Defecting alone or splitting together? Individual and collective party switching by legislators

Public Choice - While the nature of party switching is expected to have significant consequences for democratic representation, the current literature has not explored sufficiently the different...     

Region-building and critical juncture: Europe and Northeast Asia in comparative perspective

China, Japan, and Korea have begun to engage one another vigorously since the 1997 crisis. As intraregional economic ties have further deepened and broadened, interconnectedness in cultural and political aspects has risen rapidly in a variety of forms. Decision-makers and intellectuals in China, Japan, and Korea have been floating ideas and interests for establishing various types of Northeast Asian community formation. New security dialogues and co-operation frameworks also emerge. Accordingly, the rapidly growing Northeast Asia is likely to emerge as an identifiable regional community. With the incipient emergence of regional community in Northeast Asia, Northeast Asian region-building becomes a salient issue of major academic and policy debates. Yet, in spite of the recent mushrooming of research in and attention to the region-building, the questions regarding within what surrounding and under what situation regional community can be built, as well as what motivates people to choose region-building, and when and how state system can be transformed into a regional community remains only partly resolved. In order to solve this puzzle, this paper will compare the current Northeast Asian region-building with the early stage of European region-building, arguing that while there are important differences in evolution, format, and kind of region-building in Europe and Northeast Asia, critical juncture is influential in region-building.     

STR data for the AmpFlSTR Profiler Plus loci from Murcia region (SE Spain)

Frequency data of the nine STRs included in the AmpFlSTR Profiler Plus Kit were determined in a sample of 114 unrelated individuals from Murcia region (SE Spain).     

Population data for 16 Y-chromosome STRs in four populations from Pyrenees (Spain)

Population frequencies for the eight Y-STR loci included in the "minimal haplotype" from Y-STR Haplotype Reference Database (YHRD) plus other eight Y-STRs (DYS434, DYS435, DYS436, DYS437, DYS438, DYS439, GATA H4 and GATA A10) were obtained for a sample of 133 males from four main geographical areas in the Pyrenees (Spain): Vall D'Aran (Lérida), Cerdanya (Gerona), Alt Urgell (Lérida) and Jacetania (Huesca). Haplotype diversities were estimated in the four populations.     

Contribution for an African autosomic STR database (AmpF/STR Identifiler and Powerplex 16 System) and a report on genotypic variations

Allele frequencies, together with some parameters of forensic interest, for 17 STRs included in the AmpF/STR Identifiler (CSF1PO, D2S1338, D3S1358, D5S818, D7S820, D8S1179, D13S317, D16S539, D18S51, D19S433, D21S11, FGA, TH01, TPO and VWA) and Powerplex 16 System (CSF1PO, D3S1358, D5S818, D7S820, D8S1179, D13S317, D16S539, D18S51, D21S11, FGA, Penta D, Penta E, TH01, TPO and VWA) were estimated from a sample of 135-144 unrelated individuals from Mozambique. No deviations from Hardy-Weinberg equilibrium were observed with the exception of the FGA locus (using the Bonferroni correction for the number of loci analysed, the departure observed at this locus was not significant). Comparative analyses between our population data and other African databases, namely Promega's African-Americans, AB Applied Biosystems African-Americans and two other population samples from Mozambique and Guiné Bissau, are presented and discussed. Genotype inconsistencies between both commercial kits (for D16S539 and D8S1179) and other genotypic variations (three-banded allele patterns for TPO) are also reported.     

Sequence structure of 12 novel Y chromosome microsatellites and PCR amplification strategies

In this work, we present sequencing data for 12 recently reported Y STR loci (DYS434, DYS435, DYS436, DYS437, DYS438, DYS439, GATA A10, GATA 7.1, GATA 7.2, GATA C4, GATA H4, GATA A4), as well as the PCR multiplex strategies we implemented for their detection.Sequenced allelic ladders were constructed and a nomenclature for these new systems is proposed based on the sequence structure and following ISFG recommendations.GATA A4 and DYS439 are likely the same STR. They have the same STR structure and the alleles are always the same in the same individuals.Sequence polymorphisms were observed in the GATA C4 and DYS437 STRs. The variation in DYS437 was associated with a specific population group and is very interesting not only for forensic genetics but also for anthropological studies.