An analysis of data curated from 5 years of identifying human remains

An archive of 5 years of cases involving the identification of human remains was curated, collecting information on: The sample type submitted, the number of STR loci yielding interpretable results, the kinship challenge posed, and the outcome for the case. A total of 129 cases of remains ID were investigated using manual DNA extraction and recovery methods with amplification of STR markers using the Power Plex 21 multiplex STR kit from Promega Corp. In 52 cases, blood spots collected by the ME were provided as sample and in 100% of those cases, probabilities of relatedness to the reference samples was ≥99%. In 77 cases, tissue other than blood was provided as a source of DNA. These other samples were grouped categorically into long bones (femur and tibia; 40 cases), skull bones/teeth (11 cases), other bones (16 cases), and tissue (normally adherent to bone) (10 cases). Reference samples provided for cases included alleged parents or child(ren) of the victim (86 cases), alleged full siblings of the victim (38 cases), or alleged second-order relatives (five cases). The overall success rate in confirming the identity of the source of the remains in these cases was 89.2%. Our results demonstrate that a laboratory can be often successful identifying human remains using methods easily implemented in any DNA typing laboratory.     

Analysis of Mitochondrial DNA from a Burned,Ninhydrin‐Treated Paper Towel

Contact‐based evidence is likely to have limited quantities of DNA and may yield mixed profiles due to preexisting or contaminating DNA. In a recent arson investigation, a paper towel was collected and used as circumstantial evidence. The paper towel was partially burned and was likely set on fire with flammable liquid. As part of the investigation, the paper towel was treated with ninhydrin to visualize fingerprint evidence. Initial DNA analysis of two swabs was negative for short tandem repeat (STR) markers and revealed a mixture of mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA). Analysis of 13 additional cuttings yielded four more mixed profiles, but also two samples with a common single‐source profile. The single‐source mtDNA profile matched that of the primary suspect in the case. Thus, even if initial mtDNA analysis yields a mixed profile, a sampling strategy involving multiple locations can improve the chance of obtaining valuable single‐source mtDNA profiles from compromised evidence in criminal casework.     

Longitudinal Associations between Social Relationships and Alcohol Use from Adolescence into Young Adulthood: The Role of Religiousness

Journal of Youth and Adolescence - As adolescence is a time characterized by rapid changes in social relationships as well as an increase in risk-taking behaviors, this prospective longitudinal...     

The prospects for democratization in China: Evidence from the 1995 Beijing area study

Assessing the prospects for democratization in The People's Republic of China has been a mostly normative exercise over the past 20 years. Newer empirical work has focused on public opinion and the implications for a democratic transition but this literature is still in its infancy. This paper focuses on the distribution of public opinion in Beijing with respect to a direct, close end question about the respondent's most important value. Among the choices were political democracy and individual freedom. We hypothesize that if younger, more educated and wealthier people are more likely to select either of these options as their most important value then, over the next few decades, there would be increasing public pressure for democratization because of generational replacement and the expected increases in both wealth and average levels of education in China over the same time span. While there are some indications that in the future Chinese public opinion will be more favorable to a transition towards democracy, on balance the results of this paper provide scant evidence that the future will lead to increasing public pressure for democratization.     

Monetized time-space: derivatives – money's 'new imaginary'?

This paper examines some of the ways in which the everyday is becoming connected into the world of finance, a process facilitated through so-called derivatives.The increasing use of derivatives is traced to the collapse of the Bretton Woods agreement and the ways in which innovative developments in financial engineering were used to overcome the uncertainties of interest rate, currency and price risks that grew apace from the early 1970s. We argue that these risks are not ‘more of the same’.They are qualitatively different and run deeper through the highly integrated financial markets of today. And, as later parts of the paper argue taking their cue from the works of Paul Virilio and Georg Simmel, notably the latter’s Philosophy of Money , the manner in which these risks interact and the speed of their interaction suggest the emergence of new forms of money, a new monetization of time-space. The paper then moves on to consider how the calculative practices that lie at the heart of derivatives involve a process of socialization of the understanding of the risks that new money forms are made to negotiate successfully. The ‘idea of money’ – of what it is now supposed to be capable of doing with and across time-space – thus stems from a ‘new money imaginary’. The paper concludes by reemphasizing the reasons why, when understood through areading of Virilio and Simmel, derivatives should be viewed as representing new forms of money.