Amphetamines in washed hair of demonstrated users and workplace subjects

Cardiovascular complications of cocaine abuse include myocardial ischemia and infarction, dysrhythmias, cardiomyopathies and aortic dissection. The case in point pertains to a 26-year-old, Caucasian male, substance abuser who suffered a thoracic aortic dissection following the use of crack cocaine. The autopsy and histological findings showed a connective tissue abnormality including a focal microcystic medial necrosis and a fragmentation of the elastic fibers in the arterial walls. Blood concentrations of cocaine and benzoylecgonine, taken individually, were considered to be within a potentially toxic range. Blood concentrations of methadone also indicated use of this drug at the same time. The small amounts of morphine found in the blood and urine were compatible with heroine or morphine use more than 24 h before death.     

The Etiology of the Occurrence of En Banc Review in the U.S. Court of Appeals

The U.S. Courts of Appeals, working principally through three-judge panels, constitute important final arbiters of the meaning of the federal constitution, laws, and regulations and, hence, significant policymakers within the federal system. En banc rehearing—reconsideration of the decision of a three-judge panel by the full complement of judges appointed to the circuit—is an institutional device that ensures circuit decisions are in line with the established preferences of the circuit. The use of en banc varies in frequency across circuits and within circuits over time. Drawing on legal, attitudinal, and strategic perspectives of judicial behavior, we develop and test a set of integrated expectations regarding the causes of this variation. Our analysis finds support for the operation of all three models and suggests that the influence of ideology on the use of en banc in the recent era is not unique but part of a long-standing pattern .     

Federal Cost Recovery in Child Support Enforcement: Incentives for Improving Long-Term Effectiveness

Over the last 15 years, the benefits of operating an efficient child support enforcement program has received greater attention. This article examines the general environment in which child support enforcement programs operate and describes the Virginia experience over the last three years, which has seen AFDC collections increase by over 45 percent and all collections increase by more than 60 percent.     

Inconvenient Truth? Do Collective Bargaining Agreements Help Explain the Mobility of Teachers within School Districts?

We utilize detailed teacher‐level longitudinal data from Washington State to investigate patterns of teacher mobility in districts with different collective bargaining agreement (CBA) transfer provisions. Specifically, we estimate the log odds that teachers of varying experience and effectiveness levels transfer out of their schools to other schools in the district in Washington kindergarten through 12th grade (K‐12) public schools. We find little consistent evidence relating voluntary transfer provisions in CBAs to patterns in teacher mobility, but do find evidence that patterns in within‐district mobility by teacher experience and effectiveness vary between districts that do not use seniority in involuntary transfer decisions and those that use seniority as a tiebreaker or the only factor in these moves. In models that consider teacher experience, the interaction between teacher experience and school disadvantage in teacher transfer decisions is more extreme in districts with strong involuntary seniority transfer protections; novice teachers are even more likely to stay in disadvantaged schools, and veteran teachers are even more likely to leave disadvantaged schools. On the other hand, models that consider value‐added measures of teacher effectiveness suggest that more effective teachers are less likely to leave disadvantaged schools in districts that do use seniority in involuntary transfer decisions, that is, seniority transfer provisions could actually make the distribution of output‐based measures of quality more equitable. Taken together, these results suggest that seniority transfer provisions may have differential impacts on the distributions of teacher experience and effectiveness.     

N v UK: No Duty to Rescue the Nearby Needy?

This article discusses the deportation of a seriously ill foreign national to her country of origin, where she would face a high risk of extreme deterioration of her health due to the inadequate medical treatment. It criticises the reasoning of the judgment N v UK of the European Court of Human Rights, and explores the circumstances under which removal of a severely ill non-national constitutes a breach of the prohibition against inhuman and degrading treatment under the European Convention on Human Rights.     

‘No girl wants to be called a slut!’: women,heterosexual casual sex and the sexual double standard

Recent shifts in the western cultural landscape mean that practices such as casual sex are contradictory terrains for women. Although permissive and liberal discourses construct women’s casual sex as acceptable, and even desirable, traditional discourses and a sexual double standard, do not. This article examines 15 young women’s negotiation of the sexual double standard in their talk of heterosexual casual sex. Interviews were analysed using thematic analysis, with borrowed insights from discourse analysis, within a constructionist framework. All 15 women in this study gave accounts of an agentic and desiring sexuality, yet talked about casual sex and a sexual reputation in contradictory and contested ways. Three main themes were identified: the (un)acceptability of casual sex, a sexual reputation is what other girls have, and the making of a slut. Although an enduring sexual double standard was identified, all participants challenged its relevance and appropriateness. However, a sexual double standard also seeped into women’s accounts when talking about other women and the threat of garnering a negative sexual reputation was linked to women’s silencing of their own casual sex experiences. This work supports the continued need to dismantle un/changing codes of gendered heterosexuality.     

A Longitudinal Study of the Simultaneous Influence of Mothers’ and Teachers’ Educational Expectations on Low-income Youth’s Academic Achievement

This short-term longitudinal study investigated the simultaneous influences of adults’ (mothers and teachers) educational expectations and youth’s achievement (standardized test scores and teachers’ ratings of academic performance) across a 3-year time span on youth’s performance in school (GPA). Participants were an ethnically diverse sample of 426 low-income urban youth, ages 6 through 16 at T1. Results from cross-lagged and autoregressive path analyses indicated stability in adults’ expectations and youth’s standardized test scores; cross-lagged influences of teachers’, but not mothers’, expectations across time; and effects of youth’s achievement outcomes on adults’ expectations at T2, but not vice versa. Overall, the pattern of findings demonstrate that adults’ educational expectations are dynamic and responsive to how youth are faring in school and to changes in academic performance across time.

Intoxication Levels of Bar Patrons at an Organized Pub Crawl in a College Campus Community

This field study examined whether participants of a traditional, end-of-semester pub crawl in a college campus community had higher levels of intoxication than non-participating bar patrons on the same night as the event. A total of 693 bar patrons participated in the study. Anonymous interview and breath alcohol concentration (BrAC) data were collected from pedestrians in a bar district at the end point of the pub crawl route between 10:00 p.m. and 3:00 a.m. on the night of the event during three different semesters (November, 2007, May, 2008, and May, 2009). A multivariate model adjusting for participant demographics and drinking variables showed that participation in the pub crawl was associated with a 70% reduced risk of being highly intoxicated (i.e., BrAC ≥ 0.08 g/210 L). The lower intoxication levels among pub crawl participants may have implications for harm reduction practices at high-risk drinking events. These implications are discussed.