STR analysis of artificially degraded DNA-results of a collaborative European exercise

Degradation of human DNA extracted from forensic stains is, in most cases, the result of a natural process due to the exposure of the stain samples to the environment. Experiences with degraded DNA from casework samples show that every sample may exhibit different properties in this respect, and that it is difficult to systematically assess the performance of routinely used typing systems for the analysis of degraded DNA samples. Using a batch of artificially degraded DNA with an average fragment size of approx. 200 bp a collaborative exercise was carried out among 38 forensic laboratories from 17 European countries. The results were assessed according to correct allele detection, peak height and balance as well as the occurrence of artefacts. A number of common problems were identified based on these results such as strong peak imbalance in heterozygous genotypes for the larger short tandem repeat (STR) fragments after increased PCR cycle numbers, artefact signals and allelic drop-out. Based on the observations, strategies are discussed to overcome these problems. The strategies include careful balancing of the amount of template DNA and the PCR cycle numbers, the reaction volume and the amount of Taq polymerase. Furthermore, a careful evaluation of the results of the fragment analysis and of automated allele calling is necessary to identify the correct alleles and avoid artefacts.     

Employers: passive purchasers or provocateurs?

This article addresses the potential role of business leadership in diverse efforts to reform health care financing: exploring managers efforts to alter health care markets in their role as large purchasers of health insurance, their potential contributions to future national policy proposals, and their involvement with community-level activities to control local health costs and quality. I argue that managers' leadership in market restructuring and community health initiatives will be difficult to reproduce in the realm of major national health policy initiatives due to constraints related to ideas, interests, and organization.     

Scenes from a mall: Retail training and the social exclusion of low-skilled workers

In this article we examine how post-industrial Britain and Denmark undertake vocational training for low-skilled retail workers. Specifically, we evaluate whether leaders in training skilled industrial workers are also doing the best job with low-skilled service workers. While Danish retail is increasingly becoming a haven for low-skilled workers, British workers are gaining in skills levels with the transition to services even in the retail sector. While some suggest that social democratic countries have sacrificed the political interests of low-skilled workers in order to protect core manufacturing workers, we find no evidence of this. Rather, the high expectations of vocational training in Denmark have forged barriers to the easy admission of low-skilled service workers, while the British system provides more entry points for vocational training at different levels. The structures of coordination that had narrowed the gap between white-collar and blue-collar manufacturing workers during the industrial age are creating new cleavages in the post-industrial economy.     

New paradigms in researching police use of firearms

In the current climate of increasing violence against the police, the use of force by police officers has been the focus of much dabate, ranging from the use of non lethal incapacitant sprays to the use of lethal force^I. We review literature concerning the use of lethal force by police officers, evaluate its utility for operational contexts, consider its implications for training and propose that new technological devices can revolutionise the identification of crucial variables.     

Child Execution in Iran: Furthering Our Understanding of Child Execution as a Form of Structural Violence

Critical Criminology - This article explores how the concepts of strucutral violence and cultural violence can explain the institutionalization and normalization of violence in children’s...     

Corruption and economic growth: does the size of the government matter?

Economic Change and Restructuring - Corruption is often a source of contentious debate, covering different areas of knowledge, such as philosophy and sociology. In this paper we assess the effects...     

Is consent required to use registered trade marks on model replica cars?

A car manufacturer that is a proprietor of a trade mark registeredfor toys cannot prohibit use by a third party of its trade markon model replica cars unless such use affects the functionsof the trade mark or takes unfair advantage of, or is detrimentalto, the distinctive character or repute of the mark.