Overview of the seized and examined pharmaceutical in the state of Minas Gerais-Brazil by the Civil Police from 2017 to 2022: A fundamental analysis of the recent impact over the drugs market

This work presents a data survey regarding the qualitative chemical analysis of drugs seized by the Police in the state of Minas Gerais between July 2017 and June 2022, including an evaluation of labeling of 265 samples of anabolic androgenic steroids (AAS) seized in 2020. The Active Pharmaceutical Ingredients (API) present in the samples were identified through chemical analysis and classified by system Anatomical Therapeutic Chemical (ATC) methods. Analysis of the labeling information for 265 samples of AAS followed the guidance of legislation RDC 71 (2009) from ANVISA. For this study 6355 seized pharmaceuticals underwent qualitative chemical analysis that corresponded to 7739 APIs successfully identified and classified. Among the components studied AAS, psychostimulants, anesthetics, and analgesics were the most commonly examined. AAS seized and tested increased by over 100% and for the majority of the samples analyzed were found to not match the labeling on the packaging. In the meantime, anti-obesity drugs presented a prominent increase of 400% from 2020/1 to 2021/2, during covid-19 quarantine. Seized pharmaceuticals and tests can support information in the planning of public health and safety policies.     

Development of an Index of Subsidized Housing Availability and its Relationship to Housing Insecurity

Housing insecurity is a known threat to child health understanding predictors of housing insecurity can help inform policies to protect the health of young children in low-income households. This study sheds light on the relationship between housing insecurity and availability of housing that is affordable to low-income households.

We developed a county-level index of availability of subsidized housing needed to meet the demand of low-income households. Our results estimate that if subsidized units are made available to an additional 5% of the eligible population, the odds of overcrowding decrease by 26% and the odds of families making multiple moves decrease by 31%. Both of these are known predictors of poor child health outcomes. Thus, these results suggest that state and federal investments in expanding the stock of subsidized housing could reduce housing insecurity and thereby also improve the health and well-being of young children, including their families' food security status.     

Presidential Preferences? The Supreme Federal Tribunal Nominations in Democratic Brazil

This article studies the processes of nomination and appointment to the Supreme Federal Tribunal in Brazil made by Presidents Sarney through Lula da Silva. It shows that in relations with the Senate, presidential anticipation prevails over presidential dominance. Brazilian presidents are successful appointers because they invest great effort in the moment of selection, when potential candidates are tested in the juridical and political communities. As a consequence, a uniform Senate approval of candidates coexists with a differential pattern of candidate recruitment. Sometimes presidents can select close candidates from their government; sometimes first‐choice candidates are ruled out for lack of consensus. The type of coalition the president heads and the number of vacancies available affect the president's chances of imposing a candidate. The filter posed by center‐right parties in the Senate induces the selection of nominees with centrist preferences.     

Governance as a Path to Government

During the 1970s, analyses of state and government in Western Europe were preoccupied with crises of governability and legitimacy. The early 1980s witnessed sharply differing responses to these crises, exemplified by the socialist experiment in France and Thatcherism in the UK. By the end of the 1980s, ‘governance’– in both national and European arenas – began to be regarded as the dominant institutional response to problems of governability. Considered from the perspective of comparative European government, the oft-claimed shift from government to governance appears overstated. Governance is less widespread and consequential both at national and European levels than its proponents suggest, as a survey of the propellants, conditions and national and European constellations of governance shows. Viewed historically, governance does not so much indicate a shift from government as towards government, as the core institutions of the state build up capacity to deal authoritatively and hierarchically with new governing challenges.     

Genealogies of European states: Foucauldian reflections

Abstract

The public lectures given by Foucault at the Collège de France that are only now being published demonstrate that, just before he turned his attention to the history of sexuality, Foucault's thorough historical research had laid out many of the elements needed for a genealogy of modern practices of state governance. This review essay pieces together elements provided in the lectures, and in a few already published writings, to prove that research on state powers and state knowledges can benefit a great deal from a close reading of the lectures.     

A Question of Time: Responsive and Responsible Democratic Politics

Since 2008, European crisis politics have thrown the importance of time in democracy into sharp relief. The need for rapid action by national authorities, the EU and international organisations conflicts with the time-consuming nature of democratic deliberation; short-term political firefighting has given little consideration to the long-term sustainability and time consistency of policies; and decentralised decisions threaten effective synchronisation within multi-level governance systems. This article suggests that democratic politics requires a balance between the temporal characteristics of responsive and responsible politics. The timeframe for responsive politics is shaped by electoral cycles that encourage speedy action; short-term lags between political choices and their effects; and temporal discretion of decision-makers. The timeframe for responsible politics is characterised by time-consuming procedures; solutions that take time to unfold and are sustainable in the longer term; and the purposive synchronisation amongst actors and across policy domains and levels of policy-making. The finely balanced temporal constitution of democracy has been challenged in two fundamental ways. First, as the ability of decision-makers to work within the time limits of their mandates and to respond to the temporal expectations of the electorate decreases, the temporal ties that ensure the responsiveness of political authority to the electorate weaken. Second, the distinct temporal qualities of majoritarian and non-majoritarian institutions that encourage responsibility are called into question. Consequently, political time in Europe runs the risk of becoming both less responsive and less responsible.     

Forensic imaging of projectiles using cone-beam computed tomography

In patients with gunshot injuries, it is easy to detect a projectile within the body due to the high-density of the object, but artefacts make it difficult to obtain information about the deformation and the exact location of the projectile in surrounding tissues. Cone-beam computed tomography (CBCT) is a new radiological imaging modality that allows radio-opaque objects to be localised and assessed in three dimensions. The full potential of the use of CBCT in forensic medicine has not yet been explored.In this study, three different modern projectiles were fired into the heads of pig cadavers (n = 6) under standardised conditions. Tissue destruction and the location of the projectiles were analysed separately using CBCT and multi-slice computed tomography (MDCT).The projectiles had the same kinetic energy but showed considerable differences in deformation behaviour. Within the study groups, tissue destruction was reproducible. CBCT is less severely affected by metallic artefacts than MDCT. Therefore CBCT is superior in visualising bone destruction in the immediate vicinity of the projectile and projectile deformation, whereas MDCT allows soft tissue to be evaluated in more detail.CBCT is an improved diagnostic tool for the evaluation of gunshot injuries. In particular, it is superior to MDCT in detecting structural hard-tissue damage in the immediate vicinity of high-density metal projectiles and in identifying the precise location of a projectile in the body.     

Knowledge on Tap: Police Science and Common Knowledge in the Legal Regulation of Drunkenness

Although scholars have devoted considerable attention to the formation, modification, and dissemination of knowledges in and around the legal complex, few systematic inquiries have been made into the sociology of legal knowledges. In this paper, we focus on two areas of law–liquor licensing and drunk driving–and contextualize their development from the perspective of police science. We document the ways in which contemporary police science authorizes a "common knowledge," which is not to be confused with lay knowledge, or even trade knowledge. Rather, the "common knowledge" that is authorized is what legal authorities believe everyone should know, despite any lay or trade knowledge individuals may have. This analysis demonstrates the need for further work on the ways in which knowledges are formed and authorized within law, with particular emphasis on documenting how a "responsibility to know" comes to be deployed beyond the state.     

Getting realistic about megaproject planning: The case of the new Denver International Airport

Megaprojects continue to play a prominent role in promoting economic development, and have proliferated rapidly worldwide. But, as they have grown larger in number, size, and complexity, their planning, implementation and ultimate success become increasingly problematic. Most encounter unexpected difficulties and seldom achieve their original objectives. This article addresses the reasons for this state of affairs by focusing upon the relevance of the Rational model of decision making to the case of the new Denver International Airport. It traces its evolution and considers the extent to which the Rational model explains the major events. It concludes that this model has only limited explanatory power because it does not incorporate political elements which play a major role in megaprojects. The Rational model can be successfully applied to an entire project only where the political system permits a powerful agency to design and implement the project. This condition is rarely met in democratic societies, especially in the U.S. Furthermore, its applicability is limited by the new environment in which planning takes place, an environment that is marked by the emergence of new actors and increasing turbulence and uncertainty. Accordingly, recognition of the role of power suggests that the utility of the Rational model is limited and that alternative planning approaches that emphasize consensus building and flexibility need to be developed for megaproject planning.