Ancestry assessments in bioarchaeology and forensic anthropology are best analyzed with population-specific methods. Through population-specific ancestry methods, the generalized Native American/Asian ancestry category can be better refined to reflect the diversity of Native American and Asiatic people. Individuals from modern (~1900 to present) Seminole Native American and Japanese populations, housed at The Ohio State University and Jikei University in Tokyo, respectively, reflect a relatively unbiased population sample, as demographics range from juveniles to adults, with both sexes being equally represented. This broad sampling of individuals from the Florida Seminole group and the greater Tokyo region enables researchers to explore the degree of variation between the Seminole and Japanese groups, as can be demonstrated osteologically. Dentitions are an ideal candidate to measure intra-population variability due to heritabilities of both their tooth size and dental morphological characteristics within populations. In an attempt to better understand the variation between Native American and Asian populations, observations of Seminole and Japanese-specific dental morphology and tooth dimensions were recorded from 281 individuals using the Arizona State University Dental Anthropology System (ASUDAS) and mesiodistal and buccolingual measurements, respectively. Significant differences, indicated by a p-value ≤ 0.05, were identified between the Seminole and Japanese groups in the analysis of morphological dental traits and odontometrics. Nineteen statistically significant morphological traits that differed in expression between the two sampled groups were identified, with eight traits being more present in the Seminole group than the Japanese group, whereas eleven traits being more present in the Japanese group than the Seminole group. Linear regression (LRA) and discriminant function analyses equations were developed from three sets of odontometric datasets; the raw, unaltered collected data, the general measurement mean dataset which supplements missing variables, and the ancestry-specific measurement mean data set which supplements missing variables. Both the linear regression and discriminant function models demonstrated success in classifying the Seminole and Japanese groups. The LRA equations presented classification rates higher than chance (81.5-90.4%). Twenty-three DFA equations were developed, ranging in successful classification rates of 61.5% to 100.0%. The ancestry-specific measurement mean dataset performed the best in both the LRA and DFA models. The results of this study indicate that morphological trait observations and odontometric analyses can be useful tools in the differentiation of Native American and Asian populations, as differences between subgroups of these populations (Seminole and Japanese) were identified. These differences are likely due to the homogeneous and insular composition of both sampled populations. Further analysis of the statistically significant morphological traits identified in the current study and continued testing of more subpopulations of Native American and Asian populations will not only aid in ancestry estimations in forensic and bioarchaeology research, but also in the cessation of grouping Native American and Asian individuals under one category.

Secular change has been documented in a number of studies focused on cranial and postcranial morphometrics and nonmetric traits. However, to date, few studies have addressed the potential of temporal change occurring in the expression of cranial nonmetric traits utilized in ancestry estimation. This study examines the effect of secular change on the expression of 23 cranial and mandibular nonmetric traits frequently employed in ancestry estimation; with age-at-death, sex, and year-of-birth of each individual documented for data analysis. Data were collected from European American individuals from the Hamann-Todd Skeletal Collection (n=518) and from the William M. Bass Donated Skeletal Collection (n=602). Individuals were divided into birth-year cohorts as follows: Hamann-Todd Skeletal Collection: 1824-1849 (Cohort 1), 1850-1874 (Cohort 2), 1875-1899 (Cohort 3), and 1900-1924 (Cohort 4); William M. Bass Donated Skeletal Collection: 1900-1924 (Cohort 4), 1925-1949 (Cohort 5), and 1950-1987 (Cohort 6). Pearson’s chi-square analyses produced significant p-values (≤ 0.01) in 19 of the 23 traits between the six birth-year cohorts. Factor maps generated through correspondence analyses were used as visual representations of relative trait expression between the cohorts. Ordinal regression analyses assessed the degree of variation between each cohort in relation to Cohort 1 along with the influence of age-at-death and sex on trait expression. Overall, analyses of the data revealed that secular change has occurred in 11 of the 23 traits, including: anterior nasal spine (ANS), malar tubercle (MT), nasal bone contour (NBC), postbregmatic depression (PBD), supranasal suture (SPS), transverse palatine suture (TPS), zygomaticomaxillary suture (ZS), gonial angle flare (GAF), mandibular tori (MDT), and posterior ramus edge inversion (PREI). Change in trait expression occurred in both males and females in seven traits, including: ANS, MT, TPS, ZS, GAF, MDT, and PREI. Significant change in trait expression occurred predominately between Cohorts 3 and 4 (birth years ranging from 1875 to 1924) and Cohorts 4 and 5 (birth years ranging from 1900 to 1949). This study demonstrates that secular change in nonmetric cranial and mandibular traits has occurred over the last two centuries with the greatest change appearing at the turn of the twentieth century.

A dissertation submitted to the Faculty of Medicine, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, in complete fulfillment of the requirements for the conversion of a Diploma to a Bachelor of Science Degree in Occupational Therapy. / WHSLYP2016

A dissertation submitted to the Faculty of Medicine, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg for the Degree of Master of Science. Johannesburg, 1983 / Two investigations are explored in this dissertation: dietary calcium intake in relation to calcium status in a group of rural Black children and the use of the dietary history and 24-hour dietary recall as a research tool. Children with rachitic bone deformities, members of a community in the Eastern Transvaal, have prompted extensive study. This has shown that the population as a whole has lowered serum calcium levels which appear to be the direct result of calcium deficient diets / IT2018

Thesis advisor: Fabio Schiantarelli / The fundamental concept unifying this thesis is that outcomes at small geographical units can shed light on key economic questions of interest for both macroeconomics and finance. Some of the questions I explore in my work include whether bank networks facilitate access to financial capital by small businesses in the US, whether lending to small businesses is important for short-term economic growth, and whether different cultural and institutional endowments improve economic outcomes in the long run.\\ Small Business Lending and the Bank-Branch Network: In this chapter, I examine the role of banks in propagating local economic shocks from one area to another through their network of bank branches, by exploiting a newly developed branch-level dataset. Specifically, I examine the change in the geographical distribution of small business loans within each bank network in response to: 1) increases in deposit growth due to presence in areas with new fracking wells; 2) changes in the profitability of real estate loans due to presence in areas experiencing real estate booms. I evaluate how the supply-driven changes in lending following these shocks impact real economic activity. I find that banks export the increase in liquidity from the fracking areas and fund more small business loans at other, more distant branches. Borrowers from banks with a higher exposure to fracking experience faster establishment growth at areas beyond 100 miles from the fracking activity. The results for the real estate booms show that increases in the return of real estate loans contributed to a decrease in small business lending at branches away these booms. Borrowers from banks with high exposure to residential appreciation experienced slower establishment growth even within areas at a significant distance from the real estate booms.\\ Does It Matter Where You Came From? Ancestry Composition and Economic Performance of US Counties, 1850 - 2010: The United States provides a unique laboratory for understanding how the cultural, institutional, and human capital endowments of immigrant groups shape economic outcomes. In this paper, we use census micro-samples to reconstruct the country-of-ancestry composition of the population of US counties from 1850 to 2010. We also develop a county-level measure of GDP per capita over the same period. Using this novel panel data set, we show that the evolution of the country-of-origin composition of a county is significantly associated with changes in county-level GDP. The cultural, institutional, and human capital endowments from the country of origin drive this association. Particularly important are attitudes towards cooperation with others. Using an instrumental variable strategy, we identify a significant effect of changes in the ancestry-weighted endowments on economic development. Finally, our results suggest that while the fractionalization of ancestry groups is positively related to county GDP, fractionalization in attributes such as trust is negatively related to local economic performance. \\ Culture: Persistence and Evolution: This paper presents evidence on the speed of evolution (or lack thereof) of a wide range of values and beliefs of different generations of European immigrants to the US and interprets the evidence in the light of a simple model of socialization and identity choice. The main result is that persistence differs greatly across cultural attitudes. For instance, many family values, political orientation, and most deep personal religious values converge slowly to the prevailing US norm. Others, such as attitudes toward cooperation, children's independence, and sexual matters, converge rather quickly. The results obtained studying higher generation immigrants differ greatly from those found when the analysis is limited to the second generation, as typically done in the literature, and they imply a lesser degree of persistence than previously thought. Finally, we show that persistence is ``culture specific'' in the sense that the country from which one's ancestors came matters for the pattern of generational convergence. / Thesis (PhD) — Boston College, 2016. / Submitted to: Boston College. Graduate School of Arts and Sciences. / Discipline: Economics.

One role of forensic anthropologists is to create a biological profile to help identify remains. This includes estimating ancestry. Many morphological and metrical methods of ancestry estimation have been created and utilized. This study was aimed at created a simple, metrical analysis of dental arch size and shape to aid in ancestry estimation. Maximum length and width of over 700 dental casts (both maxillary and mandibular) were recorded and statistically analyzed by one-way ANOVA. Measurements were taken using points on teeth rather than on the fragile bone of the maxilla and mandible. It was found that ancestry does affect the size of the maxillary arch but not the mandibular one, but discriminant function analysis showed that ancestry estimation is not possible with the present set of data for either the maxilla or the mandible. Further research will need to be conducted with larger sample sizes of certain populations in order to improve ancestry estimation using this method.

Esta pesquisa tem como objetivo investigar a simultaneidade crepuscular do espaçotempo unitário de matriz afroameríndia, pensando o lugar, a paisagem, como portas abertas, um espelho das culturas que possibilita a inspiração de símbolos, de suas matrizes ancestrais à arte e cotidiano das cidades e campos. Ao mesmo tempo, possibilita que o contexto tradicional na contemporaneidade auxilie em desdobramentos suscetíveis à superação de situações-limites sociais e educacionais. Uma pretaíndia desaldeada como pesquisadora contou com o primeiro conjunto de pensadores, além dos Situacionistas1 que apoiaram nossa constituição epistemológica, assim como Juana Elbein dos Santos e mestre Didi. O estilo investigativo se apóia na leitura mitohermenêutica de Marcos Ferreira-Santos, atrelados às coorientações de Kabengele Munanga e Carlos Serrano. Milton Santos e Paulo Freire complementam a abordagem apoiando a compreensão e a fundamentação do que podemos chamar de Epistemologias do Sul ou ainda de uma antropologia cabocla. / This work talks about spacetime notion in AfroAmerIndians Thought and the researsh have been doing since author graduate in Geography. In that time the Situacionists thinkers and Henry Lefebvre were composed the eyes of critics theorys of everyday lives with Black Antropology suports. Its a interdisciplinary study that becomes a intersectional researsh between race, class, gender and cultures. We were studing with prof. Kabengele Munanga and Carlos Serrano, about their Cultural Antropology of SubSaarian Africa and the theory of race and racism, especially in Brazil. In Education, the teses chair was in Imaginary Studies with prof. Marcos Ferreira-Santos, so this work became to be suported by Hermeneutics ways of thinking. The foudation of this master work was the Ancestrality, the Orality, the Corporelity, the Word, the Arts and Traditional Crafts. The simbology is, in that dimensions, like messages of its philosophy and comunication, all this concepts are impressed in the territoriality of those communities and in its landscapes that permeates the body until the Arquiteture, the Mitology (cosmology and the cosmogony).

Thesis (Masters of Science)--Curtin University of Technology, 2003. / Title from PDF t.p. (viewed Mar. 3, 2007). "November 2003." Includes bibliographical references.

Purpose: Little is known about the use of complementary and alternative medicine (CAM), including traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) in ethnic populations with cancer living in Canada. The purpose of this study was to assess the prevalence and predictors of TCM/CAM use in newly diagnosed Chinese cancer patients who were starting cancer treatments. <p>Patients and Methods: A consecutive sample of newly diagnosed Chinese cancer patients treated at the British Columbia Cancer Agency over a four month period was surveyed. During admission, the study questionnaire was distributed along with other registration forms and anonymously returned in well-labeled boxes. A bilingual Chinese interpreter was available to answer any questions potential participants might have had. The 15-item questionnaire focused on TCM/CAM use, socio-demographics, and medical and cultural factors. <p>Results: Ninety-one patients completed the questionnaire. The majority of respondents (90%) were born outside of Canada and 64% completed the questionnaire in Chinese. TCM/CAM was used by 44% of respondents. Herbal remedies, vitamins/minerals, and prayer were the most commonly used therapies. In the bivariate analysis, factors predicting TCM/CAM use were prior TCM/CAM use (p < 0.001), having received chemo/radiotherapy (p = 0.021), female sex (p = 0.015), immigrant status (p = 0.040), and reporting a non-official language most frequently used at home (p = 0.018). Following multivariate analysis, it was found that prior CAM use (p < 0.001), lower income (p = 0.043), and immigrant status (p = 0.030) were associated with TCM/CAM use. <p>Conclusion: TCM/CAM use in newly diagnosed Chinese cancer patients is very common and results are comparable to previous studies in other populations. Healthcare practitioners must become aware of the widespread use of CAM and engage discussions about CAM use with their patients, especially those of a specific ethno-cultural group who may be less acculturated to Western society.

This master thesis was performed at the personal genomics company DNA-Guide Europa AB. The goal was to create DNA tests for drug response and to update the already existing DNA test for autosomal ancestry. The DNA tests for drug response: The objective of this part of the master thesis was to create individual DNA test for response to each drug within different groups of medicines. The tests were meant to interest private customers. DNA-Guide uses a microarray technique for the DNA-analysis and this delimited the choice of SNPs. Inserts, deletions, repeats and copies of a whole gene can be difficult to implement on the microarray chip. The SNPs and studies used as a base for the tests had to fulfil several criteria. The studies must be large enough to prove that the association between the genotype and the response to the drug is valid among Europeans, since it’s the clientele of the company. The found association must also be strong enough to be of interest for a DNA test at DNA-Guide. If the SNPs could be implemented on the microarray chip a customer report was created about the possible results. The report had the same structure and design as those for the existing DNA tests at DNA-Guide. The work resulted in DNA tests and reports for medicines within the seven groups of medicines; anticoagulants, medicine against high cholesterol, blood pressure lowering medicine, asthma inhalers, antidepressants, birth-control pills and antiretroviral drugs. The DNA test for autosomal ancestry: The purpose of the update was to enhance to customers understanding of their results and the construction of the test. The update resulted in a description of how the used algorithm processes the results (from the DNA analysis) and a guide to interpret the results of the test. Conclusions: Both the DNA tests for drug response and the updated DNA test for autosomal ancestry can add value for the customers at DNA-Guide. The DNA tests for drug response can offer an explanation to why a medicine does not have an effect or reveal if the customer has higher risk of adverse effects. Even though recommendations for dosage or treatment could not be provided in almost all of the created DNA tests, being aware of the higher risk can be the first step to avoid adverse effects. The update of the DNA test report for autosomal ancestry resulted in a better description of the algorithm and limitations of the test, which can enhance the customers’ understanding of their results.