Handwriting changes under the effect of alcohol

Document examiners are often faced with difficulties in evaluating handwriting by persons under the influence of alcohol. Although numerous articles are available on the subject of alcohol influence on handwriting quality, most of them were based on empirical data such as "few" or "increased", without any statistical evaluation. The aim of this research is to determine whether previous observations on reported effects of alcohol on handwriting are valid and to establish the predictability of observing specific effects. A total of 73 participants, who completed all steps of the experiment, were surveyed. Handwriting samples were taken before and after the consumption of alcohol. The test form, including criteria of prior studies used by document examiners, was evaluated with the help of a Olympus X-Tr stereo microscope, direct and oblique angle lighting and a video spectral comparator (VSC 2000). Measurements were done by means of digital caliper, statistics using repeated measures ANOVA, Pearson correlation, Pearson Chi square test, McNemar test and Wilcoxon signed rank test.The results revealed that the handwriting parameters such as word lengths, height of upper and lower case letters, height of ascending letter, height of descending letter, spacing between words, number of angularity, number of tremor, and number of tapered ends are all significantly increased under the effect of alcohol.It was also determined that the significant correlation between the alteration of handwriting parameters such as height of upper and lower case letters, number of angularity, number of tapered ends and the amount of alcohol. Furthermore, it does not confirm the conclusions of previous studies stating that alcohol levels are not proper indicators. Our data strongly confirms that handwriting changes can be observed at any level of alcohol.None of the alterations in handwriting can be attributed to the effects of alcohol intake alone. However, the presence of some alterations together is strongly suggestive that the person was under the influence of alcohol.First of all, the duty of handwriting examiner is to identify if the questioned and known sample are coming from the same source. Consequently, as this explanatory analysis suggests that differences between sober and intoxicated persons can be identified in handwriting, but the examiner's judgement must be proportionately cautious, keeping in mind the abnormally wide range of variation.     

Allele frequencies for 15 STR loci in Van-Ağri districts of the Eastern Anatolia region of Turkey

Allele frequencies of 13 tetrameric short tandem repeat (STR) loci (D3S1358, TH01, D21S11, D18S51, D5S818, D13S317, D7S820, D16S539, CSF1PO, vWA, D8S1179, TPOX, FGA) and 2 pentameric short tandem repeat loci (Penta E and Penta D) included in the PowerPlex 16 kit were obtained from a sample of 116 unrelated individuals in Van-A?ri districts of the Eastern Anatolia region of Turkey. The expected performance of these loci for personal identification and paternity testing in this population was estimated.     

Sexual dimorphism in the crania and mandibles of South African whites

Numerous studies have clearly demonstrated that skeletal characteristics vary by population. To date, there are no metric cranial criteria for South African whites. Therefore, the purpose of this study is to establish population specific standards for sex determination from the skull. A total of 12 standard cranial and five mandibular measurements were taken from 44 male and 47 female skeletons of known sex and race from the Pretoria and Dart collections. These were subjected to SPSS discriminant function analysis. Bizygomatic breadth was the most dimorphic dimension. Five functions were developed from the complete cranium, vault, face, mandible and bizygomatic breadth. Dimensions from the complete cranium provided the best accuracy. In the mandible, bigonial breadth was the most dimorphic of the measurements taken. Average accuracies ranged from 80% (bizygomatic breadth alone) to 86% (cranium). These accuracies are similar to those obtained by researchers on other groups (e.g., 84% in Japanese crania and about 86% in American whites and blacks). Diagnostic accuracy, however, is lower than that obtained from the South African femur and tibia.     

The Associations Among Perceived Pubertal Timing, Parental Relations and Self-Perception in Turkish Adolescents

This study is primarily aimed at investigating how pubertal timing is perceived in urban Turkish adolescents in terms of their feelings about maturation, their relationships with their parents, and their self-perception. A total of 697 high-school students (360 girls, 337 boys) between the ages of 14 and 18 (M=16.15, SD=1.08) were included in this study. The findings indicated that most of the adolescents perceived themselves as on-time developers in comparison with their peers. Consistent with widely available research data in the literature regarding the impact of early versus late maturation, girls who mature early and boys who mature late reported more negative feelings about pubertal maturation. In addition, those who matured early reported greater conflict and disagreement with their parents and more negative communication with their fathers than the adolescents who matured on- time. Adolescents who were less satisfied with their physical appearance were more likely to have negative feelings about pubertal maturation. Sex was found to act as a moderator of relationships between global self-worth and feelings about pubertal maturation. In conclusion, this study, conducted with Turkish urban adolescents, suggests that the impact of early versus late maturation differs between girls and boys, which is consistent with widely available data in the literature.     

Organised interests in the media and policy congruence: The contingent impact of the status quo

While a multitude of studies have investigated the link between opinion and policy, we have little knowledge of how and when organised interests affect this linkage. We argue that the alignment of organised interests affects opinion–policy congruence by influencing the weight decision-makers attach to citizen preferences. Moreover, we propose that alignment between majorities of groups and the public matters the most when status quo bias must be overcome for the public to obtain its preferred policy. We test our theoretical claims drawing on a comprehensive media content analysis of 160 policy issues in Germany and Denmark. Our results present a more sceptical picture of the ability of groups to suppress the opinion–policy linkage than the one frequently presented in the academic literature and public debate. We find that the capacity of groups to affect whether policy is congruent with the majority of the public is restricted to situations where the public supports a change in the status quo. In these cases, policy is less likely to end up reflecting public opinion if the majority of interest groups do not support the public position. In cases where the public is supportive of the policy status quo, the position of interest groups does not affect the likelihood that policy will eventually reflect the preferred position of the public. Our findings expand existing knowledge of organised interests in the study of policy representation and have important implications for understanding democratic governance.