Re-analysis of the Levanluhta skeletal material : Sex and stature estimation of individuals in an Iron Age water burial in Finland

Levanluhta, an Iron Age water burial site in Finland, and its material consisting of commingled skeletal remains and artifacts, has been studied by several researchers over the past 100 years, resulting in multiple interpretations of the people and the site. Previous skeletal analyses have concluded that the majority of the individuals represented in the remains were females and children and were of relatively short stature, so possibly nutritionally deprived. This study re-analyzed the commingled adult human remains with updated methods. The methods applied in this study to estimate sex and stature were based on more representative European reference samples than the previously applied methods. The methods included morphology, osteometrics, and computed tomography (CT) scans. Our results indicated that depending on the reference data, the majority of the individual adult bones including os coxae (73%, n = 45) and long bones (humerus 83%-89%, n = 52; radius 72%-89%, n = 47; ulna 50%-65%, n = 58; femur 92%-100%, n = 25; tibia 77%-85%, n = 26) were classified as females based on their size and morphology. The cross-sectional bone properties of humerii, femora, and tibiae visualized using CT scanning also supported these findings. However, the cranial morphology did not show as clear female-biased sex ratio as other methods (42% females, 33% males, 24% undetermined, n = 33). In females, the mean stature based on the tibia (155.3 cm, n = 10) was within the range of the coeval European females and did not necessarily indicate nutritional deprivation, which is in line with previously published stable isotope findings from the site. The mean stature based on the tibia suggested that the Levanluhta males were short (164.0 cm, n = 3), but final interpretations were limited due to the small number of male individuals. The current study affirmed that the Levanluhta skeletal assemblage was female biased and gave new insights into interpretation of the stature.Peer reviewe

Anaerobic Energy Expenditure and Mechanical Efficiency during Exhaustive Leg Press Exercise

Information about anaerobic energy production and mechanical efficiency that occurs over time during short-lasting maximal exercise is scarce and controversial. Bilateral leg press is an interesting muscle contraction model to estimate anaerobic energy production and mechanical efficiency during maximal exercise because it largely differs from the models used until now. This study examined the changes in muscle metabolite concentration and power output production during the first and the second half of a set of 10 repetitions to failure (10RM) of bilateral leg press exercise. On two separate days, muscle biopsies were obtained from vastus lateralis prior and immediately after a set of 5 or a set of 10 repetitions. During the second set of 5 repetitions, mean power production decreased by 19% and the average ATP utilisation accounted for by phosphagen decreased from 54% to 19%, whereas ATP utilisation from anaerobic glycolysis increased from 46 to 81%. Changes in contraction time and power output were correlated to the changes in muscle Phosphocreatine (PCr; r = −0.76; P<0.01) and lactate (r = −0.91; P<0.01), respectively, and were accompanied by parallel decreases (P<0.01-0.05) in muscle energy charge (0.6%), muscle ATP/ADP (8%) and ATP/AMP (19%) ratios, as well as by increases in ADP content (7%). The estimated average rate of ATP utilisation from anaerobic sources during the final 5 repetitions fell to 83% whereas total anaerobic ATP production increased by 9% due to a 30% longer average duration of exercise (18.4±4.0 vs 14.2±2.1 s). These data indicate that during a set of 10RM of bilateral leg press exercise there is a decrease in power output which is associated with a decrease in the contribution of PCr and/or an increase in muscle lactate. The higher energy cost per repetition during the second 5 repetitions is suggestive of decreased mechanical efficiency

Thermal strain sensing of optical cables using brillouin optical time domain reflectometry

Recent advancement in distributed ?ber-optic sensing offers new possibilities for performance monitoring in the ?eld of geotechnical and civil engineering. Brillouin optical time-domain re?ectometry (BOTDR) is a commercially available technology that allows distributed strain measurements in the microstrain range along the full length of an optical ?ber. By integrating a single ?ber-optic cable into soil or a structure, an unprecedented amount of reasonably accurate (630 le), spatially resolved data could be obtained. Since the BOTDR data is in?uenced by both strain and temperature, it is important that methods to separate the two effects are fully understood. This paper describes the BOTDR temperature compensation method by implementing appropriate thermal expansion coef?cients of optical cables and structures to the raw data. In the laboratory study, validation of the instrumentation technique was conducted in a concrete beam by embedding two types of optical cables consisting of tight-buffered and loose-tubed coatings to measure thermal strains response during concrete curing. Temperature readings inferred from optical ?bers were found to be in accordance to the thermocouples. A ?eld study of axially loaded concrete pile subjected to cooling and heating cycle is presented. Measurements in the test pile and adjacent borehole indicate similar strain pro?les and temperature changes between BOTDR and conventional instrumentation such as vibrating wire strain gauges and thermistors. General steps to derive the temperature compensated strain pro?les observed in the thermal pile as a result of cooling and heating is presented. The data enables load-transfer pro?les to be interpreted and used as framework to understand pile response to temperature change