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In summary, several research design features are advocated here as potentially instrumental in establishing the absence of the kind of language and selection biases that are often confounded with culture effects. First, the use of bilinguals with similar levels of acculturation and reading comprehension in both the source and the target language reduces the likelihood of selection bias introduced by differences in language proficiency. Second, the use of a within-participant design eliminates the threat of selection bias that plagues non-equivalent groups in cross-cultural research. Third, the manipulation of language order can help rule out order effects such as recall of the source (e.g., English) version when responding to the target (e.g., Spanish) version. The kind of research design advocated here can test the cultural accommodation hypothesis, which predicts that when bilinguals respond to a measurement instrument, the language in which the instrument is taken influences the responses. Problems of measurement calibration and sample equivalence are but two of the major issues involved in CC/CN. They provide challenges to researchers interested in comparing people across countries. With the globalization of the economy, cross-cultural comparisons are becoming more important than ever. Research procedures and measurement tools that minimize measurement and sampling error in cross-cultural comparisons are needed if we are to draw valid inferences about culture and nationality effects. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We describe a single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) typing protocol developed for the NanoChip electronic microarray. The NanoChip array consists of 100 electrodes covered by a thin hydrogel layer containing streptavidin. An electric currency can be applied to one, several, or all electrodes at the same time according to a loading protocol generated by the user. Biotinylated deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) is directed to the pad(s) via the electronic field(s) and bound to streptavidin in the hydrogel layer. Subsequently, fluorescently labeled reporter oligos and a stabilizer oligo are hybridized to the bound DNA. Base stacking between the short reporter and the longer stabilizer oligo stabilizes the binding of a matching reporter, whereas the binding of a reporter carrying a mismatch in the SNP position will be relatively weak. Thermal stringency is applied to the NanoChip array according to a reader protocol generated by the user and the fluorescent label on the matching reporter is detected. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We describe a method for the simultaneous typing of Y-chromosome single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) markers by means of multiplex polymerase chain reaction (PCR) strategies that allow the detection of 35 Y chromosome SNPs on 25 amplicons from 100 to 200 pg of chromosomal deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA). Multiplex PCR amplification of the DNA was performed with slight modifications of standard PCR conditions. Single-base extension (SBE) was performed using the SNaPshot kit containing fluorescently labeled ddNTPs. The extended primers were detected on an ABI 3100 sequencer. The most important factors for the creation of larger SNP typing PCR multiplexes include careful selection of primers for the primary amplification and the SBE reaction, use of DNA primers with homogenous composition, and balancing the primer concentrations for both the amplification and the SBE reactions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]