The ABO blood grouping of a minute hair sample by the immunohistochemical technique

The unlabeled antibody (PAP) immunoperoxidase technique was applied to the ABO blood grouping of human scalp hairs. Hair samples were subjected to longitudinal- or cross-sectioning, thus obtaining suitable samples for subsequent immunostaining. The immunostaining was carried out using rabbit anti-A and anti-B sera as the primary antibodies. With this technique, the group-specific staining which is revealed as a dark brown precipitate was clearly observed within the medullae of the hair shaft, and depending on the presence or absence of these precipitates, respective blood groups of unknown hair samples were determined. At the hair root, on the other hand, positive stainings were observed not only in medullary cells but also in some cortical cells of the keratogenous zone. From the present study, it can be safely said that this technique is of practical use for the ABO blood grouping from a minute (less than 3 mm) hair sample.     

National memory: The duty to remember,the need to forget

Ronald Koven has served as a correspondent in France for twenty-four of the past thirty-two years, successively as the de Gaulle watcher of the International Herald Tribuneand as the Paris correspondent of the Washington Post(for which he was the diplomatic editor and the foreign editor) and the Boston Globe.He concentrates on surveying and coordinating aid for independent news media in Eastern Europe.     

A fatality involving phentermine

A case is presented where phentermine, a sympathomimetic amine used as an anorectic drug, is believed to have significantly contributed to the death of an individual in whom other drugs were also found. Blood, urine, and tissue concentrations of phentermine are reported and compared to other cases in the literature.     

From race to citizenship: The indigenization debate in post-socialist Tanzania

Neoliberal economic reforms in post-socialist Tanzania heightened racial as well as anti-foreign hostilities, while liberal political reforms made possible the expression of these antagonisms in electoral politics. Newly formed opposition parties mobilized popular support by advocating anti-Asian indigenization of minority rights. This prompted the ruling party, which had initially denounced advocates of indigenization as racist, to alter its position. In doing so, ruling party leaders redefined the meaning of indigenization, shifting the focus of the debate away from racial issues and Asian control of the economy toward issues of free trade, foreign investment, and foreign economic domination. By implementing indigenization measures targeting non-citizens and featuring anti-liberal economic policies, including tariff barriers, local content laws, and restrictions on property ownership, the government faced the danger of losing international support from foreign donors and international financial institutions. The trajectory of the indigenization debate reveals the role of electoral competition and party formation in shaping race relations and national identity in post-socialist Tanzania. It suggests the need for event-centered studies of the way in which political identities are constructed in processes of conflict within the institutional arenas created by liberal political reforms. Ronald Aminzade is professor of sociology at the University of Minnesota-Twin Cities. His publications concerning the social and political consequences of capitalist development includeBallots and Barricade: Class Formation and Republican Politics in France, 1830–1871 (Princeton University Press, 1993) andClass, Politics, and Early Industrial Capitalism: A Study of Mid-Nineteenth Century Toulouse, France (State University of New York Press, 1981). He is also co-editor ofSilence and Voice in the Study of Contentious Politics (Cambridge University Press, 2001) andThe Social Worlds of Higher Education (Pine Forge Press, 1999). For making this research possible I would like to thank the University of Minnesota and the Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences, which provided support through National Science Foundation Grant #SBR-9601236. I am grateful to James Brennan, Susan Geiger, Erik Larson, Mary Jo Maynes, Marjorie Mbilinyi, Jamie Monson, Richa Nagar, Anne Pitcher, Eric Sheppard, Thomas Spear, Charles Tilly, Eric Weitz, Erik Olin Wright, and several anonymous reviewers for helpful comments on an earlier draft.     

Further evidence for phenotypes and gene frequencies of nine salivary polymorphisms in Japanese population

Nine salivary polymorphic systems (Pa, Pb, Pr, Db, PmF, PIF, Ph, Amy1 and s-AcP) were examined using parotid and whole saliva from random Japanese individuals. The gene frequencies obtained were: Pa+ = 0.221, Pb1 = 1.000 Pr1 = 0.741, Db+ = 0.033, PIF+ = 0.715, Ph+ = 0.029, Amyv1 = 0.013 and s-AcPA = 0.217, respectively.     

Just punishments: Guideline sentences and normative consensus

The federal sentencing guidelines prescribe ranges of sentences to be given to persons convicted of felonies in the federal criminal courts. The U.S. Sentencing Commission wrote the guidelines attempting to make sentences conform to community views of appropriate punishments, along with several other criteria. Employing data from a 1994 national sample of adult Americans, designed as a factorial survey, the degree of correspondence is shown between guidelines sentences and those desired by the American public. Although at the individual level only a modest degree of concordance was found, the central tendencies of public opinion (median sentences) were found to correspond quite closely to the guidelines sentences. The major points of disagreement centered around drug trafficking crimes: the guidelines prescribed very long sentences for those crimes and distinguished sharply among trafficking in heroin, powder cocaine, and crack, whereas median sentences desired by the public were much lower and did not distinguish sharply among trafficking in those drugs. We interpret the findings as indicating that the guidelines sentences conform reasonably closely to American normative consensus concerning the sentencing of federal felons.The research reported in this article was commissioned by the U.S. Sentencing Commission. The views expressed in this article are not necessarily endorsed by the Commission. Full expositions of the findings from the national survey used are given by Rossi and Berk (1995, 1997).