scholarly journals Simulating prehistoric population dynamics and adaptive behavioral responses to the environment in Long House Valley and Black Mesa, Arizona

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
◽  
Amy L. Warren
Keyword(s):  
Local Population ◽  
Mortality Rates ◽  
Small Scale ◽  
Human Populations ◽  
Population Movements ◽  
Household Level ◽  
Black Mesa ◽  
Human Adaptability ◽  
Population Patterns ◽  
Archaeological Models

This project contributes to our understanding of human adaptability to environmental stress and climate change in Long House Valley and Black Mesa, Arizona from AD 800-1350. This was accomplished through the development of a series of agentbased archaeological models. The first stage, Disaggregation, created a model that simulated individual persons within the Long House Valley landscape, a departure from the household-level models common in archaeological modeling. The second stage, Demography, applied empirically derived fertility and mortality rates to these human populations to provide insight into the effects of such rates on population patterns. The final stage expanded the modeled environment to include Black Mesa and allowed for the migration of individuals and households between the two areas in response to varying environmental and demographic pressures throughout the study period. The results of this project indicate that the introduction of biological and ethnographic realism to a model can produce unexpected results, including those that deviate from the population patterns observed archaeologically. Despite these unexpected interactions, the results support the importance of variations in agricultural productivity in driving human migrations in the region. Future archaeological models should consider further exploration small-scale, local population movements and the effects of dynamically changing fertility and mortality rates.

Generation and analysis of biogas from kitchen waste at a small scale

2020 ◽  
pp. 140-148
Author(s):  
Md. Kumail Naqvi ◽  
Mrinal Anthwal ◽  
Ravindra Kumar
Keyword(s):  
Food Waste ◽  
Total Solid ◽  
Small Scale ◽  
Cow Dung ◽  
Retention Period ◽  
Household Level ◽  
Replacement Model ◽  
The Everyday ◽  
Scale Experiment ◽  
Small Period

Biogas is the product of anaerobic vitiation of biodegradable matter. This paper focuses on the need of alternative and green sources of energy at a household level and how biogas produced from the everyday organic waste has the potential and possibility to replace LPG cylinders at houses, shops etc. and empower us to step towards an eco-friendly future. The purpose this small-scale experiment has been to find the perfect input matter that is easy to acquire and which produces the maximum amount of gas from minimum input and within small period of waste retention. Four different types of input waste material containing different quantities of cow dung and kitchen food waste were studied through individual experimental setups. Waste was mixed and kept at room temperature and the pH and total solid concentration of the samples were recorded on regular intervals. From the experiment it was found that the optimum yield of biogas at a small scale, based on the parameters such as retention period, pH and total solid con-centration can be obtained by the use of food waste form households and kitchens. The exact composition has been discussed in this paper. The energy generated by the small-scale generator has also been compared to that of an LPG cylinder and an LPG replacement model has also been presented.

scholarly journals Introducing Twitter Daily Estimates of Residents and Non-Residents at the County Level

2021 ◽  
Vol 10 (6) ◽  
pp. 227
Author(s):  
Yago Martín ◽  
Zhenlong Li ◽  
Yue Ge ◽  
Xiao Huang
Keyword(s):  
Large Scale ◽  
Local Population ◽  
External Validation ◽  
Population Estimates ◽  
County Level ◽  
Internal Validation ◽  
Population Movements ◽  
Dynamic Component ◽  
Home Location ◽  
Non Local

The study of migrations and mobility has historically been severely limited by the absence of reliable data or the temporal sparsity of available data. Using geospatial digital trace data, the study of population movements can be much more precisely and dynamically measured. Our research seeks to develop a near real-time (one-day lag) Twitter census that gives a more temporally granular picture of local and non-local population at the county level. Internal validation reveals over 80% accuracy when compared with users’ self-reported home location. External validation results suggest these stocks correlate with available statistics of residents/non-residents at the county level and can accurately reflect regular (seasonal tourism) and non-regular events such as the Great American Solar Eclipse of 2017. The findings demonstrate that Twitter holds the potential to introduce the dynamic component often lacking in population estimates. This study could potentially benefit various fields such as demography, tourism, emergency management, and public health and create new opportunities for large-scale mobility analyses.

Local Communities as a Tool for the Development of Municipal Democracy: German Experience and Lessons for Russia

2020 ◽  
Vol 29 (5) ◽  
pp. 74-88
Author(s):  
Aleksandr Larichev ◽  
Emil Markwart
Keyword(s):  
Local Government ◽  
Urban Areas ◽  
Local Population ◽  
Local Communities ◽  
The State ◽  
Household Waste ◽  
Small Scale ◽  
Issue Management ◽  
State Management ◽  
Municipal Level

Local government as a political, legal and social institution finds itself in a very difficult period of development in Russia. The long-established tendency of its subordination to the state has intensified today in connection with the newly adopted constitutional amendments. At the same time, it seems obvious that further “embedding” of local government into the state management vertical, in the absence of any positive effect in terms of solving socio-economic and infrastructural problems, will inevitably lead to other hard to reverse, negative results both for local government institutions and the system of public authority as a whole. The normal functioning of local government requires, however, not only the presence of its sufficient institutional and functional autonomy from the state, but also an adequate territorial and social base for its implementation. To ensure the formation of viable territorial collectives, especially in urban areas, it seems appropriate to promote the development of self-government based on local groups at the intra-municipal level. Such local groups can independently manage issues of local importance on a small scale (landscaping, social volunteering, and neighborly mutual assistance), and provide, within the boundaries of a local territory, due civil control over the maintenance by municipal authorities of more complex and large-scale local issues (repair and development of infrastructure, removal of solid household waste and more). At the same time, the development of local communities can by no means be a self-sufficient and substitutional mechanism, whose introduction would end the need for democracy in the full scope of municipal structures overall. In this regard, the experience of local communities’ development in Germany, a state with legal traditions similar to Russian ones, with a centuries-old history of the development of territorial communities and a difficult path to building democracy and forming civil society, seems to be very interesting. Here, the progressive development of local forms of democracy and the participation of residents in local issue management are combined with stable mechanisms of municipal government, and the interaction of municipalities with the state does not torpedo the existing citizen forms of self-government. At the same time, the experience of Germany shows that the decentralization of public issue management which involves the local population can only be effective in a situation where, in addition to maintaining a full-fledged self-government mechanism at the general municipal level, relevant local communities are endowed with real competence and resources to influence local issue decision-making. The role of formalized local communities in urban areas, as the German experience shows, can not only facilitate the decentralization of solving public problems, but can also help in timely elimination of triggers for mobilizing citywide supercollectives with negative agendas. This experience seems useful and applicable in the Russian context.

scholarly journals A new approach to assess marine opportunity costs and monetary values for spatial planning and conservation; the case study of Gulf of Naples, Mediterranean Sea, Italy

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Luca Appolloni
Keyword(s):  
Local Population ◽  
Small Scale ◽  
Conservation Priorities ◽  
Opportunity Costs ◽  
Tyrrhenian Sea ◽  
Economic Activities ◽  
Fishing Activity ◽  
Flexible Approach ◽  
Gulf Of Naples ◽  
Total Turnover

Conservation actions (as Marine Protected Areas) are key tools to maintain coastal ecosystems. However, many reserves are characterized by several problems related to inadequate zonings that preclude important areas from economic activities, determining a strong hostility by local populations. Thus, estimations of marine economic values-in-use are needed for protection of marine ecosystem in order to find the best compromise between conservation priorities and local population needs. Algorithms to estimate monetary values of the main human activities in marine territories (large scale and small scale fishings, aquaculture, beach resorts, yachting, diving and commercial shipping) are here implemented using Gulf of Naples (centre Tyrrhenian sea, Italy) as study area example. These algorithms are based on different sources data (questionnaires, monitoring activities, official local authority reports, web and scientific literature). They can also be compared with each other being their outputs all expressed in the same measure unit. During the models development process a new flexible approach, called “Systematic Costs Assessment” (SCA), to assess opportunity costs in systematic conservation planning process was developed and applied. Results show that the total turnover in the Gulf of Naples is 3,950,753,487 € per year and 747,647,887 € per year excluding small scale fishing estimation, and one hectare of marine territory is worth 40,672 € and 7,696 € per year excluding small scale fishing activity. In particular, excluding small scale fishing activity, beach resort and yachting show the highest values referred to one hectare of marine territories. In conclusion, SCA is a flexible approach where no long and costly sampling campaigns are always needed, provided that two assumptions have to be taken into account, in order to estimate credible values-in-use costs: i) do not use economic activities data and ecosystem services data in the same assessment layer, since it could lead to costs overestimation and ii) SCA method are efficient when used by operators with strong knowledge of the study area, since they are able to recognize parameters affecting economic activities of local population.

scholarly journals http://ajfand.net/Volume21/No1/index.html#gsc.tab=0

2021 ◽  
Vol 21` (01) ◽  
pp. 17125-17139
Author(s):  
Danisile Mthombeni ◽  
◽  
MA Antwi ◽  
T Rubhara ◽  
◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Significant Influence ◽  
Agricultural Education ◽  
Agricultural Sector ◽  
Multinomial Logit Model ◽  
Positive Influence ◽  
Farm Income ◽  
Small Scale ◽  
Gauteng Province ◽  
Access To Credit ◽  
Household Level

Agro-processing is becoming more popular and practiced by farmers to reduce post-harvest losses,add value to farm products and increase farm income. This paper presents the small-scale crop farmers’ level of participation in agro-processing in the Gauteng province of South Africa. Data were collected from 255 small-scale crop farmers selected by random sampling using a semi-structured questionnaire.Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS version 23 of 2015)was used to analyse data. Descriptive statistics (in form of percentages) were used to analyse the background characteristics of the farmers,whereas the multinomial logit model was further used to show the level of participationamongst the small-scale crop farmers. With respect to agro-processing, results indicated that 47.1% of the small-scale crop farmers participated partly,40.8% of them participated fully while 12.2% did not participate at all. Results of the multinomial analyses indicated that, educational level(p<0.05), size of the field(p<0.05),distance to the market (p<0.01),and access to credit (p<0.01)had positive significant influence on small-scale crop farmers’choice to participate fully in agro-processing. Gender,regarding male participation (p< 0.05),and age of farmer (p<0.01) had significant influence on farmers’ choice to fully participate in agro-processing. Furthermore, the results of the multinomial analyses showed that size of the field (p<0.01)owned by the farmer and access to credit(p< 0.05)had positive influence on the farmers’choice to participate partly in agro-processing whereas older farmers (p< 0.05),widows (p< 0.1) and farmers with more number of fields(p<0.01) were less likely to participate partly in agro-processing activities. These results have implications for the development of small-scale farmers venturing into agro-processing in the Gauteng province. Young females should be encouraged to join the agricultural sector as they are likely to participate in agro-processing activities which in turn results in improved income and food security at the household level. Furthermore, new agricultural education programmes should be encouraged in the area households as educated farmers are more likely to participate in the value addition activities of agro-processing.

Early Democracy Was Widespread

2020 ◽  
pp. 29-61
Author(s):  
David Stasavage
Keyword(s):  
Small Scale ◽  
Population Movements ◽  
The Third ◽  
Economic Production ◽  
History Of ◽  
State Bureaucracy ◽  
Ancient Mesopotamia

This chapter begins with the democratic history of Athens. It explains how early democracy was more likely to flourish in small-scale settings, in instances where rulers lacked the coercive potential provided by a state bureaucracy, and when rulers found it difficult to monitor economic production and population movements. The chapter draws attention to ancient Mesopotamia during the third and second millennia BCE as one of the oldest examples of early democracy. It mentions the Danish Assyriologist named Thorkild Jacobsen who asserted that governance by assemblies was common in Mesopotamia before centralizing rulers destroyed this pattern. It also discusses debates about the ancient Indian republics that became colored by the colonial context.

scholarly journals Periodic catastrophes over human evolutionary history are necessary to explain the forager population paradox

2019 ◽  
Vol 116 (26) ◽  
pp. 12758-12766 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michael D. Gurven ◽  
Raziel J. Davison
Keyword(s):  
Evolutionary History ◽  
Homo Sapiens ◽  
Vital Rate ◽  
Small Scale ◽  
Human Populations ◽  
Wild Chimpanzee ◽  
Population Fluctuations ◽  
Vital Rates ◽  
Zero Population Growth ◽  
Major Adjustment

The rapid growth of contemporary human foragers and steady decline of chimpanzees represent puzzling population paradoxes, as any species must exhibit near-stationary growth over much of their evolutionary history. We evaluate the conditions favoring zero population growth (ZPG) among 10 small-scale subsistence human populations and five wild chimpanzee groups according to four demographic scenarios: altered mean vital rates (i.e., fertility and mortality), vital rate stochasticity, vital rate covariance, and periodic catastrophes. Among most human populations, changing mean fertility or survivorship alone requires unprecedented alterations. Stochastic variance and covariance would similarly require major adjustment to achieve ZPG in most populations. Crashes could maintain ZPG in slow-growing populations but must be frequent and severe in fast-growing populations—more extreme than observed in the ethnographic record. A combination of vital rate alteration with catastrophes is the most realistic solution to the forager population paradox. ZPG in declining chimpanzees is more readily obtainable through reducing mortality and altering covariance. While some human populations may have hovered near ZPG under harsher conditions (e.g., violence or food shortage), modernHomo sapienswere equipped with the potential to rapidly colonize new habitats and likely experienced population fluctuations and local extinctions over evolutionary history.

The Reform of Agricultural Marketing in China Since 1978

1988 ◽  
Vol 113 ◽  
pp. 1-28 ◽  
Author(s):  
Andrew Watson
Keyword(s):  
Agricultural Policy ◽  
Agricultural Production ◽  
Free Market ◽  
Economic Change ◽  
Small Scale ◽  
Free Markets ◽  
Agricultural Marketing ◽  
Scale Free ◽  
Household Level ◽  
Surplus Production

With the proclamation of Document 1, 1983, reform of marketing became one of the major targets of agricultural policy in China. This official emphasis on the need to liberalize the marketing system was, however, little more than a confirmation of a process which was already taking place. The initial reforms of labour management and prices in 1978 had led to a decentralization of economic authority to the household level. The commune system was in decline and the number of small-scale free markets was increasing rapidly as peasants took advantage of their new-found freedom to trade their surplus production as they wished. Responding to the economic stimulus offered by the new structure of prices and to the organizational flexibility offered by the decentralization of management, some households began to plan at least part of their production for sale on the market, there by initiating a process of specialization and commercialization. Once begun, this process fed backwards into production by encouraging further specialization and diversification and forwards into marketing by stimulating the emergence of longdistance trade carried out by specialist merchants and traders. In effect, the free market began to act as an engine of economic change, shaping both the structure of agricultural production and employment and the network of new economic linkages through the emerging hierarchy of market centres.

scholarly journals ‘Disperse abroad in the land’: the role of wildlife in the dissemination of antimicrobial resistance

2016 ◽  
Vol 12 (8) ◽  
pp. 20160137 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kathryn E. Arnold ◽  
Nicola J. Williams ◽  
Malcolm Bennett
Keyword(s):  
Antimicrobial Resistance ◽  
Natural Environment ◽  
High Throughput Sequencing ◽  
Small Scale ◽  
Human Populations ◽  
Long Distance ◽  
Antimicrobial Drugs ◽  
Clinical Resistance ◽  
Wildlife Populations ◽  
The Impact

Antimicrobial resistance (AMR) has been detected in the microbiota of many wildlife species, including long-distance migrants. Inadequately treated wastes from humans and livestock dosed with antimicrobial drugs are often assumed to be the main sources of AMR to wildlife. While wildlife populations closely associated with human populations are more likely to harbour clinically important AMR related to that found in local humans and livestock, AMR is still common in remote wildlife populations with little direct human influence. Most reports of AMR in wildlife are survey based and/or small scale, so researchers can only speculate on possible sources and sinks of AMR or the impact of wildlife AMR on clinical resistance. This lack of quantitative data on the flow of AMR genes and AMR bacteria across the natural environment could reflect the numerous AMR sources and amplifiers in the populated world. Ecosystems with relatively simple and well-characterized potential inputs of AMR can provide tractable, but realistic, systems for studying AMR in the natural environment. New tools, such as animal tracking technologies and high-throughput sequencing of resistance genes and mobilomes, should be integrated with existing methodologies to understand how wildlife maintains and disperses AMR.

Pan-Arctic Population Movements

2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
Max Friesen
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Small Scale ◽  
Population Movement ◽  
Motivating Factors ◽  
Population Movements ◽  
Bowhead Whales ◽  
The North ◽  
North American Arctic ◽  
Western Arctic ◽  
Small Tool

This chapter provides description and interpretation of the two major, well-documented episodes of Arctic-wide migrations. The Paleo-Inuit (also called Paleoeskimo or Arctic Small Tool tradition) migration began around 3,200 B.C., with penetration of the central Arctic by highly mobile, small-scale hunter-gatherer groups. By around 2,500 B.C., the entire eastern Arctic had been peopled by cultures known as Pre-Dorset, Saqqaq, and Independence I. The Thule Inuit migration began around A.D. 1200, when complex maritime-oriented groups from the western Arctic initiated an extremely rapid population movement, spanning the North American Arctic within a generation. The chapter considers the timing and nature of each migration episode, as well as the motivating factors which have been proposed for them, including climate change, social or economic hardship, and acquisition of specific resources such as bowhead whales or metal.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document