Stereochemical Analysis of Methorphan Using (−)‐Menthyl Chloroformate

Abstract: Forensic laboratories around the world have seen an increase in the number of drug seizures containing methorphan. Levomethorphan is a narcotic and a controlled substance, and its enantiomer dextromethorphan is an antitussive agent used in over‐the‐counter medications. For the forensic analysis of seized drugs containing methorphan, it is important to report the stereochemical composition of the drug. Ideally, a method based on common forensic laboratory instrumentation is desirable. The use of the chiral derivatizing agent (?)‐menthyl chloroformate followed by routine gas chromatography–mass spectrometry analysis of the derivative was shown to successfully determine the stereochemical composition of methorphan. This approach was applied to a street seizure containing methorphan proving that it was pure dextromethorphan. The derivatives of dextro‐ and levomethorphan were subjected to mass spectroscopic and nuclear magnetic resonance analysis, which confirmed that the structure of the derivatives remained unchanged as a result of the derivatization process.     

The EU law “core” module: surviving the perfect storm of Brexit and the SQE

This article seeks to examine the potential impact of the vote to leave the European Union (EU) in the UK referendum in June 2016, together with changes to professional training, notably the imposition of a new Solicitors Qualifying Examination (SQE) from 2019/20, on the teaching of EU law in law degrees in England and Wales. The history of the qualifying law degree (QLD) and the place of the EU law core module within it are explained. The likely continuing effect of EU law in the English Legal System is summarised, and the reduction in EU law content in the requirements for professional training as compared with that customary on a QLD is noted. In the light of these apparent threats to the EU law module, possibilities are explored for rethinking approaches to teaching law which would reinvigorate the significance of EU law in law degrees which may well undergo redesign in the light of the changes considered here.     

Genetic variability of RyR2 and CASQ2 genes in an Asian population

We analyzed the coding regions of the cardiac calcium-handling genes, ryanodine receptor 2 (RyR2) and calsequestrin 2 (CASQ2) for genetic variants in a healthy Chinese population (n = 95) and in a cohort of 28 sudden unexplained death victims. Mutations in RyR2 and CASQ2 have been shown to alter calcium homeostasis during excitation–contraction coupling and predispose individuals to fatal cardiac arrhythmias. The genetic screening was accomplished by denaturing high-performance liquid chromatography and DNA sequencing methods. Genetic analysis revealed the following non-synonymous genetic variations: two reported RyR2 polymorphisms; 5654G>A (G1885E) and 5656G>A (G1886S), two reported CASQ2 polymorphisms; 196A>G (T66A) and 226G>A (V76M) and one novel CASQ2 mutation; 529G>C (E177Q). The functional significance of the novel CASQ2 mutation has not been evaluated and characterized. This study shows that multiple genetic variations of the RyR2 and CASQ2 genes exist in the two study populations. The inter-individual genetic variability may underlie the different susceptibility of individuals to developing ventricular tachycardia. The research results will be valuable for which future work involving clinical and forensic samples can be based upon to distinguish potential disease-associated mutations from common polymorphisms.     

Pursuing Post-democratisation: The Resilience of Politics by Public Security in Contemporary South Korea

This article analyses the disputed election of President Park Geun-hye and her administration’s confrontation of left-nationalist politicians and other social movements during her first year in office. We argue that the Park administration’s policies resonate with contemporary discussions of “post-democratisation,” a process whereby social rights are increasingly subordinated to market logics and state power insulated from popular challenges. Under the conservative governments of Lee Myung-bak and Park Geun-hye, this process has been animated by a mode of confrontation known in South Korea as “politics by public security.” This politics targets social conflict and political dissent as threats to national security and has involved both illegal interventions by state institutions – such as the 2012 electoral interference by state agencies including the National Intelligence Service – and a cultural politics that affirms but revises the narrative of Korean democratisation by obfuscating the nature of the democracy movement and by attempting to restore the honour of conservative forces associated with former dictatorships. In order to better understand this conjuncture, we explore its origin within a tacit alliance between both former public security prosecutors-cum-conservative politicians and a movement of conservative intellectuals known as the New Right.     

Acute fatal poisoning cases due to furathiocarb ingestion.

Seven cases involving acute fatalities due to ingestion of furathiocarb, a carbamate insecticide, are presented. Furathiocarb was detected in the gastric contents using thin layer chromatography (TLC) and gas chromatography/mass spectrophotometry (GC/MS), and quantified in the blood using a gas chromatograph equipped with a nitrogen-phosphorus detector (NPD). The fatal levels of furathiocarb in the blood ranged from 0.1 to 21.6 micrograms/ml.     

Developmental and Validation of The Illustrated Version of The Home Inventory for Dangers and Safety Precautions: Continuing to Address Learning Needs of Parents in Injury Prevention

This paper describes the development and validation of the Home Inventory for Dangers and Safety Precautions – Illustrated Version to be used with parents whose children are at significant risk for home injury. Because illustrations are useful in facilitating learning by parents who have difficulty ensuring child and self home safety, colored illustrations representing 6 home rooms or areas were empirically developed for assessment purposes. The dangers depicted were selected from previous work and represented those associated with the majority of family home injuries. Score-sheets contained dangers and associated precautions administered to 62 referred young parents. Administration and psychometric characteristics were examined; specific hypotheses were tested. Obtained measures of internal consistency for dangers and precautions for all illustrations (except for Stairway) and for totals were satisfactory. Administration was suitable for use with this population. Parents were able to identify approximately half of the depicted dangers while being able to provide a suitable precaution for 40%. Reading comprehension was predictive of danger identification whereas reading recognition was predictive of precautions given. The HIDSP-IV is useful in assessing a parent's knowledge of dangers and precautions from which more individualized home safety instruction can occur.     

From an Estate to a Cossack Nation: Kuban' Samostiinost', 1917

This paper explores the origins of Cossack separatism in Kuban' during 1917. It investigates the growing tension between the Cossack caste and the civic universalism of the post-February environment, a setting which increasingly made Kuban' Cossackdom an anachronism, obliging Cossacks to search for a modern alternative group identity superseding the old estate one. The Kuban' Cossacks' answer was to justify Cossacks' estate particularism for the sake of ‘civic unity’ by implementing separatism in the name of ‘self-determination’. The result was the emergence of a Cossack nation-building movement during the civil wars, which pursued the separation of a Cossack state from Bolshevik Russia.     

Polarized embrace: South Korean media coverage of human rights, 1990–2016

Past studies of human rights discourse have centralized civil and political rights over other types of rights, and have thus yielded a biased understanding of how human rights have evolved. This scholarship has also neglected the role of the political slant of reporting agencies in framing topics and issues covering human rights. This study offers new theoretical and analytical solutions to such limits by analyzing a newly compiled data corpus comprising 101,689 South Korean newspaper articles—both right- and left-leaning—referencing the term “human rights.” The analysis of the data led us to reach three conclusions. First, South Korean media coverage demonstrates that human rights as a cultural symbol expanded tremendously in the country during the 1990s and 2000s. Second, there was an a significant degree of shift among multiple categories and topics of human rights during 26 years of that period. Initially, civil and political rights dominated, but then gradually receded as economic, social, cultural, and social minority rights moved to the forefront. Third, we found substantial variation in categories and topics of attention between conservative and progressive news sources; that is, progressive news sources allocated substantially more discussion to diverse categories and topics than their conservative counterparts. These core findings lend support to imagery of a polarized embrace in which human rights are diffused yet in a highly polarized manner.