The strange world of Roland Barthes: some points of criticism

SUMMARY

Against the background of Mary Wisemen, Sándor Hervey and Vincent Leitch's discussion of Roland Barthes' work, the author discusses some of the important points of criticism against Barthes as a semiologist and as a social critic. In spite of this criticism he comes to the conclusion that Barthes opens new perspectives for communication science concerning meaning and in particular meaning created in and through media such as photography.     

Civic implications of restorative justice theory: Citizen participation and criminal justice policy

Restorative justice, a normative theory and reform movement emphasizing dialogue and reconciliation between victim, offender, and community, is a widespread, if experimental, part of the practice of criminal justice in the United States. This essay argues that restorative justice draws connections between civic engagement and punishment practices that distinguish it as a normative theory of criminal justice. Advocates of restorative justice expect the growth of non-punitive attitudes and the weakening of support for incarceration to emerge from a public and lay-oriented context of adjudication. The role of lay participation in achieving social change, although prominent in restorative justice critiques of mainstream criminal justice norms and practices, has not been clearly articulated in practical terms. Significant ambiguities remain regarding the degree of lay participation, scope of authority, and the focus of restorative justice forums. The essay argues that an adequate assessment of restorative justice experiments should include an analysis of their impact on public attitudes towards crime and crime control policy and not simply on their impact on the specific victims and offenders involved. The link between less incarceration and restorative justice forums is public willingness to grant them the authority to hear and sanction offenses that would ordinarily receive incarceration. Whether and how they can influence broader public attitudes, then, is a critical test of restorative justice effectiveness.     

ELISA detection of clonazepam and 7-aminoclonazepam in whole blood and urine

The ability of five commercially available enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) benzodiazepines to detect clonazepam and 7-aminoclonazepam in blood and urine was investigated. To determine the cross-reactivity of various ELISA assays, drug free blood and urine were fortified with clonazepam and 7-aminoflunitrazepam at concentrations of 1, 2.5, 5, 10, and 25microg/dl. The cross-reactivity, with respect to oxazepam, for clonazepam was 16, 37, 80, 93, and 109% with Immunalysis, Diagnostix, Neogen, OraSure, and Cozart, respectively; for 7-aminoclonazepam, none of the five ELISA assays showed any cross-reactivity above 10%.