Mitochondrial profiling of dog hairs

In order to make greater use of dog hairs as forensic evidence, we have developed a robust method for duplex amplification of adjacent 306 and 332bp amplicons within the 5' hypervariable region (5' HVR) of the canine mitochondrial control region. In support of this, a 595bp region covering 35 polymorphic sites has been sequenced from the blood of 105 UK dogs. In total, 30 different haplotypes were observed, 13 only once whilst the commonest was seen 14 times; the overall exclusion capacity is 0.929. One animal was heteroplasmic in blood for a single base deletion and showed phenotypes ranging from near complete deletion to a predominance of the base among a sample of 12 hairs. In contrast, no evidence of heteroplasmy was seen in single hairs from 20 dogs which were not visibly heteroplasmic in blood. Phylogenetic analysis and comparisons with other published databases highlighted instances of possible recurrent mutation which may be relevant when interpreting single base differences between samples.     

Who Gains from Charitable Tax Credit Programs? The Arizona Model

The Bush administration and some states have promoted charitable tax credits as a way to increase private charitable giving, to support antipoverty programs, and to allow taxpayers to directly determine the utility and effectiveness of nonprofit services. Looking at Arizona's charitable tax credit program, this study assesses the strengths and limitations of this policy approach. Although charitable giving increased during the first two years of the program (1998 and 1999), tax returns from 2000 suggest it may be difficult to sustain these gains in a weak economy. Larger and better-known nonprofits and taxpayers who itemize their returns are the primary beneficiaries of the program. The program may put small but well-run organizations at a competitive disadvantage, weaken accountability in the sector, and pose administrative challenges to state departments of revenue. This analysis suggests that tax credits are not a panacea for the funding needs of nonprofits.     

Socioeconomic Context, Social Support, and Adolescent Mental Health: A Multilevel Investigation

This study examined whether the impact of contextual-level socioeconomic disadvantage on adolescent mental health is contingent upon individual-level perceptions of social support. Data are from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health (Add Health), a panel survey of a nationally representative United States sample (analytic N=18,417) of students in 7th through 12th grade. Effects of social support and social context on both internalizing problems (depressive symptoms) and externalizing problems (minor delinquency and violent behavior) are analyzed. Contextual-level socioeconomic disadvantage is positively associated with depressive symptoms, negatively associated with minor delinquency, and not directly associated with violent behavior. High perceived support from family, friends, and other adults offsets poor mental health, but is most protective in areas of low socioeconomic disadvantage. The mental health benefits of perceived social support are dampened in socioeconomically disadvantaged areas, compared to advantaged areas. Results suggest that interventions targeting only individual- or family-level processes within disadvantaged contexts may be inadequate at stemming psychological distress among adolescents. Richard G. Wight, Assistant Research Sociologist, conducts life course mental health research in the UCLA Department of Community Health Sciences. His work emphasizes the intersection of individual- and contextual-level factors that impact health within dyads, families, and neighborhoods. Amanda L. Botticello is a doctoral student in the UCLA Department of Community Health Sciences, where her work addresses the reciprocal relationships between depressive symptoms and problem drinking among adolescents. Carol S. Aneshensel is a Professor of Community Health Sciences at UCLA, where she applies principals of social stratification and life course theory to the analysis of quantitative data to better understand disparities in mental health risks.     

Taking It to the Next Level: The Elevation of District Court Judges to the U.S. Courts of Appeals

We address an important aspect of judicial careers: the elevation of judges from the U.S. District Courts to the Courts of Appeals. We argue that the likelihood of a judge being elevated is a function of informational cues and signals regarding the nature of the judge and the judge's compatibility with presidential preferences. We also expect norms involving the intersection between geography and Senate politics to affect a judge's elevation chances. Using data on district court judges appointed between 1946 and 1995, we find that the likelihood of a judge being elevated is a function of the judge's ideological compatibility with the president, the judge's previous ABA rating, and Senate norms involving state "ownership" of appeals court seats. Blunt indicators of policy preferences trump direct signals when presidents decide whom to elevate, leaving judges little control over their career prospects and thus less incentive to slant their decisions in the direction of the president's preferences.     

Negotiating the Politics of Inclusion: Women and Australian Labor Governments 1983 to 1995

The Hawke and Keating Labor governments have tended to practise a politics of inclusion in which women, along with other social groups, are seen to have an important part to play in building the new, internationally competitive Australian economy of the twenty-first century. Australian politics have therefore had a very different nature from that of the more exclusionary politics practised by British Conservative governments. While the politics of inclusion have given feminists room for manoeuvre, and facilitated some positive developments in areas such as affirmative action and childcare policies, feminists have had little success in challenging the overall direction of the governments' right-wing economic policies. Furthermore, the ‘economic’ has functioned as a meta-category which dissolves difference and conflict. The Australian experience therefore has both practical and theoretical implications for British feminists who may be experiencing a Labour government themselves before too long.     

Books in review

He is author of Reversing Language Shift; Yiddish: Turning to Life;and most recently, The Earliest Stage of Language Planning.     

Is Federalism a Political Question? An Application of the Marshallian Framework to Garcia

In Garcia v. San Antonio Metropolitan Transit Authority (1985)the Supreme Court relegated the matter of the wages and hoursof local government employees to the national political processas though the issue were a political question. More importantly,the Court left the determination of whether the issue requirednational political resolution up to Congress. This article appliessome of the writings of John Marshall to the Garcia case inorder to ascertain whether national political resolution ofthe issue was appropriate. Under Marshall's framework, matterswhich involve the enumerated powers of Congress or the impliedpowers of Congress are political issues. However, in contrastto the holding in Garcia, the question of whether a particularissue involves an enumerated or an implied power is a matterappropriate for judicial scrutiny.     

Parents' and teachers' beliefs about adolescents: Effects of sex and experience

Three studies examine beliefs that parents and teachers have about adolescents. A distinction is made between category-based beliefs (concerning adolescents as a group) and target-based beliefs (concerning individual adoles cents). In Study 1, 90 late elementary and junior high school teachers indicated degree of agreement with a set of category-based statements about adolescents. Parents of early adolescents in Study 2 (N=1272) responded to category- and target-based statements. Study 3 compares the responses of teachers in Study 1 and parents in Study 2. Both teachers and parents endorsed beliefs that adolescence is difficult, and that adults can have an impact. Compared to fathers, mothers believed more in difficulty and in the negative effects of biological change on behavior. Parents of daughters believed adolescence is more difficult than parents of sons. Among teachers, amount of experience with adolescents was positively associated with the belief that adolescence is a difficult period of life. For parents, the effect of amount of experience was mixed. Experience had a greater impact on the category-based beliefs of teachers than parents. Possible influences on the origins and modification of beliefs are discussed.Received Ph.D. in psychology from The University of Michigan. Research interests: adolescent development, effects of pubertal development on social development, hormones and behavior in early adolescence, and family processesCurrently on leave from The University of Michigan. Received Ph.D. in psychology from the University of California at Los Angeles. Research interests: development of self-concept, subjective task value, interests, and activity preferences, especially during early and middle adolescence. Dr. Eccles is also investigating the impact of school and family experiences on these constructs.Received Ph.D. in psychology from The University of Michigan. Research interests: the impact 6f family stress on adolescent development and family decision-making practices.Received Ph.D. in educatiqn from The University of Michigan. Research interests: adolescent development, middle years education, teacher beliefs, and classroom processes.Received M. A. in education from the University of Michigan. Research interests: adolescent development, classroom environments, and supporting beginning teachers.Received Ph.D. in social work and psychology from The University of Michigan. Research interests: family processes and development.Portions of this paper were presented at the 1987 biennial meetings of the Society for Research in Child Development. This research was made possible by grants from the National Institute of Mental Health (MH31724-04, -05) to Jacquelynne S. Eccles, and the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (HD17296-01, -02, -03,S1) to Jacquelynne S. Eccles.