An Ethnoarchaeological Study of Mobility, Architectural Investment, and Food Sharing among Madagascar's Mikea

Ethnoarchaeology is a field of study that aims to provide the information needed to draw reliable behavioral inferences from archaeological data. In this study, data from four settlement types (permanent villages, forest hamlets, seasonal hamlets, and foraging camps) of a forager–farmer population in southwestern Madagascar are examined from an archaeological perspective. Doing so shows that house size, house post diameter variability, outdoor workspace, trash disposal, and feature diversity jointly sort out settlements of different lengths of occupation. However, the relationship between mobility and material culture is not simply a product of the length of stay; it is also affected by differences in the social environments of settlements of different occupational lengths. Using the behavioral ecology of food sharing, we show that certain architectural changes that ensure privacy are expected to occur as settlements become larger and more permanent. These observations from Madagascar should be applicable to other areas.     

An Innovative Micro-Modelling of Simultaneous Heat and Moisture Transfer during Bread Baking Using the Lattice Boltzmann Method

A considerable fraction of the energy consumed in bread manufacturing is used for the baking process. A thorough understanding of internal moisture transfer mechanisms are important to optimise both the quality of the product and the economics of the process. From a transport phenomena point of view, bread baking has been considered as a simultaneous heat and mass transfer problem in a porous medium. Nevertheless, most efforts previously made have avoided modelling the phenomenon occurring in the microscale, although the mechanism occurs primarily in the microscale. In this work heat and moisture transfer models were developed to accomplish the mechanisms included, both in the microscale and the macroscale by means of Boltzmann’s equation. Modelling and predictions of moisture transfer, heat transfer, modelling of effective moisture diffusivity, thermal conductivity and diffusivity have been investigated in this work. The microstructure in the dough samples was obtained using micro-computer tomography images from the samples prior to baking. The models were quantified and validated with measurements from the literature in order to assess the predictive models. The simulated crust development has shown a crust thickness of 0.8 cm, which is slightly higher than similar experimental results in which a dehydrated thickness of 0.5–0.6 cm was reported. The crust over-estimation in this work fits to the overheating occurring in the model. Additionally, investigations were made on the influence of different porosities (11–16%) of the bread; the boundary layer temperature at a porosity of 11% was reached after 25 min and after 17.5 min at a porosity of 16%. Therewith, the results showed that, with increasing porosity, the heat transfer rate towards the centre was higher, which matches the knowledge of experienced bakers.     

Migration and Agricultural Change: The Case of Smallholder Agriculture in Highland Ecuador

A large and growing number of agricultural households in less developed countries are also engaged in international migration. Thousands of farmers from the highland provinces of Cañar and Azuay, Ecuador, have immigrated to metropolitan New York, where they work in menial jobs and remit, as a group, millions of dollars annually. This paper examines the effects of international migration on agricultural production and land-use in two regions of Cañar Province. An agricultural survey was administered in two communities to determine land-use and agricultural production of migrant and nonmigrant households. Contrary to most reports on the subject, migration has neither led to agricultural abandonment nor have remittances been dedicated to agricultural improvements. Semisubsistence agriculture remains an important riskaverse economic and cultural activity, but cultivation is a poor investment. A large investment in housing and land has converted much of the region into a peri-urban landscape of cultivated real estate.     

A Qualitative Study Exploring Barriers Related to Use of Footwear in Rural Highland Ethiopia: Implications for Neglected Tropical Disease Control

Background

The role of footwear in protection against a range of Neglected Tropical Diseases (NTDs) is gaining increasing attention. Better understanding of the behaviors that influence use of footwear will lead to improved ability to measure shoe use and will be important for those implementing footwear programs.

Methodology/Principal Findings

Using the PRECEDE-PROCEED model we assessed social, behavioral, environmental, educational and ecological needs influencing whether and when children wear shoes in a rural highland Ethiopian community endemic for podoconiosis. Information was gathered from 242 respondents using focus groups, semi-structured interviews and extended case studies. Shoe-wearing norms were said to be changing, with going barefoot increasingly seen as ‘shameful’. Shoes were thought to confer dignity as well as protection against injury and cold. However, many practical and social barriers prevented the desire to wear shoes from being translated into practice. Limited financial resources meant that people were neither able to purchase more than one pair of shoes to ensure their longevity nor afford shoes of the preferred quality. As a result of this limited access, shoes were typically preserved for special occasions and might not be provided for children until they reached a certain age. While some barriers (for example fit of shoe and fear of labeling through use of a certain type of shoe) may be applicable only to certain diseases, underlying structural level barriers related to poverty (for example price, quality, unsuitability for daily activities and low risk perception) are likely to be relevant to a range of NTDs.

Conclusions/Significance

Using well established conceptual models of health behavior adoption, we identified several barriers to shoe wearing that are amenable to intervention and which we anticipate will be of benefit to those considering NTD prevention through shoe distribution.     

Factors Associated with Leishmania Asymptomatic Infection: Results from a Cross-Sectional Survey in Highland Northern Ethiopia

Background

In northern Ethiopia the prevalence of visceral leishmaniasis is steadily rising posing an increasing public health concern. In order to develop effective control strategies on the transmission of the disease it is important to generate knowledge on the epidemiological determinants of the infection.

Methodology/Principal Findings

We conducted a cross-sectional survey on children 4–15 years of age using a multi staged stratified cluster sampling on high incidence sub-districts of Amhara regional state, Ethiopia. The survey included a socio-demographic, health and dietary questionnaire, and anthropometric measurements. We performed rK39-ICT and DAT serological tests in order to detect anti-Leishmania antibodies and carried out Leishmanin Skin Test (LST) using L.major antigen. Logistic regression models were used. Of the 565 children surveyed 56 children were positive to infection (9.9%). The individual variables that showed a positive association with infection were increasing age, being male and sleeping outside [adjusted odds ratios (95% CI): 1.15 (1.03, 1.29), 2.56 (1.19, 5.48) and 2.21 (1.03, 4.71) respectively] and in relation to the household: past history of VL in the family, living in a straw roofed house and if the family owned sheep [adjusted OR (95% CI): 2.92 (1.25, 6.81), 2.71 (1.21, 6.07) and 4.16 (1.41, 12.31) respectively].

Conclusions/Significance

A behavioural pattern like sleeping outside is determinant in the transmission of the infection in this area. Protective measures should be implemented against this identified risk activity. Results also suggest a geographical clustering and a household focalization of the infection. The behaviour of the vector in the area needs to be clarified in order to establish the role of domestic animals and house materials in the transmission of the infection.     

Agricultural Origins: Centers and Noncenters; A Near Eastern Reappraisal

Understanding the evolutionary history of crop plants is fundamental to our understanding of their respective adaptation profiles, which in turn, is a key element in securing future yield and quality improvement. Central topics in this field concern the mono- or polyphyletic origin of crop plants, and our ability to identify the geographic location where certain crop plants have originated. Understanding the geographical pattern of domestication may also assist in reconstructing the cultural processes underlying the Neolithic (agricultural) Revolution. Here we review prevailing views on the geographic pattern of Near Eastern plant domestication, and highlight the distinction between genetic domestication events and independent cultural events. A critical evaluation of the wealth of newly published geobotanical, genetic, and archaeological data provides strong support in favor of a specific core area in southeastern Turkey where most, if not all, founder Near Eastern crops were likely domesticated.     

Origins of life: An operational definition

Two very different models are used for the scientific study of life's origins: in the Troland-Muller model, life is molecular and its defining characteristic is gene function; in the Oparin-Haldane model, life is cellular and its defining characteristic is metabolic function. While each of these models implicitly defines the living, neither provides criteria by which theemergence of life could be recognized in the laboratory.Anoperational definition of the living makes explicit the system logic of metabolic self-production: (1) that whatever form it may take, life is a function of its biochemical processes; (2) that no single biochemical process has integrity apart from an entire network of processes; (3) that a network of processes can have continuity only by being enclosed within a boundary structure, i.e., by the selective partition of a microenvironment as a domain for the bioenergetic-biosynthetic network; and (4) that life is a single phenomenon, distinct in its continuity of capture and storage of energy in such networks, driving the processes that produce its material constituents.This paper presentsautopoiesis as life-defining and discusses the utility of its criteria in our search for the origins of life on Earth. Enactment of the autopoietic criteria would result in aminimal cell and would demonstrate the experimental recapitulation of life's Archaean origins.     

Visceral Leishmaniasis in Ethiopia: An Evolving Disease

Visceral leishmaniasis (also known as kala-azar) is classified as one of the most neglected tropical diseases. It is becoming a growing health problem in Ethiopia, with endemic areas that are continually spreading. The annual burden of visceral leishmaniasis (VL) in Ethiopia is estimated to be between 4,500 and 5,000 cases, and the population at risk is more than 3.2 million. There has been a change in the epidemiology of VL in Ethiopia. Over the last decades, almost all cases and outbreaks of VL were reported from arid and semi-arid parts of the country; however, recent reports indicated the introduction of this disease into the highlands. Migration of labourers to and from endemic areas, climatic and environmental changes, and impaired immunity due to HIV/AIDS and malnutrition resulted in the change of VL epidemiology. HIV spurs the spread of VL by increasing the risk of progression from asymptomatic infection towards full VL. Conversely, VL accelerates the onset of AIDS. In Ethiopia, VL epidemiology remains complex because of the diversity of risk factors involved, and its control is becoming an increasing challenge. This paper reviews the changes in epidemiology of VL in Ethiopia and discusses some of the possible explanations for these changes. The prospects for novel approaches to VL control are discussed, as are the current and future challenges facing Ethiopia''s public health development program.     

An Analysis of the Flora of Qinling Mountain Range: Its Nature,Characteristics, and Origins

The Qinling Mountain Range, which covers an area of ca. 76500km² and ranges from 32°05′ to 34°45′ N and from 104°30′ to 115°52′ E, is a major watershed of the Huanghe and Chang jiang rivers with the highest peak about 3767 m above sea level. The flora comprises ca. 3124 species in 892 genera, of which 51.9% of species and 4.4% of the genera are endemic to China. Evoluated in this paper is the importance of the 20 larger fami lies which together contain 65.2% of the total number of species. The phytogeographical affinities of genera of seed plants in the flora are analyzed and briefly discussed. Among the native genera of the flora of the Qinling Mountain Range, 220 (26.8%) are tropical, 563 (68.5%) temperate, and 39 (4.7%) endemic to China. It is clear from the figures that temperate genera play an important role in the flora and vegetation of the Qinling Mountain Range. The features of the flora include the unusually high proportion of endemic species, a wealth of Sino-Japanese elements and prominant temperate nature in compsition. On the ba sis of analysis of paleobotanical materials in the Qinling Mountain Range and adjacent areas, historical distribution of dominant species, and the origin and relationships of Chinese en demic genera occurring there, the flora is of outstanding originality. No doubt, the rich and diverse flora have evolved gradually and autochthonously at least since the latest Cretaceous.     

Gene Identification Programs in Bread Wheat: A Comparison Study

Seven ab initio web-based gene prediction programs (i.e., AUGUSTUS, BGF, Fgenesh, Fgenesh+, GeneID, Genemark.hmm, and HMMgene) were assessed to compare their prediction accuracy using protein-coding sequences of bread wheat. At both nucleotide and exon levels, Fgenesh+ was deduced as the superior program and BGF followed by Fgenesh were resided in the next positions, respectively. Conversely, at gene level, Fgenesh with the value of predicting more than 75% of all the genes precisely, concluded as the best ones. It was also found out that programs such as Fgenesh+, BGF, and Fgenesh, because of harboring the highest percentage of correct predictive exons appear to be much more applicable in achieving more trustworthy results, while using both GeneID and HMMgene the percentage of false negatives would be expected to enhance. Regarding initial exon, overall, the frequency of accurate recognition of 3′ boundary was significantly higher than that of 5′ and the reverse was true if terminal exon is taken into account. Lastly, HMMgene and Genemark.hmm, overall, presented independent tendency against GC content, while the others appear to be slightly more sensitive if GC-poor sequences are employed. Our results, overall, exhibited that to make adequate opportunity in acquiring remarkable results, gene finders still need additional improvements.