Regionalized personnel development for criminal justice employees

The Dayton/Montgomery County Criminal Justice Center is a first attempt at systematic personnel development for an entire criminal justice system on a regional level. Through its work in training and education, communications, career pathing and development, and system change, the Center has promoted the idea of an improved, symbiotic relatioship among the major branches of the criminal justice system, and has acted as a catalyst for needed systemic change.     

Fatal intoxication involving 2-methyl AP-237

Novel synthetic opioids contribute considerably to the opioid epidemic, especially with the frequent emergence of structurally similar compounds. This case report describes a fatal intoxication involving 2-methyl AP-237. A 54-year-old Caucasian male was found deceased from an apparent drug overdose. A plastic container labeled “2MAP” and a cut straw were found in the decedent's backpack at the scene. A white substance found in the container tested positive for fentanyl by field testing. According to his medical history, the decedent was treated for a drug overdose 3 years prior to his death. With no diagnostic findings at autopsy, the case was submitted for toxicological analysis. An unknown substance was detected in peripheral blood and urine using gas chromatography with nitrogen phosphorous detection (GC-NPD). Further testing was conducted using gas chromatography–mass spectrometry (GC–MS) and liquid chromatography-quadrupole-time-of-flight mass spectrometry (LC-QTOF-MS) which confirmed the presence of 2-methyl AP-237 and potential metabolites in blood and urine. Quantitation by GC-NPD revealed concentrations of 2-methyl AP-237 in blood and urine at 480 ng/mL and 4200 ng/mL, respectively. The toxicological analysis also identified and quantitated alprazolam in the blood at 55 ng/mL. Additionally, the metabolism of 2-methyl AP-237 was investigated and three hydroxylated metabolites were identified in peripheral blood and urine. Limited literature is available for the detection and quantitation of 2-methyl AP-237 in postmortem specimens. Given the toxicological findings with unremarkable autopsy findings, this case is an example of a fatal intoxication involving 2-methyl AP-237.     

Sex Discrimination,Personal Denial,and Collateral Damage

Many social scientists, especially those interested in social justice, have bemoaned the election of Donald Trump as president of the USA and have decried similar right-wing victories around the globe. We wish our research would have more of an impact. I argue that if we want our conclusions to have more application outside academia, we must first put our own house in order. As illustrated by a personal narrative, we are guilty of the sexism that we decry in others, although we can see that with clarity only in hindsight. Connected to our sexism are some epistemological shortcomings: our false insistence on the primacy of basic research and our false claim to conduct “value-free” research.     

Banking on China's WTO Commitments: 'Same Bed, Different Dreams' in China's Financial Services Sector

Foreign banks and the Chinese Government have different dreamsabout the business opportunities and obligations that ariseunder China's World Trade Organization (WTO) commitments onfinancial services. This article provides an overview of China'sbanking sector reforms and its gradual opening to foreign participationin the context of General Agreement on Trade in Services (GATS)rules governing international trade in financial services andthe obligations that apply since China's WTO accession in December2001. The article highlights the contradictory interpretationsthat China and other Members have issued regarding China's GATScommitments and provides a framework for assessing the WTO consistencyof China's banking measures. An analysis is conducted underthis framework to evaluate whether China has fully implementedits GATS commitments on (i) the acquisition of Chinese banksby foreign financial institutions, (ii) legitimate ‘prudentialregulation’ in the banking sector, and (iii) full marketaccess for credit card and electronic payment services. Notwithstandingthe apparent complexity of GATS rules, the article concludesthat the WTO legal framework supports the case for increasedaccess to China's financial services market consistent withits GATS commitments, and fully consistent with China's plansfor continuing domestic growth and its medium-term financialservices export interests.     

The Sutta on Understanding Death in the Transmission of Borān Meditation From Siam to the Kandyan Court

This article announces the discovery of a Sinhalese version of the traditional meditation (borān yogāvacara kammaṭṭhāna) text in which the Consciousness or Mind, personified as a Princess living in a five-branched tree (the body), must understand the nature of death and seek the four gems that are the four noble truths. To do this she must overcome the cravings of the five senses, represented as five birds in the tree. Only in this way will she permanently avoid the attentions of Death, Māra, and his three female servants, Birth, Sickness and Old Age. In this version of the text, when the Princess manages not to succumb to these three, Māra comes and snatches her from her tree and rapes her. The Buddha then appears to her to explain the path to liberation. The text provides a commentary, padārtha, which explains the details of the symbolism of the fruit in terms of rebirth and being born, the tree in terms of the body, etc. The text also offers interpretations of signs of impending death and prognostications regarding the next rebirth. Previously the existence of Khmer and Lānnā versions of this text have been recorded by Francois Bizot and Francois Lagirarde, the former publishing the text as Le Figuier a cinq branches (Le figuier à cinq branches, 1976). The Sinhalese version was redacted for one of the wives of King Kīrti Śrī Rājasiṅha of Kandy by the monk Vara?āṇa Mahāthera of Ayutthayā. This confirms earlier speculation that this form of borān/dhammakāya meditation was brought to Sri Lanka with the introduction of the Siyam Nikāya in the mid-eighteenth century. It also shows that in Sri Lanka, as in Ayutthayā, this form of meditation—which in the modern period was to be rejected as ‘unorthodox’—was promoted at the highest levels of court and Saṅgha.