Search results for "SocArXiv|Social and Behavioral Sciences|Anthropology"
showing 10 items of 1971 documents
Morphological variability of Upper Paleolithic and Mesolithic skulls from Sicily
2020
Scenarios for the dispersal of Homo sapiens in Southern Europe and in the Mediterranean basin have been uncertain, given the scarceness of osteological samples and the simplicity of the proposed archaeologically-based settlement hypotheses. According to available data, the first anatomically modern humans entered Sicily during the Late Pleistocene, coming from the Italian peninsula. A presumably small Late Epigravettian population colonised coastal sites. Later, North-Western archaeological horizons gave hospitality to a significant Mesolithic expansion. In order to verify a hypothesis of continuity in the peopling of the island, we analyzed Sicilian skulls from the Late Epigravettian site …
Yes, you can? A speaker’s potency to act upon his words orchestrates early neural responses to message-level meaning
2013
Evidence is accruing that, in comprehending language, the human brain rapidly integrates a wealth of information sources-including the reader or hearer's knowledge about the world and even his/her current mood. However, little is known to date about how language processing in the brain is affected by the hearer's knowledge about the speaker. Here, we investigated the impact of social attributions to the speaker by measuring event-related brain potentials while participants watched videos of three speakers uttering true or false statements pertaining to politics or general knowledge: a top political decision maker (the German Federal Minister of Finance at the time of the experiment), a well…
Comparing indirect methods of digit ratio (2D:4D) measurement.
2008
The ratio of the lengths of the second and fourth finger (2D:4D) has been proposed to index prenatal exposure to androgens. Different methods have been utilized to measure digit ratio, however, their measurement precision and economy have not been systematically compared yet. Using different indirect methods (plastic ruler, caliper, computer software), three independent raters measured finger lengths of 60 participants. Generally, measurement precision (intraclass correlation coefficient, technical error of measurement, and relative technical error of measurement) was acceptable for each method. However, precision estimates were highest for the computer software, indicating excellent measur…
The main trends in the palaeodemography of the 7th-18th century population of Latvia
2006
The study represents palaeodemographic research of osteological material of 3304 individuals from the funds of the Anthropological Laboratory of the Institute of History of the University of Latvia in Riga, dating from the 7 th to the 18 th century AD. Compensated life expectancy at birth is varying between 20.3 and 22.2 years during the research period. Crude mortality has changed between 49.3 and 45 %o. In the early period (7 th - 13 th century) there is a significant male prevalence (2.2 - 1.4); female life expectancy at the age of 20 is on average 6.6 years less than for males. This difference decreases to 5.4 years in the 13 th - 18 th century. According to historical demography, femal…
Short review: Field recovery and potential information value of small elements of the skeleton
2011
The recovery of small elements of the skeleton (e.g. hyoid, carpals, and hand and foot phalanges) is one of the established tasks of the archaeologist and physical anthropologist when working in the field, whether in an archaeological or forensic context. In the present work, we illustrate the field location of ossified laryngeal cartilages, hand sesamoids, and the medial clavicular epiphyses. The potential information offered by these elements is briefly summarized. The frequency of these elements observed in a cemetery dating from 1943 indicates the possibility that these elements could be found in other contexts at a higher frequency than expected.
Sequential grouping modulates the effect of non-simultaneous masking on auditory intensity resolution.
2012
The presence of non-simultaneous maskers can result in strong impairment in auditory intensity resolution relative to a condition without maskers, and causes a complex pattern of effects that is difficult to explain on the basis of peripheral processing. We suggest that the failure of selective attention to the target tones is a useful framework for understanding these effects. Two experiments tested the hypothesis that the sequential grouping of the targets and the maskers into separate auditory objects facilitates selective attention and therefore reduces the masker-induced impairment in intensity resolution. In Experiment 1, a condition favoring the processing of the maskers and the targ…
Relationship between Meditative Practice and Self-Reported Mindfulness: the MINDSENS Composite Index
2014
Mindfulness has been described as an inherent human capability that can be learned and trained, and its improvement has been associated with better health outcomes in both medicine and psychology. Although the role of practice is central to most mindfulness programs, practice-related improvements in mindfulness skills is not consistently reported and little is known about how the characteristics of meditative practice affect different components of mindfulness. the present study explores the role of practice parameters on self-reported mindfulness skills. A total of 670 voluntary participants with and without previous meditation experience (n = 384 and n = 286, respectively) responded to an…
Application of mtDNA sequence analysis in forensic casework for the identification of human remains
2000
Abstract In four forensic cases of unidentified skeletal remains investigated in the last year, we were able to attach three to missing persons. In one case we could show that the discovered bone sample did not fit to a missing child. The method for mitochondrial DNA analysis for the routine identification of skeletal remains was established in our institute by typing bone samples of defined age obtained from Frankfurt's cemetery. Reproducible results were obtained for bones up to 75 years old. For analysis the bone samples were pulverised to fine powder, decalcified and DNA was extracted. From the DNA we amplified a 404-bp fragment from HV-1 and a 379-bp fragment from HV-2 of the mtDNA con…
Do bone geometric properties of the proximal femoral diaphysis reflect loading history, muscle properties, or body dimensions?
2019
Abstract Objectives: The aim of this study was to investigate activity‐induced effects from bone geometric properties of the proximal femur in athletic vs nonathletic healthy females by statistically controlling for variation in body size, lower limb isometric, and dynamic muscle strength, and cross‐sectional area of Musculus gluteus maximus. Methods: The material consists of hip and proximal thigh magnetic resonance images of Finnish female athletes (N = 91) engaged in either high jump, triple jump, soccer, squash, powerlifting, endurance running or swimming, and a group of physically active nonathletic women (N = 20). Cross‐sectional bone geometric properties were calculated for the lesse…
Assessing thoraco-pelvic covariation in Homo sapiens and Pan troglodytes: A 3D geometric morphometric approach
2019
[Objectives]: Understanding thoraco-pelvic integration in Homo sapiens and their closest living relatives (genus Pan) is of great importance within the context of human body shape evolution. However, studies assessing thoraco-pelvic covariation across Hominoidea species are scarce, although recent research would suggest shared covariation patterns in humans and chimpanzees but also species-specific features, with sexual dimorphism and allometry influencing thoraco-pelvic covariation in these taxa differently.