Prosthetic restorations, dental root fillings and periodontal bone resorptions as a forensic-odontologic aid for determining the age above 18 years: A radiographic study of orthopantomograms from a group of teenagers and yount adults

The human teeth are a valuable source of information concerning identification and age calculation in forensic sciences. Dental treatment often causes permanent alteration of the teeth, which is visible on radiographs. The correlation of prosthetic restorations, root canal fillings and periodontal bone loss with chronological age has not yet been used for determining the completed 18th year of life in teenagers and young adults, e. g. for legal and anthropological purposes. The aim of this study was to determine whether the evaluation of such findings on radiographs correlates with the chronological age in teenagers and young adults. MATERIAL AND METHODS: The dental X-rays (orthopantomogram, OPG) of 1053 outpatients (age: 14 to 24 years) were avaluated. The values "prosthetically restored", "filled dental root", or "periodontal bone loss" were recorded for each tooth present. The data were then evaluated using statistical tools. RESULTS: The correlation between the number of prosthetically restored teeth and the chronological age is high. The positive predictive value of determining an age of at least 18 years proved to be very high. However, these findings are rarely present in this age group. The number of endodontically treated teeth correlated less exactly with age. On the other hand, the determination of periodontal bone loss gave reasonable positive predictive values for the threshold value "chronological age of 18 years or more". DISCUSSION: This study provides for the first time predictive values for the estimation whether a person is 18 years of age, based on the evaluation of teeth with prosthetic restorations, root canal fillings or periodontal bone loss on OPGs only. Whereas the number of patients with such findings is generally low in this age group, some of the positive findings can be used for age estimation as an adjunct to other sources of age calculation. The sole application of these criteria is not recommended, as sanitary conditions of the teeth depend on both social and individual circumstances. Therefore, the calculated values also reflect the culture of the sample studied. Finally, they are time-dependent and have to be compared to data from other populations. These results have some bearing on the field of forensic odontology.     

STR analysis of artificially degraded DNA-results of a collaborative European exercise

Degradation of human DNA extracted from forensic stains is, in most cases, the result of a natural process due to the exposure of the stain samples to the environment. Experiences with degraded DNA from casework samples show that every sample may exhibit different properties in this respect, and that it is difficult to systematically assess the performance of routinely used typing systems for the analysis of degraded DNA samples. Using a batch of artificially degraded DNA with an average fragment size of approx. 200 bp a collaborative exercise was carried out among 38 forensic laboratories from 17 European countries. The results were assessed according to correct allele detection, peak height and balance as well as the occurrence of artefacts. A number of common problems were identified based on these results such as strong peak imbalance in heterozygous genotypes for the larger short tandem repeat (STR) fragments after increased PCR cycle numbers, artefact signals and allelic drop-out. Based on the observations, strategies are discussed to overcome these problems. The strategies include careful balancing of the amount of template DNA and the PCR cycle numbers, the reaction volume and the amount of Taq polymerase. Furthermore, a careful evaluation of the results of the fragment analysis and of automated allele calling is necessary to identify the correct alleles and avoid artefacts.     

Linking Policy Networks and Environmental Policies: Nitrate Policy Making in Denmark and Sweden 1970-1995

The policy network literature has provided important insight into the way in which public policy is made in Western societies. Most network studies have focused on processes within networks and have paid little attention to the conceptualization of policy outcomes and the theoretical link between network type and policy type. This article defines and categorizes environmental policy and suggests a proposition on the link between network types and environmental policy types. It is argued that the existence of tight and closed policy communities in sectors subject to environmental regulation is associated with the introduction of low cost environmental policies. In contrast, open and loose issue networks are associated with high cost environmental policies.     

Risch, Jessica: Windenergieanlagen in der Ausschließlichen Wirtschaftszone. Verfassungsrechtliche Anforderungen an die Zulassung von Windenergieanlagen in der Ausschließlichen Wirtschaftszone (AWZ).

Ohne Zusammenfassung     

“We two will never twin”: Fundamentalism and the politics of security

Tell me your enemy and I will tell you who you are. This article takes issue with the significant but often disavowed symbiotic relation between two contemporary enemies: fundamentalism and the politics of security. We start with a metaphorical twinning, showing how these two enemies create, provoke, mimic and ultimately support each other. Then, by way of a discourse analysis, we show the way religion functions in Bush's and Bin Laden's discourses. Our claim is not (only) that the discourse of security is as religious as Bin Laden's but that politics of security as such is the religion of our times. We conclude by arguing that the dyadic interdependence between the two fundamentalisms—Islamic and securiticised—is dissolving the democratic habitus in a post-political condition, a condition devoid of self-reflexivity.     

Interdisciplinary cooperation of forensic sciences--results of a simulation exercise

In a workshop held on the occasion of the foundation of the INFW, the Interdisciplinary Network of Forensic Sciences (www.infw.org), 14 scientists from 10 fields of expertise were allotted to 3 teams. Each team had to independently solve the same fictitious forensic case. In this, several corpses or skeletons in varying degrees of decomposition were found in the remains of an old bunker during a large building project. After a set time limit of 45 minutes, the approaches to the task were noted on individual flipcharts by each team. A comparison of the solutions suggested by the three very heterogeneously composed teams revealed a high degree of similarity. However, particularly the "exotic" disciplines developed surprising approaches. The experiment was an interesting and instructive experience for all participants and underscores the necessity of interdisciplinary cooperation in solving complex forensic questions.