Development and evaluation of a standard method for the quantitative determination of elements in float glass samples by LA-ICP-MS

Forensic analysis of glass samples was performed in different laboratories within the NITE-CRIME (Natural Isotopes and Trace Elements in Criminalistics and Environmental Forensics) European Network, using a variety of Laser Ablation Inductively Coupled Plasma Mass Spectrometry (LA-ICP-MS) systems. The main objective of the interlaboratory tests was to cross-validate the different combinations of laser ablation systems with different ICP-MS instruments. A first study using widely available samples, such as the NIST SRM 610 and NIST SRM 612 reference glasses, led to deviations in the determined concentrations for trace elements amongst the laboratories up to 60%. Extensive discussion among the laboratories and the production of new glass reference standards (FGS 1 and FGS 2) established an improved analytical protocol, which was tested on a well-characterized float glass sample (FG 10-1 from the BKA Wiesbaden collection). Subsequently, interlaboratory tests produced improved results for nearly all elements with a deviation of < 10%, demonstrating that LA-ICP-MS can deliver absolute quantitative measurements on major, minor and trace elements in float glass samples for forensic and other purposes.     

Le contrôle de l'information gouvernementale: le cas du Québec

Sommaire: Nos sociétés modernes font l'objet de débats très controversés autour du problème de I'accès à l'information gouvernementale. Une approche systémique permet entre aittres de prendre conscience des différents enjeux inhérents au contrôle de cette information. Elle expliqrie pourquoi certains Etats sont plus en-clins que d'autres à favoriser 1'accès à l'information gouvernementale. Dans cette approche, la société est perçue comme un système d'acteurs dont les trois principaux sont le gouvernement, les intermediaires et les différents publics, avec en plus les acteurs externes dans I'environnement. Ces acteurs sont soumis à des règles normatives ou pragniatiques. Leur pouvoir respectif de contrôle est loin d'être équivalent. Le pouvoir du gouvrnement sur les différentes dimensions de la communication le démarque fortement de ses compétiteurs. Certaines propriétés générales dri système, de caractère- plus macroscopique, sont ensuite dégagées, soit la tendance gÆné rale à l'amplification de I'information gouvernementale ainsi que la tendance a l'amplification des prohlémes contradictoires reliés au trop grand secret de l'information gouvernementale d'une part, et à la trop petite protection de l'information personnelle d'autre part. Le gouvernement québécois a maintenant legiféré dans ce domaine. mais la loi d'accès ne inodifie pas fondanientalement les propriétés generales du systeme ni le pouvoir prédominant du gouvernement sur les autres acteurs politiques. Abstract: In modern societies, the problem of access to government information has been the subject of passionate debates. The systemic approach offers, among other things, an awareness of the various stakes inherent in the control of this information. It explains why some countries are more favourably disposed toward easy access to government information. In this approach, society is perceived as a players' system, the three main actors being the government, the intermediaries and the public, with, in addition, outside actors. The actors are subjected to normative or pragmatic rules but their respective control is far from being of equal value. Through its power on the various dimensions of communications, the government is very much set apart from its competitors. Some general and more macroscopic characteristics of the system are then oAPred: on the one hand, the general tendency to exaggerate government information as well as the tendency to overstate the contradictory problems.     

Coronal cleft vertebra initially suspected as an abusive fracture in an infant

A case of a four-month-old male infant is described who was found unresponsive at home and brought to the emergency room. He lived for four days. During his hospital admission he was diagnosed by radiography with a fracture of the third lumbar vertebra that was presumed abusive in nature. Autopsy examination failed to confirm a fracture. However, a defect in the development of the vertebral bodies was discovered. He was diagnosed with possible failure of the notochord to regress, a condition with no significant sequelae. The cause of death was certified as sudden infant death syndrome after full investigation, and all autopsy studies were negative.     

Sex trafficking and the mainstream of market culture

The majority of analyses of the international trade in women focusses on the rôle of organised crime groups in the supply and delivery of women across borders and into the local sex trade. This paper (a) attempts to locate the demand for traded women in a broader analysis of changes in the political economy of developed studies and (b) more specifically situates the trade in women in relation to the new-found centrality of sex in the mainstream of popular culture.     

Die Koordination von Raumplanung und Verkehrspolitik in urbanen Räumen der Schweiz: Determinanten der politischen Geographie,der politischen Kultur oder der institutionellen Struktur?

Der Beitrag befasst sich mit den exogenen Bestimmungsfaktoren der Koordination raumwirksamer Politiken anhand der vier Agglomerationen von Basel, Bern, Lausanne und Genf. Ein Vergleich von entsprechenden Outcomes zeigt markante Unterschiede zwischen den vier Städten. Nach einer kurzen Kritik der Binnenorientierung gängiger Governance-Ansätze werden die drei exogenen Erklärungsansätze der politischen Geographie, des Institutionalismus und der politischen Kultur in vier Thesen beschrieben. Deren Exploration weist die Wichtigkeit von Kontextvariablen bei der Untersuchung von Ressourcen-Regimen aus. So ist eine Abhängigkeit der inhaltlichen Koordination von soziokulturellen, geographischen und historischen Faktoren auszumachen. Dagegen ist der Zusammenhang mit der Einschätzung der institutionalisierten Koordination nicht eindeutig, was die Vermutung nahelegt, dass im Falle der prozeduralen Koordination die endogenen Faktoren stärkere Erklärungskraft besitzen und die Regime Analysis mithin das geeignetere Mittel zu ihrer Untersuchung darstellt.     

FOSTERING COOPERATION AND DIALOGUE

The Xi-Obama summit provides a chance for frank discussion on how to improve bilateral ties The meeting between President Xi Jinping and President Barack Obama at Sunnylands,the former Annenberg estate in Rancho Mirage,California,on June 7-8 was unprecedented in its relatively informal