A concept study on identification and attribution profiling of chemical threat agents using liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry applied to Amanita toxins in food

Accidental or deliberate poisoning of food is of great national and international concern. Detecting and identifying potentially toxic agents in food is challenging due to their large chemical diversity and the complexity range of food matrices. A methodology is presented whereby toxic agents are identified and further characterized using a two-step approach. First, generic screening is performed by LC/MS/MS to detect toxins based on a list of selected potential chemical threat agents (CTAs). After identifying the CTAs, a second LC/MS analysis is performed applying accurate mass determination and the generation of an attribution profile. To demonstrate the potential of the methodology, toxins from the mushrooms Amanita phalloides and Amanita virosa were analyzed. These mushrooms are known to produce cyclic peptide toxins, which can be grouped into amatoxins, phallotoxins and virotoxins, where α-amanitin and β-amanitin are regarded as the most potent. To represent a typical complex food sample, mushroom stews containing either A. phalloides or A. virosa were prepared. By combining the screening method with accurate mass analysis, the attribution profile for the identified toxins and related components in each stew was established and used to identify the mushroom species in question. In addition, the analytical data was consistent with the fact that the A. virosa specimens used in this study were of European origin. This adds an important piece of information that enables geographic attribution and strengthens the attribution profile.     

Children's reporting patterns after witnessing homicidal violence – the effect of repeated experience and repeated interviews

For both legal and clinical purposes, it is of importance to study children's memories and reports of stressful events. The present study investigated the reporting patterns of 83 children who had witnessed homicidal violence, which is considered to be a highly stressful experience. More specifically, we explored the possible effects of prior violence exposure and of repeated questioning on the amount of details reported. Results showed that the majority of children provided detailed reports about the homicidal violence they had witnessed, including details concerning what happened before, during, and after the violent act. The children provided detailed and vivid testimonies from their experiences, whether they witnessed the event for the first time or had prior experience of witnessing severe violence against the victim by the perpetrator. Children with no prior experience of repeated violence who underwent repeated interviews provided more details than those interviewed once. The present data indicate that children are competent witnesses when questioned in legal contexts after having been exposed to extremely stressful events. These findings have implications for research related to children's memories and reporting of traumatic experiences, as well as practical implications for future treatment and evaluation of children's testimonies.     

Recall of unpleasant emotion using memory-enhancing principles

Abstract

Two experiments are presented to examine the issue of memory for past emotions. Participants rated their emotional reactions on the occasion of watching a film, and in a subsequent session, they were asked to recall and rate the emotion as experienced when viewing it. In the first experiment, participants underestimated unpleasant emotion at recall, but their recall was improved with the presentation of a visual cue pertaining to the emotion-inducing film event. In the second experiment, participants were assisted in probing perceptual aspects of the event by means of memory-enhancing instructions underlying the Cognitive Interview. These participants consistently recalled emotional intensity, as compared to participants in the unassisted recall condition who underestimated prior emotion. This research suggests that ratings of prior emotion are easily influenced by features of the retrieval context, and that consistent recall may be achieved by memory-enhancing principles of the Cognitive Interview.     

Sex,Biological Functions and Social Norms: A Simple Constructivist Theory of Sex

Feminist theory needs a constructivist account of biological sex for at least two reasons. The first is that as long as female and male are the only two sexes that are taken for granted, being cisgender, heterosexual, and preferably a parent will be the norm, and being intersexed, transgender, bi- or homosexual, infertile or voluntarily childless will be deemed failure. The second is the fact that, usually, sex and gender come together in the way that is expected, i.e. the fact that most females are women and most males are men needs to be explained. This paper provides a constructivist theory of sex, which is that the sex categories depend on norms of reproduction. I argue that, because the sex categories are defined according to the two functions or causal roles in reproduction, and biological function is a teleological concept involving purposes, goals, and values, female and male are normative categories. As there are no norms or values in nature, normative categories are social constructions; hence, female and male are not natural but social categories. Once we understand that biological normativity is social, biological norms of heterosexuality, fertility, and so on are no longer incontestable. In addition, as many gender norms also concern reproduction—socially mediated reproduction—this simple theory of sex explains the common confluence of sex and gender.     

Destined for deadlock? Russia,Ukraine, and the unfulfilled Minsk agreements

ABSTRACT

Bringing peace, security, and stability to the war-torn region of Donbas has proven to be a challenging – some would say near-impossible – task. The “Minsk II” agreement, signed in February 2015, was supposed to put an end to the armed hostilities, resolve the underlying political issues, and gradually restore Ukrainian government control of the country’s eastern border. None of this has happened. Despite continuous Western support and pressure, progress in the implementation of the peace plan signed in Minsk has been slow, also after the much-anticipated Paris summit of the “Normandy Four” (Russia, Ukraine, Germany, and France) in December 2019. This article discusses the underlying causes of the current stalemate, emphasizing factors such as the inherently complex nature of the conflict, the process through which “Minsk II” came into being, the vague and ambiguous language of this and other agreements, practical challenges related to the timing and sequencing of agreed-upon measures, and Russia’s persistent non-acknowledgement of its role in the conflict.     

Democratic Innovations: Reinforcing or Changing Perceptions of Trust?

Declining trust in representative institutions is considered one of the most significant political problems of our time. It is often suggested that democratic innovations—or mechanisms which aim to increase and deepen citizen participation in the political decision-making process—can help reverse this trend. However, empirical research about actual effects of participation on trust is scarce, and weakened by causality problems. With survey data representing 1,470 participants in a landmark Swedish e-petition system, the article shows that both generalized attitudes and process evaluations matter in how trust is affected by democratic innovations.