Cancer in Ancient Human Populations: Methods and Practice in Bioarchaeology and Paleopathology

Best Undergraduate Writing in Anthropology Award, 2019-2020Despite its prevalence in contemporary public health, research on the paleopathology of cancer is still extremely limited. Successful methods have been employed to identify cancer in human remains which show a very small fraction of the existing archaeological record to contain signs of cancer. This current evidence would indicate that cancer was much rarer in antiquity than it is now, and this would suggest that cancer is a product of modern day environments and lifestyles. However, this conclusion is based upon very narrow research utilizing a methodology that is limited in its reach. Current methods rely solely on gross observation of skeletal material, which fails to account for the wide range of factors that influence the growth and development of carcinomas. This methodology is insufficient in providing a detailed history of the growth and development of cancer in human antiquity. This project aims to determine an interdisciplinary methodology for the study of ancient human cancers, incorporating approaches employed in bioarcheology, epidemiology, and more contemporary cancer genomics.No embargoAcademic Major: Anthropological SciencesAcademic Major: Englis

In Search of Intuition

What are intuitions? Stereotypical examples may suggest that they are the results of common intellectual reflexes. But some intuitions defy the stereotype: there are hard-won intuitions that take d..

Wendell and Miller\u27s Torah ethics and early Christian identity (Book Review)

A review of Wendel, S. J., & Miller, D. M. (Eds.). (2016). Torah ethics and early Christian identity. Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans. 271 pp, $35.00. ISBN 978080287319

Diversification of livelihoods among small-scale farmers in the Nyando Basin, Kenya: Findings from a climate-smart agriculture baseline survey

This brief summarizes findings of a climate-smart agriculture (CSA) research project led by the Amsterdam Center for World Food Studies (ACWFS) with the participation of the CGIAR Research Program on Climate Change, Agriculture and Food Security (CCAFS) in East Africa, University of Nairobi (School of Economics) and Wageningen Economic Research. It is based on baseline data collected as part of an ongoing survey of 122 households located in the Climate-Smart Villages (CSVs) and non-CSVs villages of Nyando Basin in Kisumu and Kericho Counties. It discusses diversification of livelihood sources

CHEMICAL WEATHERING YIELDS IN RELATION TO LAND USE IN THE CUYAHOGA AND MAUMEE WATERSHEDS

Data obtained from the National Center for Water Quality Research database at Heidelberg University are used to look at two steams, the Maumee River and the Cuyahoga River. Data from a wet year, 2009, and from 2011, a dry year, are used to determine the relationship between river discharge (Q), with the concentration of dissolved silicon (Si), or reactive silicate in both rivers. Log vs log plots show that, except at low discharge rates, both rivers behave chemostastically in that there is little change of dissolved Si concentration with discharge. With data from both years, the silicate chemical weathering yields were calculated for both rivers. Because of the tillage, fertilizer, and tile drainage, it was initially hypothesized, that the agriculturally dominated Maumee would have higher weathering yields that the more natural dominated watershed of the Cuyahoga River. Calculations demonstrated the opposite, with the Cuyahoga yields being 2.76 and 4.79 tons Si/km2/yr and the Maumee being 1.76 and 2.45, for 2009 and 2011, respectively.No embarg