Sequence variation in humans and other primates at six short tandem repeat loci used in forensic identity testing

A large number of alleles from the six different short tandem repeat (STR) loci FGA, D3S1358, vWA, CSF1PO, TPOX and TH01, used in human identity testing were sequenced to provide support for the robustness of fluorescent STR DNA typing by allele size. Sequence information for some of these loci (FGA, vWA, TH01) is an extension of published work, whereas no extensive sequence information is available with respect to the D3S1358, CSF1PO, and TPOX loci. Sequencing of alleles at each locus has provided quantitative data with respect to the true nucleotide length of common alleles, and of alleles that vary in length from the common alleles. All alleles that were identified as "off-ladder" alleles through fluorescent typing at these STR loci have proven to be true length variant alleles. Sequencing at the D3S1358 and CSF1PO loci allowed for the establishment of a common nomenclature for these loci. A correlation between percent stutter and the length of the core tandem repeat is demonstrated at the FGA locus. Alleles in which the core tandem repeat is interrupted by a repeat unit of different sequence have a reduced percent stutter. DNA samples from three non-human primates (chimpanzee, orangutan, and gorilla) were compared to the human sequences, and shown to differ markedly across loci with respect to their homology. The effects of primer binding site mutations on the amplification efficiency at a particular locus, and methods used to interpret amplification imbalance of heterozygous alleles at a locus is also addressed.     

Legal challenges to combating cybercrime: An approach from Vietnam

Crime, Law and Social Change - This paper explores the legal challenges of combating cybercrime in Vietnam. We used a legal doctrine method to review the updated Vietnamese legal frameworks,...     

Vietnam’s ‘socialization’ policy and the moral subject in a privatizing economy

Abstract

The Vietnamese term for socialization, xã h?i hóa, is grounded in its history of socialist construction, originally referring to the collectivization of property and resources. Since the country shifted to a market economy, yet remaining under the leadership of the Communist Party, the term has come to imply the individualization of responsibilities and the privatization of public goods. As a policy, however, it continues to evoke the idioms of ‘the whole society’ or ‘all the people’ as the basis of wellbeing and development. This paper examines the practices of socialization as part of broader shifts in welfare provision and local dynamics of exemplarity. I show that socialization concerns not only the mobilization of resources, but also the production of a moral subject that is self-optimized and yet sensitized to helping others, self-governed and yet governable by the party state. In a socialist country that is rapidly marketising, this moral subject plays into governing rationalities that blends new-prudentialist logics with socialist genealogies, privatization with a notion of society within which individual actions can be made morally meaningful. While the tension and contestation induced by people’s greater burdens are immanent, the continued reference to collective idioms appeals to people’s moral sensibilities, and thus makes socialization meaningful to some extent, even as they resent the turn away from broad-based structures of wellbeing.     

Migration and Care Institutions in Market Socialist Vietnam: Conditionality,Commodification and Moral Authority

Since socialist Vietnam embraced a market economy in the mid-1980s, high population mobility has engendered shifting forms of insecurity in rural livelihoods and family lives. This article discusses how migrant households in a Red River Delta rural district draw on institutions of care beyond family and kinship to deal with such insecurity. These institutions simultaneously respond to local people’s changing needs and aspirations, and attempt to exert social and moral control. I show the increasing conditionality and commodification in the entitlements they provide and the differential ability of migrant households in accessing them. These rationalities are constitutive of the changing ways in which the institutions exert moral authority.     

A dedicated automated system for extraction, quantification and STR amplification of forensic evidence samples

Forensic DNA analysis is a multi-step process involving extraction of DNA, quantification of human DNA in the extract, amplification using multiplex STR systems, separation of products, and data analysis. The backlog of forensic casework is increasing worldwide. Automation is one significant way to alleviate the bottleneck of sample processing in forensic labs. The HID EVOlution™ Combination System described here is a robust, reliable sample processing platform, easily adapted to forensic laboratory workflows. Using a variety of forensic sample types including: blood stained FTA paper, cotton fabric and denim, dried blood spiked with known PCR inhibitors, saliva on cotton swabs, and semen stains, we found that yields of human DNA and STR profiles obtained with AmpFlSTR^® Idenitfiler^® kits were complete, highly reproducible, and equivalent to results obtained using the manual PrepFiler™ reagent extraction method. Automated operation was clean, and no cross-contamination was detected between extraction blanks and interspersed high DNA content samples.     

Aktuarielle und beihilfenrechtliche Analyse staatlicher Mithaftung in der Katastrophenversicherung

Die in den letzten Jahren sich häufenden Katastrophenereignisse durch Terroranschläge oder Naturgewalt haben ein bislang in der Versicherungswirtschaft nicht kalkuliertes Ausmaß an Schäden verursacht. Alle bisherigen aktuariellen Modelle zur Schadenberechnung stoßen an ihre Grenzen. Aufgrund der nahezu unmöglichen Einschätzung der Schadeneintrittswahrscheinlichkeit und des nicht fassbaren Kumulrisikos ist in naher Zukunft eine reine privatwirtschaftliche Lösung in der Katastrophenversicherung nicht zu erwarten. Angesichts der besonderen Bedeutung des Versicherungsschutzes als Produktionsfaktor in der Volkswirtschaft ist ein staatliches Eingreifen erforderlich und wünschenswert. Im vorliegenden Aufsatz wird zunächst überprüft, wie die Versicherbarkeit von Katastrophenrisiken aus aktuarieller Sicht zu beurteilen ist. Anschließend wird der Frage nachgegangen, inwiefern eine staatliche Beteiligung an der Katastrophenversicherung im Einklang mit den europäischen Beihilfenvorschriften im Einklang steht.     

借助汉越音、汉越词对越汉语词汇教学

一、越语与汉语的关系(一)越语与汉语的关系首先要说明越语和汉语是不同语系的两种语言,所以,我们在对越南学生进行汉语教学时不能采用同源教学法。关于越语的语源,最近越南境外的学者都普遍认为越语属于南亚语系(王力先生也接受这种观点),即与芒语(M uong)是同一个语言系统,是     

When Faced with Income and Asset Shocks,Do Poor Rural Households in Vietnam Smooth Food Consumption or Assets?

Vietnamese rural households are exposed to severe covariate and idiosyncratic shocks. However, these households are remarkably resilient and have steadily increased real income and consumption over the survey period 2006 to 2012. To explain household strategies to cope with shocks we test three theoretical models: the Permanent Income Hypothesis (PIH), Complete Market Hypothesis (CMH), and Asset Smoothing Theory (AST). There is support for AST as households smooth productive assets rather than consumption; and for CMH as households smooth consumption against idiosyncratic, but not covariate shocks. There is no support for PIH.