Subsistence intensification in the late prehistory of Manus

This thesis explores possible evidence of intensified production in the prehistory of Manus Province (Admiralty Islands), Papua New Guinea. This research aim draws on broader archaeological assumptions that changes in past subsistence are traceable through durable modifications of the landscape and often signal attempts to intensify production. To address this issue two examples of walled complexes, both constructed for subsistence production, are compared. On the small volcanic island of Baluan, walled garden enclosures cover the landscape while in the other, inhabitants of Andra constructed a nearly continuous barrier of walled fish traps along the reef edge. Three approaches were used to address these issues. The first is descriptive in that it documents through ethnographic interviews and field observations the physical structure, function and customary use of both walled complexes. Particular attention is given factors influencing yields, labor requirements and the consequences of capital investments, all considered significant in measuring intensified production. For Baluan, agricultural procedures and cycles are reconstructed as are the island's once pronounced and diverse assemblages of fruit and nut trees. For Andra, the walled trap complexes were one of 28 fishing methods known to be used by a specialized fishing community to exploit highly differentiated reef environments and their diverse fish populations. While the function of the walled traps are examined in detail, all 28 methods are also described. The second approach attempts to isolate and deduce phases of chronological and spatial development in these complexes, focusing primarily on their establishment, expansion and the possible intensification of their structural capacities. On Baluan analyses examine a sample of 736 walled enclosures while, for Andra, the sample included 221 walled fish traps visible on aerial photographs and 47 mapped examples. The third approach emphasizes the environmental and social context of these developments as they can provide the impetus for production increases or present limitation to these efforts. Several common elements emerged from comparisons between these two, almost contrasting, walled complexes. Customary use and the structural histories of the complexes suggest that competition over the allocation of resources was of greater significance in their development than attempts to increase production. Underscored is the value, in similar circumstances, of considering the organizational aspects of production in explaining these developments instead of focusing solely or primarily on issues of production increases or labor requirements. In both cases, pressures on production were expressed most strongly at the level of the household, a trend reflected in the replication of individual forms that constitute the complexes. Although neither complex appears to strongly and directly express the process of intensification, evidence suggests that both were components in a larger trend in which production as a whole was intensifying and becoming more concentrated. These results serve as reminders that the most archaeologically visible components of subsistence may not represent production prominence or precisely mark significant phases of intensification

Survey of Lava Tubes in the Former Puna Forest Reserve and on Adjacent State of Hawaii Lands

This study was initiated after members of the Puna community brought to the attention of the Historic Preservation Office that major lava tube systems extended from the Pahoa area into at least portions of the former Puna Forest Reserve. They were concerned that planned geothermal exploration and development could damage these lava tubes which they said contained extensive evidence of past Hawaiian use including fortifications, shrines, platforms and burials. Geothermal development is currently being planned by Campbell Estate and True Geothermal Energy Company in the southern portion of the former Reserve which has been designated by the State of Hawaii as one of the three Geothermal Sub-Zones in Puna. To demonstrate these claims, two staff members of the Historic Sites Section were shown examples in a lava tube makai of the Campbell Estate boundary. After reviewing the archaeological and historical reports commissioned for geothermal exploration, it was agreed that if these lava tubes did extend inland and continued to contain archaeological sites or burials then the potential of significant sub-surface sites had not been adequately addressed in the Historic Sites Section review process. Most reports acknowledged the possibility of lava tubes in the area and that they could contain burials, but no tube systems were ever identified or explored during any of the field surveys. These surveys primarily assessed the presence or absence of cultural properties that occur on the surface or as deposits within the soil layer. With the assistance of the Division of Water Resource Management (DWRM), the Historic Sites Section agreed to conduct this survey because those community members who came forward requested that this information be handled by a neutral party. They asked that documentation occur in such a manner that it could be kept as confidential as possible while still providing enough information to protect any sites from damage. The survey had three major aims. The first was to establish whether or not the lava tubes continued into the land now held by Campbell Estate or the Geothermal Sub-Zone. The second was to assess the extent to which any lava tube systems found contained archaeological remains or burials and, if so, to evaluate their general significance. The third was to define, if possible, any patterns in the distribution of the lava tube systems or the archaeological remains within them. Such patterns can allow general predictions to be made about which areas are most likely to have similar tube systems with significant archaeological sites. This is of particular importance in this region where large portions of the former Forest Reserve and the Geothermal Sub-Zone have not been inspected, and conducting extensive surveys is extremely difficult because of dense vegetation, hazardous conditions and poor ground visibility. One of the authors (Stone) has a background in Hawaiian lava tube biology, so we were able to include a preliminary survey of the invertebrate fauna found in these underground ecosystems

Vulnerability of Newborns to Environmental Factors: Findings from Community Based Surveillance Data in Bangladesh

Infection is the major cause of neonatal deaths. Home born newborns in rural Bangladeshi communities are exposed to environmental factors increasing their vulnerability to a number of disease agents that may compromise their health. The current analysis was conducted to assess the association of very severe disease (VSD) in newborns in rural communities with temperature, rainfall, and humidity. A total of 12,836 newborns from rural Sylhet and Mirzapur communities were assessed by trained community health workers using a sign based algorithm. Records of temperature, humidity, and rainfall were collected from the nearest meteorological stations. Associations between VSD and environmental factors were estimated. Incidence of VSD was found to be associated with higher temperatures (odds ratios: 1.14, 95% CI: 1.08 to 1.21 in Sylhet and 1.06, 95% CI: 1.04 to 1.07 in Mirzapur) and heat humidity index (odds ratios: 1.06, 95% CI: 1.04 to 1.08 in Sylhet and, 1.03, 95% CI: 1.01 to 1.04 in Mirzapur). Four months (June–September) in Sylhet, and six months in Mirzapur (April–September) had higher odds ratios of incidence of VSD as compared to the remainder of the year (odds ratios: 1.72, 95% CI: 1.32 to 2.23 in Sylhet and, 1.62, 95% CI: 1.33 to 1.96 in Mirzapur). Prevention of VSD in neonates can be enhanced if these interactions are considered in health intervention strategies

Study protocol: healthy urban living and ageing in place (HULAP): an international, mixed methods study examining the associations between physical activity, built and social environments for older adults the UK and Brazil

Abstract Background The ability to ‘age in place’ is dependent on a range of inter-personal, social and built environment attributes, with the latter being a key area for potential intervention. There is an emerging body of evidence that indicates the type of built environment features that may best support age friendly communities, but there is a need to expand and consolidate this, while generating a better understanding of how on how research findings can be most effectively be translated in to policy and practice. Methods The study is based on two case study cities, Curtiba (Brazil) and Belfast (UK), which have highly contrasting physical, social and policy environments. The study deploys a mix methods approach, mirrored in each city. This includes the recruitment of 300 participants in each city to wear GPS and accelerometers, a survey capturing physical functioning and other personal attributes, as well as their perception of their local environment using NEWS-A. The study will also measure the built environments of the cities using GIS and develop a tool for auditing the routes used by participants around their neighbourhoods. The study seeks to comparatively map the policy actors and resources involved in healthy ageing in the two cities through interviews, focus groups and discourse analysis. Finally, the study has a significant knowledge exchange component, including the development of a tool to assess the capacities of both researchers and research users to maximise the impact of the research findings. Discussion The HULAP study has been designed and implemented by a multi-disciplinary team and integrates differing methodologies to purposefully impact on policy and practice on healthy ageing in high and low-middle income countries. It has particular strengths in its combination of objective and self-reported measures using validated tools and the integration of GPS, accelerometer and GIS data to provide a robust assessment of ‘spatial energetics’. The strong knowledge exchange strand means that the study is expected to also contribute to our understanding of how to maximise research impact in this field and create effective evidence for linking older adult’s physical activity with the social, built and policy environments

Trace metal distribution in the bed, bank and suspended sediment of the Ravensbourne River and its implication for sediment monitoring in an urban river

Purpose This study aims to identify a suitable sediment compartment for sediment quality monitoring by: (a) studying the concentration of trace metals (Cd, Cu, Ni, Pb and Zn) in the bed, bank and suspended sediment compartments of the Ravensbourne River to establish any differences in trace metal concentrations with compartment; (b) determining the influence of sediment particle size fractions ( 0.05) in the concentrations of metals between the suspended sediment and the < 63 μm bed sediment fraction, but there was a significant difference (p < 0.05) between the suspended sediment and the < 63 μm bank sediment fraction. There were also significant differences between the concentrations of metals in the < 63 μm and the 63 μm–2 mm fractions. Generally, the Ravensbourne River did not comply with the draft UK sediment quality guidelines for the metals analysed. Conclusions This study shows the importance of identifying a suitable sediment compartment to sample for compliance with sediment quality standards. The bed and suspended sediments are the most widely used sediment compartments for sediment monitoring, but collecting sufficient mass of the < 63 μm sediment fraction for monitoring presents a challenge for urban gravel bed rivers like the Ravensbourne River. It seems appropriate to establish individual monitoring regimes for different rivers

Survey of lava tubes in the former Puna Forest Reserve on adjacent State of Hawaii lands

This study was initiated after members of the Puna community brought to the attention of the Historic Preservation Office that major lava tube systems extended from the Pahoa area into at least portions of the former Puna Forest Reserve. They were concerned that planned geothermal exploration and development could damage these lava tubes which they said contained extensive evidence of past Hawaiian use including fortifications, shrines, platforms and burials. Geothermal development is currently being planned by Campbell Estate and True Geothermal Energy Company in the southern portion of the former Reserve which has been designated by the State of Hawaii as one of the three Geothermal Sub-Zones in Puna

Endemic cattle diseases : comparative epidemiology and governance

Cattle are infected by a community of endemic pathogens with different epidemiological properties which invoke different managerial and governmental responses. We present characteristics of pathogens that influence their ability to persist in the UK, and describe a qualitative framework of factors that influence the political response to a livestock disease. We develop simple transmission models for three pathogens (bovine viral diarrhoea virus, bovine herpesvirus and Mycobacterium avium spp paratuberculosis) using observed cattle movements, and compare the outcomes to an extensive dataset. The results demonstrate that the epidemiology of the three pathogens is determined by different aspects of within and between farm processes, which has economic, legal and political implications for control. We consider how these pathogens, and Mycobacterium bovis (the agent of bovine tuberculosis), may be classified by the process by which they persist and by their political profile. We further consider the dynamic interaction of these classifications with pathogen prevalence and with the action taken by government

The impact of different accounting reporting methods on the informativeness of research and development costs: IFRS compared to U.S. GAAP

In this paper, we examine the information content and value relevance of research and development (R&D) costs before and after the SEC eliminated the 20-F reconciliation to U.S. GAAP for Foreign Public Issuers (FPIs). Prior to the elimination both FPIs and U.S. firms experienced an increase in the indirect effect of R&D on operating income. After the requirement was eliminated, the direct effect increased for FPIs and the indirect effect decreased. This is in contrast to U.S. firms who experienced a continued increase in the indirect effect. This shift indicates there was a loss of informativeness in the R&D disclosures for FPIs

Large-scale virtual screening experiments on Windows Azure-based cloud resources

Molecular docking simulations have high potential to contribute to a wide area of molecular and biomedical research in various disciplines including molecular biology, drug design, environmental studies and psychology. Conducting large-scale molecular docking experiments requires a vast amount of computing resources. Several types of distributed computing infrastructures have been investigated and utilized recently to conduct such simulations, including service and desktop grid systems or local clusters. This paper investigates and analyses how Windows Azure-based cloud resources can be applied for this purpose. A virtual screening experiment framework has been implemented on a Windows Azure-based cloud using the generic worker concept. Virtual machines can be instantiated in the cloud on demand scaling up the simulations based on the volume of molecules to be docked and the available financial resources. Bioscientists are able to execute the simulations and visualise the results from a high-level user interface. The paper describes the experiences when implementing the molecular docking application on this novel platform and provides the first benchmarking experiments to evaluate the suitability of the infrastructure for computation intensive simulations