DNA collection from used toothbrushes as a means to decedent identification

ABSTRACT: Comparison of DNA profiles is often used in verifying the identification of deceased human beings when other easier, quicker, and less expensive means to identification are not possible. Fifty-five adult subjects divided into 3 groups provided a used toothbrush along with a small bloodstain control for DNA analysis and comparison. Results indicate that there is no significant difference in the quantity and quality of DNA recovered from a toothbrush that has been used for 1 month versus 3 months versus random periods. The results of this study confirm earlier conclusions that a used toothbrush is a reliable source of antemortem DNA from a putative decedent. The use of aviation snips to remove a small portion of the toothbrush head provides an easy, inexpensive method of obtaining a sample for DNA extraction. The authors recommend this method as a standardized technique for use in forensic DNA laboratories.     

Factionalism, Centralism, and Federalism in Argentina

Along with their renewed attention to the other principles andprovisions of Argentina's 137-year-old constitution, many Argentineleaders since 1983 have looked to federalism as one way to reducethe excessively centralized state that is often blamed for thecountry's authoritarian governments since 1930 and worseningeconomic inefficiency since the 1940s. They have not advocateda return to the factional period of 1810 to 1880, when federalistideas first were proposed amidst violent struggles between variousprovinces. Rather, they have drawn on those ideas and developedproposals about how federalism could help the nation alter somepolitical structures built from 1880 through 1982. Reversinga century of centralism has begun with difficulty, but the currentproblems faced by the national government give the proposalsa significant chance of being implemented.     

Taiwan as a Factor in China's Quest for National Identity

The premise of this paper is that China has a divided national identity, characteristic of a category of nation-states divided for political reasons since World War II. Until 1999, responsibility for this sense of national division could be diffused, but since the retrocession of Hong Kong and Macao, frustration and blame have focused on Taiwan, the last remaining symbol of China's ‘national humiliation’. Characteristic of such a divided identity are ambivalent feelings, aiming on the one hand to idealize and desire to incorporate the ‘missing’ or ‘lost’ segment of the nation, and on the other to punish it for refusing to return. It is important to understand that Chinese feelings about Taiwan are not a simple reflection of empirical developments on the island, but also project latent ideas about China's own unresolved national identity. China's attempts to overcome this division have undergone several changes, making significant progress while encountering difficult (and as yet still insuperable) obstacles.     

American Asia Policy and the U.S. Election

This article reviews post-Cold War U.S./Asia policy and its potential electoral impact even as the United States selects its future foreign policy leadership and course of direction. This essay is presented in three parts: the first focuses on the U.S. security architecture in the Asian region, a brief second section on the relevance of recent changes in regional political economy, and the third attempts to determine how this emerging economic-security model might dovetail with perceived American political interests at a time of national resolution.     

The Sino-Russian Strategic Partnership

The Sino-Russian Astrategic partnership, formed after decades of rancorous verbal (and sometimes lethal) dispute, we find to be genuine, bespeaking a genuine desire on both sides to put the past behind them and forge a more friendly and mutually profitable relationship. Certainly there are underlying problems and suspicions, but the painstakingly institutionalized, multi-stranded network of exchange and consultation seems quite capable of containing areas of friction. Though primarily oriented to bilateral concerns, the partnership also has a more ambitious international agenda, oriented essentially to the protection of national sovereignty from the forces of globalism and human rights, as typically symbolized by the United States.