THE CONTENT OF DIVORCE EDUCATION PROGRAMS

A survey was conducted to assess the content coverage of more than 100 divorce education programs for parents in North America. Fifty-six percent of the programs were mandatory for at least some categories of divorcing parents. Results showed that the most intensively covered topics involved the effects of divorce on children and the benefits of parental cooperation. Moderate coverage was devoted to skills acquisition, such as conflict management and parenting, and to the effects of divorce on parents. Minimal coverage was devoted to "nuts and bolts" and legal issues. The results are discussed in terms of issues likely to emerge as a result of this content coverage.     

Changes and continuities. Evolution of a Chinese family business (1876–2004)

Starting from the early nineteenth century, western colonial activities have opened up a large area of Southeast Asia for economic penetration. Chinese family business, with its extensive familial and cultural networks, has a niche in these frontier areas where economic and legal institutions were embryonic or ineffective. In Southeast Asia, Chinese extended families are often geographically dispersed. By spreading wealth across borders, these families have not only diversified their business risk, but also built up a mechanism to enforce business obligations cross borders. Contractual obligations in business could always be enforced by one’s familial and communal mechanisms without recourse to legal authority or institutions outside the communities. It helps to explain why the Overseas Chinese communities, over the centuries, have played an important part in the ties which China has forged with its neighbouring regions in Asia. By looking into the historical transformation of a traditional Chinese family business under five generations of patriarchal leadership, this article intends to examine the validity of the above thesis. Eu Yan Sang (EYS), a famous manufacturer and retailer of Chinese medicines over the past 120 years, is the focus of this study.     

School Quality, Neighborhoods, and Housing Prices

We study the relationship between school characteristics andhousing prices in Mecklenburg County, North Carolina, between1994 and 2001. During this period, the school district was operatingunder a court-imposed desegregation order and drew school boundariesso that students living in the same neighborhoods were oftensent to very different schools in terms of racial mix and averagetest scores of the students. We use differences in housing pricesalong assignment zone boundaries to disentangle the effect ofschools and other neighborhood characteristics. We find systematicdifferences in house prices along school boundaries althoughthe impact of schools is only one-quarter as large as the naivecross-sectional estimates would imply. Part of the impact ofschool assignments is mediated by differences in the characteristicsof the population and the quality of the housing stock thathave arisen on either side of the school assignment boundary.     

Development of STR profiles from firearms and fired cartridge cases

Fired cartridge cases are a common type of evidence found at crime scenes. However, due to the high chamber temperatures and touch nature of this evidence, DNA testing is not commonly sought because it is believed DNA is only present in low levels, whether it is due to initial low levels of DNA and/or DNA degradation from the heat or inhibition of the PCR reaction. Moreover, very few laboratories report STR typing success with fired cases. This study focused on obtaining STR profiles from fired cartridge cases using the AmpFℓSTR^® MiniFiler™ kit, which is designed to amplify DNA from low level, inhibited, and degraded samples. Comparisons to other STR amplification kits were also conducted. In attempt to simulate casework, random individuals loaded cartridges into a firearm. DNA was recovered from the fired cartridge cases using the double swab technique and extracted using an automated large volume DNA IQ™ method. Initially, testing focused on known shedders handling cartridges for 30 s prior to firing. A significantly greater number of alleles was obtained following amplification with the MiniFiler™ kit versus the PowerPlex^® 16 BIO kit. No alleles were observed using the Identifiler^® kit. In an attempt to better simulate casework, a random selection of laboratory personnel handled shotshells for as long as needed to load and fire the weapon. In this mock sample study, the MiniFiler™ kit successfully amplified an average of 22% of expected alleles from DNA recovered from shotshell cases versus the PowerPlex^® 16 BIO kit where an average of 7% of alleles were observed. However, the total number of alleles obtained from the two kits was not significantly different. The quality of the DNA obtained from fired cases was studied with evidence of inhibition in at least 11% of shotshell case samples. After swabbing the head and the hull of three shotshell cases separately, a significantly greater number of alleles was obtained from the hull as opposed to the head of the fired shotshell case. In addition, after firing, various internal firearm surfaces were swabbed, including the chamber of barrel, ejection port, and breechface, in an attempt to obtain amplifiable DNA. DNA was obtained from the chamber of the barrel and was amplifiable using the MiniFiler™ kit, although mixtures were obtained with extensive drop-in and drop-out making this analysis unlikely to aid an investigation.