STR primer concordance study.

Over 1500 population database samples comprising African Americans, Caucasians, Hispanics, Native Americans, Chamorros and Filipinos were typed using the PowerPlex 16 and the Profiler Plus/COfiler kits. Except for the D8S1179 locus in Chamorros and Filipinos from Guam, there were eight examples in which a typing difference due to allele dropout was observed. At the D8S1179 locus in the population samples from Guam, there were 13 examples of allele dropout observed when using the Profiler Plus kit. The data support that the primers used in the PowerPlex 16, Profiler Plus, and COfiler kits are reliable for typing reference samples that are for use in CODIS. In addition, allele frequency databases have been established for the STR loci Penta D and Penta E. Both loci are highly polymorphic.     

Mending the “Unhinged Alliance” in the 1970S: Transatlantic Relations,Public Diplomacy,and the Origins of the European Union Visitors Program

This article examines in depth the foundation of the EU’s one explicit example of public diplomacy, the European Union Visitors Programme. The narrative covers the historical background to the EUVP, the main individuals involved, and its significance for the development of the EU as an international actor. Public diplomacy relies on personal contacts, and the intention here is to demonstrate the importance of this petit histoire. The contribution of the EUVP towards establishing a transatlantic “community of values,” as demonstrated by the support it received from the U.S. diplomatic representation in Brussels, is an important extra dimension. The article concludes that the EUVP, while offering a potential model for the EU to project its “soft power” and world-view internationally, remains limited in scope and unable to fulfill its potential.     

The importance of contextual factors for reform efforts in rural local governments

Local governments in rural areas are often characterized as lacking in professionalism and capacity necessary for confronting the variety of problems that must be addressed at the local level.

The public administration perspective is often one of recommending reforms to enhance the efficiency and effectiveness with which these governments do things, thereby increasing their capacity to manage their affairs. Well meaning reformers often take for granted the fact that constituents of the reform-targeted governments also recognize the need for change. In practice, the opposite may be closer to the truth. The State of Mississippi has just endured several years of bitter struggles to restructure its county governments. Resistance to structural reform of county government in Mississippi is largely a factor of the existing split between rural citizens and those who live within incorporated municipalities. While rural citizens generally oppose reforms, this opposition virtually disappears when only African-American citizens are examined. There are some important differences associated with the region of the state in which one resides. These differences are not as important as the message they convey. Reform efforts are important for improved governance in rural areas, but their success or failure may depend upon how accurately we assess the socio-political environment in which these reforms are introduced.     

Recent developments

The tertiary sector is operating in an increasingly market-driven environment. Teaching standards are under intense scrutiny as universities strive to meet the expectations of students exercising consumer choices. Continuing professional development programmes have a pivotal role in supporting and shaping best practice in modern law schools. Early career academics in both the New Zealand and British university systems share similar teaching and learning objectives.

However, the respective professional development programmes have different compliance regimes. The United Kingdom has adopted a scheme of formal training and teaching accreditation, supported by the UK Professional Standards Framework. In New Zealand mandatory training requirements are more limited. It is submitted that New Zealand universities should similarly require probationary academics to undertake a formal programme which promotes an understanding of the scholarship of teaching. It is further argued that programmes in both jurisdictions should emphasise subject-specific pedagogical knowledge to expose law teachers to the distinct academic and vocational aspects of their discipline.     

Globalisation,liberal theory and the spatiality of governance in Sub‐Saharan Africa

The debate over development and democracy is a highly charged one, because the two concepts are open to such divergent interpretation. In recent years, while academics were discovering globalisation, the major international financial institutions have been championing a particular version of the democracy‐development debate centred upon the notion of governance. They contend that democratisation and institutional reforms must occur before or alongside economic development. This article argues that their vision of governance is highly normative and simplifies reality for ideological purposes. This revolves around a particular reading of liberal political economy which sees political institutions as neutral arbiters and civil society as a space of freedom for plural voices. These formulations are implicitly spatial since they see political space as divided neatly into the international, national and local and thereby ignore the multiple power flows between these sites. The article concludes by trying to reformulate some of these concerns around the idea of the developmental state and progressive democracy.     

Pop culture portrayals of capital punishment: A review ofDead Man Walking andAmong the Lowest of the Dead

American Journal of Criminal Justice -     

Validation and uses of a Y-chromosome STR 10-plex for forensic and paternity laboratories

Y-chromosome short tandem repeats (Y-STRs) provide valuable information in cases of rape and questioned paternity, and they allow for the genetic identification of male lineages. The present study validated a Y-STR 10-plex on the ABI PRISM 3100 Genetic Analyzer for use in forensic and paternity laboratories at Orchid Cellmark. Following optimization of the polymerase chain reaction, father-son pairs were analyzed to ensure that each pair generated identical haplotypes. This study demonstrated that the 10-plex is sensitive to 0.125 ng of input DNA and that female samples mixed with male samples did not interfere with Y-STR haplotyping. In a sample of 525 males, there were three instances of locus multiplication, two at DYS19 and one at DYS435. Overall, haplotype diversity was 0.996, suggesting that the 10-plex can effectively distinguish among male lineages.     

Spain and the antipsychiatric aesthetic

This article outlines a family resemblance in the work of authors and film-makers of the 1960s and 1970s in Spain. In the light of the international zeitgeist most often termed “antipsychiatry,” the works of Michel Foucault (1926–1984) and R. D. Laing (1927–1989) make up the critical focus for the formulation of an “antipsychiatric aesthetic” in Spanish literature. In the novels Tiempo de silencio (1961) by Luís Martín-Santos (1926–1964) and Volverás a Región (1967) by Juan Benet (1927–1993), and the film El espíritu de la colmena (1973) directed by Víctor Erice (1940–), this antipsychiatric aesthetic explores the relationship between doctor and patient in poetry as Scottish antipsychiatrist R. D. Laing had in practice. Contemporary to Foucault and Laing’s critique of the managerial doctor figure, these three texts re-enact this critique and extend its remit to embody the reader–writer/author–text/text–reader dialectic. Consequently, a specifically Iberian school of critical theory becomes apparent, that responds to the existential writings of Miguel de Unamuno (1864–1936). Embedded within these poetics are attempts to reframe the ontological anxieties that stem from a subjective experience of silence and control.