Antigen-induced suppression of mitogen responses and resistance to experimental autoimmune encephalomyelitis

Random-bred Hartley and inbred Strain 2 and Strain 13 guinea pigs were inoculated for acute experimental autoimmune encephalomyelitis (EAE). Sixty-six percent (69/103) of the Hartleys developed signs of EAE while the remaining 34% (34/103) were resistant. No Strain 2 and all Strain 13 guinea pigs developed EAE. Histologic examination of nervous tissue revealed that susceptible Hartleys and Strain 13 and Strain 2 animals had lesions characteristic of EAE. Tissue from resistant Hartleys showed fewer and less severe changes. Lymphocyte-transformation assays with EAE-inducing and noninducing antigens and T-cell mitogens revealed three different sets of responses in vitro: (i) lymphocytes from all animals responded to mitogens; (ii) lymphocytes from susceptible animals responded to EAE-inducing antigens; and (iii) lymphocytes from resistant Hartleys were suppressed from responding to the mitogens solely by EAE-inducing antigens. Plasmas from all EAE-sensitized animals had equivalent anti-myelin basic proteins (MBP) antibody titers and skin tests of EAE-inoculated Hartleys were all positive for MBP sensitization. Therefore, resistance and reduced histologic changes characteristic of EAE correlated with a disease-specific antigen-induced suppression of lymphocyte responses to T-cell mitogens. This suggests that clinical resistance to EAE in Hartley guinea pigs is mediated by an immunologic suppressor mechanism.     

An evaluation of race and sex identification from cranial measurements

A total of 104 adult human crania (95 American Indian and 9 Labrador Eskimo) are used in this evaluation of a discriminant functional analysis for determining race and sex from eight cranial measurements. The methods used are those given by Giles and Elliot ('62). The study shows that non-deformed American Indian crania are racially misclassified as American White and Negro in 35.6% of the cases when using this metrical method. Deformed Indian crania are racially misclassified 60.0% and 4.4% of the time as White and Negro respectively. The determination of sex on male crania, regardless of deformation, is as accurate as, or better than, the visual method of identification. The female crania, however, are shown to be incorrectly sexed in nearly 50% of the cases, with one non-deformed group (Palus) running as high as 80.0%. This evaluation suggests, therefore, that discriminant functional analyses for race and / or sex determinations are not applicable to problems of human identification unless the crania are from that population on which these functions were established.     

Fishery management in Japan

There are few legal marine protected areas in Japan rather than fishing-ban areas. Fishers did not seek legal fishing-ban areas but they did establish fishing-ban areas by autonomous bases. We briefly introduce the institutional history and features of Japanese coastal fishery management, including the past decade’s major legislative developments. Japan still has a decentralized co-management system involving fishers and the government, and ca. 98% of Japanese fishers are artisanal. There are several successful cases of coastal fisheries management in Japan. However, offshore industrial fisheries have problems in Japan. We compare coastal fisheries co-management between Japan and Chile. We finally discuss the possibility of improvement for Japanese fisheries.     

Genetic drift and gene flow in a prehistoric population of the Azapa valley and coast,Chile

The present paper studies the evolutionary process operating on prehistoric groups from the Azapa valley and coast (northern Chile). The sample consists of 237 crania from the Archaic Late, Early Intermediate, Middle, Late Intermediate, and Late periods. Six metric variables were used, which were transformed to eliminate the special environmental component and to increase the proportion of genetic variance. Population structure was assessed using a method based on quantitative genetic theory, which predicts a lineal relationship between average within-group phenotypic variance and group distance to the population centroid. Results indicate that 17.5% of the total variance accounts for special environmental variance. An excess in extraregional genetic flow is observed in the population corresponding to the Early Intermediate period in the valley. A reduced differentiation is observed between Archaic and Early Intermediate coastal groups, as well as between the latter and the inhabitants of the valley in the same period. Genetic differences between both areas increased substantially since the Middle period. Evidence indicates that long-range gene flow was lower on the coast than in the valley, the lowest estimated Fst being 0.0199 for the total population (coast and valley), 0.0111 for the coastal population, and 0.0057 for the valley. Results are discussed in terms of regional archeological and ethnohistorical evidence, and a microevolutionary model is presented to account for the biological history of the population.     

Sex determination of Finnish crania by discriminant function analysis

Using multivariant discriminant function analysis, the sex of 232 Finnish crania of known sex was determined. Eight measurements were used to form two discriminant functions. In 80% of cases the sex determination by means of the discriminant functions was identical with the original information. The applicability of the sex discriminant function of Giles and Elliot ('63) for American white and Negro crania was also tested on the Finnish crania. An accuracy of only 65% was attained.     

From Ethnobiology to Ecotoxicology: Fishers’ Knowledge on Trophic Levels as Indicator of Bioaccumulation in Tropical Marine and Freshwater Fishes

Information on fish trophic levels is important to assess fishing impacts and to better understand the bioaccumulation of pollutants within aquatic food chains. The local ecological knowledge held by small-scale fishers can fill knowledge gaps in fish trophic ecology. We estimated the trophic levels of 69 tropical and subtropical fish species (33 coastal and 36 freshwater species) using data on fish diets from the literature and obtained from interviews with Brazilian fishers. The fish trophic levels estimated from fishers’ knowledge were positively correlated with the trophic levels estimated using data from biological studies for both coastal and freshwater fish. The fishers’ knowledge also indicated bioaccumulation patterns, as the fish trophic levels estimated from fishers’ knowledge were positively related to the mercury (Hg) content in fish muscle (wet weight, from literature data) in 41 fish species (15 coastal and 26 freshwater). These findings reveal the potential for new applications of fishers’ knowledge to ecotoxicology, which could improve management of aquatic ecosystems and strengthen fishers’ political status.     

Harvest Pressure on Coastal Atlantic Cod (Gadus morhua) from Recreational Fishing Relative to Commercial Fishing Assessed from Tag-Recovery Data

Marine recreational fishing is a popular outdoor activity. However, knowledge about the magnitude of recreational catches relative to commercial catches in coastal fisheries is generally sparse. Coastal Atlantic cod (Gadus morhua) is a target species for recreational fishers in the North Atlantic. In Norway, recreational fishers are allowed to use a variety of traps and nets as well as long-line and rod and line when fishing for cod. From 2005 to 2013, 9729 cod (mean size: 40 cm, range: 15–93 cm) were tagged and released in coastal Skagerrak, southeast Norway. Both high-reward (NOK 500) and low-reward tags (NOK 50) were used in this study. Because some harvested fish (even those posting high-reward tags) may go unreported by fishers, reporting rates were estimated from mark-recovery models that incorporate detection parameters in their structure, in addition to survival and mortality estimates. During 2005 to 2013, a total of 1707 tagged cod were recovered and reported by fishers. We estimate the overall annual survival to be 33% (SE 1.5). Recreational rod and line fishing were responsible for 33.7% (SE 2.4) of total mortality, followed by commercial fisheries (15.1% SE 0.8) and recreational fixed gear (6.8% SE 0.4). Natural mortality was 44.4% (SE 2.5) of total mortality. Our findings suggest that recreational fishing—rod and line fishing in particular—is responsible for a substantial part of fishing mortality exerted on coastal cod in southern Norway.     

Three-dimensional geometric morphometric analysis of cranio-facial sexual dimorphism in a Central European sample of known sex

This article presents an approach for estimating the sexual dimorphism of adult crania using three-dimensional geometric morphometric methods. The study sample consisted of 139 crania of known sex (73 males and 66 females) belonging to persons who lived during the first half of the 20th century in Bohemia. The three-dimensional co-ordinates of 82 ecto-cranial landmarks and 39 semi-landmarks covering the midsagittal curve of the cranial vault were digitised using a MicroScribe G2X contact digitiser. The purposes of the investigation were to define the regions of the cranium where sexual dimorphism is most pronounced and to investigate the effectiveness of this method for determining sex from the shape of the cranium. The results demonstrate that it is better to analyse apportionable parts of the cranium rather than the cranium as a whole. Significant sexual differences (significance was determined using multivariate analysis of variance) were noted in the shape of the midsagittal curve of the vault, upper face, the region of the nose, orbits, and palate. No differences were recorded either in the shape of the cranium as a whole or in the regions of the base and the neurocranium. The greatest accuracy in determining sex was found in the region of the upper face (100% of study subjects correctly classified) and the midsagittal curve of the vault (99% of study subjects correctly classified).     

A Global Estimate of the Number of Coral Reef Fishers

Overfishing threatens coral reefs worldwide, yet there is no reliable estimate on the number of reef fishers globally. We address this data gap by quantifying the number of reef fishers on a global scale, using two approaches - the first estimates reef fishers as a proportion of the total number of marine fishers in a country, based on the ratio of reef-related to total marine fish landed values. The second estimates reef fishers as a function of coral reef area, rural coastal population, and fishing pressure. In total, we find that there are 6 million reef fishers in 99 reef countries and territories worldwide, of which at least 25% are reef gleaners. Our estimates are an improvement over most existing fisher population statistics, which tend to omit accounting for gleaners and reef fishers. Our results suggest that slightly over a quarter of the world’s small-scale fishers fish on coral reefs, and half of all coral reef fishers are in Southeast Asia. Coral reefs evidently support the socio-economic well-being of numerous coastal communities. By quantifying the number of people who are employed as reef fishers, we provide decision-makers with an important input into planning for sustainable coral reef fisheries at the appropriate scale.     

Use of ordinal categorical variables in skeletal assessment of sex from the cranium

In anthropological studies, visual indicators of sex are traditionally scored on an ordinal categorical scale. Logistic and probit regression models are commonly used statistical tools for the analysis of ordinal categorical data. These models provide unbiased estimates of the posterior probabilities of sex conditional on observed indicators, but they do so only under certain conditions. We suggest a more general method for sexing using a multivariate cumulative probit model and examine both single indicator and multivariate indicator models on a sample of 138 crania from a Late Mississippian site in middle Tennessee. The crania were scored for five common sex indicators: superciliary arch form, chin form, size of mastoid process, shape of the supraorbital margin, and nuchal cresting. Independent assessment of sex for each individual is based on pubic indicators. The traditional logistic regressions are cumbersome because of limitations imposed by missing data. The logistic regression correctly classified 66/74 males and 46/64 females, with an overall correct classification of 81%. The cumulative probit model classified 64/74 males correctly and 51/64 females correctly for an overall correct classification rate of 83%. Finally, we apply parameters estimated from the logit and probit models to find posterior probabilities of sex assignment for 296 additional crania for which pubic indicators were absent or ambiguous. Am J Phys Anthropol 107:97–112, 1998. © 1998 Wiley-Liss, Inc.     

Small-scale fisheries bycatch jeopardizes endangered Pacific loggerhead turtles

BACKGROUND: Although bycatch of industrial-scale fisheries can cause declines in migratory megafauna including seabirds, marine mammals, and sea turtles, the impacts of small-scale fisheries have been largely overlooked. Small-scale fisheries occur in coastal waters worldwide, employing over 99% of the world's 51 million fishers. New telemetry data reveal that migratory megafauna frequent coastal habitats well within the range of small-scale fisheries, potentially producing high bycatch. These fisheries occur primarily in developing nations, and their documentation and management are limited or non-existent, precluding evaluation of their impacts on non-target megafauna. PRINCIPAL FINDINGS/METHODOLOGY: 30 North Pacific loggerhead turtles that we satellite-tracked from 1996-2005 ranged oceanwide, but juveniles spent 70% of their time at a high use area coincident with small-scale fisheries in Baja California Sur, Mexico (BCS). We assessed loggerhead bycatch mortality in this area by partnering with local fishers to 1) observe two small-scale fleets that operated closest to the high use area and 2) through shoreline surveys for discarded carcasses. Minimum annual bycatch mortality in just these two fleets at the high use area exceeded 1000 loggerheads year(-1), rivaling that of oceanwide industrial-scale fisheries, and threatening the persistence of this critically endangered population. As a result of fisher participation in this study and a bycatch awareness campaign, a consortium of local fishers and other citizens are working to eliminate their bycatch and to establish a national loggerhead refuge. CONCLUSIONS/SIGNIFICANCE: Because of the overlap of ubiquitous small-scale fisheries with newly documented high-use areas in coastal waters worldwide, our case study suggests that small-scale fisheries may be among the greatest current threats to non-target megafauna. Future research is urgently needed to quantify small-scale fisheries bycatch worldwide. Localizing coastal high use areas and mitigating bycatch in partnership with small-scale fishers may provide a crucial solution toward ensuring the persistence of vulnerable megafauna.     

Sexual dimorphism and discriminant function sexing in indigenous South African crania

This study aimed to examine sexual dimorphism in, and to produce a practical discriminant function for determining the sex of indigenous, Bantu-speaking, South African crania. The types of data to be used were a small number of traditional, or mathematically transformed three-dimensional, linear measurements, comparable to those in use by most physical and forensic anthropologists. The samples to be examined, separately and pooled, were of the Cape Nguni, Natal Nguni and Sotho subgroups. In addition, three local populations (‘tribes’—Zulu, Xhosa and Southern Sotho) within these subgroups were also studied.

Univariate male/female ratios indicate significant sexual dimorphism in the pooled South African crania. Canonical variates analysis of the pooled sample showed that facial width is the strongest discriminating morphometric variable; cranial length and basi-bregmatic height are the next most significant features. Eight measurements derived from the three-dimensional data were used to produce a series of discriminant functions for sex determination in the pooled sample, for which an accuracy of 77–80% was attained. Analysis of the calvaria and face, separately, has shown that the sex of damaged material can be diagnosed with a reasonable degree of accuracy (75–76%).

The new functions for the pooled indigenous South African sample provide improved sex discrimination accuracy compared to those obtained by employing the commonly utilised statistics of Giles & Elliot (1963), even when a modified sectioning point is used. Functions calculated for the separate local populations gave variable and fairly low improvements in sexing accuracy. As the subdivisions at all levels are at present quite rapidly disappearing in South Africa, for most purposes it is now best to simply apply the pooled data functions for sexing crania.     

Gender, obesity and repeated elevation of C-reactive protein: data from the CARDIA cohort

C-reactive Protein (CRP) measurements above 10 mg/L have been conventionally treated as acute inflammation and excluded from epidemiologic studies of chronic inflammation. However, recent evidence suggest that such CRP elevations can be seen even with chronic inflammation. The authors assessed 3,300 participants in The Coronary Artery Risk Development in Young Adults study, who had two or more CRP measurements between 1992/3 and 2005/6 to a) investigate characteristics associated with repeated CRP elevation above 10 mg/L; b) identify subgroups at high risk of repeated elevation; and c) investigate the effect of different CRP thresholds on the probability of an elevation being one-time rather than repeated. 225 participants (6.8%) had one-time and 103 (3.1%) had repeated CRP elevation above 10 mg/L. Repeated elevation was associated with obesity, female gender, low income, and sex hormone use. The probability of an elevation above 10 mg/L being one-time rather than repeated was lowest (51%) in women with body mass index above 31 kg/m(2), compared to 82% in others. These findings suggest that CRP elevations above 10 mg/L in obese women are likely to be from chronic rather than acute inflammation, and that CRP thresholds above 10 mg/L may be warranted to distinguish acute from chronic inflammation in obese women.     

Biomechanical association of dental and temporomandibular pathology in a medieval Nubian population

An analysis of the relationship between oral pathology and degenerative change at the temporomandibular joint (TMJ) was undertaken on an archaeological sample of 122 adult crania from the Medieval site of Kulubnarti in Sudanese Nubia. The crania were sorted into 2 groups: those demonstrating clearly visible bony changes at the joint (TMJ+) and those without visible change (TMJ-). These groups were compared according to 1) age; 2) sex; 3) active dental pathologies (abscesses, caries, partial socket resorption); 4) tooth loss with complete socket resorption; and 5) dental attrition. No statistically significant association was evident between degenerative change at the TMJ and age, active dental pathologies, or dental attrition; however, sex differences and posterior tooth loss with complete socket resorption revealed a significant correspondence to degenerative TMJ changes. Both of these factors agree with the clinical literature and with biomechanical models (most notably that of Hylander) based upon modern populations. Furthermore, the results support the contention that paleopathological conditions can be analyzed from a clinical and functional biomechanical perspective.     

Within-group human variation in the Asian Pleistocene: the three Upper Cave crania

Numerous studies on Pleistocene samples have shown that within-group cranial variation was greater than that seen today. The three anatomically modern Upper Cave crania (UC 101, UC 102, and UC 103) from Zhoukoudian, China provide one of the best samples available for addressing the issue of the antiquity of the modern pattern of within-group cranial variability because archaeological evidence indicates that they are spatially and temporally restricted. Research on the Upper Cave fossils usually only includes UC 101 and UC 103 because of postmortem damage to UC 102's cranial vault. However, the face of UC 102 is undamaged, allowing for most facial measurements to be performed accurately. In this study we use facial dimensions to compare all three Upper Cave specimens, and we evaluate whether the variation seen among them is larger than that observed in extant populations.Using a worldwide sample of modern populations to establish a baseline, the three Upper Cave crania were compared to each other. Since there is disagreement over the sex of UC 102, this specimen is treated alternately as a female and as a male. Results show that the Upper Cave specimens exhibit significantly more variation than do individuals within more recent human populations, especially if UC 102 is considered male. Furthermore, results indicate that the fossils never fall into the same modern human group, and that each specimen is significantly atypical of its nearest modern neighbor in multivariate space.We conclude that the three Upper Cave crania do not represent a family group but are representative of the larger contemporaneous heterogeneous Asian Pleistocene population. Our results support the contention that today's within-group homogeneity is a relatively recent phenomenon, and is likely the result of a Neolithic population expansion and its many effects.     

Effectiveness of Scat Detection Dogs for Detecting Forest Carnivores

Abstract: We assessed the detection and accuracy rates of detection dogs trained to locate scats from free-ranging black bears (Ursus americanus), fishers (Martes pennanti), and bobcats (Lynx rufus). During the summers of 2003-2004, 5 detection teams located 1,565 scats (747 putative black bear, 665 putative fisher, and 153 putative bobcat) at 168 survey sites throughout Vermont, USA. Of 347 scats genetically analyzed for species identification, 179 (51.6%) yielded a positive identification, 131 (37.8%) failed to yield DNA information, and 37 (10.7%) yielded DNA but provided no species confirmation. For 70 survey sites where confirmation of a putative target species' scat was not possible, we assessed the probability that ≤1 of the scats collected at the site was deposited by the target species (probability of correct identification; P_ID). Based on species confirmations or P_ID values, we detected bears at 57.1% (96) of sites, fishers at 61.3% (103) of sites, and bobcats at 12.5% (21) of sites. We estimated that the mean probability of detecting the target species (when present) during a single visit to a site was 0.86 for black bears, 0.95 for fishers, and 0.40 for bobcats. The probability of detecting black bears was largely unaffected by site- or visit-specific covariates, but the probability of detecting fishers varied by detection team. We found little or no effect of topographic ruggedness, vegetation density, or local weather (e.g., temp, humidity) on detection probability for fishers or black bears (data were insufficient for bobcat analyses). Detection dogs were highly effective at locating scats from forest carnivores and provided an efficient and accurate method for collecting detection-nondetection data on multiple species.     

Diseases, lesions and malformations in the long-beaked common dolphin Delphinus capensis from the Southeast Pacific

Miscellaneous lesions of the head, skull, teeth, trunk, appendages, skin and genital tract were observed in 120 of 930 long-beaked common dolphins Delphinus capensis taken in fisheries off Peru between 1985 and 2000. Seven subsamples were defined according to the varying field sampling protocols. Forty-two dolphins showed at least 2 types of injuries or diseases affecting 1 or more organs. The majority (5 of 7) of traumas encountered were diagnosed as caused by violent, fisheries-related interactions, and the skin in 20.4 % of specimens (n = 54) showed healed scars from such interactions. Prevalences of malformations and traumas of crania (n = 103) were 2.9 and 1.9%, respectively. Lytic cranial lesions were present in 31.1% of dolphins (n = 103) and accounted for 84.2% of all bone injuries. Skull damage diagnostic for Crassicauda sp. infestation was encountered in 26.5% of dolphins (n = 98) and did not differ among sex and age classes. Crassicauda sp. and tooth infections were responsible for, respectively, 78.8 and 6.1% of the lytic lesions. Adult dolphins showed a high prevalence of worn and broken teeth (35%, n = 20) as well as damaged alveoli (20%, n = 70). Prevalence of 'paired teeth', a congenital condition, was 9.4% (n = 32). Lesions of the head, body and appendages were present in 10 dolphins and included traumas, deformations (e.g. scoliokyphosis and brachygnathia) and chronic mastitis. Ovarian cysts suggestive of follicular cysts were observed in 1 of 24 females. Chronic orchitis affected 1 of 78 males. Of 12 dolphins 2 had vesicular lesions of the penis. Prevalence of cutaneous lesions, abnormalities and scars ranged between 1.8% (n = 56) and 48.2% (n = 27).     

Dental anthropological indications of agriculture among the Jomon people of central Japan. X. Peopling of the Pacific

The high rate of crown caries (8.6%; 119/1,377 teeth) and other oral pathologies in 101 central Japan Middle to Late Jomon Period (ca. 1000 B.C.) crania indicate a level of carbohydrate consumption consistent with an agriculture hypothesis. Because Jomon dental crown and root morphology shows strong resemblances with past and present Southeast Asians, but not with ancient Chinese or modern Japanese, Jomon agriculture could be of great antiquity in the isolated Japanese islands. These dental data and other assembled facts suggest that ancestral Jomonese might have carried to Japan a cariogenic cultigen such as taro before the end of the Pleistocene from tropical Sundaland by way of the now-submerged east Asian continental shelf.     

Endocranial capacity of Western Australian aboriginal crania: comparisons and association with stature and latitude

The endocranial capacities (ECCs) of 73 Western Australian Aboriginal crania were estimated. Using water-standardised mustard seed, ECCs were (in cm3) males--means 1,239, S.D. 92.3; females--means 1,118, S.D. 77.5. The male and female mean values were smaller than those previously published for Australia as a whole; sexual dimorphism (9.7%) was also slightly lower. Comparison of the Western Australian Aboriginal sample with a large Danish sample (Pakkenberg and Voigt, 1964; Holloway, 1980) permitted analysis of factors underlying sex and population differences in ECC. In both samples about 40% of the mean sex differences in ECC could be related to stature differences; for each sex almost 2/3 of the differences between the Western Australian and Danish means appear to be associated with differences in stature and latitude. Allometric adjustments are also involved.