Measuring the Selective Utilization of Animal Species by Prehistoric Human Populations

1979 ◽  
Vol 44 (1) ◽  
pp. 155-160 ◽  
Author(s):  
Bruce D. Smith
Keyword(s):  
Animal Species ◽  
Human Populations ◽  
Relative Importance ◽  
The Past

To determine the pattern of selective utilization of animal species by prehistoric human populations, it is first necessary to quantify the relative importance of species of animals in the diet of prehistoric human groups through analysis of archaeologically recovered faunal samples. These values are then compared with estimates of the relative availability of different species of animals in the environment. Such estimates of the relative availability of animal species in prehistoric habitat situations, usually quantified in terms of biomass, are obtained by projecting data from modern analog situations into the past. When attempting to reconstruct prehistoric biotic communities in this manner, it is important to be aware of a number of possible sources of bias and to evaluate and apply modern wildlife data according to a set of interrelated principles. Sources of bias and criteria for selecting modern wildlife analog data are discussed.

scholarly journals Influenza - flu

2010 ◽  
Vol 64 (1-2) ◽  
pp. 109-125
Author(s):  
Miroslav Valcic ◽  
Sonja Radojicic
Keyword(s):  
Animal Species ◽  
Swine Influenza ◽  
Economic Life ◽  
Front Page ◽  
Swine Flu ◽  
Viral Gene ◽  
Spongiform Encephalopathy ◽  
Human Populations ◽  
Susceptible Animal ◽  
The Past

In epidemiology or in epizootiology, there are some infectious diseases that have potential for significant reduction of the susceptible species population. Over the past few decades, epidemiologists were concentrated on diseases that were 'modern' and made front-page news in tabloids. One should recall diseases like bovine spongiform encephalopathy, SARS and AIDS syndromes. However, we should always be aware of the most dangerous diseases such as our old friend, influenza, or simply, flu. In the past decade, we heard about 'bird' or 'swine' influenza. It is the same disease for different animal species as well as for man. Influenza owes its characteristics to specific virus biology as well as to the epidemiology-epizootiology characteristics of the susceptible species. Antigenic changes that took place thanks to reassortment mechanisms of the viral gene segments cause the onset of the new antigenic combinations of the hemaglutinin and neuraminidase molecules. As a result, new H and/or N antigenic formulas appear for the first time in totally susceptible animal and human populations. That means that in such circumstances, no person in the world is immune to the virus. In that case, such a virus can cause a pandemic with disastrous consequences since influenza is a disease with significant mortality, especially in some segments of the human (as well as animal) population. Birds and swine are virus reservoirs, but these species are at the same time live test tubes in which the virus resides, changes and adapts itself not only to the original species but to other species as well. That means that there is no 'bird' or 'swine' flu. Influenza is an infection of several important animal species as well as man that have potential not only for the reduction of the population size but, in case of the human population, for influencing social and economic life. .

scholarly journals 3D Insights into the Effects of Captivity on Wolf Mastication and Their Tooth Marks; Implications in Ecological Studies of Both the Past and Present

Animals ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (8) ◽  
pp. 2323
Author(s):  
Lloyd A. Courtenay ◽  
Darío Herranz-Rodrigo ◽  
José Yravedra ◽  
José Mª Vázquez-Rodríguez ◽  
Rosa Huguet ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Data Science ◽  
Surface Modifications ◽  
Human Populations ◽  
Ecological Studies ◽  
The Past ◽  
Carnivore Species ◽  
Different Populations ◽  
Complex Relationships ◽  
As Stress ◽  
Tooth Marks

Human populations have been known to develop complex relationships with large carnivore species throughout time, with evidence of both competition and collaboration to obtain resources throughout the Pleistocene. From this perspective, many archaeological and palaeontological sites present evidence of carnivore modifications to bone. In response to this, specialists in the study of microscopic bone surface modifications have resorted to the use of 3D modeling and data science techniques for the inspection of these elements, reaching novel limits for the discerning of carnivore agencies. The present research analyzes the tooth mark variability produced by multiple Iberian wolf individuals, with the aim of studying how captivity may affect the nature of tooth marks left on bone. In addition to this, four different populations of both wild and captive Iberian wolves are also compared for a more in-depth comparison of intra-species variability. This research statistically shows that large canid tooth pits are the least affected by captivity, while tooth scores appear more superficial when produced by captive wolves. The superficial nature of captive wolf tooth scores is additionally seen to correlate with other metric features, thus influencing overall mark morphologies. In light of this, the present study opens a new dialogue on the reasons behind this, advising caution when using tooth scores for carnivore identification and contemplating how elements such as stress may be affecting the wolves under study.

A benchmarking approach to the progress of green materials and systems’ use in the UAE construction industry

2016 ◽  
Vol 13 (4) ◽  
pp. 315-327 ◽  
Author(s):  
Aly Elgayar ◽  
Salwa Mamoun Beheiry ◽  
Alaa Jabbar ◽  
Hamad Al Ansari
Keyword(s):  
Construction Industry ◽  
United Arab Emirates ◽  
Design Methodology ◽  
Construction Materials ◽  
Relative Importance ◽  
Content Type ◽  
The Past ◽  
Green Materials ◽  
Importance Index ◽  
Regulatory Guidelines

Purpose Over the past decade, the United Arab Emirates (UAE) introduced several green regulatory guidelines, federal decrees, and a considerable number of environmentally friendly initiatives. Hence, the purpose of this paper is to investigate the top green materials and systems used currently in the UAE construction industry as per the new laws dictate as well as see if professionals are switching over to incorporate more green materials, systems, and/or designs. Design/methodology/approach The work involved reviewing internationally popular green materials and systems for construction, developing a questionnaire based on the literature review, surveying professionals in the seven UAE emirates, and ranking the findings based on the relative importance index. Findings Findings found the top used green materials and system in the UAE’s construction industry. As well as identified that there is a communication gap between the design and implementation phases that is possibly hindering the use of more green materials and systems. Originality/value This study sets a baseline to measure the UAE’s progress over the coming years in terms of integrating more green construction materials, systems, methodologies, and trends.

The Rise of Behavioral Economics: A Quantitative Assessment

2017 ◽  
Vol 41 (3) ◽  
pp. 555-583 ◽  
Author(s):  
Niels Geiger
Keyword(s):  
Behavioral Economics ◽  
Quantitative Assessment ◽  
Relative Importance ◽  
Main Research ◽  
Academic Literature ◽  
The Past ◽  
Short Summary ◽  
History Of ◽  
Research Goal

This article is devoted to the issue of operationalizing and empirically measuring the development of behavioral economics, focusing on trends in the academic literature. The main research goal is to provide a quantitative, bibliometric assessment to answer the question of whether the relative importance of behavioral economics has increased over the past decades. After an introduction and a short summary of the history of behavioral economics, several studies are laid out and evaluated. The results generally provide a quantitative confirmation of the story of a rise of behavioral economics that can be found in the literature, and add some notable additional insights.

scholarly journals Notes on distribution and relative abundances of some animal species, and on climate in the Kruger National Park during prehistoric times

Koedoe ◽  
1989 ◽  
Vol 32 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Ina Plug
Keyword(s):  
National Park ◽  
Animal Species ◽  
Climatic Conditions ◽  
Kruger National Park ◽  
Archaeological Sites ◽  
Animal Population ◽  
Faunal Remains ◽  
The Past ◽  
Relative Abundances ◽  
Insight Into

Faunal remains obtained from archaeological sites in the Kruger National Park, provide valuable information on the distributions of animal species in the past. The relative abundances of some species are compared with animal population statistics of the present. The study of the faunal samples, which date from nearly 7 000 years before present until the nineteenth century, also provides insight into climatic conditions during prehistoric times.

scholarly journals Genetic and linguistic histories in Central Asia inferred using approximate Bayesian computations

2017 ◽  
Vol 284 (1861) ◽  
pp. 20170706 ◽  
Author(s):  
Valentin Thouzeau ◽  
Philippe Mennecier ◽  
Paul Verdu ◽  
Frédéric Austerlitz
Keyword(s):  
Central Asia ◽  
Linguistic Diversity ◽  
Past History ◽  
Genetic Data ◽  
Human Populations ◽  
Language Diversity ◽  
Methodological Framework ◽  
The Past ◽  
Approximate Bayesian ◽  
Future Work

Linguistic and genetic data have been widely compared, but the histories underlying these descriptions are rarely jointly inferred. We developed a unique methodological framework for analysing jointly language diversity and genetic polymorphism data, to infer the past history of separation, exchange and admixture events among human populations. This method relies on approximate Bayesian computations that enable the identification of the most probable historical scenario underlying each type of data, and to infer the parameters of these scenarios. For this purpose, we developed a new computer program PopLingSim that simulates the evolution of linguistic diversity, which we coupled with an existing coalescent-based genetic simulation program, to simulate both linguistic and genetic data within a set of populations. Applying this new program to a wide linguistic and genetic dataset of Central Asia, we found several differences between linguistic and genetic histories. In particular, we showed how genetic and linguistic exchanges differed in the past in this area: some cultural exchanges were maintained without genetic exchanges. The methodological framework and the linguistic simulation tool developed here can be used in future work for disentangling complex linguistic and genetic evolutions underlying human biological and cultural histories.

scholarly journals Different historical generation intervals in human populations inferred from Neanderthal fragment lengths and patterns of mutation accumulation

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Moisès Coll Macià ◽  
Laurits Skov ◽  
Benjamin Marco Peter ◽  
Mikkel Heide Schierup
Keyword(s):  
Fragment Length ◽  
Human Populations ◽  
Female Age ◽  
Generation Interval ◽  
The Past ◽  
Geographical Regions ◽  
Neanderthal Admixture ◽  
Rate Of Decay ◽  
Out Of Africa ◽  
Insight Into

AbstractAfter the main out-of-Africa event, humans interbred with Neanderthals leaving 1-2% of Neanderthal DNA scattered in small fragments in all non-African genomes today1,2. Here we investigate the size distribution of these fragments in non-African genomes3. We find consistent differences in fragment length distributions across Eurasia with 11% longer fragments in East Asians than in West Eurasians. By comparing extant populations and ancient samples, we show that these differences are due to a different rate of decay in length by recombination since the Neanderthal admixture. In line with this, we observe a strong correlation between the average fragment length and the accumulation of derived mutations, similar to what is expected by changing the ages at reproduction as estimated from trio studies4. Altogether, our results suggest consistent differences in the generation interval across Eurasia, by up to 20% (e.g. 25 versus 30 years), over the past 40,000 years. We use sex-specific accumulations of derived alleles to infer how these changes in generation intervals between geographical regions could have been mainly driven by shifts in either male or female age of reproduction, or both. We also find that previously reported variation in the mutational spectrum5 may be largely explained by changes to the generation interval and not by changes to the underlying mutational mechanism. We conclude that Neanderthal fragment lengths provide unique insight into differences of a key demographic parameter among human populations over the recent history.

scholarly journals Ecology of the Anthropocene signals hope for consciously managing the planetary ecosystem

2021 ◽  
Vol 118 (28) ◽  
pp. e2024150118
Author(s):  
Clarence Lehman ◽  
Shelby Loberg ◽  
Michael Wilson ◽  
Eville Gorham
Keyword(s):  
Population Growth ◽  
Cultural Evolution ◽  
Human Population ◽  
Human Populations ◽  
Present Moment ◽  
Minimal Set ◽  
The Past ◽  
Food Species ◽  
Large Predators ◽  
Population Numbers

Human populations have grown to such an extent that our species has become a dominant force on the planet, prompting geologists to begin applying the term Anthropocene to recognize the present moment. Many approaches seek to explain the past and future of human population growth, in the form of narratives and models. Some of the most influential models have parameters that cannot be precisely known but are estimated by expert opinion. Here we apply a unified model of ecology to provide a macroscale summary of the net effects of many microscale processes, using a minimal set of parameters that can be known. Our models match estimates of historic and prehistoric global human population numbers and provide predictions that correspond to some of the more complicated current models. In addition to fitting the data well they reveal that, amidst enormous complexity in our human and prehuman past, three key ecological discontinuities have occurred in turn: 1) becoming dominant competitors of large predators rather than their prey, 2) becoming mutualists with food species rather than acting as predators upon them, and 3) changing from a regime of uncontrolled population growth to one of controlled fertility instead. All three processes have been interlinked with cultural evolution and all three ushered in developments of the Anthropocene. Understanding the trajectories that have delivered us to this stage can help guide prudent paths into the future.

Synchrotron radiation from single electrons gyrating in a magnetoactive plasma

1969 ◽  
Vol 47 (7) ◽  
pp. 757-768 ◽  
Author(s):  
P. C. W. Fung
Keyword(s):  
Synchrotron Radiation ◽  
Plasma Frequency ◽  
Radiation Power ◽  
Magnetoactive Plasma ◽  
Electron Plasma ◽  
Relativistic Electrons ◽  
Relative Importance ◽  
Numerical Examples ◽  
The Past ◽  
Single Electrons

In this paper, the incoherent synchrotron radiation power emitted by relativistic electrons gyrating in a cold magnetoactive plasma is rederived, correcting errors which have occurred in the past literature. One can specify the background plasma by the quantity A = ωp2/ωH2 (ωp is the angular electron plasma frequency and ωH is the angular electron gyro-frequency), i.e. the relative importance of the plasma frequency to the gyro-frequency. The general spectral features of synchrotron radiation from single electrons radiating in plasmas of large [Formula: see text] and small [Formula: see text] are discussed with the aid of a number of numerical examples.

scholarly journals Mitochondrial Dysfunction in Obesity and Reproduction

Endocrinology ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 162 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Manasi Das ◽  
Consuelo Sauceda ◽  
Nicholas J G Webster
Keyword(s):  
Mitochondrial Dysfunction ◽  
Energy Production ◽  
Molecular Mechanisms ◽  
Human Populations ◽  
Metabolic Alterations ◽  
Genetic Manipulations ◽  
The Past ◽  
Calcium Buffering

Abstract Mounting evidence suggests a role for mitochondrial dysfunction in the pathogenesis of many diseases, including type 2 diabetes, aging, and ovarian failure. Because of the central role of mitochondria in energy production, heme biosynthesis, calcium buffering, steroidogenesis, and apoptosis signaling within cells, understanding the molecular mechanisms behind mitochondrial dysregulation and its potential implications in disease is critical. This review will take a journey through the past and summarize what is known about mitochondrial dysfunction in various disorders, focusing on metabolic alterations and reproductive abnormalities. Evidence is presented from studies in different human populations, and rodents with genetic manipulations of pathways known to affect mitochondrial function.

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