Reaffirming the value of the image and its social implications: Shlain and Lacan

Abstract

This article focuses on the issue of the reaffirmation of the value of the image from the perspectives of Shlain's startling uncovering of a connection between the historical rise of alphabet literacy and, concomitantly, patriarchy, on the one hand, the place of images which, at first blush, seems to indicate a negative evaluation – in poststructuralist, Jacques Lacan's psychoanalytical theory of the subject, on the other. Both perspectives give rise to a number of questions, which I shall explore briefly.     

Sexual dimorphism in teeth: discriminatory effectiveness of permanent lower canine size observed in a XVIIIth century osteological series

Recent studies have shown that the most dimorphic tooth is the mandibular canine. We have carried out a study on a random sample of 146 skeletons dating from the plague outbreak in Marseilles (1722). We studied 1284 maxillary and 1432 mandibular permanent teeth. Sexual dimorphism was tested on 89 individuals. We selected a set of four dental indices and calculated the dimorphism percentage by ratio expression male/female. Dimorphic ranking was made, by allotting the first rank to the tooth presenting the highest dimorphism and the last rank to the one presenting the lowest ratio. Comparisons of means were made on both sexes (sex determined by post-cranial data) through a Student's test (t-test). We noted that lower canines and lateral incisor are the most interesting teeth in the dimorphic dental determination. The lower index presented the highest relative risk with RR = 1.56 [1.04-2.32]. In 58% of the cases, the lower dental index enabled a correct sex determination (determined on the basis of the post-cranial skeleton). These results showed the existence of a relative dental dimorphism (male > female mesiodistal diameters) with humans. In conclusion, this method, using dental measurements, may be used as an additional technique to determine sex on fragmentary adult skeletons, immature material, missing pieces or ambiguities on post-cranial remains.     

Cognizance and Consultation of Randomized Controlled Trials among Ministerial Policy Analysts

Consultation of scientific evidence by policy actors has been the foci of attention of knowledge utilization scholars for decades. The present study questioned the extent to which randomized controlled trials (RCTs)—generally seen as the gold standard of scientific research—are known and consulted by policy analysts in ministerial settings. Using cross‐sectional data collected in 17 ministries in Québec (Canada), our study showed that fairly high levels of policy analysts report never having heard of RCTs, thus possibly hindering effective communication of scientific results to relevant policy makers. Statistical analyses reveal the importance of cognitive factors in explaining both phenomena.     

Situating forensic traces in time

Situating events and traces in time is an essential problem in investigations. To date, among the typical questions issued in forensic science, time has generally been unexplored. The reason for this can be traced to the complexity of the overall problem, addressed by several scientists in very limited projects usually stimulated by a specific case. Considering that such issues are recurrent and transcending the treatment of each trace separately, the formalisation of a framework to address dating issues in criminal investigation is undeniably needed. Through an iterative process consisting of extracting recurrent aspects discovered from the study of problems encountered by practitioners and reported in the literature, common mechanisms were extracted and provide understanding of underlying factors encountered in forensic practise. Three complementary approaches are thus highlighted and described to formalise a preliminary framework that can be applied for the dating of traces, objects, persons and indirectly events.