Ancestry Estimation in Practice

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hillary Parsons
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
The United States ◽  
Vital Statistics ◽  
Estimation Methods ◽  
Missing Persons ◽  
Ancestry Estimation ◽  
Physical Features ◽  
Discrete Traits ◽  
Medical Examiners

The medicolegal system relies on forensic anthropologists to construct accurate biological profiles from skeletal remainsto narrow the pool of potential missing persons and provide support for positive identifications. The ancestry estimation component of theprofile offers physical descriptions of decedents through a combination of metric analysis and the interpretation of discrete traits believedto correlate with visible physical features. Forensic anthropologists employed in medical examiners’ offices in the United States regularlyconstruct these profiles in casework. However, ancestry estimation methods have been questioned in their ability to accurately describe theracial classification of the deceased. Although validation studies have documented the accuracy of ancestry estimation methods on skeletalcollections, it is unknown how well they operate in forensic casework and the assumption that methods mirror the results observed inacademic research studies remains unproven. In an effort to understand how well methods preform, this research was designed to evaluatethe accuracy ancestry estimation practices within three medical examiners’ offices in the United States. The results show an accuracy rateof 99% among 177 cases when both definitive and ambiguous ancestral and racial terminology was used to describe remains. Becauseunidentified cases lack antemortem information, it remains unknown if the ancestral assessments of the 280 unidentified individualsincluded in this study confer the same level of accuracy shown in resolved cases. The results presented here are informative not only forthe vital statistics obtained, but also for what this data reveals about the factors influencing ancestry estimation in practice.

Polk's Medical Register and Directory of North America, Comprising List of Physicians and Surgeons, Arranged by Location, Giving Postoffice Address with Population, the School Practiced, Date and College of Graduation, All the Existing and Extinct Medical Colleges in the United States and Canada, with Locations, Officers, Number of Professors, Lecturers, Demonstrators, etc., the Various Medical Societies, Penal Reformatory and Charitable State Institutions, Hospitals, Sanitariums, Dispensaries, Asylums and Other Medical Institutions, Boards of Health. Boards of Medical Examiners, Health Officers at Principal Points, the Laws of Registration and Other Laws Relating to the Profession, Medical Journals, with Names of Editors, Frequency of Publication and Subscription Rates, Medical Libraries, Therapeutic Classification of American Health Resorts, Mineral Springs, Official List of Officers of the Medical Departments of the U. S. Army, Navy and Marine-Hospital Service, Roster of Examining Surgeons of the U. S., Pension Department, a Descriptive Sketch of each State, Territory and Province, Embodying such Matter as Location, Boundary, Extent in Miles and Acres, Latitude and Longitude, Statistics Relating to Climate, Temperature, Rate of Mortality, etc., Full Particulars of All National Associations and Societies Relating to Medicine and Surgery, and an Index to the Physicians of the United States. Arranged Alphabetically with the Number of the Page and the Column on Which the Name Appears.

JAMA ◽  
1904 ◽  
Vol XLII (20) ◽  
pp. 1304
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
The United States ◽  
State Institutions ◽  
Medical Institutions ◽  
Medical Libraries ◽  
Health Resorts ◽  
Principal Points ◽  
Temperature Rate ◽  
Medical Examiners

Health Data Disparities in Opioid-Involved Overdose Deaths From 1999 to 2018 in the United States

2021 ◽  
pp. e1-e9
Author(s):  
Adam J. Milam ◽  
Debra Furr-Holden ◽  
Ling Wang ◽  
Kevin M. Simon
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
African American ◽  
Temporal Trends ◽  
The United States ◽  
Vital Statistics ◽  
Health Data ◽  
Using Data ◽  
Death Investigation ◽  
Overdose Deaths

Objectives. To examine temporal trends in the classification of opioid-involved overdose deaths (OODs) and racial variation in the classification of specific types of opioids used. Methods. We analyzed OODs coded as other or unspecified narcotics from 1999 to 2018 in the United States using data from the National Vital Statistics System and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Results. The total proportion ofOODs fromunspecified narcotics decreased from 32.4% in 1999 to 1.9% in 2018. The proportion of OODs from unspecified narcotics among African American persons was approximately 2-fold greater than that of non-Hispanic White persons until 2012. Similarly, the proportion of OODs from unspecified narcotics among Hispanic persons was greater than that of White persons until 2015. After we controlled for death investigation system, African American persons had a higher incidence rate of OODs from unspecified narcotics compared with White persons. Conclusions. There have been significant improvements in the specification OODs over the past 20 years,and there has been significant racial disparity in the classification of OODs until about 2015. The findings suggest a health data disparity; the excessive misclassification of OODs is likely attributable to the race/ethnicity of the decedent. (Am J Public Health. Published online ahead of print June 29, 2021: e1–e8. https://doi.org/10.2105/AJPH.2021.306322 )

PUBLIC HEALTH

PEDIATRICS ◽  
1960 ◽  
Vol 25 (2) ◽  
pp. 343-347
Author(s):  
George M. Wheatley ◽  
Stephen A. Richardson
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
United States ◽  
Cause Of Death ◽  
United States Public Health ◽  
The United States ◽  
Vital Statistics ◽  
West Germany ◽  
Medical Attention ◽  
Age Group ◽  
Number Of Children

IN ALL COUNTRIES for which there are vital statistics, accidents are a major cause of death and disability among children. In countries where the food supply is adequate and infectious diseases have been brought under control, accidents have become the leading cause of death in the age group 1 to 19 years. For example, in such countries as Australia, Canada, Sweden, West Germany, and the United States, more than one-third of all deaths in this age group are caused by accidents. The number of children who are injured by accidents fan exceeds the number who are killed. Although no accurate international figures are available, the Morbidity Survey conducted by the United States Public Health Service indicates that in the United States, for every child under 15 killed by accident, 1,100 children are injured severely enough to require medical attention or to be restricted in their activity for at least a day.

scholarly journals Classification of Wetlands and Deepwater Habitats of the United States

2005 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lewis M. Cowardin ◽  
Virginia Carter ◽  
Francis C. Golet ◽  
Edward T. Laroe
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
The United States

Merchants of Asianness: Japanese Art Dealers in the United States in the Early Twentieth Century

2009 ◽  
Vol 44 (1) ◽  
pp. 19-46
Author(s):  
CONSTANCE J. S. CHEN
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Cultural Capital ◽  
American Art ◽  
The United States ◽  
Racial Identities ◽  
Japanese Art ◽  
Art Dealers ◽  
Cultural Intermediaries

This article explores the role of Japanese merchants within American art and collecting circles and analyzes the ways in which the construction of “Asianness” and, in particular, “Japaneseness” became intertwined with the classification of Asian art. In order to reconstitute the market for high art and to create their own positionalities as legitimate cultural intermediaries, Asian art dealers such as Bunkio Matsuki (1867–1940) and Sadajiro Yamanaka (1866–1936) used their connections to Japan as cultural capital. Ultimately, their experiences illuminate the complexities of the reconceptualization of ethnic–racial identities through the lens of aesthetic discourses.

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