Screening for cannabinoids in blood using EMIT: concentrations of delta-9-tetrahydrocannabinol in relation to EMIT results.

The EMIT d.a.u. cannabinoid assay of methanolic extracts of blood was found to be usable as a screening method in cases of suspected impairment by cannabis, when delta-9-tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) was analysed in the subsequent assay. A prerequisite is that the blood sample is taken some time after cannabis smoking. When a cut-off limit corresponding to 50 nM delta-9-tetrahydrocannabinol carboxylic acid (17 ng/ml) was used, 86% of the EMIT positive blood samples contained THC concentrations above the cut-off limit of 1 nM (0.3 ng/ml). A high EMIT result gave a high probability of finding a high THC concentration in the subsequent confirmation analysis.     

Sexing of human clavicles using length and circumference measurements

Measurement of clavicular length and circumference, and computation of clavicular robustness and length-circumference product from 724 autopsied adults of known age, sex, and body length between the ages of 15 and 96 years produced useful sex-predictive values. This predominantly North American white population contained 560 males and 164 females with intact, nondeformed clavicles. Clavicle length and circumference and particularly their product have been found useful in sexing, but robustness as a single trait has not. Despite a significant overlap of male and female values, the use of single cutoff values allowed correct sex assignment of up to 93% of the entire study population, including 94% of males and 89% of females. The ratios of body length to clavicle circumference and to clavicle length are on average greater in women than in men. The former ratio yields male predictive values greater than 95% for those individuals with ratios falling below the cutoff value of 43, whereas the latter ratio is a relatively poor sex predictor.     

The Injustice of Enforced Equal Access to Transplant Operations: Rethinking Reckless Claims of Fairness

The globalizing or totalizing imposition of a particular understanding of justice, fairness, or equality, as seen, for example, in Canada's single health care system, which forbids the sale of private insurance and the purchase of better basic health care, cannot be justified in general secular terms because of the following limitations: (1) the plurality of understandings of justice, fairness, and equality, and (2) the inability to establish one understanding as canonical. The secular state lacks plausible moral authority for the coercive imposition of one such account on peaceable, consenting adults. This state of affairs, with regard to the weakness of human moral epistemological powers, means that the secular state fails to have the moral authority to forbid coercively the sale and purchase of organs. It further lacks the secular, moral authority to impose equal access to organ transplantations. Assertions of such authority amount to reckless claims of fairness, and for this reason, health care policy must be set within the constraints of limited, constitutional regimes.     

Worldwide policy trends in agricultural extension: Part II

This second of a two-part article on global policy trends in agricultural extension deals with complexity. Policy differs enormously from country to country. The author believes that, rather than producing confusion and frustration in the field, the great variety of methodologies, institutional frameworks, and program priorities provides a rich field of ideas for study and practice. The major position in the article is that extension must be dealt with as part of a total agricultural-development process rather than an isolated subsystem for transferring technology to farmers.     

Microscopical study on estimation of time since death in skeletal remains

For the purpose of estimating time since death in skeletal remains, postmortem changes in human compact bones were examined by microradiography and electron microscopy. The UV-fluorescence of the peripheral zone of compact bone was also examined by microscopic spectrophotometry. Microradiographic examination revealed no morphological changes in bones left in the open air for long periods, except one of 15 years since death. In bones left in the soil, vacuoles of 5-10 microns diameter, which contained a honeycomb-like structure formed by small vacuoles of 0.5-1 microns diameter, were found in the peripheral zone of the substantia compacta approximately 5 years since death, and in bones of 6 years or more, this change extended to the mid-zone. In bones left in the sea for 4-5 years, vacuoles of 5-10 microns diameter were observed in the outer peripheral zone of the substantia compacta. The relative intensity of UV-fluorescence in bones dwindled with time since death and the correlation coefficient was considerably high.