Why did hunting weapon design change at Abri Pataud? Lithic use-wear data on armature use and hafting around 24,000–22,000 BP

Projectile technology is commonly viewed as a significant contributor to past human subsistence and, consequently, to our evolution. Due to the allegedly central role of projectile weapons in the food-getting strategies of Upper Palaeolithic people, typo-technological changes in the European lithic record have often been linked to supposed developments in hunting weaponry. Yet, relatively little reliable functional data is currently available that would aid the detailed reconstruction of past weapon designs. In this paper, we take a use-wear approach to the backed tool assemblages from the Recent and Final Gravettian layers (Levels 3 and 2) of Abri Pataud (Dordogne, France). Our use of strict projectile identification criteria relying on combinations of low and high magnification features and our critical view of the overlap between production and use-related fractures permitted us to confidently identify a large number of used armatures in both collections. By isolating lithic projectiles with the strongest evidence of impact and by recording wear attributes on them in detail, we could establish that the hunting equipment used during the Level 3 occupations involved both lithic weapon tips and composite points armed with lithic inserts. By contrast, the Level 2 assemblage reflects a heavy reliance on composite points in hunting reindeer and other game. Instead of an entirely new weapon design, the Level 2 collection therefore marks a shift in weapon preferences. Using recent faunal data, we discuss the significance of the observed diachronic change from the point of view of prey choice, seasonality, and social organisation of hunting activities. Our analysis shows that to understand their behavioural significance, typo-technological changes in the lithic record must be viewed in the light of functional data and detailed contextual information.

“Worn-out but happy”: Postpartum Women's Mental Health and Well-Being During COVID-19 Restrictions in Australia

Background: From late 2019, COVID-19 disease has infiltrated the global population causing widespread challenges to public health. One cohort that has received less attention, but who may be more vulnerable to the mental and physical health related impacts of COVID-19 restrictions are postpartum mothers. The aim of this study was to explore the mental health, well-being, and health behaviours of mothers up to 12 months postpartum whilst living in Australia under COVID-19 level 3 and 4 restrictions.Methods: 351 women in their first year postpartum residing in Australia whilst under level 3/4 social distancing restrictions (during April 13 and June 11, 2020) were recruited to participate in an online questionnaire. The survey measured symptoms of depression, anxiety, and stress (DASS), wellness (SF-36), physical activity (Godin-Shephard score), perceived value of health outcomes, diet, and sleep. Descriptive statistics and linear regressions were performed.Results: Data was analysed for 139 eligible women. Of these women, 74% scored “normal” for depression, 84% for anxiety, and 72% for stress. Over half (58%) of women reported being worn out all, most, or a good bit of the time and 77% reported being a happy person all, most, or a good bit of the time. Analysis of the perceived values of health outcome revealed women had high value for “getting out of the house,” “achieving a better overall mood,” and “to feel better physically.” Women were considered physically active according to the Godin Leisure score, however only 41% of women met the current Australian national physical activity guidelines of 150 min.week−1.Conclusions: Overall the majority of postpartum mums that were surveyed, have normal mental health symptoms, and despite being worn out most are happy at least a good bit of the time. This study highlights the importance of health values in maintaining leisure physical activity and mental health. In addition it appears women may benefit from virtual group exercise and community programs to encourage being physically active and socialising with friends simultaneously.

Experimental Models of COVID-19

COVID-19 is the most consequential pandemic of the 21st century. Since the earliest stage of the 2019-2020 epidemic, animal models have been useful in understanding the etiopathogenesis of SARS-CoV-2 infection and rapid development of vaccines/drugs to prevent, treat or eradicate SARS-CoV-2 infection. Early SARS-CoV-1 research using immortalized in-vitro cell lines have aided in understanding different cells and receptors needed for SARS-CoV-2 infection and, due to their ability to be easily manipulated, continue to broaden our understanding of COVID-19 disease in in-vivo models. The scientific community determined animal models as the most useful models which could demonstrate viral infection, replication, transmission, and spectrum of illness as seen in human populations. Until now, there have not been well-described animal models of SARS-CoV-2 infection although transgenic mouse models (i.e. mice with humanized ACE2 receptors with humanized receptors) have been proposed. Additionally, there are only limited facilities (Biosafety level 3 laboratories) available to contribute research to aid in eventually exterminating SARS-CoV-2 infection around the world. This review summarizes the most successful animal models of SARS-CoV-2 infection including studies in Non-Human Primates (NHPs) which were found to be susceptible to infection and transmitted the virus similarly to humans (e.g., Rhesus macaques, Cynomolgus, and African Green Monkeys), and animal models that do not require Biosafety level 3 laboratories (e.g., Mouse Hepatitis Virus models of COVID-19, Ferret model, Syrian Hamster model). Balancing safety, mimicking human COVID-19 and robustness of the animal model, the Murine Hepatitis Virus-1 Murine model currently represents the most optimal model for SARS-CoV-2/COVID19 research. Exploring future animal models will aid researchers/scientists in discovering the mechanisms of SARS-CoV-2 infection and in identifying therapies to prevent or treat COVID-19.

Functional Status of the Children with Cerebral PalsyAnd Their Mothers’ Psychological Status: A Cross-sectional Study

Objective: The aims of this study were to assess the demographic characteristics and functional status of children with cerebral palsy (CP) and to evaluate the psychological status of their mothers.Results: A total of 101 patients were included in the study (%57,4% boys, %42,6% girls). Their mean age was 6,79±4,48 (1,5-18) years. Mothers’ mean age was 33,31±7,72 (20-53) years. The neurologic classification were as follows: diplegia 27,7%, tetraplegia 45,5%, hemiplegia 19,8%, dyskinetic or ataxic 6,9%. The GMFCS levels were as follows: level 1 11,9%, level 2 14,9%, level 3 17,8%, level 4 25.7%, level 5 29,7%. SCL-90-R outcomes were as follows: 38,6% somatization, 18,8% anxiety, 37,6% obsessive-compulsive, 36,6% depression, 32,7% interpersonal-sensitivity, 21,8% eating-sleeping disorder. We didn’t detect any significant correlation between the GMFCS levels of children and mothers’ physicological status. Childrens’ low WeeFIM scores were related with anxiety, obsessive-compulsive, depression, interpersonalsensitivity, paranoid ideation and eating-sleeping disorder. (p=0,009, p=0,017, p=0,009, P=0,0001, p=0,021, p=0,001 respectively). The presence of chronic disease was related with somatization, anxiety and depression (p=0,001, p=0,024, p=0,008 respectively). The presence of pain was related with somatization (p=0,0001).Conclusion: Lower WeeFIM scores of children with CP and chronic disease and pain presence in their mothers were detected as the factors that negatively affect psychological status of mothers.International Journal of Human and Health Sciences Vol. 06 No. 01 January’22 Page: 17-23

The Effect of Using Simulation Strategy in Developing English as a Foreign Language Speaking Skill

Speaking skill acquisition is a necessity for communication. However, speaking English as a foreign language is not as easy as speaking English as a first language since practice opportunities are limited. This study tried to find out a technique of reinforcement that can help students; who study English as a foreign language; develop their speaking skills. This study investigated the effect of using simulation strategy in developing EFL speaking skills, with the assistance of using a telegram channel "Oxford Bookworms Collection" for PDF books with an audio version, to stimulate pronunciation, intonation and enrich vocabulary. The researchers used a quantitative approach with an experimental design to conduct this study by involving 50 students divided into two groups. 25 students as a control group and 25 students as an experimental group; both groups were from level 3 who were learning Listening and Speaking-3 course, major English, at College of Science and Arts (Muhayil), King Khalid University. Pretest and posttest were used to collect data, results of the tests were analyzed using SPSS, Pearson correlation coefficient. The results revealed that using the simulation strategy helped the students of the experimental group to develop speaking skills and affected speaking micro-skills in terms of body language, fluency, pronunciation, intonation, grammar, and vocabulary usage positively. Moreover, students became motivated to speak spontaneously.

Conceptualizing the Domain and an Empirical Analysis of Operations Security Management

Operations security management integrates the activities of all the information systems security controls. It ensures that the entire computing environment is adequately secured. This chapter conducts an in-depth review of scholarly and practitioner works to conceptualize the domain of operations security management. Drawing upon the existing information systems security literature, the chapter classifies operations security management into 10 domains. Following, the chapter performs an empirical analysis to investigate the state-of-practice of operations security management in organizations. The findings show that the maturity level of operations security management is at the Level 3 (well-defined). The maturity levels range from Level 0 (not performed) to Level 5 (continuously improving). The results indicate that operations security processes are documented, approved, and implemented organization-wide. Backup and malware management are the most applied operations security controls, while logging, auditing, monitoring, and reviewing are the least implemented controls.

Wavelet Packet Analysis of ECG Signals to Understand the Effect of Cannabis Abuse on Cardiac Electrophysiology of Indian Women Working in Paddy Fields

This chapter is aimed at identifying the variation in the cardiac electrophysiology due to the abuse of the cannabis products (bhang) in a non-invasive manner. ECG signals were acquired from 25 Indian women working in the paddy fields. Amongst them, 10 women regularly abused bhang and the rest 15 women never abused bhang. The ECG signals were preprocessed and subjected to wavelet packet decomposition (WPD) up to the level 3 using db04 wavelet. Ninety-six statistical features were extracted from the wavelet packet coefficients and analyzed using linear and non-linear statistical methods. The results suggested a variation in the cardiac electrophysiology due to the abuse of bhang. Artificial neural networks (ANNs), namely, radial basis function (RBF) and multilayer perceptron (MLP) were able to classify the ECG signals with an accuracy of ≥95%. This supported the hypothesis that abuse of bhang may alter the cardiac electrophysiology. The results of the study may be used to increase awareness among people to avoid the abuse of cannabis products.

Voice User Interface: Literature review, challenges and future directions

Natural user interfaces are increasingly popular these days. One of the most common of these user interfaces today are voice-activated interfaces, in particular intelligent voice assistants such as Google Assistant, Alexa, Cortana and Siri. However, the results show that although there are many services available, there is still a lot to be done to improve the usability of these systems. Speech recognition, contextual understanding and human interaction are the issues that are not yet solved in this field. In this context, this research paper focuses on the state of the art and knowledge of work on intelligent voice interfaces, challenges and issues related to this field, in particular on interaction quality, usability, security and usability. As such, the study also examines voice assistant architecture components following the expansion of the use of technologies such as wearable computing in order to improve the user experience. Moreover, the presentation of new emerging technologies in this field will be the subject of a section in this work. The main contributions of this paper are therefore: (1) overview of existing research, (2) analysis and exploration of the field of intelligent voice assistant systems, with details at the component level, (3) identification of areas that require further research and development, with the aim of increasing its use, (4) various proposals for research directions and orientations for future work, and finally, (5) study of the feasibility of designing a new type of voice assistant and general presentation of the latter, whose realisation will be the subject of a thesis.