TL dating of pottery fragments from four archaeological sites in Taquari Valley, Brazil

Sixty-three pottery fragments from four archaeological sites, numbered RST110, RST101, RST114 and RST114, in the Taquari Valley, vicinity of the city of Lajeado, Rio Grande do Sul state, southern Brazil, have been dated by the thermoluminescence method. Some of them from RST110 and RST101 are as old as 1400-1200 years, whereas those from RST114 and RST107 are younger than 800 years. This result indicates that RST101 and RST110 were peopled earlier than RST114 and RST107. The recent dates found are 302, 295 and 146 years and they are possible, since the first German immigrants who arrived in this region encountered Tupi-Guarani Indians still living there. One interesting result refers to the glow curves of quartz grains RST110, RST101 and RST114 that differ from the glow curves of RST107 quartz grains.

Hunting practices among the Awá-Guajá: towards a long-term analysis of sustainability in an Amazonian indigenous community

Indigenous Reserves have played an indispensable role in maintaining forest areas in the Neotropics. In the Amazon there is a clear correlation between these reserves and the presence of forest cover; however, the simple presence of uninterrupted vegetation is no guarantee for the conservation of biodiversity, especially where hunting is practiced. This study describes hunting practices among the Awá-Guajá people from 1993 through 1994, also identifying sociocultural, technological, and demographic changes that have influenced their resource acquisition strategies over the last two decades. The data was obtained through ethnographic fieldwork, recording 78 days of foraging returns, with follow-up visits through 2010. This work provides useful information for an effective diachronic analysis of hunting in this community, by revealing foraging patterns of the early to mid-1990s, and describing community transformations over the last two decades in this locale.

An interdisciplinary analysis of obesity: theory and empirical evidence

The dissertation is structured in three parts. The first part compares US and EU agricultural policies since the end of WWII. There is not enough evidence for claiming that agricultural support has a negative impact on obesity trends. I discuss the possibility of an exchange in best practices to fight obesity. There are relevant economic, societal and legal differences between the US and the EU. However, partnerships against obesity are welcomed. The second part presents a socio-ecological model of the determinants of obesity. I employ an interdisciplinary model because it captures the simultaneous influence of several variables. Obesity is an interaction of pre-birth, primary and secondary socialization factors. To test the significance of each factor, I use data from the National Longitudinal Survey of Adolescent Health. I compare the average body mass index across different populations. Differences in means are statistically significant. In the last part I use the National Survey of Children Health. I analyze the effect that family characteristics, built environment, cultural norms and individual factors have on the body mass index (BMI). I use Ordered Probit models and I calculate the marginal effects. I use State and ethnicity fixed effects to control for unobserved heterogeneity. I find that southern US States tend have on average a higher probability of being obese. On the ethnicity side, White Americans have a lower BMI respect to Black Americans, Hispanics and American Indians Native Islanders; being Asian is associated with a lower probability of being obese. In neighborhoods where trust level and safety perception are higher, children are less overweight and obese. Similar results are shown for higher level of parental income and education. Breastfeeding has a negative impact. Higher values of measures of behavioral disorders have a positive and significant impact on obesity, as predicted by the theory.

Dalle ambivalenze della Storia alla “cosmopolitical fiction”: la rappresentazione dell'alterità nel romanzo di Anita Desai

Varcare le frontiere della Storia attraverso le storie personali dei suoi personaggi ha sempre affascinato la sensibilità creatrice di Anita Desai, i cui romanzi possono essere considerati un interessante esempio di letteratura di confine, che riesce nel difficile compito di misurarsi, con eleganza e sensibilità, nella rappresentazione delle più feroci forme di marginalizzazione. Proponendo un dialogo tra alterità, che apre alle complessità storico-culturali in maniera del tutto a-ideologica e imparziale, la scrittrice indoinglese procede alla “provincializzazione” dell’India attraverso le numerose ambivalenze prodotte nelle zone frontaliere analizzate. Dalla rappresentazione della frontiera identitaria esterna, ovvero dall’ambivalente rapporto intrattenuto con il colonizzatore/ex-colonizzatore inglese, alla rappresentazione della frontiera identitaria interna, ovvero l’analisi delle contraddittorie relazioni tra le componenti etniche del subcontinente, Desai arriva infine a problematizzare storie di ambivalenti processi di marginalizzazione prodotti da mondi culturali così diversi come la Germania nazista, o gli indiani Huichol del lontano Messico, tracciando geografie culturali inedite della grande ragnatela della Storia. Desai riesce così a recuperare voci liminali spesso trascurate dalla postcolonialità stessa, per riconfigurarle in un’esplorazione profonda del comune destino dell’umanità, voci straniate e stranianti che acquisiscono un vero e proprio status di agency discorsiva, proiettando la sua scrittura verso una dimensione cosmopolitica. L’opera di Desai diventa indubbiamente un’opportunità concreta per scorgere nella differenza l’universalità di una comune umanità, vale a dire un’opportunità per vedere nell’alterità un’identità ribaltata.

Hydrologic analysis of a limestone quarry using EPA's HELP Version 3.08 Model

Aggregates were historically a low cost commodity but with communities and governmental agencies reducing the amount of mining the cost is increasing dramatically. An awareness needs to be brought to communities that aggregate production is necessary for ensuring the existing infrastructure in today’s world. This can be accomplished using proven technologies in other areas and applying them to show how viable reclamation is feasible. A proposed mine reclamation, Douglas Township quarry (DTQ), in Dakota Township, MN was evaluated using Visual Hydrologic Evaluation of Landfill Performance (HELP) model. The HELP is commonly employed for estimating the water budget of a landfill, however, it was applied to determine the water budget of the DTQ following mining. Using an environmental impact statement as the case study, modeling predictions indicated the DTQ will adequately drain the water being put into the system. The height of the groundwater table will rise slightly due to the mining excavations but no ponding will occur. The application of HELP model determined the water budget of the DTQ and can be used as a viable option for mining companies to demonstrate how land can be reclaimed following mining operations.

Isopach Maps and Discussion of the Ordovician and Devonian of Montana and Adjacent Areas

The intensive postwar search for new petroleum horizons has resulted in widespread prospecting in the northern Great Plains. No commercial production has as yet been derived from Ordovician or Devonian rocks in Montana, but the relat­ively few tests that have penetrated to critical depths have disclosed encouraging conditions which merit further consider­ation, especially in Devonian strata.

Sandstones of the Lance and Fort Union Formations

The Fort Union and Lance formations are widespread terrestrial sediments exposed in Montana, North Dakota, South Dakota, Wyoming, and Canada. Their stratigraphic position, especially that of the Lance, has long been in doubt, and has provoked much controversy among geologists.

An Isopach Map and Discussion of Triassic Strata in Southern Montana and Wyoming

Oil and gas have been found in the Triassic strata of Wyoming. Although the Triassic has not as yet proven to be a large producing horizon it is very probable that ad­ditional oil will be found in Triassic strata in the future, and it is one of the goals at which oil well drillers aim their tools.

Standardized Performance Analysis (SPA) Summary for 1999-2000 Veterinary Medicine Students

Nine Iowa State University veterinary medical students completed SPA records on herds from Iowa, North Dakota and South Dakota. The Iowa herds were included in the SPA summary for Iowa, but the six North and South Dakota herds were summarized separately. These six herds had an average herd size of 371 cows and had a financial return to capital, labor and management of $175 per cow. Total financial cost per cow averaged $286 for these herds with a range of $211 to $388. Feed utilized averaged 4,442 pounds of dry matter per cow and the average pounds of calf produced per exposed female was 506 pounds.

A Concept of Semantics Extraction from Web Data by Induction of Fuzzy Ontologies

Traditionally, ontologies describe knowledge representation in a denotational, formalized, and deductive way. In addition, in this paper, we propose a semiotic, inductive, and approximate approach to ontology creation. We define a conceptual framework, a semantics extraction algorithm, and a first proof of concept applying the algorithm to a small set of Wikipedia documents. Intended as an extension to the prevailing top-down ontologies, we introduce an inductive fuzzy grassroots ontology, which organizes itself organically from existing natural language Web content. Using inductive and approximate reasoning to reflect the natural way in which knowledge is processed, the ontology’s bottom-up build process creates emergent semantics learned from the Web. By this means, the ontology acts as a hub for computing with words described in natural language. For Web users, the structural semantics are visualized as inductive fuzzy cognitive maps, allowing an initial form of intelligence amplification. Eventually, we present an implementation of our inductive fuzzy grassroots ontology Thus,this paper contributes an algorithm for the extraction of fuzzy grassroots ontologies from Web data by inductive fuzzy classification.

Genetics and epidemiology of gallbladder disease in New World native peoples.

Native peoples of the New World, including Amerindians and admixed Latin Americans such as Mexican-Americans, are highly susceptible to diseases of the gallbladder. These include cholesterol cholelithiasis (gallstones) and its complications, as well as cancer of the gallbladder. Although there is clearly some necessary dietary or other environmental risk factor involved, the pattern of disease prevalence is geographically associated with the distribution of genes of aboriginal Amerindian origin, and levels of risk generally correspond to the degree of Amerindian admixture. This pattern differs from that generally associated with Westernization, which suggests a gene-environment interaction, and that within an admixed population there is a subset whose risk is underestimated when admixture is ignored. The risk that an individual of a susceptible New World genotype will undergo a cholecystectomy by age 85 can approach 40% in Mexican-American females, and their risk of gallbladder cancer can reach several percent. These are heretofore unrecognized levels of risk, especially of the latter, because previous studies have not accounted for admixture or for the loss of at-risk individuals due to cholecystectomy. A genetic susceptibility may, thus, be as "carcinogenic" in New World peoples as any known major environmental exposure; yet, while the risk has a genetic basis, its expression as gallbladder cancer is so delayed as to lead only very rarely to multiply-affected families. Estimates in this paper are derived in part from two studies of Mexican-Americans in Starr County and Laredo, Texas.

Population amalgamation and genetic variation: observations on artificially agglomerated tribal populations of Central and South America.

The interpretation of data on genetic variation with regard to the relative roles of different evolutionary factors that produce and maintain genetic variation depends critically on our assumptions concerning effective population size and the level of migration between neighboring populations. In humans, recent population growth and movements of specific ethnic groups across wide geographic areas mean that any theory based on assumptions of constant population size and absence of substructure is generally untenable. We examine the effects of population subdivision on the pattern of protein genetic variation in a total sample drawn from an artificial agglomerate of 12 tribal populations of Central and South America, analyzing the pooled sample as though it were a single population. Several striking findings emerge. (1) Mean heterozygosity is not sensitive to agglomeration, but the number of different alleles (allele count) is inflated, relative to neutral mutation/drift/equilibrium expectation. (2) The inflation is most serious for rare alleles, especially those which originally occurred as tribally restricted "private" polymorphisms. (3) The degree of inflation is an increasing function of both the number of populations encompassed by the sample and of the genetic divergence among them. (4) Treating an agglomerated population as though it were a panmictic unit of long standing can lead to serious biases in estimates of mutation rates, selection pressures, and effective population sizes. Current DNA studies indicate the presence of numerous genetic variants in human populations. The findings and conclusions of this paper are all fully applicable to the study of genetic variation at the DNA level as well.

Population and molecular evolution studies on the Melanocortin 1 receptor locus implicate its role in human pigmentation variation

Human pigmentation is a complex trait with the observed variation caused by the varied production of eumelanin (brown/black melanins) and phaeomelanin (red/yellow melanins) by the melanocytes. The melanocortin 1 receptor (MC1R), a G protein-coupled receptor expressed in the melanocytes, is a regulator eu- and phaeomelanin synthesis, and MC1R mutations causing skin and coat color changes are known in many mammals. To understand the role of MC1R in human pigmentation variation, I have sequenced the MC1R gene in 121 individuals sampled from world populations. In addition, I have sequenced the MC1R gene in common and pygmy chimpanzees, gorilla, orangutan, and baboon to study the evolution of MC1R and to infer the ancestral human MC1R sequence. The ancestral MC1R sequence is observed in all 25 African individuals studied, but at lower frequencies in the other populations examined, especially in East and Southeast Asians. The Arg163Gln variant is absent in the Africans studied, almost absent in Europeans, and at a low frequency in Indians, but is at an exceptionally high frequency (70%) in East and Southeast Asians. To further evaluate the role of MC1R variants in human pigmentation variation, I have combined these molecular evolution and population studies with functional assays on MC1R variants and primate MC1Rs. ^

New cytochromes P450: Tale of two variants

Cytochrome P450s, a superfamily of heme enzymes found in most living organisms. They are responsible for metabolism of many therapeutic drugs, industrial pollutants, carcinogens, and additives to foodstuffs, as well as some endogenous compounds including fatty acids and steroids. First pass drug metabolism studies represent mainly liver and small intestine elimination, and are viewed as the standard to predict therapeutic outcome. However, drug plasma levels determined after administration do not always correlate with therapeutic efficacy of the drug. Therefore, a possible explanation may come by understanding drug metabolism in extrahepatic tissues and/or at the site of drug action. Identification and characterization of novel tissue specific isoforms of P450 generated by alternative splicing of known P450 genes or as yet unidentified genes is essential to predict pharmacological outcome of drugs or the fate of a carcinogen that act at sites remote from liver. ^ Using RT-PCR, brain-specific cytochrome P450s were detected in samples of human autopsy brain. So far, we have identified two human brain variants including P450 2D7 and P450 1A1. We have shown the presence of the P450 1A1 brain specific splice variant in African Americans, Caucasians and Indians albeit different patterns of liver to brain variant ratio were seen distributed throughout each population. Interestingly, the splice variant was detected only in the brain but not in any other tissues from the same individual. Homology modeling was used to compare the variant 3D structure to the liver form structure and differences in the substrate access channels and substrate binding sites were noticed. Automated computational docking was used to predict the metabolic fate of the potent carcinogenic substrate, benzo[a]pyrene. P450 1A1 brain variant showed no binding orientations that could produce the active metabolite, whereas P450 1A1 liver form did reveal orientations capable of generating active carcinogenic product. In vitro P32 labeling studies verified the docking predictions. Therefore, the data support the hypothesis that P450 brain splice variants mediate the metabolism of xenobiotics by mechanisms distinct from the well-studied liver counterparts. ^