The Pitfalls, Perils, and Promise to Increasing Forensic Research

Based on the above statement by Harris, Kropp, and Rosenthal (1986), I feel compelled to qualify my opening sentence to this article. I opened by stating Research, in fact, provides the foundation for all we do in forensics. A more truthful statement is that research should provide the foundation for all we do in forensics. I am not convinced this is the case

Beautiful Music for Ugly Children

Join the festivities during National Library Week and celebrate the joy of reading. Come and spend an hour with the author Kirstin Cronn-Mills, recipient of the American Library Association Stonewall Award for her book entitled Beautiful Music for Ugly Children. Recognized as one of the best novels written for young adults in 2013 by the Young Adult Library Services Association, the book talk will explore the novel\u27s genesis while providing insight into the author\u27s thoughts on the book\u27s storyline and characters. The event is scheduled for Wednesday, April 16th at 1:00 p.m. in Memorial Library Casual Learning Lab (ML 45)

Editor\u27s Section: A Guide to Scheduling the AFA-NIET

At the request of the DSR-TKA executive board, this article is presented in Speaker & Gavel so the AFA-NIET process explained here has a permanent record in forensic archives

Genesis of a Special Issue

Notes from guest editor Daniel Cronn-Mills on the special issue of volume 52 of Speaker & Gavel

Molecular evolution at homoeologous loci in allotetraploid cotton (Malvaceae: Gossypium hirsutum L)

Duplicated genes created during polyploid formation (\u27homoeologues\u27) may experience a variety of fates depending upon the evolutionary forces operating on these loci. Homoeologue divergence may be limited if selection operates to maintain duplicate gene function, or divergence may be permitted if selective pressure on a functionally redundant locus is relaxed. In an attempt to determine the fate of duplicate loci in a polyploid genome, I have isolated and described sequence evolution at 15 sets of homoeologous loci from allotetraploid cotton (Gossypium L.) and the corresponding orthologues from its progenitor diploid genomes. Homoeology and orthology relationships of these loci have been demonstrated by in-situ hybridization for the 5S rDNA array, and by comparative linkage mapping for 12 low-copy anonymous loci and two known cellulose synthase genes, CelA1 and CelA2. In combination, these results demonstrate that relaxation of selective pressure (as indicated by an increase in the substitution rate) at duplicate loci subsequent to polyploidization may be minimal across the majority of loci in this duplicated genome. Ten of these loci (which correspond to mapped anonymous PstI-genomic probes) show rate equivalency between polyploid subgenomes and between subgenomes and their progenitor diploid genomes, indicating that selection continues to limit divergence at these loci. In contrast, the remaining five loci (5SrDNA, A1550, A1713, CelA1 and CelA2) show significant rate differences among the genomes tested. Two of these loci (CelA1 and CelA2) are known to be preferentially expressed in developing cotton fiber, and they show significantly elevated substitution rates in the D- and A-subgenome lineages, respectively. In addition, CelA2 from the A-subgenome of G. hirsutum has experienced a marked rate acceleration since polyploidization, and has accumulated a greater than expected number of non-synonymous substitutions without exhibiting the hallmarks of pseudogenization. These results indicate that cellulose synthase A2 may be responding to directional or diversifying selection, perhaps as a consequence of human-mediated selection upon fiber quality attributes