Hominid butchers and biting crocodiles in the African Plio-Pleistocene.

Zooarchaeologists have long relied on linear traces and pits found on the surfaces of ancient bones to infer ancient hominid behaviors such as slicing, chopping, and percussive actions during butchery of mammal carcasses. However, such claims about Plio-Pleistocene hominids rely mostly on very small assemblages of bony remains. Furthermore, recent experiments on trampling animals and biting crocodiles have shown each to be capable of producing mimics of such marks. This equifinality-the creation of similar products by different processes-makes deciphering early archaeological bone assemblages difficult. Bone modifications among Ethiopian Plio-Pleistocene hominid and faunal remains at Asa Issie, Maka, Hadar, and Bouri were reassessed in light of these findings. The results show that crocodiles were important modifiers of these bone assemblages. The relative roles of hominids, mammalian carnivores, and crocodiles in the formation of Oldowan zooarchaeological assemblages will only be accurately revealed by better bounding equifinality. Critical analysis within a consilience-based approach is identified as the pathway forward. More experimental studies and increased archaeological fieldwork aimed at generating adequate samples are now required

Muscularity and attractiveness as predictors of human egalitarianism

This is the post-print version of the final paper published in Personality and Individual Differences. The published article is available from the link below. Changes resulting from the publishing process, such as peer review, editing, corrections, structural formatting, and other quality control mechanisms may not be reflected in this document. Changes may have been made to this work since it was submitted for publication. Copyright @ 2010 Elsevier B.V.In ancestral human environments, muscularity and height (in males) and physical attractiveness (in both sexes) would theoretically have correlated positively with one’s social status, and thus with one’s ability to benefit from social inequality. We therefore hypothesized that individuals who are more characterized by these traits would be less egalitarian (i.e., less likely to believe that resources should be distributed equally in social groups). We used a white-light 3D body scanner to extract anthropometric measurements from 118 participants, and our four egalitarianism measures included social dominance orientation and social value orientation. We found that as hypothesized, muscularity and waist–chest ratio in males, and self-perceived attractiveness in both sexes, tended to associate significantly in the predicted directions with the four egalitarianism measures; most of these correlations were of medium size. Neither height, nor two anthropometrically-assessed attractiveness measures (volume height index and waist–hip ratio), associated significantly with any egalitarianism measure in either sex. Egalitarianism has crucial social repercussions (e.g., taxes, welfare and civil rights), and results from the current study shed light on its origins

Mining for credible opinions in Arabic blogs -

Thesis. M.S. American University of Beirut. Department of Computer Science, 2017. T:6563Advisor : Dr. Wassim El Hajj, Associate Professor, Computer Science ; Committee members : Dr. Shady Elbassuoni, Assistant Professor, Computer Science ; Dr. Hazem Hajj, Associate Professor, Electrical and Computer Engineering.Includes bibliographical references (leaves 68-71)Blogging websites are growing globally, allowing online users to express their views and engage in discussions related to various domains such as politics, technology, entertainment, and lifestyle. Posted blog entries often reflect their authors’ trustworthiness, quality, authority and believability, which vary from one author to another. While some blog posts state facts, others tend to spread rumors, state personal views, or support certain propagandas. The aim of this work is to create models to automatically rate the credibility of Arabic blog posts in real-time, adopting the Merriam Webster credibility definition: the quality of being believed or accepted as true, real or honest . We focus on Arabic blog posts due to their recent popularity fueled by the recent uprisings in the Arab world, and due to the scarcity of tools for assessing the credibility of Arabic blog posts. We note that Arabic Natural Language Processing (NLP) is challenging due to the natural complexity of the Arabic language and it’s very rich morphology, unavailability of benchmark corpora, and immaturity of its NLP tools compared to those available for English and other languages. To achieve our objective, we first compiled a set of credibility features from literature, and added other features that we believe affect the credibility of Arabic blog posts. We then selected from the web 25 Arabic blog posts, extracted these features, and annotated the posts for credibility. Afterwards, we applied feature selection, and reduced the feature space to the four features that affected credibility the most, namely: reasonability, bias, objectivity, and sentiment. Having selected the features of interest, we annotated a manually collected medium-size corpus of 273 Arabic blog posts, and created several classification models including SVM, Neural Nets, Decision Trees and others, among which we ended up using Decision Trees which achieved 74 percent accuracy and F-measure score, and a 10percent increase on those scores (84percent) when we tested the mod

Morphologic features of endometriosis in various types of cytologic specimens

Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/100301/1/dc22979.pd

Stochastic Step-wise Feature Selection for Exponential Random Graph Models (ERGMs)

Statistical analysis of social networks provides valuable insights into complex network interactions across various scientific disciplines. However, accurate modeling of networks remains challenging due to the heavy computational burden and the need to account for observed network dependencies. Exponential Random Graph Models (ERGMs) have emerged as a promising technique used in social network modeling to capture network dependencies by incorporating endogenous variables. Nevertheless, using ERGMs poses multiple challenges, including the occurrence of ERGM degeneracy, which generates unrealistic and meaningless network structures. To address these challenges and enhance the modeling of collaboration networks, we propose and test a novel approach that focuses on endogenous variable selection within ERGMs. Our method aims to overcome the computational burden and improve the accommodation of observed network dependencies, thereby facilitating more accurate and meaningful interpretations of network phenomena in various scientific fields. We conduct empirical testing and rigorous analysis to contribute to the advancement of statistical techniques and offer practical insights for network analysis.Comment: 23 pages, 6 tables and 18 figure

Ecogeographic Variation in Neandertal Dietary Habits: Evidence From Microwear Texture Analysis

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Two case studies from Beirut (Lebanon) Aicha Bakkar and Tallet El Khayyat

Thesis. M.U.P.P. American University of Beirut. Department of Architecture and Design, 2019. ET:7130.Advisor : Dr. Mona Fawaz, Professor, Architecture and Design ; Members of Committee : Dr. Mona Harb, Professor, Architecture and Design ; Dr. Walid Marrouch, Associate Professor, Economics, Lebanese American University.Includes bibliographical references (leaves 157-166)Housing production in Beirut’s post-war period has been governed by the pro-growth “enabling of the market” rationale that follows the World Bank’s dogma of the 1990s. While this rationale has been locally promoted for its effectiveness in securing access to housing and sometimes also for employment generation and inclusive economic development, this study shows that its implementation was far from matching such claims. Instead, the thesis argues that post-war policies, specifically Building Law 646-2004 and subsidized housing loans by Public Corporation of Housing, have enormously influenced housing production in the city by promoting speculative practices that work against inclusiveness. To assess the impact of these policies on the production of housing in Beirut, the thesis combines a longitudinal and actors-centered approach comparing development activities in two adjacent neighborhoods of the city, Aicha Bakkar and Tallet El Khayyat. The two neighborhoods display distinct class differences, while they maintain relatively similar positions in the city’s historical sectarian divisions. The thesis explores the materialization of these policies comparatively in the two neighborhoods. The thesis begins by documenting the way in which the production of residential buildings in Beirut reproduces socio-spatial inequalities in the city, both economic and religious. It shows that processes of urban production follow path dependent trajectories where property ownership patterns, land subdivisions, building development, financing, and exchange are strongly shaped by neighborhood-scale institutions. These processes, in turn, create opportunities for specific developers in each of these neighborhoods. Thus, in Aicha Bakkar, successful developers were those who consolidated their roles by tapping on existing social and institutional hierarchies such as family groupings, religious organizations, and more. Conversely, in Tallet el Khayyat, successful developers were more often those who coul