Mandarins and kibitzers:men in and around the trenches of political power in Ottawa*

Book reviewed in this article: My Life and Work, A Happy Partnership: Memoirs of J. A. Corry. A Man of Influence: Norman A. Robertson and Canadian Statecraft, 1929–1968. The Ottawa Men: The Civil Service Mandarins 1935–1957.     

POLICY PREFERENCES OF JUSTICES AND PRESIDENTS

Focusing on the issue of civil rights, this study examines the relationship between policy preferences of presidents and the votes of the Supreme Court justices they appointed. Through content analysis of presidential statements, relatively systematic measures of civil rights policy views for five recent presidents were obtained and compared with the voting records on civil rights of justices they appointed to the Supreme Court. The findings suggest that although a correspondence exists between presidential preferences and judicial votes, presidents have been only moderately successful in appointing justices whose votes reflect presidential preferences.     

STR analysis of artificially degraded DNA-results of a collaborative European exercise

Degradation of human DNA extracted from forensic stains is, in most cases, the result of a natural process due to the exposure of the stain samples to the environment. Experiences with degraded DNA from casework samples show that every sample may exhibit different properties in this respect, and that it is difficult to systematically assess the performance of routinely used typing systems for the analysis of degraded DNA samples. Using a batch of artificially degraded DNA with an average fragment size of approx. 200 bp a collaborative exercise was carried out among 38 forensic laboratories from 17 European countries. The results were assessed according to correct allele detection, peak height and balance as well as the occurrence of artefacts. A number of common problems were identified based on these results such as strong peak imbalance in heterozygous genotypes for the larger short tandem repeat (STR) fragments after increased PCR cycle numbers, artefact signals and allelic drop-out. Based on the observations, strategies are discussed to overcome these problems. The strategies include careful balancing of the amount of template DNA and the PCR cycle numbers, the reaction volume and the amount of Taq polymerase. Furthermore, a careful evaluation of the results of the fragment analysis and of automated allele calling is necessary to identify the correct alleles and avoid artefacts.     

Identification of ascorbic acid and its degradation products in black powder substitutes

Low explosives such as smokeless powder, black powder, and black powder substitutes have been used in illicit pipe bombings throughout the United States. Some of the newer black powder substitutes are formulated with ascorbic acid, which gradually decomposes as the powder ages, making it difficult if not impossible for the forensic chemist to identify it by traditional bulk techniques. A sensitive method for the identification of residual levels of ascorbic acid in black powder substitutes is presented. Powder samples are extracted with a mixture of acetonitrile and bis(trimethylsilyl)acetamide (BSA), which converts carboxylic acid and alcohol functional groups to trimethylsilyl esters and ethers, respectively. Samples are then analyzed by gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS). Results have shown that trace amounts of ascorbic acid can be identified at detection limits that are well below those for traditional bulk techniques. Degradation products for ascorbic acid (hydroxylated carboxylic acids, furanones, and lactones) can also be detected.     

The morphological specificity of relaxation of cardiomyocytes and their value in forensic medical diagnostics

The morphological specificity of different conditions of cardiomyocytes was studied in myocardia of 50 cadavers of men who died of a variety of reasons. All conditions, except for the normal relaxation of cardipmyocytes, were found to result from damages in the contractive apparatus. Morphological variations of relaxation of cardiomyocytes are described.