Book Review: An amazing piece of comparative philosophy

Sophie Bosede Oluwole: Socrates and Orunmila. Two Patron Saints of Classical Philosophy.Lagos: Ark Publishers 2014, 224 p.Reviewer: Prof. Heinz KIMMERLEErasmus University RotterdamNetherlands, Emeritu

Biological and Statistical Variation in Age Estimation from Pubic Symphyseal Morphology with Regard to Individual Identification and Demographic Profiling

Population variation in the morphological aging process of the pubic symphysis has generated much debate. The question of whether age parameters derived from an American population will reliably estimate age-at-death for East European skeletal populations is important since the ability to accurately estimate an individual’s age-at-death hinges on what standard is used. Consequently, successful age estimation, individual identification, and demographic profiling rests on the ability to correctly define the skeletal parameters of age-at-death. The purpose of this study is to assess the aging process of American and East European populations and to determine what age parameters should be applied to estimate the ages-at-death for unidentified victims. A reference sample of identified individuals with known ages-at-death from Kosovo, Bosnia, and Croatia (n=861) is used to determine the age structure of victims and serves as the informed prior in the Bayesian analysis. Skeletal data comes from a subset of the Balkan reference sample and a comparative American sample. Balkan male (n=212) and female (n=84) pubic symphyses were scored in both the manners of Todd (1920 and 1924) and Suchey-Brooks (Katz and Suchey, 1986; Suchey et al., 1986). Further, repeat observations were completed by four observers for the entire Balkan sample. American male (n=1,560) and female (n=518) pubic symphyses were scored in the manner of Todd (1920 and 1921). The American data were converted from the Todd ten-phase system to the Suchey-Brooks six-phase system, as recommended by Katz and Suchey (1986) for comparative purposes. First, the affect of inter-observer variation on the reliability of estimating age-at-death parameters from the pubic symphyses is investigated. Pearson’s r correlation coefficients among observers for the Todd system are all significant (p \u3c 0.01) and strongly correlate among females. The correlation coefficients among males are more varied and not as strong as the female sample, ranging from r = 0.309 – 0.738. Correlation coefficients among observers for the Suchey-Brooks method are more consistent and higher than those for the Todd method, ranging from r = 0.866 – 0.939 among females and from r = 0.710 – 0.844 among males. Wilcoxon signed ranks tests demonstrate significant differences among observers for both methods. Second, population variation in the aging processes of American and East European populations is tested using proportional odds probit regression. An analysis of deviance is calculated using an improvement chi-square to test the adequacy of the model. No significant association between the aging process of pubic symphyses and population is found (df = 1, chi-square likelihood ratio = 3.209, p = 0.10). However, when males and females are treated separately, there is a significant association among females and the population (df = 1, chi-square likelihood ratio = 15.071, p = 0.001). Finally, a Bayesian statistical analysis is utilized to establish accurate age parameters. The ages-of-transition for each phase are calculated using an unrestrictive cumulative probit model for the Balkan males and the log-age cumulative probit model for the Balkan females. The probability density functions (PDF) for the posterior distributions of age at each symphyseal phase are calculated. The age estimates are based on the calculated age distribution from the Gompertz-Makeham hazard analysis and the ages-of-transition. To estimate the age-at-death for an individual, the highest posterior density regions for each Symphyseal phase is calculated and four different regions are provided (95%, 90%, 75%, and 50%)

Status of the CRESST Dark Matter Search

The CRESST experiment aims for a detection of dark matter in the form of WIMPs. These particles are expected to scatter elastically off the nuclei of a target material, thereby depositing energy on the recoiling nucleus. CRESST uses scintillating CaWO4 crystals as such a target. The energy deposited by an interacting particle is primarily converted to phonons which are detected by transition edge sensors. In addition, a small fraction of the interaction energy is emitted from the crystals in the form of scintillation light which is measured in coincidence with the phonon signal by a separate cryogenic light detector for each target crystal. The ratio of light to phonon energy permits the discrimination between the nuclear recoils expected from WIMPs and events from radioactive backgrounds which primarily lead to electron recoils. CRESST has shown the success of this method in a commissioning run in 2007 and, since then, further investigated possibilities for an even better suppression of backgrounds. Here, we report on a new class of background events observed in the course of this work. The consequences of this observation are discussed and we present the current status of the experiment.Comment: Proceedings of the 13th International Workshop on Low Temperature Detectors, 4 pages, 3 figure

Composite CaWO4 Detectors for the CRESST-II Experiment

CRESST-II, standing for Cryogenic Rare Events Search with Superconducting Thermometers phase II, is an experiment searching for Dark Matter. In the LNGS facility in Gran Sasso, Italy, a cryogenic detector setup is operated in order to detect WIMPs by elastic scattering off nuclei, generating phononic lattice excitations and scintillation light. The thermometers used in the experiment consist of a tungsten thin-film structure evaporated onto the CaWO4 absorber crystal. The process of evaporation causes a decrease in the scintillation light output. This, together with the need of a big-scale detector production for the upcoming EURECA experiment lead to investigations for producing thermometers on smaller crystals which are glued onto the absorber crystal. In our Run 31 we tested composite detectors for the first time in the Gran Sasso setup. They seem to produce higher light yields as hoped and could provide an additional time based discrimination mechanism for low light yield clamp events.Comment: Proceedings of the Thirteenth International Workshop on Low Temperature Detectors 4 pages, 9 figure

Hypoglycemia in Type 1 Diabetic Pregnancy: Role of preconception insulin aspart treatment in a randomized study

Objective: A recent randomized trial compared prandial insulin aspart (IAsp) with human insulin in type 1 diabetic pregnancy. The aim of this exploratory analysis was to investigate the incidence of severe hypoglycemia during pregnancy and compare women enrolled preconception with women enrolled during early pregnancy. Research design and methods: IAsp administered immediately before each meal was compared with human insulin administered 30 min before each meal in 99 subjects (44 to IAsp and 55 to human insulin) randomly assigned preconception and in 223 subjects (113 for IAsp and 110 for human insulin) randomly assigned in early pregnancy (<10 weeks). NPH insulin was the basal insulin. Severe hypoglycemia (requiring third-party assistance) was recorded prospectively preconception (where possible), during pregnancy, and postpartum. Relative risk (RR) of severe hypoglycemia was evaluated with a gamma frailty model. Results: Of the patients, 23% experienced severe hypoglycemia during pregnancy with the peak incidence in early pregnancy. In the first half of pregnancy, the RR of severe hypoglycemia in women randomly assigned in early pregnancy/preconception was 1.70 (95% CI 0.91–3.18, P = 0.097); the RR in the second half of pregnancy was 1.35 (0.38–4.77, P = 0.640). In women randomly assigned preconception, severe hypoglycemia rates occurring before and during the first and second halves of pregnancy and postpartum for IAsp versus human insulin were 0.9 versus 2.4, 0.9 versus 2.4, 0.3 versus 1.2, and 0.2 versus 2.2 episodes per patient per year, respectively (NS). Conclusions: These data suggest that initiation of insulin analog treatment preconception rather than during early pregnancy may result in a lower risk of severe hypoglycemia in women with type 1 diabetes