scholarly journals No evidence for widespread island extinctions after Pleistocene hominin arrival

2021 ◽  
Vol 118 (20) ◽  
pp. e2023005118
Author(s):  
Julien Louys ◽  
Todd J. Braje ◽  
Chun-Hsiang Chang ◽  
Richard Cosgrove ◽  
Scott M. Fitzpatrick ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Human Behavior ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Homo Sapiens ◽  
Current Data ◽  
Early Pleistocene ◽  
Island Ecosystems ◽  
Cultural Changes ◽  
Deep Time ◽  
Common Assumption ◽  
Cultural Complex

The arrival of modern humans into previously unoccupied island ecosystems is closely linked to widespread extinction, and a key reason cited for Pleistocene megafauna extinction is anthropogenic overhunting. A common assumption based on late Holocene records is that humans always negatively impact insular biotas, which requires an extrapolation of recent human behavior and technology into the archaeological past. Hominins have been on islands since at least the early Pleistocene and Homo sapiens for at least 50 thousand y (ka). Over such lengthy intervals it is scarcely surprising that significant evolutionary, behavioral, and cultural changes occurred. However, the deep-time link between human arrival and island extinctions has never been explored globally. Here, we examine archaeological and paleontological records of all Pleistocene islands with a documented hominin presence to examine whether humans have always been destructive agents. We show that extinctions at a global level cannot be associated with Pleistocene hominin arrival based on current data and are difficult to disentangle from records of environmental change. It is not until the Holocene that large-scale changes in technology, dispersal, demography, and human behavior visibly affect island ecosystems. The extinction acceleration we are currently experiencing is thus not inherent but rather part of a more recent cultural complex.

The Cooking Ape: An Interview with Richard Wrangham

2005 ◽  
Vol 5 (1) ◽  
pp. 29-37
Author(s):  
elisabeth townsend
Keyword(s):  
Social Relationships ◽  
Human Behavior ◽  
Homo Sapiens ◽  
Social Groups ◽  
Harvard University ◽  
Primate Research ◽  
Social Organizations ◽  
Cooked Food ◽  
New Research ◽  
The Brain

Humans: The Cooking Ape Perhaps the first to suggest that humans were cooking as early as 1.9 million years ago, Richard Wrangham shows through his new research and his imagination how and possibly when cooking changed humans dramatically. Wrangham, Harvard University primatologist and MacArthur Fellow, has been studying the evolution of human cooking. After 25 years of primate research at his site in Kibale, Uganda, Wrangham is best known for explaining the similarity and differences across species of primate social organizations. In Kibale, he has analyzed chimpanzees’ behavior: how it’s changed when they interact with the environment and how their social groups have evolved. In particular, he noticed how food changed their interactions with each other. Like that of chimps, human behavior has been affected by food, especially as they shifted from raw to cooked food. Moving from eating food as it was discovered to collecting edibles and cooking them altered our social relationships. Cooked food has changed Homo sapiens physically by making food more digestible thereby altering jaws, teeth, and guts, and providing more calories for more expensive organs such as the brain. Wrangham discusses when and how humans may have started using fire to cook food, what they cooked, and the transition from cooking in an outdoor fire to hearths and open ovens.

Student Perceptions of Community: A Different Perspective

NASPA Journal ◽  
1998 ◽  
Vol 35 (4) ◽  
Author(s):  
Jackie Clark ◽  
Joan Hirt
Keyword(s):  
Student Perceptions ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Research University ◽  
Small Scale ◽  
Social Environments ◽  
Common Assumption ◽  
Small Communities ◽  
Public Research University ◽  
The Common ◽  
Using Data

The creation of small communities has been proposed as a way of enhancing the educational experience of students at large institutions. Using data from a survey of students living in large and small residences at a public research university, this study does not support the common assumption that small-scale social environments are more conducive to positive community life than large-scale social environments.

scholarly journals Gut Microbiome in Psoriasis: An Updated Review

Pathogens ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 9 (6) ◽  
pp. 463
Author(s):  
Mariusz Sikora ◽  
Albert Stec ◽  
Magdalena Chrabaszcz ◽  
Aleksandra Knot ◽  
Anna Waskiel-Burnat ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Gut Microbiome ◽  
Beta Diversity ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Skin Diseases ◽  
Intestinal Barrier ◽  
Alpha Diversity ◽  
Current Data ◽  
Intestinal Microbiome ◽  
Microbial Composition ◽  
Alpha And Beta Diversity

(1) Background: A growing body of evidence highlights that intestinal dysbiosis is associated with the development of psoriasis. The gut–skin axis is the novel concept of the interaction between skin diseases and microbiome through inflammatory mediators, metabolites and the intestinal barrier. The objective of this study was to synthesize current data on the gut microbial composition in psoriasis. (2) Methods: We conducted a systematic review of studies investigating intestinal microbiome in psoriasis, using the PRISMA checklist. We searched MEDLINE, EMBASE, and Web of Science databases for relevant published articles (2000–2020). (3) Results: All of the 10 retrieved studies reported alterations in the gut microbiome in patients with psoriasis. Eight studies assessed alpha- and beta-diversity. Four of them reported a lack of change in alpha-diversity, but all confirmed significant changes in beta-diversity. At the phylum-level, at least two or more studies reported a lower relative abundance of Bacteroidetes, and higher Firmicutes in psoriasis patients versus healthy controls. (4) Conclusions: There is a significant association between alterations in gut microbial composition and psoriasis; however, there is high heterogeneity between studies. More unified methodological standards in large-scale studies are needed to understand microbiota’s contribution to psoriasis pathogenesis and its modulation as a potential therapeutic strategy.

Exploiting Social Networks for Large-Scale Human Behavior Modeling

2011 ◽  
Vol 10 (4) ◽  
pp. 45-53 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nicholas D. Lane ◽  
Ye Xu ◽  
Hong Lu ◽  
Andrew T. Campbell ◽  
Tanzeem Choudhury ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Social Networks ◽  
Human Behavior ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Behavior Modeling ◽  
Human Behavior Modeling

Maybe it helps to be conscious, after all

2014 ◽  
Vol 37 (1) ◽  
pp. 20-21 ◽  
Author(s):  
Roy F. Baumeister ◽  
Kathleen D. Vohs ◽  
E. J. Masicampo
Keyword(s):  
Information Processing ◽  
Human Behavior ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
The Unconscious ◽  
Unconscious Processes ◽  
Literature Reviews ◽  
Conscious Processes

AbstractPsychologists debate whether consciousness or unconsciousness is most central to human behavior. Our goal, instead, is to figure out how they work together. Conscious processes are partly produced by unconscious processes, and much information processing occurs outside of awareness. Yet, consciousness has advantages that the unconscious does not. We discuss how consciousness causes behavior, drawing conclusions from large-scale literature reviews.

scholarly journals Plants as alternative platforms for monoclonal antibodies productions.

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Natalia Glumińska ◽  
Magdalena Krzesłowska
Keyword(s):  
Monoclonal Antibodies ◽  
Capital Investment ◽  
Protein Modification ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Current Data ◽  
Production Costs ◽  
Future Market ◽  
Market Demand ◽  
Mammalian Expression ◽  
Animal Pathogens

Monoclonal antibodies (mAbs) are widely used in medical therapy and diagnostics, veterinary therapy, and research. The demand for mAbs reaches several dozen tons per year and is constantly growing, approaching the limits of current production possibilities. Mammalian expression systems, which currently dominate the bioproduction industry, have limited production capacity and require high capital investment and production costs. Plants are becoming promising expression platforms due to their scalability, speed, low cost of production, low risk of contamination from animal pathogens and eukaryotic mechanisms of post-translational protein modification. The transgenic plants used for the production of mAbs can be obtained by stable transformation of plant cells as well as transient expression of foreign proteins. In this review, we extract a broad overview of articles, many of them from recent years, concerning modern approaches to producing monoclonal antibodies in plants, methods for modifying the carbohydrate profile of mAbs, and purifying the resulting product. We also present current data on the practical use of mAbs in medical therapies and potential methods of producing antibodies on a very large scale, able to meet the future market demand.

scholarly journals Emotions in online rumor diffusion

2021 ◽  
Vol 10 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Nicolas Pröllochs ◽  
Dominik Bär ◽  
Stefan Feuerriegel
Keyword(s):  
Linear Regression ◽  
Regression Model ◽  
Human Behavior ◽  
Linear Regression Model ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Basic Emotions ◽  
Time Horizons ◽  
Spreading Dynamics ◽  
Diffusion Dynamics ◽  
Generalized Linear Regression

AbstractEmotions are regarded as a dominant driver of human behavior, and yet their role in online rumor diffusion is largely unexplored. In this study, we empirically study the extent to which emotions explain the diffusion of online rumors. We analyze a large-scale sample of 107,014 online rumors from Twitter, as well as their cascades. For each rumor, the embedded emotions were measured based on eight so-called basic emotions from Plutchik’s wheel of emotions (i.e., anticipation–surprise, anger–fear, trust–disgust, joy–sadness). We then estimated using a generalized linear regression model how emotions are associated with the spread of online rumors in terms of (1) cascade size, (2) cascade lifetime, and (3) structural virality. Our results suggest that rumors conveying anticipation, anger, and trust generate more reshares, spread over longer time horizons, and become more viral. In contrast, a smaller size, lifetime, and virality is found for surprise, fear, and disgust. We further study how the presence of 24 dyadic emotional interactions (i.e., feelings composed of two emotions) is associated with diffusion dynamics. Here, we find that rumors cascades with high degrees of aggressiveness are larger in size, longer-lived, and more viral. Altogether, emotions embedded in online rumors are important determinants of the spreading dynamics.

scholarly journals Spider crabs of the Western Atlantic with special reference to fossil and some modern Mithracidae

PeerJ ◽  
2015 ◽  
Vol 3 ◽  
pp. e1301 ◽  
Author(s):  
Adiël A. Klompmaker ◽  
Roger W. Portell ◽  
Aaron T. Klier ◽  
Vanessa Prueter ◽  
Alyssa L. Tucker
Keyword(s):  
Fossil Record ◽  
Early Pleistocene ◽  
Caribbean Region ◽  
Deep Time ◽  
Western Atlantic ◽  
Extant Species ◽  
Length Width ◽  
The Caribbean ◽  
Abundance And Diversity ◽  
First Time

Spider crabs (Majoidea) are well-known from modern oceans and are also common in the western part of the Atlantic Ocean. When spider crabs appeared in the Western Atlantic in deep time, and when they became diverse, hinges on their fossil record. By reviewing their fossil record, we show that (1) spider crabs first appeared in the Western Atlantic in the Late Cretaceous, (2) they became common since the Miocene, and (3) most species and genera are found in the Caribbean region from the Miocene onwards. Furthermore, taxonomic work on some modern and fossil Mithracidae, a family that might have originated in the Western Atlantic, was conducted. Specifically,Maguimithraxgen. nov. is erected to accommodate the extant speciesDamithrax spinosissimus, whileDamithraxcf.pleuracanthusis recognized for the first time from the fossil record (late Pliocene–early Pleistocene, Florida, USA). Furthermore, two new species are described from the lower Miocene coral-associated limestones of Jamaica (Mithrax arawakumsp. nov. andNemausa windsoraesp. nov.). Spurred by a recent revision of the subfamily, two known species from the same deposits are refigured and transferred to new genera:Mithrax donovanitoNemausa, andMithrax unguistoDamithrax. The diverse assemblage of decapods from these coral-associated limestones underlines the importance of reefs for the abundance and diversity of decapods in deep time. Finally, we quantitatively show that these crabs possess allometric growth in that length/width ratios drop as specimens grow, a factor that is not always taken into account while describing and comparing among taxa.

scholarly journals SOIL MANAGEMENT IN THE URBAN ENVIRONMENT: TODAY AND FUTURE

2019 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
pp. 66-71
Author(s):  
Bogdan Stanescu ◽  
Adriana Cuciureanu
Keyword(s):  
Performance Management ◽  
Urban Environment ◽  
Urban Areas ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Current Data ◽  
Soil Protection ◽  
The European Union ◽  
Residential Areas

The present article presents the expertise realized by the Department of Environmental Monitoring Pollution Evaluation within the INCD ECOIND, in the evaluation of the quality of urban soils in the municipality of Bucharest and the main big cities in Romania. The current data available at the level of the 27 member states of the European Union show that annually over 100,000 hectares of land are introduced into the urban environment, a direct consequence of the development of cities. There are a number of legislative obstacles to strategic soil protection measures. Moreover, at the level of the local authorities there is a conflict regarding the measures of soil protection in the long term, on the one hand, and, the accelerated economic development in the short term, on the other. European environmental experts consider that the urban development, absolutely necessary for the economic growth, requires an adequate management of the natural resources in order for the development to be done on a sustainable basis, respectively to follow a series of strategic objectives. In our country, at least in the last decade, we find on a large scale the conversion of industrial areas into commercial or residential areas. The footprint of industrial activities can be found even after long periods of time present by identifying the remnant of soil pollution or in those areas known as historically polluted (for example the town of Copsa Mica). The conclusions stemming from the assessment of pollution in urban areas over large areas, in correlation with the potential sources of pollution, underline the need to monitor the quality of soils in the urban environment, but also to apply a performance management in order to protect this natural resource in the long term.

scholarly journals A gravitational puzzle

2011 ◽  
Vol 369 (1957) ◽  
pp. 4998-5002
Author(s):  
Robert R. Caldwell
Keyword(s):  
Gravitational Lensing ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Current Data ◽  
Cosmic Acceleration ◽  
Late Time ◽  
Microwave Background ◽  
Scale Free ◽  
Cosmological Observations ◽  
Stress Energy ◽  
The Relationship

The challenge to understand the physical origin of the cosmic acceleration is framed as a problem of gravitation. Specifically, does the relationship between stress–energy and space–time curvature differ on large scales from the predictions of general relativity. In this article, we describe efforts to model and test a generalized relationship between the matter and the metric using cosmological observations. Late-time tracers of large-scale structure, including the cosmic microwave background, weak gravitational lensing, and clustering are shown to provide good tests of the proposed solution. Current data are very close to proving a critical test, leaving only a small window in parameter space in the case that the generalized relationship is scale free above galactic scales.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document