Genetics and genomics of core short tandem repeat loci used in human identity testing

Over the past decade, the human identity testing community has settled on a set of core short tandem repeat (STR) loci that are widely used for DNA typing applications. A variety of commercial kits enable robust amplification of these core STR loci. A brief history is presented regarding the selection of core autosomal and Y-chromosomal STR markers. The physical location of each STR locus in the human genome is delineated and allele ranges and variants observed in human populations are summarized as are mutation rates observed from parentage testing. Internet resources for additional information on core STR loci are reviewed. Additional topics are also discussed, including potential linkage of STR loci to genetic disease-causing genes, probabilistic predictions of sample ethnicity, and desirable characteristics for additional STR loci that may be added in the future to the current core loci. These core STR loci, which form the basis for DNA databases worldwide, will continue to play an important role in forensic science for many years to come.     

Genetic structure among 38 populations from the United States based on 11 U.S. core Y chromosome STRs

A DNA database consisting of the 11 Y chromosome short-tandem-repeat (Y-STR) recommended by the Scientific Working Group on DNA Analysis Methods is constructed for 2517 individuals from 38 populations in the United States. The population samples derive from five ethnic groups currently living in 10 states. A multidimensional scaling (MDS) plot places the populations into four discrete clusters (African Americans (AA), European Americans (EA), Hispanic Americans (HA), and Asian Americans (SA)) and one dispersed cluster of Native Americans. An analysis of molecular variance (AMOVA) indicates that a large proportion of the total genetic variance is partitioned among ethnic groups (24.8%), whereas only a small amount (1.5%) is found among-populations within ethnic groups. Separate AMOVA analyses within each ethnic group show that only the NA sample contains statistically significant among-population variation. Pair wise population differentiation tests do uncover heterogeneity among EA and among HA populations; however, this is due to only a single sample within each group. The analyses support the creation of AA, EA, HA, and Asian American databases in which samples from different geographic regions within the United States are pooled. We recommend that separate databases be constructed for different NA groups.     

Genetic analysis for Y chromosome short tandem repeat haplotypes of Chinese Han population residing in the Ningxia province of China

POPULATION: One hundred and one unrelated, autochthonous healthy males of the Chinese Han population living in Yongning county of the Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region of China.     

LOVING TO STRAIGHTEN OUT DEVELOPMENT: SEXUALITY AND ETHNODEVELOPMENT IN THE WORLD BANK'S ECUADORIAN LENDING

Gender staff in the World Bank -- the world's largest and most influential development institution -- have a policy problem. Having prioritised efforts to get women into paid employment as the ȁ8cure-allȁ9 for gender inequality they must deal with the work that women already do -- the unpaid labour of caring, socialisation, and human needs fulfilment. This article explores the most prominent policy solution enacted by the Bank to this tension between paid and unpaid work: the restructuring of normative heterosexuality to encourage a two-partner model of love and labour wherein women work more and men care better. Through a case study of Bank gender lending in Ecuador I argue that staff are trying to (re)forge normative arrangements of intimacy, a policy preference that remains invisible unless sexuality is taken seriously as a category of analysis in development studies. Specifically, I focus on four themes that emerge from the attempt to restructure heteronormativity in the loan: (1) the definition of good gender analysis as requiring complementary sharing and dichotomous sex; (2) the Bank's attempt to inculcate limited rationality in women such that they operate as better workers while retaining altruistic attachments to loved ones; (3) the Bank's attempt to inculcate better loving in men, such that they pick up the slack of caring labour when their (partially) rational wives move into productive work, and; (4) the invocation of a racialised hierarchy resting on the extent to which communities approximate ideals of sharing monogamous partnership. Aside from providing clear evidence that the world's largest development institution is involved in micro-processes of sexuality adjustment alongside macro-processes of economic restructuring, I also critique the Bank's sexualised policy interventions and suggest that they warrant contestation.     

“和平共处”外交思想的演变与中国外交

由于历史与现实、主观和客观等方面的原因,"和平共处"外交思想的运用无论是在"一边倒"体制下、社会主义国家之间, 还是着力推进"世界革命"之时,都存在着很大的局限。只有在改革开放后,我们才真正超越意识形态的差异,"和平共处"外交思想才 有了全方位的运用。与此同时,伴随着"和平共处"思想的发展,中国外交也日臻成熟与完善。     

试论抗战时期的"一国两制"--论国共合作的法制基础

本文主要回顾抗战时期国共两党两种法律制度共存的历史,总结"一国两制"法律制度形成的原因,探讨其主要内容,并对其进行思考,以纪念抗战胜利60周年.     

美国的战略目标与东南亚

"9·11"事件后,美国全力重返东南亚,这在东南亚及其周边引起了震撼。美国关注东南亚由来已久,但当前政治、经济与安全等国家利益的需要和东南亚特殊的战略地位,使美国在东南亚倍加用心。冷战后,特别是"9·11"事件后,美国将其全球战略三大目标:安全保证、经济振兴和全球民主化,与东南亚结合起来,开拓性地把东南亚在美国战略中的角色定位为反恐第二战区、地缘战略区、经济利益区和民主扩展区。     

Trade, Harmonization, and Domestic Autonomy in Environmental Policy

This article evaluates the environmental criticisms of free trade that have been such an important part of the critique of globalization. The first section briefly surveys the range of criticisms environmentalists have brought against the new economic order. The second section examines the available literature on the race to the bottom, one of the key concerns. The third section analyzes the World Trade Organization trade rules and how they have been interpreted by dispute resolution panels involving environmental issues. The fourth section turns to the specific rules of the North American Free Trade Agreement and examines several case studies of environmental issues in that region. The final section provides a summary evaluation of the environmental criticisms. The article argues that the environmental criticisms are exaggerated. Trade agreements leave far more room for domestic environmental measures than is frequently argued. The political globalization of the environmental movement has helped counter the threat to environmental policy created by the economic and trade aspects of globalization. Environmentalists do need to be careful about how they advance this critique of globalization, however, because their arguments risk becoming a self-fulfilling prophecy.     

WTO与中国实验动物福利保护制度体系的构建

WTO对中国实验动物福利保护法律制度的构建提出了新的要求。中国目前的实验动物福利保护制度虽然存在与WTO规则接轨的众多障碍性因素,但也存在与WTO规则接轨的基本条件。为了进一步促进我国实验动物贸易的自由化和国际化,应借鉴国外的成熟立法经验,构建与WTO规则接轨的符合中国国情的实验动物福利保护制度体系。     

格老秀斯与自然法——简评《战争与和平法》

格老秀斯以其巨著《战争与和平法》使国际法成为完整、独立、系统的学科,被称为国际法的“鼻祖”,他更是近代西方法学思想家中第一个系统地论述了自然法理论的人。他认为国内法和国际法都应以自然法为基础,国与国之间的战争也应受国际法和自然法的约束。在17、18世纪古典自然法思想家中,他第一个使自然法概念摆脱宗教神学的约束,恢复和发展了自然法的世俗观念,认为自然法代表理性或人的本性。他希望通过他所掌握的法理学、哲学和神学的渊博知识,以其具有说服力的文笔,有助于国际和平的恢复和国际间法律状态的形成。