Sex Determination by Discriminant Function Analysis of Lumbar Vertebrae

Sex determination is critical for developing the biological profile of unidentified skeletal remains. When more commonly used elements (os coxa, cranium) for sexing are not available, methods utilizing other skeletal elements are needed. This study aims to assess the degree of sexual dimorphism of the lumbar vertebrae and develop discriminant functions for sex determination from them, using a sample of South African blacks from the Raymond A. Dart Collection (47 males, 51 females). Eleven variables at each lumbar level were subjected to univariate and multivariate discriminant function analyses. Univariate equations produced classification rates ranging from 57.7% to 83.5%, with the highest accuracies associated with dimensions of the vertebral body. Multivariate stepwise analysis generated classification rates ranging from 75.9% to 88.7%. These results are comparable to other methods for sexing the skeleton and indicate that measures of the lumbar vertebrae can be used as an effective tool for sex determination.     

Nondestructive Methods for Recovery of Biological Material from Human Teeth for DNA Extraction

The extraction of DNA from human skeletal remains applied to forensic, and evolutionary studies do not exclude risks, which are to be evaluated when working with unique specimens that could be damaged or even destroyed. In the present study were evaluated several nondestructive methods for recovering DNA instead of the most currently used pulverization method. Three different procedures to access inside the dental pieces (occlusal perforation, cervical perforation, and cervical cut) have been compared with the aim of recovering as many cell remains as possible to carry out a DNA extraction. Given the DNA quantitation results, a method was proposed that consists of a cervical cut to facilitate the access to the pulp cavity and a subsequent filing of the root canals down to the apex of the dental root. This methodology allows the recovery of both mitochondrial and nuclear DNA, with the minimum deterioration for the dental pieces.     

中国特色社会主义人权理论体系论纲

随着改革开放的深入,中国的人权事业取得了巨大的进展,人权的理论研究逐渐成熟,梳理、提炼中国特色社会主义人权理论体系已为可能。中国特色社会主义人权理论体系的基础性要素,包括人权的概念、属性、类别、实现机制和社会条件等。中国特色社会主义人权理论,既承认人权是人类的共同理想和价值准则,是人之为人不可剥夺的权利,尊重和保障人权是每个主权国家的义务,需要通过国内的立法、行政和司法机制予以落实,需要加强人权国际合作以促进其实现,也承认人权发展的阶段性和历史文化传统对人权实现方式的影响,反对人权国际合作中的霸权主义倾向。     

Investment Treaty Law and the Fear for Sovereignty: Transnational Challenges and Solutions

This article addresses the vagueness, and the interpretative challenges associated with, international investment agreements (IIAs) and develops a new normative framework for interpreting these treaties. It focuses on the historical embedding of investment protection as a means of facilitating economic development as well as upon its synthetic public law nature. The analysis shows that a teleological approach to interpretation imposes boundaries on the meaning of substantive IIA provisions. The article then elaborates how the transnational dimension of IIAs provides a benchmark, which is the level of protection offered to economic actors against interference by the state in countries with the highest rule of law standards. The article then shows how the resulting challenges of comparative public law could be addressed through the methodology of re‐ and pre‐statement of transnational uniform ‘principles’: sophisticated and detailed rules striking the proper balance between private economic interests and the public regulatory interest, so as to provide more legal certainty for both investors and host states.     

Human Branding in Political Marketing: Applying Contemporary Branding Thought to Political Parties and Their Leaders

Political marketing advances by engaging with new and advanced concepts from both of its parent disciplines. One of the most recent fields of brand research—the study of the human brand—is taken into the political marketing arena in this essay. Human branding is an emergent topic in mainstream marketing. The value as a brand of a person who is well-known and subject to explicit marketing communications efforts is being investigated in many fields. The concept has clear prima facie value in political marketing, where the role of a political leader as part of the political marketing offer has been recognized extensively. Politics is also a unique context given the relationship between leaders and parties, each of which has some unique brand associations. The process of exploring the application of human branding in politics also provides a context in which some of the interactions among party and leader, human brand, and organizational brand can be explored and further developed. Among the conclusions are that political party leaders require brand authenticity as an advocate of the party policy platform and brand authority to command the organization and deliver on the policies being advocated. Implications for party and campaign management are outlined.     

Vernacular rights cultures and the ‘Right to Have Rights’

We use a case study of the Landless Workers Movement (MST) in Brazil and the Via Campesina network of which they are part to develop the concept of ‘vernacular rights cultures’. Vernacular rights cultures calls attention to the way in which demands for the right to have rights call on particular cultures, histories and political contexts in a manner that can transform the rights inscribed in constitutions and political imaginaries. What Ranciere (1999) and Balibar (2002) call the democratisation of democracy, we therefore argue, does not just involve a logic of equality and inclusion through which dispossessed groups demand already existing rights. Rather, it also occurs as mobilisations alter the means through which rights are delivered and transform the content and meaning of the rights demanded.     

城市交通可持续发展的出行决策障碍分析

阻碍城市交通可持续发展的因素中，由出行决策引起的障碍，不容易破除。该文具体分析了城市可持续发展的公众出行决策障碍来源，通过对城市交通可持续发展机制的研究。在总结中国城市交通发展建设经验的基础上，借鉴其他国家的相关经验，提出了一套包括机制建设、政策法规、交通基础设施建设和技术在内的城市交通系统可持续发展出行决策障碍的综合解决策略。     

坚持科学发展观 推动山西经济健康发展

片面的发展观曾使山西的经济发展迷失了方向,而科学发展观的提出则更新了山西的发展理念,使山西省委省政府确立了正确的政绩观、群众观、人才观和发展观,从而为山西的发展指明了正确的方向。只有正确地把握科学发展观,大力发展循环经济,对传统工业进行改造;加强创新体系建设,整合资源延长产业链;挖掘历史文化资源,大力发展旅游业;对企业发展重新定位,先做强再做大,才能把山西的经济发展不断地推向前进。     

城市可持续发展评价指标体系的理论依据和基本框架

构建任何一种评价指标体系都必须有理论上的依据。建立城市可持续发展评价指标体系的若干理论依据和城市可持续发展系统的结构特点,提出由社会、经济、人口、资源、环境、域外6个子系统组成的指标体系基本框架,并且按照对立统一关系将其划分为相互对应的两个指标群,可以大大增强该指标体系的分析比较功能。     

社会主义民主政治建设的新突破--村民自治对中国政治发展的深远影响

村民自治是中国农民对社会主义民主建设的各种各样民主的新形式,是对社会主义民主发展的新贡献。村民自治将重新塑造农村民主政治的主体、改变农村传统的政治文化、辐射城市民主化进程、加速政治体制的进一步改革。