Human Adaptation to Isolated and Confined Environments

A study was conducted over seven months in a winter Antarctic isolated and confined environment (ICE). Physiological and psychological data was collected several times a week. Information was collected on a monthly basis on behavior and the use of physical facilities. Adaptation and information indicated that there was a significant decrease in epinephrine and norepinephrine during the middle trimester of the winter. No vital changes were found for blood pressure. Self reports of hostility and anxiety show a linear increase. There were no significant changes in depression during ICE. The physiological and psychological data do not move in a synchronous fashion over time. The data also suggest that both ambient qualities of an ICE and discrete social environmental events, such as the arrival of the summer crew, have an impact on the outcome measures used. It may be most appropiate to develop a model for ICE's that incorporates not only global chronic stressors common to all ICE's but also the role of discrete environmental effects which can minimize or enhance the influence of more chronic stressors. Behavioral adjustment information highlight the importance of developing schedules which balance work and recreational activities

Bone loss and human adaptation to lunar gravity

Long-duration space missions and establishment of permanently manned bases on the Moon and Mars are currently being planned. The weightless environment of space and the low-gravity environments of the Moon and Mars pose an unknown challenge to human habitability and survivability. Of particular concern in the medical research community today is the effect of less than Earth gravity on the human skeleton, since the limits, if any, of human endurance in low-gravity environments are unknown. This paper provides theoretical predictions on bone loss and skeletal adaptation to lunar and other nonterrestrial-gravity environments based upon the experimentally derived relationship, density approximately (mass x gravity)(exp 1/8). The predictions are compared to skeletal changes reported during bed rest, immobilization, certrifugation, and spaceflight. Countermeasures to reduce bone losses in fractional gravity are also discussed

Some problems of human adaptation and ecology under the aspect of general pathology

The main problems of human adaptation at the level of the body and the population in connection with the features of current morbidity of the population and certain demographic processes are analyzed. The concepts of health and adaptation of the individual and human populations are determined. The importance of the anthropo-ecological approach to the investigation of the adaptation process of human populations is demonstrated. Certain features of the etiopathogenesis of diseases are considered in connection with the population-ecological regularities of human adaptation. The importance of research on general pathology aspects of adaptation and the ecology of man for planning, and organization of public health protection is discussed

Society Culture and Environmental Adaptability in Central and South America

This paper constitutes an in-depth and comparative review of three recent anthropological studies of environmental adaptability in Central and South America. In an attempt to overcome the dualism of former ecological anthropology, Arizpe, Paz and Velßzquez (1996), Wilbert (1998), and Santos-Graneros and Barclay (1998) bring nature and society into a common framework aimed at understanding human adaptation, as well as the changing relations of human societies to natural environments. The paper discusses the ideas and arguments contained in these three books by focusing on the cultural dimensions of human adaptation to the environment. It then examines the local and global patterns of resource management. The paper concludes with a few remarks on how to link anthropological research on indigenous survival in the context of deforestation and modernization with policy recommendations.

Positive human functioning in stress situations : an interactive proposal

Understanding human adaptation to stressful situations is a fascinating and complex topic. Most of this complexity derives from the ambiguity of the concept of stress, the factors that explain human functioning when exposed to stress conditions, and the characteristics of the situation that can be associated with stress reactions. However, the actuality of the phenomenon and the increasing effects on human well-being in a broad set of living contexts demands answers and solutions from science to mitigate the negative consequences of stress. One of the major areas that can help reach this goal is proposing or refining conceptual models that explain human adaptation to stress. Taking as a starting point the cognitive-motivational-relational theory of emotions of Lazarus (1991, 1999), this chapter proposes an interactive model of human adaptation, discussing six aspects: (a) the importance of the stressful event during the process of human adaptation to stress; (b) the influence of antecedent factors (situational and personal characteristics) on human adaptation to stress events; (c) the central role of cognitive appraisal in human adaptation to stressful events; (d) the levels of responses implicit to a stressful situation; (e) the interactive process between the first level of cognitive appraisal, the responses, and the second level of cognitive appraisal; and (f) the event outcomes. The chapter terminates by discussing the mediating role of cognitive appraisal in the relation between stressful events and the event outcomes and by proposing some questions for future research. Considering all aspects, the interactive model of human adaptation is a tentative proposal to explain how individuals adapt to stressful situations that needs further investigation to confirm its utility.(undefined

Development Of Human Adaptation To Cold

Thesis (Ph.D.) University of Alaska Fairbanks, 197

Human Adaptation to the Control of Fire

Charles Darwin attributed human evolutionary success to three traits. Our social habits and anatomy were important, he said, but the critical feature was our intelligence, because it led to so much else, including such traits as language, weapons, tools, boats, and the control of fire. Among these, he opined, the control of fire was “probably the greatest ever [discovery] made by man, excepting language.” Despite this early suggestion that the control of fire was even more important than tool use for human success, recent anthropologists have made only sporadic efforts to assess its evolutionary significance. Here we use recent developments in understanding the role of cooked food in human diets to support the spirit of Darwin's offhand remark. We first consider the role of fire in increasing the net caloric value of cooked foods compared to raw foods, and hence in accounting for the unique pattern of human digestion. We then review the compelling evidence that humans are biologically adapted to diets that include cooked food, and that humans have a long evolutionary history of an obligate dependence on fire. Accordingly, we end by considering the influence of fire on various aspects of human biology. We pay particular attention to life history, and also briefly discuss effects on anatomy, behavior, and cognition.Human Evolutionary Biolog

The Role of Geography in Human Adaptation

Various observations argue for a role of adaptation in recent human evolution, including results from genome-wide studies and analyses of selection signals at candidate genes. Here, we use genome-wide SNP data from the HapMap and CEPH-Human Genome Diversity Panel samples to study the geographic distributions of putatively selected alleles at a range of geographic scales. We find that the average allele frequency divergence is highly predictive of the most extreme FST values across the whole genome. On a broad scale, the geographic distribution of putatively selected alleles almost invariably conforms to population clusters identified using randomly chosen genetic markers. Given this structure, there are surprisingly few fixed or nearly fixed differences between human populations. Among the nearly fixed differences that do exist, nearly all are due to fixation events that occurred outside of Africa, and most appear in East Asia. These patterns suggest that selection is often weak enough that neutral processes—especially population history, migration, and drift—exert powerful influences over the fate and geographic distribution of selected alleles

The Role of Geography in Human Adaptation

Various observations argue for a role of adaptation in recent human evolution, including results from genome-wide studies and analyses of selection signals at candidate genes. Here, we use genome-wide SNP data from the HapMap and CEPH-Human Genome Diversity Panel samples to study the geographic distributions of putatively selected alleles at a range of geographic scales. We find that the average allele frequency divergence is highly predictive of the most extreme FST values across the whole genome. On a broad scale, the geographic distribution of putatively selected alleles almost invariably conforms to population clusters identified using randomly chosen genetic markers. Given this structure, there are surprisingly few fixed or nearly fixed differences between human populations. Among the nearly fixed differences that do exist, nearly all are due to fixation events that occurred outside of Africa, and most appear in East Asia. These patterns suggest that selection is often weak enough that neutral processes—especially population history, migration, and drift—exert powerful influences over the fate and geographic distribution of selected alleles.</p

Human adaptation in the 7th-11th century

This paper is an attempt to reconstruct human adaptability in the case of populations which lived in the central region of the Carpathian Basin between the 7th and 11th century. On drawing a parallel between the ecological zonality and the human anatomical patterns of the three historical periods included, we come to a conclusion that the populations of both the Late Avar period (670-894 A.D.) and the time of the Hungarian conquest (10th century, i.e. 895-999 A.D.) adapted themselves to the local ecological zonality fairly well, while, from 1000 A.D. on, i.e. at the time of the 11th century when the early Christian Hungarian Kingdom was founded by King St. Stephen, it may have been political intention more than anything else that influenced the structure of population