Y chromosome STR haplotypes and allele frequencies in Illinois Caucasian, African American, and Hispanic males

POPULATION: Population: Illinois Caucasian ( n =117), Illinois African American ( n =218), and Illinois Hispanic ( n =68).     

Simultaneous identification/determination system for phentolamine and sildenafil as adulterants in soft drinks advertising roborant nutrition

An easily available, simultaneous identification/determination procedure for phentolamine (PHE) and sildenafil (SIL) in adulterated dietary supplements was established by using a combination of three different analytical methods; thin-layer chromatography (TLC), liquid chromatography–mass spectrometry (LC/MS) and a high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC)/photo-diode-array. The sample solution for TLC was applied to silica gel 60 F₂₅₄ plates with chloroform/ammonia solution (28)/methanol (70:5:3, lower layer) and chloroform/diethylamine/methanol (15:3:2) as the developing solvent. Spots were located under UV radiation at 254 nm. Mass spectra of PHE and SIL by LC/MS were investigated with electrospray ionization (ESI) interface, under both positive and negative ion mode. The HPLC analysis was performed on a column of Wakosil 5C18 (4.6 mm×150 mm, 5 μm) with water/methanol/acetonitrile/triethylamine (580:250:170:1) adjusted with phosphoric acid to pH 3.0 as the mobile phase, and the effluent was monitored with a photo-diode-array detector. Quantitative HPLC analysis of PHE and SIL were detected at 280 nm. When this procedure was applied to commercial soft drinks, PHE and SIL were identified and determined at a concentration of 17 mg PHE and 44 mg SIL per bottle, respectively. The procedure described here is available for the screening of PHE and SIL in adulterated supplements.     

Drugs in motorists traveling Swedish roads: on-the-road-detection of intoxicated drivers and screening for drugs in these offenders

This paper deals with the police officer's or police doctor's ability to find drivers under the influence of drugs. We have also studied whether the protocol on the driver's previous histories of drug intake is useful for directing the chemist in his analytical approach to revealing intoxicants in the suspects' body fluids. A comprehensive procedure for screening traffic-hazardous drugs in the urine was found necessary and is described. By using this method, we have studied the incidence of drunken drivers with detectable medicinal or illicit agents. The results demonstrate that 91% of those drivers found by the officer or doctor of the police to be on intoxicants other than ethanol, carried some kind of traffic-hazardous drug in their body fluids, and that the doctor was a better judge than the police in identifying these offenders. By using a series of chemical methods for drug screening, we found that every third driver suspected of drunken driving due to ethanol, but not to other intoxicants, held some kind of a traffic-hazardous drug substance in his urine; benzodiazepines and cannabinoids were the most common findings. The data imply that 34% of these suspects revealed their intakes of traffic-dangerous intoxicants. We conclude that the judgements of both the officer and doctor of the police are needed for an efficacious detection of drivers under the influence of drugs. Moreover, the results infer that the chemist has to screen for intoxicants to reveal these in a suspect driver. We also conclude that drugs, particularly the benzodiazepines or cannabinoids, may be commonly encountered in drunken drivers, suspected of being inebriated by ethanol but no other toxicants.     

液相色谱-串联质谱法检测血液中的美西律

目的建立测定血液中美西律(mexiletine)的液相色谱-串联质谱联用法(LC-MS/MS)。方法采用简便的乙腈蛋白沉淀法对血液进行预处理,应用Allure PFP Propyl液相柱分离,用电喷雾正离子模式离子化,多反应监测模式对美西律进行分析。结果美西律与内标纳洛酮分离良好,在0.02～10.00μg/mL内线性关系良好,相关系数为0.9999,回归方程为y=0.0283x-0.0151,日内与日间精密度的RSD均小于15%,最低检测限为0.01μg/mL。结论建立的LC-MS/MS方法简单、灵敏、可靠,可同时适用于美西律临床药物监测和法医毒物分析的需要。     

Within and beyond citizenship: alternative educational initiatives in the Arab society in Israel

In recent years, Arab-Palestinian citizens in Israel are in search of ‘a new vocabulary of citizenship’, among other ways, by resorting to ‘alternative educational initiatives’. We investigate and compare three alternative schools, each challenging the contested conception of Israeli citizenship. Our findings reveal different educational strategies to become ‘claimants of rights’, yet all initiatives demonstrate the constraints Arab citizens face while trying to become ‘activist citizens’ (E.F. Isin, 2009. Citizenship in flux: the figure of the activist citizen. Subjectivity, 29 (1), 367–388.).     

Opaque transparency: an analysis of the Israeli lobbying regulatory regime of 2008

After some failed attempts to regulate the lobbying, the Israeli Parliament—the Knesset—passed the Lobbyist Law on April 2nd 2008. Although lobbying is a common and legitimate part of the democratic process, it raises issues of trust, equality of access, and transparency. What motivated the MKs to regulate lobbying—public interest, private interest, or symbolic politics? The MKs claimed that the law was needed for improving transparency whereas MK Yechimovich declared that it balances the strength of the rich, represented by lobbyists and the wide public. Assessing the achieved transparency in the comparative framework of other lobbying regulatory regimes, we see that the law confers tangible benefits on powerful interest groups, while providing only symbolic gestures to the public. Lack of information available for MKs creates a need for lobbyists for political intelligence and MKs need to identify the interests in play to guarantee for themselves the necessary legislative subsidy. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.