‘Do larger molars and robust jaws in early hominins represent dietary adaptation?’ A New Study in Tooth Wear

Diet imposes significant constraints on the biology and behaviour of animals. The fossil record suggests that key changes in diet have taken place throughout the course of human evolution. Defining these changes enables us to understand the behaviour of our extinct fossil ancestors. Several lines of evidence are available for studying the diet of early hominins, including craniodental morphology, palaeoecology, dental microwear and stable isotopes. They do, however, often provide conflicting results. Using dental macrowear analysis, this new UCL Institute of Archaeology project will provide an alternative source of information on early hominin diet. Dental macrowear has often been used to analyse diet in archaeological populations, but this will be the first time that this type of detailed study has been applied to the early hominin fossil record

Economic Globalisation: The Process and its Potential, Social, Economic and Environmental Impacts

After economic globalisation is defined, the factors that have favoured it in recent times are outlined and the process is placed in a historical context. Measures of the recent expansion in economic globalisation are given, such as trends in the proportion of global GDP traded internationally, and the relative size of global FDI. China’s comparative economic openness compared to the rest of the world is discussed. Potential positive and negative economic and social impacts of globalisation are explored, taking into account important economic theories. Particular attention is given to globalisation and the evolutionary dynamics of economic growth by considering the economic ‘catching up’ phase of countries, such as China, and by placing this in a general evolutionary context. The question is also posed of whether economic growth will eventually cease, and whether industrial and social structures could become defective once economic globalisation is well established and enters its mature phase. Economic growth fostered by growing globalisation also raises globally important environmental and natural resource issues of relevance to the sustainability of economic growth and to the fulfilment of human goals. Some of these issues are investigated, taking into account theories that provide an optimistic prognosis, as well as those which warn of dangers and difficulties ahead.globalisation, GDP, FDI, China, social impacts of globalisation, economic growth, Environmental Economics and Policy, International Development,

Conflicts about Living Marine Resources in Southeast Asian and Australian Waters: Turtles and Dugong as Cases

This paper considers conflicts that arise and socioeconomic problems involved in managing fugitive resources, especially transborder or transfrontier ones when economic development occurs. To do this it concentrates on the situation of turtles and of dugong in Southeast Asian and Australian waters. Particular attention is given to turtle farming and to zoning as conservation strategies and the use of marine parks for resource management. Questions are raised about the responsibilities of developed countries such as Australia for conserving species that migrate to less developed countries.Environmental Economics and Policy, International Development, International Relations/Trade, Resource /Energy Economics and Policy,

Saffman-Taylor instability in a non-Brownian suspension: finger selection and destabilization

We study the Saffman-Taylor instability in a non-Brownian suspension by injection of air. We find that flow structuration in the Hele-Shaw cell can be described by an effective viscosity depending on the volume fraction. When this viscosity is used to define the control parameter of the instability, the classical finger selection for Newtonian fluids is recovered. However, this picture breaks down when the cell thickness is decreased below approximatively 10 grain sizes. The discrete nature of the grains plays also a determinant role in the the early destabilization of the fingers observed. The grains produce a perturbation at the interface proportional to the grain size and can thus be considered as a "controlled noise". The finite amplitude instability mechanism proposed earlier by Bensimon et al. allows to link this perturbation to the actual values of the destabilization threshold.Comment: 4 pages, 4 figures, submitted to PR

Quasiparticle Berry curvature and Chern numbers in spin-orbit coupled bosonic Mott insulators

We study the ground-state topology and quasiparticle properties in bosonic Mott insulators with two- dimensional spin-orbit couplings in cold atomic optical lattices. We show that the many-body Chern and spin-Chern number can be expressed as an integral of the quasihole Berry curvatures over the Brillouin zone. Using a strong-coupling perturbation theory, for an experimentally feasible spin-orbit coupling, we compute the Berry curvature and the spin Chern number and find that these quantities can be generated purely by interactions. We also compute the quasiparticle dispersions, spectral weights, and the quasimomentum space distribution of particle and spin density, which can be accessed in cold-atom experiments and used to deduce the Berry curvature and Chern numbers

3D modelling of Ti–6Al–4V linear friction welds

Linear friction welding (LFW) is a solid-state joining process that significantly reduces manufacturing costs when fabricating Ti–6Al–4V aircraft components. This article describes the development of a novel 3D LFW process model for joining Ti–6Al–4V. Displacement histories were taken from experiments and used as modelling inputs; herein is the novelty of the approach, which resulted in decreased computational time and memory storage requirements. In general, the models captured the experimental weld phenomena and showed that the thermo-mechanically affected zone and interface temperature are reduced when the workpieces are oscillated along the shorter of the two interface contact dimensions. Moreover, the models showed that unbonded regions occur at the corners of the weld interface, which are eliminated by increasing the burn-off

Safety and Socio-Economic Issues Raised by Modern Biotechnology

Modern new biotechnology has the potential to provide major economic and other benefits, but at the same time it poses potential hazards for human health, the environment, the ‘natural’ biological order and can have adverse socio-economic consequences. The application of such technology frequently violates traditional ethical, moral and religious values. This paper after outlining possible benefits of modern new biotechnologies, discusses the type of biosafety risks which they pose, their possible adverse consequences for the sustainability of biodiversity and agriculture and their potential impacts on socioeconomic welfare and traditional cultures. Particular concern is expressed about the possible consequences of such technologies for developing countries and the practice in some developed countries of issuing patents conferring very broad rights over the use of genetically engineered material. Because these rights are so broad in some cases they have the potential to establish powerful multinational monopolies in the hands of private companies. Global debate about these issues suggest that more emphasis should be given globally to the socio-economic consequences of such technology than in the past. The need for this is highlighted by the North-South divide. Developing countries lag considerably in this new technological field, are placed in a dependant position and have weak institutional structures to control the application of such technologybiotechnology, socio-economic policy, genetic engineering, biodiversity, biosafety, patents, Environmental Economics and Policy, Research and Development/Tech Change/Emerging Technologies,

Breeding and feeding pigs in Australia and Vietnam

This report establishes that ACIAR Research Project AS2/1994/023, ‘Breeding and feeding pigs in Australia and Vietnam’ (supported by ACIAR from July 1995 to the end of 2000) has yielded an extraordinarily high rate of economic return on the funds invested. The collaborating agencies were the Department of Primary Industries, Queensland, James Cook University and The University of Queensland in Australia, and the Institute of Agricultural Sciences of South Vietnam in Vietnam. The best estimate benefit–cost ratio for investment in this project is at least 159:1 with a corresponding internal rate of return of 900% and a net present value of A$496 million. This is a total value, not an annual value. To give context to the number A$496 m, in 2000, 1.3 million tonnes of pig meat, worth A$2,323 million, was consumed in Vietnam in that year alone. The returns to the project are still significant even when the net present value up to, and including, 2001 is considered. While the breeding and the feeding components of the project had highly favourable levels of economic return, the relative economic returns for the genetic component are considerably higher than the nutrition component. In Vietnam, the project has enabled better quality (less fatty) pork to be produced, has resulted in more favourable feed-conversion ratios in pig husbandry and has reduced the number of sows needed to produce a given annual stock of pigs for slaughter. This is mostly a result of genetic improvements in the Vietnamese pig herd made possible by the import of Australian Yorkshire pigs (also known as Australian Large Whites) from Queensland. These pigs have several genetic advantages in the tropical climate of Vietnam. However, nutrition research has also added to these benefits. As a result of changes in the lysine/energy content of concentrated pig meal for fattening and finishing pigs, it has become possible to produce leaner pork more cost effectively in Vietnam. The new feed formula is being adopted by Vietnamese-owned millers of concentrated pig feed, and benefits should flow to Vietnamese pig farmers. In addition, in the near future, results from the nutrition research component of this project should enable Vietnamese-owned mills to produce concentrated feed for weaner pigs for the first time. To date, this production has been exclusive to foreign-owned mills. Because of the inadequacy of the data available, it was not possible to quantify the benefits to Australia from this project. They are, however, believed to be significant and are listed and discussed. It is pertinent to observe that this project has been very effective as an Australian foreign aid project. It has made possible substantial advances in pig husbandry in Vietnam, and Vietnam has obtained a high level of economic benefits from the project. The project has been well managed with an appropriate level of attention given to diffusion of economic results. With the nutrition component of the research, there has been effective follow-up and liaison with state farms and Vietnamese-owned produce mills to ensure adoption of the more cost-effective pig feed mixtures developed as a result of this research. The extremely high net benefits from the project result from the following factors. First, the genetic material transferred as a part of the research package, namely from Australian Yorkshire pigs of the herd of the Queensland Department of Primary Industries (QDPI), was most appropriate to Vietnamese tropical conditions and was capable of adding both to the quantity and quality of pig production in Vietnam. Second, the transfer of this genetic material was not on a commercial basis but essentially was an aid item. Third, the considerable costs involved in developing the pig herd of QDPI (now sold to private interests in Australia) was not assigned as a cost of this project. They were treated as a sunk cost because they had been incurred before the ACIAR project. Fourth, there was an extremely short lag or gestation period before the flow of benefits or results from this subcomponent in Vietnam. Benefits could be obtained almost immediately. Fifth, effective mechanisms were quickly put into place to help diffuse the superior genes. These included their adoption on state farms, and the construction or reconstruction of five regional artificial insemination (AI) centres and associated improvement in their facilities and the skills of their staff. The latter initiatives were supported by the Australian International Development Assistance Bureau (AusAID), but are not costed against ,the project since the AI centres have multiple uses and they remain as long-term assets for Vietnam.pig, Vietnam, Australia, breeding, feeding, high rate of return, high impact, high economic return, DPI QLD, James Cook University, University of QLD, Institute of Agricultural Sciences of South Vietnam, benefit-cost ratio, net present value, internal rate of return, significant returns, genetic, nutrition, pork, Agribusiness, Farm Management, Food Consumption/Nutrition/Food Safety, International Development, Livestock Production/Industries, Production Economics,