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The dead from Kellis were buried in many locations: on the perimeter of the settlement, in the North, South and West Tombs, and in two cemeteries designated as Kellis 1 (K1) and Kellis 2 (K2). The individuals buried in these locations can reveal a great deal about life in Kellis and how the inhabitants coped with living in such a harsh desert environment. In this chapter we review the bioarcheological studies conducted on human remains from these locations. Bioarcheological investigations consider questions such as behavior and lifestyle, population history, identity, biological relatedness and quality of life through the integration of biological and archeological data. This approach emphasizes multiple lines of enquiry to provide important information about the people who lived in Kellis, including data on age, sex, diet, health and activity patterns.
It should be noted that several limitations must be considered when comparing the level of information available from each burial location. For example, the remains found in the K1 were disturbed through tomb reuse and then later in antiquity and contemporary times by tomb robbers. While there was some looting of the burials in the K2 during antiquity, this disturbance was not as extensive. A similar occurrence has been observed in the tomb structures within the boundaries of Kellis. The earlier burials in North Tomb 1 were extensively disturbed, while those interred during the fourth century were found intact. In North Tomb 2, all of the burials except for one were badly disturbed and had been exposed to extensive burning. In the other North Tombs that have been examined some of the burials were disturbed, while others were not. The reuse and looting in these areas resulted in damaged, missing or commingled skeletal elements, therefore inhibiting standard data collection across all burial sites and creating uneven data sets.
In the following discussion the results of the bioarcheological studies are presented in chronological order, and the dating follows that presented in the description of the various burial locations within this volume. In our approach to understanding life in Dakhleh Oasis, we examine the information gained from each cemetery.
To conduct international comparisons of self-reports, collateral reports, and cross-informant agreement regarding older adult psychopathology.
Participants:
We compared self-ratings of problems (e.g. I cry a lot) and personal strengths (e.g. I like to help others) for 10,686 adults aged 60–102 years from 19 societies and collateral ratings for 7,065 of these adults from 12 societies.
Measurements:
Data were obtained via the Older Adult Self-Report (OASR) and the Older Adult Behavior Checklist (OABCL; Achenbach et al., 2004).
Results:
Cronbach’s alphas were .76 (OASR) and .80 (OABCL) averaged across societies. Across societies, 27 of the 30 problem items with the highest mean ratings and 28 of the 30 items with the lowest mean ratings were the same on the OASR and the OABCL. Q correlations between the means of the 0–1–2 ratings for the 113 problem items averaged across all pairs of societies yielded means of .77 (OASR) and .78 (OABCL). For the OASR and OABCL, respectively, analyses of variance (ANOVAs) yielded effect sizes (ESs) for society of 15% and 18% for Total Problems and 42% and 31% for Personal Strengths, respectively. For 5,584 cross-informant dyads in 12 societies, cross-informant correlations averaged across societies were .68 for Total Problems and .58 for Personal Strengths. Mixed-model ANOVAs yielded large effects for society on both Total Problems (ES = 17%) and Personal Strengths (ES = 36%).
Conclusions:
The OASR and OABCL are efficient, low-cost, easily administered mental health assessments that can be used internationally to screen for many problems and strengths.
Seven half-day regional listening sessions were held between December 2016 and April 2017 with groups of diverse stakeholders on the issues and potential solutions for herbicide-resistance management. The objective of the listening sessions was to connect with stakeholders and hear their challenges and recommendations for addressing herbicide resistance. The coordinating team hired Strategic Conservation Solutions, LLC, to facilitate all the sessions. They and the coordinating team used in-person meetings, teleconferences, and email to communicate and coordinate the activities leading up to each regional listening session. The agenda was the same across all sessions and included small-group discussions followed by reporting to the full group for discussion. The planning process was the same across all the sessions, although the selection of venue, time of day, and stakeholder participants differed to accommodate the differences among regions. The listening-session format required a great deal of work and flexibility on the part of the coordinating team and regional coordinators. Overall, the participant evaluations from the sessions were positive, with participants expressing appreciation that they were asked for their thoughts on the subject of herbicide resistance. This paper details the methods and processes used to conduct these regional listening sessions and provides an assessment of the strengths and limitations of those processes.
Herbicide resistance is ‘wicked’ in nature; therefore, results of the many educational efforts to encourage diversification of weed control practices in the United States have been mixed. It is clear that we do not sufficiently understand the totality of the grassroots obstacles, concerns, challenges, and specific solutions needed for varied crop production systems. Weed management issues and solutions vary with such variables as management styles, regions, cropping systems, and available or affordable technologies. Therefore, to help the weed science community better understand the needs and ideas of those directly dealing with herbicide resistance, seven half-day regional listening sessions were held across the United States between December 2016 and April 2017 with groups of diverse stakeholders on the issues and potential solutions for herbicide resistance management. The major goals of the sessions were to gain an understanding of stakeholders and their goals and concerns related to herbicide resistance management, to become familiar with regional differences, and to identify decision maker needs to address herbicide resistance. The messages shared by listening-session participants could be summarized by six themes: we need new herbicides; there is no need for more regulation; there is a need for more education, especially for others who were not present; diversity is hard; the agricultural economy makes it difficult to make changes; and we are aware of herbicide resistance but are managing it. The authors concluded that more work is needed to bring a community-wide, interdisciplinary approach to understanding the complexity of managing weeds within the context of the whole farm operation and for communicating the need to address herbicide resistance.
Recent droughts in Puerto Rico and throughout the Caribbean have emphasized the region's agricultural vulnerability to this hazard and the increasing need for adaptation mechanisms to support sustainable production. In this study, we assessed the geographic extent of agricultural conservation practices incentivized by US Department of Agriculture Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) and evaluated their large-scale contribution to drought adaptability. We identified concentrations of drought-related practices (e.g. cover crops, ponds) applied between 2000 and 2016. Using information from spatial databases and interviews with experts, we assessed the spatial correlation between these practices and areas exposed to drought as identified by the US Drought Monitor. Between 2000 and 2016, Puerto Rico experienced seven drought episodes concentrated around the south, east and southeastern regions. The most profound drought occurred between 2014 and 2016 when the island experienced 80 consecutive weeks of moderate drought, 48 of severe drought and 33 of extreme drought conditions. A total of 44 drought-related conservation practices were applied at 6984 locations throughout 860 km2 of farmlands between 2000 and 2016 through the NRCS-Environmental Quality Incentives Program (EQIP). Practices related to water availability were statistically clustered along the coasts, whereas soil and plant health practices were clustered in the mountainous region. While these concentrations strongly correlated with areas exposed to moderate drought conditions, >80% did not coincide with areas that experienced severe or extreme drought conditions, suggesting that areas highly exposed to drought conditions generally lacked drought preparedness assisted by EQIP. Climate projections indicate an increase in the frequency and intensity of drought events, particularly in the eastern region of Puerto Rico. Our analysis highlighted the need to implement more conservation practices in these areas subject to drought intensification and exposure. Government programs intended to address vulnerabilities and enhance capacity and resilience may not be reaching areas of highest exposure. Recommendations include raising producer awareness of past and future exposure and making programs more accessible to a broader audience.
Because individuals develop dementia as a manifestation of neurodegenerative or neurovascular disorder, there is a need to develop reliable approaches to their identification. We are undertaking an observational study (Ontario Neurodegenerative Disease Research Initiative [ONDRI]) that includes genomics, neuroimaging, and assessments of cognition as well as language, speech, gait, retinal imaging, and eye tracking. Disorders studied include Alzheimer’s disease, amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, frontotemporal dementia, Parkinson’s disease, and vascular cognitive impairment. Data from ONDRI will be collected into the Brain-CODE database to facilitate correlative analysis. ONDRI will provide a repertoire of endophenotyped individuals that will be a unique, publicly available resource.
Roffelsen is an early Younge phase mortuary component in southwestern Ontario. The single burial feature is a pit containing the articulated skeletons of seven successively buried individuals, ranging in age from a few months to late middle age. All had been stripped of soft tissues, except for the connecting tissues that maintained their articulation. Most also had a disk cut from the cranium and a hole drilled near bregma. All but the infant display various forms of developmental failure of the outer and middle ear and the petrous portion of the temporal bone. The pit was apparently the burial facility for an extended family with significant hearing impairments. This disability may have limited their interaction with neighboring communities, perhaps even playing a role in their eventual disappearance as a separate community.
Depression is expensive to treat, but providing ineffective treatment is more expensive. Such is the case for many patients who do not respond to antidepressant medication.
Aims
To assess the cost-effectiveness of cognitive–behavioural therapy (CBT) plus usual care for primary care patients with treatment-resistant depression compared with usual care alone.
Method
Economic evaluation at 12 months alongside a randomised controlled trial. Cost-effectiveness assessed using a cost-consequences framework comparing cost to the health and social care provider, patients and society, with a range of outcomes. Cost-utility analysis comparing health and social care costs with quality-adjusted life-years (QALYs).
Results
The mean cost of CBT per participant was £910. The difference in QALY gain between the groups was 0.057, equivalent to 21 days a year of good health. The incremental cost-effectiveness ratio was £14 911 (representing a 74% probability of the intervention being cost-effective at the National Institute of Health and Care Excellence threshold of £20 000 per QALY). Loss of earnings and productivity costs were substantial but there was no evidence of a difference between intervention and control groups.
Conclusions
The addition of CBT to usual care is cost-effective in patients who have not responded to antidepressants. Primary care physicians should therefore be encouraged to refer such individuals for CBT.
This chapter discusses the diagnosis, evaluation and management of abdominal compartment syndrome (ACS). The neurological presentation for the ACS includes increased intra-abdominal pressure (IAP) that is shown to decrease cerebral perfusion pressure by decreased cardiac output (CO) and hypotension, as well as via increased thoracic pressure with functional obstruction of cerebral venous outflow. The most efficient way to recognize and treat ACS is by recognizing and correcting predisposing factors before ACS occurs. In the closed abdomen, the gold standard approach to measure IAP uses a urinary bladder catheter (bladder pressures) with the patient in full supine position. Early recognition of risk factors and delaying definitive abdominal wall closure remains the best therapy for ACS. In cases in which the abdominal wall is already closed or the decompression is inadequate, timely intervention can be life-saving. ACS can occur even in the already decompressed abdomen.
In small-scale testing at elevated temperatures, impurities in inert gases can pose problems so that testing in vacuum would be desirable. However, previous experiments have indicated difficulties with thermal stability and instrument noise. To investigate this, measurements of the temperature changes in a modified nanoindenter have been made and their influence on the displacement and load measurements is discussed. It is shown that controlling the temperatures of the indenter tip and the sample enabled flat punch indentations of gold, a good thermal conductor, to be carried out over several minutes at 665 °C in vacuum, as well as permitting thermal stability to be quickly re-established in site-specific microcompression experiments. This allowed compression of nickel superalloy micropillars up to sample temperatures of 630 °C with very low levels of oxidation after 48 h. Furthermore, the measured Young moduli, yield and flow stresses were consistent with literature data.
This article describes cracking during microcompression of Si, InAs, MgO, and MgAl2O4 crystals and compares this with previous observations on Si and GaAs micropillars. The most common mode of cracking was through-thickness axial splitting, the crack growing downward from intersecting slip bands in pillars above a critical size. The splitting behavior observed in all of these materials was quantitatively consistent with a previous analysis, despite the differences in properties and slip geometry between the different materials. Cracking above the slip bands also occurred either in the side or in the top surface of some pillars. The driving forces for these modes of cracking are described and compared with observations. However, only through-thickness axial splitting was observed to give complete failure of the pillar; it is, therefore, considered to be the most important in determining the brittle-to-ductile transitions that have been observed.
Thalamic glutamine loss and grey matter reduction suggest
neurodegeneration in first-episode schizophrenia, but the duration is
unknown.
Aims
To observe glutamine and glutamate levels, grey matter volumes and social
functioning in patients with schizophrenia followed to 80 months after
diagnosis.
Method
Grey matter volumes and proton magnetic resonance spectroscopy
metabolites in left anterior cingulate and left thalamus were measured in
17 patients with schizophrenia before medication and 10 and 80 months
after diagnosis. Social functioning was assessed with the Life Skills
Profile Rating Scale (LSPRS) at 80 months.
Results
The sum of thalamic glutamate and glutamine levels decreased over 80
months, and correlated inversely with the LSPRS. Thalamic glutamine and
grey matter loss were significantly correlated in frontal, parietal,
temporal and limbic regions.
Conclusions
Brain metabolite loss is correlated with deteriorated social functioning
and grey matter losses in schizophrenia, consistent with
neurodegeneration.
Zoologists always hope to find unusual and interesting new animals in exotic places. Over the last few centuries, scientific expeditions in remote places outside Europe and North America have indeed discovered new species and even higher taxa of vertebrates, insects and other macroscopic animals, completely different from the ones previously known in the home country. In contrast, scientists working on microscopic animals, looking at samples from remote areas, have often found organisms that could be ascribed to familiar species. Microscopic animals have thus been considered not interesting in biogeography, as their distribution may not be limited by geography.
Are microscopic animals really widely distributed? Is their cosmopolitanism an actual biological property or only a common misconception based on false assumptions and unreliable evidence? Is the scenario more complex than the claimed clear-cut difference between micro- and macroscopic animals? This chapter will review all the faunistic knowledge gathered so far on the global distribution of free-living microscopic animals smaller than 2 mm (gastrotrichs, rotifers, tardigrades, micrognathozoans, cycliophorans, loriciferans, kinorhynchs and gnathostomulids). Moreover, we will deal with microscopic free-living species in other groups of animals such as nematodes and flatworms, which have both micro- and macroscopic species. The focus will be on species identification from traditional taxonomy based on morphology, whereas Chapter 14 will deal with more recent evidence gathered from analyses on molecular phylogeny and phylogeography from the same groups.