We report the results of testing the diameter of the internal opening of the acoustic canal in the petrous part of the temporal bone for sex determination of skeletal remains. The method involves measuring the diameter using a suite of ordinary drills. The method is very simple and has the great advantage of utilising one of the sturdiest bone elements of the human skeleton. The method may be especially useful for the analyses of very fragmented skeletal remains or cremated bones, where the petrous bone may still be readily recognisable. The method was tested using a forensic sample of 113 left petrous bones with known sex. Intra-and interobserver testing was also performed. We found a statistically significant difference in diameter between males and females (means: males: 3.7 mm; females: 3.4 mm; P < 0.009). However, the low predictive value (70%) for correct sexing using two sectioning points ( < 3.0 mm ¼ female; >3.5 mm ¼ male) was disappointing. No additional accuracy was gained by employing both left and right petrous bones (a bilateral sample of 60 petrous bones was also tested), although left and right side diameter is highly correlated (R ¼ 0.778; P ¼ 0.0001).

Post-traumatic growth (PTG) is the experience of positive changes that can follow a traumatic event. The current study examined the factorial as well as the discriminant validity of the German version of the Post-traumatic Growth Inventory (PTGI-G) in stroke patients. A total of 188 adult stroke patients (63.3% male; median age 69 years) completed the PTGI-G and the German version of the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale (HADS-D) at the end of their inpatient rehabilitation. Confirmatory factor analyses indicate an acceptable model fit of both the original five-factor solution as well as a second-order factor model of the PTGI-G (CFI > .95; RMSEA < .01). Small and non-significant correlations between the PTGI-G subscales and the depression scale of the HADS-D support the discriminant validity of the PTGI-G. The PTGI-G appears to be a valid tool in the context of stroke research.

Recently, Yalcin (2007) put forward a novel account of epistemic modals. It is based on the observation that sentences of the form 'φ & Might¬φ' do not embed under 'suppose' and 'if'. Yalcin concludes that such sentences must be contradictory and develops a notion of informational consequence which validates this idea. I will show that informational consequence is inadequate as an account of the logic of epistemic modals: it cannot deal with reasoning from uncertain premises. Finally, I offer an alternative way of explaining the relevant linguistic data.

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A knowledge-based decision theory faces what has been called the prodigality problem (Greco, 2013): given that many propositions are assigned probability 1, agents will be inclined to risk everything when betting on propositions which are known. In order to undo probability 1 assignments in high risk situations, the paper develops a theory which systematically connects higher level goods with higher-order knowledge.