Analysis of genotype frequencies and interlocus association for the PM, DQA1, and D1S80 loci in four populations

Allele frequencies of the LDLR, HBGG, GYPA, D7S8, GC, DQA1, and D1S80 loci are presented and genotypes are analyzed for each of four ethnic groups: African Americans (n = 200), US Caucasians (n = 200), US Hispanics (n = 200), and Japanese (n = 89). Hardy-Weinberg genotypic proportions were observed in all but two of the 28 population-locus tests undertaken. Those two instances are attributable to type I statistical error. Gametic equilibrium among loci is an assumption invoked for application of the product rule to utilize the discriminatory power from two or more loci simultaneously. Two statistical methods, a genotype matching statistic and log-linear modeling, were used to evaluate gametic disequilibrium. The match statistic, comparing observed to expected likelihood of genotypic identity for seven loci among pairs of individuals within the database, revealed only one statistically significant deviation among 20 tests. As expected, the probability of match was generally lowest in the test on all ethnic groups combined, indicating that allele frequencies differ among ethnic groups for some of the loci. This was confirmed with the statistic theta to measure ethnic stratification, in which about 0.10 of the genetic variation is apportioned among the four ethnic groups for four of the structural loci (LDLR, HBGG, GC, and DQA1), while for GYPA, D7S8, and D1S80, variation is more uniformly distributed among ethnic groups. Log-linear modeling was also applied to the five PM loci. The most parsimonious log-linear model included only three higher order terms: the two-way interactions of three of the PM loci with ethnic group. These three instances (LDLR, HBGG, and GC) indicated differences in allele frequencies between ethnic groups. No two or higher way interaction (disequilibrium) was observed among loci. In summary, the assumptions of Hardy-Weinberg and gametic equilibrium that facilitate the use of the five PM loci, DQA1 and D1S80 in forensic applications are consistent with the allele and genotype frequencies observed in these populations.     

HCFA's new restrictions on the operation of hospital outpatient facilities

The Health Care Financing Administration has promulgated new regulations that substantially alter the manner in which it treats Outpatient Facilities. This Article (1) provides an overview of these new restrictions on the operation of Outpatient Facilities; (2) discusses potential unintended consequences associated with these restrictions; and (3) raises issues that providers must consider as they assess how to comply with these new restrictions.     

Three Forms of Political Realism

In the recent study of international relations, political realism has, apparently, had as many supporters as detractors. Nonetheless, there seems to be a growing tendency to treat the categories of political realism as if they were passing the way of all flesh, destined to be replaced by system theory, transnationalism, Marxist structuralism, critical theory or whatever. One difficulty with this judgement is that political realism is not a single theoretical entity which can be refuted by single disconfirming instances. Nor is it an understanding of the subject rooted in the views of such well-known exponents of this school as Hans Morgenthau, Kenneth Thompson, Martin Wight, Sir Herbert Butterfield, E. H. Carr or Raymond Aron. On the contrary, political realism is a conception of politics which stretches back to the great Indian thinker Kautilya and in fact constitutes a many-mansioned tradition of thought about international relations. Three aspects of that tradition are examined in this essay: Common-sense Realism, Concessional Realism and neo-Aristotelian Realism. These reflections are only very tangentially related to the debates in the 1950s and 1960s concerning realism. This essay focuses, rather, on certain neglected features of contrasting philosophies of science. The article concludes, somewhat tentatively, that neo-Aristotelian Realism is coherent and cogent and superior in important respects to what scientific empiricism has to offer.     

L'évolution de la structure de gestion des affaires intergouvernementales au IMouveau-Brunswick: 1960–90

Sommaire: Les relations intergouvernementales du Nouveau-Brunswick ont-elles connu au cours des trois dernieres decennies des transformations de fond? Presque inexistant au debut des annees 1960, ce secteur de l'activite gouvernementale s'est developpe graduellement pour devenir, apres la victoire des Liberaux de Frank McKenna en 1987, un ministere a part entiere. Le present article se propose de decrire revolution et de determiner les principaux facteurs susceptibles d'expliquer l'absence de structures autonomes de gestion des affaires intergouvernementales de la province. Pourtant, les gouvernements Robichaud des annees 1960 et Hatfield des annees 1970 et 1980 ont souvent ete les initiateurs de projets de modernisation de l'activite gouvernementale. Comment expliquer alors qu'ils aient autant tarde a organiser la gestion des relations intergouvernementales? Ces decisions relevent-elles davantage de la societe neo-brunswickoise que de ses dirigeants politiques? En plus d'avoir consulte litterature et documentation sur le sujet, nous avons interroge plusieurs hauts fonctionnaires et hommes politiques des anciens et du present gouvernements. Un large consensus se degage parmi eux: la direction des relations intergouvernementales, etroitement controlee par les premiers ministres, leur Bureau et, a l'occasion, le Secretariat du Conseil des ministres, n'a pas souffert outre mesure de l'absence d'une bureaucratie plus structured. En depit de la recente creation du ministere des Affaires intergouvernementales, on constate que la gestion de ces affaires n'aurait pas beaucoup change pour autant. C'est toujours au Bureau du Premier ministre que sont prises les decisions cles en la matiere. Abstract: Did New Brunswick intergovernmental relations undergo fundamental changes over the last three decades? Virtually non-existent in the early 1960s, this government acrtivity sector developed gradually, emerging as a full-fledged ministry following the vitory of Frank McKenna's Liberals in 1987. The purpose of this article is to describe that change and to determine the main factors that could explain the lack of autonomous structures for managing the province's intergovernmental affairs. However, the Robichaud government in the 1960 and the hatfield government in the 1970s and 1980s often launched projects to modernize government activities. How should one therefore explain the fact that they were so late in organizing the management of intergovernmental relations? Do these decisions result more fron New Brunswick society than from its political leaders? In order to consult the relevant literture and documentation, we interviewed several high officials and politicians from current and past governments. Ther is a broad consensus among them: the management of intergovernmental relations, closely controlled by the premiers, their offices and, occasionally, the secretariat of cabinet, has not been particularly affected by the lack of a more structured bureaucracy. In spite of the recent creation of the Ministry of Intergovernmental Affairs, the management of those affairs would not appear to have changed a great deal. It is still within the premier's office that the key decisions in this field are made.     

“A Sacred Duty”: Red Army Women Veterans Remembering the Great Fatherland War, 1941–1945

Some 500,000 women fought with the Red Army in the Great Fatherland War, 1941‐1945. Based on a selection of women veterans’ memoirs published since the demise of the Soviet Union, this article looks at what these women choose to remember about the war, and how, and equally what they choose to forget or remain silent about. The paper seeks to illuminate shared or disparate collective and individual memory and experiences. A particular objective of the paper is to assess the degree to which these written recollections coincide with or deviate from the predominant patriotic, heroic, masculine paradigm of the Great Fatherland War and its historiography. The overall objective of the paper is to humanise the female faces behind the masculine mask of the Red Army at war against Nazism.     

Sir Henry Bland and the Fraser Government's Administrative Review Committee: Another Chapter in the Statutory Authority Wars?

The release of the 1976 Commonwealth cabinet records on 1 January 2007 provided the opportunity to review the work of the Administrative Review Committee (ARC) appointed by the Fraser government and headed by Sir Henry Bland and so to open up a hitherto little appreciated chapter in Australian administrative history. At first glance, it appeared that Bland's ARC had been strongly opposed to widespread use of statutory authorities, for so long a regular part of Australia's machinery of government, thus providing an interesting point of comparison with the Uhrig inquiry of 2003-04, which attracted much notice for its antipathy towards statutorily independent agencies. Given the unusual methodology of the ARC, it was also likely that an account of its work would shed further light on public inquiries generally, perhaps assisting in development of a typology of such inquiries.