Identification and characterization of variant alleles at CODIS STR loci

Short tandem repeat (STR) profiles from 32,671 individuals generated by the ABI Profiler Plus and Cofiler systems were screened for variant alleles not represented within manufacturer-provided allelic ladders. A total of 85 distinct variants were identified at 12 of the 13 CODIS loci, most of which involve a truncated tetranucleotide repeat unit. Twelve novel alleles, identified at D3S1358, FGA, D18S51, D5S818, D7S820 and TPOX, were confirmed by nucleotide sequence analysis and include both insertions and deletions involving the repeat units themselves as well as DNA flanking the repeat regions. Population genetic data were collected for all variants and frequencies range from 0.0003 (many single observations) to 0.0042 (D7S820 '10.3' in North American Hispanics). In total, the variant alleles identified in this study are carried by 1.6% of the estimated 1 million individuals tested annually in the U.S. for the purposes of parentage resolution. A paternity case involving a recombination event of paternal origin is presented and demonstrates how variant alleles can significantly strengthen the genetic evidence in troublesome cases. In such instances, increased costs and turnaround time associated with additional testing may be eliminated.     

Scale of negative family interactions: a measure of parental and sibling aggression

This article examines a measure of received emotional, physical, and sexual aggression within the family: the Scale of Negative Family Interactions (SNFI). Unlike traditional familial violence scales that measure parental aggression alone, the SNFI simultaneously measures sibling violence for a more comprehensive examination of familial aggression. Although a variety of scales may be used in researching parental abuse, the SNFI is uniquely intended for (a) examining sibling violence while controlling for parental aggression, (b) examining parental abuse while controlling for sibling violence, and (c) comprehensively examining family violence to include aggression from both parents and siblings. Test-retest and internal consistency reliability were demonstrated, and evidence for validity is presented. In addition to offering a measure of sibling and parental aggression, the SNFI has the advantages of including everyone in the role of parent or sibling and of measuring a wide variety of emotional, physical, and sexual aggression within the family.     

Why the "Green Mess": An Analysis of Key Political Tensions and Cleavages within the Sydney-Based Environment Movement in the 1989-1990 Period

This paper addresses issues related to the structure of social movements, the presence of diversity within movements and the management of the conflicts that diversity generates. It outlines and analyses the main dimensions of an unusually intense and bitter conflict that erupted between environmental activists in Sydney in the lead-up to the 1990 federal election. The paper's central argument is that the conflict analysed was a product of the incompatibility between one particular activist network's attempt to impose its political assessment on a cross-section of movement elites and the underlying segmentation, polycephaly and loose integration that characterises the movement's structure. While the paper uses the Sydney case study as an illustrative vehicle, the themes and issues discussed have a broader applicability in the analysis of environment movement dynamics.     

Are non‐voters cynics anyway?

It has been argued that recent low turnouts for elections in Britain have been fostered by increased cynicism among voters, a cynicism that has been fostered by the increasingly critical tone in which politics are reported by the media. While survey data confirm that voters have become more cynical about politics, they provide little evidence that this trend was particularly strong between 1997 and 2001 among (regular) readers of the (tabloid) press or among regular watchers of television news. Nor do such data suggest that the rise in cynicism had much impact on the level of turnout for the 2001 general election. The biggest challenge facing coverage of politics in the media in general, and newspapers in particular, is not the impact that the tone of its coverage may be having on voters' attitudes towards how they are governed, but rather the increasing reluctance of voters with little interest in politics to read a newspaper at all. Copyright © 2004 Henry Stewart Publications