In silico toxicity as a tool for harm reduction: A study of new psychoactive amphetamines and cathinones in the context of criminal science

The emergence of new psychoactive substances (NPS) has raised many issues in the context of law enforcement and public drug policies. In this scenario, interdisciplinary studies are crucial to the decision-making process in the field of criminal science. Unfortunately, information about how NPS affect people's health is lacking even though knowledge about the toxic potential of these substances is essential: the more information about these drugs, the greater the possibility of avoiding damage within the scope of a harm reduction policy. Traditional analytical methods may be inaccessible in the field of forensic science because they are relatively expensive and time-consuming. In this sense, less costly and faster in silico methodologies can be useful strategies. In this work, we submitted computer-calculated toxicity values of various amphetamines and cathinones to an unsupervised multivariate analysis, namely Principal Component Analysis (PCA), and to the supervised techniques Soft Independent Modeling of Class Analogy and Partial Least Square-Discriminant Analysis (SIMCA and PLS-DA) to evaluate how these two NPS groups behave. We studied how theoretical and experimental values are correlated by PLS regression. Although experimental data was available for a small amount of molecules, correlation values reproduced literature values. The in silico method efficiently provided information about the drugs. On the basis of our findings, the technical information presented here can be used in decision-making regarding harm reduction policies and help to fulfill the objectives of criminal science.     

Accuracy of four dental age estimation methodologies in Brazilian and Croatian children

ObjectiveTo compare and analyse the accuracy of four age estimation methods using the mineralisation stages of the permanent teeth (Cameriere et al. [16] [CAM], Liliequist and Lundberg [LLH] and Nolla without third molars [NOL7] or with them [NOL8]) in a mixed population of Brazilians and a homogeneous population of Croatians.MethodsOrthopantomograms of 930 Brazilians (366 males and 564 females) and 924 Croatians (365 males and 556 females) aged between 8 and 14.99 years were analysed using the CAM, LLH, NOL7 and NOL8 age estimation methodologies.ResultsLLH presented the best absolute differences (ADs) among both populations without sex stratification, while CAM presented the worst results. In addition, the mean differences revealed underestimations, except when the LLH and NOL7 methods were used for the Brazilians. When the sample was stratified by sex, the best AD values were found with NOL7 (0.80) for the Brazilians and with LLH (0.98) for the Croatians. When the sample was stratified by sex and age, CAM presented high accuracy at the early ages, and LLH presented high accuracy at the older ages. The results obtained with the Nolla methods (NOL7 and NOL8) were mostly similar, but NOL7 yielded slightly better results.ConclusionsThe values for the Brazilians and the Croatians were relatively similar, and the techniques were properly applied in both population samples. The best method for evaluating both countries was LLH, followed by NOL7, NOL8 and CAM.     

The Programme de recherche en démographie historique: past,present and future developments in family reconstitution

The Programme de recherche en démographie historique (Historical Demography Research Programme) (PRDH), founded in 1966 and based at the Département de Démographie of the Université de Montréal, has since its inception featured a central project, a family reconstitution database of Quebec’s Catholic population from 1621 to 1799 named the Registre de la population du Québec ancien (Population Register of Historic Quebec) (RPQA). This article, which marks the fiftieth anniversary of the project, explores the development of the RPQA over the five decades in the context of similar international databases, explains the current state of the database as well as our record linkage methodology, describes an important collaboration now underway to build a larger Quebec historical data infrastructure, outlines new and renewed international collaborations, and summarizes research conducted using these data as well as future research possibilities. The particular geographic context, historical development and manageable colonial population size of Quebec favoured family reconstitution of the whole colony from the beginning of the project. Today, the RPQA comprises 438,193 individual biographies and 74,000 family files encompassing up to nine generations. To reconstitute families, we must identify and incorporate into the database all demographic events, including those whose existence can only be inferred through other sources. Future efforts to link nineteenth-century parish acts will need to deal with large case counts, mixed Catholic–Protestant marriages, and increased geographic and social mobility. The integration of complementary data will provide information on household co-residence, occupations, help track the destinies of mixed-religion persons and persons outside nuclear families and provide additional points of observation.     

What is the Norway Model? Mode of Affiliation or Political Compromise?

Brexit is a high‐stakes political process, but there is still no clear understanding of the political factors that underpin the various affiliation modes that the UK is currently debating. These are treated as quite static constructs, with emphasis on legal detail not the political and societal conditions that make them operate. What does the inclusion of the UK in the European Economic Area (EEA) agreement—which is the core component of the Norway model—do to that arrangement, itself a domestic Norwegian compromise? Will the arrangement continue to function, or will the UK's presence fundamentally alter or even abrogate the arrangement? This article spells out the specific political presuppositions that the Norway model rests on, and notes that the UK cannot emulate these. In addition, it argues that the more closely attached to the EEA agreement the UK is, the more precarious the arrangement will be.     

Rethinking the Porter Hypothesis: The Underappreciated Importance of Value Appropriation and Pollution Intensity

The impact of environmental regulation on the competitiveness of firms and industries remains a hot topic. Since the formulation of the Porter hypothesis, scholars from different research areas have tried to confirm or deny it. However, despite a vast literature engaging this debate, it remains unclear whether and under what conditions the hypothesis could be considered valid. We believe that this is due to the need to consider some additional factors. The aim of this review is to propose additional and significant themes, namely value appropriation and pollution intensity, to be considered when examining the impact of environmental regulation on the innovation and profitability of firms. Results show that the validity of the Porter hypothesis cannot be proved in any condition, but at the same time, there are additional factors that have a relevant influence on that construct, which can lead to a validation or rejection of the hypothesis.     

A Multiple Streams Analysis of Institutional Innovation in Forest Watershed Governance

Increasingly severe wildfires have focused attention on forested watershed vulnerabilities, causing significant changes to policies and governance. We utilized the Multiple Streams Approach (MSA) to understand institutional innovations of federal agency–large water provider partnerships in Colorado to protect watersheds through joint planning and funding. Ambiguous problem definition and focusing events were significant aspects of these partnerships. We interviewed individuals in the partnerships, with MSA ideas of how solutions to policy problems develop, and the role of policy entrepreneurs. We found that wildfires served as focusing events, creating space and time for learning, collaboration and new problem framing, increased political attention, and institutional innovation. In this study, windows of opportunity stayed open longer, policy entrepreneurs and agencies played larger roles in communication and coupling streams and the context of fast‐moving, unpredictable ecological crises changed responses to issues. Our findings also have implications for broader policy studies and environmental governance scholarship.     

Urban Reforms,Cultural Goods and the Valongo Wharf Circle: Understanding Intervention in Rio de Janeiro's Port Area

Between 2012 and 2016, the Valongo Wharf Circle employed capoeira to make sense of the complex and enduring legacies of the Valongo Wharf, namely, the impact and intersection of racial discrimination and cycles of redevelopment that have remade Rio and marked the history of the site. This article uses ‘products’ that record the project to consider the vicissitudes and contingency of how it both used and reconfigured the selective valorisation of the everyday to probe and disrupt the quotidian dynamics of Rio's port area.     

对劳动合同制度若干问题的探讨

我国《劳动法》及有关劳动合同制度的法律法规是在1994年、1995年制订的,本身具有一定的局限性,加上我国市场经济体制日渐完善和加入世贸组织,现行的劳动法律法规已经不适应市场经济的发展要求。本文通过对劳动合同制度中常见的若干问题进行分析和探讨,指出现行劳动法律规定的一些缺陷,并对其修改提出一些建议。     

Credible Empowerment and Deliberative Participation: A Comparative Study of Two Nuclear Energy Policy Deliberation Cases in Korea

What factors make deliberative participation of public policy effective? Why, in some cases, are participants in deliberation more motivated than others, and reach their final judgment in a timely manner, based on systematic processes of opinion gathering and consensus building? By comparing and investigating two recent cases of public participation in energy policy deliberation in Korea, we argue that deliberative participation is more effective when the prospect that the outcome of their activities might be accepted by decision makers is high. The two cases, the public deliberation committee (PDC) on the nuclear waste issue which operated from 2013 to 2015, and the PDC on the nuclear power plant construction issue which operated in 2017, show that they went through similar courses of action, and used similar methods for deliberation. However, while the 2017 PDC has produced clear‐cut policy recommendations, and the government have accepted these, the 2013 PDC failed to reach conclusions on the given critical issues. We argue that the difference in the results is caused by credible empowerment along with two other factors––the sensitivity of issues and the learning effect. Participants of deliberation tend to judge the possibility of the government’s acceptance of their opinions based on either the government’s direct announcement or its inclusiveness in the past policy history. If governments are willing to consult the public to increase legitimacy and transparency, they should send explicit signals to the public on its inclusiveness in the short term, and also should increase credibility in the long term.