Parentage Testing

Paternity Test

A paternity test will tell you if a man is (or is not) the biological father of a child. This test includes the testing of the alleged father, the child, and the mother if you choose to include her. If you do choose to include the biological mother of the child in this test, the resultant accuracy will be higher, but her inclusion is not required. If you are having a test done for legal purposes, we do recommend that you include the biological mother, if possible.

Maternity Test

A maternity test will tell you if a woman is (or is not) the biological mother of a child. This test includes the testing of the alleged mother, the child, and the father if you choose to include him. If you do choose to include the biological father of the child in this test, the resultant accuracy will be higher, but his inclusion is not required.

What can I expect my result to say?

The results issued for a parentage test (paternity or maternity) will be either:
Exclusion -- the tested father/mother is NOT the biological parent of the tested child.
Consistent With -- the tested father/mother IS likely to be the biological parent of the tested child; this result will also have the statistical values calculated (and reported) for your particular case that indicate the strength of the consistent result.

Understanding this test

(Note: Explanations are based on a paternity test, but are also applicable to a maternity test.)
Every person receives half of their DNA from their mother and half from their father. In a case where the biological mother is included in the testing, the DNA extracted from the biological mother's sample is compared with that from the child. Any DNA the child has that the mother does not have must, therefore, have come from the biological father.

In a father/child test (where the biological mother is not included in the testing), the DNA from the father and child are compared to determine if there is a match or a mismatch, but without the benefit of knowing which DNA the child received from the mother (hence the decreased accuracy of a father/child test).

The child received either a 10 or an 11 from his/her father, and the alleged father in the example could have donated an 11 or a 13. In this example, this father has the necessary allele to fulfill the child's genetic profile in this particular region of their DNA.

Types of Samples

Our standard and preferred sample type is a buccal swab - this is a sponge on a stick that you rub on the inside of your cheek in order to collect skin cells. Your testing fee includes the swabs to take this type of sample. We can also accept bloodstain cards and whole blood as a standard sample (at no additional fee). However, we do recognize that there may be a need for more discrete testing and can therefore process other types of samples. 

If you wish to submit a sample other than the buccal swab please contact us to discuss the sample options to ensure you are sending the best possible sample. We will gladly process your test order personally. Please note that these types of test orders cannot be processed through our website at this time.

Non-Standard Samples

• toothbrush (used only by one person);
• >5 hair roots (it is important that each hair has a root on it, as that is where we are getting the DNA from);
• fingernail clippings;
• any blood sample other than whole blood or bloodstain card.

Forensic Samples

• clothing with bodily fluids (if you are having a semen or blood identification test done, that test fee includes the processing of this type of sample);
• clothing with skin cells (baseball cap, gloves, etc.),
• cigarette butts,
• condom,
• Q-tip with ear wax,
• licked envelop/stamp,
• used glass/can/bottle/pacifier.

ATYPYK PEZ

Funny, I seem to be behind every blog that is out there. I hope there are people out there that haven't seen this last year already, because these are some interesting ideas. I used to collect PEZ, and it would have never occurred to me to do these stuff.

ATYPYK are French artists who transformed PEZ into unique art. There are a couple of them that I thought were cool. Make sure to click on the arrows at the end of the gallery strip. It's easy to miss them because they blend with the background.

A Wacky Backpack!

I totally love Wacky Packages. I was browsing for the new Wacky Packages books in Amazon, and came across a Wacky Packages back pack. I wish there were more pictures and better description. It looks fairly small to me.

Snoopy The Flying Ace Visits The Intrepi

If you are in NYC and love Snoopy, hurry up and go to the Intrepid Museum in NYC to see the "Snoopy as the World War I Flying Ace” exhibition. I so wish I could fly over to see the exhibition but I can't afford a coast to coast trip. The exhibition is only until April 30th, so you have 9 days left if you want to see it. It is a traveling exhibition.

Blog - Breeds Of Small Dogs : Best Small Dog Breeds

Blog - Breeds Of Small Dogs : Best Small Dog Breeds

I was glad to see this site, because I recently adopted a stray or an abandoned dog that was found about two blocks from my house. I took it to the vet to find out if he was chipped. Unfortunately, he was not. He didn't have a collar either and wasn't fixed. He wasn't even trained. I taught him how to "sit" in a few days and "stay". He still needs alot of training to do.

I have the feelings that he was abandoned at the park which is a block away. A lots of Chihuahuas have been abandoned in SF Bay Area and the East Bay (Oakland and north). I know someone who tried to catch three stray Chihuahuas without any luck. I don't know about other areas. He was not in a terrible condition. He just needs to gain about 3 lbs. I went to the SPCA and the Humane Society but no one reported him. I did leave my information. According to the law here, I cannot adopt a stray dog unless no one claims him or her 30 days after he was found. I didn't have the heart to leave him at the Humane Society. He could get sick there. So I fostered him instead. When no one claimed him after 30 days, I adopted him and took care of all his needs. So now he is living with me.

I don't know what type of dog he is, but he is obviously a Chihuahua mix. He has bonded with my black lab who is a service dog. She is fine with him. She likes cats since she was raised around cats. So she is fine with little dogs too. So I think she kinda treats him like he is a cat. She has no problem if he sleeps against her body or on her legs or something. He is not a perfect dog. He barks and I am hoping she isn't going to bark every time someone approach my house. He likes to get a hold of food any change he gets. I can't turn my head for a second without him grabbing food behind my back. Shelby isn't like that. I can leave food on the coffee table and she will never touch it. But with him now, I can't. So I am hoping she won't learn bad things from him, like stealing and barking. But she does love to play with him. Sometimes she licks him and once a while he'll lick her too.

What makes me chuckle is watching the little guy walking right under beneath her without any problem. The only other time that I've seen anything like that, was with a Great Dane

Anyway, I'm a bit off point. The reason I like this blog is because it's about small dogs and the new dog that adopted is small dogs. I am not used to dogs his size. He is actually bigger than a pure Chihuahua. He is clearly a Chihuahua mix. I am thinking of doing a DNA test. There is a hospital around here that only charges $48 for a DNA test!! That's the lowest fee I've ever heard of. 

Hope you'll enjoy this blog and learn new thing as well. This blog is focused on breeds only. But I think it can be still useful for any little dog pure or not. One thing I noticed about this blog, that it doesn't list all small breed. So for I have not seen a Papillon nor the Yorkshire which surprised me because they aren't that rare.

The dog breed above is called Coton de Tulear. Isn't he a handsome fella?

Dog breeds

The blood test identifies genes from a base of 157 breeds, according to the Web site of Mars Inc., the company that offers the test through vets' offices. It costs about $200 but includes a veterinary appointment for reviewing the results.

Smith advocates for the blood-work test not only because it accesses more breeds but because, depending on the DNA results, some dog owners may need follow-up counseling.

"Some people might've been happy with what they thought they had, then something like 'Rottweiler' shows up," said Smith. "All of a sudden, they're looking at their dog through a completely different pair of eyes."

A veterinarian can reassure owners that "the dog you now have more information about is the dog you still love," she said.

Theresa Brady, a MetaMorphix marketing representative in Calverton, Md., said the two DNA tests are equally effective, even though her company's cheek-swab method tests for fewer breeds.

"DNA is DNA," she said. "The sampling method doesn't make a difference."

Smith and other vets caution that the DNA tests are "for fun and entertainment" — not for diagnostic purposes.

"It's just a test for owners," said vet Kelly Best of Arvada Flats Veterinary Hospital, in Colorado. "I don't know that it has any medical benefits at all."

Even for purebreds predisposed to certain diseases, their genetic dilution in a mutt makes concern about the diseases negligible, she said.

And no one has come knocking on her door asking for the test.

Smith, however, has run the blood test on many dogs.

"It's like Christmas day when (clients) get to open their results," she said. "A lot of times people are right, and a lot of times they're wrong."

 

DNA tests may yield surprise breeds in mutts

ARVADA, Colo. — When Will Colosimo adopted his dog Allie in 2003, he knew he was getting a mutt. She looked like a basenji, but the Colorado Basenji Rescue group in Denver, from where he retrieved her, said they didn't think she had any of that small, short-haired breed in her.

Curiosity got the better of him.

"We always knew she was beautiful, but we didn't know what all came together to make her," he said.

There are several types of DNA tests available for determining a mixed-breed dog's ancestry. Colosimo sent away for one that required swabbing the inside of his dog's cheek and mailing the sample to a lab. He learned that Allie, who is 8 or 9 years old, had both German shepherd and dachshund blood.

"It was hilarious," said Colosimo, 45. "So, the German shepherd I can totally see, but dachshund? That's crazy."

Owners’ guesses often way off 
And not uncommon. Veterinarians advise owners that what they see in their dog is not always what they've got.

"We're really bad guessers at what dogs are," said Martha Smith, Director of Veterinary Medical Services at the Animal Rescue League of Boston.

The rescue league began using mixed-breed DNA blood testing when it appeared about four years ago, testing a few of its shelter dogs. "We found out from the handful of tests that we ran that we were way off base" in guessing breeds, Smith said. The test "proves dogs are individuals."

Karin Hendersin, 52, a market researcher in Denver, can speak to that. Her dog, Splash, resembles a pit bull, a breed banned in the Denver city limits. Hendersin recently learned that Splash, with her brown-brindled coat, is Chinese Shar-Pei, Labrador retriever and Dalmatian — and no pit bull.

Hendersin thinks the DNA test also helped explain some of the dog's behavior.

"It explains why she's such a runner," Hendersin said, noting the Dalmatian genes. "We take her to the dog park and a whole herd of dogs will chase her."

What’s available 
There are two kinds of mixed-breed DNA testing: the inner-cheek swab method, which is a kit that can be bought at stores or online, and a blood-drawn test, which is performed in a veterinarian's office.

The cheek-swab method, created by MetaMorphix Inc., a biotechnology company, is offered at two levels: The standard breed test (about $70) can identify from a range of about 50 dog breeds, while the "XL" breed test (about $120) identifies from about 100 breeds.

Grand Opening

So today I decided to finally get a blog and just post about my hacking progress of the game as well as my efforts to get the script dumped and translated (at least Japanese to English if not Japanese to German) and show some cool pics off.
On the right is the new titlescreen for Devil Children: Black Book =]

I've worked on that game now for some years, three namely, however, after I took break for a year in the US I decided to start over and make it even more prettier. It already features a full-blown vwf that is used for dialog and menus. However, flip side of the medal is, that I have to hack each and every menu on its own as they're all hardcoded into the game... Which... takes a lot effort and time I don't have right now^^"

Oh, and if anybody was wondering, I work on Black Book and Red Book simultaneously, however, I usually hack Black first... So now I'm stuck with some changes I made several months ago that I didn't hack into Red yet... Will happen soon. Tonight I'm gonna try my first script dump ever, and that's actually how I got the idea of opening a blog (like the BoF2 blog) in the first place.

Progress

So I finally got the code in Black Book working and put it into Red Book. Now I just need to apply the menu changes and all will be sweet. I busied myself with the DeviDas which I will call from now on "Devikon" (Devil + Lexikon) :)

So, I'll put a nice picture of the stuff I changed around here:

Rest of Work

I got military duty to do, so the translation work will have to wait approx. 9 months until I can pick it up at full pace again. Nevertheless, it will be actively seen thru to completion after that period of time.

I'm still thinking whether I will upload all of the dumped scripts somewhere or not, so translators can get an idea of what my dumps are like. Post comments, folks.

Black Book script translated :

Hi, so after a long time of not posting anything on my blog, the translator I found months ago has translated the full dialog script that is in Black Book :D
I will translate the remaining German script files and revise the already translated ones!

Also, the collaboration with Shadowsithe (see here) that began like ages ago will actually continue to bring out English versions of the two, possibly three, games :D
Hackingwise I'm a bit stalled at the moment, because of my duty. However, progress is being made :D Lastly, only special text strings used in menus only need to be dumped and translated :)

Updates :

So I'm finally back in Germany *yay* And hacking progress can continues... well... almost. I still don't have the "internets" at home, so that's like 2 more weeks of nothing feasible to do...
Then, I moved to Vista so that's a huge deal for some programs... Japanese locale for some as well. I already fixed thingy32 to work for me again (locale problems) but I'm actually thinking of porting it to VB.NET just for better compatibility with unicode (currently: none) and newer language seems better to me, anyway.
The old thingy32 does everything with strings, so that's why it's so slow :D

Then again, university has me cornered and I can't select "Run" - but that'll work out eventually. Right now I'm having a lot of free time to go thru all the stuff I did so far and finally compile some of my decumentations into something actually usable :D

Tom wants to see some progress with the insertion and English version of the game, so that will move on as well.
I'm kind of really big-time excited to actually finish up some loose ends on this one to move on to fixing Red Book up to the current status Black Book is at (not a huge deal tho).

So until then :D

EDIT: Oh yeah, pictures will follow shortly ^-^

2009!... Err...too late.

Yeah, so I thought I'd honor 2009 by at least posting a small update.

Right now, there's seriously much to do in uni, so I haven't been able to do anything at all with both Red Book and Black Book. I did a little comparison work to see what routines need to be updated for Red Book in order to "catch up" with Black Book hacking progress.

So far nothing that will make for good new pictures, sadly. Also, I'm thinking there is a bug in one of the battle routines that still persists and needs fixing. Something with centering strings *burr* So yeah, I'll see to that... sadly eventually :(

Some news on Red Book

Yeah, so just a quick update :D
I ported the text routine over to Red Book and it seems it's smooth sailing for that. Just need to fix the other million of routine and err... right ^^"
Anyway, I found some bugs that can be fixed in Black Book as well. As of now, nothing is functioning, but I'll keep you posted.

Here are some comparison screens of the battle menu and the status menu. Current Red Book on the left, current Black Book on the right.

Yes, quite a difference, ain't it?