An Early Warning Monitoring System for Illicit Drug Use at Large Public Events: ‘Close to Real Time’ Trace Residue Analysis of Discarded Drug Packaging Samples

Inspired by the exchange principle espoused by Edmond Locard (1877-1966), which states “every contact leaves a trace”, we report here the development and application of a strategy for trace residue sampling and analysis of discarded ‘Drug Packaging Samples’ (DPS), as part of an early warning monitoring system for illicit drug use at large public events. Using Direct Analysis in Real Time (DART) - mass spectrometry (MS) and -tandem mass<br>spectrometry (MS/MS), rapid and high-throughput identification and characterisation of a wide range of illicit drugs and adulterant substances was achieved, including those present in complex poly-drug mixtures and at low relative abundances, and with analysis times of less than one minute per sample. 1362 DPS were analysed either ‘off-site’ using laboratory-based instrumentation or in ‘on-site’ in ‘close to real time’ using a transportable mass spectrometer housed within a customised mobile analytical laboratory. 92.2% of DPS yielded positive results for at least one of 15 different pharmacologically active drugs and/or adulterants, including cocaine, MDMA, and ketamine, as well as numerous ‘novel psychoactive substances’ (NPS). Notably, polydrug mixtures were more common than single drugs, with 52.6% of positive DPS found to contain more than one substance, and with 42 different drug and polydrug combinations observed throughout the study. For analyses performed ‘on-site’, reports to key stakeholders including event organisers, first aid and medical personnel, and peer-based harm reduction workers could be provided in as little as 5 minutes after sample collection. Then, following risk assessment of the potential harms associated with their use, drug advisories or alerts were then disseminated to event staff and patrons, and subsequently to the general public, when substances with particularly toxic properties were identified.<br>

An Early Warning Monitoring System for Illicit Drug Use at Large Public Events: ‘Close to Real Time’ Trace Residue Analysis of Discarded Drug Packaging Samples

Inspired by the exchange principle espoused by Edmond Locard (1877-1966), which states “every contact leaves a trace”, we report here the development and application of a strategy for trace residue sampling and analysis of discarded ‘Drug Packaging Samples’ (DPS), as part of an early warning monitoring system for illicit drug use at large public events. Using Direct Analysis in Real Time (DART) - mass spectrometry (MS) and -tandem mass<br>spectrometry (MS/MS), rapid and high-throughput identification and characterisation of a wide range of illicit drugs and adulterant substances was achieved, including those present in complex poly-drug mixtures and at low relative abundances, and with analysis times of less than one minute per sample. 1362 DPS were analysed either ‘off-site’ using laboratory-based instrumentation or in ‘on-site’ in ‘close to real time’ using a transportable mass spectrometer housed within a customised mobile analytical laboratory. 92.2% of DPS yielded positive results for at least one of 15 different pharmacologically active drugs and/or adulterants, including cocaine, MDMA, and ketamine, as well as numerous ‘novel psychoactive substances’ (NPS). Notably, polydrug mixtures were more common than single drugs, with 52.6% of positive DPS found to contain more than one substance, and with 42 different drug and polydrug combinations observed throughout the study. For analyses performed ‘on-site’, reports to key stakeholders including event organisers, first aid and medical personnel, and peer-based harm reduction workers could be provided in as little as 5 minutes after sample collection. Then, following risk assessment of the potential harms associated with their use, drug advisories or alerts were then disseminated to event staff and patrons, and subsequently to the general public, when substances with particularly toxic properties were identified.<br>

Photoresist Residue Detection in Advanced Packaging

Semiconductor manufacturers are continuously driving efforts to put more computing power and speed into less volume. At the same time, consumers are demanding devices with more functionality that integrate a variety of interconnected circuit types. The result has been an increasing reliance on advanced packaging technologies that use fab-like processes to integrate multiple chips and to provide the increased I/O capability required. With continued focus on device miniaturization, the rapid detection of trace chemical residue during intermediate processing steps becomes increasingly difficult. In the lithography area, detection of polymer residue on wafer surfaces presents special opportunities. One area of opportunity for the detection of lithographic polymer residue takes advantage of the fact that these materials possess unique optical properties not found in metals or other inorganic materials used in semiconductor manufacturing. Rudolph Technologies has submitted patent applications for a novel defect illumination technique that offers key advantages over traditional white light inspection. This paper will present the results of using this inspection technique for the detection of photoresist residue on test wafers as well as on actual customer devices. Sample data included herein are representative of advanced packaging technology used today by a wide range of semiconductor manufacturers and OSAT facilities. While this novel inspection technique will not be a panacea for all trace residue detection problems, it offers a method complementary with bright field or dark field inspection when these two traditional inspection methods lack the sensitivity required.

Seeking Dhasa; Finding Lhasa: Liminality and Narrative in the Tibetan Refugee Capital of Dharamsala

This article explores the role of narrative and narrativity in stabilising identity in an exile setting, read here as a way to avert what Bjørn Thomassen calls the ‘danger’ inherent to liminality. It does this by analysing the shape and visualscape of the little Himalayan town of Dharamsala, which serves as the secular and religious ‘capital’ of Tibetan exile. It attempts to decode the narratives which allow ‘Dhasa’, as Dharamsala is colloquially known, to cohere and correspond to its metonymically aspirational other – Lhasa, the capital of old Tibet. There can be read in this act of assonant naming the beginnings of a narrative geared towards generating nostalgia for a lost homeland, alluding to the possibility of its reclamation and restitution in exile. This article explores how this narrative is evidence of the fact that it is in indeterminacy; in liminality in other words, that the ‘structuration’ that Thomassen proposes, becomes possible at all. Even as it alludes to the impossibility of transplanting cultures whole, the article also examines closely the Foucauldian notion of ‘trace residue’ inherent to ruptures in prior epistemes, treating this idea as central to creating new-‘old’ orientations for this refugee community in exile. Following Thomassen and Szakolczai, liminality is here treated as a concept applicable to time as well as place; individuals as well as communities, and social ‘events’ or changes of immense magnitude. It is this notion of liminality that the article proposes has to be a central concept in any exploration of exile groups which have to live in the spaces between the shorn identity markers of the past – rooted as these must be in a lost homeland – and the present, where they must be iterated or man-ufactured anew.

Ni@Au nanoparticles for surface enhanced Raman spectroscopy based ultrasensitive magnetic immunoassay on aflatoxin B1

A facile approach for the fabrication of Ni@Au magnetic nanoparticles was developed as the immune substrates for the competitive magnetic immunoassay. The approach was used for quasi-quantitatively detection on the trace residue of AFB1in foods.