Evaluation of haplotype discrimination capacity of 35 Y-chromosomal short tandem repeat loci

The haplotype discrimination capacity of the 9 Y-chromosomal short tandem repeat (Y-STR) loci comprising the so called minimal haplotype together with additional 26 recently described single-copy Y-STRs was evaluated within 391 males from Germany, The Netherlands, and Turkey. The aim of this study was to identify the minimum number of Y-STRs needed in addition to the recommended 9 minimal haplotype loci or the 11 SWGDAM loci for individualizing male lineages. Highest gene diversities were shown for DYS385 loci, DYS449, DYS481, DYS570, DYS447, DYS576, DYS389-II, and DYS390 (D=0.7518-0.8746). The five Y-STRs DYS447, DYS449, DYS481, DYS570, and DYS576 comprised the smallest set of loci in addition to the previously recommended standard Y-STRs leading to the individualization of all males from each single population group. Complete resolution of the pooled population was achieved by the additional genotyping of two further loci, DYS446 or DYS505 and DYF406S1 or DYS522.     

Tax rates, tax administration and income tax evasion in Switzerland

This paper contains an empirical analysis of income tax noncompliance in Switzerland, based on the standard model of tax evasion. Noncompliance is found to be positively related to the marginal tax burden and negatively to the probability of audit, though the latter impact is only weak. There is no evidence of a significant deterrent effect of the penalty tax. The extended model reveals that noncompliance is positively related to inflation. Finally, noncompliance is significantly lower when citizens/taxpayers have direct control over government budgets, whereas the opposite holds when there is no such control.     

Regulation of Legal Service Plans

Legal service plans, widely regarded as the key to better availability of legal services for Americans of moderate incomes, have not yet found their proper place in the legal and regulatory framework. Uncertainty about regulatory requirements threatens to hold up progress. This article presents the results of a three-year study of alternative approaches to the regulation of legal service plans. It analyzes the inherent dangers of various types of plans and suggests ways of providing adequate protection for consumers while preserving maximum freedom and flexibility for experimentation with new delivery systems. Specifically, the authors recommend the existing and time-tested system of insurance regulation as the most suitable model for plans having a significant risk-carrying element, subject, however, to appropriate amendments to accommodate the unique features of some kinds of plans, such as bar-sponsored nonprofit organizations, and with special procedures to ensure close cooperation with disciplinary authorities as far as the conduct of lawyers is concerned.
A volume containing all the principal and background papers prepared in this study, including a modified version of the present article, will be published by the American Bar Foundation as Legal Service Plans: Approaches to Regulation .     

Postmortem Distribution of 3‐Beta‐Hydroxybutyrate

The concentrations of 3‐beta‐hydroxybutyrate (3HB) in femoral blood, urine, vitreous humor as well as pericardial and cerebrospinal fluids were retrospectively examined in a series of medico‐legal autopsies, which included cases of diabetic ketoacidosis, hypothermia fatalities without ethanol in blood, bodies presenting mild decompositional changes, and sudden deaths in chronic alcoholics. Similar increases in 3HB concentrations were observed in blood, vitreous, and pericardial fluid, irrespective of the cause of death, suggesting that pericardial fluid and vitreous can both be used as alternatives to blood for postmortem 3HB determination. Urine 3HB levels were higher than blood values in most cases. Cerebrospinal fluid 3HB levels were generally lower than concentrations in blood and proved to be diagnostic of underlying metabolic disturbances only when significant increases occurred.     

Accounting for failure in the nationalised enterprises — coal,steel and cars since 1970

This paper analyses the nature of the strategic miscalculations in nationalised British coal, steel and cars since the early 1970s. Specifically, it examines the extent to which the initial strategic miscalculations were caused by an uncritical use of return on investment (ROI) techniques and the extent to which subsequent operational retreat was determined by profit and loss considerations. The general conclusion is that financial (mis)calculation was a secondary problem in enterprises which did not identify their productive problems and could not solve their market difficulties. In our three cases, large-scale investment was futile when the state did not safeguard the market for the final product.