Rapid quantification and sex determination of forensic evidence materials

DNA quantification of forensic evidence is very valuable for an optimal use of the available biological material. Moreover, sex determination is of great importance as additional information in criminal investigations as well as in identification of missing persons, no suspect cases, and ancient DNA studies. While routine forensic DNA analysis based on short tandem repeat markers includes a marker for sex determination, analysis of samples containing scarce amounts of DNA is often based on mitochondrial DNA, and sex determination is not performed. In order to allow quantification and simultaneous sex determination on minute amounts of DNA, an assay based on real-time PCR analysis of a marker within the human amelogenin gene has been developed. The sex determination is based on melting curve analysis, while an externally standardized kinetic analysis allows quantification of the nuclear DNA copy number in the sample. This real-time DNA quantification assay has proven to be highly sensitive, enabling quantification of single DNA copies. Although certain limitations were apparent, the system is a rapid, cost-effective, and flexible assay for analysis of forensic casework samples.     

A: Reviews: general

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The Individual-Level Determinants of German Party Membership

Why do citizens join German parties? Do specific attributes and abilities play a determinant role in participation in political parties? The German Party Membership Study of 2009 enables us to answer these questions. On the basis of the telephone survey, we will address these issues by way of a systematic comparison of current party members with fellow citizens who never joined a party. For the purpose of analysing the individual-level determinants of joining a party, we use fundamental explanatory approaches to political participation: The socioeconomic standard model, the social-psychological approach, and the general incentives model. The results of our analyses clearly show that social-psychological attributes best explain the decision to join a party. Nevertheless, the findings for the determinants in both the socioeconomic standard model and the general incentives model complete the picture of citizens who are party members.     

Der Einfluss von Mandatstyp und Wahlkreiseigenschaften auf die inhaltlichen Positionen in Parlamentsreden: Eine Untersuchung anhand der parlamentarischen Debatten im Deutschen Bundestag von 1998 bis 2002

Giving speeches in parliament is a key element of elected representatives for signalling their policy agenda and their ideological positions to their party and their electorate. Taking a specific programmatic position might increase the chances of an MP to get re‐nominated and to win again a seat in the legislature. In this paper, we build on approaches of responsive behaviour of political actors and on principal agent theories and ask which variables can explain the programmatic positions adopted by MPs in their speeches. To answer our research question, we collected all speeches related to economic policy issues given by members of the German Bundestag in the time period between 1998 and 2002. We estimated their individual policy positions with computerised methods of content analysis. We combine this data with information on the characteristics of MPs, their position in party, parliament and government and, in addition, with the socioeconomic structure and former election results within the MPs’ constituency. The results show that German MPs take the characteristics and the economic problem pressure of their constituencies into account when speaking in parliament, so that there is empirical evidence for responsive and vote‐seeking behaviour of German MPs. In addition, political and institutional factors like the membership in committees or in (former) cabinets and the way how an MP was elected – directly or by party list – play a role for the degree of MP's programmatic deviation from the party line.     

Re/visioning the women's movement in Israel

Current literature on the women's movement argues that in recent decades, a schism based on the politics of identity has divided women and led to the weakening of the movement. This process, intersecting with the escalation of neoliberal trends and the ‘NGOization’ of civil society, has resulted in the depoliticization of the women's movement and the waning of its influence as a political force. The present paper seeks to examine whether this argument is consistent with the situation in the Israeli women's movement of the early twenty-first century. Based on the history of the women's movement in Israel, the paper posits a twofold argument: (a) the women's movement in Israel has not disappeared but has been restructured as a result of its NGOization; (b) despite criticism of the movement in the literature and on the part of activists as the result of its NGOization, the movement's political messages have remained intact and even expanded to embrace questions of social justice, including novel thinking on matters of peace and security.     

A field experiment on ethnic discrimination among local Swedish public officials

This study presents an innovative field experiment exploring ethnic discrimination in contacts between local public officials and members of Swedish society. Using a correspondence study design, fictitious individuals with Arabic- and Swedish-sounding names contacted Swedish municipalities via email, asking questions about access to preschools. The findings indicate disadvantageous treatment of individuals with Arabic-sounding names in terms of the informal tone of the replies, as Swedish-sounding names were replied to in a friendlier, more welcoming way. Regarding the more formal aspects of the emails – i.e., whether they were replied to at all and the questions posed were directly answered – no statistically significant signs of discrimination emerge (although differences were of some substantial size, to the disadvantage of Arabic-sounding names). Still, informal disadvantageous treatment is sufficient cause for concern and noteworthy in the case of Sweden, considering its reputation as being egalitarian, immigration friendly and democratically well functioning.     

Taking It Out on the Body? A Phenomenological Study of Young Adults’ Gendered Experiences of Depression and Antidepressant Use

In this article, we use in-depth interviews with young adults in Sweden to explore the gendered and embodied experiences of depression and antidepressant use. Building upon previous phenomenological research, we analyse being depressed and on antidepressants as altered embodied states, in which corporealization—experiencing the body as a material object—is central. Feminist interventions by Toril Moi and Iris Marion Young inform our analysis of embodiment as gendered. The bodily facets of depression include the weight of the anxious body in crying and not sleeping, as well as the weakened or distorted relationship between body, mind and world in brooding thoughts and hopelessness. These experiences of corporealization are not expressed in gendered terms but, when acted out in depression, they do appear to be gendered. The female body becomes “the first battleground”—as the socially endorsed object upon which to act destructively. In contrast, male behaviour is not expressed as self-destructive, but projects in the world are emphasized at the cost of (bodily) well-being. Although antidepressants lift the corporeal weight of anxiety and low mood, they install a new, and in some respects more profound, corporealization of the body. This is expressed as feeling and caring less and being like a thing or machine. It can be understood in terms of an increased distance from the world—not articulated in gendered terms. As a way of existing in the world, the medicated state bears strong similarities to the depressed state from which it was originally an effort to escape. Thus, taking medication can be seen as yet another way of acting on the body as object. Furthermore, it could be suggested from our findings that when the body is not felt—when there is a breakdown of the meaningful relationship between the body and the world—the experience is less gendered.     

From a mimetic to a holographic paradigm in fiction: Toward a definition of feminist writing

This paper outlines a theory of fiction by examining the shift from the basically mimetic nineteenth century to be essentially non‐mimetic twentieth century. It further argues that the contemporary novel, as herein interpreted, constitutes a bona fide expression of feminist writing.

The paper contends thatthe transformation undergone by the novel as it moved from the nineteenth century to the twentieth century bears witness to the wide ranging transformation affecting the western world today. A number of inter‐related shifts have occurred ostensibly leading the western mind into a radically new world view, or new paradigm. Indeed, our culture is steadily moving from the absolutes of traditional physics to the relativity of the new physics and quantum theory; from a “logocentric”¹ to a “deconstructive”² universe; from a fragmentary (basically static and non‐creative) to a holistic (essentially dynamic and creative) realm; from representation to holography. Inasmuch as “representation” relates to “mimesis”, this paper ultimately redefines its aim by proposing to explore a shift from a mimetic to a holographic paradigm in fiction.

The notion of the holograph is therefore essential to the paper. As herein interpreted, holography not only challenges representation, but it also devalues the linear view of time (which is central to western culture) by focusing on the “now” and thereby delving into the depths of reality — the realm of the underlying, creative forces which the western world is presently releasing. It is precisely the release of long‐repressed forces that is drastically transforming western culture. This sheds new light on the problematics of western alienation which can now be reassessed in terms of “alienation from the creative source”.

In the final analysis, the paper contends that the emerging forces are essentially feminine. This posits an ultimate, all‐encompassing shift which may be said to be leading us from a male‐oriented to a holistically‐oriented culture: a culture that celebrates the essential oneness and fundamental dynamics of Life. Since the twentieth century novel has superbly explored and expressed the emergence of these forces, the paper regards it as the epitome of feminist writing. This writing is to be viewed as practice in the sense that it expresses the very process of change it has helped foster and in which it participates: the process of integration of the creative depths of being.