We use cookies to distinguish you from other users and to provide you with a better experience on our websites. Close this message to accept cookies or find out how to manage your cookie settings.
To save content items to your account,
please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies.
If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account.
Find out more about saving content to .
To save content items to your Kindle, first ensure coreplatform@cambridge.org
is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings
on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part
of your Kindle email address below.
Find out more about saving to your Kindle.
Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations.
‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi.
‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.
This chapter presents a comprehensive review of the interaction between circum-Caribbean indigenous peoples and nonhuman primates before and at early European contact. It fills significant gaps in contemporary scholarly literature by providing an updated archaeological history of the social and symbolic roles of monkeys in this region. We begin by describing the zooarchaeological record of primates in the insular and coastal circum-Caribbean Ceramic period archaeological sites. Drawing from the latest archaeological investigations that use novel methods and techniques, we also review other biological evidence of the presence of monkeys. In addition, we compile a list of indigenously crafted portable material imagery and review rock art that allegedly depicts primates in the Caribbean. Our investigation is supplemented by the inclusion of written documentary sources, specifically, ethnoprimatological information derived from early ethnohistorical sources on the multifarious interactions between humans and monkeys in early colonial societies. Finally, we illustrate certain patterns that may have characterized interactions between humans and monkeys in past societies of the circum-Caribbean region (300–1500 CE), opening avenues for future investigations of this topic.
Keywords:
Archaeoprimatology, Ceramic period, Greater and Lesser Antilles, Island and coastal archaeology, Saladoid, Taíno, Trinidad, Venezuela
We recognize one of a pair of opposites by means of the other, Aquinas says. Just as we understand what darkness is only by reference to the notion of light, we must understand what evil is by reference to the notion of good. What is good is what is desirable. Every nature desires its own being and perfection, so we can conclude that “the being and perfection of every nature has the character of goodness.”1 Evil, then, cannot be a being or nature; it must be an absence of good. Not every absence of good counts as evil, however. A stone lacks the power to see, but its “blindness” is not evil: The nature of a stone has no aptitude for sight, and so it is no part of the perfection of a stone that it should see. Thus, evil is not a simple negation of good, but a privation of good; and we recognize a privation by comparing it with the fullness of being that is characteristic of a thing’s nature.2 Evil is a defectus: a falling short of, or falling away from, what is good.
This is an essay review of Jill North’s book Physics, Structure, and Reality. It focuses on two of the main topics of the book. The first is North’s idea that we can use coordinates as a window into the structure that a theory posits; the second is North’s argument for the inequivalence of Lagrangian and Newtonian mechanics.
Since the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic began, evidence suggests that people with underlying mental health disorders have worse outcomes from COVID-19 infection. Our aim was to assess the impact of COVID-19 infection on people with pre-existing mental health or neurocognitive disorder including COVID-19 related mortality and severity.
Methods
We conducted systematic searches of PubMed, EMBASE, and Cochrane library for articles published between 1 December 2019 and 15 March 2021. The language was restricted to English. We included all case control, cohort and cross sectional studies that reported raw data on COVID-19 associated mortality and severity in participants aged 18 years or older with a pre-existing mental health or neurocognitive disorder compared to those without. Three independent reviewers extracted data according to the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) and the Meta-analysis of Observational Studies in Epidemiology (MOOSE) guidelines. Methodological quality and risk of bias were assessed using the 9-star Newcastle-Ottawa Scale. We calculated the odds ratio as the summary measure along with the corresponding 95% confidence intervals. The random effects model was used to calculate the overall pooled risk estimates. COVID-19 related mortality was the primary outcome measure. The secondary outcome measure was COVID-19 related severity, defined as intensive care unit admission or use of mechanical ventilation.
Results
Fifteen studies were included in the meta-analysis comprising of 8,021,164 participants. There was a statistically significant increased risk of mortality for participants with a pre-existing mental health or neurocognitive disorder compared to those without (OR = 2.18, 95% CI = 1.63–2.90, P < .00001). Increased mortality risk was found on subgroup analysis for participants with pre-existing schizophrenia (OR = 2.55, 95% CI = 1.38–4.71, P = .003) and dementia (OR = 3.83, 95% CI = 2.42–6.06, P < .00001). There was no statistically significant difference in the severity of illness when comparing the two groups. There was a statistically significant increase in the number of participants with comorbid diabetes and chronic lung disease in those with a pre-existing mental health or neurocognitive disorder compared to those without.
Conclusion
The results show that people over 18 years with a pre-existing mental health or neurocognitive disorder have an increased risk of mortality from COVID-19 and are more likely to have comorbid diabetes and chronic lung disease. These results highlight the need for better physical health monitoring and management for this group of people and better integration of mental and physical health services, as well as adding to the evidence that they should be prioritised in the ongoing COVID-19 vaccination schedules worldwide.
The COVID-19 pandemic resulted in millions of deaths worldwide and is considered a significant mass-casualty disaster (MCD). The surge of patients and scarcity of resources negatively impacted hospitals, patients and medical practice. We hypothesized ICUs during this MCD had a higher acuity of illness, and subsequently had increased lengths of stay (LOS), complication rates, death rates and costs of care. The purpose of this study was to investigate those outcomes.
Methods:
This was a multicenter, retrospective study that compared intensive care admissions in 2020 to those in 2019 to evaluate patient outcomes and cost of care. Data were obtained from the Vizient Clinical Data Base/Resource Manager (Vizient Inc., Irvine, Texas, USA).
Results:
Data included the number of ICU admissions, patient outcomes, case mix index and summary of cost reports. Quality outcomes were also collected, and a total of 1304981 patients from 333 hospitals were included. For all medical centers, there was a significant increase in LOS index, ICU LOS, complication rate, case mix index, total cost, and direct cost index.
Conclusion:
The MCD caused by COVID-19 was associated with increased adverse outcomes and cost-of-care for ICU patients.
Between 21 November and 22 December 2020, a SARS-CoV-2 community testing pilot took place in the South Wales Valleys. We conducted a case-control study in adults taking part in the pilot using an anonymous online questionnaire. Social, demographic and behavioural factors were compared in people with a positive lateral flow test (cases) and a sample of negatives (controls). A total of 199 cases and 2621 controls completed a questionnaire (response rates: 27.1 and 37.6% respectively). Following adjustment, cases were more likely to work in the hospitality sector (aOR 3.39, 95% CI 1.43–8.03), social care (aOR 2.63, 1.22–5.67) or healthcare (aOR 2.31, 1.29–4.13), live with someone self-isolating due to contact with a case (aOR 3.07, 2.03–4.62), visit a pub (aOR 2.87, 1.11–7.37) and smoke or vape (aOR 1.54, 1.02–2.32). In this community, and at this point in the epidemic, reducing transmission from a household contact who is self-isolating would have the biggest public health impact (population-attributable fraction: 0.2). As restrictions on social mixing are relaxed, hospitality venues will become of greater public health importance, and those working in this sector should be adequately protected. Smoking or vaping may be an important modifiable risk factor.
Disruptive behavior disorders (DBD) are heterogeneous at the clinical and the biological level. Therefore, the aims were to dissect the heterogeneous neurodevelopmental deviations of the affective brain circuitry and provide an integration of these differences across modalities.
Methods
We combined two novel approaches. First, normative modeling to map deviations from the typical age-related pattern at the level of the individual of (i) activity during emotion matching and (ii) of anatomical images derived from DBD cases (n = 77) and controls (n = 52) aged 8–18 years from the EU-funded Aggressotype and MATRICS consortia. Second, linked independent component analysis to integrate subject-specific deviations from both modalities.
Results
While cases exhibited on average a higher activity than would be expected for their age during face processing in regions such as the amygdala when compared to controls these positive deviations were widespread at the individual level. A multimodal integration of all functional and anatomical deviations explained 23% of the variance in the clinical DBD phenotype. Most notably, the top marker, encompassing the default mode network (DMN) and subcortical regions such as the amygdala and the striatum, was related to aggression across the whole sample.
Conclusions
Overall increased age-related deviations in the amygdala in DBD suggest a maturational delay, which has to be further validated in future studies. Further, the integration of individual deviation patterns from multiple imaging modalities allowed to dissect some of the heterogeneity of DBD and identified the DMN, the striatum and the amygdala as neural signatures that were associated with aggression.
Life relies on mutualistic relationships among species, and on the constant rejuvenation of Earth’s materials. Mutualistic cities would do the same thing, enhancing biodiversity, clean air, better soils, fresh water, and stronger communities. Today, however, cities are far from mutualistic. Currently, more than 4 billion people live in cities, and that number is rising quickly. These conglomerations of humanity consume vast Earth resources, and, worst yet, disgorge astonishing amounts of waste into the atmosphere, water, land and sea around them. Unlike "smart cities" that rely on sophisticated technology to monitor and respond to environmental conditions, and unlike "sustainable cities" that stress reduction and reuse, the concept of a "mutualistic city" emphasizes regenerative cycles and virtuous feedback loops. These cities are the key to our future.
The concept of “scaling up” value chains dominates the African agricultural development literature. Scaling up commonly refers to three inter-related objectives: increasing agricultural production and quality, expanding farmer engagement with markets, and adding greater value to commodities that benefits all actors. Bassett, Koné, and Munro provide a critique of the assumption of linear and progressive development embedded in the scaling-up concept and offer an alternative relational network approach that highlights the contingent and relational dynamics of agricultural value chains. The research compares the selling patterns of cashew growers participating in OLAM’s Sustainable Cashew Growers Program in Côte d’Ivoire during 2018 and 2019.
Acellular cementum anchors the root to the alveolar socket via the periodontal ligament and grows in layers continuously throughout life, unlike enamel and dentin. Increments are deposited in a biannual light-dark pattern correlated to age and season at death in transmitted light microscopy. This study investigates the still debated structure of individual acellular increments using x-ray fluorescence and x-ray diffraction mapping with synchrotron radiation microbeams on reindeer, red deer, cattle, and human samples. Results show that Ca or Zn x-ray fluorescent intensities and cAp diffracted intensity reveal cementum band structure. Average crystallographic texture (of cAp nanoplatelets’ orientation and collagen fibril orientations) is constant for each specimen. Microtextural variation is also present across individual bands, demonstrating that the overall collagen fibril orientation undergoes subtle changes with season. Patterns of “feast or famine” and concomitant changes in amount and intensity of PDL loading might produce altered collagen (and cAp) orientations between the “good” and the “bad” seasons for ungulates but maybe not for modern human populations.
The will is the key component of Duns Scotus’s moral theory, both because Duns Scotus held (quite uncontroversially) that we are morally responsible only for our free choices and their outcomes and because (more controversially) he thought that most principles detailing what is morally good and what is morally bad depends on God’s free decisions. The key, then, question is how we know contingent practical principles. This essay offers an account of our knowledge of such principles that is (a) consistent with what Duns Scotus says about the relationship of the moral law to the divine will and to human nature, (b) consistent with what he says more generally about our knowledge of contingent truths, and (c) consistent with his actual argumentative practice in dealing with contingent practical principles. The examination of Duns Scotus’s argumentative practice uncovers a third, hitherto unnoticed, sense of ‘natural law’. This essay suggests that the core unifying sense of ‘natural law’ for Duns Scotus is precisely the epistemic status of the precepts of natural law as non-inferentially evident.
Alcohol, cannabis, and nicotine use are highly comorbid and alarmingly prevalent in young adults. The hippocampus may be particularly sensitive to substance exposure. This remains largely untested in humans and familial risk may confound exposure effects. We extend prior work on alcohol and hippocampal volume in women by testing common and unique substance use effects and the potential moderating role of sex on hippocampal volume during emerging adulthood. A quasi-experimental cotwin control (CTC) design was used to separate familial risk from exposure consequences.
Methods
In a population-based sample of 435 24-year-old same-sex twins (58% women), dimensional measures (e.g. frequency, amount) of alcohol, cannabis, and nicotine use across emerging adulthood were assessed. Hippocampal volume was assessed using MRI.
Results
Greater substance use was significantly associated with lower hippocampal volume for women but not men. The same pattern was observed for alcohol, cannabis, and nicotine. CTC analyses provided evidence that hippocampal effects likely reflected familial risk and the consequence of substance use in general and alcohol and nicotine in particular; cannabis effects were in the expected direction but not significant. Within-pair mediation analyses suggested that the effect of alcohol use on the hippocampus may reflect, in part, comorbid nicotine use.
Conclusions
The observed hippocampal volume deviations in women likely reflected substance-related premorbid familial risk and the consequences of smoking and, to a lesser degree, drinking. Findings contribute to a growing body of work suggesting heightened risk among women toward experiencing deleterious effects of substance exposure on the still-developing young adult hippocampus.
Necrotising enterocolitis (NEC) is a devastating gastrointestinal disease of prematurity that typically develops after the administration of infant formula, suggesting a link between nutritional components and disease development. One of the most significant complications that develops in patients with NEC is severe lung injury. We have previously shown that the administration of a nutritional formula that is enriched in pre-digested Triacylglyceride that do not require lipase action can significantly reduce the severity of NEC in a mouse model. We now hypothesise that this ‘pre-digested fat (PDF) system’ may reduce NEC-associated lung injury. In support of this hypothesis, we now show that rearing newborn mice on a nutritional formula based on the ‘PDF system’ promotes lung development, as evidenced by increased tight junctions and surfactant protein expression. Mice that were administered this ‘PDF system’ were significantly less vulnerable to the development of NEC-induced lung inflammation, and the administration of the ‘PDF system’ conferred lung protection. In seeking to define the mechanisms involved, the administration of the ‘PDF system’ significantly enhanced lung maturation and reduced the production of reactive oxygen species (ROS). These findings suggest that the PDF system protects the development of NEC-induced lung injury through effects on lung maturation and reduced ROS in the lung and also increases lung maturation in non-NEC mice.