A molecular classification of moles and its use in filiation tests

Pregnancies, including ones that follow sexual assaults, occasionally produce hydatidiform moles. The alleged fathers (AFs) of moles have been tested for paternity by identifying the mole's locus phenotype—the one or two visible paternal obligate alleles (POAs) per locus. The probability that the mole inherited the POAs from the AF was divided by the probability that the mole inherited the POAs from a random man. This likelihood ratio (LR) would increase if the mole's specific genotype was known. Moles are generated in five different ways that produce five distinct genotypes. Examining a mole's multilocus STR profile reveals a mole's pathogenesis, determines locus genotypes, and increases paternity LRs.     

Another path to customs reform: Mexico's second inspection

This paper presents two theses about reforming customs administration in developing countries. First, that modern customs systems increasingly rely on documentary audit rather than physical control and that the private sector can improve the information needed to strengthen audit. Second, that reform of customs administration in developing countries requires building both accountability and efficiency. The widespread use of Pre-Shipment Inspection (PSI) services by developing countries and Mexico's innovative privatized second inspection supports the first thesis and Mexico's experience with privatizing a key layer of its customs administration supports the second thesis.

This paper examines Mexico's recently introduced Second Customs Inspection which is a novel approach of using private firms to improve the accountability of a customs system. The Second Inspection is uniquely poised to improve both physical control and documentary audit in Mexico's customs by clearly defining the inspection as “rough justice.” “Rough justice"” is an approach to physical customs inspection that recognizes the limitations oftime and space of customs inspections prior to detailed documentary audit. Rough justice is an approach to customs administration that promotes systematic but selective review of contents and documents in the front end of the customs process (inspection) that can be done within reasonable time limits that do not unduly delay trade.     

From Great Britain to Sweden—The Import of Reassurance Policing. Local Police Offices in Metropolitan Stockholm

Martin Innes (2006) has called attention to a recent revitalization of community policing in the Anglo-American policing sphere, albeit in new forms and variations. The discursive and concomitant policy shift in Britain away from ‘community policing’ towards notions of ‘reassurance’ and ‘neighbourhood’ policing has not gone unnoticed in Sweden. Good ideas appear to travel readily eastwards from their British contexts to find translations in the Swedish context. Subsequently, in 2006 the regional police commander in the Stockholm metropolitan area initiated a new community policing programme with the establishment of 10–15 so-called local police offices in targeted depressed areas of the region, and by the end of 2009 there will be a total of 27. The overall goal of the programme is to create a sense of security among residents in these areas and to build upon and sustain the residents' trust and confidence in the police, while at the same time working towards achieving a reduction in crime and maintaining respect for law and order. In this paper I interrogate the translation processes whereby the notions of ‘reassurance’ and ‘neighbourhood’ policing have been partially adopted, adapted, and implemented in a Swedish policing context—collective translation processes that have been wrought with points of friction, i.e. both creative and unproductive resistance.     

Who ‘Owns’ the Streets? Ritual Performances of Respect and Authority in Interactions Between Young Men and Police Officers

Joining insights from the work of Richard Sennett and Erving Goffman, I probe the power relations which underlie the performances and negotiations of respect and authority in interactions between young men and police officers. Two cultures or codes of conduct most often clash in these confrontations, which interestingly enough bear some key similarities. The officers from the local police office that I observed attempted to avoid unnecessarily engaging youths in confrontations and thereby evaded contests of face. Their assignment in the field was to make their presence felt in the area they were patrolling and to bring the youth to an understanding that they were sharing this territory with them. The officers from the ‘street peace group’ had a different agenda and sought out confrontations with youths and thereby engaged them in public show‐downs over face. Their assignment in the field was to bring respect among the youth for the authority of the police, that is, to force a submission to their authority, and this is most readily accomplished through contests of face—contests in which they had the upper hand and through which they demonstrated time and again that they (the police authorities) controlled the streets (at least momentarily).     

‘We care about you,but …’: the politics of EU trade policy and development

The European Union (EU) is one of the most important markets for developing countries, and trade policy has long been one of its most important instruments for promoting development. There is, however, a paradox at the heart of the relationship between the EU's trade policy and development. On the one hand the EU's trade as development policy has undergone a paradigm shift, the objective shifting from supporting the former colonies of the EU's member states to addressing poverty and with a greater emphasis on reciprocal liberalization. On the other hand, the EU's conventional trade policy initiatives—particularly its market access objectives in the Doha Round and in commercially motivated bilateral trade agreements—have adverse consequences for developing countries, as does its tendency to adopt stringent product regulations. We argue that this paradox is explained by differences in how much traction the emphasis on the development implications of trade has had in the EU's various trade policy subsystems.     

PLATEAUS NOT SUMMITS: REFORMING PUBLIC FINANCIAL MANAGEMENT IN AFRICA

Successful public sector reform is rare in Africa. Over 12 years, Ethiopia transformed its public financial management (PFM) to international standards and now has the third best system in Africa that is managing the largest aid flows to the continent. This article presents a framework for understanding PFM reform based on the Ethiopian experience. Reforms succeed when they are aligned with the four drivers of public sector reform: context, ownership, purpose, and strategy. PFM is a core function of the state and its sovereignty, and it is not an appropriate arena for foreign aid intervention—governments must fully own it, which was a key to the success of Ethiopia's reform. The purpose of PFM reform should be building stable and sustainable “plateaus” of PFM that are appropriate to the local context, and they should not be about risky and irrelevant “summits” of international best practice. Plateaus, not summits, are needed in Africa. Finally, a strategy of reform has four tasks: recognize, improve, change, and sustain. Ethiopia succeeded because it implemented a recognize–improve–sustain strategy to support the government policy of rapid decentralization. All too often, much of the PFM reform in Africa is about the change task and climbing financial summits. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.