Perceptions and personal experiences of unwanted attention among Portuguese male students

The present study investigated male perceptions and personal experiences of ‘unwanted attention’ (UA), as well as possible associations between perceptions and personal experiences of UA. Ninety-one male college students, from five Portuguese universities, were asked to indicate which of a continuum of 47 behaviours represented UA. Although UA, stalking and harassment are rarely addressed in Portugal, male college students shared a clear understanding of what behaviours constituted UA, with the identification of four main categories of UA behaviours: ‘aggressive’, ‘threatening’, ‘classic’ and ‘dysfunctional attachment’. Almost all participants (96%) reported personal experiences of at least one UA behaviour. There was a minimal relationship between perceptions and personal experiences of the individual behaviours. The findings highlight the widespread risk of male victimisation and the need to legitimise male complaints.     

Evaluation of the composition of street cocaine seized in two regions of Brazil

This work evaluates cocaine purity and the concentration ranges of adulterants and inorganic constituents for 31 street cocaine samples seized in two different regions of Brazil from July 2008 to May 2010. Cocaine and adulterants, such as caffeine, lidocaine and benzocaine, were quantified by Gas chromatography–mass spectrometry (GC–MS), and the inorganic constituents were determined by Inductively Coupled Plasma-Optical Emission Spectrometry (ICP-OES) and ion chromatography (IC). The cocaine concentrations in the samples seized in the Amazonas state (AM samples) ranged from 154 to 978 mg g^? 1, and these samples did not contain any of the adulterants studied. The cocaine concentrations in the samples seized in the Minas Gerais state (MG samples) ranged from 63.9 to 753 mg g^? 1. Caffeine was the main adulterant found in 76% of the MG samples, ranging in concentration from 5.5 to 645.3 mg g^? 1. Lidocaine was found in 66.7% of the MG samples, with concentrations ranging from 16.3 to 576.7 mg g^? 1. Benzocaine was found in only one MG sample, at a concentration of 84.8 mg g^? 1. Fourteen elements were identified by ICP-OES, and a wide variation was observed in the concentrations of Ca, Mg, Na, P, Al, Fe, Mn and Zn. Pearson Product–moment Correlations between the analytes allowed the constituents to be associated with the chemicals used in the manufacturing of cocaine and with some common diluents. The study of the purity of cocaine and the presence and concentration of adulterants and inorganic constituents is important because the latter can have deleterious effects on health.     

Age estimation by measurements of developing teeth: accuracy of Cameriere's method on a Brazilian sample

Developing teeth are commonly the criteria used for age estimation in children and young adults. The method developed by Cameriere et al. (Int J Legal Med 2006;120:49-52) is based on measures of teeth with open apex, and application of a formula, to estimate chronological age of children. The present study evaluated a sample of panoramic radiographs from Brazilian children from 5 to 15 years of age, to evaluate the accuracy of the method proposed by Cameriere et al. The results has proven the system reliable for age estimation, with a median residual error of -0.014 years between chronological and estimated ages (p = 0.603). There was a slight tendency to overestimate the ages of 5-10 years and underestimate the ages of 11-15 years.     

Child-to-Parent Violence in Adolescents: The Perspectives of the Parents,Children, and Professionals in a Sample of Spanish Focus Group Participants

This study explored the characteristics of child-to-parent violence (CPV) in Spain based on the narrations of adolescents who perpetrate this kind of violence, their parents, and the professionals who work in this area. A qualitative design was used. Focus groups were asked about the risk factors associated with CPV, such as exposure to family violence, discipline, and psychological characteristics of the adolescents. Interviews were videotaped, transcribed, and reviewed independently by each investigator to identify and group distinct comments into categories with specific themes. Results suggest that CPV is mainly linked to exposure to marital conflict and family violence, permissive discipline, emotional disengagement in the father-child relationship, and symptoms of emotional stress and substance consumption in the children. Lastly, acts of CPV seem to be an attempt by the children to gain power in the context of family relations in which the parents display their incapacity to establish control. As several family and personal characteristics appear to be involved in CPV, it is recommended that family and individual approaches be considered for treatment.     

Constructing Institutional Measures: Indicators of Political and Property Rights in Mozambique, 1900–2005

In this article, we focus on the role of political and economic institutions in Mozambique's development. We produce a set of institutional indicators for Mozambique for the period 1900–2005. The first index tracks political freedoms and is unique in its duration and complexity. The second index is a measure of property rights for Mozambique, and such a measure has not existed previously and certainly not for this length of time. The construction of these indices is a painstaking process through historical records but it provides us with a richness of institutional data previously not available. The new institutional indices will allow us to explore the role of the institutional environment in determining economic growth and development in Mozambique over time.     

Identification of victims of the collapse of a mine tailing dam in Brumadinho

The collapse of the B1 Dam of VALE SA mining company in Brumadinho, Minas Gerais, Brazil was the largest humanitarian disaster and occupational accident in the country’s history, and it posed challenges regarding the management and identification of multiple victims. We evaluated the impact of the iron ore tailings on the victims’ bodies. We examined the scientific identification of the victims and the dynamics of the disaster over the 1st year after it occurred. We also determined the socio-demographic profiles of the victims. In this retrospective, cross-sectional study, we investigated the expert reports of the victims’ biological remains from 25 January 2019 to 25 January 2020. We analysed the socio-demographic data, identification methods, identification status, identification time, and necroscopic information. During the study period, 259 of 270 victims were identified, and 603 biological materials were analysed; among them, 86.2% were body parts and 13.8% were whole bodies. Of the total cases registered that year, 476 (78.9%) were submitted during the first 10 weeks after the disaster. Friction ridge analysis accounted for 67.9% of primary identifications and DNA analysis did so for 91.6% of re-identification cases. Body dismemberment was 3.4 times greater among mine workers than among community victims. Adult males accounted for the greatest number of victims (P < 0.001). Polytraumatic injury was the prevalent single cause of death. Necropsy examination revealed the occurrence of asphyxia in 7% of cases. The higher number of fatalities and greater dismemberment among employees than with community residents underlines the occupational dangers in the mining industry and clarifies the dynamics of the disaster. In the initial weeks after the dam collapsed, friction ridge analysis was the most appropriate method for identification. Subsequently, DNA analysis became the most-used technique for identification and re-identification owing to the great volume of body parts and decomposed biological tissue. Autopsy allowed diagnosis of the causes of death to be clarified according to the Brazilian criminal legal system.     

The Suzhou industrial park experiment: the case of China–Singapore governmental collaboration

This paper examines the Suzhou Industrial Park project, a collaborative venture between the China and Singapore governments between 1992 and 2002. The collaboration represented a convergence of the two governments' development strategies. The aim was to jointly benefit from foreign direct investment (FDI) by attracting industrial transnational corporations to locate operations within the Park. To achieve this, the China government invested strong political support for the project, while the Singapore government invested capital and administrative expertise. This paper finds that between 1992 and 1997, the collaboration was relatively successful, as the Suzhou Industrial Park experienced some of the highest levels of foreign direct investment in China. However, between 1997 and 1999, the project faced several problems including the effects of the Asian Financial Crisis outside China and competition from other industrial estates within China. This ultimately led the Singapore government to announce its disengagement from the project in June 1999. This paper concludes with some observations about inter-governmental collaboration as a new form of development strategy.     

Heteroplasmy in hair: differences among hair and blood from the same individuals are still a matter of debate

The analysis of mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) is a useful tool in forensic cases when sample contents too little or degraded nuclear DNA to genotype by autosomal short tandem repeat (STR) loci, but it is especially useful when the only forensic evidence is a hair shaft. Several authors have related differences in mtDNA from different tissues within the same individual, with high frequency of heteroplasmic variants in hair, as also in some other tissues. Is still a matter of debate how the differences influence the interpretation forensic protocols. One difference between two samples supposed to be originated from the same individual are related to an inconclusive result, but depending on the tissue and the position of the difference it should have a different interpretation, based on mutation-rate heterogeneity of mtDNA. In order to investigate it differences in the mtDNA control region from hair shafts and blood in our population, sequences from the hypervariable regions 1 and 2 (HV1 and HV2) from 100 Brazilian unrelated individuals were compared. The frequency of point heteroplasmy observed in hair was 10.5% by sequencing. Our study confirms the results related by other authors that concluded that small differences within tissues should be interpreted with caution especially when analyzing hair samples.