In 1964, this standard was prepared at the request of the National Center for Health Statistics so that the skeletal age of the bones in the growing hand and wrist could be read from the films of the children and youths-age 5 to 18 years--om 40 areas of the United States who have been included in the National Health Survey.The major directive from the National Center was to prepare a standard so that a skeletal age could be assigned to each growing bone without any reference to the sex or the age of the subjects in the Survey.Between 1928 and 1964, the attributes of the present standard had been tested in the United States and abroad using films of children and youths of all races and several forms of standards. The widely-used radiographic form was chosen.Contact-size prints of 26 films of the hand and wrist were arranged as a maturity series to illustrate transitional osseous features which appear in the radiographic shadows of each bone during growth. A description of these features and standardized bone ages for males completed each standard plate.Copies of a Manual containing the standard as used by the NHS film readers, details of its preparation, bone age equivalents for females related to the 26 standard films, and some new examples of use of bone ages will be provided for participants to this evaluation of skeletal age standards for children and youths.At the beginning of the pre-adult portion of the National Health Examination Survey, the series of radiographs of the hand and wrist included in this standard of reference were selected for reading the bone ages of the children in the second program and the youths in the third program of the Survey. We needed to have standardized bone ages so that a bone age equivalent could be assigned to each bone in the Survey films. The youngest children in the second program were approximately six years old and the oldest youths in the third program were 17 to 18 years old. Growing bones, for every child and youth, are known to differ in the age when each commences to ossify and in the years needed to complete their osseous stage of development (Stuart et al., '62). The first problem was to prepare a reference standard which depicts the regularly occurring, transitional features of growing hand-wrist bones as they AM, J. PHYS. ANTKROP., 35: 331-338.are seen in films, from early childhood through adolescence.Our reference standard was prepared in 1965 after we had discussed with growth specialists and clinicians the following five assumptions about the process of ossification in any growing bone and the design of a reference standard which fulfills these assumptions.

This study investigated the effects of longterm-enhanced UV-B, and combined UV-B with elevated CO 2 on dwarf shrub berry characteristics in a sub-arctic heath community. Germination of Vaccinium myrtillus was enhanced in seeds produced at elevated UV-B, but seed numbers and berry size were unaffected. Elevated UV-B and CO 2 stimulated the abundance of V. myrtillus berries, whilst UV-B alone stimulated the berry abundance of V. vitis-idaea and Empetrum hermaphroditum. Enhanced UV-B reduced concentrations of several polyphenolics in V. myrtillus berries, whilst elevated CO 2 increased quercetin glycosides in V. myrtillus, and syringetin glycosides and anthocyanins in E. hermaphroditum berries. UV-B 9 CO 2 interactions were found for total anthocyanins, delphinidin-3-hexoside and peonidin-3-pentosidein in V. myrtillus berries but not E. hermaphroditum. Results suggest positive impacts of UV-B on the germination of V. myrtillus and species-specific impacts of UV-B 9 elevated CO 2 on berry abundance and quality. The findings have relevance and implications for human and animal consumers plus seed dispersal and seedling establishment.

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