Bone age assessment: the applicability of the Greulich-Pyle method in eastern Turkish children

The aim of this study was to investigate whether or not the Greulich-Pyle (GP) method is adequate for Turkish children. A group of 767 individuals (425 girls and 342 boys) between 7 and 17 years were studied. Bone age (BA) from plain radiographs of left hands and wrists by GP standards was estimated. The total mean differences between BA and chronological age (CA) for girls and boys were found to be 0.20 and -0.13 years, respectively. There were significant differences between BA and CA in age groups 7-, 8-, 10-, 11-, 12-, 13-, 15-, and 16-year-olds for girls and 7-, 10-, and 12-year-olds for boys. The results of this study suggest that the mean differences between BA and CA are low enough to be of no practical significance, and thus, for the time being unless any other methods will be proved more useful, this method could be used in all age groups.     

How Disgust Influences Health Purity Attitudes

Food and health regulations are increasingly being pushed onto the political agenda, with rising concerns about genetically modified foods, obesity rates, and vaccination. Public beliefs and attitudes on these issues often conflict with the scientific evidence, yet we know relatively little about what influences opinion on these issues. The public lacks clear partisan cues, and many food and health attitudes cut across the ideological spectrum. We argue that these issues represent new ‘purity’ attitudes that are driven by the emotion of disgust. Across three studies, both by measuring individuals’ trait disgust sensitivity and experimentally inducing an emotional state of disgust, we demonstrate the impact of disgust on food and health policy attitudes. Our results show that greater sensitivity to disgust is associated with support for organic foods, opposition to genetically modified foods, and anti-vaccination beliefs. However, we find only limited evidence that experimentally manipulated disgust affects attitudes toward genetically modified and organic foods. Overall, our results demonstrate that disgust plays an important role in attitudes regarding public health and broadens our understanding of purity attitudes.     

Rapid Identification of Synthetic Cannabinoids in Herbal Incenses with DART‐MS and NMR

The usage of herbal incenses containing synthetic cannabinoids has caused an increase in medical incidents and triggered legislations to ban these products throughout the world. Law enforcement agencies are experiencing sample backlogs due to the variety of the products and the addition of new and still‐legal compounds. In our study, proton nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopy was employed to promptly screen the synthetic cannabinoids after their rapid, direct detection on the herbs and in the powders by direct analysis in real time mass spectrometry (DART‐MS). A simple sample preparation protocol was employed on 50 mg of herbal sample matrices for quick NMR detection. Ten synthetic cannabinoids were discovered in fifteen herbal incenses. The combined DART‐MS and NMR methods can be used to quickly screen synthetic cannabinoids in powder and herbal samples, serving as a complementary approach to conventional GC‐MS or LC‐MS methods.     

Nondestructive Biological Evidence Collection with Alternative Swabs and Adhesive Lifters

In forensic science, biological material is typically collected from evidence via wet/dry double swabbing with cotton swabs, which is effective but can visibly damage an item's surface. When an item's appearance must be maintained, dry swabbing and tape‐lifting may be employed as collection techniques that are visually nondestructive to substrates' surfaces. This study examined the efficacy of alternative swab matrices and adhesive lifters when collecting blood and fingerprints from glass, painted drywall, 100% cotton, and copy paper. Data were evaluated by determining the percent profile and quality score for each STR profile generated. Hydraflock^® swabs, BVDA Gellifters^®, and Scenesafe FAST? tape performed as well as or better than cotton swabs when collecting fingerprints from painted drywall and 100% cotton. Collection success was also dependent on the type of biological material sampled and the substrate on which it was deposited. These results demonstrated that alternative swabs and adhesive lifters can be effective for nondestructive DNA collection from various substrates.     

DNA recovery after sequential processing of latent fingerprints on copy paper

Forensic examiners must determine whether both latent fingerprint development and DNA profiling can be performed on the same area of an evidence item and, if only one is possible, which examination offers the best chance for identification. Latent fingerprints can be enhanced by targeting different components of fingerprint residues with sequential chemical treatments. This study investigated the effects of single-reagent and sequential latent fingerprint development processes on downstream DNA analysis to determine the point at which latent fingerprint development should be stopped to allow for DNA recovery. Latent fingerprints deposited on copy paper by one donor were developed using three sequential processes: 1,8-diazafluoren-9-one (DFO) → ninhydrin → physical developer (PD); 1,2-indanedione-zinc (IND-Zn) → ninhydrin → PD; and IND-Zn → ninhydrin → Oil Red O (ORO) → PD. Samples were examined after the addition of each chemical treatment. DNA was collected with cotton swabs, extracted, quantified, and amplified. DNA yields, peak heights, number of alleles obtained, and percentage of DNA profiles eligible for CODIS upload were examined. DNA profiles were obtained with varying degrees of success, depending on the number and type of treatments used for latent fingerprint development. The treatments that were found to be the least harmful to downstream DNA analysis were IND-Zn and IND-Zn/laser, and the most detrimental treatments were DFO, DFO/laser, and PD. In general, as the number of treatments increase, the opportunities for DNA loss or damage also increase, and it is preferable to use fewer treatments when developing latent fingerprints prior to downstream DNA processing.     

The IMF and the mobilisation of foreign aid

Particularly in the context of the Millennium Development Goals, there has been much discussion of the association between the International Monetary Fund and bilateral aid flows. What role should the Fund be playing in helping to achieve the MDGs? Some observers have suggested that the Fund should seek to reduce its role in poor countries and should be minimising its own lending. They see aid donors taking on a larger role and present the IMF and aid donors as substitutes. Others envisage a much bigger lending role for the Fund. This may hint at complementarities. Although this discussion raises important policy issues there are very few studies that examine the relationship empirically. This paper attempts to help fill this gap. It explores the extent to which the IMF has had a catalytic effect on Official Development Assistance and the potential channels through which catalysis might work. It finds strong evidence of a positive association and suggests that this may have more to do with conditionality than with the provision of IMF resources. But it may not represent catalysis in the conventional sense. There is a synergy between the IMF and bilateral aid that may yet be more fully developed and exploited.     

Individual BRICS or a collective bloc? Convergence and divergence amongst ‘emerging donor’ nations

In recent years a number of countries have established more prominent development assistance programmes. These ‘emerging donors’ are generally low- and middle-income countries with fewer links than traditional donors to multilateral frameworks for coordination. This article focuses primarily on whether these increasingly important donors will converge upon or challenge the behavioural norms that have emerged from traditional donor operations. It offers two main findings. First, although the evidence is incomplete, it suggests that the group of emerging donors is too heterogeneous to pose a collective alternative to the existing aid architecture, though these states may well provide new insights to enrich and improve our understanding and practice of development assistance. Second, it suggests that the case of Russia as a re-emerging donor highlights the conceptual weaknesses of theorizing simply in terms of ‘emerging donors’ versus ‘traditional donors’.