Foreign Aid and Undeserved Credit Claiming

Politicians in developing countries misuse foreign aid to get reelected by fiscally manipulating foreign aid resources or domestic budgets. Our article suggests another mechanism that does not require politicians to have any control over foreign aid in order to make use of it for electoral purposes: undeserved credit claiming. We analyze the conditions under which local politicians can undeservedly take credit for the receipt of foreign aid and thereby boost their chances of reelection. We theorize that politicians can employ a variety of techniques to claim credit for development aid even when they have little or no influence on its actual allocation. Using a subnational World Bank development program in the Philippines, we demonstrate that credit claiming is an important strategy to exploit foreign aid inflows and that the political effects of aid can persist even when projects are designed to minimize the diversion or misuse of funds.     

Including tourists in crime rate calculations for new casino jurisdictions: What difference does it make?

One way to analyze the effect of tourism on crime is to include the average number of visitors in the denominator used to calculate community crime rates. Modified crime rates were computed for 7 new casino jurisdictions and compared with traditional crime rates based on the resident population. A preand postcasino comparison indicates a minority of Part I crimes increased significantly regardless of which crime rate was used. While a majority of Part II crimes rose significantly when using the traditional crime rate, fewer than half the modified crime rates displayed any gains. It appears that a large concentration of casinos with a concomitant increase in tourism leads to an increase in Part II crimes. This project was supported by Grant No. 98-IJ-CX-0037 awarded by the National Institute of Justice, Office of Justice Programs, U.S. Department of Justice. Points of view in this document are those of the authors and do not necessarily represent the official position of the U.S. Department of Justice.     

Direct carboxyhemoglobin determination by derivative spectroscopy

A fast and sensitive method for the determination of carboxyhemoglobin (COHb) in blood using derivative spectroscopy is described. The addition of sodium dithionite as a reducing agent is not required. The concentration interval studied was from 0.5% to 100% COHb.     

Cerebral tissue pulmonary embolization due to head trauma: a case report with immunohistochemical confirmation

Pulmonary embolization of cerebral tissue as the result of severe head trauma is an uncommon, if not rare, phenomenon, and few cases have been reported in the literature. The authors discuss the case of a 51-year-old male who died six days after suffering extensive head trauma in a motor vehicle collision. At autopsy, white-gray emboli were found in several subsegmental pulmonary arteries. The results of histologic examination with the hematoxylineosin stain gave the impression that the emboli were necrotic cerebral tissue; however, routine special stains for neural tissue produced inconclusive results. Immunohistochemical staining of the emboli with monoclonal mouse anti-human neurofilament protein (Dako Corp., Carpinteria, California) confirmed the cerebral nature of the emboli. To the authors' knowledge, this is the first reported case of pulmonary embolization of cerebral tissue confirmed by immunohistochemistry.     

Confirmation by LC–MS of drugs in oral fluid obtained from roadside testing

The aim of this study was to assess the effectiveness of two current on-site oral fluid (OF) drug detection devices (OraLab and Dräger), as part of the Spanish participation in the Roadside Testing Assessment Project (ROSITA Project). The study was done in collaboration with the Spanish Traffic Police, in Galicia (NW Spain), during 2004 and 2005. A total of 468 drivers selected at the police controls agreed to participate through informed consent. In addition, saliva samples were collected and sent to the laboratory to confirm the on-site results. For this purpose, two different analytical liquid chromatography–mass spectrometry (LC–MS) methods were used to detect 11 drugs or metabolites in a 300 μL sample. Simultaneous analysis of morphine, 6-acetylmorphine, amphetamine, methamphetamine, MDA, MDMA, MDEA, MBDB, cocaine and benzoylecgonine was carried out using 100 μL of oral fluid, after an automated solid phase extraction. A different LC–MS method was performed to detect Δ⁹-THC in 200 μL of oral fluid using liquid–liquid extraction with hexane at pH 6. Both methods were fully validated, including linearity (1–250 ng/mL, 2–250 ng/mL) recovery (>50%), within-day and between-day precision (CV < 15%), accuracy (mean relative error < 15%), limit of detection (0.5 and 1 ng/mL), quantitation (1 and 2 ng/mL) and matrix effect. All of the positive cases and a random selection of 30% of the negatives were analyzed for confirmation analysis. Good results (sensitivity, specificity, accuracy, positive predictive value and negative predictive value > 90%) were obtained for cocaine and opiates by OraLab, and for cocaine by Dräger. However, the results for the other compounds could be improved for both detection devices. Differences in the ease of use and in the interpretation mode (visual or instrumental) were observed.     

Dirty diving. Sudden death of a SCUBA diver in a water treatment facility.

We report a case of a sudden death in a SCUBA diver working at a water treatment facility. The victim, an employee of the facility with a specialty in electronics, was a sport diver not qualified in commercial diving. While attempting to clean sludge from a blocked drain 25 ft under water, the diver was suddenly pinned against the drain valve when the sludge plug was broken up. We review the mechanics of the incident and the actual cause of death, asphyxia, as opposed to drowning. We believe this to be the first reported case of traumatic (pressure) asphyxia in a SCUBA diver.     

Another Look at Constitutional Pluralism in the European Union

Constitutional pluralism is a theory, or movement, or idea, for some perhaps even an ideal, about the relationship between the legal system of the European Union and those of its Member States. In this paper, Julio Baquero Cruz analyses its assumptions and implications in the light of historical experience and of the consequences it could have for the practice of law in Europe. To do so, constitutional pluralism is compared with the other main positions about that relationship: the national constitutional position and the position of Union law.