New Archaeozoological Data from the Fayum “Neolithic” with a Critical Assessment of the Evidence for Early Stock Keeping in Egypt

Faunal evidence from the Fayum Neolithic is often cited in the framework of early stock keeping in Egypt. However, the data suffer from a number of problems. In the present paper, large faunal datasets from new excavations at Kom K and Kom W (4850-4250 BC) are presented. They clearly show that, despite the presence of domesticates, fish predominate in the animal bone assemblages. In this sense, there is continuity with the earlier Holocene occupation from the Fayum, starting ca. 7350 BC. Domesticated plants and animals appear first from approximately 5400 BC. The earliest possible evidence for domesticates in Egypt are the very controversial domesticated cattle from the 9th/8th millennium BC in the Nabta Playa-Bir Kiseiba area. The earliest domesticates found elsewhere in Egypt date to the 6th millennium BC. The numbers of bones are generally extremely low at this point in time and only caprines are present. From the 5th millennium BC, the numbers of sites with domesticates dramatically increase, more species are also involved and they are usually represented by significant quantities of bones. The data from the Fayum reflect this two phase development, with very limited evidence for domesticates in the 6th millennium BC and more abundant and clearer indications in the 5th millennium BC. Any modelling of early food production in Egypt suffers from poor amounts of data, bias due to differential preservation and visibility of sites and archaeological remains, and a lack of direct dates for domesticates. In general, however, the evidence for early stock keeping and accompanying archaeological features shows large regional variation and seems to be mainly dependent on local environmental conditions. The large numbers of fish at Kom K and Kom W reflect the proximity of Lake Qarun

Association of Diabetes in Pregnancy with Child Weight at Birth, Age 12 Months and 5 Years – A Population-Based Electronic Cohort Study

This study examines the effect of diabetes in pregnancy on offspring weight at birth and ages 1 and 5 years.A population-based electronic cohort study using routinely collected linked healthcare data. Electronic medical records provided maternal diabetes status and offspring weight at birth and ages 1 and 5 years (n = 147,773 mother child pairs). Logistic regression models were used to obtain odds ratios to describe the association between maternal diabetes status and offspring size, adjusted for maternal pre-pregnancy weight, age and smoking status.We identified 1,250 (0.9%) pregnancies with existing diabetes (27.8% with type 1 diabetes), 1,358 with gestational diabetes (0.9%) and 635 (0.4%) who developed diabetes post-pregnancy. Children whose mothers had existing diabetes were less likely to be large at 12 months (OR: 0.7 (95%CI: 0.6, 0.8)) than those without diabetes. Maternal diabetes was associated with high weight at age 5 years in children whose mothers had a high pre-pregnancy weight tertile (gestational diabetes, (OR:2.1 (95%CI:1.25-3.6)), existing diabetes (OR:1.3 (95%CI:1.0 to 1.6)).The prevention of childhood obesity should focus on mothers with diabetes with a high maternal pre-pregnancy weight. We found little evidence that diabetes in pregnancy leads to long term obesity 'programming'

An analysis of the quality of investigative interviews with children in France: age of the witness does matter

International audienceA context-driven analysis was performed to assess the quality of French investigative interviews with three age groups of child witnesses (under 7 years old, 7–10 years old, and 11–17 years old). We measured how age was related to the quality of 24 real-life interviews by evaluating how child-centered the interview was: (i) did it follow recommendations for each phase of the interview and, (ii) was the questioning style appropriately adapted to the child’s previous answer. Results showed that the older children gave more detailed responses to open questions. However, investigators did not encourage their recall through the use of appropriate questions, but instead asking closed and leading questions. With the younger children, interviewers also asked predominantly closed and leading questions but after evasive answers. Our findings suggest different strategies underpin the use of inappropriate questions with respect to the age of the witnesses. Implications for training are discussed

Sex-differences in the metabolic health of offspring of parents with diabetes:a record-linkage study

Maternal diabetes in pregnancy affects offspring health. The impact of parental diabetes on offspring health is unclear. We investigated the impact of parental diabetes on the metabolic-health of adult-offspring who did not themselves have diabetes. Data from the Generation Scotland: Scottish Family Health Study, a population-based family cohort, were record-linked to subjects' own diabetes medical records. From F0-parents, we identified F1-offspring of: mothers with diabetes (OMD, n = 409), fathers with diabetes (OFD, n = 468), no parent with diabetes (ONoPD, n = 2489). Metabolic syndrome, body, biochemical measurements and blood-pressures were compared between F1-offspring groups by sex. A higher proportion of female OMD had metabolic syndrome than female OFD or ONoPD (P<0.0001). In female offspring, predictors of metabolic syndrome were: having a mother with diabetes (OR = 1.78, CI 1.03-3.07, [reference ONoPD]), body mass index (BMI, OR = 1.21, CI 1.13-1.30) and age (OR = 1.03, CI 1.01-1.06). In male offspring, predictors of metabolic syndrome were: BMI (OR = 1.18, CI 1.09-1.29) and percent body-fat (OR = 1.12, CI 1.05-1.19). In both sexes, OMD had higher blood-pressures than OFD (P<0.0001). In females, OMD had higher glucose (P<0.0001) and percent body-fat (P<0.0001) compared with OFD or ONoPD. OMD and OFD both had increased waist-measurements (P<0.0001), BMI (P<0.0001) and percent body-fat (P<0.0001) compared with ONoPD. Female OMD and OFD had lower HDL-cholesterol levels (P<0.0001) than female ONoPD. Parental diabetes is associated with higher offspring-BMI and body-fat. In female offspring, maternal diabetes increased the odds of metabolic syndrome, even after adjusting for BMI. Further investigations are required to determine the mechanisms involved