Automating Historical Source Transcription

Transcribing the 1950 Norwegian census with 3.3 million person records and linking it to the Central Population Register (CPR) provides longitudinal information about significant population groups during the understudied period of the mid-20th century. Since this source is closed to the public, we receive no help from genealogists and rather use machine learning techniques to semi-automate the transcription. First the scanned manuscripts are split into individual cells and multiple names are divided. After the birthdates were transcribed manually in India, a lookup routine searches for families with matching sets of birthdates in the 1960 census and the CPR. After manual checks with GUI routines, the names are copied to the text version of the 1950 census, also storing the links to the CPR. Other fields like occupations or gender contain numeric or letter codes and are transcribed wholesale with routines interpreting the layout of the graphical images. Work employing these methods has also started on the 1930 census, which is the last of the Norwegian censuses to be transcribed.

Differentiation of reproductive traits between central and peripheral populations of Allium wallichii Kunth

The differentiation of reproductive characteristics not only exists between different populations, but also may exist within populations. In this work, the differences between the central and peripheral populations were experimentally compared and analyzed in terms of biodiversity index, plant traits, anthesis, pollen germination, floral visitors, seed setting rate, and ploidy. The results showed that the diversity and richness of other plant species, in the central population were significantly lower than those in the peripheral population, but the plant density was much higher than in the peripheral population. The plant anatomical traits, anthesis, pollen germination, floral visitors, seed setting rate, and ploidy were significantly different between central population and peripheral populations. The term increasing rate (IR) is proposed as a means of comparing morphologies in different organs. IR differences in vegetative characteristics were more stable, while those in reproductive characteristics differed significantly. For the central population, the effect of the intraspecific reproductive competition and pollinator selection on plants may significant, and morphology was differentiated in terms of reproductive characteristics. Plants in the peripheral populations were visited by many more pollinators than in the central population, and all pollinators visited infrequently. The reproductive characteristics of plants in the peripheral populations may therefore only be weakly affected by pollinator selection. The reproductive characteristics of plants in the peripheral population may weakly affected by the selection of pollinators and the variation was small. In conclusion, morphological differentiation among the different populations was associated with differences in vegetative and reproductive characteristics.

No association of GSTP1 rs1695 polymorphism with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis: A case-control study in the Brazilian population

Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS) is a rare neurodegenerative disease that affects motor neurons and promotes progressive muscle atrophy. It has a multifactorial etiology, where environmental conditions playing a remarkable role through the increase of oxidative stress. Genetic polymorphisms in cell detoxification genes, such as Glutathione S-Transferase Pi 1 (GSTP1) can contribute to excessive oxidative stress, and therefore may be a risk factor to ALS. Thus, this study aimed to investigate the role of the GSTP1 rs1695 polymorphism in ALS susceptibility in different genetic inheritance models and evaluate the association of the genotypes with risk factors, clinical and demographic characteristics of ALS patients from the Brazilian central population. This case-control study was conducted with 101 patients with ALS and 101 healthy controls. GSTP1 rs1695 polymorphism genotyping was performed with Polymerase Chain Reaction–Restriction Fragment Length Polymorphism (PCR-RFLP). The statistical analysis was carried out using the SPSS statistical package and SNPStats software. Analysis of genetic inheritance models was performed by logistic regression, which was used to determine the Odds Ratio. The results of this first study in the Brazilian population demonstrated that there was no risk association between the development of ALS and the GSTP1 rs1695 polymorphism in any genetic inheritance model (codominant, dominant, recessive, overdominant, and logarithmic); and that the polymorphic variants were not associated with the clinical and demographic characteristics of ALS patients. No association of the GSTP1 rs1695 polymorphism and ALS development in the Brazilian central population was found. These findings may be justified by the multifactorial character of the disease.

Population Registers as the Core of the System Registers in Northern European Countries

Electronic registry systems, established in many European countries, have long proven their eff ectiveness in various areas of the functioning of the state and separate fi rms and in improving the interaction of the population with government and private organizations. Population registers have a special place in the systems of registers. Th ey provide comprehensive and complete personal information, while saving time and eff ort in solving urgent problems, requests and requirements related to health, education, property, employment, pensions, social assistance, etc. Population registers have also proven their eff ectiveness in recent rounds of population and housing censuses. Northern European countries are pioneers in the creation and use of population register systems. Th e relevance of the article for Ukraine is due to: the active development of various registers, which, however, interact poorly with each other and do not constitute a holistic system; the need to take into account the experience of advanced countries in creating a full-fl edged system of registers. Th e purpose of the article is to summarize the experience of northern European countries in the creation and operation of register systems and to determine the role of the central population register as one of the basic registers. Th e novelty of the article lies in a generalized and comparative analysis of the register systems of the Nordic countries, a study of the role of the central population register and other basic and specialized registers as providers of information about the population. Research methods: systems analysis, scientifi c generalization, comparative analysis, methods of research of complex systems. Th e article investigates the general aspects of the creation and use of population registers in Northern Europe. A characteristic feature of northern European countries, in contrast to Ukraine, is the systematic in creation of separate registers, when a certain administrative register immediately determines the place in the general system and the relationship with other, primarily basic, registers. Th e example of two of the most advanced countries in this issue - Denmark and Norway — analyzes the measures to create systems of personal identifi cation numbers and the practice of using these numbers in registry systems. Examples of subsystems of health and education registers, as well as some other registers containing personalized information, are given. Based on the experience of northern European countries, proposals are formulated to create a real functioning system of registers in Ukraine.

Quantifying the spatial pattern of dialect words spreading from a central population

Some dialect words are shared among geographically distant groups of people without close interaction. Such a pattern may indicate the current or past presence of a cultural centre exerting a strong influence on peripheries. For example, concentric distributions of dialect variants in Japan may be explicable by repeated inventions of new variants at Kyoto, the ancient capital, with subsequent outward diffusion. Here we develop a model of linguistic diffusion within a population network to quantify the distribution of variants created at the central population. Equilibrium distributions of word ages are obtained for idealized networks and for a realistic network of Japanese prefectures. Our model successfully replicates the observed pattern, supporting the notion that a centre–periphery social structure underlies the emergence of concentric patterns. Unlike what has previously been claimed, our model indicates that a novelty bias in linguistic transmission is not always necessary to account for the concentric pattern, whereas some bias in the direction of transmission between populations is needed to be consistent with the observed absence of old words near the central population. Our analysis on the realistic network also suggests that the process of linguistic transmission was not much affected by between-prefecture differences in population size.

Releases of Asian houbara must respect genetic and geographic origin to preserve inherited migration behaviour: evidence from a translocation experiment

Maintaining appropriate migratory strategies is important in conservation; however, translocations of migratory animals may alter locally evolved migration behaviours of recipient populations if these are different and heritable. We used satellite telemetry and experimental translocation to quantify differences and assess heritability in migration behaviours between three migratory Asian houbara ( Chlamydotis macqueenii ) breeding populations (640 km range across eastern, central and western Uzbekistan). Adults from the eastern population migrated twice as far (mean = 1184 km ± 44 s.e.) as the western population (656 km ± 183 s.e.) and showed significantly less variation in migration distance than the central population (1030 km ± 127 s.e.). The western and central populations wintered significantly further north (mean: +8.32° N ± 1.70 s.e. and +4.19° N ± 1.16 s.e., respectively) and the central population further west (−3.47° E ± 1.46 s.e.) than individuals from the eastern population. These differences could arise from a differing innate drive, or through learnt facultative responses to topography, filtered by survival. Translocated birds from the eastern population (wild-laid and captive-reared, n = 5) migrated further than adults from either western or central recipient populations, particularly in their second migration year. Translocated birds continued migrating south past suitable wintering grounds used by the recipient populations despite having to negotiate mountain obstacles. Together, this suggests a considerable conserved heritable migratory component with local adaptation at a fine geographic scale. Surviving translocated individuals returned to their release site, suggesting that continued translocations would lead to introgression of the heritable component and risk altering recipient migration patterns. Conservation biologists considering translocation interventions for migratory populations should evaluate potential genetic components of migratory behaviour.

The Biometric Assemblage: Surveillance, Experimentation, Profit, and the Measuring of Refugee Bodies

Biometric technologies are routinely used in the response to refugee crises with the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) aiming to have all refugee data from across the world in a central population registry by the end of 2019. The article analyzes biometrics, artificial intelligence (AI), and blockchain as part of a technological assemblage, which I term the biometric assemblage. The article identifies five intersecting logics that explain wider transformations within the humanitarian sector and in turn shape the biometric assemblage. The acceleration of the rate of biometric registrations in the humanitarian sector between 2002 and 2019 reveals serious concerns regarding bias, data safeguards, data-sharing practices with states and commercial companies, experimentation with untested technologies among vulnerable people, and, finally, ethics. Technological convergence amplifies risks associated with each constituent technology of the biometric assemblage. The article finally argues that the biometric assemblage accentuates asymmetries between refugees and humanitarian agencies and ultimately entrenches inequalities in a global context.

Morphological differences between phyllosoma larvae from the western–central and eastern Pacific populations of the pronghorn spiny lobster Panulirus penicillatus

The pronghorn spiny lobster Panulirus penicillatus is known to have the widest distribution among palinurid lobster species, occurring in tropical and sub-tropical areas of the Indo-Pacific Ocean. In the Pacific Ocean, mitochondrial DNA analyses have revealed that the western–central and eastern populations are genetically isolated. We performed morphological investigations on mid- to late-stage phyllosoma larvae collected in these two areas. The larvae of the western–central population had a significantly narrower cephalic shield, shorter abdomen, and longer eyestalk than those of the eastern population. Additionally, for larvae larger than about 25-mm body length, the widest position of the cephalic shield in the western–central population was located closer to the middle of the median line of the cephalic shield than that in the eastern population. The ratio of width to length of cephalic shield and the ratio of cephalic shield width to thorax width are key traits for distinguishing between the larvae of the two populations.