Dental age estimation of Norwegian adults — A comparison of different methods

Age estimations were performed on 100 teeth according to the methods of Bang and Ramm (unsectioned and sectioned teeth), Miles, Johanson, and Dalitz, and in addition by visual examination of the unsectioned teeth. Mean error as well as standard and mean deviations were calculated. The method of Johanson was found to be slightly more reliable than the others. Visual estimation was also in some respects better than the other three methods. All methods resulted in the largest number of overestimates in teeth from persons below 40 years, from males, from the maxilla, and in teeth removed from corpses. Underestimates were predominant in teeth from persons above 50 years.     

Skin changes following defibrillation. The effect of high voltage direct current

Previously, electrical injuries have been suggested caused only by the concomitant heat developed during the passage of an electrical current. Recent experimental studies on fully anesthetized pigs and the study of one human case have, however, shown typical electrical alterations. The purpose of the present study was further to evaluate the histology of electrically induced changes in the skin in humans. In addition, supplementary in vivo methods for evaluation of skin changes as high-frequency ultrasound and Raman spectroscopy were used. The skin of 11 patients treated with a defibrillation of the heart was examined for macroscopic changes, the skin of eight of them also for histologic changes and for changes observable via supplementary methods. Immediately and 7 days after the defibrillation, fractions of a narrow red ring were observed along the periphery of the tin-foil electrode. Epidermis showed signs previously observed following electrical influence: segmental alterations often related to the openings of sweat ducts, darkstaining or "empty" nuclei and homogeneous cytoplasm, eosinophilic or pale. Dermis did not show the specific sign of electrical influence: deposits of calcium salts on dermal fibres, neither via histologic examination nor via high-frequency ultrasonography and Raman spectroscopy. Fractions of a narrow red ring along the periphery of the electrode showing histological signs of electric influence in epidermis thus appear to be characteristic of high voltage electrical injury.     

Conquest and Regime Change: An Evolutionary Model of the Spread of Democracy and Peace

Whereas the literature on the democratic peace tends to treat the phenomenon as a causal law, we follow Immanuel Kant in interpreting it as a macro-historical process that expanded from a small number of democracies to about 50% of all states. In order to account for this development, we introduce an agent-based model that combines a natural-selection logic with an adaptive mechanism of regime change. The latter is implemented as an empirically calibrated, contextual rule that prompts democratization as an S-shaped function of the democratic share of a state's immediate neighborhood. A similar transition rule governs regime change in the opposite direction. The computational results show that regime change and collective security are necessary to produce realistic trajectories of democratization at the systemic level.     

Issues and Options for the Post-2012 Climate Architecture – An Overview

This article provides a background for the Developing post-2012 scenarios project, an international study which looks at a range of scenarios that countries may wish to consider for a post-2012 framework to tackle climate change. The purpose of the article is threefold. Firstly, it provides a review of the literature for the future climate regime. Secondly, it provides a set of criteria that are used in order to evaluate whether the scenarios provided in the other articles in this Special Edition are likely to be effective. Thirdly, the article spells out some of the more general policy implications rising from these scenarios.