Creating clones, kids & chimera: liberal democratic compromise at the crossroads

The objective of this article is to find middle ground between the supporters and opponents of biotechnology by perpetuating the existing legal compromise pertaining to the complete range of health and welfare doctrines relevant to the biotechnological industry. The author aspires neither to add to nor detract from this liberal democratic consensus, but to preserve its constitutive balance between positivism and natural law and over-regulation and under-regulation in the hopes of stabilizing new political fault lines developing around the few biotechnological innovations already grabbing headlines. The most feasible solution is to extend the existing liberal democratic compromise with respect to equal protection, reproductive rights, the First Amendment, human subject experimentation, patent law, and parental rights. This includes banning or monopolizing certain biotechnologies and extending substantive special respect to the ex vivo living human embryo. Biotechnology must not be left to regulate itself.     

Valuing Policy Alternatives: A Generalization

Those interested in political phenomena such as voting havefound random utility models, originally developed for decisionssuch as transportation choice, especially attractive, as theunderlying model can yield a statistical model with a few simple,realistic assumptions. Unfortunately, such models have provendifficult to apply to situations with more than two votes andthree alternatives or an unknown cutpoint. Additionally, aswe show, standard applications of such models to voting, whileproducing consistent parameter estimates, yield standard errorsthat are too small and, due to a failure to employ all relevanttheoretical information, biased ideal point estimates. We specifya general model applicable to any number of votes and alternatives,with correct standard errors and unbiased ideal point estimates.We apply this model to a number of cases studied by previousscholars involving legislative voting over the minimum wage:(1) when there are two votes and two known cutpoints (K. Krehbieland D. Rivers, American Journal of Political Science, 1988,32, 1151–1174); (2) when there are three votes and threeknown cutpoints (J. Wilkerson, American Journal of PoliticalScience, 1991, 35, 613–623); and (3) when there are threevotes but where one cutpoint is unknown given a lack of knowledgeabout the impact of a policy (J. Wilkerson, American Journalof Political Science, 1991, 35, 613–623) or the possibilityof sophisticated voting (C. Volden, Journal of Politics, 1998,60, 149–173). We show that in various contexts our analysisimproves on existing methods, yielding consistent and efficientideal point estimates and a better-fitting model with improvedpredictive accuracy.     

Immunohistochemical staining as a potential method for the identification of vaginal epithelial cells in forensic casework

There is currently no accurate method to identify vaginal epithelial cells uniquely. This study aimed to use a cell extraction procedure compatible with routine forensic sampling methods, and to investigate the expression of cytokeratin (CK), estrogen receptor-alpha (ERalpha), and phosphodiesterase 5 (PDE5) in order to distinguish between skin, buccal, vaginal, and external penile epithelial cells. Seminal fluid samples were also examined. Epithelial cell samples were fixed in formalin, embedded in agarose, and processed using histological methods. Antigen-antibody reactions were detected using the DAKO Envision+ detection system. CK was present in all cells from all five sources confirming the origin of cells as epithelial. Both ERalpha and PDE5 positively labeled vaginal, buccal, and skin epithelial cells. Although an antigen unique to vaginal epithelial cells was not identified, we have described a cell extraction procedure for use in the immunohistochemical detection of a wide range of antigens, an approach compatible with forensic diagnostics.     

THE MDRC WORK/WELFARE PROJECT: OBJECTIVES, STATUS, SIGNIFICANCE

In 1981, states, for the first time, were given an option to restructure the AFDC welfare program and require recipients to work in exchange for benefits. States have acted on this opportunity to introduce workfare or work requirements in a climate of polarized discussion and limited information. This paper summarizes the findings available from the pre-1981 demonstrations on the feasibility, impact, and cost-effectiveness of this approach. The authors conclude that these early demonstrations and evaluations provide very limited guidance to program administrators. The paper describes briefly a five-year social experiment currently under way in nine states to address the critical open policy questions through comprehensive process, impact, and benefit-cost studies.     

Theoretical Foundations for the Design and Placement of Community-Based Treatment Facilities for Juveniles

With deinstitutionalization and community-based treatment of delinquents becoming more common, the need for facilities compatible with re-integration efforts is crucial. In line with the increasing local needs for dealing with juvenile offenders in the community, this paper advocates the use of delinquency theory as the conceptual foundation for the architectural design and placement of community-based alternatives to incarceration. In addition, we present guidelines for the site selection, community acceptance and physical design of a model community-based treatment facility for minor offenders, which are based on a theoretical integration of social control theory and the labeling approach.     

Suffering,Selfish, Slackers? Myths and Reality About Emerging Adults

Many myths about adolescence have been refuted by research, but similar myths have grown up in recent years around emerging adulthood. This essay addresses three of those myths: the claim that they suffer from a normative “crisis”; the accusations that they are “selfish”; and their alleged reluctance to “grow up” and become adults. For each issue, evidence is presented showing that the myths exaggerate or falsify the true experience of emerging adults. Jeffrey Jensen Arnett is Research Professor in the Department of Psychology at Clark University. He is the editor of Journal of Adolescent Research and author of Emerging Adulthood: The Winding Road from the Late Teens through the Twenties (2004, Oxford University Press). He was a postdoctoral fellow under Daniel Offer at Northwestern University Medical School from 1989–1992.     

A Three‐Locus,PCR‐based Method for Forensic Identification of Plant Material

Plant residue is currently an underutilized resource in forensic investigations despite the fact that many crime scenes, as well as suspects and victims, harbor plant‐derived residue that could be recovered and analyzed. Notwithstanding the considerable skill of forensic botanists, current methods of species determination could benefit from tools for DNA‐based species identification. However, DNA barcoding in plants has been hampered by sequence complications in the plant genome. Following a database search for usable barcodes, broad‐spectrum primers were designed and utilized to amplify and sequence the rbcL, trnL‐F, and rrn18 genetic loci from a variety of household plants. Once obtained, these DNA sequences were used to design species‐targeted primers that could successfully discriminate the source of plant residue from among the 21 species tested.