The OMB Budget Examiner and The Congressional Budget Process

This is the second of a two-part retrospective on the evolving role of the OMB budget examiner. The examiner has become more active in negotiations with the legislative branch and tracking the legislative status of various fiscal measures. A new central budget management system was created to monitor appropriation bills. The OMB budget examiner has also been increasingly used to provide information for advocacy purposes before Congress and the public. The institutional effect on OMB of these changing roles is examined and suggestions for organizational reform are made.     

Technology transfer — A view of what works

Technology transfer works now as an applied art for many skilled practitioners. This is a brief review of some of the salient approaches to technology transfer that have been found to be effective. Discussed are personal contact, conferences, brokering, technical publications, patents, contracts, application teams and other related techniques. The discussion is rich with examples of what to do and what not to do.     

High haloperidol concentrations in a traffic suicide

High concentrations of haloperidol are seen in a psychiatric patient who ran from a health care facility into traffic. Haloperidol concentrations were found to be 1.2 mg/L in heart blood, 2.7 mg/L in brain, and 10.8 mg/L in liver. No other drugs were detected.     

Statistical evidence for the individuality of the human dentition

A general population sample of bite marks in wax is used to demonstrate mathematically the individuality of the human dentition. The general principles of probability are discussed and applied to the analysis of teeth using a precise method of measurement. The unique nature of the human dentition is confirmed.     

Can public information programs affect risk perceptions?

This article provides the first controlled evaluation of how different information materials explaining the risks from radon influenced people's perceptions of these risks. Using a panel study, it was possible to observe how stated risk perceptions responded to information about indoor radon concentrations and brochures explaining the radon readings. The findings indicate that risk communication policies can be effective in modifying risk perceptions. Moreover, they have three specific implications for radon policy: (1) Public officials should not adopt strategies that provide minimal risk information to the public as a means of avoiding undue alarm, for this can have the reverse effect; (2) measures of the effectiveness of risk communication will depend on how education and behavior change are defined; (3) categorical guidelines about risk without quantitative information can lead people to treat the levels as thresholds, creating an artificial discontinuity in their responses to small changes in risk perceptions.     

Strontium isotope composition of skeletal material can determine the birth place and geographic mobility of humans and animals

The Sr isotope composition measured in skeletal elements (e.g., bone, teeth, or antlers) can be used to infer the geographic region that an animal or human inhabited, because different regions tend to have distinct Sr isotope compositions, and natural variations in the relative abundance of Sr isotopes are not changed as Sr is processed through the food chain. Therefore, an organism that ingests Sr from one region can have a Sr isotope composition that is different than that of an organism that ingests Sr from another region. The Sr isotope composition of skeletal elements is a reflection of the concentration-weighted average of dietary Sr that was ingested while that skeletal element was produced. Because different skeletal elements grow and exchange Sr at different stages during the life times of organisms, Sr isotope analysis of different skeletal elements can be used to infer changes in geographic location at different stages in an organism's life. The Sr isotope composition measured in human teeth will reflect the average Sr isotope composition that was ingested as a child, due to the immobile nature of Sr and Ca in teeth after formation, whereas the Sr isotope composition of bone will reflect the average isotopic composition over the last ten years of life, due to continuous biological processing of Sr and Ca in bone. Inferring the average isotopic composition of dietary Sr is best done by analyzing skeletal fragments from control groups, which might be animals that have the same feeding habits as the animal in question, or, in the case of humans, analysis of close family relatives. In cases where it is not possible to construct a Sr isotope database from control groups, it becomes necessary to estimate the isotopic composition of dietary Sr based on geologic principles. We present three case studies from our research that illustrate a range of approaches: (1) results from a criminal case where a deer was illegally harvested and the location of the deer was important to establish, (2) a pilot study of commingled human remains from a burial in Vietnam, associated with the Vietnam Conflict, and (3) a study of 13th and 14th century migration of peo ple from an archeological site in the Southwest United States.