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Many aspects of sea turtle biology are difficult to measure in these enigmatic migratory species, and this lack of knowledge continues to hamper conservation efforts. The first study of paternity in a sea turtle species used allozyme analysis to suggest multiple paternity in loggerhead turtle (Caretta caretta) clutches in Australia. Subsequent studies indicated that the frequency of multiple paternity varies from species to species and perhaps location to location. This study examined fine-scale population structure and paternal contribution to loggerhead clutches on Melbourne Beach, FL, USA using microsatellite markers. Mothers and offspring from 70 nests collected at two locations were analysed using two to four polymorphic microsatellite loci. Fine-scale population differentiation was not evident between the sampled locations, separated by 8 km. Multiple paternity was common in loggerhead nests on Melbourne Beach; 22 of 70 clutches had more than one father, and six had more than two fathers. This is the first time that more than two fathers have been detected for offspring in individual sea turtle nests. Paternal genotypes could not be assigned with confidence in clutches with more than two fathers, leaving the question of male philopatry unanswered. Given the high incidence of multiple paternity, we conclude that males are not a limiting resource for this central Florida nesting aggregate.

Abstract. In the UK, interest in measuring the performance of higher education institutions has developed as part of an increasing performance culture in the public sector. This paper looks at development of national systems of indicators in both the University and former Polytechnic section in the light of this trend. The pressures leading up to the development of each system are examined together with an outline of the indicators chosen and forthcoming critical reaction. The use of performance indicators to compare institutional performance is explored. Regression methods that have been developed to try to enable meaningful comparison of indicators to be made between different insititutional types and environments are critically examined. A number of case studies of the use of performance indicators in both the University and former Polytechnic sector are presented. In each case the benefit and drawbacks of the application are commented on. The paper concludes by recommending a change from the league table approach to one based on adopting indicators for each institution which are consistent with its mission. The role of peer review in complementing the use of performance indicators is covered.

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Recent Government policy in the UK has resulted in a rapid growth of partnership working. This has lead to a need for the evaluation of partnership performance, particularly in the area of health and social care partnerships. Methodologies were developed to evaluate progress on both 'process' and 'outcome' aspects of partnership working and this was applied to evaluating the performance of three Community Health Partnerships in Central Scotland. Results obtained demonstrate that the methodology is capable of discriminating between the performance of different partnerships and also between different aspects of partnership working.

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Using computer simulations, we generated and analyzed genetic distances among selectively neutral haplotypes transmitted through gene genealogies with random-mating organismal pedigrees. Constraints and possible biases on haplotype distances due to correlated ancestry were evaluated by comparing observed distributions of distances to those predicted from an inbreeding theory that assumes independence among haplotype pairs. Results suggest that: 1) mean time to common ancestry of neutral haplotypes can be a reasonably good predictor of evolutionary effective population size; 2) the nonindependence of haplotype paths of descent within a given gene genealogy typically produces significant departures from the theoretical probability distributions of haplotype distances; 3) frequency distributions of distances between haplotypes drawn from "replicate" organismal pedigrees or from multiple unlinked loci within an organismal pedigree exhibit very close agreement with the theory for independent haplotypes. These results are relevant to interpretations of current molecular data on genetic distances among nonrecombining haplotypes at either nuclear or cytoplasmic loci.

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