Allele sharing in first-degree and unrelated pairs of individuals in the Ge F I AmpFlSTR Profiler Plus database

Eleven Italian forensic laboratories participated in a population study based on the AB Profiler Plus loci with proficiency testing. The validated database, including 1340 individuals, is available on-line. Tests for Hardy-Weinberg equilibrium, gametic unbalance, and heterogeneity of gene frequency were generally not significant. Gene frequencies at each locus were consistent with those of two previously published Italian studies, but different from a third. Individuals of each subsample were paired, and the total number of alleles shared across the nine loci was determined in each pair. The analysis was replicated over the total sample. In addition, two samples of mother-child pairs (N=315) and full-sib pairs (N=91) were subjected to allele sharing analysis. The resulting distributions were sufficiently distinct from the sample of unrelated pairs as to be of practical usefulness.     

The university and the human sciences

The current malaise affecting the university in general and the human sciences in particular has a deeper origin than is usually recognized. It has to do with the gap between science and culture, between the scientific way of dealing with things and the ordinary-lifeway of dealing with them. The more the university is seen as the bastion of science, the less those sciences, which traditionally deal with human affairs as seen from the ordinary, common sense point of view, are taken seriously. It is particularly the Geisteswissenschaften which are de facto depreciated. The usual reaction is an attempt to ever more professionalism and methodological rigidity also in these sciences. This leads to disastrous consequences both for the Geisteswissenschaften and for the university as a whole. This revised version was published online in July 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

About pigs?: Decisions,outcomes and project planning

At the heart of a misleading conceptualisation of policy practice is what we refer to as the ‘common-sense’, ‘mainstream’ or ‘linear’ model of public policy. This model represents public policy as a dichotomous linear process, of two distinct but sequential phases. The process begins with a decision or a sequence of activities which culminate in a decision. The decision also constitutes a ‘policy’. Then there is a break. On the other side of the divide is ‘policy implementation’ … the unthinking acceptance of the mainstream model in policy analysis has … important and dangeous consequences (Clay and Schaffer, 1985, p.3).     

Trends in policy sciences research: determinants and developments

Abstract. The policy sciences have been evolving as a discipline over the past thirty years, but the development has been less than clear, its directions somewhat uncertain. Still, the founding characteristics, as set forth by its early proponents, have remained relevant and relatively constant. The policy sciences have been defined by their multidisciplinary perspective, their problem-oriented, contextual approach, and their treatment of normative standards. This paper reviews the development of the policy sciences in light of these three hallmarks and observes how each has experienced great variations. Finally, the paper suggests six emerging conditions which could have a significant effect on the future development and practice of the policy sciences.     

Hooliganism under the Statistical Magnifying Glass: A Belgian Case Study

In Belgium the most important football matches are statistically recorded. Therefore this case is presented to demonstrate what can be learnt from statistics and other qualitative information in order to assess hooliganism: the number of hardcore elements, their size, their maximum capacity for mobilisation, the age groups involved, the degree of activism, the number and characteristics of the incidents involved, links with political crime and/or extremism, relationships and/or rivalries with other hardcore elements, the size of the police resources deployed in order to tackle them, and the impact of certain measures in the fight against hooliganism. A number of the characteristics of the phenomenon of hooliganism (renewal, adaptation and international relationships, in particular) mean that one has to go beyond the pure and simple canvas of a questionnaire with a statistical vocation. It is for this reason that the statistical information in Belgium has, from the very start (the 1991-1992 season) been backed up by telephone interviews with special witnesses from various Belgian hardcore elements.     

城市·市场·法律——西方法律史中的“城市法”考察

本文考察了西方前近代社会历史中城市法制度的独特性质及其后来对西欧社会发展的影响等问题 ,认为从西欧社会城市法制度的经验看 ,市场、城市和法律三者之间具有十分密切的联系。其中城市法使市场和城市具有了一体性的内在关系并同时使城市成为自治实体 ,这正是使市场经济得以繁荣发展的关键。同时城市法制度的最终发展又走向极端 ,从而又成为统一市场形成的障碍 ,进而由民族国家取代城市而统一市场 ,城市法的使命终结了 ,近代法开始兴起。     

Differentiated Distributive Justice Preferences? Configurations of Preferences for Equality,Equity and Need in Three Welfare Domains

Social Justice Research - Empirical public opinion research on distributive justice often does not acknowledge that individuals’ social justice preferences may strongly depend on the...     

feminist data studies: using digital methods for ethical,reflexive and situated socio-cultural research

What could a social-justice oriented, feminist data studies look like? The current datalogical turn foregrounds the digital datafication of everyday life, increasing algorithmic processing and data as an emergent regime of power/knowledge. Scholars celebrate the politics of big data knowledge production for its omnipotent objectivity or dismiss it outright as data fundamentalism that may lead to methodological genocide. In this feminist and postcolonial intervention into gender-, race- and geography-blind ‘big data’ ideologies, I call for ethical, anti-oppressive digital data-driven research in the social sciences and humanities. I argue that a reflexive data scholarship can emerge from the reintegration of feminist and postcolonial science studies and ethics of care ideals. Although it is not a panacea for all ails of data mining, I offer a road map for an alternative data-analysis practice that is more power-sensitive and accountable. By incorporating a people-centric and context-aware perspective that acknowledges relationships of dependency, reflects on temptations, and scrutinises benefits and harm, an ‘asymmetrically reciprocal’ (Young, 1997) research encounter may be achieved. I bring this perspective to bear on experiences of a two-year research project with eighty-four young Londoners on digital identities and living in a highly diverse city. I align awareness of uneven relations of power and knowledge with the messy relation of dependency between human and non-human actors in data analysis. This framework productively recognises that digital data cannot be expected to speak for itself, that data do not emerge from a vacuum, and that isolated data patterns cannot be the end-goal of a situated and reflexive research endeavor. Data-driven research, in turn, shows the urgency for renewed feminist ethical reflection on how digital mediation impacts upon responsibility, intersectional power relations, human subjectivity and the autonomy of research participants over their own data.