Human Colonization of Asia in the Late Pleistocene The History of an Invasive Species

Narratives of “Out of Africa 2”—the expansion of Homo sapiens across Asia—emphasize the pattern of human dispersal but not the underlying processes. In recent years, the main debates have been over the timing and frequency of dispersal. Here, I treat these issues as subordinate to biogeographic ones that affected the behavior of humans in Asia as an invasive species that colonized new environments and had negative impacts on indigenous hominins. I suggest that attention should focus on three issues: (i) geographic factors that molded human dispersal across Asia, (ii) behavioral changes that enabled humans to overcome previously insurmountable barriers, and (iii) demographic considerations of human dispersal and colonization of Asia, including interactions with indigenous competitors. Although a strong case can be made that humans dispersed across southern Asia before 60 ka, this should not detract from attention on the underlying processes of dispersal and colonization

We Are Citizens! An Evaluation of the We are Citizens! Ensemble Care Experienced Theatre Company Project

In 2018 the Citizens Theatre, in partnership with CELCIS, was awarded funding from the Life Changes Trust’s Creative and Active Lives initiative, to establish Scotland’s first professional theatre company for young actors with care experience. The vision was to establish, develop and nurture a unique Theatre Company for the many diverse voices of young people enabling them to be listened to, heard, and celebrated for their artistic talents. The We Are Citizens! Ensemble developed from a series of taster workshops for care experienced young people at the Citizens Theatre, Glasgow, and in February 2020 they produced their first show

Tackling Bullying in Scotland's Schools : a View from the Sidelines

This policy brief considers the proposals to reduce bullying in Scotland's schools. A number of interventions have been introduced in Scotland’s schools that that place an emphasis on peer-initiated interventions. However these interventions often fail to consider the mental health and wellbeing of the pupils involved. The role of the so-called pupil 'bystander' is fundamentally misunderstood as these pupils often have multiple roles within ‘school yard’ culture. The lack of independently evaluated evidence on the success of direct pupil-initiated interventions to reduce the level of bullying in schools should be of concern to policymakers. A key recommendation is that schools, education authorities and policymakers pause, review the evidence and have an informed discussion about the most effective interventions to deliver safer schools in Scotland

Life without the Movius Line: The structure of the East and Southeast Asian Early Palaeolithic

© 2015 Elsevier Ltd and INQUA.The starting point of this paper is that the Movius Line is no longer an appropriate way of studying the Early Palaeolithic of East and Southeast Asia, and should be disregarded. Instead, it is argued that the Early Palaeolithic of East and Southeast Asia needs to be seen as comparable to that in the rest of Eurasia, rather than the product of an isolated backwater. Contra Movius, East Asia was not isolated throughout the entire Early and Middle Pleistocene, but open to immigration during interglacials, as is indicated by its fossil hominin record. As in Europe and Southwest Asia, both bifacial and non-biface assemblages are present in China and Korea, thus indicating the presence of an Acheulean component, although the lack of agreement over how the Acheulean should be defined creates difficulties in establishing its extent in Southeast Asia. Regarding non-biface assemblages, Zhoukoudian was an unfortunate choice of an East Asian site that lacked bifaces, as bifaces are also rare or absent in a number of caves in Southwest Asia and Europe. Additionally, the absence of bifaces in some sites is not convincingly demonstrated because of the small size of the lithic assemblage. Finally, the simple flake industries in Southeast Asia are likely contemporary with Upper Pleistocene, Middle Palaeolithic and microlithic assemblages in India rather than with Middle Pleistocene, Acheulean assemblages, as proposed by Movius

Developmental Students\u27 Perception of a First Year Learning Community

This project study was an evaluation of a first year learning community program for community college students enrolled in developmental coursework at a community college in California. The program had never been evaluated. The evaluation used learning community students\u27 and faculty members\u27 perception as a basis for evaluation, specifically concentrating on areas that promoted student success and areas that needed further refinement. Only former program participants and the program faculty members were eligible for the study. Of the 78 eligible participants, responses from 51 students and the 2 faculty members were collected. The theoretical framework was grounded in Tinto\u27s work with learning communities. Data for the evaluation were collected using surveys with open-ended questions as well as interviews with faculty. The qualitative analysis required theme identification using key words from the surveys and interviews. The results from the study indicated that the learning community provided a social support for student learning that was considered a strength for the program but that various elements of programming such as class scheduling and policies were considered areas needing improvement. The project evaluation resulted in an administrative evaluation report. The findings may be incorporated as recommendations for program improvements and documentation of best practices at the community college. The implication for positive social change is that other community colleges may be able to use the recommendations generated in the report to improve their learning community programs so that their students might be encouraged to persist towards degree completion

Equality works: how one race equality centre conceptualises, articulates and performs the idea of equality in Scotland

This thesis focuses on the Centre for Education for Racial Equality in Scotland (CERES), based in Edinburgh, which was funded by the Scottish Executive and Scottish Government to develop several programmes to promote equality in education. Drawing together the disparate approaches to anthropology of organisations, the methodology has included both a focus on a small core group of workers as well as the flow of the materials produced throughout a larger network. Rather than conduct fieldwork at various locations as network or policy studies emphasise, I chose to work for two years with CERES due to their geographic and creational centrality to the ‘mainstreaming equality’ initiative. Beginning at a time when questions of identity in Scotland flourished as a result of devolution, increased immigration and the UK publication of the Race Relations (Amendment) Act 2000, the mainstreaming equality projects signify the Scottish Executive’s attempt to uphold its duty of promoting race equality. CERES managed three of the seven funded mainstreaming equality projects. The production of these resources contributes to a campaign through which the Scottish Government has worked to reformulate understandings of what it means to be Scottish. This is achieved by drawing upon the myths of a new and egalitarian Scotland in order to displace the myth that there is no racism in Scotland. Within this context, the research’s central questions revolve around this creation in the stages undertaken at CERES. Examining the Centre’s daily tasks, this research demonstrates that although commissioned to contribute to the same overall initiative, the way in which CERES depicts equality is ultimately very different than the approaches developed within the government. The materials created by CERES, which unlike One Scotland, do not include national symbols, have engaged with the complexities of equality and discrimination more than the media campaigns yet have had a smaller audience. Once the idea is developed it encounters further manipulation, both physical in the case of teaching tools and ideological in working to make the identities included reflect Scotland through statistics and discussions of subjects already embedded in the national curriculum. From the vantage point of the creation process, this ethnography contributes to the anthropology of organisations and highlights the legal and policy negotiations undertaken across various levels of governance

Testing Change Ideas to Improve Permanence Timescales for Looked After Children : Experiences of the Two Week Planning Meeting

This report presents qualitative research undertaken in one of the Scottish local authorities involved in the Permanence and Care Excellence (PACE) programme. PACE was a national Quality Improvement programme underway from 2014-2020. Through this programme, CELCIS supported 27 of the 32 Scottish local authority partnerships to apply a Quality Improvement framework to their processes and practices in order to reduce timescales in providing a recommendation on where babies, children and young people should live permanently. Using qualitative methods to gather and analyse the views and experiences of the people involved, this research focused on the decisions, activities, and reporting that one local authority partnership undertook when testing a change idea within the PACE programme: Introducing a formal Looked After Child Review meeting at two weeks (‘two week planning meeting’). Alongside this, the report examines the impact of that test on professionals and processes within the local authority area

The Effects of Cognitive Stress on Asthma Exacerbations among University Students

Introduction: Many asthmatics complain of worsening respiratory symptoms during periods of stress.This study evaluated the relationship among asthma symptoms, lung physiology, inflammatory parametersand perceived cognitive stress and quality of life in healthy adult students. This relationship was assessedat two time points: a time of normal activity and at a time of cognitive stress during academic examinations. Methods: Subjects attended the University of Alberta Hospital for a screening visit, which included aclinical exam, spirometry, methacholine challenge, allergen skin tests to assess atopy status and MiniInternational Neuropsychiatric Interview (MINI). Eligible subjects returned for a low stress visit (LSV) atleast 14 days prior to an exam and a high stress visit (HSV) within 24 hours of an exam. Spirometry, andmethacholine challenge were performed during both LSV and HSV along with the collection of urine (testedfor cortisol), and the administration of 4 questionnaires to assess perceived stress and quality of life. Results: Subjects showed no significant change in psychosocial or quality of life questionnaires betweenLSV and HSV. No significant change was noted in lung function or urine cortisol. There was an unexpectedhigh rate of pre-existing psychiatric comorbidities in this population (based on the MINI screen failure rate).Conclusion: We did not find a significant change in quality of life, psychosocial wellbeing or pulmonaryfunction or inflammation, measured by urine cortisol, during a high stress period. The high rate ofcomorbidities would be important to consider as part of evaluation used in clinical asthma studies in the future

Challenging Homophobia Together - Research Report

As part of an 18- month European project funded by the European Commission, DG-Justice, the research component sought to gain an in-depth understanding of anti-homophobia bullying programmes in schools across the European Union, and barriers and facilitators faced when raising LGBT-inclusive lessons in each member state. The research report is a result of qualitative interviews with representatives from non-governmental organisations (NGOs) across 15 European countries and government departments in 11