‘Sons of athelings given to the earth’: Infant Mortality within Anglo-Saxon Mortuary Geography

FOR 20 OR MORE YEARS early Anglo-Saxon archaeologists have believed children are underrepresented in the cemetery evidence. They conclude that excavation misses small bones, that previous attitudes to reporting overlook the very young, or that infants and children were buried elsewhere. This is all well and good, but we must be careful of oversimplifying compound social and cultural responses to childhood and infant mortality. Previous approaches have offered methodological quandaries in the face of this under-representation. However, proportionally more infants were placed in large cemeteries and sometimes in specific zones. This trend is statistically significant and is therefore unlikely to result entirely from preservation or excavation problems. Early medieval cemeteries were part of regional mortuary geographies and provided places to stage events that promoted social cohesion across kinship systems extending over tribal territories. This paper argues that patterns in early Anglo-Saxon infant burial were the result of female mobility. Many women probably travelled locally to marry in a union which reinforced existing social networks. For an expectant mother, however, the safest place to give birth was with experience women in her maternal home. Infant identities were affected by personal and legal association with their mother’s parental kindred, so when an infant died in childbirth or months and years later, it was their mother’s identity which dictated burial location. As a result, cemeteries central to tribal identities became places to bury the sons and daughters of a regional tribal aristocracy

Missing data approaches in longitudinal studies of aging: A case example using the National Health and Aging Trends Study

Purpose Missing data is a key methodological consideration in longitudinal studies of aging. We described missing data challenges and potential methodological solutions using a case example describing five-year frailty state transitions in a cohort of older adults. Methods We used longitudinal data from the National Health and Aging Trends Study, a nationally-representative cohort of Medicare beneficiaries. We assessed the five components of the Fried frailty phenotype and classified frailty based on their number of components (robust: 0, prefrail: 1–2, frail: 3–5). One-, two-, and five-year frailty state transitions were defined as movements between frailty states or death. Missing frailty components were imputed using hot deck imputation. Inverse probability weights were used to account for potentially informative loss-to-follow-up. We conducted scenario analyses to test a range of assumptions related to missing data. Results Missing data were common for frailty components measured using physical assessments (walking speed, grip strength). At five years, 36% of individuals were lost-to-follow-up, differentially with respect to baseline frailty status. Assumptions for missing data mechanisms impacted inference regarding individuals improving or worsening in frailty. Conclusions Missing data and loss-to-follow-up are common in longitudinal studies of aging. Robust epidemiologic methods can improve the rigor and interpretability of aging-related research

Negative consequences associated with dependence in daily cannabis users

BACKGROUND: Cannabis is the most widely consumed illicit substance in America, with increasing rates of use. Some theorists tend to link frequency of use with cannabis dependence. Nevertheless, fewer than half of daily cannabis users meet DSM-IV-TR criteria for cannabis dependence. This study seeks to determine whether the negative aspects associated with cannabis use can be explained by a proxy measure of dependence instead of by frequency of use. RESULTS: Over 2500 adult daily cannabis users completed an Internet survey consisting of measures of cannabis and other drug use, in addition to measures of commonly reported negative problems resulting from cannabis use. We compared those who met a proxy measure of DSM-IV-TR criteria for cannabis dependence (N = 1111) to those who did not meet the criteria (N = 1770). Cannabis dependent subjects consumed greater amounts of cannabis, alcohol, and a variety of other drugs. They also had lower levels of motivation, happiness, and satisfaction with life, with higher levels of depression and respiratory symptoms. CONCLUSION: Although all of our subjects reported daily use, only those meeting proxy criteria for cannabis dependence reported significant associated problems. Our data suggest that dependence need not arise from daily use, but consuming larger amounts of cannabis and other drugs undoubtedly increases problems

Effects on the Acquisition of DRL-20 Performance of Propranolol or Isoproterenol Injected into the Basolateral Amygdala of Rats

The acquisition of DRL-20 performance by rats is significantly disrupted by 20 μg of propranolol and significantly improved by 37 μg of isoproterenol injected into the basolateral amygdala prior to each daily testing session. Autoradiography of [14C]propranolol injected into the basolateral amygdala indicates that the injected propranolol remains within 1 mm of the injection site. This suggests that the β-adrenergic receptors in the basolateral amygdala are somehow involved in the elimination of maladaptive behavior. </jats:p

II.—The Medieval Pottery Kilns at Laverstock, near Salisbury, Wiltshire

This medieval industry was operating one mile south-east of Salisbury at Nat. Grid Ref. SU/160298 (fig. 1). It lay in the Royal Forest of Clarendon, within which there are other hints of the medieval pottery industry. Medieval sherds from Laverstock were first reported by Mr. Frank Stevens in 1940 and in 1955 further finds made during levelling of land formerly used as allotments and from road work were brought into Salisbury Museum. The site was then examined, revealing a twelfth-century cesspit and two pits with pottery wasters of the thirteenth century (one associated with what is now identified as a potters' workshop) but still no kilns. The first kiln was found on a new road line in 1958 and further investigation was aided by a grant from the Ministry of Public Building and Works. During six months trial trenches were opened over 1½ acres; six kilns, two buildings, and eighteen pits (some of them twelfth century) were excavated. Another kiln was found in 1960, and two more in 1963 when a bank at the edge of Duck Lane was levelled, making nine kilns in all. Some were stratigraphically interrelated, and were also in sequence with some pits.</jats:p

Swelling of Rubber in Liquid and Vapor (Schroeder's Paradox)

Abstract Polymeric substances usually swell less when placed in the vapor of a liquid in a closed vessel than they do in the liquid itself. This is known as “Schroeder's Paradox”, and many attempts have been made to explain it. With lightly vulcanized rubber and carbon tetrachloride the paradoxical behavior is caused by small differences in temperature (of order 0.1° C) which exist under normal conditions between a liquid and its vapor in a closed vessel; the vapor is normally the warmer of the two. Strict temperature control abolishes the paradox.</jats:p