The effects of substance use on offender crime scene behavior

Substance use has an effect on an individual's propensity to commit acquisitive crime with recent studies showing substance users more likely to leave forensic material at a crime scene. An examination of acquisitive crime solved in Northamptonshire, U.K., during 2006 enabled 70 crime scene behavior characteristics to be analyzed for substance and nonsubstance use offenders. Logistical regression analyses have identified statistically significant crime scene behavior predictors that were found to be either present at or absent from the crime scene when the offender was a substance user. Most significant predictors present were indicative of a lack of preparation by the offender, irrational behavior, and a desire to steal high value, easily disposed of, property. Most significant predictors absent from the crime scene were indicative of more planning, preparation, and execution by the offender. Consideration is given to how this crime scene behavior might be used by police investigators to identify offenders.

Population pharmacokinetic and pharmacogenetic analysis of 6-mercaptopurine in paediatric patients with acute lymphoblastic leukaemia

WHAT IS ALREADY KNOWN ABOUT THIS SUBJECT • The cytotoxic effects of 6-mercaptopurine (6-MP) were found to be due to drug-derived intracellular metabolites (mainly 6-thioguanine nucleotides and to some extent 6-methylmercaptopurine nucleotides) rather than the drug itself. • Current empirical dosing methods for oral 6-MP result in highly variable drug and metabolite concentrations and hence variability in treatment outcome. WHAT THIS STUDY ADDS • The first population pharmacokinetic model has been developed for 6-MP active metabolites in paediatric patients with acute lymphoblastic leukaemia and the potential demographic and genetically controlled factors that could lead to interpatient pharmacokinetic variability among this population have been assessed. • The model shows a large reduction in interindividual variability of pharmacokinetic parameters when body surface area and thiopurine methyltransferase polymorphism are incorporated into the model as covariates. • The developed model offers a more rational dosing approach for 6-MP than the traditional empirical method (based on body surface area) through combining it with pharmacogenetically guided dosing based on thiopurine methyltransferase genotype. AIMS - To investigate the population pharmacokinetics of 6-mercaptopurine (6-MP) active metabolites in paediatric patients with acute lymphoblastic leukaemia (ALL) and examine the effects of various genetic polymorphisms on the disposition of these metabolites. METHODS - Data were collected prospectively from 19 paediatric patients with ALL (n = 75 samples, 150 concentrations) who received 6-MP maintenance chemotherapy (titrated to a target dose of 75 mg m−2 day−1). All patients were genotyped for polymorphisms in three enzymes involved in 6-MP metabolism. Population pharmacokinetic analysis was performed with the nonlinear mixed effects modelling program (nonmem) to determine the population mean parameter estimate of clearance for the active metabolites. RESULTS - The developed model revealed considerable interindividual variability (IIV) in the clearance of 6-MP active metabolites [6-thioguanine nucleotides (6-TGNs) and 6-methylmercaptopurine nucleotides (6-mMPNs)]. Body surface area explained a significant part of 6-TGNs clearance IIV when incorporated in the model (IIV reduced from 69.9 to 29.3%). The most influential covariate examined, however, was thiopurine methyltransferase (TPMT) genotype, which resulted in the greatest reduction in the model's objective function (P < 0.005) when incorporated as a covariate affecting the fractional metabolic transformation of 6-MP into 6-TGNs. The other genetic covariates tested were not statistically significant and therefore were not included in the final model. CONCLUSIONS - The developed pharmacokinetic model (if successful at external validation) would offer a more rational dosing approach for 6-MP than the traditional empirical method since it combines the current practice of using body surface area in 6-MP dosing with a pharmacogenetically guided dosing based on TPMT genotype.

Joint tenancies and English commorientes:a question of survivorship or severance?

The aim of this article is to provide a critical appraisal of the English law in relation to the doctrine of commorientes with particular reference to its implications in respect of property held on a joint tenancy. The article suggests a measure of reform which would produce a fairer dsitribution of joint property in circusmtances where all joint tenants have died in a common disaster and it cannot be ascertained which joint tenant died first.

Adaptation to flood risk:the case of businesses in the UK

Despite Government investment in flood defence schemes, many properties remain at high risk of flooding. A substantial portion of these properties are business establishments. Flooding can create serious consequences for businesses, including damage to property and stocks, being out of business for a considerable period and ultimately business failure. Recent flood events such as those in 2007 and 2009 that affected many parts of the UK have helped to establish the true costs of flooding to businesses. This greater understanding of the risks to businesses has heightened the need for business owners to adapt their businesses to the threat of future flooding. Government policy has now shifted away from investment in engineered flood defences, towards encouraging the uptake of property level flood resistance and resilience measures by businesses. However, implementing such adaptation strategies remains a challenge due a range of reasons. A review of the current state of property level flood risk adaptation of UK businesses is presented, drawing from extant literature. Barriers that may hinder the uptake of property level adaptation by businesses are revealed and drivers that may enhance uptake and effectively overcome these barriers are also discussed. It is concluded that the professions from the construction sector have the potential to contribute towards the adaptation of business properties and thereby the flood resilience of businesses at risk of flooding.

Resilience and adaptation of small and medium-sized enterprises to flood risk

Purpose – The UK has experienced a number of flood events in recent years, and the intensity and frequency of such events are forecast to further increase in future due to changing climatic conditions. Accordingly, enhancing the resilience of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) – which form an important segment in a society – to flood risk, has emerged as an important issue. However, SMEs often tend to underestimate the risk of flooding which tends to have a low priority in their business agenda. The purpose of this paper is to undertake an investigation of adaptation to the risk of flooding considering community-level measures, individual-level property protection, and business continuity and resilience measures. Design/methodology/approach – A total of four short case studies were conducted among SMEs to identify their response to flood risk, and what measures have been undertaken to manage the risk of flooding. Findings – It was observed that SMEs have implemented different property-level protection measures and generic business continuity/risk management measures, based on their requirements, to achieve a desired level of protection. Practical implications – SMEs are likely to positively respond to property-level adaptation following a post-flood situation. It is important that information such as costs/benefits of such measures and different options available are made accessible to SMEs affected by a flood event. Social implications – Implementation of property-level adaptation measures will contribute towards the long term adaptation of the existing building stock to changing climatic conditions. Originality/value – The paper contributes towards policy making on flood risk adaptation and SME decision making, and informs policy makers and practitioners.

Small businesses and flood impacts:the case of the 2009 flood event in Cockermouth

Flooding can have a devastating impact on businesses, especially on small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) who may be unprepared and vulnerable to the range of both direct and indirect impacts. SMEs may tend to focus on the direct tangible impacts of flooding, limiting their ability to realise the true costs of flooding. Greater understanding of the impacts of flooding is likely to contribute towards increased uptake of flood protection measures by SMEs, particularly during post-flood property reinstatement. This study sought to investigate the full range of impacts experienced by SMEs located in Cockermouth following the floods of 2009. The findings of a questionnaire survey of SMEs revealed that businesses not directly affected by the flooding experienced a range of impacts and that short-term impacts were given a higher significance. A strong correlation was observed between direct, physical flood impacts and post-flood costs of insurance. Significant increases in the costs of property insurance and excesses were noted, meaning that SMEs will be exposed to increased losses in the event of a future flood event. The findings from the research will enable policy makers and professional bodies to make informed decisions to improve the status of advice given to SMEs. The study also adds weight to the case for SMEs to consider investing in property-level flood risk adaptation measures, especially during the post flood reinstatement process. © 2012 Blackwell Publishing Ltd and The Chartered Institution of Water and Environmental Management (CIWEM).

Problems with mutual wills:a study of probate practice

Legislation: Law of Property (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act 1989 (c.34) s.2 Case: Healey v Brown [2002] W.T.L.R. 849 (Ch D) Paper looks at the use of mutual wills in practice. An empirical survey of probate solicitors is carried out and the results analysed. Significantly most solicitors seem, unaware of the controversial ruling as regards mutual wills in Healey v Brown and the impact of S.2 Law of Property Miscellaneous Provisions Act 1989 where land is concerned. Unsuprisingly the survey demonstrates that mutual wills are not commonly used and tend to be avoided by practising solicitors.

Certainty of subject matter in the law of trusts

This piece argued that the accepted orthodoxy concerning the requirement that each individual piece of property is individually segregated for a valid trust to exist is unsupported by the case law, and that there is nothing wrong in principle or theory with a trust that exists for unsegregated property.

Négy jellegzetesség. A magyar fejlődés politikai gazdaságtani megközelítésben. 2. rész = Four characteristic features. Development in Hungary from the aspect of political economy - II.

A tulajdonviszonyok és intézmények átalakulását is a fokozatosság, a szerves fejlődés jellemzi; Magyarországon a hosszú reformszocialista fázist a politikai fordulat után sem követte ugrás a piacgazdaság felé, bár az átalakulás felgyorsult. A cikk a fokozatosság érvényesülését az értékesítési stratégia sokféle változatát alkalmazó, burjánzó privatizációban, az új vállalkozások keletkezésének folyamatában, a liberalizálás menetében és a jogi infrastruktúra változásában mutatja be. Elemzi az átmenet során megerősödő korporatista elemek hatását a magyar gazdaságpolitikára. Végül néhány összefoglaló megjegyzést fűz a magyar fejlődéshez a politikai gazdaságtan és a politikai filozófia szemszögéből. Az elmúlt harminc évben a mindenkori kormánynak jól érzékelhető preferenciája volt a radikális intézkedések elodázása, a társadalmi adósság felhalmozódásának vállalása a konfliktusok elkerülése érdekében. A szerző felhívja a figyelmet a különböző nemzedékek eltérő időpreferenciájára és az ezzel kapcsolatos etikai problémákra. Befejezésül a népszerűtlen intézkedéseket az állampolgárok nagy hányadának véleményével szemben is felvállaló kormányzás és a demokrácia viszonyáról szól. / === / Gradualism and organic development also distinguish the transformation of property relations and institutions. Hungary's long reform­socialist phase was not followed, after the political change, by a leap towards a market economy, although the transformation became faster. The article shows how gradualism applies to the proliferating of privatization, with its wide variety of selling strategies, to the foundation process of new firms, to the course of liberalization, and to change in the legal infrastructure. It analyses the effect on Hungarian economic policy of corporatist elements which strengthen during the transition. Finally, it makes some comments summing up Hungarian development in terms of political economy and political philosophy. The government at any time in the last thirty years showed an obvious preference for putting off radical measures and accepting an accumulation of social debt as a way of averting conflict. The article notes differences of time preference between generations and the ethical problems these raise. Finally, it makes remarks on the relationship between democracy and an administration intent on unpopular measures opposed by a high proportion of citizens.

Gazdasági kórkép alulnézetből 2. rész (Syndrome of Hungarian Economy from Bottom-view - part 2.)

A magyar gazdaság új növekedési pályára állása a kilencvenes évek végére tehető, s ebben meghatározó szerepe volt a pótlólagos erőforrásként szolgáló külföldi működőtőke-befektetéseknek. A nemzetközi tőkeáramlás ezredfordulót követő módosulása (csökkenő volumen, változó irányultság) kedvezőtlenül érintette a hazai gazdaságot, aminek egyik következménye a beruházások csökkenése és a növekedési ütem lassulása, másik következménye viszont – a jövedelemkiáramlást semlegesítő hatás elmaradása miatt – a fizetési mérleg romlása. Ebben a helyzetben halaszthatatlanná vált az államháztartási egyensúlyromlás megállítása, illetve a gazdasági fejlődés új alapokra helyezése. A szerző elemzésében – a hazai versenyszektor eredményességi és vagyoni jellemzőinek értékelésével – azt szeretné jelezni, hogy az egyensúlytalansági állapot megszüntetése nem szorítkozhat az államháztartási rendszerre, vagyis az ország helyzetének stabilizálása, majd új növekedési pályára állás nem képzelhető el a gazdaság átfogó modernizációja nélkül. Vizsgálata a ténylegesen működő (343 ezer) hazai társas vállalkozás 2000–2008. évi pénzügyi beszámolóinak adataira épül. Álláspontja szerint a mintavétel nagysága ellensúlyozza az esetleges torzító hatásokat (lásd: helyenként előforduló kreatív beszámolók), így a vállalkozások mennyiségi gyarapodása, méret szerinti megoszlása, a gazdasági tevékenység jellege, a teljesítmények és eredmények alakulása, a vállalkozói vagyon módosulása megbízhatóan értékelhető, illetve a tapasztalatok alapján a korrekciós intézkedések igénye és azok tartalma is jól körvonalazható. Tanulmányát így ajánljuk a téma iránt érdeklődőknek, a versenyszektor szereplőinek, de leginkább a gazdaságpolitika formálóinak. _________ The economic performance during the transition period was characterized by the alternations of fulfilled hopes and unrealized expectations. The economic restructuring and changes in market relations took place during the first decade, while new – mostly foreign – investment groups entered on the new market. As a result the economy was stabilized and was put to a new growth path. But after the millennium the foreign investment based economy development strategy was no more adequate. The new engine for the growth should have been the domestic small and medium enterprise sector (SsME), but despite the subsidies this sector was not strengthened to take this role. The author – the researcher of BCE, and the ex-president of APpEH – analyses the characteristics of the domestic business demography, performance and effectiveness, based on the 2000–2008 annual financial statements of the business sector. In the author’s analysis – with assessment of the domestic business sector and financial performance characteristicst - he would like to point out that the imbalance can not be confined to the elimination of state government system, that is, the country’s situation to stabilize, and then post a new growth path is not conceivable without the modernization of the economy overall. In his view, the sample size outweighed the possible distortionary effects (see occurring in places of creative accounts), so the growth of business volume, size distribution, the nature of economic activity, the evolution of performance and results, a reliable assessment of changes in the business of property and the experience on the basis of the need for corrective action, and its contents are also well delineated. Sstudy it is recommended for those interested in the topic, the business sector actors, but most of the economic policy makers.

Integrating structured data using property precedence

Data integration systems offer uniform access to a set of autonomous and heterogeneous data sources. One of the main challenges in data integration is reconciling semantic differences among data sources. Approaches that been used to solve this problem can be categorized as schema-based and attribute-based. Schema-based approaches use schema information to identify the semantic similarity in data; furthermore, they focus on reconciling types before reconciling attributes. In contrast, attribute-based approaches use statistical and structural information of attributes to identify the semantic similarity of data in different sources. This research examines an approach to semantic reconciliation based on integrating properties expressed at different levels of abstraction or granularity using the concept of property precedence. Property precedence reconciles the meaning of attributes by identifying similarities between attributes based on what these attributes represent in the real world. In order to use property precedence for semantic integration, we need to identify the precedence of attributes within and across data sources. The goal of this research is to develop and evaluate a method and algorithms that will identify precedence relations among attributes and build property precedence graph (PPG) that can be used to support integration.

Risk factors of European non-listed real estate fund returns

Acknowledgements: We thank INREV (the European Association for Investors in Non-Listed Real Estate Vehicles) for funding a previous version of this research and providing non-listed fund data as well as very useful comments. This version is published as Delfim, J.-C. and Hoesli, M., 2015, Risk Factor Analysis of European Non-Listed Real Estate Funds, Amsterdam: INREV. The usual disclaimer applies. We also thank three anonymous reviewers and the guest editor, Graeme Newell, for insightful remarks.

Small-scale Fisheries and the Global Economy: Understanding Common-pool Resource Governance in the Context of Market Pressures, Neoliberal Policies, and Transnational Institutions

The purpose of this dissertation is to contribute to a better understanding of how global seafood trade interacts with the governance of small-scale fisheries (SSFs). As global seafood trade expands, SSFs have the potential to experience significant economic, social, and political benefits from participation in export markets. At the same time, market connections that place increasing pressures on resources pose risks to both the ecological and social integrity of SSFs. This dissertation seeks to explore the factors that mediate between the potential benefits and risks of global seafood markets for SSFs, with the goal of developing hypotheses regarding these relationships.

The empirical investigation consists of a series of case studies from the Yucatan Peninsula, Mexico. This is a particularly rich context in which to study global market connections with SSFs because the SSFs in this region engage in a variety of market-oriented harvests, most notably for octopus, groupers and snappers, lobster, and sea cucumber. Variation in market forms and the institutional diversity of local-level governance arrangements allows the dissertation to explore a number of examples.

The analysis is guided primarily by common-pool resource (CPR) theory because of the insights it provides regarding the conditions that facilitate collective action and the factors that promote long-lasting resource governance arrangements. Theory from institutional economics and political ecology contribute to the elaboration of a multi-faceted conceptualization of markets for CPR theory, with the aim of facilitating the identification of mechanisms through which markets and CPR governance actually interact. This dissertation conceptualizes markets as sets of institutions that structure the exchange of property rights over fisheries resources, affect the material incentives to harvest resources, and transmit ideas and values about fisheries resources and governance.

The case studies explore four different mechanisms through which markets potentially influence resource governance: 1) Markets can contribute to costly resource governance activities by offsetting costs through profits, 2) markets can undermine resource governance by generating incentives for noncompliance and lead to overharvesting resources, 3) markets can increase the costs of resource governance, for example by augmenting monitoring and enforcement burdens, and 4) markets can alter values and norms underpinning resource governance by transmitting ideas between local resource users and a variety of market actors.

Data collected using participant observation, survey, informal and structured interviews contributed to the elaboration of the following hypotheses relevant to interactions between global seafood trade and SSFs governance. 1) Roll-back neoliberalization of fisheries policies has undermined cooperatives’ ability to achieve financial success through engagement with markets and thus their potential role as key actors in resource governance (chapter two). 2) Different relations of production influence whether local governance institutions will erode or strengthen when faced with market pressures. In particular, relations of production in which fishers own their own means of production and share the collective costs of governance are more likely to strengthen resource governance while relations of production in which a single entrepreneur controls capital and access to the fishery are more likely to contribute to the erosion of resource governance institutions in the face of market pressures (chapter three). 3) By serving as a new discursive framework within which to conceive of and talk about fisheries resources, markets can influence norms and values that shape and constitute governance arrangements.

In sum, the dissertation demonstrates that global seafood trade manifests in a diversity of local forms and effects. Whether SSFs moderate risks and take advantage of benefits depends on a variety of factors, and resource users themselves have the potential to influence the outcomes of seafood market connections through local forms of collective action.

The Land of the Savior: Óscar Romero and the Reform of Agriculture

This study approaches Óscar Romero by attending to his intimate involvement in and concern for the problematic surrounding the reform of Salvadoran agriculture and the conflict over property and possession underlying it. In this study, I situate Romero in relation to the concentration of landholding and the production of landlessness in El Salvador over the course of the twentieth century, and I examine his participation in the longstanding societal and ecclesial debate about agrarian reform provoked by these realities. I try to show how close attention to agrarian reform and what was at stake in it can illumine not only the conflict that occasioned Romero’s martyrdom but the meaning of the martyrdom itself.

Understanding Romero’s involvement in the debate about agrarian reform requires sustained attention to how it takes its bearings from the line of thinking about property and possession for which Pope Leo XIII’s 1891 encyclical Rerum novarum stands as a new beginning. The enclyclical tradition developing out of Leo’s pontificate is commonly referred to as Catholic social doctrine or Catholic social teaching. Romero’s and the Church’s participation in the debate about agrarian reform in El Salvador is unintelligible apart from it.

What Romero and the encyclical tradition share, I argue, is an understanding of creation as a common gift, from which follows a distinctive construal of property and the demands of justice with respect to possessing it. On this view, property does not name, as it is often taken to mean, the enclosure of what is common for the exclusive use of its possessors—something to be held by them over and against others. Rather, property and everything related to its holding derive from the claim that creation is a gift given to human creatures in common. The acknowledgement of creation as a common gift gives rise to what I describe in this study as a politics of common use, of which agrarian reform is one expression.

In Romero’s El Salvador, those who took the truth of creation as common gift seriously—those who spoke out against or opposed the ubiquity of the concentration of land and who clamored for agrarian reform so that the landless and land-poor could have access to land to cultivate for subsistence—suffered greatly as a consequence. I argue that, among other things, their suffering shows how, under the conditions of sin and violence, those who work to ensure that others have access to what is theirs in justice often risk laying down their lives in charity. In other words, they witness to the way that God’s work to restore creation has a cruciform shape. Therefore, while the advocacy for agrarian reform begins with the understanding of creation as common gift, the testimony to this truth in word and in deed points to the telos of the gift and the common life in the crucified and risen Lord in which it participates

La música como reivindicación de género en "Margarita y el lobo", de Cecilia Bartolomé

El carácter innovador y feminista del mediometraje Margarita y el lobo (1969) supuso la censura total de la película y el ostracismo hacia su directora, la entonces estudiante de la EOC, Cecilia Bartolomé. En este artículo repasamos sus anteriores cortometrajes para desgranar los primeros matices de protesta así como la utilización de la expresión musical como vehículo del discurso feminista en Margarita y el lobo. A través de los planteamientos de la musicóloga Susan McClary que abordan sexualidad, género y feminismo concluimos con una visión del análisis de género en las obras musicales, al vincular sus es­tudios al film de Bartolomé. Del mismo modo, analizamos la función que cumple la música en el medio­metraje. Para ello, examinamos el repertorio de canciones presente en Margarita y el lobo para terminar reconociendo la función discursiva y referencial como piezas claves en la película de la directora.