Supportive Community Resources Are Associated with Lower Risk of Substance Use among Lesbian,Gay, Bisexual,and Questioning Adolescents in Minnesota

Journal of Youth and Adolescence - Research has indicated that lesbian, gay, bisexual, and queer/questioning (LGBQ) adolescents have disproportionately high rates of substance use compared to...     

Haplotype analysis for Irish ancestry

Forensic haplotype analysis of the male Y chromosome is currently used to establish the number of male donors in sexual assaults, the number of male bleeders in blood pattern analysis, and for ancestry correlation to genetic founder populations in biogeographic studies. In forensic laboratory applications, its primary use is for DNA profile generation with trace amounts of male DNA in the presence of excess female DNA (e.g. spermatozoa identification, male component of fingernail scrapings). Our study supports the potential use of the Y chromosome in a “dragnet” approach (most haplotypes are unique) similar to that described by Kayser in 2017 for solving a cold case sex assault and homicide in The Netherlands. Our study also researched the potential for the identification of an ancestral Irish genetic “footprint” linked to surname O’Brien and identified multiple founder group origins in Ireland and England as well as three samples with the Dal Riata (a Gaelic overkingdom) ancestral haplotype. This study indicates correlation to ancestral Irish ancestry by haplotype but not conclusively to the O’Brien surname.     

Documenting Disparity in Minority Contracting: Legal Requirements and Recommendations for Policy Makers

The challenge of advancing policy goals and public administration is compounded when legal compliance rests on data and complex analysis. This is true of disparity studies that support local government‐sponsored minority contracting programs. How can local governments prepare to work with such programs in this complex environment? The authors analyze several court cases challenging minority contracting programs and illustrate the difficulty of administering public programs at the juncture of public policy goals, subtle changes in law, and demands for quality statistical analysis. Many public agencies, especially at the local level, are not prepared to address the data requirements demanded by these programs. To help with this challenge, the authors develop a set of guiding principles to help practitioners satisfy the legal requirements and meet the policy goals of minority contracting and similar programs. This includes a new emphasis on continuous gathering of valid, local‐level data.     

Common Sense, Competence, and Talent in the Public Service in the USA: Finding The Right Mix In A Complex World

In the career civil service the US federal government has long been guided by a merit system. This article traces how the principle of merit in appointment and promotion has developed since the nineteenth century and examines contemporary applications of competency frameworks in the US – their development, character, strengths and weaknesses. If core competency discussions and frameworks are to have a broader impact at both the government wide and the agency level, the frameworks will have to be disentangled. Existing notions of competencies for the political appointees, the leadership echelons of the career service, the rest of the career service, the entire government, central agencies, individual agencies, and badly needed future leaders not only suggest superhuman abilities, but also contain seriously conflicting expectations.     

Identification of anhydroecgonine ethyl ester in the urine of a drug overdose victim

Toxicological evaluation of postmortem urine collected from a 41-year-old deceased white male detected anhydroecgonine ethyl ester (ethylecgonidine, AEEE), a transesterification product of smoked cocaine co-abused with ethanol. A solid phase extraction (SPE) method was used to extract cocaine, AEEE, and related metabolites from urine. SPE on a 1 mL urine sample from the decedent followed by GC-MS detected AEEE. Other metabolites identified by GC-MS included cocaine, cocaethylene, and anhydroecgonine methyl ester (AEME). To determine whether some or all of the AEEE was artifactually produced in the heated GC injector port, an alternative LC-MS method was developed. LC/MS following SPE found at least 50 ng/mL of AEEE in the extract. The mass fragmentation (MS/MS and MS3) of AEEE detected in the urine was compared to spectra of authentic, synthesized compound. AEEE is a potential additional forensic marker for the co-abuse of smoked cocaine and ethanol.     

Stereotyping Ricochet: Complex Effects of Racial Distinctiveness on Identification Accuracy

Studies show that distinctive (e.g., attractive) people are better remembered than typical people (B. L. Cutler & S. D. Penrod, 1995). We investigated the effect of a Black person's presence on recognition accuracy for surrounding White individuals. Regarding eyewitness accuracy for an event, we expected more errors for White targets accompanied by Black confederates (experimental condition) than by White confederates (control). A staged accident was witnessed by participants, followed by a lineup. In 3 experiments, identification accuracy decreased in the experimental conditions, relative to control. Further data suggested that attention focused on the Black confederate reduced memory for the other confederates at the event. This pattern did not generalize to a condition substituting garish hair color for race, suggesting that racial distinctiveness, rather than general physical distinctiveness, contributed to the prior results.     

Ossification of laryngeal structures as indicators of age

As the role of forensic anthropologists expands to the medical examiner setting, their expertise is being applied beyond the traditional dry skeletal material. In such scenarios radiographic techniques can be applied when maceration is not appropriate. This study explores the use of radiographic analysis of laryngeal structures for age-at-death determination. Isolated human laryngeal structures (n = 104) from individuals between the ages of 15 and 89 were removed at autopsy and radiographically examined. The cricoid and individual regions of the thyroid cartilage were scored according to degree of ossification, and the relationship between age and degree of ossification statistically examined. A previously published study on age-determination from thyroid ossification by Cerny was assessed for accuracy. The results of the study indicate that although a consistent sequence in the ossification of laryngeal structures exists, variations in timing does not permit narrow age range estimates. Consequently the method presented by Cerny is inaccurate and should not be used in the forensic setting.