Seeds of Complexity: An Archaeobotanical Study of Incipient Social Complexity at Late Chalcolithic Çadır Höyük, Turkey

Çadır Höyük, a mounded site on the north central Anatolian plateau occupied almost continuously from the Middle Chalcolithic through the Byzantine periods (5200 B.C.E.–1300 C.E.) yielded over 460 m2 of excavated LC remains. This period witnessed rapid cultural and environmental change providing an opportunity to examine how populations react. Archaeobotany, the study of the relationship between ancient plants and people, is an ideal tool to examine how populations reacted due to plants’ direct relationship with the environment and the fact that plant use can be controlled at both the household and state level. This study presents data from 60 archaeobotanical samples spanning three periods of occupation (3500–3200 B.C.E., 3200 B.C.E., and 3200–3000 B.C.E.) to determine how the population at Çadır modified agricultural and fuel use practices between 3500 and 3000 B.C.E. using descriptive and multivariate statistics. Results reveal that the inhabitants of Çadır relied heavily on barley, emmer, lentils, and flax throughout the LC and dung fuel was preferentially used across the site. Prior to 3200 B.C.E., plant use was stricter and more controlled and animals were routinely provisioned with fodder. After 3200 B.C.E., plant use norms became less strict and the environmental change caused a shift towards provisioning animals through pasturing. This shift to grazing did not fundamentally change the role of plant cultivation at Çadır, just the role of some taxa from fodder to food. By shifting emphasis from agriculture to agropastoralism after 3200 B.C.E., the population at Çadır was able to weather these changes

A Quantitative Examination of Extreme Facial Pain Expression in Neonates: The Primal Face of Pain across Time

Many pain assessment tools for preschool and school-aged children are based on facial expressions of pain. Despite broad use, their metrics are not rooted in the anatomic display of the facial pain expression. We aim to describe quantitatively the patterns of initiation and maintenance of the infant pain expression across an expressive cycle. We evaluated the trajectory of the pain expression of three newborns with the most intense facial display among 63 infants receiving a painful stimulus. A modified “point-pair” system was used to measure movement in key areas across the face by analyzing still pictures from video recording the procedure. Point-pairs were combined into “upper face” and “lower face” variables; duration and intensity of expression were standardized. Intensity and duration of expression varied among infants. Upper and lower face movement rose and overlapped in intensity about 30% into the expression. The expression reached plateau without major change for the duration of the expressive cycle. We conclude that there appears to be a shared pattern in the dynamic trajectory of the pain display among infants expressing extreme intensity. We speculate that these patterns are important in the communication of pain, and their incorporation in facial pain scales may improve current metrics

Expanding the plain: using archaeobotany to examine adaptation to the 5.2 kya climate change event during the Anatolian Late Chalcolithic at Çadır Höyük

This study examines how the population at Çadır Höyük on the north central Anatolian plateau modified agricultural and fuel use practices in response to rapid social and environmental change between 3600 and 2900 BCE (Late Chalcolithic and Transitional to Early Bronze periods). Using descriptive and multivariate statistics to explore data from 60 archaeobotanical samples spanning three periods of occupation (3600–3200 BCE, 3300–3100 BCE, and 3100–2900 BCE) the results reveal that the inhabitants of Çadır relied heavily on barley, emmer, lentils, and flax throughout the Late Chalcolithic. Both dung and wood were used as fuel, although dung fuel appears to have been preferentially used. The most significant change throughout this period was a shift from foddering animals to grazing animals on the steppe. This shift corresponded with the 5.2 kya event, a period of increased aridity at the very end of the 4th millennium BCE. By diversifying their agricultural strategies to more risk adverse practices, the population at Çadır demonstrated their ability to be resilient in the face of climate change.1. Introduction 2. Methods 3. Interpretative frameworks 3.1. Sample origin 3.2. Fuel use 4. Results and discussion 4.1. Crops 4.2. Sample origin 4.3. Fuel use 4.4. Change through time 5. Response to climate change 6. Conclusio

Editors Note

The Society for Comparative Cultural Inquiry at UCL (SCCI) is delighted to introduce the fourth issue of our postgraduate journal, Tropos. The papers included were all presented at the 2016 Conference, titled ‘Belonging and Transgression’. The papers addressed a wide variety of disciplinary interests in connection with the title theme, intended to allow a point of convergence for scholars from a number of eclectic intellectual backgrounds. The submissions each explored how notions of Belonging and Transgression could be understood and interpreted across a number of cultural, linguistic, and theoretical contexts. This edition of Tropos presents an exclusive selection of the papers presented at the conference, which in 2016 enjoyed its fourth year running. The conference was held at University College London on 23rd-24th June 2016 and was organised by members of the Society from both the School of European Language, Culture, and Societies (SELCS) and the Centre for Multidisciplinary and Intercultural Inquiry (CMII). It featured numerous postgraduate speakers from across the UK and Europe as well as keynote addresses from Professor Mairéad Hanrahan (Chair of French, UCL) and Professor John Sutherland (Emeritus Lord Northcliffe Professor of Modern English Literature, UCL) The research presented at the conference drew on a wide variety of disciplines, speaking to a range of different subjects as diverse as writings on the politics of AIDS/HIV in France, the 16th century legal discussions on the rights of free-movement of peoples, and mid-twentieth century Hungarian theatre. The conference stimulated lively discussions provoked by the theme and the different methods of addressing it throughout the papers. These conversations continued long after the formal proceedings concluded. We are delighted to share a selection of the papers from this conference with you in these pages, and we hope that a similarly lasting discussion will occur between you, the reader, and the articles in this third edition of Tropos. The conference series will continue in 2017 and organised by the Graduate Society for Comparative Cultural Inquiry

Commentary: Impact of an interdisciplinary and international research training initiative: the Pain in Child Health program

First paragraph: The field of pediatric pain has grown substantially since its inception in the early 1980s, which is reflected in an increasing number of publications, key textbooks, international meetings and training programs. We recently published a review summarizing meta-trend and bibliometric characteristics of the pediatric pain literature between 1975 and 2010, which confirmed a continuous, substantial increase in published research on pain processes in children between 0 and 18 years. The majority of the literature investigated pain characterization, intervention or assessment techniques in clinical samples of children between 6 and 18 years (Caes et al., 2016). A strength of our comprehensive review is the freely available dataset, which allows for more indepth analyses that go beyond the general conclusions drawn in the paper

Vermiculture improves urban farming in Argentina

French version available in IDRC Digital Library: Lombriculture au service de l'agriculture urbaine en ArgentineSpanish version available in IDRC Digital Library: Vermicultura mejora la granja urbana en Argentin

Lombriculture au service de l'agriculture urbaine en Argentine

Version anglaise disponible dans la Bibliothèque numérique du CRDI: Vermiculture improves urban farming in ArgentinaVersion espagnole disponible dans la Bibliothèque numérique du CRDI: Vermicultura mejora la granja urbana en Argentin