Sex Estimation Based On Multiple Pelvic Indicators More Accurate, Based On 49 19th c. Canadian adults — Bass Lab & Field Manual

 

The most accurate single indicator was sacrum shape (94.1%). On the other hand, three combinations of pelvic criteria produced higher levels of accuracy than the trait list as a whole: obturator foramen shape and presence of the ventral arc (98%); obturator foramen shape and presence of the ventral arc (98%); obturator foramen shape and true pelvis shape (98%); pubic shape and acetabulum shape and size (95%).

The William Bass Field Manual mentions other studies of European populations, but reproduces in full several tables by Rogers and Saunders based on 49 “adult skeletons from a 19th-century cemetery located on the grounds of the St Thomas Anglican Church in Belleville, Canada.”

Embedded below are tables for:

  • Table 3-24. Accuracy Levels for Each Individual Pelvic Trait (after Rogers & Saunders (1994:1051, Table 5) (Bass 2005: 216)

  • Table 3-25. Probability of Estimating Sex Correctly for Combinations of Two Traits (after Rogers & Saunders (1994:1051, Table 3) (Bass 2005: 216)

Curious about what the broad labels for male and female anatomical regions are for those anthropologists using the Bass Manual?

 

Source

Bass, William. 2005. Human Osteology: A Laboratory and Field Manual, 5th ed. Special Publication No. 2 of the Missouri Archaeological Society. Columbia, MO. http://coas.missouri.edu/mas

Case Study: HIV Probability

by Sam Long

Visual description: Cropped preview image of a table and a graph, which are examples of data and materials students will analyze during the lesson.

Visual description: Cropped preview image of a table and a graph, which are examples of data and materials students will analyze during the lesson.

The spread of the Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) over the last half-century has entangled science, mathematics, and society in fascinating ways. As an Algebra teacher, I created a case study that challenged students to understand the probabilistic and social aspects of the virus through the eyes of a fictional college student getting his first HIV test.

Students considered the cost of health care, the risk of HIV transmission through different activities, survivorship curves, drug trial recruitment, and diagnostic test sensitivity and specificity. Along the way, students practiced computations with two-way frequency tables, conditional probabilities, permutations and combinations, and financial math. To conclude the case study, students summarized the information provided and made recommendations for the college student's next steps." —SL