The use of indigo derivatives to dye denim material.

Recently, attention was again drawn to the use of microspectrophotometry to distinguish between fibres dyed with indigo and seven derivative dyes. Under normal circumstances, fibres dyed with indigo (Vat Blue 1 or CI Number 73000) are not included in fibre-transfer examinations as, being ubiquitous, they do not usually have any evidential value. Indigo substitutes are used for fashion dyeing. If their use is widespread, the assumption that all denim material is dyed with Vat Blue 1 may need revising. A positive finding might make it necessary to reconsider the use of certain denim fabrics as capable of providing target fibres. Fibres from 160 samples of denim articles in current use were examined by microspectrophotometry to determine whether either indigo derivative dyes, or other dyes, had been used instead of the traditional indigo.     

台湾的认同危机和台独势力的发展

过去30年来,台湾民众的民族认同和台湾政府的国家认同危机的发展、台独势力的扩张以及民主的进程,虽促进了台湾社会的发展,同时也加剧了海峡两岸的矛盾和对立,并可能把台湾推向战争的灾难。台湾民众和台湾政府对面临的现实和可能要作出选择,最终解决台湾的认同危机。     

The correctional melting pot: Race, ethnicity, citizenship, and prison violence

The United States prison population is becoming more diverse and comprised of increasingly more violent inmates. Although race has been cited as a risk factor for inmate violence, most prior research had narrowly investigated White/Black differences in inmate misconduct. Using a sample of 1,005 inmates from the southwestern U.S., the current study explored racial, ethnic, and citizenship correlates among male and female prisoners. Negative binomial regression models indicated that net of controls, Hispanics and Native Americans were the most violent male prisoners, while African Americans and Native Americans were the most violent female inmates. The current study was admittedly modest in scope; however, the findings were couched within a broader, imperative sociological framework that lamented the increasing interplay between communities and prison and the role of prison as a social institution.     

Zimbabwe black population data on the six short tandem repeat loci – CSF1PO, TPOX, THO1, D3S1358, VWA and FGA

Allele frequencies for six tetrameric short tandem repeat (STR) loci CSF1PO, TPOX, THO1, D3S1358, VWA, and FGA were determined in a Black African sample population from Zimbabwe. All loci are highly polymorphic and meet Hardy-Weinberg expectations. An inter-class correlation test analysis detected only one departure from independence out of 15 pair-wise comparisons of the six loci (i.e., CSF1PO/VWA loci, P=0.026). The allele frequency data at four of the six STR loci in the Black African sample population are similar to African American data.     

A New Dynamism in World Politics: Increasingly Skillful Individuals?

Our inquiry is the first phase of a project designed to explore systematically whether individuals are becoming more equipped to play a central role in world affairs. It hypothesizes that individuals have undergone a skill revolution, leading them to be more analytically competent, emotionally capable, and politically effective in assessing events, developing alternatives, and executing effective political action. The first phase is confined to the skills of elites: we tested the predicted generational changes by analyzing the skills of three types of individuals—elected officials in the U.S. Congress, witnesses at congressional hearings, and contributors to the daily press in three countries—in two widely separated epochs as they evaluated events across three issue areas—foreign affairs, international trade, and human rights. In doing so we randomly selected nearly one thousand paragraph-sized statements and coded them according to the methodology prescribed by the Integrative Complexity Coding Manual. All in all, our findings supported the hypothesis: the skill level of the sampled individuals was found to have increased over several generations by a statistically significant (P < .001) average greater than 10 percent. Each issue area also showed gains in the same direction between the two epochs and across all types of elites; and all of these results also met the 95 percent confidence level for statistical significance. Inasmuch as this finding does not negate the possibility of a long-term trend toward more capable publics, it points to the need for further research into the dynamics whereby world politics may become increasingly sensitive to demands at the micro level.     

UNDERSTANDING THE ROLE OF THE MEDIATOR IN CHILD PROTECTION PROCEEDINGS

Mediators in child protection proceedings have a distinctive role. The cases present complex and emotion-laden issues. Mediators must go beyond their established role as a third-party neutral and ensure that the process neither adds to the trauma a child and family have already experienced nor jeopardizes the safety of the child.