The late pre-Hispanic period in the US Southwest (A.D. 1200–1450) was characterized by large-scale demographic changes, including long-distance migration and population aggregation. To reconstruct ...how these processes reshaped social networks, we compiled a comprehensive artifact database from major sites dating to this interval in the western Southwest. We combine social network analysis with geographic information systems approaches to reconstruct network dynamics over 250 y. We show how social networks were transformed across the region at previously undocumented spatial, temporal, and social scales. Using well-dated decorated ceramics, we track changes in network topology at 50-y intervals to show a dramatic shift in network density and settlement centrality from the northern to the southern Southwest after A.D. 1300. Both obsidian sourcing and ceramic data demonstrate that long-distance network relationships also shifted from north to south after migration. Surprisingly, social distance does not always correlate with spatial distance because of the presence of network relationships spanning long geographic distances. Our research shows how a large network in the southern Southwest grew and then collapsed, whereas networks became more fragmented in the northern Southwest but persisted. The study also illustrates how formal social network analysis may be applied to large-scale databases of material culture to illustrate multigenerational changes in network structure.
From Huhugam to Hohokam Hill, J. Brett; Doelle, William H; Martínez, David ...
2018, 2018-12-19
eBook
From Huhugam to Hohokam: Heritage and Archaeology in the American Southwest is an historical comparison of archaeologists' views of the ancient Hohokam with Native O'odham concepts about themselves ...and their relationships with their neighbors and ancestors.
Estimating population size, age composition, and sex ratio of mule deer (Odocoileus hemionus) is important to conservation and managed hunting of this species in the western United States. ...Increasingly, wildlife agencies are estimating abundance of deer using fecal DNA (fDNA), especially in forested habitats where aerial surveys are not feasible. These same data can be used to estimate overall sex ratio but require additional data on age structure to quantify adult- and fawn-specific sex ratios, which are expected to differ substantially. We demonstrate an integrated modeling approach to estimating population sizes of adult females, adult males, and fawns from 3 sources of data: fDNA, camera stations, and global positioning system (GPS) telemetry. We conducted the study on an 11,500-km² forested region in northern California, USA, corresponding to 3 hunt management zones. Within a Bayesian framework, we used spatial capture–recapture (SCR) modeling of fDNA samples and prior information on home range sizes from telemetry to estimate sex-specific densities, and N-mixture modeling of camera detections to separate adult and fawn densities. We estimated 29,317 adult females (90% CI = 24,550–34,592), 10,845 adult males (90% CI = 7,778–14,858), and 19,587 fawns (90% CI = 15,340–24,430) within the study area. The inclusion of telemetry increased precision of our results, and cameras provided comparable estimates of density when we calibrated them on the SCR results. Based on these results, we recommend a monitoring program of fDNA transects repeated once every 5 years, camera stations repeated at half of transects every year, and telemetry data from 1 deer for every 2 transects on average. We estimated an average annual cost of $1,316 (U.S.) per transect to sustain this endeavor. The integration of cameras with fDNA to combine age structure data with sex-specific abundance data represents a novel and significant step forward in the capacity to estimate deer population parameters.
Medical personnel may find it challenging to distinguish severe Exertional Heat Illness (EHI), with attendant risks of organ-injury and longer-term sequalae, from lesser forms of incapacity ...associated with strenuous physical exertion. Early evidence for injury at point-of-incapacity could aid the development and application of targeted interventions to improve outcomes. We aimed to investigate whether biomarker surrogates for end-organ damage sampled at point-of-care (POC) could discriminate EHI versus successful marathon performance.
Eight runners diagnosed as EHI cases upon reception to medical treatment facilities and 30 successful finishers of the same cool weather marathon (ambient temperature 8 rising to 12 ºC) were recruited. Emerging clinical markers associated with injury affecting the brain (neuron specific enolase, NSE; S100 calcium-binding protein B, S100β) and renal system (cystatin C, cysC; kidney-injury molecule-1, KIM-1; neutrophil gelatinase-associated lipocalin, NGAL), plus copeptin as a surrogate for fluid-regulatory stress, were sampled in blood upon marathon collapse/completion, as well as beforehand at rest (successful finishers only).
Versus successful finishers, EHI showed significantly higher NSE (10.33 6.37, 20.00 vs. 3.17 2.71, 3.92 ug.L-1, P<0.0001), cysC (1.48 1.10, 1.67 vs. 1.10 0.95, 1.21 mg.L-1, P = 0.0092) and copeptin (339.4 77.0, 943 vs. 18.7 7.1, 67.9 pmol.L-1, P = 0.0050). Discrimination of EHI by ROC (Area-Under-the-Curve) showed performance that was outstanding for NSE (0.97, P<0.0001) and excellent for copeptin (AUC = 0.83, P = 0.0066).
As novel biomarker candidates for EHI outcomes in cool-weather endurance exercise, early elevations in NSE and copeptin provided sufficient discrimination to suggest utility at point-of-incapacity. Further investigation is warranted in patients exposed to greater thermal insult, followed up over a more extended period.
Patients with multiple injuries or sepsis requiring intensive care treatment invariably develop a catabolic state with resultant loss of lean body mass, for which there are currently no effective ...treatments. Recovery can take months and mortality is high. We hypothesise that treatment with the orexigenic and anti-inflammatory gastric hormone, ghrelin may attenuate the loss of body mass following critical illness and improve recovery.
Male Wistar rats received an intraperitoneal injection of the fungal cell wall derivative zymosan to induce a prolonged peritonitis and consequent critical illness. Commencing at 48h after zymosan, animals were randomised to receive a continuous infusion of ghrelin or vehicle control using a pre-implanted subcutaneous osmotic mini-pump, and continued for 10 days.
Zymosan peritonitis induced significant weight loss and reduced food intake with a nadir at Day 2 and gradual recovery thereafter. Supra-physiologic plasma ghrelin levels were achieved in the treated animals. Ghrelin-treated rats ate more food and gained more body mass than controls. Ghrelin increased adiposity and promoted carbohydrate over fat metabolism, but did not alter total body protein, muscle strength nor muscle morphology. Muscle mass and strength remained significantly reduced in all zymosan-treated animals, even at ten days post-insult.
Continuous infusion of ghrelin increased body mass and food intake, but did not increase muscle mass nor improve muscle function, in a long-term critical illness recovery model. Further studies with pulsatile ghrelin delivery or additional anabolic stimuli may further clarify the utility of ghrelin in survivors of critical illness.
...we discuss indicators of migration and social diversity in oral traditions and the archaeological record, emphasizing the importance of interplay between social and ecological factors. There was ...sufficient land and water to support continued occupation of the lower Salt, but as the social and ecological relationships among settlements along canal systems changed, it became increasingly difficult to sustain profitable cultivation near canal intakes. ...it was not the magnitude of degradation that doomed Classic period irrigation systems along the lower Salt, but the location of those effects in relation to vital system components, attempts to keep these large systems going in a context of declining population, and the arrival of populations with divergent historical traditions and motivations.
SOLE REMEDY CLAUSE NOT A BAR TO EQUITABLE RECOVERY IN ABSENCE OF OTHER REMEDIES Under the governing PSA in UBS, the investors' remedies were limited to a cure of the breach, replacement with a ...substitute loan that was not in breach, or repurchase of the breaching loan.13 Consistent with other RMBS precedents under New York law, however, the court held that a money damages remedy was recoverable in equity in lieu of repurchase of the actual loans due to the absence of any possible remedy were the court to hold otherwise.14 In W&S, the plaintiffsought to avoid the sole remedy provision in the PSA by arguing that, if the trustee had disclosed the breaches, an enumerated substitution remedy would have occurred, that is, the replacement of the defective loan with a non-defective loan. ...the plaintiffargued that it should recover lostexpectation- type damages.15 The W&S court rejected this damages theory because the defendant's expert testified that, if the originator or the trustee "had simply replaced defective loans with similar but non-defective loans, the Trusts would have performed no better. In MBIA Insurance Corp. v. Credit Suisse Securities (USA) LLC,44 for example, the court explained that, for purposes of merely surviving early motion practice, no direct link between the breach and the loss need be shown; however, to prove damages at trial, a causative link is necessary.45 Consistent with that analysis, the court denied any recovery based on non-breaching but nonperforming loans even though the insurer would not have insured them had it known of the widespread breaches among the population as a whole.46 The plaintiffargued that no "evidence" was needed on causation because any breach increases the risk of loss and is thus a "material and adverse" effect.47 The cour denied summary judgment because what those parties meant by "material and adverse" could differ from what has been found applicable in other cases.48 The court also denied summary judgment for loans for which the defendant could not provide the underwriting guidelines that it claimed were applicable, holding that evidence of intentional bad-faith destruction would be necessary to award something like a default judgment.49 In Basis PAC-Rim Opportunity Fund (Master) v. TCW Asset Management Co.,50 the court reversed summary judgment on a similar basis, i.e., that the plaintiffhad failed to prove that the misrepresentations about the mortgages led to the economic losses suffered on those loans, especially in the face of the defendant's evidence that much or all of the loss nevertheless would have occurred due to the market's collapse in 2008.51 The court rejected the plaintiff's argument that it was enough to show that it would not have bought the mortgage securities but for the misrepresentations.52 The W&S court went even further by consistently rejecting the plaintiff's claims based on proof that the trusts would not have fared better had they been populated with non-breaching loans in light of the macro-economic reality of the 2008 financial crisis. ...the trustee sought recovery both for those loans and for loans with newly discovered breaches that were found in the course of preparing the reunderwriting expert report before trial.65 The court permitted the trustee to seek recovery as to all of the loans, relying on another case that was decided under New York law, Nomura Home Equity Loan, Inc. v. Nomura Credit & Capital, Inc.66 However, the UBS court rejected the trustee's contention that, because notice of some breaches was provided by letter, the defendant sponsor somehow had "constructive" knowledge of "pervasive" breaches in loans throughout the securitization.67 The UBS court's statute of limitations rulings may not survive appeal, however, given a more recent New York state court ruling.68 In U.S. Bank, N.A. v. GreenPoint Mortgage Funding, Inc.,69 decided after the UBS judgment order, the plaintifftrustee filed its complaint on the last possible day under the statute of limitations but without any loan-level detail.70 After filing the complaint, the trustee issued repurchase demands under the repurchase protocol in the applicable contracts.71 A New York state appellate court held that these post-suit notices were untimely for statute of limitations purposes and did not relate back to the first filing.72 In so holding, the court distinguished Nomura, which had held that loans first identified as breaching after the complaint was filed related back on the basis that other loans had been identified as breaching before suit was filed.73 In GreenPoint, by contrast, the first notices were sent post-suit, but the GreenPoint court nonetheless allowed the suit to survive dismissal, to the extent that the plaintiffcould show that the post-suit notices were superfluous because the defendant had previous knowledge of the breaches.74 While GreenPoint will not be binding should UBS appeal to the Second Circuit, the U.S. Supreme Court has observed that "an intermediate appellate state court . . . is a datum for ascertaining state law which is not to be disregarded by a federal court unless it is convinced by other persuasive data that the highest court of the state would decide otherwise. '"80 The W&S court found that the discovery doctrine did not apply because the trustee had no duty to investigate for breaches and, except as to a small number of loans determined to be in breach after various third-party audits were conducted and for which the trustee fulfilled its disclosure obligation, the trustee did not discover any other loan-level breaches.81 In other statute of limitations rulings, the plaintiffs have successfully avoided the usually ironclad bar of ACE Securities Corp. v. DB Structured Products, Inc.82 by using New York's borrowing statute to invoke foreign statutes of limitations and accrual principles where the contract is governed by a New York choice of law provision.83 As reported in the previous Annual Survey,84 government actors generally have a longer statute of limitations due to an extender provision in Financial Institutions Reform, Recovery, and Enforcement Act of 1989 ("FIRREA").85 In 2016, the Ninth Circuit, joining the Tenth Circuit, ruled in National Credit Union Administration Board v. RBS Securities, Inc.86 that the extender provisions of FIRREA operate even to extend statutes of repose.87 RMBS SETTLEMENTS In addition to the two trials, two major settlements took place during the past year.
To investigate changes in renal status from exercise in the heat with acclimatisation and to evaluate surrogates markers of Acute Kidney Injury.
Prospective observational cohort study.
20 male ...volunteers performed 60 min standardised exercise in the heat, at baseline and on four subsequent occasions during a 23-day acclimatisation regimen. Blood was sampled before and after exercise for serum creatinine, copeptin, interleukin-6, normetanephrine and cortisol. Fractional excretion of sodium was calculated for corresponding urine samples. Ratings of Perceived Exertion were reported every 5 min during exercise. Acute Kidney Injury was defined as serum creatinine rise ≥26.5 μmol L−1 or fall in estimated glomerular filtration rate >25%. Predictive values of each candidate marker for developing Acute Kidney Injury were determined by ROC analysis.
From baseline to Day 23, serum creatinine did not vary at rest, but showed a significant (P<0.05) reduction post-exercise (120 102, 139 versus 102 91, 112 μmol L−1). Acute Kidney Injury was common (26/100 exposures) and occurred most frequently in the unacclimatised state. Log-normalised fractional excretion of sodium showed a significant interaction (exercise by acclimatization day), with post-exercise values tending to rise with acclimatisation. Ratings of Perceived Exertion predicted AKI (AUC 0.76, 95% confidence interval 0.65–0.88), performing at least as well as biochemical markers.
Heat acclimatization is associated with reduced markers of renal stress and AKI incidence, perhaps due to improved regional perfusion. Acclimatisation and monitoring Ratings of Perceived Exertion are practical, non-invasive measures that could help to reduce renal injury from exercise in the heat.
One of the most prominent but least understood demographic phenomena in the precontact Southwest is the disappearance of the Hohokam from the valleys of southern Arizona. Despite extensive research, ...no widely accepted explanation has been offered. We argue that the failure to identify a satisfactory cause is due to excessive focus on catastrophic phenomena and terminal occupations, and a lack of attention to gradual demographic processes. Based on a combination of macro-regional population studies and local research in the lower San Pedro River valley, we present an explanation for gradual population decline precipitated by social and economic coalescence beginning in the late A.D. 1200s. In the southern Southwest an influx of immigrants from the north led to a shift from a dispersed, extensive settlement/subsistence strategy to increased conflict, aggregation, and economic intensification. This shift resulted in diminished health and transformation from population growth to decline. Over approximately 150 years gradual population decline resulted in small remnant groups unable to maintain viable communities. Small, terminal populations were ultimately unable to continue identifiable Hohokam cultural traditions and consequently disappeared from the archaeological record of southern Arizona, either through migration or a shift in lifestyle that rendered them archaeologically invisible.
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