Significance of additional RFLP single locus probes analysis after STR based determination of sibship

Autosomal STR typing alone seems to be no sufficient tool for resolving deficiency cases (e.g. cases of questioned paternity or half-sibships). Therefore, we investigated whether the additional analysis of RFLP single locus probes can improve the solution of such complicated kinship cases. We analyzed 207 children and men from 101 families using the AmpFlSTRIdentifiler multiplex PCR kit and three RFLP single locus probes. A comparison between each child and all unrelated men resulted in 11,023 man / child pairs. Less than three excluding STRs were found in 125 child / unrelated man pairs (1.13%). Additional analysis of RFLP results reduced the number of ambiguous cases to 35. Half-sibling pairs were simulated using STR results from 20 cases with high paternity probabilities (group 1) and relatively low paternity probabilities (group 2). Using a commercially available computer program we calculated probabilities for 778 half-sibling pairs. In 35 pairs (4.49%) half-sibling probabilities over 90.0% could be calculated. Additional investigation of RFLP single locus probes did not lead to a more reliable evaluation of these results. The combined investigation of autosomal STRs and RFLP single locus probes can satisfactorily solve deficient paternities but does not contribute to the solution of questioned half-sibships.     

Earth system governance: a research framework

The Earth System Science Partnership, which unites all major global change research programmes, declared in 2001 an urgent need to develop “strategies for Earth System management”. Yet what such strategies might be, how they could be developed, and how effective, efficient and equitable such strategies would be, remains unspecified. It is apparent that the institutions, organizations and mechanisms by which humans currently govern their relationship with the natural environment and global biochemical systems are not only insufficient—they are also poorly understood. This article presents the science programme of the Earth System Governance Project, a new 10-year global research effort endorsed by the International Human Dimensions Programme on Global Environmental Change (IHDP). It outlines the concept of earth system governance as a challenge for the social sciences, and it elaborates on the interlinked analytical problems and research questions of earth system governance as an object of study. These analytical problems concern the overall architecture of earth system governance, agency beyond the state and of the state, the adaptiveness of governance mechanisms and processes as well as their accountability and legitimacy, and modes of allocation and access in earth system governance. The article also outlines four crosscutting research themes that are crucial for the study of each analytical problem as well as for the integrated understanding of earth system governance: the role of power, knowledge, norms and scale.     

Major depression – a study on the validity of clinicians’ diagnoses in medicolegal assessment

Major depression ranges among the most frequently diagnosed psychiatric disorders. Accordingly, diagnoses of depression are often underlying insurance, compensation or disability claims. This report evaluates the validity of clinicians’ diagnoses of major depression in a sample of claimants. In 2015, n = 127 consecutive cases were examined for medicolegal assessment. For all of them, a diagnosis of major depression had been established by clinicians. All testees underwent a psychiatric interview, a physical examination, they answered questionnaires for depressive symptoms according to DSM-5, embitterment disorder, post concussion syndrome (PCS) and unspecific somatic complaints. Performance and symptom validity tests were administered. Only 31% fulfilled the diagnostic criteria for DSM-5 major depression according to self-report, while none did so according to psychiatric assessment. Negative response bias was found in 64% of cases, feigned neurologic symptoms in 22%. Symptom exaggeration was indiscriminate rather than depression-specific. By self-report, 64% of the participants qualified for embitterment disorder and 93% for PCS. In conclusion, clinicians’ diagnoses of depression seem often confounded by improper assessment of the diagnostic criteria, confusion of depression with bereavement or embitterment and also by response bias.     

Survival strategies of widows and their families in early modern Holland,c. 1580–1750

This article analyses the impact of widowhood upon women in early modern urban society in Holland. Widows were able to maintain their households and to minimize the discontinuity with their lives when married. A remarkably egalitarian inheritance and marital property law, access to a broad range of occupations, a privileged status, an extended poor relief system, institutionalised mutual assistance and new forms of financial provisions for widows enabled widows to survive after the loss of an adult male breadwinner. However, legal rights, social provisions and economic opportunities available to women in the Dutch Golden Age and thereafter, could not prevent social polarization after women lost their spouse.     

Managing a large household. The gender division of work in orphanages in Dutch towns in the early modern period, 1580–1800

Early modern social institutions were modelled analogous to the family, and work within these institutions strongly depended upon the co-operation of women and men. This type of organization seems to be contradictory to processes of professionalization and bureaucratization. This article investigates to what extent professionalization and bureaucratization took place in early modern orphanages and how this influenced the gender division of work. By analyzing various occupations, remuneration and access to work in three Dutch orphanages it becomes clear that the frequently mentioned characteristics that made ‘typical’ women's work combinable with women's reproductive tasks, were not all applicable and cannot wholly explain female access to these occupations. Work was characterized by an increasing differentiation, hierarchy and, to a certain extent, bureaucratization tendencies. At the same time, the gender division sharpened. However, the late eighteenth century ideology of women as nurturers and the strong analogy to the role women were supposed to play within the household prevented exclusion from this domain.     

Correlations,Causes and the Logic of Obscuration: Donor Shaping of Dominant Narratives in Indonesia's Irrigation Development

This article analyses policy trends in Indonesian irrigation, particularly during the last five decades, from the perspective of dominant narratives, as authored, suggested and pushed by international donors. It argues that international donors' adherence to ‘deferred maintenance’ as the core element of irrigation policy problem framing does not match with farmers' and the irrigation agency staff perceptions and practices. The logic of obscuration and the discursive manoeuvers that maintain it are analysed. The article concludes that there is space for more profound conceptual contestation and for alternative actions pathways even within the ‘dominant paradigm’ to address management problems more effectively.     

A typology of communication functions in ballot issue campaigns

The increased importance of ballot issue campaigns creates a need for communication and political science scholars to study the rhetorical strategies employed in such campaigns. This essay presents a typology of four communication functions employed in successful ballot issue campaigns: education, trust development, development of a positive message, and neutralization of the opposition. The typology is applied to an analysis of the 1986 campaign for liquor‐by‐the‐drink in Kansas.     

Creating a political image: Shaping appearance and manipulating the vote

“Creating a political image: Shaping appearance and manipulating the vote” by Shawn M. Rosenberg, Shulamit Kahn, and Thuy Tran. Political Behavior 13:345–367.     

Briefly Noted

The argument is commonly made that television has changed the character of parliamentary elections. Its ever more central role in election campaigns outside the United States is held to have “presidentialized” parliamentary elections because it is a medium that projects personalities more effectively than ideas or policies. A comparison of the electoral roles of the Australian prime minister and the U.S. president indicates that both leaders are held personally accountable for government performance. However, such “presidentialism” appears to have little to do with television in Australia or in the United States. Television‐dependent citizens in both countries are less susceptible to the campaign appeals of chief executives than the rest of the voting public. Both leaders, but especially the president, do have an electoral impact. Counter to expectations, however, this impact makes itself felt in both cases among those voters who are not dependent on television for their political information and cues. Party identification seems to insulate the television‐dependent more successfully against leader effects.     

Analysis and Discrimination of Single‐Layer White Architectural Paint Samples,

Comparative analyses of 50 single‐layer white architectural paints were conducted to determine the discrimination power using standard techniques and to provide a basis for assessing significance when paints with limited features are not discriminated. Utilizing Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), 68 undifferentiated pairs resulted, yielding a discrimination of 94.45%. Adding stereomicroscopy, scanning electron microscopy (SEM) with energy dispersive spectroscopy (EDS) and backscatter electron (BSE) imaging, and pyrolysis‐gas chromatography/mass spectrometry (Py‐GC/MS), the overall discrimination was 99.35%. The study included blind verification replicates, which resulted in the only pairs without indications of physical or chemical differences. The remaining groups of undifferentiated samples contained subtle differences by at least one technique, but were considered undifferentiated for the discrimination power evaluations. This study demonstrates a high degree of discrimination of single‐layer white architectural paints using methods of analysis often encountered in forensic science laboratories.