The California School of Midden Analysis represents a long-standing tradition of using weight, rather than minimum number of individuals (MNI), to analyze shell recovered from archaeological sites in California. This method originated at the University of California, Berkeley, in the early twentieth century and continues to the present, in spite of the advent of counting measures such as MNI and NISP (number of identified specimens) in faunal studies. We argue that MNI estimates are more reliable than weight as a measure of taxonomic abundance for most research issues being addressed with California shell data. Examples using both weight and MNI measures for shell from California coastal sites produced divergent results. This disparity shows that weight measures produce potentially misleading interpretations regarding the importance of marine habitats exploited and the diet of the site’s occupants.

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Performing rapid HIV testing in nontraditional clinical settings such as dental clinics is a potential method for targeting high-risk individuals who may not otherwise access health care settings that offer HIV testing. In March 2008, Harlem Hospital Center, located in New York City, launched a counselor-based rapid HIV testing initiative in its on-site dental clinic. A full-time, trained counselor consented and tested patients as they waited for their appointments. HIV screening was performed using a whole-blood, finger-stick rapid HIV test. Through this initiative, 3864 HIV tests were performed from March 1, 2008 to December 31, 2009, representing 3565 unique individuals and 97.6% of dental patients approached for testing. Of those tested, the mean age was 38.5 years, with 47.1% female, 75.5% black, and 20.6% Hispanic. Self-reported HIV risk behaviors included 73.5% with recent unprotected heterosexual intercourse, 4.6% with recent or past injection drug use, and 2.6% who identified as men who have sex with men. Nineteen previously undiagnosed individuals (0.53%) were confirmed HIV positive. Of these individuals, mean age was 38.3 years with males representing 84.2%. Fifteen newly diagnosed patients (78.9%) were linked to care. Of those linked to care, median initial CD4 cell count was 317 cells/mm(3); 6 of these individuals (40%) had CD4 cell counts below 200 cells/mm(3). Our results demonstrate that a counselor-based rapid HIV testing program with linkage to specialized HIV care can be successfully integrated into the dental clinic setting.

Glassow discusses several "problems" with the use of minimum number of individuals (MNI) in archaeological shellfish analysis, including the difficulty of identifying non-repetitive elements (NRE) to species level for several taxa. However, these problems, especially fragmentation, are more critical for the weight method than for MNI estimates. We have successfully identified thousands of NRE for all species common in southern California coastal archaeological sites. We also suggest that a measure, such as MNI, that provides estimates of numbers of individuals is a more reliable and valid measure with which to address most research questions. The weight method only provides a measure of the weight of some of the fragments from the shells of those individuals.