being a target of violence in a relationship influenced one’s likelihood of young adults perpetrating IPV. We also tested whether the overall influence of participants’ general violent behavior on IPV perpetration was moderated by their partners’ use of violence in the relationship. We found that young women’s greatest expression of violent tendencies emerged when in relationships with violent men; yet, when partnered with non-violent men, young women’s own violent tendencies did not lead to IPV. We found little evidence for the interactive effect for young men in the study. The lack of a significant interaction in the model indicated that young men’s general aggression was not conditioned on their partners’ use of physical aggression in their relationships.

Law and Rhetoric: Critical Possibilities

What contribution can rhetoric make to socio‐legal studies? Though now a byword for deception and spin, rhetoric was long identified with the very substance of law and politics. Latterly radical scholars have foregrounded an understanding of law as rhetoric in their polemics against legal formalism, but it needs to be complemented by a critical perspective which goes beyond simple revivalism, taking account of rhetoric's own blind spots, inquiring into the means by which some speakers and listeners are privileged and others excluded or silenced. The critical potential of legal rhetoric is tested here through a review of the developing law on mental capacity and the best interests of people with disabilities in England and Wales. Much of what is at stake there is properly grasped in terms of a politics of speech: who is addressed, who can speak, who must speak, and how are they represented in judicial and media discourse.     

Entrepreneurship among Nonprofit Arts Organizations: Substituting between Wage and Flexible Labor

Nonprofit entrepreneurship is largely viewed through the lens of commercialization, overshadowing other ways that entrepreneurship manifests within the sector. One such way involves nonprofits' tendency to meet workforce needs by substituting flexible for wage labor, which may be especially attractive to arts organizations given the proclivity of workers in this sector to be self-employed. The authors examine the use of flexible versus wage labor by nonprofit arts organizations, relying on panel data to account for changes in organizational size over time. The results provide evidence of a substitution effect, in which the use of wage labor by arts organizations declines in response to greater reliance on flexible labor. The findings suggest that nonprofit arts organizations are innovative employers, responding to changes in their resource environments by adjusting their mix of wage and flexible labor while also providing outlets for freelance arts workers to pursue their chosen line of work.     

Factual causation in medical negligence

The conventional approach to causation in negligence is the "but for" test, decided on the balance of probabilities. Even when supplemented by the "material contribution" principle, satisfying the onus of proof of causation can be an insuperable obstacle for plaintiffs, particularly in medical cases. Yet, having found a breach of duty, a court's sympathies may gravitate toward the plaintiff at this point in the case. Accordingly, courts have sometimes accepted a relaxation of strict causation principles. The judicial devices are described: a special principle of causation in particular duties of care; a shifting burden of proof; "bridging the evidentiary gap" by drawing a robust inference of causation; treating a material increase in risk as sufficient proof of causation; and permitting causation to be established on the basis of the loss of a material chance of achieving a better outcome and discounting damages. In Accident Compensation Corp v Ambros [2007] NZCA 304 the New Zealand Court of Appeal recognised the need for a legal device to ameliorate the injustice sometimes caused by the strict rules of causation, and preferred the "inferential reasoning" approach favoured by the Canadian common law for use in the context of the accident compensation scheme. It is hoped that the New Zealand Supreme Court approves Ambros if the opportunity arises.     

Ignitable liquid identification using gas chromatography/mass spectrometry data by projected difference resolution mapping and fuzzy rule-building expert system classification

The gasoline and kerosene collected from different locations in the United States were identified by gas chromatography/mass spectrometry (GC/MS) followed by chemometric analysis. Classifications based on two-way profiles and target component ratios were compared. The projected difference resolution (PDR) mapping was applied to measure the differences among the ignitable liquid (IL) samples by their GC/MS profiles quantitatively. Fuzzy rule-building expert systems (FuRESs) were applied to classify individual ILs. The FuRES models yielded correct classification rates greater than 90% for discriminating between samples. PDR mapping, a new method for characterizing complex data sets was consistent with the FuRES classification result.     

Identification of common impurities present in the synthetic routes leading to 4-methylthioamphetamine (4-MTA). Part II: Reductive amination and nitropropene route

In this paper the by-products arising during the synthesis of 4-methylthioamphetamine (4-MTA) by LiAlH(4) reduction of 1-(4-methylthiophenyl)-2-nitropropene (nitropropene route) and reductive amination of 4-methylthiophenyl-2-propanone in the presence of NaCNBH(4) are investigated. The identification of 4-methylthio derivatives of N-(β-phenylisopropyl)benzaldimine, 4-methylthio derivative of N-(β-phenylisopropyl)benzyl methyl ketimine, 1-(4-methylthiophenyl)-N-(4-methylthiobenzyl)-2-propanamine, (RS) and (SS/RR)-N,N-di-[β-(4-methylthiophenyl)isopropyl]amine, 4-methylthiobenzyl ether and methylthiobenzoic acid methyl ester as most prominent impurities in crude 4-MTA synthesised by reductive amination of 4-methylthiophenyl-2-propanone, is reported. Methylthio derivatives of 2-methyl-3-phenylaziridine, 2-benzylaziridine, and 4-methylthio derivative of BMK oxime as route-specific markers of nitropropene route leading to 4-MTA, were also characterized. The identity of these compounds was confirmed by their independent synthesis.     

Investigation of markers to indicate and distinguish death due to alcoholic ketoacidosis, diabetic ketoacidosis and hyperosmolar hyperglycemic state using post-mortem samples

Data from 191 post-mortem cases where post-mortem blood beta-hydroxybutyrate (βHB) and acetone concentrations and vitreous humor glucose concentrations (where available) had been measured were retrospectively investigated to determine the markers required to identify and distinguish between Alcoholic Ketoacidosis (AKA), Diabetic Ketoacidosis (DKA) and Hyperosmolar Hyperglycemic State (HHS). Blood βHB concentrations above 250 μg/mL were considered significant and it was shown to be the preferred marker of ketoacidosis. All cases with significant βHB detected also had acetone present (greater than 2mg/dL) demonstrating that acetone can be used as a marker to identify ketoacidosis and can be used to indicate when βHB measurement is necessary. Vitreous humor glucose concentrations above 6.9 mmol/L were considered high and indicative of hyperglycemia prior to death. Vitreous humor glucose concentrations can be used to distinguish between DKA and ketoacidosis from other causes and to identify deaths due to HHS. The data showed that ketoacidosis can occur without a history of alcoholism or diabetes. Many diabetics are undiagnosed for many years. Therefore, DKA or HHS should be considered in sudden or unexplained deaths and glucose should be routinely measured especially in cases with risk factors for diabetes including obesity, old age, a history of mental health problems or treatment with atypical antipsychotic drugs including clozapine, olanzapine, quetiapine and risperidone.     

The efficiency of a group-specific mandated benefit revisited: the effect of infertility mandates

This paper examines the labor market effects of state health insurance mandates that increase the cost of employing a demographically identifiable group. State mandates requiring that health insurance plans cover infertility treatment raise the relative cost of insuring older women of child-bearing age. Empirically, wages in this group are unaffected, but their total labor input decreases. Workers do not value infertility mandates at cost, and so will not take wage cuts in exchange, leading employers to decrease their demand for this affected and identifiable group. Differences in the empirical effects of mandates found in the literature are explained by a model including variations in the elasticity of demand, moral hazard, ability to identify a group, and adverse selection.