Striking out and digging in: A bioarchaeological perspective on the impacts of the Wari expansion on populations in the Peruvian central highlands.

The Wari empire emerged near the present day city of Ayacucho, Peru around AD 600 and collapsed approximately 400 years later. There is no doubt that Wari influence was widespread in the Andes; however, the extent to which the empire successfully integrated regional territories is not as well understood. This study examined the impact of the rise and fall of the Wari empire on the structure of interaction between populations hypothesized to have been within its sphere of influence. The relative frequencies of cranial non-metric traits were used to explore biological affinities among 17 populations that lived during and after the Wari empire. The samples include populations from regions with archaeological evidence of Wari influence. A basic premise of this study is that the economic, ideological, and political goals of the Wari created a cultural horizon that would have increased contact between regional populations that would in turn lead to gene flow and patterned differences in biological affinities between groups. On a large scale results indicated that the Wari empire did not have a significant impact on gene flow in the central Andes. However, several suggestive patterns were observed when the data were examined on the smaller regional scale. The mechanisms by which Wari influence spread within and between regions is not easily understood and consistency in ideology could be mistaken for similarity in social action and interaction. Biological distance analyses of regional populations were a useful proxy for unraveling the complex pattern of social interactions required to transmit the consistent Wari ideology that characterized the Middle Horizon. Results of this study support hypotheses regarding a strong relationship between the Wari and Nasca, add new detail to the current understanding of interaction within the Nazca Valley during the height of the Wari empire, find little evidence of intensive interaction between the Wari and populations in the north-central highlands, and suggest that dualistic social organization documented by Spanish chroniclers truly has a deep history in the Andes. The findings of this study are illustrative of the multivariate and unpredictable nature of imperial expansion

An updated model of rural hospital financial distress

PURPOSE: To create a model that predicts future financial distress among rural hospitals. METHODS: The sample included 14,116 yearly observations of 2311 rural hospitals recorded between 2013 and 2019. We randomly separated all sampled hospitals into a training set and test set at the start of our analysis. We used hospital financial performance, government reimbursement, organizational traits, and market characteristics to predict a given hospital's risk of experiencing one of three financial distress outcomes-negative cash flow margin, negative equity, or closure. FINDINGS: The model's area under the receiver operating characteristic curve (AUC) equaled 0.87 within the test set, indicating good predictive ability. We classified 30.55% of the observations in our sample as lowest risk of experiencing financial distress over the next 2 years. In comparison, we classified 32.52% of observations as mid-lowest risk of distress, 26.40% of observations as mid-highest risk, and 10.52% of observations as highest risk. Among test set observations classified as lowest-risk, 5.78% experienced negative cash flow margin within 2 years, 1.50% experienced negative equity within 2 years, and zero observations experienced closure within 2 years. Within the highest-risk group, 61.57% of observations experienced negative cash flow margin, 43.02% experienced negative equity, and 3.33% experienced closure. CONCLUSIONS: Given the ongoing challenges and consequences of rural hospital unprofitability, there is a clear need for accurate assessments of financial distress risk. The financial distress model can be used by researchers, policymakers, and rural health advocates as a screening tool to identify at-risk rural hospitals for closer monitoring

A Comparative Analysis of Mortuary and Domestic Artifacts from Petra’s North Ridge

Interpreting the use of material culture in mortuary contexts provides an intimate view of the social identity of both the deceased and the mourners in ancient societies. However, the material remains of mortuary practices throughout the Nabataean Kingdom (3rd century BC – 2nd century AD) have not been sufficiently investigated. Qualitative and quantitative comparisons of the material culture between contemporary mortuary and domestic contexts will establish a preliminary characterization of uniquely mortuary material culture and highlight objects that have a dual purpose within both spaces. This study focuses on the small finds from occupational or mortuary layers from at least four domestic complexes and five rock-cut shaft chamber tombs located on Petra’s North Ridge dating to the 2nd century BC to the 2nd century AD. Through quantitative and qualitative analyses of the small finds, we found that jewelry items, grinding stones, spindle whorls, figurines, coins, lamps, and lids were found in both contexts, but these artifact types may be more abundant in one context than another. Alternatively, game pieces, scarabs, incense altars, votive carvings and coffin studs are specific to mortuary contexts, while pestles, spindles, and spoons were solely found in domestic contexts. Therefore, this research will provide insight into the social organization and identity of the community living on the North Ridge and shed light on Nabatean views of death, mourning, and the treatment of the deceased

Pure Anderson Motives and Abelian \tau-Sheaves

Pure t-motives were introduced by G. Anderson as higher dimensional generalizations of Drinfeld modules, and as the appropriate analogs of abelian varieties in the arithmetic of function fields. In order to construct moduli spaces for pure t-motives the second author has previously introduced the concept of abelian \tau-sheaf. In this article we clarify the relation between pure t-motives and abelian \tau-sheaves. We obtain an equivalence of the respective quasi-isogeny categories. Furthermore, we develop the elementary theory of both structures regarding morphisms, isogenies, Tate modules, and local shtukas. The later are the analogs of p-divisible groups.Comment: final version as it appears in Mathematische Zeitschrif

Making and Sharing the Commons: Reimagining ‘the West’ as Riverlands, Sydney through a Dialogue between Design and Ethnography

Scholars from the social sciences and humanities are increasingly seeking to improve the relevance and social impact of their research beyond the academy. In this context, ‘designerly’ thinking and methods are being drawn on to inform social change agendas, and a range of new relationships and collaborations are forming around this node of activity. This article critically reflects on this trajectory through a dialogue between ethnography, design and theoretical principles from anthropology and human geography

GM crops and gender issues

Correspondence in the December issue by Jonathan Gressel not only states that gender issues in rural settings have not been adequately addressed with respect to weed control biotech but also asserts that such technology can increase the quality of life of rural women in developing countries. Improved weed control is a labor-saving technology that can result in less employment in a labor surplus rural economy. Often in rural areas, wage income is the main source of income and an important determinant of the quality of life, particularly where employment opportunities are generally limited. Apart from soil preparation, planting and weeding, harvesting is also 'femanual' work that can generate more employment if yields are higher. Biotech can enhance the quality of life of women but only if the technology is associated with overall generation of rural employment

‘It stays with you’: multiple evocative representations of dance and future possibilities for studies in sport and physical cultures

This article considers the integration of arts-based representations via poetic narratives together with artistic representation on dancing embodiment so as to continue an engagement with debates regarding multiple forms/representations. Like poetry, visual images are unique and can evoke particular kinds of emotional and visceral responses, meaning that alternative representational forms can resonate in different and powerful ways. In the article, we draw on grandparent-grandchild interactions, narrative poetry, and artistic representations of dance in order to illustrate how arts-based methods might synergise to offer new ways of ‘knowing’ and ‘seeing’. The expansion of the visual arts into interdisciplinary methodological innovations is a relatively new, and sometimes contentious approach, in studies of sport and exercise. We raise concerns regarding the future for more arts-based research in the light of an ever-changing landscape of a neoliberal university culture that demands high productivity in reductionist terms of what counts as ‘output’, often within very restricted time-frames. Heeding feminist calls for ‘slow academies’ that attempt to ‘change’ time collectively, and challenge the demands of a fast-paced audit culture, we consider why it is worth enabling creative and arts-based methods to continue to develop and flourish in studies of sport, exercise and health, despite the mounting pressures to ‘perform’

Scaling Behaviour and Complexity of the Portevin-Le Chatelier Effect

The plastic deformation of dilute alloys is often accompanied by plastic instabilities due to dynamic strain aging and dislocation interaction. The repeated breakaway of dislocations from and their recapture by solute atoms leads to stress serrations and localized strain in the strain controlled tensile tests, known as the Portevin-Le Chatelier (PLC) effect. In this present work, we analyse the stress time series data of the observed PLC effect in the constant strain rate tensile tests on Al-2.5%Mg alloy for a wide range of strain rates at room temperature. The scaling behaviour of the PLC effect was studied using two complementary scaling analysis methods: the finite variance scaling method and the diffusion entropy analysis. From these analyses we could establish that in the entire span of strain rates, PLC effect showed Levy walk property. Moreover, the multiscale entropy analysis is carried out on the stress time series data observed during the PLC effect to quantify the complexity of the distinct spatiotemporal dynamical regimes. It is shown that for the static type C band, the entropy is very low for all the scales compared to the hopping type B and the propagating type A bands. The results are interpreted considering the time and length scales relevant to the effect.Comment: 35 pages, 6 figure

Fandom, food, and folksonomies: The methodological realities of studying fun life-contexts

As Library and Information Science research has evolved, new domains of interest have shaped the field, and with them comes a need to question the appropriateness of applying traditional methodologies to these new domains. This panel focuses on the methodological realities of studying fun life-contexts and will address how researching a new domain comes with challenges and opportunities. The group of scholars on this panel all share an appreciation for identifying and exploring the unique information experiences within fun life-contexts, and engage with a variety of subfields, including information behavior, information organization, embodied information, and fan communities. This interactive panel will consist of five short presentations from each of the panelists and a moderated Q&A led by moderator, Jenna Hartel. The panelists each share some examples of their recent work studying fun life-contexts, reflect on their experience researching in a new domain, and develop themes and questions that should be addressed in future work