Identification of two fire victims by comparative nuclear DNA typing of skeletal remains and stored umbilical tissues

We describe here our collaborative efforts in identifying 2 fatalities of a fire disaster by using a variety of identification techniques. Postmortem findings in both cases were reinforced using Short Tandem Repeat (STR) DNA technology to establish with a high degree of certainty the identities of 2 child victims. STR markers used in the present study include HUMAMEL, HUMCSFIPO, HUMTHO1, HUMvWA, HUMFES/FPS, HUMF13A01, HUMFOLP23, D8S3O6, HUMFGA, and HUMTPOX. Unambiguous identification was made possible through matching DNA profiles generated from skeletal remains with those from umbilical tissues. These tissues were kept by their mothers in accordance with a Philippine tradition and were submitted for DNA analysis. Of the DNA profiles generated from exhumed bone samples of 21 child victims, comparison with the genetic profiles of children A and B obtained from umbilical tissues showed consistent DNA matches with remains 1756 and 1758, respectively.     

Body Size Estimations,Body Dissatisfaction,and Ideal Size Preferences in Children Six Through Thirteen

Results of the second year of a 3-year longitudinal study on children's body size estimations are reported. Participants were 216 male and female children age 6 through 13. Body size estimations were measured using a TV-video methodology. Three psychophysical procedures measured perceived body size, idealized size, and body dissatisfaction. Self-esteem, body esteem, birth order, number of siblings, and parents' socioeconomic status (SES) were measured. Children were accurate in estimating body size, with no gender, age, or ethnic differences. Individual estimations varied greatly over the 1-year test-retest interval. Children had a slight bias to report that their body size was distorted too wide. Both genders wanted to be thinner, with females wanting to be increasingly thinner as they became older. Females were also more dissatisfied with their body size. Taller and heavier children with high SES fathers wanted a thinner idealized body size. Taller, thinner children had less body size dissatisfaction. Children with a larger number of siblings who were one of the first born were more dissatisfied with their body size. Children who gained weight during the previous year without a concomitant growth in height were also more dissatisfied with their body and wanted to be thinner. Body size estimation is viewed as an important aspect of one's body image and is mediated by many different variables, each of which individually explains only a small part of the variance.     

Determining ‘truth’ at the border: immigration interviews,Chinese marital migrants,and Taiwan's sovereignty dilemmas

As Taiwan transitions from an immigrant-sending to an immigrant-receiving country, it struggles to build an immigration bureaucracy while its status as a sovereign nation-state is not recognized by much of the international community. Taiwan's largest immigrant group, marital migrants from China, are perceived as posing the greatest challenges to border control due to longstanding political tensions between the two countries and governmental and societal suspicions about Chinese spouses' marital motives. Based on research conducted with immigration officials and during immigration interviews at the border, this article interrogates the status of ‘truth’ in official efforts to determine definitively immigrants' marital intentions. It analyzes such truth demands in relation to Taiwan's anxieties about its national standing and the ability of an immigration bureaucracy to generate ‘sovereignty effects’.