Problem solving and youth violence: an evaluation of the Boston Gun Project

The Boston Gun Project is a problem-solving policing initiativeaimed at reducing homicide victimization among young peoplein the city of Boston. It represented an innovative partnershipbetween researchers and practitioners to assess the city's youthhomicide problem and implement an intervention intended to havepowerful impacts in the near term. In early 1996, a workinggroup representing a variety of law enforcement and social serviceagencies implemented an intervention that strategically respondedto gang violence, focused enforcement efforts on gun trafficking,and emphasized communication of the strategy to generate deterrence.The intervention is associated with a 60% decline in youth homicidevictimization (i.e., two fewer victims per month). There aresmaller declines in other measures of violence. The declinein youth homicide is sharp and occurs coincident with the introductionof the intervention. Competing hypotheses appear unable to accountfor the decline.     

Amphetamine, cocaine and cannabinoids use among truck drivers on the roads in the State of Sao Paulo, Brazil

Lysergic acid diethylamide (LSD) is a potent hallucinogen, active at very low dosage and its determination in body fluids in a forensic context may present some difficulties, even more so in hair. A dedicated liquid chromatography-electrospray-tandem mass spectrometry (LC-ES-MS/MS) assay in hair was used to document the case of a 24-year-old man found dead after a party. Briefly, after a decontamination step, a 50mg sample of the victim's pubic hair was cut into small pieces (<1mm length), and incubated overnight in 3mL of phosphate buffer pH 5 at room temperature. After a liquid-liquid extraction (dichloromethane/ether), the extract was analyzed using a LC-ES-MS/MS method exhibiting a limit of quantification of 0.5pg/mg for LSD. A LSD concentration of 0.66pg/mg of pubic hair was observed. However, this result remains difficult to interpret owing to the concomitant LSD presence in the victim's post mortem blood and urine, the lack of previously reported LSD concentrations in hair, and the absence of data about LSD incorporation and stability in pubic hair.     

东亚区域合作的制约性因素分析

要实现东亚区域合作,推动东亚共同体的建设,解决东亚区域合作进程中存在的现实难题,当务之急需要处理好以下几个方面的问题：一是美国因素,即美国对东亚区域合作的态度与东亚对美国在区域合作中态度的看法;二是领导权,即必须要有一个坚强的领导核心推进东亚区域合作;三是互信原则的确立,东亚各国必须建立互信关系,尤其是东亚地区大国之间的相互信任：四是“低级政治与高级政治并行发展”,经济合作与政治安全合作同步进行。