Accuracy of developing tooth length as an estimate of age in human skeletal remains: the deciduous dentition

Dental age assessments are widely used to estimate age of immature skeletal remains. Most methods have relied on fractional stages of tooth emergence and formation, particularly of the permanent dentition, for predicting the age of infants and very young children. In this study, the accuracy of regression equations of developing deciduous tooth length for age estimation (Liversidge et al.) is tested on a sample of 30 Portuguese subadult skeletons of known age at death. Overall the method shows high accuracy and the average difference between estimated and chronological age is between 0.20 and -0.14 years when using single teeth, and 0.06 years, when using all available teeth. However, there is a tendency for the deciduous molars to provide overestimates of chronological age. Results show that age estimates can be obtained within +/-0.10 years with a 95% confidence interval when several teeth are used. Overall between-tooth agreement in age estimates decreases with increasing age but there is less variability of estimates with more teeth contributing to overall mean age. One seemingly limitation of this method may be the fact that it was developed by combining the maxillary and mandibular teeth. The other is related to the accuracy with which radiographic tooth length can be used as a valid surrogate for actual tooth length. Nevertheless, the advantages of this metric method surpass the limitations of chronologies based on stages of dental development.     

A Reappraisal of Developing Deciduous Tooth Length as an Estimate of Age in Human Immature Skeletal Remains

This study provides an update on a quantitative method for immature age estimation based on postnatal deciduous mandibular tooth length. Two known sex and age skeletal collections from Western Europe were sampled (n = 97). Linear regression models for age estimated were calculated for each individual tooth, each sex, and sex combined sample using classical calibration. Prediction errors, residuals, and percentage of individuals whose real age fell within the 95% prediction interval were calculated. The teeth which develop earlier in life, the incisors and the first molar, showed the greatest precision, while the canine showed the least. This method has greater applicability to archeological skeletons or to children in developing countries than for use in North American or European forensic contexts. The method can be applied to incomplete or poorly preserved remains of unknown sex, particularly when dental radiographs are not an option or when teeth have been removed from the alveolus or crypt.     

Amazonian peasant livelihood differentiation as mutuality-market dialectics

ABSTRACT

Economistic approaches to the study of peasant livelihoods have considerable academic and policy influence, yet, we argue, perpetuate a partial misunderstanding – often reducing peasant livelihood to the management of capital assets by rational actors. In this paper, we propose to revitalize the original heterodox spirit of the sustainable livelihoods framework by drawing on Stephen Gudeman’s work on the dialectic between use values and mutuality on the one hand, and exchange values and the market on the other. We use this approach to examine how historically divergent mutuality-market dialectics in different Amazonian regions have shaped greater prominence of either extractivism or agriculture in current livelihoods. We conclude that an approach centered on the mutuality-market dialectic is of considerable utility in revealing the role of economic histories in shaping differential peasant livelihoods in tropical forests. More generally, it has considerable potential to contribute to a much-needed re-pluralization of approaches to livelihood in academia and policy.     

Exchange rates in nineteenth‐century Brazil: An econometric model

This paper develops a model for the exchange rate in Brazil during the second half of the nineteenth century. The exchange rate discussion has a bearing in the sources of industrialization in Brazil. Two explanations stem from a primary export base. Whereas the ‘adverse shock argument’ links industrialization to unfavorable conditions in the external sector and exchange devaluations, the alternative approach views industrialization from the standpoint of the growth of income brought by the rise in exports. Those mechanisms are discussed. Also considered are the effects of monetary policy and the behavior of wages. The evidence shows that purchasing power parity is not enough to explain the exchange rate behavior, which clearly responded to coffee export revenues.     

Revenue Diversification in Public Higher Education: Comparing the University and Polytechnic Sectors

Financial stringency has been an increasing concern in the higher education sector, especially in the aftermath of the financial crisis. As a result, public higher education institutions have been under increasing pressure to diversify their funding sources through tuition fees and other nonpublic revenues. This article reflects on the institutional impact of those changes by analyzing a panel of 30 higher education institutions from the Portuguese public university and polytechnic sectors for the period between 2003 and 2009. The authors explore the relevance of institutional characteristics such as enrollments in undergraduate and postgraduate programs, the qualifications of academic staff, and the regional environment where institutions are located. Results suggest that certain institutional characteristics related to mission differentiation and the path of development of binary systems are important determinants of higher education institutions’ ability to earn income from tuition fees and other nonpublic sources.     

New Paths: Globalization in Historical Perspective

This essay argues that the historical–structural framework of analysis is still useful to describe the transformations generated by globalization in the underdeveloped countries, provided that it is employed with the subtlety needed to avoid reductionism. Globalization, in the same way as dependency, is nothing more than an unfolding of the capitalist system in today's historical conditions. The structural starting point conditions—but does not determine—the shape taken by economic and political processes. Political strategies for integrating into the global economy have a certain margin of autonomy. Still, the range of feasible strategies depends on factors that differ from country to country, such as the local capacity of income accumulation, the presence of foreign direct investment, the mix between nationally controlled production and production controlled by multinationals, the participation of the public sector in production, the capacity of the leadership, the prevailing ideologies, and so forth. In other words, there are alternative paths.     

Is the length of the sternum reliable for estimating adult stature? A pilot study using fresh sterna and a test of two methods using dry sterna

Stature estimation is one of the four attributes of the biological profile obtained from human skeletal remains. The length of the long bones has been consistently used to estimate stature from regression equations, but these may be useless when dealing with fresh or decomposed mutilated remains. Until recently, there was no consistent assessment of the reliability of measurements of the sternum for stature estimation. The purpose of this paper is to test previously developed regression formulae for stature based on measurements of the dry sternum and to assess the reliability of measurements of the fresh sternum in estimating stature. The formulae developed by Menezes et al. and Singh et al. were applied to a sample of 5 known stature skeletons from the identified human skeletal collection curated at the National Museum of Natural History, in Lisbon, Portugal. Testing of these formulae showed that estimated stature confidence intervals do not allow discrimination between individuals with similar stature. The length of the fresh sternum was measured on a sample of 45 male individuals autopsied at the National Institute of Legal Medicine - North Delegation (Porto, Portugal). Cadaver length was regressed on sternum length and a simple linear regression formula was obtained. The regression model provided a 95% confidence interval of 13.32 cm and a correlation coefficient of only 0.329. Compared to other studies, regression formulae based on the length of the sternum provided considerably larger standard errors than that based on long bone lengths. These results suggest that the length of the sternum has limited forensic value and relatively low reliability in estimating stature from mutilated human skeletal remains, either skeletonized or fresh.