Modeling Prehistoric Health in the Middle Cumberland Region of Tennessee: Mississippian Populations on the Threshold of Collapse

This research explores differences in mortality and survivorship resulting from factors associated with the abandonment of the Middle Cumberland Region (MCR) of Tennessee during the Mississippian period (ca. 1000-1500 AD). My dissertation investigates whether individuals from the Late Mississippian period had a greater risk of death than individuals from the Early Mississippian period. Adult age-at-death estimates (n=545) were calculated using Transition Analysis, a Bayesian maximum likelihood method. Gompertz and Gompertz-Makeham hazard models were utilized to reconstruct the mortality profile of the MCR as they model human adult mortality and generate robust parametric mortality profiles. Rather than recount the prevalence of disease conditions, this project uses MCR skeletal data to understand the biological, social, and ecological processes that positioned some individuals in the community with a greater risk of death than others. To this end, biological markers of childhood physiological stress and poor dental health, skeletal evidence of warfare-related trauma, and paleoclimate data were analyzed as health co-variates in a series of Kaplan-Meier survival analyses and log-rank tests. The paleodemographic results suggest that survivorship did not simply decrease with age. Marked differences between the sexes indicate that females had increased mortality compared to males. Survivorship of males decreased sharply from the Early Mississippian to Late Mississippian period, possibly due to elevated rates of conflict. On the whole, mortality was elevated in the Late Mississippian period compared to the Early Mississippian period. Paleoepidemiological results demonstrate that risk of death was not uniform across the MCR during the Mississippian period. While some findings support traditional interpretations that the presence of certain conditions (porotic hyperostosis, carious lesions, skeletal trauma) had a negative impact on survivorship, results for linear enamel hypoplasias, dental abscesses, and antemortem tooth loss offer support for the osteological paradox

Upgrading UNLV\u27s ASTM E477 Test Facility to Meet the Current Standards of ASTM E477

A by-product of Heating, Ventilation, and Air-conditioning (HVAC) systems is noise that is produced by fans, compressors, and other related equipments and the noises from the turbulence that is created by moving air. Sometimes, it is impractical to modify the sources of the noise, which requires designers to modify the path of the noise, the duct system. These modifications might include installing an in-duct silencer or acoustical lining on the inside walls of the ducts. The testing and the precise quantification of the performance of these silencers and duct linings are necessary for any designer to be able to make the correct modifications to the ventilation system. The ASTM E477 code calls for strict standardization of the testing of such noise attenuation devices. The ASTM E477 test facility used by the Center for Mechanical & Environmental Systems Technology (CMEST) at UNLV was first constructed in 1991 and required upgrades to meet the newer revisions of the ASTM code. This study includes making modifications to the facility (1) to increase sound input, (2) reduce sound leakage, and (3) to integrate the measurement systems. These upgrades will bring the facility into compliance with the current version of the ASTM E477 test standard

Transnational Crossroads

The twentieth century was a time of unprecedented migration and interaction for Asian, Latin American, and Pacific Islander cultures in the Americas and the American Pacific. Some of these ethnic groups already had historic ties, but technology, migration, and globalization during the twentieth century brought them into even closer contact. Transnational Crossroads explores and triangulates for the first time the interactions and contacts among these three cultural groups that were brought together by the expanding American empire from 1867 to 1950. Through a comparative framework, this volume weaves together narratives of U.S. and Spanish empire, globalization, resistance, and identity, as well as social, labor, and political movements. Contributors examine multiethnic celebrities and key figures, migratory paths, cultural productions, and social and political formations among these three groups. Engaging multiple disciplines and methodologies, these studies of Asian American, Latin American, and Pacific Islander cultural interactions explode traditional notions of ethnic studies and introduce new approaches to transnational and comparative studies of the Americas and the American Pacific

Carotid Artery Modeling Using the Navier-Stokes Equations for an Incompressible, Newtonian and Axisymmetric Flow

AbstractThis paper describes two-dimensional (2D) structural and hemodynamics model of the carotid artery and its bifurcation using computational software (CS). The Arbitrary Lagrangian Eulerian (ALE), which was introduced in a finite element system, was utilized as a numerical technique. The structural modeling of the carotid arteries about the bifurcation area was constructed from computed tomography (CT) scans using computer-aided design (CAD) and the Lagrangian formulation was used for the structural domain. The blood was considered as an incompressible Newtonian fluid, and Eulerian reference was applied for its domain. Coupling of the reference systems was carried out on arbitrary computational grid permitting numerical modeling of hemodynamics as governed by 2D axially symmetric incompressible Navier-Stokes equations (NSE). The results for hemodynamic simulations were compared with the physiological blood velocity obtained using the Doppler ultrasound instrument

Сравнительный анализ сосудистой жесткости в трех этнических популяциях практически здоровых лиц (греческой, южноафриканской и белорусской) по данным скорости распространения пульсовой волны

кровеносные сосудыпульсэтнические групп