Swiss Caucasian population data for the STR loci D2S1338 and D19S433 using the AmpFISTR SGM plus PCR amplification kit

Allele and genotype frequencies for the ten STR loci D3S1358, VWA, D16S539, D2S1338, D8S1179, D21S11, D18S51, D19S433, TH01, FGA were determined in a Swiss Caucasian population sample (n=206) using the AmpFISTR SGM Plus Amplification kit. Electrophoresis was carried out on an ABI PRISM CE 310 Genetic Analyzer instrument. Previously, allele frequencies were published for the 13 STR loci D3S1358, VWA, FGA, D8S1179, D21S11, D18S51, D5S818, D13S317, D7S820, THO1, TPOX, CSF1PO and D16S539 for the same samples (n=206) amplified with the AmpFISTR Profiler Plus and Cofiler PCR Amplification kits. Since the results for the eight loci D3S1358, VWA, FGA, D8S1179, D21S11, D18S51, THO1, D16S539 shared between the AmpFISTR SGM Plus, Profiler Plus and Cofiler PCR Amplification kits already are published, only the allele frequencies for the two STR loci D2S1338 and D19S433 are reported in this paper. The two loci meet Hardy-Weinberg expectations. In addition, there is little evidence for association of alleles among the 15 loci (amplified with the Profiler, Cofiler, and SGM Plus amplification kits). The allelic frequency data can be used in forensic analyses to estimate the frequency of a multiple STR locus DNA profile in the Swiss population.     

Evaluation of prostate-specific antigen (PSA) membrane test assays for the forensic identification of seminal fluid.

Prostate specific antigen (PSA, also known as p30), a glycoprotein produced by the prostatic gland and secreted into seminal plasma, is a marker used for demonstrating the presence of seminal fluid. Methods for the detection of PSA include Ouchterlony double diffusion, crossover electrophoresis, rocket immuno-electrophoresis, radial immunodiffusion, and ELISA. The extremely sensitive ELISA technique can detect PSA in concentrations as low as approximately 4 ng/mL. However, all these techniques are cumbersome and time consuming to perform in forensic laboratories, especially when only a few samples per week are processed. Various membrane tests are currently used in clinical settings to screen a patient's serum for the presence of PSA at levels greater than 4 ng/mL. In this study we evaluated three immunochromatographic PSA membrane tests by analyzing semen stains stored at room temperature for up to 30 years, post-coital vaginal swabs taken at different time after intercourse, semen-free vaginal swabs, and various female and male body fluids, including urine. The data demonstrate that PSA membrane test assays offer the same sensitivity as ELISA-based tests and provide a rapid approach for the forensic identification of seminal fluid. Furthermore, when the supernatant from a DNA extraction is used for the assay, there is essentially no DNA consumption for determining the presence of PSA in a forensic sample.     

Swiss Caucasian population data for 13 STR loci using AmpFISTR profiler plus and cofiler PCR amplification kits.

Allele and genotype frequencies for the 13 core STR loci (D3S1358, VWA, FGA, D8S1179, D21S11, D18S51, D5S818, D13S317, D7S820, THO1, TPOX, CSF1PO, and D16S539) were determined in a Swiss Caucasian population sample (n = 206) using two commercially available multiplex PCR kits (AmpFISTR Profiler Plus and AmpFISTR Cofiler) and subsequent electrophoresis on an ABI PRISM CE 310 Genetic Analyzer instrument. All loci meet Hardy-Weinberg expectations. In addition, there is little evidence for association of alleles among the 13 loci. The allelic frequency data can be used in forensic analyses and paternity tests to estimate the frequency of a multiple STR locus DNA profile in the Swiss population.     

Typing of deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) extracted from compact bone from human remains.

The application of deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) typing methods for the potential identification of unknown human remains was investigated. DNA was isolated from compact bone tissue from badly decomposed bodies and from known and unknown human remains, using a decalcification and ion wash procedure. Restriction fragment length polymorphism (RFLP) analysis of variable number of tandem repeats (VNTR) loci yielded results in some cases, but more often the DNA was too degraded to produce RFLP patterns. No RFLP profiles could be obtained from putrefied soft tissues. However, DNA extracted from compact bone tissue of human remains up to eleven years old was successfully amplified using the polymerase chain reaction (PCR) for the VNTR loci D1S80, D17S5, COL2A1, and APO B, as well as the HLA-DQ alpha locus. This is especially significant, since PCR results were obtained from those samples whose DNA had been degraded substantially and had yielded no RFLP patterns. All DNA types determined from the compact bone tissue from decomposed bodies whose identification had been established first by other means (and whose parents or offspring were available for typing) demonstrated mendelian inheritance of the alleles of the loci analyzed. These results suggest that amplification and typing of DNA extracted from compact bone of human remains could be useful in establishing the identity of a person, as well as in excluding possible false identifications.     

Blundering into Baghdad: an analysis of strategy,structure, principals and agents

Some postmortems of the Bush Administration's pre-Iraq war decision-making have focused on a dysfunctional National Security Council (NSC) structure as the major reason for the lack of a thorough strategic assessment prior to the March 2003 invasion. Other academic and journalistic accounts have focused on a lack of a first rate conceptual thinker at the top levels of the Bush Administration as an important cause of the strategic shortcomings in Iraq decision-making. This article will assess the relative impact of decision-making structure versus quality of strategic leadership in explaining poor performance in the first five years of the Iraq war.     

The Chechen Exception: Rethinking Russia's Human Rights Policy

Orthodox interpretations of human rights policies and practices in post-Soviet Russia are often construed by external critics through a historicist lens of tsarist and Soviet-era authoritarianism. Contemporary Russia's adherence to emerging international human rights norms is commonly judged in sole reference to its human rights disaster in Chechnya. In this article, we contest the notion that human rights abuses in Chechnya fully illustrate Russia's stance on international human rights. We suggest that Chechnya is the exception in the post-Soviet era, and that Russia has increasingly brought its human rights standards in line with the West. We use a historical comparative context as well as Russia's discursive response to NATO's intervention in Kosovo and its UN Security Council voting record as empirical evidence for our argument. ¹     

Problems in the Intelligence-Policy Nexus: Rethinking Korea,Tet, and Afghanistan

Accusations of failure by elements of the US intelligence community (IC) have followed in the wake of nearly every war and terrorist bombing since Japan's successful strike on Pearl Harbor in 1941. This article will illustrate how some problems that exist inside the ‘intelligence-policy nexus’ are beyond the control of the IC. By investigating the dynamics and tensions that exist between producers of intelligence (the IC) and the consumers of those products (policy-makers), we review three different types of alleged failure. First, by revisiting the Chinese intervention in Korea, we show that a rarely listed case in the literature is in fact a classic example of producer-based failure generated from within the IC. However, in our study of the Tet Offensive during the Vietnam War (1968), we show that the alleged intelligence failure by producers should be more accurately described as a ‘failure of intelligence’ by consumers. Third, by revisiting the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan (1979), we conclude that there existed neither a producer nor a consumer failure. The Carter Administration made a conscious policy choice to act surprised (when it was not).     

Russian Authoritarian Pluralism: a Local and Global Trend?

Russia is a country that has witnessed increasingly authoritarian governance over the last decade. Civil liberties have been curtailed; local and regional political power has been usurped by the Kremlin. Russia remains a democracy insomuch as elections are conducted, but increasingly those elections are so heavily influenced by state control over the media and fiscal elements of social power that substantive Western notions of democracy have greatly atrophied. However, the decline in substantive democracy has received solid support from the Russian electorate. As such, under the leadership of Boris Yeltsin and Vladimir Putin, Russia has become an ‘authoritarian pluralist’ state that now expresses long-standing cultural affinity for a strong authoritarian rule under an increasingly thin veneer of democratic principles. Furthermore, variations of this new Russian model seem to be spreading globally.

Democracy is the dictatorship of the law. The stronger the state is, the freer the individual.

Vladimir Putin