The Archaeology of Disjuncture: Classic Period Disruption and Cultural Divergence in the Tuxtla Mountains of Mexico

Reconstructing human interaction systems has been a major objective of archaeological research, but we have typically examined the topic in a conceptually limited manner. Most studies have—intentionally or unintentionally—focused on how trade, communication, conquest, and migration foster cultural similarities over long distances. It has largely been a positivistic endeavor that exclusively features groups linked through a single network but glosses over how alternative networks intersect with the former through common nodes. Models of long-distance interaction have largely ignored variation in how external influences are negotiated across space within the receiving region. We adapt Arjun Appadurai’s concept of disjuncture to conceptualize how human groups negotiate cultural messages transmitted through multiscalar interaction networks. Disjuncture fundamentally refers to the decoupling of different facets of culture, economy, and politics where human interactions follow variable trajectories through space. The variability with which human groups reconcile foreign cultural information within local social networks leads to cultural diversity across space in the receiving region. We use the concept to detail the variability with which Teotihuacan symbols, ideology, and economic influences were adopted across the Tuxtlas region of southern Veracruz, Mexico

Enhancing the practical usability of dynamic traffic assignment

textA general framework is presented for replacing static traffic assignment with dynamic traffic assignment within the standard four step transportation planning model. Issues including model consistency and the implementation of a proper feedback loop are explored. The new model is compared with the standard four step model in order to highlight the benefits of using dynamic traffic assignment rather than static. The model is then extended to include a term for the difference between experienced and free-flow travel times, which can be used as a proxy for travel time reliability and highlights the benefits of time-dependent DTA. Additionally, a study on improving the quality of convergence for dynamic traffic assignment is conducted in order to help facilitate the usefulness of this modeling approach in practice. A variety of equilibration techniques are tested, and analysis is performed to contrast these techniques with the method of successive averages.Civil, Architectural, and Environmental Engineerin

A Collaborative Approach to Developing Culturally Themed Digital Collections

The College of Arts and Sciences at the University of Kentucky (UK) has created the Passport to the World Program (PWP) to celebrate campus-wide the cultural heritage of a country or region every academic year. The UK Libraries International Programs has been an active contributor to PWP by collaborating with faculty and different library departments to develop unique digital collections that serve to connect viewers with the featured country or region. To begin with, the Director of the International Programs (DIP) consults faculty and librarians at the UK Libraries Special Collections Research Center to select relevant materials for digitization. She also sources interesting artifacts from the larger community to create compilations of digital photos. Afterward, DIP invites faculty to annotate the images in order to highlight the cultural and historical significance of the materials and artifacts. The images, their annotations, and the accompanying metadata are ingested into UK’s institutional repository to create a virtual exhibit that is freely accessible online. At the same time, a corresponding physical exhibit is set up in the library to showcase the images. People interested in learning more about the images can scan QR codes to view the virtual exhibit, read the annotations, and download the images. Since the institutional repository tracks download rates of available items, faculty who have contributed to the virtual exhibit receive periodical notifications of the download counts of the images. The repository platform also offers an online dashboard for DIP and the faculty to assess the page hits of the virtual exhibit and to analyze the geographical and institutional distributions of the downloads. As part of the repository holdings, the virtual exhibit is preserved through the library’s participation in the Digital Preservation Network. This presentation demonstrates that the library can play a significant role in supporting a campus-wide initiative by leveraging its resources and services to build, assess, and preserve culturally themed digital collections. The outcome not only helps promote the awareness of a foreign culture but also increases the visibility of some little-known artifacts and rare library materials

A Collaborative Approach to Developing Culturally Themed Digital Collections

The College of Arts and Sciences at the University of Kentucky (UK) has created the Passport to the World Program (PWP) to celebrate campus-wide the cultural heritage of a country or region every academic year. The UK Libraries International Programs has been an active contributor to PWP by collaborating with faculty and different library departments to develop unique digital collections that serve to connect viewers with the featured country or region. To begin with, the Director of the International Programs (DIP) consults faculty and librarians at the UK Libraries Special Collections Research Center to select relevant materials for digitization. She also sources interesting artifacts from the larger community to create compilations of digital photos. Afterward, DIP invites faculty to annotate the images in order to highlight the cultural and historical significance of the materials and artifacts. The images, their annotations, and the accompanying metadata are ingested into UK’s institutional repository to create a virtual exhibit that is freely accessible online. At the same time, a corresponding physical exhibit is set up in the library to showcase the images. People interested in learning more about the images can scan QR codes to view the virtual exhibit, read the annotations, and download the images. Since the institutional repository tracks download rates of available items, faculty who have contributed to the virtual exhibit receive periodical notifications of the download counts of the images. The repository platform also offers an online dashboard for DIP and the faculty to assess the page hits of the virtual exhibit and to analyze the geographical and institutional distributions of the downloads. As part of the repository holdings, the virtual exhibit is preserved through the library’s participation in the Digital Preservation Network. This presentation demonstrates that the library can play a significant role in supporting a campus-wide initiative by leveraging its resources and services to build, assess, and preserve culturally themed digital collections. The outcome not only helps promote the awareness of a foreign culture but also increases the visibility of some little-known artifacts and rare library materials

Community response to intermittent preventive treatment of malaria in infants (IPTi) in Papua New Guinea

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Building on previous acceptability research undertaken in sub-Saharan Africa this article aims to investigate the acceptability of intermittent preventive treatment of malaria in infants (IPTi) in Papua New Guinea (PNG).</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>A questionnaire was administered to mothers whose infants participated in the randomised placebo controlled trial of IPTi. Mothers whose infants participated and who refused to participate in the trial, health workers, community reporters and opinion leaders were interviewed. Men and women from the local community also participated in focus group discussions.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Respondents viewed IPTi as acceptable in light of wider concern for infant health and the advantages of trial participation. Mothers reported complying with at-home administration of IPTi due to perceived benefits of IPTi and pressure from health workers. In spite of patchy knowledge, respondents also demonstrated a demand for infant vaccinations and considered non-vaccination to be neglect. There is little evidence that IPTi has negative impacts on attitudes to EPI, EPI adherence or existing malaria prevention practices.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>The degree of similarity between findings from the acceptability studies undertaken in sub-Saharan Africa and PNG allows some generalization relating to the implementation of IPTi outside of Africa: IPTi fits well with local health cultures, appears to be accepted easily and has little impact on attitudes towards EPI or malaria prevention. The study adds to the evidence indicating that IPTi could be rolled out in a range of social and cultural contexts.</p

Using ferry monitoring data to explore the importance of isotherms on the winter survival of Northern anchovy in Puget Sound

The Salish Sea displays strong seasonality in water temperature which can impose physiological limits on temperature sensitive species. Puget Sound, in winter, relies on ocean water as a heat source whereas in summer, the gradient is reversed. The dynamic exchange of Puget Sound with coastal water dictates the spatial and temporal patterns of isotherms that are relevant to temperature sensitive species. Recent winters with increased water temperature may expand the range of certain species to be able to survive in Puget Sound over the winter. Northern anchovy (Engraulis mordax) are pelagic spawners and survive in between 8 and 25 °C water. We examine near surface isotherms to describe the dynamic of Northern anchovy access to spring plankton blooms using continuous, geo-referenced data from physical and bio-optical sensors from an 80-mile long en route ferry system between Seattle, WA and Victoria, BC. Spatial and temporal patterns reveal which part of the year near-surface temperature conditions may be favorable for anchovy exploitation of the spring plankton blooms. If filter-feeding prey species such as Northern anchovy can reside in Puget Sound during winter, then they can exploit the spring plankton blooms and potentially change the structure of the food web

Socio-cultural aspects of Chagas disease: a systematic review of qualitative research.

BACKGROUND: Globally, more than 10 million people are infected with Trypanosoma cruzi, which causes about 20 000 annual deaths. Although Chagas disease is endemic to certain regions of Latin America, migratory flows have enabled its expansion into areas where it was previously unknown. Economic, social and cultural factors play a significant role in its presence and perpetuation. This systematic review aims to provide a comprehensive overview of qualitative research on Chagas disease, both in endemic and non-endemic countries. METHODOLOGY/PRINCIPAL FINDINGS: Searches were carried out in ten databases, and the bibliographies of retrieved studies were examined. Data from thirty-three identified studies were extracted, and findings were analyzed and synthesized along key themes. Themes identified for endemic countries included: socio-structural determinants of Chagas disease; health practices; biomedical conceptions of Chagas disease; patient's experience; and institutional strategies adopted. Concerning non-endemic countries, identified issues related to access to health services and health seeking. CONCLUSIONS: The emergence and perpetuation of Chagas disease depends largely on socio-cultural aspects influencing health. As most interventions do not address the clinical, environmental, social and cultural aspects jointly, an explicitly multidimensional approach, incorporating the experiences of those affected is a potential tool for the development of long-term successful programs. Further research is needed to evaluate this approach

Eyes Over Puget Sound: Producing Validated Satellite Products to Support Rapid Water Quality Assessments in Puget Sound

Eyes Over Puget Sound (EOPS) is a rapid communication and outreach product developed by the Washington State Department of Ecology that provides a concise synthesis of near real-time data sources in Puget Sound, WA. Monthly EOPS reports summarize aerial photographic surveys, in-situ ferry observations, satellite products, CTD profiles, and mooring data within 2-days of completing each aerial survey. To facilitate the rapid development and synthesis of satellite information products, EOPS developed a framework for producing regionally-tuned products; validated using coincident ferry-based measurements of chlorophyll fluorescence, turbidity, CDOM fluorescence, temperature, and salinity. Daily ferry transects provide a consistent suite of high-resolution measurements necessary to characterize small-scale spatio-temporal variability across the large optical gradients that are present. Ferry data are made available within 24 hours and allow validation efforts to be performed on a daily-, sensor-, and image-specific basis. This framework has been used to validate and merge satellite products from a variety of platforms including MERIS, MODIS, HICO, and Landsat. Future efforts will utilize EOPS-validated satellite products to refine coupled 3-D hydrodynamic/water quality models currently being developed for the region

Lemmatic machine translation

Abstract Statistical MT is limited by reliance on large parallel corpora. We propose Lemmatic MT, a new paradigm that extends MT to a far broader set of languages, but requires substantial manual encoding effort. We present PANLINGUAL TRANSLATOR, a prototype Lemmatic MT system with high translation adequacy on 59% to 99% of sentences (average 84%) on a sample of 6 language pairs that Google Translate (GT) handles. GT ranged from 34% to 93%, average 65%. PANLINGUAL TRANSLATOR also had high translation adequacy on 27% to 82% of sentences (average 62%) from a sample of 5 language pairs not handled by GT