A single mutation in the FGA locus responsible for false homozygosities and discrepancies between commercial kits in an unusual paternity test case

We report an unusual paternity test case showing multiple peculiarities. Using AmpFlSTR Profiler Plus and AmpFlSTR Identifiler PCR Amplification kits, the alleged father and the two children were apparently homozygous at the FGA locus, but using the PowerPlex 16 kit the three individuals were found to be heterozygous. Drop-out was caused by a single mutation event in the presumptive binding site of the reverse primer. In addition, three inconsistencies were detected between the daughter and the alleged father among 18 STR markers. The occurrence of the rare null allele at the FGA locus and case history suggested that the true father was the brother of the alleged father. Furthermore, a single-step repeat maternal mutation was also detected at D16S539. This puzzling case was solved by using multiple analytical approaches, including the use of different primer pairs, the use of a high number of STR markers, and the characterization of the mutation causing the "null allele."     

TEACHING CONTROVERSIAL TOPICS

This essay, based on a presentation at the 2009 Future of Family Law Education conference at the William Mitchell School of Law, discusses strategies for teaching controversial topics, focused on reproductive rights and related gender issues.     

Exercising Power and Control in Arbitration Proceedings

The paper takes into consideration the different degrees of power and control that can be exercised by the mediator/arbitrator. This issue is investigated with particular regard to such aspects as the nature of the ADR procedure adopted, the cultural context in which the procedure takes place, and the formulation of specific legal norms. The analysis both of a few arbitration rules and some data from real arbitral proceedings shows great reliance on the arbitrator’s discretion and use of common sense, which is in line with the idea itself of arbitration. Moreover, the high degree of power autonomy enjoyed by the arbitrator during the whole procedure derives from the presupposition that the parties accept the arbitrator’s personal opinion and final judgment and from the fact that the majority of the disputes in international commercial arbitration are of a technical and complicated nature. The analysis also shows that the legal background of most arbitrators tends to surface even when they are involved in alternative dispute resolution proceedings and is clearly visible in the orderly allocation of turns and the strict control over the procedures to be followed. Especially when arbitrators are lawyers or judges, they tend to promote a feeling of belonging to the same professional community, which induces a greater spirit of cooperation and a lowering of the control level.     

Possible Fatal Acetaminophen Intoxication with Atypical Clinical Presentation

Acetaminophen or paracetamol, a commonly used over‐the‐counter analgesic, is known to elicit severe adverse reactions when taken in overdose, chronically at therapeutic dosage or, sporadically, following single assumptions of a therapeutic dose. Damage patterns including liver damage and, rarely, acute tubular necrosis or a fixed drug exanthema. We present a case of fatal acetaminophen toxicity with postmortem blood concentration 78 μg/mL and unusual clinical features, including a visually striking and massive epidermolysis and rhabdomyolysis, disseminated intravascular coagulation and myocardial ischemia. This case is compared with the most similar previous reports in terms of organ damage, clinical presentation, and cause of death. We conclude that a number of severe patterns of adverse effects to acetaminophen are emerging that were previously greatly underestimated, thus questioning the adequacy of the clinical spectrum traditionally associated with acetaminophen intoxication and leading to the need to review this spectrum and the associated diagnostic criteria.     

The Mediterranean area in perspective

Selective multilateralism as a US strategy

At home abroad: identity and power in American foreign policy / Henry R. Nau. ‐ Ithaca, New York: Cornell University Press, c2002. ‐ xiii, 314 p. ‐ ISBN 0–8014–3931–0 (cloth)     

EU Social policies: Challenges and opportunities for Italy

The European Council's 2008 ‘Immigration Pact’ has been touted by its main protagonist, the French government, as a turning point in EU migration policymaking. In one respect at least, the French are not exaggerating. The Pact represents a challenge to a key assumption underpinning European integration, namely that communitarised policymaking procedures are the best means of achieving truly common policies: Paris presented the intergovernmental Pact as a means of succeeding where communitarised decision-making has failed – in achieving the goal of a coherent common migration policy. However, analysis shows the French claims to be largely unfounded: although the European Council might theoretically have played a useful role here, in practice its efforts will add little to the achievement of a truly common policy.     

Biopolitics for philosophers

Abstract

Roberto Esposito is an influential Italian political philosopher engaged in a renewal of the Foucauldian project of an ontology of the present. In his recent book Bíos, he rereads biopolitics through the lens of his paradigm of immunization (Esposito, 1998, 2002) and tries to explain how, in modernity, a politics of life ‘continually threatens to be reversed’ into a politics of death. His philosophical analysis is profound, and his genealogical reconstruction of the modern superimposition of politics and life innovative. However, his claims are weakened by his usage of a very abstract notion of biopolitics, which fails to take note of the current impact of scientific programmes on the human condition and the emergence of new biopolitical figures. The review suggests that lack of any interest toward the history of science as well as toward more empirically-oriented analyses remains a serious shortcoming of influential political philosophers.     

Jeunes,participation politique et participation sociale en Suisse. Une étude de cas

L’étude aborde la relation entre participation politique et participation sociale auprès des jeunes au seuil de la vie adulte. Maints travaux sur le sujet prétendent que les jeunes sont de moins en moins attirés par la participation aux élections et/ou l'adhésion partisane et semblent privilégier un engagement de type associatif. Les résultats d'une étude de cas réalisée par les auteurs auprès de la Haute École spécialisée de la Suisse italienne ont montré que, durant cette période de la vie, marquée par le difficile processus de transition qui amène le jeune adolescent au statut d'adulte, la relation entre participation sociale et participation politique varie considérablement; cette variation pourtant, n'est pas linéaire, ce qui semble redevable, en partie du moins, des caractéristiques propres à ce processus de transition – de plus en plus long et complexe ‐ vers l’âge adulte.     

Course and Severity of Maternal Depression: Associations with Family Functioning and Child Adjustment

Number of lifetime episodes, duration of current episode, and severity of maternal depression were investigated in relation to family functioning and child adjustment. Participants were the 151 mother–child pairs in the Sequenced Treatment Alternatives to Relieve Depression (STAR*D) child multi-site study. Mothers were diagnosed with Major Depressive Disorder; children (80 males and 71 females) ranged in age from 7 to 17 years. Measures of child adjustment included psychiatric diagnoses, internalizing and externalizing symptoms, and functional impairment. Measures of family functioning included family cohesion, expressiveness, conflict, organization, and household control; parenting measures assessed maternal acceptance and psychological control. Children of mothers with longer current depressive episodes were more likely to have internalizing and externalizing symptoms, with this association being moderated by child gender. Mothers with more lifetime depressive episodes were less likely to use appropriate control in their homes.