A fatal case involving proparacaine.

A 16-year-old female died soon after inhaling proparacaine. Analysis of the tissues revealed an amphoteric compound consistent with a hydrolysis product prepared in the laboratory by reacting proparacaine with HCl in the presence of heat.     

The high school “Junior Theme” as an adolescent rite of passage

This paper examines high school research projects as an adolescent transitional episode that demarks acquisition of a capacity for prolonged creative effort. Whereas tests of courage are important in many subsistence societies, in ours a valued quality of adulthood is the ability to think and act on one's own. Self-report data from 154 students working on a Junior Theme are employed to illustrate the psychological significance of this kind of rite. The students report a range of emotional states that are well out of their normal school experience. Many go through a process of personal involvement and self-searching that resembles an identity quest. As a result of the project students feel they have acquired a new status, one that separates them from the uninitiated and puts them closer to the status and power of an autonomous adult.Received his Ph.D. in Behavioral Sciences from the University of Chicago. Research interests include adolescent emotional development, the ecology of daily life, and gerontology.     

Provisions for Noncompliance and Treaty Value: A Game Theoretic Perspective

We present a game theoretic analysis of the prevention of noncompliance that deals with treaty violations whether they are intentional or not. Game theorists have developed probabilistic trigger schemes to handle such situations. We analyze dispute resolution procedures in subgame perfect trigger terms and suggest alternative designs for the handling of signatory breach. This paper shows that designs can be compared directly by evaluating their ability to keep signatories close to the cooperative goal in the long run. This criterion enables us to highlight the merits of generosity and redress for dispute resolution. Generosity avoids retaliation with certainty so that parties can settle before any retaliatory action is implemented. But if retaliation does come to pass, it is the cost to the victim of punishing the perpetrator that determines a design's value. Using a simple repeated prisoner's dilemma framework we find that, in most circumstances, a subgame perfect design that adds concern for the injured party's redress to the generosity built into a probabilistic trigger scheme yields better treaty value.     

The Life and Death of UDAG: An Assessment Based on Eight Projects in Five New Jersey Cities

The federal Urban Development Action Grant program, begun in1977, provided $5 billion over eleven years revitalizing severelydistressed urban places through the encouragement of privatesector investment. Designed to assist commercial, industrial,and housing projects that "but for" the federal grant wouldnot be built, the program was characterized by a streamlinedgrant-making process administered by finance and developmentexperts. Eight UDA G projects in five New Jersey cities, firststudied in the proposal stage in 1979 and revisited in 1987,show that the UDAGs succeeded in attracting development to thesehard-pressed cities. Although the projects succeeded, the programwas unable to arrest the more general distressed conditionsof the cities. During the Reagan years, the administration soughtto end the program. Congress supported it, but reduced the fundingeach year. In an effort to gain support for the program, eligibilityrequirements were broadened to include more localities. Theseefforts failed, and in 1988 Congress did not fund the program.Despite its demise, UDAG is recognized as having stimulatedurban revitalization and having created a new model for privatesector and public sector collaboration in economic development.