In Memory of the Life of Niko Haoa: An Outsider's Perspective

As an outsider to the culture of Rapa Nui and a fleeting visitor in the life of Nico Haoa, I can only comment on the intermittent but influential experiences we shared over the last 23 years. My first connection with Nico and his wife Rosita came in 1980. Nico was low-key, and really I must say with some embarrassment that I have a hard time formulating a memory of him at that time. My interaction mainly was with Rosita, who insisted that the noisy motorcycle be left out on the street. That irritated me no end. During that year, there was an invasion of elderly (30+ years) graduate students and faculty that included Georgia Lee, Joan Seaver Kurze, Jo Anne Van Tilburg, George Gill, myself, and a few others, all who gravitated toward Rosita's residencia, as it was then known. It was a pioneering business; a little bit of (slightly western) heaven that permitted an escape from a cultural setting we were unprepared to deal with. The tourist trade was just beginning in those years, and Nico gradually built room after room and catered to the foreigners who were fascinated with the myths of Rapa Nui. In retrospect, it was clearly the right choice, as Hotel 'Otai is the premier place to stay on Rapa Nui.</p

Structural collapse in kaolinite, montmorillonite and illite clay and its role in the ceramic rehydroxylation dating of low-fired earthenware

The rehydroxylation dating of ancient pottery estimates the age of ceramic manufacture based upon the total hydroxyl (OH) accumulation since initial firing. The diffusion of OH is impacted by the structural porosity of the ceramic that becomes progressively, or suddenly, closed with increasing temperature as the clay structure collapses. Changes in ceramic mineral structure along the temperature continuum occur at certain thermal set points. Infrared spectroscopic analysis of heat-treated kaolin, illite, and montmorillonite reveals that shifts in the Si-O band correlate with the extent of structural collapse occurring between 600 and 1000 degrees C. Accelerated rehydroxylation experiments reveal that the activation energy of rehydroxylation decreases with greater structural collapse and indicates that the rate of rehydroxylation will be faster for ceramics fired at more elevated temperatures. (C) 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved

Productive Strategies in an Uncertain Environment

The unpredictable nature of a key environmental resource (e.g., moisture) is often viewed as a major variable that guides economic decision-making and the form of the social organization required to implement adaptive strategies that will ensure the survival of the population. Several authors have recently argued that environment characterized by higher uncertainty (e.g., risk of crop failure) will exhibit a greater tempo of changing organizational forms and an overall higher levels of organizational complexity. (Ladefoged 1995; Graves and Ladefoged 1995; Dunnell 1999; Ladefoged and Graves 2000; Kirch 2000; Hammon 2001; Hunt and Lipo 2001). In these high-risk environments the construction of chiefly sponsored monumental architecture can suppress population numbers to below critical levels. Energy that could be expended on increasing agricultural production, thereby leading to increases in population levels, is diverted into "wasteful" activities, such as monumental construction.</p

Accuracy of inference on the physics of binary evolution from gravitational-wave observations

The properties of the population of merging binary black holes encode some of the uncertain physics of the evolution of massive stars in binaries. The binary black hole merger rate and chirp mass distribution are being measured by ground-based gravitational-wave detectors. We consider isolated binary evolution and explore how accurately the physical model can be constrained with such observations by applying the Fisher information matrix to the merging black hole population simulated with the rapid binary population synthesis code COMPAS. We investigate variations in four COMPAS parameters: common envelope efficiency, kick velocity dispersion, and mass loss rates during the luminous blue variable and Wolf--Rayet stellar evolutionary phases. We find that 1000 observations would constrain these model parameters to a fractional accuracy of a few percent. Given the empirically determined binary black hole merger rate, we can expect gravitational-wave observations alone to place strong constraints on the physics of stellar and binary evolution within a few years.Comment: 12 pages, 9 figures; version accepted by Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Societ

The Many Uses of Matā on Rapa Nui

Obsidian tools with a stem or tang attached to a blade and known as matā have been recovered from a broad range of archaeological contexts on Rapa Nui. Their highly variable morphology suggests that this class of artifact had multiple, but too few analyses of their use-wear have been conducted to be confident about the relationships between form and use. A sample of 22 matā from sealed archaeological deposits in a cave on the southern coast of Rapa Nui and ranging in age from ca. A.D. 1300–1800 were analyzed using high power magnification. The patterns of use-wear scarring, striations, polishes, and residues demonstrate that the tools were all hafted and were used in a broad range of activities including fish processing and the manufacture and/or decoration of wooden, bone, and shell artifacts. The results demonstrate the importance of additional comprehensive usewear and residue studies for understanding the multiple roles of matā within ancient Rapa Nui society

Is gender inequity a risk factor for men reporting poorer self-rated health in the United States?

Theoretical approaches suggest that gender inequity increases men\u27s health risks. Previous findings from the United States support this contention, however only a small number of health outcomes have been explored. This study extends the range of health outcomes examined by using a cross-sectional, multilevel analysis to investigate whether measures of state-level gender inequity are predictors of men\u27s self-rated health. Data were derived primarily from the Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System and the full-case data set included 116,594 individuals nested within 50 states. Gender inequity was measured with nine variables: higher education, women\u27s reproductive rights, abortion provider access, elected office, management, business ownership, labour force participation, earnings and relative poverty. Covariates at the individual level were age, income, education, race/ethnicity, marital status and employment status. Covariates at the state level were income inequality and gross domestic product per capita. In fully adjusted models for all-age men the reproductive rights (OR 1.06 95% CI 1.01-1.11), abortion provider access (OR 1.11 95% CI 1.05-1.16) and earnings (OR 1.06 95% CI 1.02-1.12) measures all predicted an increased risk of men reporting poorer self-rated health for each 1 standard deviation increase in the gender inequity z-score. The most consistent effect was seen for the 65+ age group where the reproductive rights (OR 1.09 95% CI 1.03-1.16), abortion provider access (OR 1.15 95% CI 1.09-1.21), elected office (OR 1.06 95% CI 1.01-1.11) and earnings (OR 1.10 95% CI 1.04-1.16) measures all showed a significant effect. These findings provide evidence that some aspects of gender inequity increase the risk of poorer self-rated health in men. The study contributes to a growing body of literature implicating gender inequity in men\u27s health patterns

Does gender inequity increase men\u27s mortality risk in the United States? A multilevel analysis of data from the National Longitudinal Mortality Study

A number of theoretical approaches suggest that gender inequity may give rise to health risks for men. This study undertook a multilevel analysis to ascertain if state-level measures of gender inequity are predictors of men\u27s mortality in the United States. Data for the analysis were taken primarily from the National Longitudinal Mortality Study, which is based on a random sample of the non-institutionalised population. The full data set included 174,703 individuals nested within 50 states and had a six-year follow-up for mortality. Gender inequity was measured by nine variables: higher education, reproductive rights, abortion provider access, elected office, management, business ownership, labour force participation, earnings and relative poverty. Covariates at the individual level were age, income, education, race/ethnicity, marital status and employment status. Covariates at the state level were income inequality and per capita gross domestic product. The results of logistic multilevel modelling showed a number of measures of state-level gender inequity were significantly associated with men\u27s mortality. In all of these cases greater gender inequity was associated with an increased mortality risk. In fully adjusted models for all-age adult men the elected office (OR 1.05 95% CI 1.01&ndash;1.09), business ownership (OR 1.04 95% CI 1.01&ndash;1.08), earnings (OR 1.04 95% CI 1.01&ndash;1.08) and relative poverty (OR 1.07 95% CI 1.03&ndash;1.10) measures all showed statistically significant effects for each 1 standard deviation increase in the gender inequity z-score. Similar effects were seen for working-age men. In older men (65+ years) only the earnings and relative poverty measures were statistically significant. This study provides evidence that gender inequity may increase men\u27s health risks. The effect sizes while small are large enough across the range of gender inequity identified to have important population health implications

DNA-based Diagnosis of Uncharacterized Inherited Macrothrombocytopenias Using Next-generation Sequencing Technology with a Candidate Gene Array

Inherited macrothrombocytopenias comprise a heterogeneous group of inherited platelet disorders that are characterized by large platelets, thrombocytopenia and bleeding tendencies in affected individuals. Diagnostic platforms have traditionally involved a battery of complex phenotypic tests that often fail to reach a diagnosis. Next-generation sequencing lacks the pre-analytical and analytical shortcoming of these tests and provides an attractive alternate diagnostic approach. Our group has developed a candidate gene array targeting genes known to affect platelet function and tested it in a large cohort of Australasian patients with presumed platelet function disorders, particularly macrothrombocytopenia. This array identified causative variants in a significant portion of patients with uncharacterized platelet disorders, including transcription factor mutations that cannot easily be diagnosed with standard platelet phenotyping procedures. We propose that targeted genotypic screening can identify the genetic basis of platelet function defects and has the potential to be developed into a powerful clinical platform to help clinicians diagnose these rare disorders

Comparing trends in BMI and waist circumference

The nature of excess body weight may be changing over time to one of greater central adiposity. The aim of this study is to determine whether BMI and waist circumference (WC) are increasing proportionately among population subgroups and the range of bodyweight, and to examine the public health implications of the findings. Our data are from two cross-sectional surveys (the US National Health and Nutrition Examination Studies (NHANES) in 1988-1994 (NHANES III) and 2005-2006), from which we have used samples of 15,349 and 4,176 participants aged ≥20 years. Between 1988-1994 and 2005-2006 BMI increased by an average of 1.8kg/m2 and WC by 4.7cm (adjusted for sex, age, race-ethnicity, and education). The increase in WC was more than could be attributed simply to increases in BMI. This independent increase in WC (of on average, 0.9cm) was consistent across the different BMI categories, sexes, education levels, and race-ethnicity groups. It occurred in younger but not older age groups. Overall in each BMI category, the prevalence of low-risk WC decreased and the prevalence of increased-risk or substantially increased-risk WC increased. These results suggest that the adverse health consequences associated with obesity may be increasingly underestimated by trends in BMI alone. Since WC is closely linked to adverse cardiovascular outcomes, it is important to know the prevailing trends in both of these parameters

Model-Based Prediction of the Patient-Specific Response to Adrenaline

A model for the cardiovascular and circulatory systems has previously been validated in simulated cardiac and circulatory disease states. It has also been shown to accurately capture the main hemodynamic trends in porcine models of pulmonary embolism and PEEP (positive end-expiratory pressure) titrations at different volemic levels. In this research, the existing model and parameter identification process are used to study the effect of different adrenaline doses in healthy and critically ill patient populations, and to develop a means of predicting the hemodynamic response to adrenaline. The hemodynamic effects on arterial blood pressures and stroke volume (cardiac index) are simulated in the model and adrenaline-specific parameters are identified. The dose dependent changes in these parameters are then related to adrenaline dose using data from studies published in the literature. These relationships are then used to predict the future, patient-specific response to a change in dose or over time periods from 1-12 hours. The results are compared to data from 3 published adrenaline dosing studies comprising a total of 37 data sets. Absolute percentage errors for the identified model are within 10% when re-simulated and compared to clinical data for all cases. All identified parameter trends match clinically expected changes. Absolute percentage errors for the predicted hemodynamic responses (N=15) are also within 10% when re-simulated and compared to clinical data. Clinically accurate prediction of the effect of inotropic circulatory support drugs, such as adrenaline, offers significant potential for this type of model-based application. Overall, this work represents a further clinical, proof of concept, of the underlying fundamental mathematical model, methods and approach, as well as providing a template for using the model in clinical titration of adrenaline in a decision support role in critical care. They are thus a further justification in support of upcoming human clinical trials to validate this model