Islands at the Crossroads Curet, L. Antonio; Hauser, Mark W; Armstrong, Douglas V ...
2011, 2011-07-15, 20110101
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This volume looks beyond cultural boundaries and colonial frontiers to explore the complex and layered ways in which both distant and more intimate sociocultural, political, and economic interactions ...have shaped Caribbean societies from 7000 years ago to recent times.
In clinical practice, many prediction models cannot be used when predictor values are missing. We, therefore, propose and evaluate methods for real-time imputation.
We describe (i) mean imputation ...(where missing values are replaced by the sample mean), (ii) joint modeling imputation (JMI, where we use a multivariate normal approximation to generate patient-specific imputations), and (iii) conditional modeling imputation (CMI, where a multivariable imputation model is derived for each predictor from a population). We compared these methods in a case study evaluating the root mean squared error (RMSE) and coverage of the 95% confidence intervals (i.e., the proportion of confidence intervals that contain the true predictor value) of imputed predictor values.
–RMSE was lowest when adopting JMI or CMI, although imputation of individual predictors did not always lead to substantial improvements as compared to mean imputation. JMI and CMI appeared particularly useful when the values of multiple predictors of the model were missing. Coverage reached the nominal level (i.e., 95%) for both CMI and JMI.
Multiple imputations using either CMI or JMI is recommended when dealing with missing predictor values in real-time settings.
•Use of conditional distributions per predictor value allow for real-time imputation.•A joint distribution can be estimated directly assuming multivariate normality (JMI).•Distributions can be estimated separately via a flexible modelling strategy (CMI).•Simulations indicate both JMI and CMI to be an improvement over mean imputation.
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This article aims to correct a number of archaeological misconceptions issuing from the Taíno-Carib dichotomy engrained within the discipline. We examine the evidence for Late Ceramic Age (AD ...800-1500) interactions between communities of the Greater and Lesser Antilles. This article explores and nuances the alleged dichotomy between Taíno and Carib societies, details a number of contact lines between them, and advances hypotheses regarding the mechanisms underlying these interactions such as incorporation, exchange, and appropriation.
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In the first book-length treatise on historical ecology of the West Indies,Island Historical Ecology addresses Caribbean island ecologies from the perspective of social and cultural interventions ...over approximately eight millennia of human occupations. Environmental coring carried out in carefully selected wetlands allowed for the reconstruction of pre-colonial and colonial landscapes on islands between Venezuela and Puerto Rico. Comparisons with well-documented patterns in the Mediterranean and Pacific islands place this case study into a larger context of island historical ecology.
Crossing the Borders Hofman, Corinne L; de Jong, Hylke; Keegan, William F ...
2008, 2010-11-18
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Explores the application of a selected number of newly emerging methods and techniques.   During the past few decades, Caribbean scholars on both sides of the Atlantic have increasingly ...developed and employed new methods and techniques for the study of archaeological materials. The aim of earlier research in the Caribbean was mainly to define typologies on the basis of pottery and lithic assemblages leading to the establishment of chronological charts for the region, and it was not until the 1980s that the use of technological and functional analyses of artifacts became widespread. The 1990s saw a veritable boom in this field, introducing innovative methods and techniques for analyzing artifacts and human skeletal remains. Innovative approaches included microscopic use-wear analysis, starch residue and phytolith analysis, stable isotope analysis, experimental research, ethnoarchaeological studies, geochemical analyses, and DNA studies.    The purpose of this volume is to describe new methods and techniques in the study of archaeological materials from the Caribbean and to assess possible avenues of mutual benefit and integration. Exploring the advantages and disadvantages in the application of a selected number of newly emerging methods and techniques, each of these approaches is illustrated by a case study. These studies benefited from a diverse array of experience and the international background of the researchers from Canada, the Netherlands, Cuba, Puerto Rico, Martinique, Italy, Mexico, Dominican Republic, England, and the United States who are integral members of the archaeological community of the Caribbean. A background to the study of archaeological materials in the Caribbean since the 1930s is provided in order to contextualize the latest developments in this field.    Contributors: Benoît Bérard, Mathijs Booden, Iris Briels, Jago Cooper, Alfredo Coppa, Andrea Cucina, Gareth Davies ,Hylke de Jong, Christy de Mille, Corinne L. Hofman, Menno L. P. Hoogland, Charlene Dixon Hutcheson, Daan Isendoorn, Loe Jacobs, William F. Keegan, Harold J. Kelly, Sebastiaan Knippenberg, Yvonne M. J. Lammers-Keijsers,Fernando Luna Calderón, Marcos Martinón-Torres, Lee A. Newsom, Channah Nieuwenhuis José R. Oliver,Jaime R. Pagán Jiménez, Raphaël G. A. M. Panhuysen, Roberto Rodríguez Suárez, Glenis Tavarez María, Michael Turney, Roberto Valcárcel Rojas, Annelou L. van Gijn,Rita Vargiu,Tamara Varney, Johannes Zijlstra
Archaic Age fisher-collector communities are known to have settled predominantly along coastlines in the islands of the northern Lesser Antilles beginning around 2300 cal BC. An Archaic Age campsite ...at Plum Piece on the island of Saba provides evidence for early populations exploiting inland tropical forest environments. Midden deposits have yielded a toolkit and faunal assemblage pointing to a seasonal occupation, possibly oriented towards a set of specialized forest activities. The identification of an archipelagic resource mobility strategy at the Plum Piece campsite suggest that it operated within the same subsistence/settlement/activity system as other Archaic Age sites in the region. This emphasizes the seasonal mobility, diversified modes of procurement and exploitation, and social interaction of Archaic Age communities in the northern Lesser Antilles.
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Use of prediction models is widely recommended by clinical guidelines, but usually requires complete information on all predictors, which is not always available in daily practice. We aim to describe ...two methods for real-time handling of missing predictor values when using prediction models in practice.
We compare the widely used method of mean imputation (M-imp) to a method that personalizes the imputations by taking advantage of the observed patient characteristics. These characteristics may include both prediction model variables and other characteristics (auxiliary variables). The method was implemented using imputation from a joint multivariate normal model of the patient characteristics (joint modelling imputation; JMI). Data from two different cardiovascular cohorts with cardiovascular predictors and outcome were used to evaluate the real-time imputation methods. We quantified the prediction model's overall performance mean squared error (MSE) of linear predictor, discrimination (c-index), calibration (intercept and slope), and net benefit (decision curve analysis). When compared with mean imputation, JMI substantially improved the MSE (0.10 vs. 0.13), c-index (0.70 vs. 0.68), and calibration (calibration-in-the-large: 0.04 vs. 0.06; calibration slope: 1.01 vs. 0.92), especially when incorporating auxiliary variables. When the imputation method was based on an external cohort, calibration deteriorated, but discrimination remained similar.
We recommend JMI with auxiliary variables for real-time imputation of missing values, and to update imputation models when implementing them in new settings or (sub)populations.