Bridging the gap between town and gown: Local government expertise and the role of the university

This paper challenges the claim of the public administration community that universities are playing an important role in transferring public sector technology to local governments. We provide data from the Lower Mississippi Delta to show that graduate programs in public management and planning are not filling the severe expertise gap facing nonrnetropolitan counties and municipalities. The paper concludes with a series of recommendations on how universities can better fulfill their promise of technology transfer.     

Investigation of trace inorganic elements in street doses of heroin

Sixteen trace elements found in 309 street heroin samples, piped water and contaminated water were determined using inductively coupled plasma-mass spectrometry. All the street heroin samples were found to contain high levels of sodium, a reflection of the use of sodium bicarbonate during heroin synthesis. Additionally, this element was also found to be one of the potential contaminants acquired from the piped water. Calcium could be derived from lime while iron, aluminum and zinc could have come from the metallic container used in the processing/cutting stage. The levels of these elements remained low in the heroin and it could be due to the dilution effects from the addition of adulterants. Statistical validation was performed with six links of related heroin samples using principal component analysis to find the best pretreatment for sample classification. It was obtained that normalization followed by fourth root showed promising results with 8% errors in the sample clustering. The technique was then applied to the case samples. Finally, the result suggested that the case samples could have originated from at least two major groups respectively showing unique elemental profiles at the street level.     

The Dilemma of Modern Zoning

The zoning process is subject to steadily expanding volume and variety of demands and criticism. Some wish it, alone, to control the rate and location of growth and bemoan that often zoning is not so used. Others feel that zoning seldom has any rational basis and is applied on a case by case basis with little or no consideration of the existing or proposed capacity to serve the area with sewers, water, schools, parks and the many capital facilities which are an integral part of a community's infrastructure. A few say zoning is often decided on the basis of cronyism or bribery. More often critics say that zoning is decided on emotional issues by “mob rule” and that, in effect, many decisions exemplify democracy at its worst. The timid official yields to the most persistent voices by the developer, neighbors, or environmentalists and often ignores altogether the suggestions of the professional engineers and planners who in theory at least take an objective long-range view of urban development.