Evaluation of Direct PCR Amplification Using Various Swabs and Washing Reagents

DNA profiles were generated via direct amplification from blood and saliva samples deposited on various types of swab substrates. Each of the six non-FTA substrates used in this research was punched with a Harris 1.2 mm puncher. After 0.1 μL of blood or 0.5 μL saliva, samples were deposited on each of these punches, samples were pretreated with one of four buffers and washing reagents. Amplification was performed using direct and nondirect autosomal and Y-STR kits. Autosomal and Y-STR profiles were successfully generated from most of these substrates when pretreated with buffer or washing reagents. Concordant profiles were obtained within and between the six substrates, the six amplification kits, and all four reagents. The direct amplification of substrates which do not contain lysing agent would be beneficial to the forensic community as the procedure can be used on evidence samples commonly found at crime scenes.     

Medicating the salaryman lifestyle: fear-based marketing of liver stimulant drugs in postwar Japan

This article studies the heretofore unexplored fear-based print marketing campaigns for postwar hangover remedies and liver drugs sold by Japan's leading drug manufacturers of the 1950s, including Chūgai, Takeda, Tanabe, Sankyō, and Yamanouchi. It reveals that these drugs were creatively and predatorily marketed to salarymen and their wives in hundreds of newspaper and magazine ads that raised the spectre of liver damage and related diseases due to overconsumption of alcohol and tobacco. It demonstrates that the makers claimed not only that their formulations could remedy liver damage, but could even serve as prophylactics that would guard against the dangers of alcohol and nicotine poisoning and enable users to drink and smoke to excess without fear. The robust copy and clever imagery appearing in the ads also illustrate the social pressures facing salarymen to drink with colleagues after work on an almost nightly basis, as well as at a series of seasonal office parties and gatherings throughout the year. This article is the first to examine how drug makers took aim at some of postwar Japan's leading causes of ill health, alcohol and tobacco abuse, as well as chemical poisonings and even morning sickness, by selling an array of ineffectual drugs based on untested and dubious claims. It charts the drug makers' increasingly outlandish ads, the slow realization that their drugs were potentially hazardous, and their swift withdrawal from the market by 1960. It argues that, amidst a rise in alcohol overconsumption and comparatively lax testing and marketing regulations, Japan's postwar pharmaceutical firms exaggerated and preyed upon consumer health concerns in hundreds of frightening and pseudoscientific ads for largely untested and potentially hazardous drugs.     

Affordable Homeownership: The Incidence and Effect of Down Payment Assistance

Using data from a panel study of low- and moderate-income homeowners, we assess the determinants of the use of several types of down payment assistance and the effect of using assistance on mortgage performance. Although we find differences in reliance on types of assistance, we find no difference in mortgage performance between those who used assistance and those who did not. Based on these findings, we urge caution in imposing down payment requirements that disproportionately restrict access to mortgage credit.     

What Would Mary Douglas Do? A Commentary on Kahan et al., “Cultural Cognition and Public Policy: The Case of Outpatient Commitment Laws”

Involuntary outpatient commitment is a highly controversial issue in mental health law. Strong supporters of outpatient commitment see it as a form of access to community-based mental health care and a less restrictive alternative to hospitalization for people with severe mental illness; vocal opponents see it as an instrument of social control and an unwarranted deprivation of individual liberty. Kahan and colleagues apply the theory of “cultural cognition” in an empirical study of how cultural worldviews influence support for outpatient commitment laws among the general public and shape perceptions of evidence for these laws’ effectiveness. This article critiques Kahan et al. and offers an alternative perspective on the controversy, emphasizing particular social facts underlying stakeholders’ positions on outpatient commitment laws.     

Report of the royal commission on population ‐ A comment

The purpose of this paper is to present estimates of expenditure elasticities and household‐size elasticities derived from nationwide budget‐survey data of both urban and rural households conducted by the National Statistical Office of Malawi. All too often demand projections are based on demand elasticities derived from small samples in the capital city which can give a highly misleading picture of how demand may be expected to grow. Urban/rural differences in elasticities and possibly differences between different urban areas contribute to these inaccuracies. These possibilities are examined in sections 5 and 6 which present and discuss the results and make some tentative demand projections. The sample functional form utilized, and the estimation technique are discussed in sections 2, 3 and 4 respectively. In section 7 results of several different elasticities studies conducted in Eastern Africa are presented and compared.     

Wilfulness redefined: In re Seagate

In In re Seagate Tech. LLC, the US Court of Appeals for theFederal Circuit redefined wilfulness relating to patent infringement,altered how wilfulness will be litigated, and as a result, manycompanies may reconsider their defensive opinion policies.