Applications of isoelectric focusing in forensic serology

The typing of certain polymorphic proteins present in human body fluids is an important aspect of the analysis of serological evidence. This is particularly true when dealing with evidence related to violent criminal activity such as homocide, assault, or rape. Until recently, the routine analysis of the genetic polymorphisms of interest relied upon conventional electrophoretic techniques such as horizontal starch or agarose slab gel or both, cellulose acetate, and vertical polyacrylamide gradient gel methods. These techniques adequately separate a limited number of common variants. In some cases, these methods are still those of choice. However, as a result of the nature of the conventional approach, problems with time required for analysis, resolution, diffusion of bands, sensitivity of protein detection, and cost are often encountered. Isoelectric focusing (IEF) offers an effective alternative to conventional electrophoresis for genetic marker typing. This method exploits the isoelectric point of allelic products rather than charge-to-mass ratio in a particular pH environment. The advantages of employing IEF include: reduction of time of analysis, increased resolution of protein bands, the possibility of subtyping existing phenotypes, increased sensitivity of detection, the counteraction of diffusion effects, and reduced cost per sample.     

Thailand today

Mervyn Matthews, retired, was formerly Reader in Soviet Studies at the University of Surrey, Guildford. Since 1996 he has been resident for part of the year in Thailand, where he writes and pursues research interests.     

Reviews

G.R. Batho: Thomas Harriot and the Northumberland Household; W.A. Wallace: John White, Thomas Harriot and Walter Raleigh in Ireland; M.P. Earles: The London Pharmacopoeia Perfected (The Durham Thomas Harriot Seminar, Occasional Papers, Nos. 1, 2 and 3, 1983–5; £8.10).

Michael Mendle: Dangerous Positions, Mixed Government, the Estates of the Realm, and the Making of the ‘Answer to the XIX Propositions’ (University of Alabama Press, 1985; pp. 256; £28.50. Distributed in the U.K. by Eurospan, 3 Henrietta Street, London).     

THE ROLE OF SOLICITORS IN DIVORCE PROCEEDINGS*

“I was walking down the boulevard one day with my sister who was down for a week's holiday. She said off the cuff ‘When are you going to get divorced?’ I said ‘I don't know.’ Seeing a solicitor's office, I said ‘ I'll pop in here’—just the job, just like going in the shop for a loaf of bread. So I sees the receptionist. She said ‘ I'll see if he can see you straight away.’ Well, he gave me an interview straight away. Within an hour everything was done. He told me to bring all the gen I could in a couple of weeks time, which I did and then we got on with the job.”     

Russia and Cuba: “doomed” comrades?

In 1991 Vitaly Churkin, a Soviet Minister for Foreign Economic Cooperation, stated that economic links between Russia and Cuba were “doomed” to continue. This gave a very negative impression of the relationship, but quickly he appeared to be incorrect because by the end of 1992 little seemed to remain of the 30-year relationship. However, as the 1990s progressed, the relationship continued to function and then improve. Fundamental to this were the principles of the realist paradigm of International Relations, which has been vital since the relationship’s inception in the aftermath of the Cuban Revolution, in conjunction with a long-term legacy. The outcome is that Russia and Cuba are indeed “doomed” comrades.     

Existential Terrorism: Civil Society and its Enemies

This paper explores the attitude of contemporary terrorism towards civil society, the intermediate realm between the family and the state that accommodates the free play of economic and cultural forces and individual and group interests. Terrorism now targets not only people and institutions that operate within civil society but civil society itself, i.e., terrorism increasingly targets the very possibility of an autonomous realm of everyday life. This tendency is found in the Islamism of Al‐Qaeda, but also in any group that adheres to the “Augustinian paradigm” of civil society that arose in the West and dominates radical ideologies. An exploration of this situation illuminates both the nature and tactics of contemporary terrorism and the role of civil society itself.