Bacterial Degradation of Risperidone and Paliperidone in Decomposing Blood

The stability of two benzisoxazole antipsychotics was determined in vitro in decomposing porcine blood inoculated with bacteria, utilizing a high‐performance liquid chromatography with ultraviolet and fluorescence detection method for drug quantitation. Stability experiments for risperidone and paliperidone were conducted at 7, 20 and 37°C for 4 days using sterile and bacterially inoculated porcine blood. The drugs were stable in sterile blood at each temperature and in inoculated blood at 7°C, but degraded significantly in inoculated blood at 20 and 37°C. Complete loss occurred within 2 days when incubated at 37°C. The benzisoxazole‐cleaved degradation products for both drugs were identified as 2‐hydroxybenzoyl‐risperidone and 2‐hydroxybenzoyl‐paliperidone utilizing liquid chromatography quadrupole‐time‐of‐flight mass spectrometry and accurate mass measurements. The degradation products have been found in postmortem case studies, including one case where risperidone and paliperidone were not detected, indicating complete conversion can occur in situ.     

Third party decline in the UK: The SNP and SDP in comparative perspective

The failure of ‘third’ parties to displace their larger rivals is a consistent (although not universal) feature of competitive democracies which have simple majority electoral systems. It is argued that there are structural features intrinsic to most third parties which tend to accelerate the process of decline once it has set in. Because of their reliance on individual members, these parties put great stress on individual participation and provide the opportunities for it. As a result, they are particularly subject to the effects of internal competition which electoral decline is likely to intensify. The study tests this hypothesis by looking at two cases of third party decline, and concludes that the mass branch party format is ill‐able to cope with electoral failure.     

Are you sitting comfortably? Estimating incumbency advantage in the UK: 1983–2010 – A research note

This note adapts two models commonly used to estimate the incumbency advantage that US members of Congress enjoy – the ‘slurge’ and the Gelman-King Index – to provide comparable estimates for UK MPs. The results show that Liberal Democrats enjoy extremely large such advantages on a par with those of US Congressmen of between 5% and 15% of the vote. Labour and the Conservatives have incumbency advantages at around 2% and 1% respectively. The note estimates that effects could have changed the outcome in as many as 25 seats in some elections, and that they cost the Conservatives the chance to govern alone after the 2010 election.     

Unity and Alliance: The Financial Future of Greater China

Greater China has been separated and divided for over a century. The reunification of Hong Kong and Macao on the eve of the New Millennium has paved the way for Greater China to reunify as a single economy with a single internationalized currency. History shows that financial and monetary collaborations are essential to the future of Greater China in the global arena. We argue that collaboration might begin with a common board in Hong Kong, Shanghai and Taipei for Greater China enterprises to list and trade in one synchronized market. The common board would also facilitate public and private bonds in support of the infrastructural development and globalization of Greater China enterprises. Due to its established financial market, system and culture, Hong Kong would be the undisputed home of the Greater China Enterprises Board. Financial collaboration would advocate monetary alliance when the Chinese renminbi is fully convertible. When the time comes, the offshore renminbi based in Hong Kong would become the counterpart of the Eurodollar in London. The Asianyuan, as it might be called, would be the truly internationalized and globalized renminbi.     

Far Apart but Close Together: A Quantitative and Qualitative Analysis of the Career Structure and Organisational Culture of the Post-War British Diplomatic Service

A good deal has been written about the organisation and structure of the British diplomatic establishment since 1945. This analysis uses detailed quantitative and qualitative data to develop an understanding of the background and career trajectories of the most senior figures in the Diplomatic Service in 1975. By tracing their careers, it is possible to identify more precisely than before the changing educational and social background of these individuals when compared with previous generations of diplomats. This analysis also examines certain core features of the culture of the diplomatic establishment during the post-war decades, analysing how it both shaped and was shaped by particular structures and practices. Despite the existence of a peripatetic career structure that dispersed members of the diplomatic establishment around the globe, there were still numerous opportunities for the kinds of personal contact necessary to maintain an integrated culture.     

Crime Reporting Decisions and the Costs of Crime

The paper develops a model of crime reporting based on an economic approach. It identifies the principal costs and benefits of reporting from the victim’s perspective, taking account of insurance provision and the risk of intimidation by an offender. It shows how a victim might use backward induction to infer a rational reporting strategy. The recording of crime by the police is a process that relies on victim reports, and is thus influenced by the reporting decisions made by victims. The paper uses empirical evidence from the British Crime Survey and from the International Crime Victims Survey to explore the hypotheses generated by the model. It finds support for the suggestion that the propensity to report a crime increases with the size of the loss entailed. The paper also explores the implications of the findings for the estimation of the costs of crime. Reporting and intimidation costs are generally excluded from bottom-up estimates of costs, an omission that may be quite serious in the context of offences such as domestic violence.     

Further observations on the speed of death in hanging

Given that most fatal hangings are suicidal and occur in locations that have been selected to conceal this activity (thus maximizing the chances of a lethal outcome), there has been very little corroboration of the speed with which unconsciousness and death may occur. A 35-year-old male is reported who committed suicide by hanging immediately after talking to his spouse. Police investigations confirmed her reliability as a witness indicating that lethal anoxia in this case had occurred within a very short time (most likely in less than 1 min) of suspension. The speed with which death may result from hanging not only gives an insight into fatal pathophysiological mechanisms, but also provides useful information for situations where a lethal outcome is to be avoided, or is not intended. For example, individuals at risk of suicide who are being monitored in institutional facilities need to be constantly under direct visual surveillance as significant hypoxia can be rapidly induced, parents and caregivers with infants and children in potentially unsafe sleeping environments need to realize how swiftly death or irreversible anoxic brain damage may occur from neck compression, and those who engage in recreational asphyxia should be informed just how quickly a fatal outcome may ensue.     

The Culture Cult Revisited

Society - What is the gravest threat to “open” democratic societies today? In Karl Popper’s view it was tribalism. By contrasting closed autarkic Sparta and free-trading Athens,...