Online reference database of European Y-chromosomal short tandem repeat (STR) haplotypes

The reference database of highly informative Y-chromosomal short tandem repeat (STR) haplotypes (YHRD), available online at http://ystr.charite.de, represents the largest collection of male-specific genetic profiles currently available for European populations. By September 2000, YHRD contained 4688 9-locus (so-called "minimal") haplotypes, 40% of which have been extended further to include two additional loci. Establishment of YHRD has been facilitated by the joint efforts of 31 forensic and anthropological institutions. All contributing laboratories have agreed to standardize their Y-STR haplotyping protocols and to participate in a quality assurance exercise prior to the inclusion of any data. In view of its collaborative character, and in order to put YHRD to its intended use, viz. the support of forensic caseworkers in their routine decision-making process, the database has been made publicly available via the Internet in February 2000. Online searches for complete or partial Y-STR haplotypes from evidentiary or non-probative material can be performed on a non-commercial basis, and yield observed haplotype counts as well as extrapolated population frequency estimates. In addition, the YHRD website provides information about the quality control test, genotyping protocols, haplotype formats and informativity, population genetic analysis, literature references, and a list of contact addresses of the contributing laboratories.     

Digital Game Playing and Direct and Indirect Aggression in Early Adolescence: The Roles of Age,Social Intelligence,and Parent-Child Communication

The roles of age, social intelligence and parent-child communication in moderating the association between digital game playing and direct and indirect aggression were examined in 478 Finnish 10- and 13-year-old schoolchildren based on self-reports. The results confirmed that digital game violence was directly associated with direct aggression, especially at age 10, but only among boys. The moderating role of social intelligence was substantiated among older boys: game violence was associated with indirect aggression among those with high level of social intelligence. Further, as hypothesized, digital game playing was associated with direct aggression especially when parent-child communication was poor, but only among boys. Our findings emphasize the importance of individual and situational factors as moderators of the link between game violence and aggression.     

Paolo Zacchia--the spiritual father of forensic medicine

Paolo Zacchia (1584-1659) was the personal physician of the popes Innocent X and Alexander VII, legal advisor to the Rota Romana and head of the health system in the Papal States. His most important work, written in Latin, is entitled "Quaestiones Medico-Legales" and was published in 9 volumes between 1621 and 1651. Even after Zacchia's death comprehensive reprints were published at several places up to the late 18th century. Zacchia covered all the medicolegal issues of his time including the problem of "malpractice" and medical ethics. He is rightly considered an outstanding representative of his profession, whose "Quaestiones Medico-Legales" gave legal medicine its name.     

Molecular characterization and Austrian Caucasian population data of the multi-copy Y-chromosomal STR DYS464

DYS464 is a multi-copy STR system with four positions on the Y-chromosome (DYS464a, b, c, and d) which was recently identified and characterized [Forensic Sci. Int. 130 (2002) 97]. The aims of our study were to perform a population study, to estimate the mutation rate and an extensive sequence analysis in order to confirm the nomenclature. Fourteen different alleles were found in an Austrian population sample with an allele length varying from 9 to 19 repeats. All alleles were cloned and sequenced. Alleles 9-19 showed the general repeat structure (CCTT)n...(CCTT)2...(CCTT)3...(CCTT)4...(CCTT)2...(CCTT)2. The nomenclature is based on the number of repeated units of the variable (CCTT)n-stretch only. In 13% of the samples intermediate alleles, namely 14.3A, 14.3B and 15.3 were detected. In these alleles the variable repeat block is interrupted by a CTT motif (14.3A: (CCTT)3CTT(CCTT)11; 14.3B and 15.3: (CCTT)7CTT(CCTT)7/8). A comparison with GenBank entries revealed the existence of a length variant due to a deletion of one cytosine in the 5' flanking region of the first repeat block. We designed an alternative forward primer to circumvent possible ambiguities in the allele designation. A total of 54 different genotypes were identified in 135 men corresponding to a discrimination capacity (DC) of 40% and a gene diversity (GD) of 0.97. These values are much higher than those of other Y-chromosomal short tandem repeats (Y-STRs). DYS464 has the same haplotype diversity (HD) as the combination of the five Y-STR loci with the lowest gene diversities of the Y-STR core set. On the other hand, a combination of the three most diverse loci (DYS464, DYS385 and DYS390) has the same capacity to distinguish between paternal lineages than the complete minimal haplotype (minHT) consisting of eight Y-STR loci. In our population sample the addition of DYS464 to the minHT increases the number of different haplotypes from 110 to 122. The mutation-rate estimate based on the 70 meioses analyzed amounts to 2.86 x 10(-2) (95% confidence interval 3.5 x 10(-3) to 9.95 x 10(-2)). This value is approximately 10 times higher than the average mutation-rate estimate for Y-STRs.     

Haplotypes from the Caucasus, Turkey and Iran for nine Y-STR loci

Nine Y chromosome short tandem repeat (STR) loci (DYS385a, DYS385b, DYS389I, DYS389II, DYS390, DYS391, DYS392, DYS393 and DYS19 (DYS394)) were typed in 669 individuals belonging to 16 populations from the Caucasus, Turkey and Iran.     

Post-mortem SNP analysis of CYP2D6 gene reveals correlation between genotype and opioid drug (tramadol) metabolite ratios in blood

Tramadol is an opioid drug metabolised in phase I by cytochrome P450 (CYP) enzymes, of which CYP2D6 is mainly responsible for the O-demethylation of tramadol, but is not involved in N-demethylation. Defects in the genes encoding drug metabolising enzymes (DMEs) may lead to adverse drug effects, even to death. To aid interpretation of the forensic toxicology results, we studied how the genetic variation of the CYP2D6 gene is reflected in tramadol metabolite ratios found in post-mortem samples. In 33 Finnish autopsy cases where tramadol was found, we analysed both the CYP2D6 genotype and the concentrations of tramadol and its metabolites O- and N-demethyltramadol. As expected, we found a correlation between the number of functional CYP2D6 alleles and the ratio of tramadol to O-demethyltramadol. We also found a correlation between the number of functional alleles and the ratio of tramadol to N-demethyltramadol. This can be explained by the complementary nature of the two main tramadol demethylation pathways. No known CYP2D6 inhibitors were associated with exceptional metabolic ratios. Furthermore, no accidental tramadol poisonings were associated with a defective CYP2D6 gene. Our results on the tramadol are among the first to demonstrate that genetic variation in drug metabolising enzymes can be analysed in post-mortem blood, and that it correlates well with the parent drug to metabolite ratios. The results also suggest that genetic factors play, in general, a dominant role over other factors in the metabolism of individual drugs.     

Reviews

Zhores A. Medvedev, Soviet Agriculture, New York, London: W. W. Norton & Company, 1987, xiv + 464 pp. $27.50.

Abel Aganbegyan, The Challenge: Economics of Perestroika, London: Hutchinson, 1988. xxvii + 248 pp. £20.00 h/b, £8.95 p/b.

Maurice Friedberg and Heyward Isham eds. Soviet Society Under Gorbachev: Current Trends and the Prospects for Reform. Armonk, New York: M. E. Sharpe Inc. 1987, xiv + 159 pp. $28.50 h/b, $12.95 p/b.

Martin McCauley ed. The Soviet Union under Gorbachev. London: Macmillan Press in association with the School of Slavonic and East European Studies, 1987, 247 pp. £29.50 h/b, £9.95 p/b.

David A. Dyker ed. The Soviet Union under Gorbachev: Prospects for Reform. London: Croom Helm, 1987, 227 pp. £25.00 h/b.

Alexander Yanov, The Russian Challenge and the Year 2000. Translated by Iden J. Rosenthal. Oxford and New York: Basil Blackwell, 1987, xvi + 302 pp. £19.50.

Margot Light, The Soviet Theory of International Relations. Sussex: Wheatsheaf Books, 1988, 376 pp. £35.00.

James R. Millar, Politics, Work, and Daily Life in the USSR: A Survey of Former Soviet Citizens. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1987, xiv + 423 pp. £12.95.

Thomas G. Hart, Sino‐Soviet Relations: Re‐examining the Prospects for Normalisation. Aldershot: Gower Publishing Company, 1987, xiii + 128 pp., £18.50.

Donna Bahry, Outside Moscow: Power, Politics, and Budgetary Policy in the Soviet Republics. New York: Columbia University Press, 1987, ix + 236 pp. £15.50.

Jerry F. Hough, Opening up the Soviet Economy. Washington, DC: The Brookings Institution, 1988, ix + 100 pp. $8.95 p/b.

Padma Desai, The Soviet Economy: Problems and Prospects. Oxford: Basil Blackwell Ltd., 1987, viii + 281 pp. £29.50.

Trevor Buck and John Cole, Modern Soviet Economic Performance. Oxford: Basil Blackwell, 1987, viii + 192 pp., £27.50.

Adam Zwass, Market, Plan, and State: The Strengths and Weaknesses of the Two World Economic Systems. Armonk, New York and London: M. E. Sharpe Inc., 1987, x + 198 pp., $32.50.

Peter Gey, Jiri Kosta and Wolfgang Quaisser, Crisis and Reform in Socialist Economies, Boulder, Colorado and London: Westview Press, 1987, xi + 196 pp., £28.50.

Ian Jeffries and Manfred Melzer eds. The East Germany Economy. London: Croom Helm, 1987, 329 pp., £35.00.

Andras Raba and Karl‐Ernst Schenk eds. Investment System and Foreign Trade Implications in Hungary, Stuttgart: Gustav Fischer Verlag, 1987, 260 pp., DM44.00.

Malcolm R. Hill and Richard McKay, Soviet Product Quality, Basingstoke: Macmillan Press in association with Centre for Russian and East European Studies, University of Birmingham, 1988, xv + 205 pp. £29.50.

Carl G. Jacobsen ed. The Soviet Defence Enigma. Estimating Costs and Burden. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1987, xvii + 189 pp. £25.50.

Jacques Sapir, Le Système militaire soviétique, Paris: Editions la Découverte, 1988, 343 pp, 150 FF.

Genia K. Browning, Women and Politics in the USSR. Consciousness Raising and Soviet Women's Groups. Brighton and New York: Wheatsheaf Books and St. Martin's Press, 1987, ix + 178 pp. £25.00.

George Avis, ed., Soviet Higher and Vocational Education from Khrushchev to Gorbachev. Bradford: the University; Bradford Occasional Papers no. 8, 1987, vi + 136 pp. £5.50.

J. Muckle, A Guide to the Soviet Curriculum: What the Russian Child is Taught in School. London: Croom Helm, 1988, ix + 213 pp. £22.50.

Michael Reiman, The Birth of Stalinism: The USSR on the Eve of the ‘Second Revolution’. Translated by George Saunders. London: I. B. Tauris & Co., 1987, xii + 188 pp. £24.50 h/b. £9.50 p/b.

Alan M. Ball, Russia's Last Capitalists: the NEPmen 1921–1929, University of California Press, Berkeley, Los Angeles, London. xvii + 226 pp. $32.50.

Robert M. Slusser, Stalin in October: The Man who Missed the Revolution. Baltimore and London: The Johns Hopkins University Press, 1987, xiv + 282 pp. £20.25.

Evan Mawdsley, The Russian Civil War. Boston: Allen & Unwin, 1987, xvi + 351 pp. £30.00 h/b, £12.95 p/b.

Teodor Shanin, Russia, 1905–1907: Revolution as a Moment of Truth. London: Macmillan, 1986, xiv + 378 pp. £9.95.

Jadwiga Koralewicz, Ireneusz Bialecki and Margaret Watson eds. Crisis and Transition: Polish Society in the 1980s. Oxford: Berg, 1987, 184 pp., £21.00

Joni Lovenduski and Jean Woodall, Politics and Society in Eastern Europe. London: Macmillan Education, 1987, xiii + 432 pp, £30.00 h/b. £8.50 p/b.

Ray Taras, Poland, Socialist State, Rebellious Nation. Boulder, Colorado, Westview Press, 1986, xviii + 200 pp. £27.50.

Geoffrey Hamilton ed. Red Multinationals or Red Herrings? The Activities of Enterprises from Socialist Countries in the West. London: Frances Pinter 1987, 202 pp., £18.50.

Gérard Duchêne, L'Economie de l'URSS, Paris: Editions La Découverte, 1987, 127 pp., No price.

Klaus Ziemer, Polens Weg in die Krise. Eine politische Soziologie der ‘Ära Gierek’. Frankfurt am Main: Athenaum, 1987, 491. DM68.00.

Sandor Szakály, A magyar katonai elit. 1938–1945 (Military Elite in Hungary 1938–1945) Budapest: Magvetö Publishing House, 1987, 275 pp., 28Ft.

Jan A. Pichna Sociologicke Problemy Vynalezcovskeho a Zlepsovatelskeho Hnutia v Priemyselnom Podniku, (Sociological Problems of the Invention and Improvement Movement in the Industrial Enterprise). Bratislava: Praca Vydavatel?tvo a Nakladatel?tvo ROH, 1987, 240 pp., Kcs. 25.

William Chase and J. Arch Getty, The Soviet Data Bank. Version 1.0. 1986, $100.00.     

Urban homicide: Still the same

We use 1984–1986 data to estimate lifetime risks of being murdered in each of 50 large American cities and then compare these projections to others made earlier from 1971–1972 and 1976–1977 data. We find strong constancy over time in the average urban resident's murder risk (essentially a 1 in 68 chance of eventually being slain). Moreover, we find a high stability in the dispersion of risk by region, race, and city size and in the relative rankings of the 50 cities by murder risk. We comment briefly about such recent phenomena as the proliferation of crack and the resumption of capital punishment.Throughout this paper, we use the words murder, homicide, killing, and slaying interchangeably, meaning in all cases murder and nonnegligent manslaughter as defined by the FBI.