Greenport, New York, a village on the North Fork of Long Island, has become an exemplar of a little-noted national trend-immigrants spreading beyond the big coastal cities, driving much of rural ...population growth nationally. InVillage of Immigrants,Diana R. Gordon illustrates how small-town America has been revitalized by the arrival of these immigrants in Greenport, where she lives.Greenport today boasts a population that is one-third Hispanic. Gordon contends that these immigrants have effectively saved the town's economy by taking low-skill jobs, increasing the tax base, filling local schools, and patronizing local businesses. Greenport's seaside beauty still attracts summer tourists, but it is only with the support of the local Latino workforce that elegant restaurants and bed-and-breakfasts are able to serve these visitors. For Gordon the picture is complex, because the wave of immigrants also presents the town with challenges to its services and institutions. Gordon's portraits of local immigrants capture the positive and the negative, with a cast of characters ranging from a Guatemalan mother of three, including one child who is profoundly disabled, to a Colombian house painter with a successful business who cannot become licensed because he remains undocumented.Village of Immigrantsweaves together these people's stories, fears, and dreams to reveal an environment plagued by threats of deportation, debts owed tocoyotes, low wages, and the other bleak realities that shape the immigrant experience-even in the charming seaport town of Greenport.A timely contribution to the national dialogue on immigration, Gordon's book shows the pivotal role the American small town plays in the ongoing American immigrant story-as well as how this booming population is shaping and reviving rural communities.
Crime is one of the major challenges to any new democracy. Violence often increases after the lifting of authoritarian control, or in the aftermath of regime change. But how can a fledgling democracy ...fight crime without violating the fragile rights of its citizens? In Transformation and Trouble, accomplished theorist and criminal justice scholar Diana Gordon critically examines South Africa's efforts to strike the perilous balance between democratic participation and social control. South Africa has made great progress in pursuing the Western ideals of participatory justice and due process. Yet Gordon finds that popular concerns about crime have fostered the growth of a punitive criminal justice system that undermines the country's rights-oriented political culture. Transformation and Trouble calls for South Africa to reaffirm its commitment to public empowerment by reforming its criminal justice system—an approach, she argues, that would strengthen the country's new democracy.
Nowadays, analytical research is an indispensable factor in the lives of people. Attempts are made to improve quality, speed or safety of analytical procedures. Recently, research on ionic liquids ...has become a trend. This is due to the possibility of their application in many fields. In this paper, the properties and diversity of ionic liquid application have been described, especially application in advanced analytical techniques such as various electrochemical techniques, chromatography or in sample preparation. From the analytical point of view, the use of ionic liquids in solid phase microextraction is very interesting and important. In the article there are many links to research that led to the creation of a broad summary concerning these unusual chemicals. The relatively large amount of research work on the topic provides only a small peak of the potential of ionic liquids. This provides motivation for further action towards development on the topic.
•Application of ionic liquids in analytical chemistry are introduced.•Unique properties of ionic liquids are described.•Review of ionic liquids as fibre coatings for SPME.•Application of novel SPME fibres.
Post-apartheid South Africa and post-Pinochet Chile have taken significant steps to democratize justice. This article acknowledges conventional reforms of both countries' criminal justice systems but ...focuses primarily on case studies of participatory and restorative initiatives that have attempted to expand the theory and practice of public safety practices in non-state settings. The experience of resolving interpersonal disputes in new democracies and what it means for the people who do it is examined. The research hypothesized that public participation in matters of justice and security can foster more active citizenship, a contribution to deepening democracy in countries in transition, as South Africa and Chile have been since the early 1990s. The experiences of the Community Peace Program and the Barrio Sin Violencia shed light on both the potential and the limitations of efforts to deepen democracy through community dispute resolution. They suggest that whether or not public participation in matters of justice and security fosters more active citizenship in democratizing countries depends on complex cultural and historical influences, including perspectives on sources of authority, institutional patterns of justice, and mutual trust.
Nanostructured polyaniline (PANI) was electrochemically obtained as a fiber coating of solid-phase microextraction (SPME) and then used in the analysis of selected organoarsenic and organophosphorus ...compounds in soil samples. Also, comparative studies of the obtained PANI fibers with seven commercially available fibers for varying miscellaneous polarity, and various absorption and/or adsorption natures, were carried out. Quantitative analysis of environmental samples was performed using a gas chromatograph coupled with a tandem mass spectrometer. During the analysis of organophosphorus compounds, the PANI fiber showed at least 20% greater sorption efficiency than any commercially available fiber, whereas, in the case of organoarsenic compounds, the sorption efficiency of the PANI fiber increased with the expansion in the number of phenyl rings in the molecule. The PANI coating material was characterised by N2 adsorption–desorption, scanning electron microscopy, infrared spectroscopy and thermogravimetric analysis. SEM imaging confirmed a nanostructured form of PANI. The repeatability for one fiber (n = 7), expressed as the relative standard deviation ranges from 3.2% to 4.4% depending on the kind of tested chemical compound. The reproducibility (calculated as relative standard deviation of the 9 prepared fibers) was not greater than 7.2% Under the optimized conditions, the proposed method was linear over approximately 4 orders for organophosphorus compounds (0.02–100 ng g−1) and 5 orders for organoarsenic compounds (0.12–5000 ng g−1) of magnitude for the tested compounds, with linear determination coefficients (R2) greater than 0.972, and the limit of detection for the home-made PANI fiber was relatively low (0.006–0.45 ng g−1). In comparison with all commercially available SPME fibers, the new PANI fiber was more selective for the tested aromatic and organophosphorus compounds and easily as well as inexpensively prepared. The resulting stationary phase allowed for quantitative analysis of selected organophosphorus and organoarsenic compounds from the group of warfare agents.
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•Electrochemical synthesis of new polyaniline fiber coatings was developed.•Sorption of selected chemical warfare agents on new polyaniline coatings was tested.•Polyaniline coating shows better results than commercial fibers for chemical agents.•The new fiber was successfully used for analysis of the Baltic Sea sediment samples.
In mature democracies citizens are being gradually empowered to make important
decisions about how to handle crime and disorder and to assume an active role in
making their communities safer. Do the ...justifications for this partial shift away
from the commitment to adversarial, state-centered criminal justice apply to
democratizing countries? Viewed individually, the arguments for public-empowering
justice in transitional states are all quite partial. But they can be creatively
combined within a framework that has relevance for a number of countries, especially
if the argument from democracy incorporates a deliberative perspective. Significant
institutional barriers remain, however, as illustrated by the post-apartheid South
African state's retreat from its initial interest in community policing,
lay assessors in criminal trials, and community courts.
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•Analysis of explosives samples dumped in the Baltic Sea.•Application of advanced analytical methods: MS, HRMS, NMR and TG.•Composition of the excavated explosive: TNT (41%), RDX ...(53%), Al powder (5%).•4. Composition in very good conditions, detonation velocity is 6.7 km/s.
After World War II, conventional and chemical ammunition containing mainly secondary and primary explosives was dumped in the sea. Explosives have medium toxicity to aquatic organisms, earthworms and indigenous soil microorganisms. Therefore, environmental monitoring is required, especially for dumped munitions. The main aspect of this work was to analyse the samples of lumps and sediments taken from the Baltic seabed. These samples were potentially explosives. The main goal of the study was to identify the type and composition of studied materials. In order to determine the chemical composition of samples of explosives, we used as follows: GC–MS/MS, LC-HRMS and NMR. Additionally, to determine the energetic properties we performed microcalorimetric-thermogravimetric analysis. Based on the obtained results, the composition of this explosive was TNT (41%), RDX (53%), aluminium powder (5%), and degradation products (below 1%). The resulting composition indicates that the analysed material can be classified in the “torpex” family, widely used during World War II. Regarding the results of the microcalorimetric analysis, we can conclude that excavated fragments of explosives are in very good condition and they still can detonate after being initiated. Therefore, there is a threat that they could be used for criminal or terrorist purposes.
After World War II, based on decisions made at the Potsdam Conference in 1945, over 15,000 tons of chemical warfare agents (CWAs) were dumped in the Baltic Sea. These chemicals are still a threat to ...people and the maritime economy, but most of all to marine ecosystems. It is important to study the mechanisms of CWA reactions that could take place in the marine environment to evaluate the environmental risk. These studies are focused on the transformations of Clark I (diphenylchloroarsine, DA) in simulated Baltic Sea bottom sediments and water conditions. GC and LC methods for the analysis of Clark I and its degradation products were developed and applied. Clark I reactions in the bottom sediments and water environment were monitored systematically. This enabled the kinetics curves of Clark I degradation in various environments (matrix, temperature 4–70 °C, pH) to be determined and degradation products to be identified. Based on the kinetics curve reaction rates, the half-life period, reaction rate constants, and temperature coefficient (Q10) for water and sediment were established. These data allowed the activation energy for the hydrolysis reaction of DA in an aqueous environment to be ascertained, which was 69.2 kJ/mol. Clark I half-times in the conditions present in the Baltic Sea were about eight days for water and 18 days for sediment.
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•Studies focused on the conversions of CWA named Clark I (DA) in the Sea sediments.•GC–MS/MS & LC-HRMS methods used for the analysis of DA & its degradation products•Determination of the kinetics of DA degradation in various environments•Ascertaining of the activation energy & half-times for the hydrolysis of DA•Explanation of the Clark I behavior in the marine environment
After World War II, the Baltic Sea was contaminated by dumping unused sulfur mustard (SM) and other chemical warfare agents (CWAs), which now constitutes a huge environmental hazard. We use both ...experimental and theoretical methods to understand the reactivity of SM in water, in particular the hydrolysis, which is one of the chemical reactions leading to the neutralization of SM. Real conditions present in the Baltic Sea are represented by performing Car-Parrinello molecular dynamics simulations for sulfur mustard in explicit water solution at finite temperature. We study the relative occurrence and stability of various SM conformers in water and analyze the solute–solvent interactions, with special focus on the formation of intra- and intermolecular hydrogen bonds and their lifetime. A missing piece toward the understanding of the sulfonium cation formation and SM hydrolysis reaction is provided by obtaining the activation energy for SM decomposition in water solution from gas chromatography–mass spectrometry (GC-MS) experiments. The complex mechanism of SM hydrolysis is also studied by umbrella sampling simulations to obtain the free energy barrier for the sulfonium cation formation and to provide an atomistic view of the reaction process.
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•Activation energy of 88 kJ/mol for the SM hydrolysis reaction from experiment.•Activation energy of 75 kJ/mol for the SM hydrolysis reaction from umbrella sampling.•All 23 possible conformations of SM identified in the water solution.•Only specific SM conformations are able to form the cyclic sulfonium cation.
Chemical warfare agents (CWA) dumped worldwide in all types of aquatic reservoirs pose a potential environmental hazard. Leakage of CWAs from eroding containers at dumping sites had been observed, ...and their presence in the tissues of aquatic animals was confirmed. However, the ecological effects of CWA have not yet been studied. In standardized laboratory bioassays, we tested if sublethal concentration of Clark I, an arsenic based CWA, can affect life histories (somatic growth rate, fecundity, size at maturity), population growth rate and stable isotope signatures of a keystone crustacean grazer Daphnia magna. We found that the life histories and fitness of daphnids reared in the presence of Clark I differed from those reared in Clark-free conditions. The effects were observed when Clark I concentrations were no less than 5 μg×L−1. With increasing concentrations of the tested CWA, all of the tested parameters decreased linearly. The finding indicates that even sublethal concentrations of Clark I can affect crustacean populations, which should be taken into account when assessing the environmental risks of this particular CWA. We found intraspecific diversity in susceptibility to Clark I, with some clones being significantly less vulnerable than others. We also found that in the presence of Clark I, the ratio of heavy and light isotopes of nitrogen in the bodies of daphnids was affected – daphnids exhibited δ15N enrichment with increasing concentrations of this CWA. The isotopic composition of carbon was not affected by the presence of Clark I. The nitrogen isotopic signature may be used as an indicator of stress in zooplankton exposed to the presence of toxic xenobiotics.
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•Clark I, a chemical warfare agent, affects life-history and fitness of Daphnia magna.•The effects were observed when Clark I concentrations were no less than 5 μg.L−1•Clones of Daphnia differ with regard to susceptibility to Clark-mediated toxicity.•Positive relationship was found between Clark I concentration and δ15N of daphnids.•Nitrogen isotopic composition of organism may be used as an indicator of toxic stress.
Sublethal concentrations of Clark I, an arsenic based chemical warfare agent, affect life histories and stable isotope signatures of a keystone crustacean grazer Daphnia magna.
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