Forensic comparison of soils by bacterial community DNA profiling

This preliminary investigation has shown that a soil microbial community DNA profile can be obtained from the small sample of soil recovered from the sole of a shoe, and from soil stains on clothing. We have also shown that these profiles are representative of the site of collection and therefore could potentially be used as associative evidence to prove a link between suspects and crime scenes. Soil community profiles were obtained using the T-RFLP fingerprinting method that uses fluorescent primer technology and semi-automated analysis techniques similar to those used in human DNA profiling in forensic laboratories.     

Use of the ventral arc in pubic sex determination

A sample of 1284 well-documented pubic bones was studied for sex determination methods. This sample included many adolescents and could be used to expand Phenice's 1969 study, which was largely based on mature adults. In the present study, focus was placed on the ventral arc which, when used alone, provided 96% accuracy in sex determination. This paper stresses the development of the ventral arc in the adolescent: a precursor condition is defined, which first appears at age 14 and becomes the most frequent condition at age 20. In mature adults, 4% show conditions that are misleading and likely to lead to sex determination errors. Practical applications of this method are discussed in relation to the forensic science setting, including three cases. A set of casts was developed to increase the reliability of the method, and these casts were then tested in interobserver error studies.     

The Al-Mashat affair: administrative accountability in parliamentary institutions

Abstract: The article approaches the Canadian federal government's handling of the Al-Mashat affair in May and June of 1991 as a case study in direct administrative accountability. The author begins with a discussion of the main lines of political control under responsible government, writing as a partisan for the traditional doctrines of collective and individual ministerial responsibility. A number of questions emerging from this discussion are then posed as probes into the case: was an important minister effectively shielded; was blame ever allocated in a convincing way; were the criteria of natural justice respected in both internal actions and in the House of Commons' Standing Committee on External Affairs and International Trade; were democratic controls over political and administrative action respected? It is the author's conclusion that the government's strategy to deflect its accountability onto a senior career official and a political chief of staff failed on all these counts and several more, as well. Perhaps the most important of these is the politicization of officials. Another disturbing element that the case reveals is a willingness to arrogate new powers and liberties to the executive. Sommaire: Cet article examine la reaction du gouvernement fédéral Canadian dams I'af-faire Al-Mashed, en mai et juin 1991, pour faire une étude de cas fort intéressante sur I'imputabilité administrative directe. L'auteur discute tout d'abord des grandes lignes du contrôle politique du gouvernement responsible, du point de vue d'un partisan des doctrines traditionnelles de responsabilité ministérielle collective et individuelle. L'auteur arrive alors à un certain nombre de questions qui permitting d'explorer plus loin ce cas: un minister important a-t-il en fait été protég? Le blâime dans cette affaire a-t-il jamais été attribué de manière convaincante? Les critères de la justice naturelle ont-ils été respectés aussi bien dans le cadre des mesures internes qu'au Comité permanent de la Chamber des Communes chargé des affaires extérieures et du commerce international? Les contrôles déocratiques régissant les activités politiques et administratives ont-ils été appliqués? L'auteur en arrive à la conclusion que, à tous ces égards et sur bien dautres points encore, la stratégie suivie par le gouvemement pour rejeter ses respon-sabilités sur un haut fonctionnaire et sur un chef de personnel politique fut un échec. L'élément le plus important est peut-être la politisation des fonctionnaires. L'autre élément contestable revélé dans cette affaire est l'inclination à attribuer de nouveaux pouvoirs et Iibertés à 1'Exécutif.     

The potency of cannabis in New Zealand from 1976 to 1996.

The potency of cannabis plant and cannabis products seized in New Zealand over the period of 20 years is studied. The earlier part of the study includes mainly imported cannabis oil and cannabis resin, and both imported and locally grown cannabis plant, that was seized by the police. The later part of the study includes little imported material. Cannabis plant is now locally grown, cannabis oil is locally manufactured and imported cannabis resin is rarely seized. The average potency of the cannabis plant available to the user has not increased over the 20 years period. Cannabis leaf contains on average 1% THC and the female flowering heads on average 3.5% THC. The average potency of cannabis oil has dropped from its peak at 34% THC in 1985 to 13% THC in 1995.     

Quadratic voting in the wild: real people,real votes

Since their introduction in 1932, Likert and other continuous, independent rating scales have become the de facto toolset for survey research. Scholars have raised significant reliability and validity problems with these types of scales, and alternative methods for capturing perceptions and preferences have gained traction within specific domains. In this paper, we evaluate a new, broadly applicable approach to opinion measurement based on quadratic voting (QV), a method in which respondents express preferences by ‘buying’ votes for options using a fixed budget from which they pay quadratic prices for votes. Comparable QV-based and Likert-based survey instruments designed by Collective Decision Engines LLC were evaluated experimentally by assigning potential respondents randomly to one or the other method. Using a host of metrics, including respondent engagement and process-based metrics, we provide some initial evidence that the QV-based instrument provides a clearer measure of the preferences of the most intensely motivated respondents than the Likert-based instrument does. We consider the implications for survey satisficing, a key threat to the continued value of survey research, and discuss the mechanisms by which QV differentiates itself from Likert-based scales, thus establishing QV as a promising alternative survey tool for political and commercial research. We also explore key design issues within QV-based surveys to extend these promising results.     

“El pájaro de cuatro notas”: the reception of Argentine women writers and artists’ work in avant-garde magazines (1920–1930)

This article assesses the reception of Argentine women writers and artists’ work within vanguard magazines. Taking as case studies the work of Norah Lange and Norah Borges, I identify four key tropes that emerge in reviews of their creative output published between 1920 and 1930. This article brings to light original archival material in order to expose how women’s peripheral position in the artistic sphere of early twentieth-century Latin America was enacted at a discursive level. In so doing, I propose that the gendered dynamics evident within avant-garde magazines represent a microcosm of women’s experiences within the vanguard more broadly. This article aims to contribute to a thorough investigation into how marginalisation is enacted and enforced, exposing the extra-literary processes which construct an artistic sphere that is inhospitable to women practitioners.     

Reform,Openness and Public Health: on the economic and social determinants of HIV/AIDS in China

China's HIV/AIDS epidemic today is seen by policy-makers primarily as a biomedical problem. Yet according to many researchers this conceptualization of what causes HIV/AIDS epidemics is restricted, focussing on individual behaviour to the exclusion of the broader economic and social determinants. This paper, therefore, illustrates how considering such determinants, including income and gender inequalities, may complement our understanding of the HIV/AIDS epidemic in China. It does so by using two different examples: the development of commercial sex work and long-distance migration patterns.