IMPROVING EARLY‐GRADE LITERACY IN EAST AFRICA: EXPERIMENTAL EVIDENCE FROM KENYA AND UGANDA

Primary school enrollments have increased rapidly in sub‐Saharan Africa, spurring concerns about low levels of learning. We analyze field experiments in Kenya and Uganda that assessed whether the Reading to Learn intervention, implemented by the Aga Khan Foundation in both countries, improved early‐grade literacy as measured by common assessments. We find that Ugandan literacy (in Lango) increased by 0.2 standard deviations. We find a smaller effect (0.08) on a Swahili literacy test in Kenya. We find no evidence that differential effects are explained by baseline differences across countries in student test scores, classroom attributes, or implementation fidelity. A plausible explanation that cannot be directly tested is differential effective exposure to the literacy treatment in the tested languages. Students in Kenya were tested in Swahili, which is not necessarily the main language of instruction in primary schools, despite official policy.     

Population genetic analysis of 15 autosomal STRs loci in the central region of Argentina

Allele frequencies, together with some parameters of forensic interest, for 15 STRs included in the Powerplex-16 System (CSF1PO, D3S1358, D5S818, D7S820, D8S1179, D13S317, D16S539, D18S51, D21S11, FGA, Penta D, Penta E, TH01, TPOX and VWA) were estimated from a sample set of 1368 unrelated individuals from three of the most densely populated provinces of Argentina. No deviations from Hardy-Weinberg equilibrium were observed using the Bonferroni correction for the number of loci analyzed. Comparative analyses between our population data and that of other Argentinean databases previously published are presented and discussed. The most informative loci in our data set is the Penta E Loci with discrimination power larger than 0.98 and typical paternity index larger than 4.3. Our results demonstrate that these loci are robust since different laboratories and sample sets provided highly consistent results. This observation underscores the usefulness of these markers systems for human identification and parentage testing.     

A Theoretical examination of police entry-level uncorrected visual acuity standards

Police organizations function in a dynamic environment that requires management to make adjustments to constant changes. The focus of this paper is on entry-level uncorrected vision entry standards that are being affected by recent technological advancements in the optical field. Extreme policy variances exist relative to - these requirements and many of the more rigid policies are grounded in unrealistic foundations. Many of these foundations relate to problems relevant to spectacles. Additionally, these standards are based on very remote events. An analysis of these policies and policy recommendations are presented in this paper.     

Overview of Criminology in Europe

The editors of the European Journal on Criminal Policy and Research wanted to include an article with an overview of European criminology in this special issue on European criminology. But in order to discover whether there is such a thing as European criminology, one should first look at the state of affairs of criminology in the individual countries of Europe. This article is an attempt to do so. It is based on a short questionnaire posted to individuals in 34 European countries, a report by Walgrave and Goris, entitled An Overview of University Institutions of Criminology (1996), an Internet search on selected keywords, and some background material available in the WODC library. It gives an overview of criminological research and research institutes; European co-operation, comparative research and European networks; criminological training; national societies of criminology and criminological periodicals.     

Routine Y-STR typing in forensic casework

In the field of molecular diagnosis, forensic casework analysis is one of the most demanding investigations, due to its social impact. Optimization of DNA typing multiplex reactions with identical cycling conditions as those required by autosomal short tandem repeats (STR) multiplex reduces errors, and saves time and reagents. Previously, we validated a five Y-STRs set, all of them generating single band patterns. This work reports the optimization of combined multiplexes, a triplex (DYS19, DYS390 and DYS391) and a duplex (DYS392 and DYS393), that can be amplified in identical cycling conditions as those required by commercially available multiplex autosomal STR kits. In addition both Y chromosome multiplexes can be combined for co-injection on a capillary electrophoresis based automated sequencer. Statistical attributes of the haplotypes of the five Y-STR investigated were evaluated in unrelated males from different metropolitan areas of Argentina. This system was successfully used for investigating more than 350 forensic routine cases in our country.     

Analysis of body fluid mixtures by mtDNA sequencing: An inter-laboratory study of the GEP-ISFG working group

The mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) working group of the GEP-ISFG (Spanish and Portuguese Group of the International Society for Forensic Genetics) carried out an inter-laboratory exercise consisting of the analysis of mtDNA sequencing patterns in mixed stains (saliva/semen and blood/semen). Mixtures were prepared with saliva or blood from a female donor and three different semen dilutions (pure, 1:10 and 1:20) in order to simulate forensic casework. All labs extracted the DNA by preferential lysis and amplified and sequenced the first mtDNA hypervariable region (HVS-I). Autosomal and Y-STR markers were also analysed in order to compare nuclear and mitochondrial results from the same DNA extracts. A mixed stain prepared using semen from a vasectomized individual was also analysed. The results were reasonably consistent among labs for the first fractions but not for the second ones, for which some laboratories reported contamination problems. In the first fractions, both the female and male haplotypes were generally detected in those samples prepared with undiluted semen. In contrast, most of the mixtures prepared with diluted semen only yielded the female haplotype, suggesting that the mtDNA copy number per cell is smaller in semen than in saliva or blood. Although the detection level of the male component decreased in accordance with the degree of semen dilution, it was found that the loss of signal was not consistently uniform throughout each electropherogram. Moreover, differences between mixtures prepared from different donors and different body fluids were also observed. We conclude that the particular characteristics of each mixed stain can deeply influence the interpretation of the mtDNA evidence in forensic mixtures (leading in some cases to false exclusions). In this sense, the implementation of preliminary tests with the aim of identifying the fluids involved in the mixture is an essential tool. In addition, in order to prevent incorrect conclusions in the interpretation of electropherograms we strongly recommend: (i) the use of additional sequencing primers to confirm the sequencing results and (ii) interpreting the results to the light of the phylogenetic perspective.     

Environmental sanitation and pollution control measures in the Odaw-Korle River catchment,Ghana

This article reports on a study that sought to understand the major factors to consider in changing poor environmental sanitation practices in urban communities in Accra, Ghana. The study focused on three main issues: the drivers of sanitation and pollution control measures in the communities; community members’ perceptions on the influence of poor planning on environmental sanitation and pollution; and how existing local governance arrangements influence environmental sanitation and pollution control. It found that efforts are made at the city, community, and individual levels to control poor environmental practices. In order to control environmental pollution, policy initiatives on sanctions should be coupled with the provision of efficient sanitation facilities and services.     

The Japanese consumer finance market and its institutional changes since the 1980s

Abstract

We assert, in this article, that the joint transformation of public perception about households’ over-indebtedness and financial deregulation had important implications on the government decision to reform overall consumer credit between 2005 and 2010. On the one hand, the development of collective actions by groups of lawyers to defend borrowers from moneylenders’ abusive practices represents a source of change in the public opinion about over-indebted individuals in the context of long economic stagnation. A systematic press article analysis from 1977 to 2006 shows that the rising number of these collective actions since the early 1990s may have gradually increased the political salience of social issues related to the unsecure loan market. On the other hand, financial deregulation has been a source of change by allowing banks to enter the consumer finance market since the early 2000s. Banks entry into this market transformed the logic of complementarity among traditional consumer credit actors (Shinpan, credit card companies and sarakin) in a general context of legal consumers’ protection reinforcement. Thus, evolution of Japanese consumer finance's regulation is particularly relevant to illustrate the forces of institutional change and its consequences.