Analysis of DNA profiles extracted from degraded samples from archival of formalin fixed tissue included in paraffin (FFTIP) and hairs

The possibility of studying DNA extracted from archival of formalin fixed tissue included in paraffin (FFTIP) enables valuable retrospective investigations. However, according to some authors it is difficult to obtain genomic DNA of good quality, since the process of fixation often results in fragmentation of DNA. In order to evaluate the quality and quantity of DNA extracted, necropsy samples of FFTIP (spleen/lung) and hairs, with or without bulbs, were analyzed using three methods of extraction (QIAamp DNA mini, QIAamp DNA micro-kit and phenol–chloroform followed by microcon YM-30). The amount of DNA recovered was quantified by spectrophotometer. The β-actin, amelogenin gene and the profiles of STR were analyzed. Based on experimental results, a general guideline concerning the appropriate extraction method according to the tissue and the quantity of the starting material for the analysis of DNA from FFTIP and hairs could be suggested.     

Fundamentalism's encounters with citizenship: the Haredim in Israel

This paper centers on the challenge that fundamentalist groups – such as the Israeli ultra-Orthodox community (the Haredim) – pose for citizenship. It focuses on two issues: challenges centering on contribution to and sacrifice for the Israeli nation-state; and alternatives that fundamentalism poses to definitions of citizenship. Empirically, it is based on research in three arenas: service in the Israeli military; a voluntary organization aiding state agencies after terror attacks (ZAKA), and a charitable association offering help in health and social welfare (Yad Sarah). Two trends – challenges to concepts of security and the state, and the weakening of the state in the economic sphere and social services – have opened up spaces for fundamentalist groups to operate in civil society and complement the state. The Haredi community has gradually developed a new concept of inclusion that both fits the state-centred view of citizenship and their own fundamentalist perspective.     

Cultural citizenship and performing homecoming: Russian Jewish immigrants decipher the Zionist national ethos

The paper explores the mutual relation between cultural citizenship and national homecoming. Using the case study of Russian-Jewish immigrants in Israel, it refines the theoretical debate over cultural citizenship by showing how homecoming migration shapes the homecomers' bargaining power over the local cultural tenets. In particular, the research examines the ways in which the ‘Russian’ immigrants negotiate the national ethos of homecoming that constitutes the Israeli civic, discursive field, while dismantling it into its root components: affinity to the place, collective memory, and the warrior ethos. Each of these components constitutes a sphere of action that embodies the tension between Israeliness and Jewishness, nationalism and citizenship, and the personal and the collective. Our main contention is that in the case of homecoming migration, the inextricable affinity between citizenship and nationalism shapes the homecomers' cultural citizenship: on the one hand, it secures their right to participate in the local cultural discourse and avails bargaining power, while on the other hand, it neutralizes the homecomers' subversive voice, and reduces their capacity to undermine the constitutive, national tenets. The analysis is based on immigration stories gathered via in-depth interviews that were conducted with 43 Jewish university students who immigrated to Israel from the former USSR in the beginning of the 1990s.     

Battered Women and the Criminal Justice System: The Service Providers' Perspective

This article reports on a study of the service providers' perspective on what battered women face when entering the criminal justice system. Victim non-co-operation with the system can manifest itself in various ways and at several points in the process. The article begins with a review of the available literature on the criminal justice system's responses to women battering. Then the experiences and perceptions of service providers in Ohio concerning these responses are described, and, consequently, the findings according to factors which may affect service providers responses are analyzed. The article concludes with an assessment of the policy implications of the system's response to women battering.     

A qualitative study of compact bone microstructure and nuclear short tandem repeat obtained from femur of human remains found on the ground and exhumed 3 years after death

Forensic identification of human remains is composed of anthropological study of race, sex, age, etc. By using these traditional methods, inconclusive or nonidentified cases could be subjected to DNA analysis. However, in spite of advances in human identification techniques, especially by PCR-amplified DNA, some limitations that affect the ability of obtaining DNA from human remains still persist. Light microscope sections of postmortem compact bones from human remains are presented here for the purpose of increasing a forensic examiner's prediction of successful nuclear DNA typing. Femoral compact bones were obtained from 7 human remains found on the ground, in different degrees of decomposition, and were cleaned by boiling to remove soft tissues, 8 collections of bones having undergone natural decomposition, not boiled (as no soft tissue was adhered), and 5 cadavers 12 to 16 hours postmortem. The histologic sections were stained by hematoxylin and eosin, the loci CSF1PO, TPOX, TH01, F13A01, FESFPS, vWA, D16S539, D7S820, D13S317, and amelogenin were amplified by PCR, and the polyacrylamide gel was stained with silver. The results presented here clarify questions concerning the viability of DNA for identification analysis, and they also may help to establish better strategies for optimization of DNA extraction and analysis in compact bones of human remains.     

Multimedia Content Coding and Analysis: Unraveling the Content of Jihadi Extremist Groups' Videos

This article presents an exploratory study of jihadi extremist groups’ videos using content analysis and a multimedia coding tool to explore the types of video, groups’ modus operandi, and production features that lend support to extremist groups. The videos convey messages powerful enough to mobilize members, sympathizers, and even new recruits to launch attacks that are captured (on video) and disseminated globally through the Internet. They communicate the effectiveness of the campaigns and have a much wider impact because the messages are media rich with nonverbal cues and have vivid images of events that can evoke not only a multitude of psychological and emotional responses but also violent reactions. The videos are important for jihadi extremist groups’ learning, training, and recruitment. In addition, the content collection and analysis of extremist groups’ videos can help policymakers, intelligence analysts, and researchers better understand the extremist groups’ terror campaigns and modus operandi, and help suggest counterintelligence strategies and tactics for troop training.