172 research outputs found
Phytolith analysis reveals the intensity of past land use change in the Western Ghats biodiversity hotspot
No full textThis paper presents a study of phytoliths (opal silica bodies from plants) from sediment sequences obtained from two tropical forest patches in the Western Ghats of India: a sacred grove (sequence covers last 550 cal BP) and a forest patch in a plantation (sequence covers last 7500 cal BP). The sites are located at mid-elevation (c. 650–1400 m above sea level) in a mosaic landscape showing anthropogenic open habitats and plantations as well as some evergreen forests. The aim of this paper is to evaluate the landscape composition of grassland and forest over time in the region, grassland being invariably shaped by anthropogenic activities, particularly fire for cultivation. We identified and classified phytoliths into 34 morphotypes from five taxonomic groups: Poaceae (grasses), Cyperaceae (sedges), Arecaceae (palms), Pteridopsida (ferns) and woody dicotyledons (broad-leaved trees and shrubs). We also calculated the humidity–aridity index (Iph). First, our results show that grasses are the most represented phytolith types in both sites, followed by broad-leaved trees and shrubs, palms, sedges, and ferns. Second, the highly variable climatic index Iph over the last 1000 years suggest that changes in phytolith percentage (e.g. broad-leaved trees) might be caused by human agro-pastoral activities, such as clearing through fires and irrigation. Prior to these human activities, the phytolith signal for early Holocene climate is congruent with the existing literature. Finally, this study compares new phytolith results with previous pollen data from the same sites. We find good agreement between these two botanical proxies throughout, thus validating our findings. We provide important evidence regarding the history of environmental change due to anthropogenic activities in the Western Ghats. This has important implications because it provides insights into how tropical forest will respond to increased intensity of human activities
Ambroise paré (1510-1590) and his innovative work on the treatment of war injuries
No full textThe purpose of this study is to summarize the innovations of Ambroise Paré (1510-1590) on the treatment of war wounds and improving amputation technique through ligature in arteries and veins. Ambroise Paré debunked the widely accepted idea that gun powder was poisonous for wounds. He also minimized the use of cautery of wounds by his dressing methods and the application of ligature during amputations. All these innovative rationales revolutionized the practice of war surgery during the Renaissance and paved the way for the introduction of modern surgery. Nevertheless, although his wound dressing innovations became widely accepted, the same did not happen with ligature and amputation; those techniques could become widely applicable if one could somehow control bleeding until the blood vessels had been tied. This became possible much later in the 18th century when Jean Louis Petit invented the first useful and efficient tourniquet. © The Author(s) 2017
Experiences of bodily disorder in French books 1573-1592
Get PDFMary Douglas, in Purity and Danger and Elizabeth Grosz, in Volatile Bodies concur that the human body whose boundaries are traversed or transgressed is troubling, threatening and risky. The threats to which Douglas and Grosz separately refer are largely ideological and cultural threats, but their identification of the problematic nature of ruptured or unusual bodily boundaries is nevertheless relevant to the analysis of the actual bodily disorder with which this thesis is concerned. Disease, cannibalism and monstrosity are forms of bodily behaviour or conditions in which boundaries are inherently, or are rendered, unclear, and in the sixteenth-century books of Ambroise Paré, Jean de Léry and Michel de Montaigne, the question of the disorderly nature of these three physical phenomena is addressed. A fundamental feature of the books produced by these three writers is the emphasis on the experience of the form of bodily disorder in question on which the written account is based. Paré, a surgeon, treated plague patients and dissected monstrous specimens before writing about his experiences in his Œuvres completes', Léry observed the practice of cannibalism in Brazil before returning to Europe and witnessing the consumption of human flesh during the siege of Sancerre; and Montaigne, whose final essay is significantly entitled 'De ľexperience', develops a method of writing, or essaying, which involves the writer attempting to evaluate critically all received experiences and information before arriving at his own conclusion. The depiction of cannibalism, monstrosity and disease in the books of these three writers will be examined using a methodology developed around the principles of Mikhail Bakhtin's theory of dialogism. The particular relevance of this literary theory to the theme of the disordered body in French sixteenth-century books is the emphasis that Bakhtm also places on the writer's experience of his subject matter. In addition, Bakhtm argues that writers experience an impulse to consummate, in other words to define, explain and contextualise, and present as complete the world they observe. This thesis argues that the question of bodily boundaries raised by Douglas and Grosz can be addressed by Bakhtinian theory, and seeks to illustrate the ways in which Paré, Léry and Montaigne exhibit an awareness of the problem of the disordered body, and develop narrative strategies to overcome it which correspond to the functions of a Bakhtinian Author
Tracking late-Quaternary extinctions in interior Alaska using megaherbivore bone remains and dung fungal spores
Get PDFOne major challenge in the study of late-Quaternary extinctions (LQEs) is providing better estimates of past megafauna abundance. To show how megaherbivore population size varied before and after the last extinctions in interior Alaska, we use both a database of radiocarbon-dated bone remains (spanning 25–0 ka) and spores of the obligate dung fungus, Sporormiella, recovered from radiocarbon-dated lake-sediment cores (spanning 17–0 ka). Bone fossils show that the last stage of LQEs in the region occurred at about 13 ka ago, but the number of megaherbivore bones remains high into the Holocene. Sporormiella abundance also remains high into the Holocene and does not decrease with major vegetation changes recorded by arboreal pollen percentages. At two sites, the interpretation of Sporormiella was enhanced by additional dung fungal spore types (e.g., Sordaria). In contrast to many sites where the last stage of LQEs is marked by a sharp decline in Sporormiella abundance, in interior Alaska our results indicate the continuance of megaherbivore abundance, albeit with a major taxonomic turnover (including Mammuthus and Equus extinction) from predominantly grazing to browsing dietary guilds. This new and robust evidence implies that regional LQEs were not systematically associated with crashes of overall megaherbivore abundance
Stroke research priorities for the next decade - A supplement statement on intracranial haemorrhage
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Une usure dentaire différentielle chez les Néandertaliens ?
No full textDifferences in tooth wear are said to be found when comparison is made between anterior and posterior teeth among Neandertaliens. Some researchers have suggested that this queer wear on front teeth might lead to infer that Neandertaliens used their anterior dentition to hold objects while working on them. Others assert that differential wear is the proof of paramasticatory activities which contribute to select and maintain processes operating on Neandertals " muzzle " shaped face. The investigation of presumed relationship between tooth wear and cultural may be important, but a preliminar scientific study of facts has to be done. The use of anterior teeth for paramasticatory activities among Neandertals is supposed to be based on the paper of Hrdlicka (1911). But this author only wrote : (p. 408) : "The teeth in man, as well as in the animals, are, strictly speaking, only natural tools". Since, authors created the paramasticatory hypothèse, repeated it as a fact and now study it as an evidence. To study differential wear on teeth, a specific tool is needing. In this way we propose to test experimentally the dental wear scoring scale created by Molnar. While the levels of degree of wear were formulated in a manner such that each succeeding level represents a more severe expression of dental wear, the differences between levels and among each types of tooth, have to be assumed to be equal in magnitude. Our experimentation shows that the dental wear scoring scale of Molnar is not efficient to describe differential wear of teeth. We propose a new scale allowing to answer if anterior teeth wearing is much heavier than posterior one. Nevertheless, we can not show any distinction between Neandertaliens and anatomically modern humans.L'existence d'une usure plus prononcée des incisives par rapport aux dents jugales sur certains fossiles néandertaliens a été avancée par plusieurs auteurs. Cette existence présumée est à l'origine de l'hypothèse d'une utilisation particulière des dents antérieures chez les Néandertaliens. Or, ce comportement singulier aurait une grande implication culturelle. Pour étudier ce phénomène il convient de définir parfaitement l'usure dentaire. Comme préliminaire à la discussion de l'existence ou non d'une usure dentaire différentielle, il est utile d'élaborer un outil qui permette de la quantifier. Dans ce but nous avons étalonné l'échelle d'usure dentaire de Molnar, très utilisée en anthropologie et en odontologie. Malgré la constitution d'un abaque permettant de quantifier l'usure dentaire différentielle, il n'apparaît pas de distinction entre les Néandertaliens et les hommes modernes du Paléolithique ni avec des populations contemporaines.Zeitoun V., Ambroise D. Une usure dentaire différentielle chez les Néandertaliens ?. In: Paléo, n°7,1995. pp. 13-25
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