Technology Policy and Programs at a crossroads

Following a period of tinkering with various approaches to designing technology programs, and in the wake of recent elections, it appears that government interventions in technology development and transfer must be carefully crafted and mindful of political minefields and economic limits. In this article, the Director of the Southern Technology Council comes down from the mountain with Ten Commandments of Wise Technology Programs and Policy Making.     

Dutch cocaine trade: The perspective of Rotterdam cocaine retail dealers

This article based, on 38 in-depth interviews with Rotterdam cocaine retail dealers, aims to present a clearer picture of how cocaine supply lines in the Netherlands are organized in order to fine-tune policy with respect to crime, public order and safety on the different trade levels. On the retail level the market for cocaine is strictly separated in a market for crack cocaine versus a market for powder cocaine. The crack dealers are often hard drug users themselves living in relatively poor circumstances. Although dealing cocaine is their main activity, they tend to be involved in other activities related to the drug scene, e.g. smuggling cocaine via Amsterdam airport. The cocaine distribution line for supply on the local market is seldom more than two steps. Because the supply for the Rotterdam cocaine retailers comes mainly from small-scale imports, successful police operations against large-scale imports of cocaine will have little influence on the local cocaine supply in the Netherlands.     

Max Frei theory revisitation: does really strokes depth change along time?

A serious problem in questioned document examination is to establish the age of written lines. With respect to paper dating, in the past, Max Frei theory (based only on microscope analysis) claimed that strokes are time-dependent. Therefore, according to this theory, it has been asserted that from the analysis of the strokes depth changes it is possible to try to date the handwritten document (to find out that the document is older than ...). In the present work, we investigate the strokes depth change by a laser profilometer considering not only the time but also microclimatic variations. First, we analyze the stability of stroke characteristics along the time. In particular, we demonstrate that if the document is preserved without change of temperature and humidity, the depth of the strokes has not appreciable changes. In this way, we have the purpose to verify the real possibility of documents dating by means of Max Frei theory. Subsequently, we test how the 3D profile of strokes changes in connection with the microclimatic variations. In particular, we test humidity variations. With this experiment, we show that humidity variations reduce the strokes depth. Moreover, this effect shows a non-linear trend, leaving a hysteresis on the depth. Finally, we show that the analysis of 3D stroke profile is unable to determine the age of documents.     

Toward a political economy of post-Fordist punishment

This article suggests some new lines of research in the field of the political economy of punishment and some possible new directions for a critical approach to contemporary social control strategies. The starting point is the transition from a Fordist economy to what can be defined as a post-Fordist system of production. I outline some tendencies in the actual capitalist dynamic (concerning the labour market, the production process, the relations between the workforce and capitalist power and between work and social citizenship), suggesting that a renewed political economy of social control has to deal with them. Two tendencies are assumed to be structural. On the one hand, the tendency of the capitalist system to make the production (and extraction) of surplus-value more and more independent of the effective working time (a tendency toward the reduction of human labour in the productive process). On the other hand, the tendency towards the massive introduction of new technologies: a tendency whose main consequences seem to be the intellectualisation of human labour and the decline of the classic distinction between manual and intellectual labour. I assume that these tendencies give rise to a new productive subject (the multitude), whose characters exceed the actual organisation of work and deepen the contradictions intrinsic to post-Fordist societies. Hence, an analysis of some new social control strategies follows, where I consider actuarialism as a technology for the control of these contradictions

更思政治性国际劫机犯罪的司法协作困境——以政治犯不引渡原则为切人

各国意识形态领域的差异以及特定国际事件的国家利益纠葛共同影响了对政治犯不引渡原则的适用．进一步导致了与“政治性目的”有关的国际劫机犯罪的司法协作困境重重。此类劫机事件的困境实质上是各国国家利益、世界人权事业发展与政治自由以及国际打击劫机犯罪等诸多需要的体现。而解决困境的现实方案则是：将具体的“政治性”国际劫机事件所涵括的现实国家利益纠葛作为首要的价值砝码,兼顾事件的人权保护意义与政治自由价值,并在此基础上分类处理。     

Evolution of the content of THC and other major cannabinoids in drug-type cannabis cuttings and seedlings during growth of plants

In Europe, authorities frequently ask forensic laboratories to analyze seized cannabis plants to prove that cultivation was illegal (drug type and not fiber type). This is generally done with mature and flowering plants. However, authorities are often confronted with very young specimens. The aim of our study was to evaluate when the chemotype of cannabis plantlets can be surely determined through analysis of eight major cannabinoids content during growth. Drug-type seedlings and cuttings were cultivated, sampled each week, and analyzed by high-performance liquid chromatography with diode array detection. The chemotype of clones was recognizable at any developmental stage because of high total Δ(9)-tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) concentrations even at the start of the cultivation. Conversely, right after germination seedlings contained a low total THC content, but it increased quickly with plant age up, allowing chemotype determination after 3 weeks. In conclusion, it is not necessary to wait for plants' flowering to identify drug-type cannabis generally cultivated in Europe.