Alterations of Length Heteroplasmy in Mitochondrial DNA Under Various Amplification Conditions*

Abstract: There are several areas within mitochondrial DNA that show length heteroplasmy. If the heteroplasmy pattern is unique and consistent for each person, it may be used to support an interpretation of exclusion in identity testing. We investigated whether the length heteroplasmy pattern would be consistent under different amplification conditions. We also determined whether various amplification parameters would affect the homopolymeric cytosine stretches (C‐stretch) in HV1. Monoclonal samples tended to be heteroplasmic after amplification. After several repetitions, C‐stretch patterns of all samples were inconsistent even under the same amplification conditions. Increased PCR cycles and high template concentrations resulted in a more frequent heteroplasmic tendency. These amplification parameters seem to have little effect if samples are not long enough in C‐stretch or total length of the segment from nt 16180 to nt 16193. It is suggested that the pattern of length heteroplasmy cannot be used as an additional polymorphic marker.     

The new great game in Central Asia post 2014: The US “New Silk Road” strategy and Sino-Russian rivalry

With the planned US and NATO withdrawal from Afghanistan in 2014 looming ever closer, and Central Asia's own future increasingly in doubt, major powers are all competing to enhance their influence in Central Asia. 2014 may mark a regional tipping point, but none can accurately predict how the regional balance might shift after the NATO withdrawal from Afghanistan. During 2009–2010, the signs of growing Russian dependence on China in terms of economy and energy were palpable, as were the signs of China successfully subordinating Russia to its Central Asian economic agenda. In 2011–2012, it was difficult to see Russia simply acquiescing in its subordination to China without reacting to that situation negatively. Since 2011, to avoid this dependence on China, Russia has vigorously pushed for its regional integration schemes. 2011 marked the launch of the US “New Silk Road” initiative. Great power regional integration schemes, however, undermine both regional and national development.     

Lost in the Semiotic Maze: Empirical Approaches to Proof of Blurring in Trademark Dilution Law

One of the most interesting and possibly disturbing developments in U.S. trademark law in recent decades is the rise of a federal remedy for trademark dilution. Dilution law in theory provides a remedy for owners of famous trademarks when others use similar marks in ways that blur or tarnish the famous mark. This article focuses on attempts by courts and scholars to formulate a methodology for proving this elusive cause of action. The article offers a history of dilution regulation and analyzes and critiques representative empirical approaches to proving dilution, with a focus on dilution by blurring.     

Information technology and transitions in the public service: A comparison of scandinavia and the united states

New information technologies have the potential for transforming the ways governments are organized, the activities they perform, how they perform them, and the nature of work itself. Governments in the U.S. and Scandinavia have followed fundamentally different approaches to the introduction of computing and to dealing with its effects. These differences in approach to automation have influenced each country's view of the role of government in anticipating and dealing with the effects of changes in computer technology on the public service workforce.     

韩国的医师说明义务与患者知情同意权

医师的说明义务与患者的知情同意权是医疗关系的核心内容,并成为医疗责任认定的主要依据。韩国对于这一对权利义务关系的认识经历了从传统医疗模式向人道模式的转变,使得患者从医疗关系的客体转变为主体。这一转变不仅改变了患者的地位,更体现出法律的进步。然而,单纯强调患者的知情同意权将会导致医师实施保守治疗,因此,平衡医师的说明义务与患者知情同意权之间的关系显得尤为重要。     

"I want you to listen to my side of this": is there a role for mediation early in the health care complaints process?

The resolution of disputes that arise out of the provision of health care services has historically taken place at an institutional level, with the hospital administrative unit conducting the process, or through the legal system with the parties traversing the relevant courts and tribunals. Increasingly, the wide range of decisions which must be made in relation to the delivery of patient and client care and the broad scope of variations in expectations as to what a health service is capable of delivering, are providing fertile ground for conflict. This column considers the potential role of mediation as an early intervention strategy to resolve health care disputes.     

Testing the Moderating Effect of Parent–Adolescent Communication on the Acculturation Gap–Distress Relation in Korean American Families

Although the acculturation gap generally has been associated with poor mental health outcomes among Asian American children, some studies have failed to find a significant relationship between the gap and distress. Using two different methods of operationalizing the gap between mothers and their children, the current study addressed this tension in the literature by testing the following hypotheses in a sample of Korean American families. It was hypothesized that mother–adolescent discrepancies in acculturation and enculturation levels would be associated with youth internalizing and externalizing symptoms and that parent–adolescent communication would moderate the gap–distress relationship. Multi-informant questionnaires were administered to 77 Korean American mother–adolescent dyads from the Midwest. Surprisingly, results indicated that consonance in low levels of mother–adolescent enculturation was associated with the highest levels of externalizing symptoms (interaction term method). Adolescents’ perception of communication with their fathers significantly moderated the relationship between the enculturation gap and internalizing symptoms, such that in dyads with a greater enculturation gap, less perceived open communication with fathers was associated with more internalizing symptoms (difference score method). Clinically, the findings indicate a potential target (i.e., parent–adolescent communication) for treatment programs that aim to improve family relations and youth adjustment in immigrant families.     

The "AIDS and MDGs" approach: what is it, why does it matter, and how do we take it forward?

Progress towards the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) has been mixed, and many observers have noted the tendency for development actors to address individual MDGs largely in isolation from one another. This in turn has resulted in missed opportunities to catalyse greater interdisciplinary collaboration and innovation towards MDG achievement. The term 'AIDS and MDGs' is gaining currency as an approach that aims to explore, strengthen and leverage the links between AIDS and other health and development issues. Drawing from academic literature and from MDG country reports, this article sets out three important pillars to an AIDS and MDGs approach: 1) understanding how AIDS and the other MDGs affect one another; 2) documenting and exchanging lessons learned across MDGs; and 3) creating cross- MDG synergy. We propose broader policy level implications for this approach and how UNDP and other partners can take this agenda forward. Because the MDGs explicitly locate HIV within a broader international commitment to human development targets, they provide a critical platform for development partners to galvanise resources, political will and momentum behind a broader, systematic and structural approach to HIV, health and development.     

disowning dependence: single women's collective struggle for independence and land rights in northwestern India

In April 2008 over 2,600 single women marched for three days to Shimla, the state capital of the northwestern Indian state of Himachal Pradesh, to demand rights to land, health care and ration cards for single women. The march was organized by a new social movement called Ekal Nari Shakti Sangathan, comprising divorced, abandoned, never-married women, widows and wives fleeing domestic violence who are demanding rights from the state in their own names (rather than as wives, daughters or mothers); in so doing they are directly challenging the construct of the ‘dependent woman’ naturalized in pre-colonial, colonial and post-colonial discourses. The most radical of the demands of this new social movement is the struggle for land rights and the creation of new women-centred family formations. Through an analysis of their collective demands, I argue that the normative, dependent woman is mutually constituted not only at the intersections of gender, kinship and heterosexuality, but also spatially, through denial of rights to land. As single women disown their dependence upon husbands/fathers/brothers and demand land rights, they simultaneously re-imagine gendered selves by envisioning new marital families and re-working the division of labour.