Mitochondrial DNA in the Central European population. Human identification with the help of the forensic mt-DNA D-loop-base database

Sequencing of mtDNA is an advanced method for the individualisation of traces. Disadvantages of this method are expensive and time-consuming analysis and evaluation procedures as well as the necessary stock of population-genetic data which is still insufficient. Central European institutes of forensic medicine from Germany, Austria, and Switzerland have been working together since the beginning of 1998 to establish a mtDNA database. The aim is to build up a large stock of forensically established data and provide population-genetic data for frequency investigations, which will serve as a basis for expert opinions and scientific research. Good data quality is ensured by using original sequences only. Ring tests, which have been conducted to enhance analytical reliability, revealed a high correspondence rate of the analytical results obtained by the individual member institutes. Today 1410 sequences are available for comparison, of which 1285 sequences in the HV1 and HV2 regions cover the full ranges from 16051 to 16365 and from 73 to 340 (according to Anderson). The major part is formed by Central European sequences comprising 1256 data sets from Germany, Austria, and Switzerland. Today the database contains sequences from a total of 12 European, six African and three Asian countries including 100 sequences from Japan. This paper is aimed at discussing the individualisation potentials of mtDNA as well as the possibilities and limits of ethnic differentiation by means of pairwise sequence differences on the basis of the data stock available.     

Reviews

Arms and the African: Military Influences on Africa's International Relations edited by William J. Foltz and Henry S. Bienen Yale University Press, New Haven (Connecticut), and London, 1985. xv plus 221 pp. including map, tables, appendix and index. $22,50.

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Indigenous Agricultural Revolution: Ecology and Food Production in West Africa by Paul Richards Hutchinson, London, 1985. 192 pp. including figures, tables, illustrations, appendix, bibliography and index. $12,95.

Rural‐Urban Balance: Policy and Practice in Ten African Countries by T.J.D. Fair Africa Institute of South Africa, Pretoria, 1985. 37 pp. including tables, map and references. R4,00 paperback.

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Colonial Evangelism: A Socio‐Historical Study of An East African Mission at the Grassroots by T.O. Beidelman Indiana University Press, Bloomington, 1982. xix plus 274 pp. including maps, tables, notes, bibliography and index. $12,50 paperback.

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The World of Can Themba: Selected Writings edited by Essop Patel Ravan Press, Johannesburg, 1985. 244 pp. R6,95 paperback.     

The Impact of Welfare Reform on Medicaid

Welfare reform did not usher in comprehensive Medicaid reform,if "reform" is defined as dismantling the basic framework ordesign of the nations's health-care system for the poor. Instead,it left much of the previous Medicaid system intact. However,welfare reform has contributed to changes in the Medicaid-eligiblepopulations, greater variability and experimentation with stateMedicaid initiatives, and greater sate control over Medicaidprogram decisions. Thus, the welfare-reform movement clarifieda major trend in contemporary American politics—the increasein state discretion and flexibility in social welfare policymaking.The states are now at the center of Medicaid decisionmaking,and they are in a key position to determine the future directionof heath-care assistance for the poor in the United States.     

Decapitation as a result of suicidal hanging

A report is presented on a 47 year old man who committed suicide by hanging himself from a staircase bannister of an apartment house. The man, weighing 144 kg jumped with the noose of a 2 cm thick and 2 m long hemp rope around his neck and was completely decapitated. Death from typical "normal" suicidal hanging is usually due to cerebral ischaemia caused by compression of the carotid (and vertebral) arteries. Except for bleeding at the clavicular insertions of the sternocleidomastoid muscles there are only occasional injuries to the cervical soft parts or hyoid bone and/or laryngeal cartilage. A fall with a noose around the neck, on the other hand, is associated with more frequent injuries to cervical structures through additional axial traction and radial shearing forces of the tightening noose. Complete decapitation can occur in rare cases under extreme conditions (heavy body weight, inelastic and/or thin rope material, fall from a great height).     

Parteipolitikverflechtung. Über den Einfluss der Bundespolitik auf Landtagswahlentscheidungen von 1976 bis 2000

In anticipation of the existence of an “electoral cycle”, most studies on the relationship between federal politics and Laender election outcomes in Germany have relied on the scheduling of a Laender election as an independent variable. Election results of the federal government parties in Laender elections were then explained as a function of the time elapsed since the last federal election. This paper explores the explanatory power of the electoral cycle argument before and after 1990. It rejects time as a relevant explanatory variable for the study of the interdependence of federal and Laender election outcomes after the German reunification. However, this does not imply that the influence of federal politics on Laender election outcomes has vanished, as some recent studies have claimed. My regression analyses show that the causal link between federal and Laender election outcomes still holds: the higher the decline in the federal government’s popularity, the higher are the losses of federal government parties in Laender elections. The influence of federal politics on Laender election outcomes has grown, rather than declined, since reunification.     

A new sign for the establishment of gunshot in suicide?

Two cases involving deadly bullet shots to the head are reported (entry wounds at the right temple, shots fired at absolutely close range, 7.65 or 9 mm caliber). In both cases bleeding was determined in the fissure of the right shoulder joint. This bleeding can be explained by hyperextension and extreme position of the joint at the time of the gun firing. Should further cases of bleeding be confirmed during additional autopsies, then this bleeding could be an indication of death "by one's own hand."     

Associations between Dating Aggression Involvement and Subsequent Relationship Commitment

Little is known about how an individual’s commitment to their romantic partner evolves over the course of a relationship following involvement in dating aggression (DA). The present study explored longitudinal associations between both psychological and physical DA involvement and subsequent changes in commitment. We hypothesized that experiences of physical and psychological DA may be related to decreased feelings of commitment (including both dedication and constraint) in a relationship, and that gender may moderate the link between DA and changes in commitment. One-hundred and twenty (60 female) young adults (ages 18–25) in a romantic relationship completed electronic questionnaires each month for 6 months, (M age Wave 1?=?22.44, SD =?2.20). DA involvement and commitment were measured by the Revised Conflict Tactics Scale, and the Revised Commitment Inventory, respectively. Using multilevel modeling, the current study examined shifts in commitment (dedication and constraint) following DA involvement. As hypothesized, physical and psychological dating aggression involvement were both associated with declines in relationship commitment. Analyses also tested for potential gender interactions with physical and psychological dating aggression involvement for both constraint and dedication. No significant gender interactions emerged. These findings add to the accumulating evidence for the deleterious effects of dating aggression on relationships, including on relationship commitment, and illustrate important implications for interventions aimed at reducing dating aggression among young adults.

     

Minor or adult? Introducing decision analysis in forensic age estimation

Nowadays, forensic age estimation takes an important role in worldwide forensic and medico-legal institutes that are solicited by judicial or administrative authorities for providing an expert report on the age of individuals. The authorities’ ultimate issue of interest is often the probability that the person is younger or older than a given age threshold, which is usually the age of majority. Such information is fundamental for deciding whether a person being judged falls under the legal category of an adult. This is a decision that may have important consequences for the individual, depending on the legal framework in which the decision is made. The aim of this paper is to introduce a normative approach for assisting the authority in the decision-making process given knowledge from available findings reported by means of probabilities. The normative approach proposed here has been acknowledged in the forensic framework, and represents a promising structure for reasoning that can support the decision-making process in forensic age estimation. The paper introduces the fundamental elements of decision theory applied to the specific case of age estimation, and provides some examples to illustrate its practical application.     

Hybrid Warfare,International Negotiation,and an Experiment in “Remote Convening”

The authors are leading a multinational effort to understand the effects of “hybrid” warfare on international commercial negotiation. The start-up process is itself essentially a negotiation, among about forty individual practitioners and scholars with very diverse backgrounds, over whether and how they will work together. In a pandemic, a key risk is that the necessary cooperation and trust will be harder to build, particularly among professionals who are dealing with security-sensitive issues and who have never met each other. This article discusses the current necessity of replacing the in-person model for eliciting such cooperation which the authors had developed previously for large collaborative projects, and describes a “remote convening” replacement process.