Kazakh power distance dimension in business discourse

The article is considered to be of current interest, because it is a relatively new area for research. This paper focuses on measuring Hofstede’s power distance index for different countries, particularly in Kazakh culture. A novel technique is proposed, where verbal index is calculated from the analysis of publically available texts delivered by representatives of different cultures. The authors analyzed public speeches made by leaders of various countries. From these texts, a verbal index was derived, which closely correlated with Hofstede’s power distance data. As a result, the authors were able to obtain a power distance index for Kazakhstan, which was previously unavailable. Furthermore, this method can be used as a cheaper alternative to conducting surveys in estimating Hofstede’s power distance indexes for different cultures.     

Validation of a 17-locus Y-STR multiplex system

Internal validation of a commercial 17-locus Y-STR system (AmpFlSTR^® Yfiler™, Applied Biosystems) has been performed on the ABI PRISM^® 3130 Genetic Analyzer for use in forensic cases. The Yfiler™ kit was validated according to SWGDAM guidelines. Our results show that it is possible to obtain full profiles with as little as 30 pg of male DNA even in the presence of 20,000-fold amounts of female DNA. Reaction volume was optimized for 10 μl. Male-male mixtures yielded full profiles of the minor contributor with 10-fold excess of the major contributor. Stutter values for each locus were determined from data generated for the population study which included Y-STR profiles from 156 caucasian males from the Montreal and Lac St.-Jean areas of Québec, Canada. The study recorded 141 different haplotypes of which 131 were unique with a haplotype diversity of 0.9965. A number of non-probative forensic samples from rape kit epithelial fractions and fingernail scrapings were also successfully tested.