An extremely sensitive species-specific ARMS PCR test for the presence of tiger bone DNA

The survival of the tiger (Panthera tigris) is seriously threatened by poaching to provide raw materials for traditional Chinese medicines (TCMs). Most highly prized are the tiger's bones, which are used in combination with other animal and plant derivatives in pills and plasters for the treatment of rheumatism and other ailments. Hundreds of patent remedies have been produced which claim to contain tiger bone, but proof of its presence is needed if legislation prohibiting the trade in endangered species is to be enforced.A highly sensitive tiger-specific real-time PCR assay has been developed to address this problem. Using primers specific to the tiger mitochondrial cytochrome b gene, successful amplification has been reliably achieved from blood, hair and bone as well as from a range of TCMs spiked with 0.5% tiger bone. Although capable of detecting fewer than 10 substrate molecules, the seven varieties of TCM pills and plasters tested showed no detectable trace of tiger DNA before spiking. Furthermore, sequencing several "tiger bone" fragments seized from TCM shops has shown that they actually originated from cattle and pigs. The potential effects of traditional bone preparation methods, evidence that much lower concentrations are used than alleged on TCM packaging, and substitution of bones from other species all suggest a low likelihood of detecting tiger DNA in patent medicines. Despite this, the basic methods have been thoroughly proven and can be readily applied to derivatives from other Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) protected species, providing a rapid and highly sensitive forensic test for species of origin. Potential applications to the monitoring of wild populations are demonstrated by the successful identification of shed hairs and faecal samples.     

HIV vaccines: current challenges and future directions

Volume seven of the Review will mark the tenth anniversary of the Canadian HIV/AIDS Legal Network with a series of articles that describe past developments and future directions in several areas of policy and law related to HIV/AIDS. The following article is the first of these, discussing current challenges and future directions in the development of and access to HIV vaccines. It argues that governments are under public health, ethical, and legal obligations to develop and provide access to HIV vaccines. It further explains what is required for governments to fulfill their obligations: additional commitment and resources for HIV vaccine development in the context of increased global research and development regarding diseases of the poor; increased support and advocacy for partnerships to develop HIV vaccines; enhanced regulatory capacity in every country to review, approve, and monitor HIV vaccines; and assurance of global supply of, procurement of, delivery of, and access to vaccines in the context of efforts to increase global access to public health measures and technologies.     

Screen-printing ink transfer in a sexual assault case

Yellow plastic-like particles were discovered on the clothing and body of a sexual assault victim. These particles were later associated to an athletic jersey with flaking yellow screen-printed numbers and letters, worn by the suspect. Depending on its intended substrate, screen-print ink can vary in color and composition. Particles dislodged from screen-printed garments may exhibit fabric impressions. Screen-printed clothing, commonly encountered in forensic casework, should be viewed as a potential source of trace evidence.     

Maternal cigarette smoking during pregnancy and life-course-persistent offending

Evidence exists documenting the relationship between maternal cigarette smoking and offspring criminal behavior. Although efforts to understand this relationship in a theoretical framework have only recently emerged, attempts made have been grounded in Moffitt's developmental taxonomy of antisocial behavior. Specifically, maternal cigarette smoking is generally viewed as a potential disruption in the offspring's neuropsychological development, which is subsequently associated with life-course-persistent offending. Using a birth cohort of 987 African Americans, the authors extend previous research by empirically assessing, prospectively, the link between maternal cigarette smoking and life-course-persistent offending while using different operationalizations of Moffitt's offending categorization. The authors' findings offer some support for the relationship between maternal cigarette smoking and life-course-persistent offending, which is dependent on how this concept is operationalized.     

A media violence-inspired juvenile sexual homicide offender 13 years later

No follow-up studies exist on how minors who commit sexual homicides adjust once released back into the community. This is an important question given the extreme nature of their crimes, lack of recidivism data, and the expectation that one-half of them will be freed from prison by mid-life. Likewise, no studies exist on the role our culture's pervasive media violence plays in these offenses. This report describes a 13-year-old boy who committed a witnessed media violence-inspired sexual homicide. Follow-up information is provided on his community adjustment as an adult four years after release from prison. He had multiple indicators of brain dysfunction, and watched a "slasher" film just before committing the blitz style crime upon a female neighbor. Media violence literature is reviewed--against a backdrop of developmental abnormalities, neuropsychiatric vulnerabilities, family dysfunction, and mental illness. This case illustrates how the confluence of such variables, combined with the tinder of erotic screen violence, may lead to sexual murder.     

Mitochondrial profiling of dog hairs

In order to make greater use of dog hairs as forensic evidence, we have developed a robust method for duplex amplification of adjacent 306 and 332bp amplicons within the 5' hypervariable region (5' HVR) of the canine mitochondrial control region. In support of this, a 595bp region covering 35 polymorphic sites has been sequenced from the blood of 105 UK dogs. In total, 30 different haplotypes were observed, 13 only once whilst the commonest was seen 14 times; the overall exclusion capacity is 0.929. One animal was heteroplasmic in blood for a single base deletion and showed phenotypes ranging from near complete deletion to a predominance of the base among a sample of 12 hairs. In contrast, no evidence of heteroplasmy was seen in single hairs from 20 dogs which were not visibly heteroplasmic in blood. Phylogenetic analysis and comparisons with other published databases highlighted instances of possible recurrent mutation which may be relevant when interpreting single base differences between samples.     

Big field,small potatoes: An empirical assessment of EPA's self‐audit policy

Environmental self‐auditing is said to deserve and require encouragement. Although firms can audit themselves more cheaply and effectively than regulators, they are deterred for fear that information they uncover will be used against them. To reduce this disincentive, the Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA's) Audit Policy lowers punitive fines when firms promptly disclose and correct self‐discovered violations. While some contend that the Audit Policy is inadequate, EPA touts its success based on the policy's track record. Our examination of that track record leads us to question EPA's claim. Comparing the violations in these cases with those detected by standard EPA enforcement suggests that the typical self‐audited violation is relatively minor. Cases arising under the Policy are more likely to concern reporting violations and less likely to concern emissions. The relative insignificance of self‐audited violations raises a number of policy questions, including whether the Audit Policy should be revised to play a larger role in enforcement. © 2004 by the Association for Public Policy Analysis and Management.