Characterization of 26 miniSTR loci for improved analysis of degraded DNA samples

An additional 20 novel mini-short tandem repeat (miniSTR) loci have been developed and characterized beyond the six previously developed by our laboratory for a total of 26 non-CODIS miniSTR markers. These new markers produce short PCR products in the target range of 50-150 base pairs (bp) by moving the primer sequences as close as possible-often directly next to the identified repeat region. These candidate loci were initially screened based on their small amplicon sizes and locations on chromosomes currently unoccupied by the 13 CODIS STR loci or at least 50 Mb away from them on the same chromosome. They were sequenced and evaluated across more than 600 samples, and their population statistics were determined. The heterozygosities of the new loci were compared with those of the 13 CODIS loci and all were found to be comparable. Only five of the new loci had lower values than the CODIS loci; however, all of these were much smaller in size. This data suggests that these 26 miniSTR loci will serve as useful complements to the CODIS loci to aid in the forensic analysis of degraded DNA, as well as missing persons work and parentage testing with limited next-of-kin reference samples.     

SIBLING INTERACTION AND SELFREPORTED DELINQUENT BEHAVIOR: A STUDY OF 265 TWIN PAIRS*

The relationship between the quality of twins’mutual attachment and delinquency is examined in a study of 265 twin pairs. It is predicted that twins with stronger mutual attachments will have lower rates of delinquent behavior. Contrary to this prediction, twins’mutual attachment (that is, the frequency with which the twins saw each other in teenage activities) is found to be unrelated to delinquent behavior. The twins often cooperated, however, in their delinquent acts: 61 % of the girls and 79% of the boys reported committing one or more delinquent acts with their twins. In accord with social control theory, social bonds (normlessness, perceived parental acceptance-rejection, and value placed on academic achievement) are strongly associated with delinquent behavior. Except for male DZ twins, however, these same variables are only weakly associated with twins’mutual attachments. A behavioral genetic analysis of the social bonds indicate both genetic and specific environmental components to their variation but fail to show evidence of a shared environmental component. Implications of these findings are discussed.     

The forensic significance of conjunctival petechiae

Conjunctival petechiae were mentioned in 227 (4.5%) of 5,000 consecutive autopsy reports of the Dade County Medical Examiner Department. They were most frequently observed in those who had died natural deaths (particularly due to cardiovascular disease), followed by those who had died from asphyxia, head injury, and central nervous system disorders. The incidence of conjunctival petechiae in victims of homicidal asphyxiation was 78%. These data suggest that conjunctival petechiae most often are the result of hypoxia coupled with an acute increase in cephalic vascular pressure. The latter factor may be the consequence of mechanical vascular obstruction or acute right heart failure.     

Social isolation and inmate behavior: A conceptual framework for theorizing prison visitation and guiding and assessing research

Purpose

Scholarship suggests that prison visitation is important because it allows inmates access to social ties that, in turn, can offset social isolation and help inmates cope with the transition back into society upon release. Only a small number of empirical assessments of visitation exist, however, and existing studies have typically overlooked how the heterogeneity inherent in visitation may influence whether visitation is beneficial, harmful, or has no effect. The goal of this paper is to develop a conceptual framework for theorizing this heterogeneity and its impacts, evaluating visitation research, and guiding future research aimed at estimating visitation effects.

Methods

The paper reviews theory and research on inmate visitation. In so doing, it systematically examines heterogeneity in visitation and the implications of this heterogeneity.

Results

The paper identifies five dimensions—visitation timing, longitudinal patterns in visitation, visitor type, visitation experiences, and inmate characteristics—that can be used to characterize visitation events or patterns that, themselves, may have varied effects on in-prison outcomes and reentry outcomes.

Conclusions

More nuanced theories of, and empirical research on, inmate visitation are needed both to understand better the implications of visitation, and inmate social ties more broadly, and to advance theory, research, and policy.     

Genetic and environmental influences underlying the relationship between low self-control and substance use

Purpose

The current study seeks to examine the relationship between low self-control and cigarette smoking, alcohol use, and marijuana use in adolescence and adulthood using behavioral genetic methodology.

Methods

Using a subsample of twin pairs from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health (Add Health), the current study estimates the genetic and environmental overlap between low self-control and substance use (or problems associated with substance use) across four waves of data collection.

Results

The overall pattern of results suggests that genetic factors explain a moderate proportion of the variance in low self-control and substance use in both adolescence and adulthood. Furthermore, bivariate genetic analyses reveal that the correlation between low self-control and substance use is due, for the most part, to common genetic and nonshared environmental factors.

Conclusions

The current study adds to a growing body of biosocial research on self-control and its relationship to criminal and analogous behaviors. The implications of our findings for the general theory of crime are discussed.     

Universities and the teaching of forensic sciences to lawyers—a note *

This article presents the findings of the survey conducted among business and accountancy students of the Nanyang Business School, Singapore, on the teaching of business law. The article is organised in three main sections. Section 1 formulates the framework for the research by outlining the three basic approaches adopted across many jurisdictions for the legal education of business students—the traditionalist ("black‐letter law"), the environmentalist and mixed approaches. Section 2 briefly describes the survey questions drawn up in the light of four principal objectives that, according to legal educators, the teaching of business law should achieve. Section 3 presents and examines the findings. The article concludes that law teaching at the Nanyang Business School conforms to the traditional approach. The author accordingly makes recommendations for the transformation of current teaching and assessment medthods: an injection of a great deal of “environmental” content and context‐based education; more use of actual and current cases, practical examples and a link to the business environment.     

A blood cyanide distribution study in the rabbits intoxicated by oral route and by inhalation

Blood cyanide concentration was determined in rabbits intoxicated orally or by inhalation. Experiments were carried out under urethane anaesthesia. In the inhalation experiments, rabbits inhaled a combustion product containing HCN via the tracheal cannula and in the oral studies animals were administered NaCN solution into the stomach. In addition to the carotid artery and jugular vein blood samples, postmortem samples were obtained from both sides of the heart and the descending vena cava. The arterial cyanide concentration in the inhalation group showed a close relationship with ventilation. After an initial rise, blood levels decreased a little, in some cases with transient apnea. At the last stage it again increased with gasping, reaching its maximal value. After ultimate apnea, the blood cyanide concentration declined. The blood cyanide values were higher in the oral group than in the inhalation group. The difference between the two groups became larger in the inferior order, the left heart blood--the right heart blood--blood in the descending vena cava. The left heart/right heart ratio of the inhalation group was significantly higher than that of the oral group (1.28+/- 0.28 vs. 0.95+/- 0.09). The coefficient of variation (c.v.) of the inhalation group was larger than that of the other group. Within the inhalation group, the left heart blood showed the largest c.v. values and this was probably due to redistribution of the cyanide by bloodstream after attainment of the maximal concentration.     

The Sacrifice Of A Schoolgirl: The 1995 Rape Case,Discourses of Power,and Women's Lives in Okinawa

In September 1995 relations between the United States, Japan, and Okinawa were transformed when three U.S. servicemen brutally gang-raped a twelve-year-old schoolgirl. Okinawan feminists called public attention to the rape, but it wasn't long before the media and political leaders shifted their focus to concerns about Okinawa's colonial history and its postwar occupation by the United States. A crisis of sovereignty replaced the crisis for women and a particular girl, which gradually faded from view, as did the agenda of feminist activists. Through an examination of Okinawa's contentious identity politics, the author traces the political trajectories of Okinawa's component groups and asks why this particular crime, in a long list of crimes against Okinawans by U.S. personnel since 1945, resonates so strongly both in Okinawa and in mainland Japan. The author argues that the rape has been enlisted for its powerful symbolic capacity: Okinawa as sacrificed schoolgirl/daughter. As such it is emblematic of past, prior narratives of Okinawan victimhood, most notably the Himeyuri students in the Battle of Okinawa. Feminists' cooperation in a patriarchal language that posits Okinawa as daughter within a national Japanese family is problematic but necessary as a strategy in the fight for women's human rights.     

Kamikazefication and Japan's wartime ideology

Abstract

A number of recent works have focused on the personal experiences of kamikaze pilots, but very little has been published in English on the Japanese government's effort to “kamikazefy” the civilian population in the final year of the Asian PacificWar (1937-45). To illustrate this effort, this article employs images taken from the author's personal collection of over 2,500 Japanese wartime publications (predominantly periodicals). In early 1945, the Japanese government announced a “fight to the death for the home islands,” in which civilian “home-front warriors” would fight alongside troops in the event of an Allied invasion. Civilian combatants were expected to follow the “no surrender” policy hammered into Japanese servicemen and to emulate the kamikaze pilots' spirit of supreme sacrifice. The article begins with a brief discussion of the ideology behind kamikazefication, inviting comparisons with suicide missions in other times and places. Historical context is further established by an overview of media accounts of Japanese suicide missions in the Asian PacificWar, beginning with the mission carried out at Pearl Harbor on 7 December 1941. An analysis of media reportage shows how members of suicide missions were glorified and made into role models for all Japanese, even women and children. Servicemen who died for their country were enshrined at the Yasukuni Shrine in Tokyo. The article concludes by suggesting reasons why civilians, even those who died fighting in the war, have not been similarly honored.     

The environmental nightmare of the economic miracle: Land abuse and land struggles in Taiwan

Abstract

This is an article about gut feelings: The kind of gut feeling you get when you step out of an elegant wood-paneled coffee shop in Taipei, where you have sipped a dense European brew at U.S. $6.00 for a small cup, and are assaulted by a whirl of grit and trash in the humid eddies of air, the noxious fumes of motorcycles, and the growl and honk of nearby traffic. The mounting nausea you feel when you cannot avoid eyeing slop spilled from restaurant pails left for pickup by pig farms, mounds of used styrofoam bowls and drink cartons, mangy dogs rooting in the corner garbage heaps awaiting early morning collection, and scraps of rotting wood and rusting metal from long-abandoned carts. The unease you feel when you seek escape from the congested city center and find debris from construction sites egregiously scattered in supposedly scenic spots, and industrial and household waste piled up on every otherwise open piece of land, whether vacant lot or graveyard knoll. The choke and dry cough that becomes habitual after a few days of too many hours in stop-and-go city traffic, evenings of endless banquets with chain smokers, and nights in which the smoke of chemical emissions from faraway factories—venting illegally but with impunity under cover of darkness—seeps into your apartment, where you thought you were safe with your cool tiled floors and humming air conditioners.