A GIS‐based Quantitative Approach for the Search of Clandestine Graves,Italy

Previous research on the RAG color‐coded prioritization systems for the discovery of clandestine graves has not considered all the factors influencing the burial site choice within a GIS project. The goal of this technical note was to discuss a GIS‐based quantitative approach for the search of clandestine graves. The method is based on cross‐referenced RAG maps with cumulative suitability factors to host a burial, leading to the editing of different search scenarios for ground searches showing high‐(Red), medium‐(Amber), and low‐(Green) priority areas. The application of this procedure allowed several outcomes to be determined: If the concealment occurs at night, then the “search scenario without the visibility” will be the most effective one; if the concealment occurs in daylight, then the “search scenario with the DSM‐based visibility” will be most appropriate; the different search scenarios may be cross‐referenced with offender's confessions and eyewitnesses’ testimonies to verify the veracity of their statements.     

A social and political profile of Canadian legislators, 1996

This research note provides an overview and an update on the social and political backgrounds of all elected Canadian legislators at the federal and provincial/territorial levels of government in 1996. For provincial/territorial legislators data are presented by electoral jurisdiction, and for all legislators by level of government and political party. Relatively few differences in social characteristics were found between the two levels although there were some variations by province, territory and party. Business, education and law are the three most prevalent occupations, although the latter has declined among legislators over time. There is little movement of members from the provincial to the federal level. The most common political experience of both groups lies in municipal governance. Over time women have increased their share of seats at both levels. Even in a polity such as Canada with high rates of legislative turnover at both federal and provincial/territorial levels and with new parties emerging, most changes in social and political experience backgrounds proceed incrementally.     

Participation,Dialogue, and Civic Engagement: Understanding the Role of Organized Civil Society in Promoting Active Citizenship in the European Union

Abstract

This article looks at current policies concerning the civic and political participation of youths, women, migrants, and minorities in the European Union. It highlights the ways in which active citizenship and civic engagement have become a political priority for European institutions. Representation of local policy actors at the supranational level and strategies for the inclusion of civil society provide a platform for evaluating the impact of Europeanization at the national and subnational level. The article focuses on key discourses and narratives associated with specific policy frames (e.g. European citizenship, European social policies, and the European public sphere (EPS)). Some of the key questions addressed by the article are: What are the strategies that are employed, both by the European institutions in Brussels and organized civil society (OCS), to enhance participation and reciprocal communication? What vision of governance do practices such as active engagement and civil dialogue represent? Drawing on current theories of governance, our article contributes to the debate about the EPS by evaluating the role of OCS in bridging the gap between European institutions and national polities. Equally, our focus on traditionally marginal groups provides a platform for assessing the institutionalization of the ‘European social dimension’.     

Dissent and the Anarchic in Legal Counter-Culture: A Peircean View

The author analyses the role of dissent and anarchic thinking in modern legal culture. Such notions traditionally convey opposition to established authority and are essential for all free and open societies. In fact, the right to dissent and practising anarchic beliefs exist insofar as a true right of confrontation is guaranteed by the legal system. In this perpective, the author suggests some correspondences between dialogic thinking, that Peirce says allows all ideas to grow semiotically, and the development of the role of dissent in the legal culture. Generally speaking, the question concerns the well-known Peircean dichotomy between chance/spontaneity and lawfulness. This thesis is exemplified in detail looking at the history of US law, at its outset the direct consequence of a legal counter-cultural movement against British common law. Moreover, the possibility of dissent is written into the United States constitution. At least three modes of dissent are built into American law as legal counter activities: (1) voices of nondominant religions, (2) dissent within the legal system, e.g., dialogue among and within the courts, (3) challenging the legal system sanctioned by the right to civil disobedience and by other forms of reaction against an oppressive government.     

Reviews

Vladimir Shlapentokh, Soviet Intellectuals and Political Power: The Post‐Stalin Era. London: I. B. Tauris & Co. Ltd., 1990, xiv + 321 pp., £19.95

Jadwiga Staniszkis, The Dynamics of the Breakthrough in Eastern Europe. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press, 1991, xiii + 303 pp., £25.00, $35.00.

Richard Sakwa, Gorbachev and his Reforms, 1985–1990. London: Philip Allan, 1990, xiv + 459 pp., £35.00 h/b, £12.95 p/b.

Julian Cooper, The Soviet Defence Industry: Conversion and Reform. London: Pinter Publishers, 1991, ix + 111 pp., £22.50 h/b, £8.95 p/b.

Elizabeth Winiecki & Jan Winiecki, The Structural Legacy of the Soviet‐Type Economy. London: CRCE, 1992, 133 pp., £6.50 p/b.

Marsha Siefert, ed., Mass Culture and Perestroika in the Soviet Union. New York, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1991, 200 pp., $35.00.

Anne White, De‐Stalinization and the House of Culture. Declining state control over leisure in the USSR, Poland and Hungary, 1953–89. London and New York: Routledge, 1990, x+195 pp., £30.00.

Deborah Adelman, The ‘Children of Perestroika’. Moscow Teenagers Talk About Their Lives and the Future. Armonk, NY: M. E. Sharpe Inc., 1991, xxiii + 256 pp., $24.95.

Michael Marrese & Sándor Richter, eds, The Challenge of Simultaneous Economic Relations with East and West. London: Macmillan, 1990, xviii + 216 pp., £45.00.

David W. Hunter, Western Trade Pressure on the Soviet Union. Basingstoke: Macmillan Academic and Professional Ltd, 1991, xii + 163 pp., £45.00

Pierre Maurer, La Reconciliation Sovieto‐Yougoslave, 1954–1958: Illusions et Disillusions de Tito. Cousset, Fribourg: Editions Delval, 1991, 474 pp., no price.     

Development and validation of a liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry assay for hair analysis of atomoxetine and its metabolites: Application in clinical practice

Atomoxetine (ATX) is a potent inhibitor of the noradrenaline reuptake transporter approved since 2002 for the treatment of attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) in children, adolescents, and adults as alternative treatment to methylphenidate. A procedure based on liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry (LC-MS/MS) has been developed for the determination of ATX and its main metabolites (4-hydroxyatomoxetine - 4 hydroxyATX - and N-desmethylatomoxetine - des-methylATX) in hair of one treated child and five treated adolescents. Since hair samples can be easily collected without the need for specials skills and exposing a patient to discomfort, hair testing of ATX and eventually of its metabolites should be useful, especially in case of pediatric patients, to check compliance in a wider time-window. After addition of duloxetine as internal standard, hair samples were overnight digested with 2ml 1M NaOH at 45°C. Then, analytes were extracted from alkaline solution with two different 2ml aliquots of tert-butyl methyl ether. Chromatographic separation was achieved at ambient temperature using a reverse-phase column and a mobile phase of 40% of water-60% 5mM ammonium acetate, 50mM formic acid, 4mM trifluoroacetic acid in acetonitrile-water (85:15, v/v). The mass spectrometer was operated in positive ion mode using multiple reaction monitoring. The method was linear over the concentration range 0.2-50ng/mg hair for the all analytes under investigation, with an intra- and inter-assay imprecision and inaccuracy always less than 20% and an analytical recovery between 33.1% and 76.1%, depending on the considered analyte. Only ATX and 4-hydroxyATX were detected in hair samples with concentrations varying from 0.2 to 2.0ng/mg hair and from 0.3 to 1.0ng/mg, respectively. Notwithstanding the absence of any dose-hair concentration relationship, hair monitoring of ATX and concomitant medications commonly administrated in ADHD children and adolescents can be crucial in verifying long-term compliance to prescribed medication in individuals displaying a non negligible tendency to refuse drugs and to lie on the adherence to therapy as a specific symptom of the disease.     

Sex,sex roles,and self-image

The purpose of this research was to compare the self-images of male and female children in order to determine whether females were at a particular disadvantage and, if so, why. A random sample of 1988 children from grades 3–12 were interviewed in Baltimore in 1968. Findings show more disturbance among White adolescent females than among White males or Black females: White girls become much more self-conscious and show greater self-image instability and somewhat lower self-esteem. Three sets of factors appear to explain part of these differences: (1) attitudes toward present and future sex role, (2) peer relationships in general and opposite sex relationships in particular, and (3) attitudes toward changing looks in adolescence.The work of the first author is currently supported by a Research Development Award from the National Institute of Mental Health, No. 5-K1-MH-41, 688-03. The work was also partly supported by USPHS Grants 1-F3-MH-41, 688-01 and MH-197541-01.The data were collected in 1968.Received her Ph.D. from Columbia University and has been interested in the social determinants of the self-image and in studies of the social psychological consequences of organ transplantation.Received her Ph.D. from the University of Maryland and is interested in social psychology in general and sex roles in particular.