Is it Human? Engaging in the academic and forensic applications of Zooarchaeology

Zooarchaeology is the study and identification of animal skeletal remains and their relationship with human interaction. It is a heavily methodologically based, world-wide discipline that can be uniquely tailored to the context and research question of the archaeological site/region under review. It requires a significant amount of hands-on training in order to identify bone fragments to the most specific species level and element possible using the size, shape, and density of the remains. When expanding the analyst’s view to the other variables that can be considered, measures such as burning, cut marks, tooth marks, and fracture types can build a larger picture of human relationships with animals in the environment. While looking at faunal analysis through this lens, zooarchaeology falls into a more traditional archaeological application of using animal bones to help reconstruct past environments. By shifting to a more modern context, though, species identification is an invaluable skill used to differentiate human from non-human bones in forensic contexts. This can quickly help determine the forensic significance of a set of remains and whether further recovery is necessary. While most zooarchaeologists are capable of basic species identification, many are not trained in human osteology and require further education to better round out their available skillset when in the field as educators, consultants, and researchers. This poster will focus on two case studies on the different applications of zooarchaeological techniques in archaeology and forensics. The archaeological case study will examine the faunal remains from site 48PA551, located in the Sunlight Basin of Northwest Wyoming, dated to the Middle Archaic period (ca. 3800-4400 radiocarbon years BP). This includes a discussion of the variables analyzed and some general conclusions about human interactions with the environment based on the faunal data. The forensic case study will review a case presented to the University of Montana Forensic Anthropology Lab (UMFAL) in 2017 involving comingled human and animal remains and the ability to provide law enforcement with a well-rounded biological profile and forensic report based on the ability to identify the faunal remains more specifically than non-human and not of forensic significance. At a university that has one of the largest comparative collections of North American animals in the country, the Philip L. Wright Zoological Museum (UMZM), and the availability of a human osteological collection, the University of Montana Forensic Collection (UMFC) housed with the anthropology department, the ability to teach and provide technical lab training for both undergraduate and graduate students alike is a real possibility. Further engagement in both the law enforcement and archaeological communities could provide students with abundant opportunities to learn widely marketable, interdisciplinary lab skills using biology, zoology, anatomy, and anthropology not available at many higher education institutions across the country

Shared Governance Council: Improving Staff and Patient Satisfaction

Due to the decreased staff and patient satisfaction on one post-operative unit, the author has developed a project plan to establish a unit specific Self Governance (SG) committee to improve staff and patient satisfaction. One SG committee and two councils will be formed giving all staff the opportunity to be a voice for change on their unit. The committee is focused on building and maintaining each council. One council will focus on staff satisfaction and one council will focus on patient satisfaction. The progress and outcomes of each committee and council will be evaluated in three ways: staff surveys, patient surveys, and data pulled from the patient charting systems. The cost for this SG project is less than $5,000 each year. Benefits of a successful SG include increased staff retention, staff knowledge, patient outcomes. If successful, this SG project can lay the foundation for SG throughout the entire hospital system

HUMAN VS. NON-HUMAN BONE: A NON-DESTRUCTIVE HISTOLOGICAL METHOD

Species identification is one of the first steps in the analysis of bone fragments in both forensic and archaeological contexts. Current methods for human vs. non-human taxa identification include morphoscopic, histological, and DNA analyses in order to determine forensic significance and assess what is present in an assemblage. This study will use an MA1000 AmScope camera microscope to examine the longitudinally fractured surface of cortical bone fragments to gauge if non-destructive taxa identification is possible from fragmentary remains without morphologically identifying features. This method is testing for a notable difference in human vs. bovid vs. cervid endosteal cortical bone without the use of destructive, histological cross-sections. The results of this study show there is a statistically significant association with positive bone identification between taxa, an accuracy measure of 65.6% for all taxonomic groups, 96.2% accuracy of identifying human bone correctly, and 7.9% misidentification of non-human bone as human. Expanding further on these results have implications for both forensic and archaeological contexts as an affordable, non-destructive analysis of fragments of various sizes when morphological identification isn’t possible

Crocodylian head width allometry and phylogenetic prediction of body size in extinct crocodyliforms

Body size and body-size shifts broadly impact life-history parameters of all animals, which has made accurate body-size estimates for extinct taxa an important component of understanding their paleobiology. Among extinct crocodylians and their precursors (e.g., suchians), several methods have been developed to predict body size from suites of hard-tissue proxies. Nevertheless, many have limited applications due to the disparity of some major suchian groups and biases in the fossil record. Here, we test the utility of head width (HW) as a broadly applicable body-size estimator in living and fossil suchians. We use a dataset of sexually mature male and female individuals

Lower Rotational Inertia and Larger Leg Muscles Indicate More Rapid Turns in Tyrannosaurids Than in Other Large Theropods

Synopsis: Tyrannosaurid dinosaurs had large preserved leg muscle attachments and low rotational inertia relative to their body mass, indicating that they could turn more quickly than other large theropods. Methods: To compare turning capability in theropods, we regressed agility estimates against body mass, incorporating superellipse-based modeled mass, centers of mass, and rotational inertia (mass moment of inertia). Muscle force relative to body mass is a direct correlate of agility in humans, and torque gives potential angular acceleration. Agility scores therefore include rotational inertia values divided by proxies for (1) muscle force (ilium area and estimates of m. caudofemoralis longus cross-section), and (2) musculoskeletal torque. Phylogenetic ANCOVA (phylANCOVA) allow assessment of differences in agility between tyrannosaurids and non-tyrannosaurid theropods (accounting for both ontogeny and phylogeny). We applied conditional error probabilities a(p) to stringently test the null hypothesis of equal agility. Results: Tyrannosaurids consistently have agility index magnitudes twice those of allosauroids and some other theropods of equivalent mass, turning the body with both legs planted or pivoting over a stance leg. PhylANCOVA demonstrates definitively greater agilities in tyrannosaurids, and phylogeny explains nearly all covariance. Mass property results are consistent with those of other studies based on skeletal mounts, and between different figure-based methods (our main mathematical slicing procedures, lofted 3D computer models, and simplified graphical double integration). Implications: The capacity for relatively rapid turns in tyrannosaurids is ecologically intriguing in light of their monopolization of large (\u3e400 kg), toothed dinosaurian predator niches in their habitats

The Lantern, 2011-2012

• Frangipani • A Shadow • Dear Anne, In this Place, Stringbean Girls • Back to a Dandelion • How to Plant a Room • Swimming Pool Poem 30 • The Naming of Daughters • Berman Museum Photographs • Truth or Dare • The Song of Remembrance, L\u27vov, Poland, 1940 • Headlights • Prayer of Thanks • Numbers Game • Pediment • Home Sick • Lust • Sand Lining Instructions • A-A-Ask a Question • Flash Cards • Columbus Day • Mr. Yoest Gives His Report to the Police Officers on Wednesday Night • Gender Trouble • The Internet Connection at Ursinus College • Assuming You\u27ll Still be Here • 10/28/11, Third Poem • October • Actions that Affirm and Confirm Us as a Community • Why I Hate The Lantern • Confessions of an Ex-Vegetarian • Run • Lunch at Caltort • Schemers • You Will Make Beautiful Babies in America • The Black Dirt Region • Il Travatore • Ghost Story • Blue Eyes and Sunny Skies • A Little Sincerity • The Bookstore • The Opposite of Serendipity • The Human Doll • Evil Deeds • Francesca • Sunday Morning • Jersey Aesthetic • Jump! • Behind Reimert • Seaweed in New Zealand • Tombee de L\u27elegance • The Window • Esperando • Rainbow to the Heavens • Encased • In Springtime • A Fiesolan Monk\u27s Room • Inside a Bone • Neon Indian • Moments of Clarity • OneFeral: A Feral Self-Portrait • Cover Image: The Conquerorhttps://digitalcommons.ursinus.edu/lantern/1177/thumbnail.jp

Event activity dependence of Y (nS) production in √sNN = 5.02 TeV pPb and √s = 2.76 TeV pp collisions

Peer reviewe

Evidence for the 125 GeV Higgs boson decaying to a pair of tau leptons

A search for a standard model Higgs boson decaying into a pair of τ leptons is performed using events recorded by the CMS experiment at the LHC in 2011 and 2012. The dataset corresponds to an integrated luminosity of 4.9 fb −1 at a centre-of-mass energy of 7 TeV and 19.7 fb −1 at 8 TeV. Each τ lepton decays hadronically or leptonically to an electron or a muon, leading to six different final states for the τ -lepton pair, all considered in this analysis. An excess of events is observed over the expected background contributions, with a local significance larger than 3 standard deviations for m H values between 115 and 130 GeV. The best fit of the observed H → τ τ signal cross section times branching fraction for m H = 125 GeV is 0 . 78 ± 0 . 27 times the standard model expectation. These observations constitute evidence for the 125 GeV Higgs boson decaying to a pair of τ leptons