Validation of male-specific, 12-locus fluorescent short tandem repeat (STR) multiplex

Y chromosome-specific short tandem repeat (Y-STR) analysis has become another widely accepted tool for human identification. The PowerPlex Y System is a fluorescent multiplex that includes the 12 loci: DYS19, DYS385a/b, DYS389I/II, DYS390, DYS391, DYS392, DYS393, DYS437, DYS438 and DYS439. This panel of markers incorporates the 9-locus European minimal haplotype (EMH) loci recommended by the International Y-STR User Group and the 11-locus set recommended by the Scientific Working Group on DNA Analysis Methods (SWGDAM). Described here are inter-laboratory results from 17 developmental validation studies of the PowerPlex Y System and include the following results: (a) samples distributed between laboratories and commercial standards produced expected and reproducible haplotypes; (b) use of common amplification and detection instruments were successfully demonstrated; (c) full profiles were obtained with standard 30 and 32 cycle amplification protocols and cycle number (24-28 cycles) could be modified to match different substrates (such as direct amplification of FTA paper); (d) complete profiles were observed with reaction volumes from 6.25 to 50 microL; (e) minimal impact was observed with variation of enzyme concentration; (f) full haplotypes were observed with 0.5-2x primer concentrations; however, relative yield between loci varied with concentration; (g) reduction of magnesium to 1mM (1.5 mM standard) resulted in minimal amplification, while only partial loss of yield was observed with 1.25 mM magnesium; (h) decreasing the annealing temperature by 2-4 degrees C did not generate artifacts or locus dropout and most laboratories observed full amplification with the annealing temperature increased by 2 degrees C and significant locus dropout with a 4 degrees C increase in annealing temperature; (i) amplification of individual loci with primers used in the multiplex produced the same alleles as observed with the multiplex amplification; (j) all laboratories observed full amplification with >or = 125 pg of male template with partial and/or complete profiles observed using 30-62.5 pg of DNA; (k) analysis of < or = 500 ng of female DNA did not yield amplification products; (l) the minor male component of a male/female mixture was observed with < or =1200-fold excess female DNA with the majority of alleles still observed with 10,000-fold excess female; (m) male/male mixtures produced full profiles from the minor contributor with 10-20-fold excess of the major contributor; (n) average stutter for each locus; (o) precision of sizing were determined; (p) human-specificity studies displayed amplification products only with some primate samples; and (q) reanalysis of 102 non-probative casework samples from 65 cases produced results consistent with original findings and in some instances additional identification of a minor male contributor to a male/female mixture was obtained. In general, the PowerPlex Y System was shown to have the sensitivity, specificity and reliability required for forensic DNA analysis.     

A randomized experimental study of sharing crime data with citizens: Do maps produce more fear?

The larger roles of the community in crime prevention and improvements in technology have increased police–citizen communication and the distribution of information from police departments to private citizens. Combined, these changes have led to the current movement among law enforcement agencies toward sharing both summary reports and maps of crime with community groups. Although the dissemination of crime information is intended to benefit community members, there is a lack of empirical evidence demonstrating the effects of crime mapping on citizen perceptions and fear of crime. This experiment compared three formats for disseminating crime data; two popular types of crime maps (i.e., graduated symbol and density) and the traditional tabular format of crime statistics. A randomized experimental design was used to measure residents fear of crime and their perception of the safety of different areas of Redlands, CA. Overall, residents who viewed either type of map reported less fear than those who viewed tabular statistics. Respondents who viewed graduated symbol maps consistently reported less fear than either density maps or tabular statistics. However, there were differences depending on the type of map. While graduated symbol maps were associated with the lowest levels of fear of robbery, theft or assault; density maps produced different reactions depending on the area of the city. Finally, the maps did not stigmatize high crime areas of Redlands. Where statistically significant differences existed, respondents who were given maps were more likely to recommend someone move into an area than those who were given tabular statistics.     

A psychometric typology of U.K. domestic violence offenders

A number of studies have described subtypes of domestically violent men, and the heterogeneity of domestically violent men is well established. The aim of the current study was to investigate the distribution of subtypes using psychometric measures in convicted domestically violent offenders in England. Four subtypes of offenders were identified: low pathology, borderline, narcissistic, and antisocial. These subtypes were broadly comparable with the family-only, dysphoric/borderline, and generally violent/antisocial types proposed by Holtzworth-Munroe and Stuart. The majority of the sample (60%) best fit the generally violent/antisocial profile. However, the reliance on psychometric measurement and lack of corroborative evidence from partners means that further research is necessary to test these findings.     

Political Disagreement in Context: The Conditional Effect of Neighborhood Context, Disagreement and Political Talk on Electoral Participation

Despite scholarly interest in determining how exposure to disagreeable political ideas influences political participation, existing research supports few firm conclusions. This paper argues that these varied findings stem from an implicit model of contextual influence that fails to account for the indirect effect of aggregate social contexts. A model of contextual influence is outlined which implies that the neighborhood partisan context moderates the effect of political disagreement in social networks on campaign participation. The evidence shows that network disagreement demobilizes people who are the political minority in their neighborhood, but has no influence on people in the majority. When viewed together, these findings indicate that a person’s relationship to the broader political environment sets distinctive network processes in motion.

Developing Principles for Best Practice in Expanded School Mental Health

On the basis of activities of a federally funded national center for school mental health, review of literature on principles for best practice in child and adolescent mental health and school health, and consultation with national experts and family members, a set of 10 principles for best practice in school mental health was developed. A survey was developed enabling 1–6 point Likert ratings (clearly unimportant to clearly important) for each of the 10 principles. With an original sample of 426 people involved in education, school health or mental health, all 10 principles were strongly endorsed, receiving mean ratings ranging between 5.10 and 5.75. On the basis of qualitative feedback from this survey and interactive forums, language for 9 of the 10 principles was revised and a survey reflecting these changes was developed and administered to a validation sample of 86 respondents. As with the original sample, endorsements of the principles were strong, with mean ratings ranging between 5.45 and 5.79. Findings are discussed in relation to advancing interconnected agendas related to quality assessment and improvement and empirically supported practice in school mental health.     

A simplified method for mitochondrial DNA extraction from head hair shafts

DNA isolation from hair shafts can involve a number of steps, each of which adds time to the procedure and increases the risk of contamination. A simple alkaline digestion procedure that directly dissolves hairs was developed and compared with a widely used glass grinding/organic extraction method, using samples collected from 30 volunteers with varying population ancestries, hair colors, and hair treatments. A 203 bp mtDNA product could be amplified from 90% of samples extracted by alkaline digestion and 73% of hairs extracted by glass grinding. DNA obtained from alkaline digested hair generated equal or greater amplification success for virtually all criteria examined, and mtDNA sequences matched buccal control sequences in all cases. The two methods were similar in DNA yield (amplification success at template dilution) and quality of DNA obtained (amplicon length). Alkaline digestion of hair shafts required 6-7 h to complete, compared to 22-24 h for glass grinding, and proved a less laborious yet equally robust method for mtDNA extraction.     

Ideology and the construction of nationality: The Canadian elections of 1993

Canada is one nation, but it is in many ways two communities, one Francophone and the other Anglophone. We employ a formal model of ideology and analyze how nationality is constructed in people's minds. The magnitude of the changes in expressed preferences in terms of ideology depends on the salience of the new issue, the extent to which it confirms with the existing ideological cleavage, and the difference between the perceived status quo on the new dimension and the voter's most preferred alternative. Using data from the 1993 Canadian National Election Study, we consider the relative importance of different policy dimensions in explaining voting decisions among educated Canadians. The issue of Quebec sovereignty, alone, is shown to have significant power for predicting vote choice. A plausible explanation, confirmed here by regression analysis, is that Quebec sovereignty stands for other issues in voters' conception of Canadian politics.     

Reviews

K. Post and P. Wright, Socialism and Underdevelopment. London and New York: Routledge, 1989, x+204 pp.

Richard Stites, Revolutionary Dreams. Utopian Vision and Experimental Life in the Russian Revolution. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1989, viii+307 pp., £26.00.

Henry S. Rowen and Charles Wolf Jr. eds., The Future of the Soviet Empire. foreword by Donald H. Rumsfeld. London: Macmillan Press, 1988, xx+368 pp., £27.50.

Alexander Shtromas and Morton A. Kaplan eds., The Soviet Union and the Challenge of the Future—Volume 1: Stasis and Change. New York: Paragon House Publishers, 1988, xx+555 pp., $29.95.

Alvin Z. Rubinstein, Moscow's Third World Strategy. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1989, xi+311 pp., $29.95.

Leo Cooper, The Political Economy of Soviet Military Power. London: Macmillan, 1989, xi+263 pp., £29.50.

Clive Archer ed., The Soviet Union and Northern Waters. London: Routledge for the Royal Institute of International Affairs, 1988, xvii+261 pp., £35.00.

Jeffry Klugman, The New Soviet Elite: How They Think and What They Want. New York: Praeger, 1989, 237 pp., $24.95.

Bruno Grancelli, Soviet Management and Labour Relations. London: Allen and Unwin, 1988, xvi+248 pp., £28.00.

Ellen Mickiewicz, Split Signals: Television and Politics in the Soviet Union. New York and Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1988, xi+286 pp., £18.00.

William van den Bercken, Ideology and Atheism in the Soviet Union (Religion and Society 28). Berlin and New York: Walter de Gruyter, 1989, viii+191 pp., DM 98.00.

Stephen White, The Origins of Detente: The Genoa Conference and Soviet‐Western Relations, 1921–1922. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1985, xv+255 pp., £25.00.

Anita Prazmowska, Britain, Poland and the Eastern Front, 1939. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1987, viii+231 pp., £25.00.

Ivo Banac, With Stalin against Tito: Cominformist Splits in Yugoslav Communism. London: Cornell University Press, 1988, XVI+294 pp., $35.75.

Harold Lydall, Yugoslavia in Crisis. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1989, xii+255 pp., £25.00.

Josef C. Brada and Istvan Dobozi, eds., The Hungarian Economy in the 1980s: Reforming the System and Adjusting to External Shocks. London: JAI Press Inc., 1988, xv+277 pp., $58.50 (Instit), $35.10 (Indiv.).

J. C. Brada, E. A. Hewett & T. A. Wolf, eds., Economic Adjustment and Reform in Eastern Europe and the Soviet Union. Durham and London: Duke University Press, 1988, xxv+428 pp., £54.00.

John P. Hardt and Carl H. McMillan, Planned Economies Confronting the Challenge of the 1980s. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1988, xiv+193 pp., £25.00.

Pedro Ramet, ed., Eastern Christianity and Politics in the Twentieth Century. Durham and London: Duke University Press, 1988, viii+465 pp., $47.50.

Jan Zielonka, Political Ideas in Contemporary Poland. Avebury: Gower, 1989, ix+210 pp., £25.00.

A. J. Motyl, Will the Non‐Russians Rebel? State Ethnicity and Stability in the USSR. Ithaca and London: Cornell University Press, xii+188 pp., $27.45.

Mike Dennis, German Democratic Republic. Politics, Economics and Society. London and New York: Pinter, 1988, vii+223 pp., h/b £25.00, p/b £8.95.

Marilyn Rueschemeyer and Christiane Lemke eds., The Quality of Life in the German Democratic Republic. Armonk, NY: M. E. Sharpe, 1989, xiii+242 pp., $40.00.

Stephen F. Burant ed., East Germany: a Country Study. Washington DC: US Government Printing Office, 1988, 3rd ed., xxxiii+433 pp.

Artemy Troitsky, Back in the USSR: The True Story of Rock in Russia. (Title of British edition: Tell Tchaikovsky the News...) Boston, MA, and London: Faber and Faber, 1988, 160 pp., $9.95 p/b.