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Three to four decades ago an editor's instructions to manuscript reviewers requested that reviewers focus on evaluating the quality and significance of the author's research. Recent instructions now include things a reviewer should not do, such as not concerning oneself with manuscript formatting, not correcting typographical errors, and not correcting grammar. If sloppy formatting, typographical errors, and poor grammar detract from the quality and significance of the author's research, the reviewer must comment on these attributes, particularly when these things detract from evaluating the quality and significance of the research described. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Evidence gleaned from 1796 pieces of zooarchaeological literature published between 1900 and 2019, from 22 zooarchaeology textbooks published between 1956 and 2019, and 16 books on taphonomy published between 1969 and 2016 is used to assess the history of graphing in zooarchaeology. Mirroring changes in archaeology in general, the use of graphs (bar graphs, line graphs, scatterplots, etc.) to summarize analytical findings in zooarchaeology began in earnest in the 1960s. The variety of graph types expanded in the 1970s as the diversity of zooarchaeological variables documented increased in an effort to answer new questions regarding human behavioral interactions with prey animals and, in the 1980s, to address taphonomic concerns. Newly available computer technology and increased knowledge of statistics, along with the general belief that numbers are objective measures of magnitude, facilitated this expansion. The mean number of graphs per page in zooarchaeology textbooks has remained static (statistically) over the past five decades. The mean number of graphs per page in taphonomy books is a bit greater than in the zooarchaeology texts but statistically no different. The paucity of detailed discussions of what makes for a good graph in the zooarchaeology literature parallels that in the archaeology literature in general. Each graph has its own more or less unique grammar, so rules of thumb for producing effective (minimum mental gymnastics required) and efficient (minimal ink used) graphs are outlined. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the 1950s, medical doctor Raymond Dart proposed an ancient osteodontokeratic (ODK) culture of australopithecines to explain disparate frequencies of mammalian skeletal parts, an apparent pattern of fragment types, and spiral fractures of long bones. Subsequent research questioned the postulated anthropogenic cause largely on the basis of observations on bones that did not seem to have been modified by hominins. Spiral fractures continued to be used as a signature criterion of a hominin taphonomic agent by Americanists studying late Pleistocene fractured mammal bones from the Old Crow basin in Canada’s Yukon territory. Once it was determined actualistically that spiral fractures could be created without the requisite “crack-and-twist” technique proposed by Dart, other attributes of bone fracture were investigated as possible signature criteria of a hominin taphonomic agent. Over time, these attributes came to include (among others) the presence of loading points, the anatomical location of loading points, the size and shape of loading points, fracture surface texture, fracture surface angle, and the size of the fractured bone. Dart’s proposed ODK culture, while today believed to be invalid, had significant influences on the development of vertebrate taphonomy. The history of studying the reality of the ODK culture demonstrates incorrect ideas can prompt learning a great deal about how a particular part of the world works. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Publishing graphs that depict culture change has long been a means to illustrate what is known of the culture history of an area, including the Plateau culture area. Examination of 471 pieces of literature on Plateau archaeology published between 1895 and 2019 reveals aspects of the history of graphing culture change in the area. Different types of graphs, including tables of data, have been used across both North America and the Plateau. Graphs appear later in the twentieth century Plateau literature than for North America in general. Whereas spindle graphs (temporal frequency distributions) were popular elsewhere on the continent, they are rare in the Plateau literature. The richness of graph types used by Plateau archaeologists over time is not correlated with that evident among North American archaeologists. Plateau archaeologists have used line graphs and bar graphs to depict culture change. Excluding tables, the most popular graph type appearing in the Plateau literature consists of spatio-temporal rectangles bounding names of culture units. Graphs of temporally diagnostic projectile point forms plotted against time appear first in the 1960s, likely at the hands of Roald Fryxell. Although this graph type explicitly shows culture change, it is used less frequently by Plateau archaeologists than culture unit names within spatio-temporal rectangles. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Hyperbaric oxygen therapy is in wide use in human medicine around the world. Although hyperbaric oxygen therapy is available for veterinary use, it is still significantly underutilised. The physical principles, gas laws and physiologic mechanisms by which hyperbaric oxygen therapy is therapeutic, especially in traumatic injuries and complicated wound care, are discussed. Then, considerations are offered for the implementation of hyperbaric oxygen therapy in veterinary practices. Finally, a review of clinical indications for veterinary practices, including a presentation of select literature, is provided. Applying hyperbaric oxygen therapy in an earlier and more consistent manner could improve short‐ and long‐term outcomes in complicated wounds. The authors also hope this information may stimulate interest in the design of future, prospective studies for the various clinical situations described. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Identification of the species of animal represented by ancient bones, teeth, and shells based on the size and shape of those materials is one of the most fundamental and foundational steps in paleozoology, yet only scattered comments in the literature regarding this matter have been published. The history of taxonomic identification of faunal remains began with researchers learning which anatomical traits were taxonomically diagnostic; this required the creation of reference collections of skeletons of known taxonomy. To identify the taxon of animal represented by an ancient bone or tooth or shell requires comparison between the taxonomically unknown and reference materials of known taxonomy. The key assumption underpinning taxonomic identification is that anatomical similarity in size and shape of a reference bone and a paleozoological bone signifies genetic similarity and, thus, taxonomic similarity. Reference collections must be large both in terms of the number of species represented and the number of skeletons per species. Anatomical traits are morphological (qualitative), metric (quantitative), and meristic (frequency). Reporting of the identification protocol followed, including the reference skeletons, illustrated guides, and anatomical traits used, is strongly recommended so that what are believed to be taxonomically diagnostic traits can be tested and either used, revised, or discarded by others. An online database listing what are believed to be taxonomically diagnostic traits will increase efficiency, enhance accuracy of identifications, and should prompt re-identification of collections studied in the past. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Remains of the North American water vole (Microtus richardsoni) have previously been recovered from late Pleistocene and Holocene deposits in southwestern Alberta, western Montana, and north-central Wyoming. All are within the historically documented modern range of the metapopulation occupying the Rocky Mountains; no ancient remains of this large microtine have previously been reported from the metapopulation occupying the Cascade Range. Four lower first molar specimens from the late Holocene Stemilt Creek Village archaeological site in central Washington here identified as water vole are from the eastern slope of the Cascade Range and are extralimital to the metapopulation found in those mountains. There is no taphonomic evidence indicating long-distance transport of the teeth, and modern trapping records suggest the local absence of water voles from the site area today is not a function of sampling error. The precise age of the Stemilt Creek Village water voles is obscure but climate change producing well-documented late Holocene advances of nearby alpine glaciers could have created habitat conditions conducive to the apparent modest shift in the range of the species represented by the remains. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Evaluation of zooarchaeology's quantitative units known as NISP (number of identified specimens) and MNI (minimum number of individuals) during the last three decades of the twentieth century suggested neither provided ratio scale measures of taxonomic abundances. Many researchers at that time began to use NISP as often as MNI to measure taxonomic abundances. In part because of a desire to determine the composition of human diet more precisely, and in light of the fact that different taxa have different numbers of identifiable bones, four zooarchaeologists have, since 1990, used assemblages with known ANI (actual number of individuals) to evaluate whether NISP or MNI provides the most accurate measure of ANI. ANI data from ethnoarchaeological and historical contexts suggest taxonomic abundance data quantified as NISP or MNI are ordinal scale at best, something previously shown to be highly probable. Experimental data used to evaluate the accuracy of NISP and MNI as measures of ANI are either inappropriate or not designed to assess which quantitative unit produces the most accurate measure. A new quantitative unit proposed as an alternative to MNE (minimum number of [skeletal] elements)—the NDE (number of distinct elements)—is said to provide proportional abundances of taxa but demonstrably undercounts skeletal parts and fails to provide ratio scale abundance data. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The editors of the Journal of Northwest Anthropology invited twenty-five colleagues to share their perspectives on anthropological writing and publishing in an essay format. The purpose was to collect experiences, insights, and suggestions from experienced authors to assist other professionals in writing and publishing their own research. Nineteen of those invited accepted the challenge. The group includes academic and practicing anthropologists, archaeologists, and ecologists. Collectively, the group has written or co-written more than 150 books, 150 chapters in books, and more than 1,100 articles in professional journals. The essays contain personal writing-related anecdotes and philosophies, describe the changes occurring in the publishing industry, explore the benefits that can accrue from writing, and provide tips to improve one's writing to increase the chances of getting published. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Canadian Journal of Zoology is the property of Canadian Science Publishing and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Early Paleo-Indians in North America are historically hypothesized to have been large-game specialists. Despite decades of research, Early Paleo-Indian diets are alternately portrayed as of either specialist or generalist. Though some suggest that these terms are not useful, debate over the nature of these diets continues. Authors who have studied Early Paleo-Indian archaeofaunas from North America have analyzed either a conservative dataset, consisting only of taxa whose remains meet criteria indicating they were part of Early Paleo-Indian diet, or a liberal dataset which includes all taxa regardless of the presence or absence of evidence that represented taxa were part of the diet. Camp sites are assumed to be more indicative of long-term, average Early Paleo-Indian diet, but single-event kill sites and multiple-event kill sites are included in analyses. Richness, evenness, and heterogeneity of mammalian taxa and of body size classes for conservative and liberal datasets show that many assemblages cannot be categorized as representing either specialist or generalist diets regardless of dataset used or diversity measure employed. Early Paleo-Indian diet breadth was diverse and in some cases more diverse than during the subsequent Archaic. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose To become a great agent of change, you need to diagnose impediments and create remedies. However, to implement change successfully, you must take an inside-out and outside-in approach and focus on and align individual behavior, the functions of teams, and the organization as a whole.Design/methodology/approach The paper draws from 10 years of research and work with individuals, teams, and organizations.Findings Accelerating change in an organization requires leaders to define and align those activities that set the organization apart and give it a competitive advantage at the individual, team, and organizational levels.Originality/value As change leaders or L&D/OD professionals, this paper helps you recognize the need to develop your capabilities in five key roles: focus, align, engage, lead, and sustain. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Paleozoologists have long used taxa represented by ancient faunal remains to reconstruct paleoenvironments. Those ancient environments were the selective contexts in which hominin biological and cultural evolution took place. Knowing about those particularistic selective environments and how organisms responded to them is increasingly seen as critically important to identifying both how biota will respond to future (to some degree anthropogenically driven) environmental change, and biological conservation and management applications that will ensure sustainability of ecological resources and services. Reconstructing paleoenvironments requires knowledge of species' ecological tolerances, geographic ranges, habitats, environments, and niches. It also requires assumptions that extant species had the same ecological tolerances in the past as they do today and that changes in taxonomic composition or abundances reflect environmental change rather than sampling or taphonomic factors. Greater knowledge of ecological processes as well as increased analytical sophistication in paleozoology is providing increasingly rigorous and detailed insights to paleoenvironments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Tool design is a cultural trait-a term long used in anthropology as a unit of transmittable information that encodes particular behavioral characteristics of individuals or groups. After they are transmitted, cultural traits serve as units of replication in that they can be modified as part of a cultural repertoire through processes such as recombination, loss, or partial alteration. Artifacts and other components of the archaeological record serve as proxies for studying the transmission (and modification) of cultural traits, provided there is analytical clarity in defining and measuring whatever it is that is being transmitted. Our interest here is in tool design, and we illustrate how to create analytical units that allow us to map tool-design space and to begin to understand how that space was used at different points in time. We first introduce the concept of fitness landscape and impose a model of cultural learning over it, then turn to four methods that are useful for the analysis of design space: paradigmatic classification, phylogenetic analysis, distance graphs, and geometric morphometrics. Each method builds on the others in logical fashion, which allows creation of testable hypotheses concerning cultural transmission and the evolutionary processes that shape it, including invention (mutation), selection, and drift. For examples, we turn to several case studies that focus on Early Paleoindian-period projectile points from eastern North America, the earliest widespread and currently recognizable remains of hunter-gatherers in late Pleistocene North America. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Quantitative analysis of zooarchaeological taxonomic abundances and skeletal part frequencies often relies on parametric techniques to test hypotheses. Data upon which such analyses are based are considered by some to be 'ordinal scale at best', meaning that non-parametric approaches may be better suited for addressing hypotheses. An important consideration is that archaeologists do not directly or randomly sample target populations of artefacts and faunal remains, which means that sampling error is not randomly generated. Thus, use of inferential statistics is potentially suspect. A solution to this problem is to rely on a weight of evidence research strategy and to limit analysis to descriptive statistics. Alternatively, if one chooses to use statistical inference, one should analyse effect size to determine practical significance of results and adopt conservative, robust inferential tests that require relatively few assumptions. Archaeologists may choose not to abandon statistical inference, but if so, they should temper how they use statistical tools. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Northeastern North America has produced an incredible number of late Pleistocene faunal remains; however, many of these were discovered and excavated prior to the development of radiocarbon dating. Moreover, many of the 14C dates that do exist for such specimens were assayed prior to the development of purified collagen extraction methods, were performed on botanical remains of unspecified association with the faunal remains, or were accepted without concerns of young-carbon contamination from museum preservatives. Here, we present a set of high-precision accelerator mass spectrometry (AMS) dates obtained on Pleistocene faunal specimens from Connecticut, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania. Our data contain both newly discovered specimens and specimens that have resided in museum collections for over a century. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

ABSTRACT Local pollen data, diminution of body size of three ungulate species, and decreased mammalian richness and evenness all indicate grass decreased in abundance during the Pleistocene-Holocene transition (PHT) in eastern Washington state, USA. This paleoenvironmental history suggests that the abundance of remains of Microtus sp. should decrease as remains of Peromyscus maniculatus increase in abundance during the PHT. These two taxa have well-known ecologies relative to one another. PHT sediments at the Marmes archeological site in south-eastern Washington state are sorted into three chronologically sequent, isotaphonomic analytical units. Relative abundances of remains of Microtus sp. and P. maniculatus shift across the analytical units in the predicted manner whether raw abundances or rarified abundances are considered. These results suggest relative abundances of remains of Microtus sp. and P. maniculatus recovered from other sites may be used as relative indicators of paleohabitats. Their abundances at Homestead Cave, Utah, shift as predicted from the Late Pleistocene through the Early Holocene. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Archaeological reconnaissance in the Blue Mountains in 2013 resulted in the discovery of five artificial circular arrangements of local stones. Subsequent examination of satellite photographs of the area revealed two more rings. Ethnographic and archaeological records provide few clues as to the origins and functions of these rings. Local informant testimony suggests at least three of these rings may be helispots (helicopter landing areas); association with Forest Service structures and historical documents both suggest all seven stone rings could be helispots. A local informant suggests one or more of the rings may have originally been associated with American Indians. Future research should be directed toward study of constructional details and chronometric dating of a sample of the rings tofacilitate functional interpretation and to provide a robust test of the helispot hypothesis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: Small mammal communities in western North America experienced declines in taxonomic richness across the late Pleistocene to Holocene transition (PHT), a recent natural global warming event. One community also experienced a decline in evenness and others replaced one species with a congener. Variability in response of small mammal communities to PHT warming is apparent. At the presently arid and xeric Marmes site in the Columbia Basin of southeastern Washington State, megafauna were absent by about 13,000calyr BP, evenness of small mammals declined about 11,700calyr BP and again about 11,400calyr BP whereas richness declined about 11,400cal BP. Regional faunal turnover was, however, minimal among small-bodied taxa. Local mammal communities are depauperate as a result of megafaunal extinctions and subsequent decreases in small-mammal richness and evenness. The latter chronologically corresponds with a decrease in primary productivity driven by increasing warmth and aridity. More faunas must be studied in order to fully document the range of variability in the responses of mammalian communities to PHT warming. Documentation of patterns in those responses will facilitate understanding and enhance predictive accuracy with respect to responses of mammalian communities to modern global warming. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Review time is the duration between submission of a manuscript for possible publication and the author’s receipt of notification of the editor’s decision. There are two key questions about the peer-review process: (1) Has average review time changed over the past several decades? and (2) Has the adoption of online submission reduced average review time? A sample of 170 manuscripts submitted to a variety of journals from 1980 through 2012 indicates (1) no statistically significant difference between average review time for manuscripts submitted to behavioural science journals (mean ¼ 14.8 weeks) and average review time for manuscripts submitted to natural history journals (mean ¼ 15.2 weeks); (2) a statistically significant decrease from 1980 to 2012 in average review time irrespective of form of submission (i.e., paper or electronic); and (3) manuscripts submitted in paper form (1980–2009) had an average review time five weeks longer than that of manuscripts submitted online or electronically (2004–2012). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

It has been argued by some neozoologists (those who study living animals) that the palaeozoological record is biased and incomplete (relative to an existing biological community) and therefore should not be consulted for purposes of conservation biology. An article published in a biology journal in 2011 lists numerous reasons why natural history collections (NHCs) of skins and skulls of animals collected over the past century or two are exceptionally valuable to conservation biologists because those collections provide significant time depth to numerous variables that document global biological change. Many of those same variables can be, and have been, identified in the palaeozoological record. Those variables are of major value to conservation biology, whether their values are taken from 100-year-old NHCs or from palaeozoological remains. Empirical examples in which the identified variables are measured in palaeozoological contexts indicate that the palaeozoological record should indeed be consulted by conservation biologists and can no longer be considered unsatisfactory for modern resource management. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The archaeological concepts of association, context, and provenience have been known by archaeologists since the early nineteenth century, but the terms have not been used. Provenience is empirical and absolute; an association and a context are inferential and relative. These fundamental concepts have seldom been the subject of thoughtful discussion except when a particular association or context has implications far beyond the particular instance under study, such as in the context of considerations of claims for a pre-Clovis occupation of North America. Introductory archaeology textbooks published over the past 100 years do not always introduce the terms and sometimes fail to define them. Future discussion of the concepts should include several examples of what qualifies as evidence of an association or context, how the inference of an association or context was derived, and descriptions of analytical techniques used to determine if an inferred temporal association is valid. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The hypothesis that Euroamerican settlement displaced some populations of large mammal taxa from lowland plains habitats to previously unoccupied highland mountain habitats was commonly believed in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. By the middle twentieth century biologists had come to favor the hypothesis that Euroamerican colonization resulted in the extirpation of populations of large mammal in lowland habitats and those taxa survived in pre-existing relict populations in the highlands. Why modern biologists changed their minds is unclear. There is no historical evidence that unequivocally favors one hypothesis over the other. The low-elevation Columbia Basin of eastern Washington state in the northwestern United States is surrounded by forested mountains. The majority of historical records (1850 AD or younger) of black bear ( Ursus americanus), brown bear ( Ursus arctos), and North American elk ( Cervus elaphus) occur in mountainous, coniferous forest habitats. Paleozoological records of these taxa ≤ 10,000 year old and >160 year old in both highland and lowland habitats suggest the displacement hypothesis does not apply to ursids and elk in this area. These taxa seem to have been more or less ubiquitous in the area prior to Euroamerican colonization (ca. 1850 AD), and were extirpated from lowland habitats after colonization. Recent colonization of lowland shrub-steppe habitats by elk in particular, although historically unprecedented, must be categorized as recolonization rather than an invasion. Whether a species is classified as indigenous or nonindigenous may influence management activities focused on that species. The paleozoological record indicates ursids and elk are indigenous to the highland forest habitats of eastern Washington. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: We conducted a baseline prevalence survey of unvaccinated 11- to 18-year olds to inform effectiveness studies for the new human papillomavirus (HPV) immunisation programme in Scotland.Methods: Participants were recruited from schools and colleges and invited to provide demographic data and an anonymous urine sample for type-specific HPV testing.Results: Among females aged 11-14 years, the weighted prevalence was 1.1% overall; 0.9% for high-risk types and no infections were associated with types 16 and 18. Among 15- to 18-year old females, the weighted prevalence was 15.2% overall; 12.6% for high-risk types and 6.5% for types 16 and 18. Among females aged 16-18 years, infection was more frequently associated with attending college and rural schools, and showed a trend towards increasing prevalence with increasing social deprivation (P=0.045). Among males aged 11-14 years, the weighted prevalence was 1.4% overall; 1.0% for high-risk types and 0.7% for types 16 and 18. Among 15- to 18-year old males, the weighted prevalence was 3.9% overall; 2.4% for high-risk types and 0.7% for types 16 and 18.Conclusions: Human Papillomavirus prevalence is low among 11- to 14-year olds, which includes the age group targeted for routine vaccination. The prevalence in males and correlation with deprivation require further investigation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: A mandible identified as noble marten (Martes americana nobilis) recovered from sediments dating to 11,800cal yr BP and a humerus identified as M. a. cf. nobilis recovered from sediments dating from 13,100 to 12,500cal yr BP at the Marmes Rockshelter archaeological site in southeastern Washington represent the first record of this taxon in the state. Mammalian taxa associated with the Marmes Rockshelter noble marten represent a diversity of open mesic habitats corroborating earlier analyses of other records of the noble marten in the western United States and exemplify how paleozoologists determine the ecology and environmental predilections of extinct taxa. The recovery site represents the topographically lowest record of this species in western North America and the farthest north record in the United States. Future research should examine known late-Quaternary Martes spp. remains from British Columbia and Alberta to fill in the 2200-km geographic gap in the known distribution of this taxon between a record in the northern Yukon and those in the western United States, and to refine our knowledge of noble marten paleoecology. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Canadian Journal of Earth Sciences is the property of Canadian Science Publishing and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Historical data are incomplete regarding the presence/absence and distribution of bighorn sheep (Ovis canadensis) in eastern Washington State. Palaeozoological (archaeological and palaeontological) data indicate bighorn were present in many areas there during most of the last 10 000 years. Bighorn occupied the xeric shrub-steppe habitats of the Channeled Scablands, likely because the Scablands provided the steep escape terrain bighorn prefer. The relative abundance of bighorn is greatest during climatically dry intervals and low during a moist period. Bighorn remains tend to increase in relative abundance over the last 6000 years. Bighorn were present in eastern Washington in the nineteenth century, but were largely locally extirpated by the twentieth century. A collection of prehistoric bighorn astragali that likely includes specimens spanning the terminal Pleistocene and the entire Holocene consists of specimens that are, with one exception, the same size as a collection of modern bighorn astragali from Wyoming. The single exceptionally large specimen falls in the middle of the size range of specimens from the late Pleistocene of northern Wyoming, suggesting that Washington's prehistoric bighorn, like those from other areas, were larger than modern bighorn. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An optical turbulence algorithm has been running operationally since April 2005 at the Mauna Kea Weather Center. The algorithm makes use of information on turbulence kinetic energy provided by a planetary boundary layer scheme available in the Pennsylvania State University–NCAR Mesoscale Model and estimates the turbulent fluctuations of the atmospheric refractive index and seeing over the summit area of Mauna Kea. To investigate the potential and limitations of the optical turbulence algorithm, one year of observed seeing data from four observatories is compared with the model forecast seeing and a statistical analysis is carried out. Sensitivity tests regarding the accuracy of the underlying numerical weather forecasts and the model’s eddy diffusivity scheme are performed. Results from a simple calibration of the optical turbulence algorithm are presented. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: For more than fifty years it has been known that mammalian faunas of late-Pleistocene age are taxonomically unique and lack modern analogs. It has long been thought that nonanalog mammalian faunas are limited in North America to areas east of the Rocky Mountains and that late-Pleistocene mammalian faunas in the west were modern in taxonomic composition. A late-Pleistocene fauna from Marmes Rockshelter in southeastern Washington State has no modern analog and defines an area of maximum sympatry that indicates significantly cooler summers than are found in the area today. An earliest Holocene fauna from Marmes Rockshelter defines an area of maximum sympatry, including the site area, but contains a single tentatively identified taxon that may indicate slightly cooler than modern summers. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Atmospheric turbulence is a primary concern for astronomers. Turbulence causes amplitude and phase fluctuations in electromagnetic waves propagating through the atmosphere, constraining the maximum telescope resolution and resulting in telescope image degradation. Astronomical parameters that quantify these effects are generically referred to as seeing. Adaptive optics (AO) is used to reduce image degradation associated with optical turbulence. However, to optimize AO, knowledge of the vertical profile of turbulence and overall (integrated) seeing is needed. In this paper, an optical turbulence algorithm is described that makes use of the information on turbulence kinetic energy provided by a planetary boundary layer scheme available in the fifth-generation Pennsylvania State University–NCAR Mesoscale Model (MM5). Optical turbulence data collected on Mauna Kea during the 2002 site monitoring campaign are used to validate the algorithm, which has been implemented in operational runs of MM5 at the Mauna Kea Weather Center. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The concept of ‘cultural process’ has been of interest to anthropologists since the late 19th century. Franz Boss indicated that investigating cultural processes was central to anthropology, but his failure to define the concept set a disciplinary precedent. Process has seldom been discussed in theoretical detail because the basic notion is commonsensical. A.L. Kroeber provided a definition in 1948 and distinguished between short-term dynamics of how cultures operate and long-term dynamics resulting in cultural change. Leslie White conflated the two families of processes. Archaeologists working before 1960 focused on processes resulting in the diachronic evolution of cultures; many of these involved cultural transmission. Initially, processes involving the synchronic operation of a culture were conflated with diachronic evolutionary processes by processual archaeologists. In the late 1960s and early 1970s, Lewis Binford, David Clarke, and Frank Hole and Robert Heizer all discussed cultural processes within the framework of systems theory. Simultaneously, growing concern over the formational processes that created the archaeological record shifted attention from the original conception of cultural processes. Models of the temporal duration, scale, and magnitude of cultural processes illustrate their complexity and suggest avenues for further conceptualization. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Archeological evidence indicates that a dwarf fox ( Urocyon sp.) has inhabited Cozumel Island, Mexico at least since the arrival of Mayan peoples, but no taxonomic descriptions or morphological assessments of the animal exist. A recent field study indicates that this fox is on the verge of extinction and therefore it is critical to describe the population. Because no skins or complete skulls of the Cozumel fox exist in museum collections, we examined subfossils collected during archeological excavations of the human-waste middens of Mayans who inhabited the island c. 1500–500 years before present. Measurements of 37 bones from a minimum of 12 adult individuals suggest that this animal is diminutive (the body size was c. 60–80% of mainland specimens), similar to other Carnivora from Cozumel that are recognized as distinct species. Estimated rates of character differentiation for mainland and island foxes under a range of possible divergence periods (1000–130 000 years) suggest that the Cozumel fox population has been isolated for a minimum of 5000–13 000 years, and perhaps far longer. Colonization of the island by Urocyon therefore likely predates the colonization of Cozumel by humans. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]