Kaelin Rapport - Histological Techniques for the Sex Determination of Skeletonized Human Remains

Determining the sex of skeletons is problematic in forensic and bio-archaeological research. Past studies demonstrate that bone cells can sometimes contain preserved sex chromosomal material in ancient samples. The sex chromosomes in skeletal remains may allow determination of sex in non-adults. The problem is explored by making 20μ thin sections stained with hematoxylin eosin. The dye highlights inactive X chromosomes (Barr Bodies) of females. The presence of the Barr Body is an indicator of female with an accuracy of greater than 99.9. This approach to identification of sex in unknown skeletons has been demonstrated with remains of individuals deceased as long as 25 years. Intact bone cells have also been observed in Neanderthal and Sauropod fossils and likely contain sex chromosomes. The degree to which bone cells preserve in archaeologically derived skeletal remains is explored here. A sample of 22 thin sections was created and examined for intact bone cells. The survivorship rate of bone cells in this sample is .12. Exposure to moisture facilitates bacterial activity and this is noted to be the single most important variable in determining the degree of preservation of histological structure. This technique has the potential of providing an accurate means of determining sex in non-adult skeletons. This will greatly assist forensic investigators and open new research trajectories into life-ways and life experiences in past populations.https://epublications.marquette.edu/mcnair_2014/1008/thumbnail.jp

Alliances and treaties: co-operation in war and peace

This article explores how the use of alliances and treaties changed along with the developments in the European international order in the modern era. Fundamentally, European international relations remained based on an "anarchic" system of competing sovereign states. Yet the evolution of concepts of international law from the Renaissance onwards and the impact of cultural, political, and social developments has encouraged a use of treaties and alliances that has moved European politics fitfully towards a "constitutional" solution, while never fully embracing such a model

Revolution

This chapter compares the revolutions of 1789, 1848 and 1989 to examine the usefulness of the concepts of 'risk', and 'threat' in the development of revolutionary situations

The Napoleonic Wars: A Very Short Introduction

Part of Oxford University Press' 'Very Short Introduction' series, this book aims to unpack the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars for readers. It discusses the causes of the conflict in the first chapter, provides an outline of the course of the war in chapters two and three, while the remaining four chapters discuss the ways in which the wars were fought on both land and sea; the experience 'at the sharp end' as lived by soldiers, sailors and civilians; and the ways in which societies were mobilized in the prosecution of the war. The book concludes with some thoughts on the legacy of the conflict. There is an annotated reading list at the end

The development of a micro technique for qualitative organic analysis

Thesis (M.A.)--Boston Universit

1848: European revolutions

Discusses the various ways in which the European revolutions of 1848-9 contributed to the shaping of modern democratic ideas and practices. It also takes cognisance of the limitations of these achievements

The French Revolution and early European revolutionary terrorism

This chapter discusses some of the antecedents to the 'Terror' in the French Revolution before exploring the relationship between different forms of political terror in the 1790s in revolutionary France. It finishes by exploring how terror in different forms was used by political movements in Europe in the first half of the nineteenth century

Daily Life in McMinnville 100 Years Ago

The McMinnville 100 Years Ago project is a collaborative research project that has been initiated by Professor Huntsberger’s History of Mass Communication class. This particular project topic focuses on the daily life of Yamhill County in 1912. As a group we have chosen to divide our project into different subject areas: churches, businesses, schools, recreation, and clothing. In order to learn about the daily life of Yamhill County, we analyzed historical evidence from Yamhill County in 1912, such as newspapers, pictures, and journals. These documents were found with help from the Yamhill County Historical Museum and the McMinnville Public Library. With this evidence, we crafted together a thorough portrayal on the daily life of Yamhill County in 1912

Contrasting responses to catchment modification among a range of functional and structural indicators of river ecosystem health

1. The value of measuring ecosystem functions in regular monitoring programs is increasingly being recognised as a potent tool for assessing river health. We measured the response of ecosystem metabolism, organic matter decomposition and strength loss, and invertebrate community composition across a gradient of catchment impairment defined by upstream landuse stress in two New Zealand streams. This was performed to determine if there were consistent responses among contrasting functional and structural indicators. 2. Rates of gross primary production (GPP) and ecosystem respiration (ER) ranged from 0.1 to 7.0 gO2 m−2 day−1 and from 0.34 to 16.5 gO2 m−2 day−1 respectively. Rates of GPP were variable across the landuse stress gradient, whereas ER increased linearly with the highest rates at the most impacted sites. Production/respiration (P/R) and net ecosystem metabolism (NEM) indicated that sites at the low and high ends of the stress gradient were heterotrophic with respiration rates presumably relying on organic matter from upstream sources, adjacent land or point sources. Sites with moderate impairment were predominantly autotrophic. 3. Declines in the tensile strength of the cotton strips showed no response across part of the gradient, but a strong response among the most impaired sites. The rate of mass loss of wooden sticks (Betula platyphylla Sukaczev) changed from a linear response to a U-shaped response across the impairment gradient after water temperature compensation, whereas leaf breakdown at a subset of sites suggested a linear loss in mass per degree-day. Three macroinvertebrate metrics describing the composition of the invertebrate community and its sensitivity to pollution showed similar linear inverse responses to the landuse stress gradient. 4. The first axis of a redundancy analysis indicated an association between landuse stress and various measures of water quality, and wooden stick mass loss, the invertebrate metric % EPT [percentage of macroinvertebrate taxa belonging to the Ephemeroptera, Plecoptera and Trichoptera (excluding Hydroptilidae] taxa, P/R and NEM, supporting the utility of these structural and functional metrics for assessing degree of landuse stress. The second axis was more strongly associated with catchment size, ER and GPP which suggests that these indicators were responding to differences in stream size. 5. Our results suggest that nonlinear responses to catchment impairment need to be considered when interpreting measurements of ecosystem function. Functional indicators could be useful for detecting relatively subtle changes where the slope of the response curve is maximised and measurements at the low and high ends of the impairment gradient are roughly equivalent. Such responses may be particularly valuable for detecting early signs of degradation at high quality sites, allowing management responses to be initiated before the degradation becomes too advanced, or for detecting initial moves away from degraded states during the early stages of restoration. Close links between structural and functional indices of river health across an impairment gradient are not necessarily expected or desirable if the aim is to minimise redundancy among ecological indicators

Agricultural Turns, Geographical Turns: Retrospect and Prospect.

It is accepted that British rural geography has actively engaged with the ‘cultural turn’, leading to a resurgence of research within the sub-discipline. However, a reading of recent reviews suggests that the cultural turn has largely, if not completely, bypassed those geographers interested in the agricultural sector. Farming centred engagements with notions of culture have been relatively limited compared with those concerned with the non-agricultural aspects of rural space. Indeed, agricultural geography represents something of an awkward case in the context of the disciplinary turn to culture, a situation that demands further exposition. In seeking explanation, it becomes evident that research on the farm sector is more culturally informed than initially appears. This paper argues that there have been both interesting and important engagements between agricultural geography and cultural perspectives over the past decade. The paper elaborates four specific areas of research which provide evidence for concern about the ‘culture’ within agriculture. The future contribution that culturally informed perspectives in geographical research can bring to agricultural issues is outlined by way of conclusion