The use of phosphate buffered saline for the recovery of cells and spermatozoa from swabs.

In the forensic science laboratory, the recovery of spermatozoa from vaginal swabs, or vaginal cells from penile swabs, can help determine if sexual intercourse may have taken place. There are several methods used to recover spermatozoa and cells from the swabs before visualisation on a microscope slide and most of these methods use water. Phosphate buffered saline (PBS) is a non-toxic solution used in many biological laboratories. Unlike water, PBS prevents cells rupturing or shrivelling up due to osmosis. This study demonstrates that PBS can be used for the extraction of spermatozoa and cells from swabs and that PBS does not affect subsequent DNA profiling.     

Prospects for Managed Democracy in Russia

The 2003 Duma election resulted in the victory of the party of power, thereby strengthening managed democracy in Russia. Since then, political trends in Russia's regions and rural politics provide considerable evidence of the increasing ability of pro-Kremlin forces to maximise their electoral fortunes in national contests. These political trends make it likely that United Russia will not only emerge as the dominant party in the 2007 Duma election, but will provide the Kremlin and Putin's successor with a compliant lower house. The outcome is that Putin's successor will find the political infrastructure to continue managed democracy.     

Hague Case Law — Latest Development

Netherlands International Law Review -     

Sudden and unexpected death of a 6-month-old baby with silent heart failure due to anomalous origin of the left coronary artery from the pulmonary artery.

A 6-month-old girl died suddenly without any previous symptoms of heart failure. Autopsy examination showed cardiomegaly (97 g) with a severely fibrotized myocardium. The left coronary artery was originating from the pulmonary artery. Histologically, the myocardium showed myocardial infarcts of different ages, as well as grossly thickened arterial branches due to increased flow in left-right shunt. We suggest that rare anomalies of the coronary arteries should be considered in the autopsies of suspected sudden infant death syndrome cases.     

Law enforcement information sharing: A Florida case study

Many attempts have been made over the last several decades to improve communication among law enforcement agencies. This article is a case study of a “low-level” data sharing project in Florida that could serve as a national model. The Florida Law Enforcement Data Sharing Consortium is a partnership between the University of Central Florida and more than one hundred law enforcement agencies. It offers an inexpensive, yet technically advanced alternative to the proprietary data sharing model. Its distributed architecture was endorsed by the Markle Foundation, the 9/11 Commission, and the 2004 National Security Act. Civil liberties concerns raised by this and other types of data sharing projects are discussed.     

Can information change public opinion? Another test of the Marshall hypotheses

U.S. Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall offered his opinion regarding the utility of public opinion polls as a tool for assessing the “evolving standards of decency” regarding capital punishment. His arguments became known as the Marshall hypotheses and spawned a considerable body of empirical testing. The three Marshall hypotheses are: (1) support for capital punishment is inversely associated with knowledge about it, (2) exposure to information about capital punishment produces sentiments in opposition to capital punishment, but (3) exposure to information about capital punishment will have no impact on those who support it for retributive reasons. The results of previous tests of these hypotheses were somewhat mixed but supportive. None of these studies, however, examined the effects of change in knowledge levels with changes, if any, in death penalty attitudes and beliefs as needed for a more complete test of the Marshall hypotheses. The present study addressed this shortcoming. The results provided mixed support for these three hypotheses. That is, death penalty supporters were somewhat less informed than death penalty opponents; exposure to death penalty information and knowledge gains tended to be associated with attitudinal change in a directions suggested by these hypotheses; but, retributivists' attitudes toward and beliefs about capital punishment were not any more resistant to change than were the attitudes and beliefs of non-retributivists.     

大学生就业问题的建构与误读

高等教育由精英教育转向大众教育过程中,人们对高等教育的观念转变相对滞后,在大学生就业问题上存在建构和误读.在没有清楚界定"大学生就业难问题",就业率统计指标和数据可靠性存在问题的情况下,断言"就业难"或"不难"都不恰当.认为"高校扩招"和"学生要改变择业观念"是就业难的主要原因,也是流于表面且不合时宜的解读.     

四川省家禽及鸟类减蛋综合征血清流行病学调查

采集四川省农村散养的鸡、鸭、鹅、鹌鹑、鸽和野外麻雀的血液，分离血清，应用微量血凝抑制（ＨＩ）试验检测减蛋综合征（ＥＤＳ－７６）病毒感染情况。阳性率为：鸡３．０１％（１３／４３２），鸭４４．８６％（４３６／９７２），鹅２８．８１％（１１９／４１３），鹌鹑３．５７％（２７／７５６），鸽１８．７５％（１８／９６），麻雀３０．５６％（１１／３６）；另外在１９８５年疫病普查时采集并保存的鸭、鹅血清中也查到了ＤＥＳ－７６抗体，阳性率分别为鸭４３．３０％（４２／９７），鹅２６．４０％（２９／１１０）。