Seizing the Opportunities of Fiscal Retrenchment

As both a trust establishment and a public institution, the Smithsonian Institution is a recipient of both public and private sector funding. This article examines the financial crisis within the Institution that resulted from increasing costs, a weakening economy, and eroding federal support. It further shows how the Institution's senior management recognized the permanence of their economic situation, accepted the structural nature of their fiscal plight, and initiated the downsizing and restructuring of a public institution that, until recently, experienced nothing but growth.     

Interviewing Former 1- and 2-Year Olds About Medical Emergencies 5 Years Later

Five years earlier, 1- and 2-year-old children who had been injured seriously enough to require hospital ER treatment had been recruited from the ER. For this study, as many of these children as could be found participated. The majority of former 1-year olds recalled nothing about these highly stressful events, whereas most former 2-year olds recalled a great deal. For those former 1-year olds who did recall the target events, quality of recall was problematic. In particular, they made considerable source confusions or intrusions into their accounts of details from other related events, producing an account that amalgamated various events into one recollection. Forensic implications are discussed.     

Twelve short tandem repeat loci Y chromosome haplotypes: genetic analysis on populations residing in North America

A total of 2443 male individuals, previously typed for the 13 CODIS STR loci, distributed across the five North American population groups African American, Asian, Caucasian, Hispanic, and Native American were typed for the Y-STR loci DYS19, DYS385a/b, DYS389I/II, DYS390, DYS391, DYS392, DYS393, DYS437, DYS438 and DYS439 using the PowerPlex Y System. All population samples were highly polymorphic for the 12 Y-STR loci with the marker DYS385a/b being the most polymorphic across all sample populations. The Native American population groups demonstrated the lowest genetic diversity, most notably at the DYS393 and DYS437 loci. Almost all of the 12-locus haplotypes observed in the sample populations were represented only once in the database. Haplotype diversities were greater than 99.6% for the African Americans, Caucasians, Hispanics, and Asians. The Native Americans had the lowest haplotype diversities (Apaches, 97.0%; Navajo, 98.1%). Population substructure effects were greater for Y-haplotypes, compared with that for the autosomal loci. For the apportionment of variance for the 12 Y-STRs, the within sample population variation was the largest component (>98% for each major population group and approximately 97% in Native Americans), and the variance component contributed by the major population groups was less than the individual component, but much greater than among sample populations within a major group (11.79% versus 1.02% for African Americans/Caucasians/Hispanics and 15.35% versus 1.25% for all five major populations). When each major population is analyzed individually, the R(ST) values were low but showed significant among group heterogeneity. In 692 confirmed father-son pairs, 14 mutation events were observed with the average rate of 1.57x10(-3)/locus/generation (a 95% confidence bound of 0.83x10(-3) to 2.69x10(-3)). Since the Y-STR loci reside on the non-recombining region of the Y chromosome, the counting method is one approach suggested for conveying an estimate of the rarity of the Y-haplotype. Because the Y-STR loci are not all in disequilibrium to the same extent, the counting method is a very conservative approach. The data also support that autosomal STR frequencies can be multiplied by the upper bound frequency estimate of a Y-haplotype in the individual population group or those pooled into major population groups (i.e., Caucasian, African American, Hispanic, and Asian). These analyses support use of the haplotype population data for estimating Y-STR profile frequencies for populations residing in North America.