Gold-plating of Mylar lift films to capitalize on surface enhanced Raman spectroscopy for chemical extraction of drug residues

The method of residue extraction through electrostatic lifting provides a distinctive mode of performing ultra-trace analysis. These lifts provide a medium for analyte extraction via nanomanipulation-coupled to nanospray ionization-mass spectrometry (NSI-MS). This method of extraction can be coupled to Raman spectroscopy for supplemental verification of analytes using surface enhanced Raman scattering (SERS). The gold surface used for SERS provides an enhanced effect on peak signal intensity allowing ultra-trace amounts to be detected more effectively. The aim of this research is to utilize gold-coated films with electrostatic lifting in order to collect latent materials and analyze chemicals of interest contained in them via SERS.     

Childhood Violence Exposure: Cumulative and Specific Effects on Adult Mental Health

Childhood exposure to violence and victimization is a significant public health problem, with potentially long-lasting, deleterious effects on adult mental health. Using a longitudinal study design, 123 young adults—identified in adolescence as at-risk for high school dropout—were examined for the effects of multi-domain childhood victimization on emotional distress and suicide risk, net of adolescent risk and protective factors, including family dysfunction. The hypothesis that higher levels of cumulative childhood victimization would be significantly associated with mental health maladjustment in young adulthood was confirmed by the analysis. However, the victimization predictors of adult emotional distress were different than the predictors of adult suicide risk. These findings indicate the need for prevention and intervention approaches that include thorough assessment, and focus on the childhood and adolescent problem areas that are most consequential for long-term psychological well-being.     

The Surprising Logic of Transparency

The article examines the concept of transparency and its effect on international crises. It tests two possible "logics" of transparency, one positive and one negative. In the former, transparency is seen as defusing international crises by illuminating other states' peaceful intentions and ameliorating the security dilemma. In the latter, transparency is seen as exacerbating crises by overwhelming diplomatic signals with the "noise" of domestic politics and confusing opponents about which domestic voices are authoritative expressions of state policy. The authors conclude that, surprisingly, transparency makes conflicts worse more often than not—a conclusion that casts doubt on one possible explanation ofthe democratic peace.     

Sex and the sacred: sterilization and bodily integrity in English and Canadian law

Through an examination of cases of non-consensual sterilization for learning disabled persons in Canada and England, this article considers the role that law plays in framing the thoughts, beliefs, and norms that fashion the ways we think about bodies, sex, gender, and sexuality. The author asks how it is that Canadian and English law, while both claiming to protect bodily integrity, have reached opposing conclusions about whether non-therapeutic sterilization can be in a person's best interests. She hypothesizes that the answer could lie in the manner in which courts have constructed the bodies of learning disabled men and women in the sphere of sexuality and reproduction. Where the overriding concern in the sterilization cases is the containment of the sexuality of a learning disabled person perceived as "out of control" or "vulnerable to seduction", sterilization is cast as a just and humane solution that will advance the welfare of the individual concerned. Conversely, where the overriding concern is the preservation of the integrity of a law committed to the principle of equality, sterilization is thought to be a violation of the bodily integrity of the person. The author shows that these two views engender very different legal and cultural discourses about best interests and bodily integrity. The debate highlighted by the sterilization cases and the commentary surrounding them reflect larger tension within legal discourse between the commitment to liberal values and the maintenance of a particular social order.