Accuracy of Three Age Estimation Methods in Children by Measurements of Developing Teeth and Carpals and Epiphyses of the Ulna and Radius

Abstract: The aim of this study was to compare the accuracy of three methods for age estimation in children: the measurements of open apices in tooth roots (T), the ratio between the total area of carpal bones and epiphyses of the ulna and radius (HW), and the combined method (THW). The sample consisted of 288 Caucasian Italian children (152 boys and 136 girls) aged between 5 and 15 years. Accuracy was determined as the difference between estimated age and chronological age, and accuracy was assessed by analyzing individuals’ orthopantomograms and hand‐wrist radiographs. Accuracies were 0.41 years for girls and 0.54 years for boys with the THW method; for the HW method, 1.00 years for girls and 0.92 years for boys; and for the T method, 0.62 years for girls and 0.71 years for boys. THW is the most accurate technique for age estimation in these children.     

Central banks’ communication as reputation management: How the Fed talks under uncertainty

This article advances a reputation‐based account to explain the relative salience that different issues assume in central banks’ communication. Based on an innovative dataset consisting of a corpus of speeches by the members of the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System of the United States (also known as the Fed) delivered from 2006 to 2016, the analysis shows that the most salient issues in the Fed's communication are shaped by reputational concerns about policy reversals. Specifically, when these concerns are higher, the Fed is more likely to focus on issues related to areas where its reputation is weak or not yet established—that is, issues related to credit easing and systemic financial regulation. In contrast, issues related to activities where the Fed's reputation is established are likely to become less salient—that is, issues related to economic activity and inflation. A similar pattern of issue attention is observed when the Fed addresses political audiences compared to other audiences.     

Considerations on the Cyber Domain as the New Worldwide Battlefield

The convergence of telecommunication and computer technologies that has evolved in the field of information and communication technologies (ICT) in the last two decades has had very important effects on new war technologies and the ongoing process of battlefield digitisation. The Stuxnet worm, uncovered in 2010 and responsible for the sabotaging of a uranium enrichment infrastructure in Iran, is a clear example of a digital weapon. The incident shows what is meant by cyber war and what the particular features of this new warfare dimension are compared to the conventional domains of land, sea, air and space, with relevance both at the operational and strategic levels. But cyberspace also extends to the semantic level, within the complimentary field of information warfare involving the content of messages flowing through the Internet for the purposes of propaganda, information, disinformation, consensus building, etc. The overall cyber warfare domain needs to be put into perspective internationally as many countries are developing strong cyber capabilities and an ‘arms race’ is already taking place, showing that these technologies can potentially be used to undermine international stability and security. What is needed is a public debate on the topic and its impact on global stability, and some kind of regulation or international agreement on this new warfare domain, including an approach involving confidence building measures (CBMs).     

The Economic Impact of Smoke‐Free Policies on Restaurants,Cafés,and Bars: Panel Data Estimates From European Countries

In this paper, we investigate the extent to which the economic outcomes of restaurants, bars, and cafés have been affected by the introduction of anti‐smoking regulations in Europe. We use an unexploited panel database to collect a comprehensive set of information on financial indicators regarding the balance sheets of private and public companies in various economic sectors. The results show that smoke‐free policies did not significantly affect the firms’ economic performance, irrespective of the balance sheet indicators analyzed. Moreover, the results are robust to various econometric specifications and suggest that the recent enforcement of anti‐smoking legislation in Europe has improved public health without a corresponding negative impact on revenues and employment in the hospitality industry.     

Integrating domestic politics and foreign policy making: the cases of Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan

Matters of domestic political consideration exerted a major influence on the processes of foreign policy making established and developed by the authoritarian leaderships of post-Soviet Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan. The preservation of internal authoritarian stability and the political survival of the national regimes have therefore constituted the key foreign policy ends set by decision makers in Ashgabat and Tashkent. This article unveils and discusses the interconnection between domestic politics and foreign policy making in post-Soviet Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan by looking comparatively at the dynamics through which the regimes manipulated foreign policy to consolidate their internal power. In particular, this article will analyse the crucial role played by foreign policy in the regimes' responses to perceived threats to their political stability.     

Human Y-specific STR haplotypes in the Western Croatian population sample

Nine Y-chromosome STR loci (DYS19, DYS389I, DYS389II, DYS390, DYS391, DYS392, DYS393, DYS385 and YCAII) were analysed in a sample of 101 unrelated males from Croatia. Allelic frequencies and gene diversities for each Y-STR locus and haplotype diversity were determined. Ninety-one different haplotypes were obtained from 101 unrelated males and 84 haplotypes were unique. Three most common haplotypes were shared by 3% of the sample, one of them was not found in the online Y-STR Haplotype Reference Database (http://www.ystr.org/).     

Author Index Volume 12

Authors Index

Author Index Volume 12