Interest mobilization in public health and social insurance: Argentina,Colombia, and Mexico in comparative perspective

One revealing test for gauging the extent to which pluralist democracy has advanced in the recently (re)democratized countries of Latin America is to determine the extent to which interest groups have come to participate in policy making in formal, open, extensive, and accepted ways as they mostly do in advanced liberal democracies. In other words, is this a new era or more of the same? To provide insights into this question, using six hypotheses, this article compares social insurance reform in Argentina and Mexico, and public health reform in Colombia. It appears that the political processes through which the reforms were adopted were fairly democratic, although aspects of the old regimes in all three countries, particularly corporatist relationships, were indispensable backups. The weaknesses that were apparent, however, stem less from the old ways of doing political business and more from the immaturity of the democratic process. Plus, pressures were felt by the executive branches and their allies to show to the international community that their country was a safe place in which to invest. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Acute arsenic poisoning: clinical, toxicological, histopathological, and forensic features

This report describes a suicide case by acute arsenic intoxication via intravenous injection. A 30-year-old woman injected arsenic As (V) (sodium arseniate disodique: Disodium Hydrogena Arsenik RP) in a successful suicide attempt. Three hours following administration, the woman developed severe digestive symptoms. She was admitted to a hospital and transferred to the intensive care unit within 12 h of the massive administration of arsenic. Despite therapeutic efforts, over the next 2 h she developed multiorgan failure and died. A postmortem examination was performed. Pulmonary edema and congestion of liver were apparent. As (V) and As (III) were determined by high performance liquid chromatography and inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry after mineralization of samples by concentrated nitric acid. Toxicological analysis revealed high concentrations of arsenic in biological fluids as well as in organs. Histopathological examination showed a typical indication of myocarditis. These findings were in agreement with acute arsenic poisoning. The symptoms developed by this young woman (intoxication by intravenous administration) were comparable to oral intoxication. The clinical signs, survival time, and administration type are discussed in light of the literature on acute and chronic arsenic poisoning.     

Activities,Access Control,and Crime: a Quasi-Experimental Study regarding Entry Gates at Train Stations in the Netherlands

European Journal on Criminal Policy and Research - This article discusses a unique “natural experiment,” the introduction of entry gates at Dutch train stations and the potential...     

An abolitionist theory on crime: ending the abusive relationship with Racist-Imperialist-Patriarchy [R.I.P.]

In this article I re-assess the parameters of what we seek to abolish as we pursue penal abolition. I apply Black Feminist Hauntology to exorcize the barriers of traditional and ineffective deconstructions of crime and criminalization. To illustrate these weaknesses I discuss police killings and related vigilante white supremacist violence. I present the aftermath of the deaths and trials (when there were trials) to bring to light the large disconnects that exist between abolitionism and the world in which crime lives. To begin to address this disconnect I present an abolitionist theory on crime founded upon five pillars of assessment: abolition’s perceived minimization of violence; the abusive R.I.P. relationship between crime and justice; a cultural phenomenon of achieving significance through proximity or by association; abusive naturalizations of violence that have been unaddressed in penal abolition; locating the struggles to exit abusive relationships within the core of our studies of criminal justice and penal abolition. I conclude that when penal abolitionists conceive of crime as a social construction tied to criminal justice institutions alone, as opposed to part of a structurally Racist-Imperialist-Patriarchal [R-I-P] abusive relationship, they stunt the possibilities of abolition in manners akin to pushing against a 500 year old tree from its trunk and expecting it to topple over without any account for the roots that hold it firmly in the ground.     

Policy dismantling at EU level: Reaching the limits of ‘an ever-closer ecological union’?

Having explained their adoption, analysts are now trying to understand how EU environmental policies have subsequently evolved over time. In 2003, David Vogel famously speculated that having overtaken the US in the environmental race to the top, EU policies would also eventually succumb to policy gridlock, that is, neither expanding nor dismantling. Empirical research has since confirmed that EU policy expansion is in decline, but less is known about why dismantling has also been very limited. This article breaks new ground by reconfiguring dismantling—a concept developed for national policy systems—to explain the various dismantling strategies deployed at EU level (1992 to 2016). It finds that the absence of significant dismantling is due both to the symbolic nature of early dismantling attempts and the failure of more recent attempts to build coalitions that overcome institutional obstacles to policy change in the EU.     

Correlation of Delta9-tetrahydrocannabinol concentrations determined by LC-MS-MS in oral fluid and plasma from impaired drivers and evaluation of the on-site Dräger DrugTest

Oral fluid (collected with the Intercept((R)) device) and plasma samples were obtained from 139 individuals suspected of driving under the influence of drugs and analyzed for Delta(9)-tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), the major psychoactive constituent of cannabis, using a validated quantitative LC-MS-MS method. The first aim of the study was to investigate the correlation between the analytical data obtained in the plasma and oral fluid samples, to evaluate the use of oral fluid as a 'predictor' of actual cannabis influence. The results of the study indicated a good accuracy when comparing THC detection in oral fluid and plasma (84.9-95.7% depending on the cut-off used for plasma analysis). ROC curve analysis was subsequently used to determine the optimal cut-off value for THC in oral fluid with plasma as reference sample, in order to 'predict' a positive plasma result for THC. When using the LOQ of the method for plasma (0.5 ng/mL), the optimal cut-off was 1.2 ng/mL THC in oral fluid (sensitivity, 94.7%; specificity, 92.0%). When using the legal cut-off in Belgium for driving under the influence in plasma (2 ng/mL), an optimal cut-off value of 5.2 ng/mL THC in oral fluid (sensitivity, 91.6%; specificity, 88.6%) was observed. In the second part of the study, the performance of the on-site Dr?ger DrugTest for the screening of THC in oral fluid during roadside controls was assessed by comparison with the corresponding LC-MS-MS results in plasma and oral fluid. Since the accuracy was always less than 66%, we do not recommend this Dr?ger DrugTest system for the on-site screening of THC in oral fluid.     

Validation of an ELISA-based screening assay for the detection of amphetamine, MDMA and MDA in blood and oral fluid

The use of amphetamine and 'ecstasy' (MDMA) has increased exponentially in many European countries since the late nineties, leading to a rapid growth in the number of clinical and forensic analyses. Therefore, a rapid screening procedure for these substances in biological specimens has become an important part of routine toxicological analysis in forensic laboratories. The objective of this study was to evaluate the Cozart amphetamine enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) for the screening of plasma samples and oral fluid samples (collected with the Intercept device). Authentic plasma samples from drivers (n=360) were screened, using an 1:5-fold dilution. True positive, true negative, false positive and false negative results were determined relative to the in-house routine GC-MS analysis. Samples consisted of 144 amphetamine-only positives, 141MDMA/MDA-only positives, and 74 negatives when using the limit of quantitation as the cut-off level for confirmation (10 ng/mL). Using these results, receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curves were generated and optimal cut-off values for the screening assay were calculated. Analysis showed that the ELISA is able to predict the presence of either amphetamine or *MDMA/MDA (*MDMA as its metabolite MDA) in plasma samples with 98.3% sensitivity and 100% specificity at a cut-off value of 66.5 ng/mL d-amphetamine equivalents. A similar analysis was conducted on 216 oral fluid specimens collected from a controlled double blind study. Subjects received placebo or a high (100 mg) or low (75 mg) dose of MDMA. Oral fluid samples were collected at 1.5 and 5.5h after administration. Combined results of the analysis of the high and low dose oral fluid samples indicated a screening cut-off of 51 ng/mL d-amphetamine equivalents with both a sensitivity and specificity of 98.6% (using a LC-MS/MS confirmation cut-off of 10 ng/mL). In conclusion, these data indicate that the Cozart AMP EIA plates constitute a fast and accurate screening technique for the identification of amphetamine and MDMA/MDA positive plasma samples and oral fluid specimens (collected with Intercept. It should be emphasized that method validation should be performed for each type of biological matrix.