Inferring the Number of Contributors to Complex DNA Mixtures Using Three Methods: Exploring the Limits of Low‐Template DNA Interpretation

In forensic DNA casework, the interpretation of an evidentiary profile may be dependent upon the assumption on the number of individuals from whom the evidence arose. Three methods of inferring the number of contributors—NOCIt, maximum likelihood estimator, and maximum allele count, were evaluated using 100 test samples consisting of one to five contributors and 0.5–0.016 ng template DNA amplified with Identifiler^® Plus and PowerPlex^® 16 HS. Results indicate that NOCIt was the most accurate method of the three, requiring 0.07 ng template DNA from any one contributor to consistently estimate the true number of contributors. Additionally, NOCIt returned repeatable results for 91% of samples analyzed in quintuplicate, while 50 single‐source standards proved sufficient to calibrate the software. The data indicate that computational methods that employ a quantitative, probabilistic approach provide improved accuracy and additional pertinent information such as the uncertainty associated with the inferred number of contributors.     

Potency Trends of Δ9‐THC and Other Cannabinoids in Confiscated Cannabis Preparations from 1993 to 2008*

Abstract: The University of Mississippi has a contract with the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) to carry out a variety of research activities dealing with cannabis, including the Potency Monitoring (PM) program, which provides analytical potency data on cannabis preparations confiscated in the United States. This report provides data on 46,211 samples seized and analyzed by gas chromatography‐flame ionization detection (GC‐FID) during 1993–2008. The data showed an upward trend in the mean Δ⁹‐tetrahydrocannabinol (Δ⁹‐THC) content of all confiscated cannabis preparations, which increased from 3.4% in 1993 to 8.8% in 2008. Hashish potencies did not increase consistently during this period; however, the mean yearly potency varied from 2.5–9.2% (1993–2003) to 12.0–29.3% (2004–2008). Hash oil potencies also varied considerably during this period (16.8 ± 16.3%). The increase in cannabis preparation potency is mainly due to the increase in the potency of nondomestic versus domestic samples.     

Signals intelligence in India

In May 1945, as France celebrated the end of the Second World War in Europe, its foremost overseas dependency, Algeria, erupted into rebellion. Revisiting the roles and responses of the colonial security forces to what came to be known as the Sétif uprising, this article suggests two things. One is that the intensity of repressive violence pursued becomes more explicable once we consider the part played by political intelligence gathering in the operation of French colonial government in Algeria. The other is that the decision to use the political intelligence amassed before, during, and after the rebellion to coerce the Algerian population at the rebellion's epicentre signified a fundamental shift in the nature of the French colonial state in Algeria. Intelligence-led security policing, much of it later adopted by police agencies in metropolitan France at the height of the Algerian War, became more repressive, less selective, and highly violent.     

Something Must be Done-Military Intervention

In the late twentieth century, the United States' federal government responded to the threat of terrorism by passing a wide range of counterterrorist laws. The vigor that accompanied these initiatives echoed at a state level where, virtually unnoticed, states passed similar legislation. This article examines state measures in three areas: the funding of foreign terrorist organizations, the use or threatened use of weapons of mass destruction, and definitions of terrorist activity. While these statutes, as a legal matter, may not violate any specific federal provisions or constitutional prohibitions, they raise important questions about federal supremacy in foreign affairs and the constitutional protections afforded citizens. More significantly, as a policy concern, these provisions threaten America's ability to speak in one voice, introducing divisions into the domestic realm and diminishing the ability of the federal government to negotiate with foreign states and organizations. They also mask an appropriate role for the states in fighting terrorism. Both the policy implications and legal considerations suggest that such measures may ultimately undermine America's ability to counter the terrorist threat.     

Letters to the editor

The Future of India. Part III of the Report on the Constitutional Problem in India submitted to the Warden and Fellows of Nuffield College, Oxford. By R. Coupland, C.I.E., M.A., Hony. D.Litt. (Durham), Fellow of All Souls and Nuffield College, Beit Professor of Colonial History in the University of Oxford. 8/1/2>” x 5/1/2>”. Pp. 207. 6 Maps. Oxford University Press. Price 6s. 6d.

Allenby in Egypt. Being Volume II of Allenby: A Study in Greatness. By Field‐Marshal Viscount Wavell of Cyrenaica and Winchester, G.C.B., C.M.G., M.C., Viceroy of India, Ios. 6d.

Generals and Geographers : the Twilight of Geopolitics. By Hans W. Weigert. Pp. 259. Oxford University Press (New York). $3.00.

Judæa Lives Again. By Norman Bentwich. Pp. 189. Gollancz. 8s. 6d.

Desert. Journey. By George Rodgers. Pp. 151. 44 photographs. Cresset Press. 15s.

Jordan's Tunis Diary. By Philip Jordan. Pp. 256. London: Collins. 1943. 10s. 6d.

Persia in the Early Days of the Pahlavi Régime. By D. Bourke‐Borrowes.

Return to Happiness. By Jonas Lied. Pp. xi+217. 8/3/4>” x 6”. Macmillan. 18s.

Jenghiz Khan. By Squadron‐Leader C. C. Walker. 10” x 6/1/2>”. Pp.216. 7 Maps. Published by Luzac, London. 1940. 17s. 6d.

Tibetan Sentences. By Sir Basil Gould and H. E. Richardson.

India Today and Tomorrow. By Sir Geoffrey de Montmorency. Signpost Booklet. Price 6d.

The Burmese Scene. By Maurice Collis. 7” x 5”. Pp. 60. John Crowther. 5s.

Government by Assassination. By Hugh Byas. George Allen and Unwin. 10s. 6d.

Survey of the Anglo‐Egyptian Sudan, 1898–1941. By K. D. D. Henderson. Kassala at War. By B. Kennedy‐Cooke.

Advisory council for the Northern Sudan: a broadcast     

Silent witness: Australian intelligence and East Timor

The events in East Timor leading up to and immediately following the vote for independence from Indonesia in September 1999, and the attendant breach in Australian-Indonesian relations, posed the greatest challenge to the Australian intelligence agencies and the national security policymaking organization in more than a quarter of a century. On the whole, the intelligence agencies performed very well, producing timely, accurate and informative reports, with the important exception being the under-estimation of the scale of the killings and forced deportations in the fortnight after 4 September, 1999. However, there were serious deficiencies in the national security policy-making organization, and elements of the intelligence community succumbed to political pressures when the Government found some of the intelligence about Indonesian involvement in planning and directing the violence to be unpalatable.     

The Racial Bureaucracy: African Americans and the Federal Government in the Era of Segregated Race Relations

This article employs archival research to examine how the segregationist order was introduced and maintained in the Federal civil service between the 1890s and 1945. In the article a racial bureaucracy is defined by two characteristics. First, one group of employees was placed in a subordinate position to others, both formally and informally, as a consequence of their race. Second, physical working conditions and daily routines were constructed around the segregation of one group of employees because of their race and, furthermore, advancement and promotion within the bureaucracy was delimited by race. This framework is used first, critically to assess two common views of the composition of the US federal government (the local race state thesis and the weak state thesis), and second, to illustrate how segregation impinged directly upon African American employees in a range of agencies and positions.