Additional predictions for forensic DNA phenotyping of externally visible characteristics using the ForenSeq and Imagen kits

Multiplex DNA typing methods using massively parallel sequencing can be used to predict externally visible characteristics (EVCs) in forensic DNA phenotyping through the analysis of single-nucleotide polymorphisms. The focus of EVC determination has focused on hair color, eye color, and skin tone as well as visible biogeographical ancestry features. In this study, we researched off-label applications beyond what is currently marketed by the manufacturer of the Verogen ForenSeq kit primer set B and Imagen primer set E SNP loci. We investigated additional EVC predictions by examining published genome wide sequencing studies and reported allele-specific gene expression and predictive values. We have identified 15 SNPs included in the ForenSeq kit panel and Imagen kits that have additional EVC prediction capabilities beyond what is published in the Verogen manuals. The additional EVCs that can be predicted include hair graying, ephelides hyperpigmented spots, dermatoheliosis, facial pigmented spots, standing height, pattern balding, helix-rolling ear morphology, hair shape, hair thickness, facial morphology, eyebrow thickness, sarcoidosis, obesity, vitiligo, and tanning propensity. The loci can be used to augment and refine phenotype predictions with software such as MetaHuman for missing persons, cold case, and historic case investigations.     

Rape myth acceptance in men who completed the prostitution offender program of British Columbia

In an effort to characterize the attitudes and characteristics of men who solicit sex, this study investigated rape myth acceptance as assessed by a modification of Burt's Rape Myth Acceptance Scale. The participants were all men who took part in the Prostitution Offender Program of British Columbia after being arrested for attempting to solicit sex from an undercover police officer. Relationships between endorsement of rape myths, other attitudes, sexual behavior, and demographic variables were examined. Results reveal that age, education, use of pornography, ideal frequency of intercourse, and believing that purchasing sex is a problem are all negatively correlated with rape myth acceptance. Positive correlations were found between rape myth acceptance and sexual conservatism, sexual violence/coercion, and social desirability. Results are discussed in terms of the association between rape myth acceptance and the violence frequently perpetrated against those working in the sex trade.     

Environmental security and development

The development policy community has recently awakened to the importance of security as an important dimension of development policies and a basic pre-condition for their success. This paper seizes the opportunity to highlight the linkage between human security and development, and environmental security. It argues that the link is particularly strong in developing countries where human security is closely tied to peoples' access to natural resources. Drawing on a number of case studies where communities have increasingly endured hardships linked with environmental deterioration and resource scarcity, the author points to the fact that, any efforts to better the lives of peoples may be unsuccessful if they fail to conserve and enhance essential resources and life support systems.1 ?1. See, Khagram, Clark and Raad Khagram, Sanjeev, Clark, William C. and Raad, Dana Firas. 2003. From the Environment and Human Security to Sustainable Security and Development. Journal of Human Development, 4(2): 44–76.  [Google Scholar], ‘From the Environment and Human Security’. View all notes While the security literature often tones down environmental threats as soft, the author points out that they often emerge as major threats in certain contexts where, like wars, they may have detrimental and enduring impacts on peoples' security and development. This paper recommends a broader approach to security that recognises the significance of environmental threats to human security and legitimises its firm integration within the current development policy agenda. Given the crosscutting and trans-boundary nature of environmental threats, the author concludes that any development policy actions designated to mitigate environmental threats may maximise their impacts if they transcend institutional and regional boundaries, and are embedded in broader institutional collaboration.     

Recommended Practices for Macerating Human Thyroid Cartilage

Visible abnormalities on the thyroid cartilage may be indicative of perimortem trauma including fractures or sharp force trauma. During autopsy, the thyroid cartilage must be freed of surrounding soft tissue before these abnormalities can be clearly observed. Several processing methods were first experimentally tested on pig ears to narrow down which might work best to process human thyroid cartilage. Several methods in the categories of hot water maceration, chemical/enzyme maceration, and dermestid beetles were then tested on a sample of 37 human thyroid cartilages. An adapted 22-point scoring system was used to score the efficacy of each processing method. Chemical maceration using bleach was found to be the best method for removing surrounding tissue from thyroid cartilage, with Arm & Hammer^TM powdered laundry detergent as a close second. These methods are inexpensive, quick, and easy to implement, making them a simple addition to busy medical examiner’s offices or forensic anthropology laboratories.     

Somewhere Between Love and Justice: a Roman Catholic Church in Paris Responds to the European Migration Crisis

The European migration crisis has had a transformative impact on many transit and destination localities in Europe, and in doing so it has mobilised many faith-based communities. This paper analyses the social action of Saint Bernard de La Chapelle, a Roman Catholic parish in northern Paris, which hosts a semi-formal association called Solidarités Saint Bernard (SSB) involved in support and relief activities for indigent migrants in the local area. Based on ethnographic research conducted within the parish and the association, I analyse how the topic of migration has become a point of exchange between the parish community and local civil society, how religious and secular discourses and motivations co-exist within SSB, and how these influences shape SSB’s social action. Through this micro-scale approach, and drawing on Luc Boltanski’s theoretical framework of regimes of action, my aim is to identify conceptual elements to better understand the broad convergence between religion, social action, and migration, and to better understand the relation between charity and justice within faith-based social action in the domain of migration advocacy more specifically.     

The Argumentative Value of ��gamic Quotations in the Spho?asiddhi by Bharata Mi?ra

In a rare book published in Trivandrum (1927), entitled Spho?asiddhi? Bharatami?rapran??t??, we find an interesting argument in defense of spho?a-theory, based on ??gamic quotations, especially RV X, 71, 4 (the stanza where the poet describes his own activity in perceiving the essence of Speech as like a beloved woman naked). The main idea is that the numerous word spho?as, as an atemporal multiplicity, free from any sensuous quality, were the objects of the ??is?? primordial intuition. So the internal diversity of the Veda is not a mere subjective convention in order to adapt the highest truth to limited human minds. The absolute brahman has an objective cosmogonical power of which the temporal mutiplicity is only the very last result. There is also an intermediate ideal multiplicity, which the Veda, as eternal and transcending the guru-?i?ya transmission, consists in.     

Student attitudes toward inmate privileges

Although corrections researchers have examined criminal justice students’ attitudes toward offender punishment and the death penalty, they have overlooked the important area of inmate privileges. Using data collected from 570 students enrolled at four different Southern universities, this study examines attitudinal differences between criminal justice and noncriminal justice majors in terms of providing inmates with psychological counseling, college education programs, television, cigarettes, weightlifting, and conjugal visits. No statistically significant attitudinal differences emerged between criminal justice and noncriminal justice majors.