People in Motion: Introduction to Transnational Movements and Transwar Connections in the Anthropological and Genetic Study of Human Populations

Commentary: Nationalism and Transnationalism in Anthropological Research

Fetal alcohol spectrum disorders (FASD) are often characterized as a cluster of brain-based disabilities. Though cardiovascular effects of prenatal alcohol exposure (PAE) have been documented, the vascular deficits due to PAE are less understood, but may contribute substantially to the severity of neurobehavioral presentation and health outcomes in persons with FASD.Methods:We conducted a systematic review of research articles curated in PubMed to assess the strength of the research on vascular effects of PAE. 40 pertinent papers were selected, covering studies in both human populations and animal models.Results:Studies in human populations identified cardiac defects, and defects in vasculature, including increased tortuosity, defects in basement membranes, capillary basal hyperplasia, endarteritis, and disorganized and diminished cerebral vasculature due to PAE. Preclinical studies showed that PAE rapidly and persistently results in vasodilation of large afferent cerebral arteries, but to vasoconstriction of smaller cerebral arteries and microvasculature. Moreover, PAE continues to affect cerebral blood flow into middle-age. Human and animal studies also indicate that ocular vascular parameters may have diagnostic and predictive value. A number of intervening mechanisms were identified, including increased autophagy, inflammation and deficits in mitochondria. Studies in animals identified persistent changes in blood flow and vascular density associated with endocannabinoid, prostacyclin and nitric oxide signaling, as well as calcium mobilization.Conclusion:Although the brain has been a particular focus of studies on PAE, the cardiovascular system is equally affected. Studies in human populations, though constrained by small sample sizes, did link pathology in major blood vessels and tissue vasculature, including brain vasculature, to PAE. Animal studies highlighted molecular mechanisms that may be useful therapeutic targets. Collectively, these studies suggest that vascular pathology is a possible contributing factor to neurobehavioral and health problems across a lifespan in persons with a diagnosis of FASD. Furthermore, ocular vasculature may serve as a biomarker for neurovascular health in FASD

OBJECTIVE: To assess the risk to human health of the plant bracken (Pteridium sp). DESIGN: An evaluation of studies of human and animal populations exposed to bracken, together with a...

Notes on Contributors

Notes on Contributors

<p dir="ltr">Human populations are a powerful engine of change and have had such an impact on the planet’s environments that it has been proposed (unsuccessfully) that we should have a new geologic epoch named after us: the Anthropocene. In this book I will explore the discipline of demography, or the study of human populations and especially how we measure various aspects of them. This will involve questions about where we came from, where we are currently, how we got here, where we’re going, and what we do and have done along the way. The book explores the discipline of demography, or the study of past, present, and future human populations. It expands on the complexities of the seemingly simple expression of births, deaths, migration and the resulting population change that is called the population model. It describes, compares, and analyses change, and explores forecasts within and between the world's human populations. It uses data from, principally, the United Nations Population Division, but also from the Wittgenstein Centre, and the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation. The possible impacts of predicted population changes on Canadian and global society are covered, as are questions about resource use and sustainable population size. The objectives of the book are (1) to explore demographic terms, tools, concepts, data sources, and language, (2) to develop practical skills to find, manage, manipulate, and analyze demographic data, (3) to gain a theoretical and applied understanding the causes and effects of demographic change in Canada, the world, and selected regions and nations, (4) to understand the importance of human populations in changing the planet, (5) to explore the impacts of human population on resource use and modelling, and (6) to explore what a “sustainable population” means, whether it is achievable, and what it would take to make it so.</p><p dir="ltr">The book covers five principal areas of interest. <i>First</i>, a population dynamics section describes topics such as human capital, the population model, demographic change, fertility, migration, and forecasting. <i>Second</i>, a population structures section explores how demographic dynamics shape demographic structures such as demographic transition, population pyramids, survivorship, and dependency. <i>Third</i>, a population longevity and health section looks at dependency and health costs, aging, and health metrics. <i>Fourth</i>, a resources and sustainability section examines the impacts of demographics and population geography on politics and resources using the ‘two overpopulations’ concept premised on the ideas of Malthus and the Neo-Malthusians, contrasted with the Cornucopian perspective. The section also looks at the effects of the rapidly changing political economy of the world and the place of demography in shaping it. <i>Fifth</i>, a section on the growth and change in urban populations in included that looks at concepts of urban growth, urbanization and the differences between them that results in a three part transitions model of the urbanization process. Finally, the book ends with a discussion of what is meant by sustainable population and whether it is achievable. Each chapter explores this content in a data rich, analysis intensive, and narrative discussion of implications, ramifications, impacts, and some sense of what the rest of the 21st century may bring.</p><p dir="ltr">This book is, in large part, just that: a formally referenced narrative on the quite literal life-and-death discipline that is demography. While grounded in evidence and argument—with more than 500 footnoted references and 360 figures, many of them data visualizations—it adopts a style somewhat looser than the standard textbook. Readers will find verifiable and evidence based conclusions interspersed with stylistic flourishes and, at times, sentiments that are candid and unvarnished. But throughout, it remains anchored to the principle that has always guided my work: <i>ex testimoniis veritas</i>—truth comes from evidence.</p><p><br></p>

<p dir="ltr">Human populations are a powerful engine of change and have had such an impact on the planet’s environments that it has been proposed (unsuccessfully) that we should have a new geologic epoch named after us: the Anthropocene. In this book I will explore the discipline of demography, or the study of human populations and especially how we measure various aspects of them. This will involve questions about where we came from, where we are currently, how we got here, where we’re going, and what we do and have done along the way. The book explores the discipline of demography, or the study of past, present, and future human populations. It expands on the complexities of the seemingly simple expression of births, deaths, migration and the resulting population change that is called the population model. It describes, compares, and analyses change, and explores forecasts within and between the world's human populations. It uses data from, principally, the United Nations Population Division, but also from the Wittgenstein Centre, and the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation. The possible impacts of predicted population changes on Canadian and global society are covered, as are questions about resource use and sustainable population size. The objectives of the book are (1) to explore demographic terms, tools, concepts, data sources, and language, (2) to develop practical skills to find, manage, manipulate, and analyze demographic data, (3) to gain a theoretical and applied understanding the causes and effects of demographic change in Canada, the world, and selected regions and nations, (4) to understand the importance of human populations in changing the planet, (5) to explore the impacts of human population on resource use and modelling, and (6) to explore what a “sustainable population” means, whether it is achievable, and what it would take to make it so.</p><p dir="ltr">The book covers five principal areas of interest. <i>First</i>, a population dynamics section describes topics such as human capital, the population model, demographic change, fertility, migration, and forecasting. <i>Second</i>, a population structures section explores how demographic dynamics shape demographic structures such as demographic transition, population pyramids, survivorship, and dependency. <i>Third</i>, a population longevity and health section looks at dependency and health costs, aging, and health metrics. <i>Fourth</i>, a resources and sustainability section examines the impacts of demographics and population geography on politics and resources using the ‘two overpopulations’ concept premised on the ideas of Malthus and the Neo-Malthusians, contrasted with the Cornucopian perspective. The section also looks at the effects of the rapidly changing political economy of the world and the place of demography in shaping it. <i>Fifth</i>, a section on the growth and change in urban populations in included that looks at concepts of urban growth, urbanization and the differences between them that results in a three part transitions model of the urbanization process. Finally, the book ends with a discussion of what is meant by sustainable population and whether it is achievable. Each chapter explores this content in a data rich, analysis intensive, and narrative discussion of implications, ramifications, impacts, and some sense of what the rest of the 21st century may bring.</p><p dir="ltr">This book is, in large part, just that: a formally referenced narrative on the quite literal life-and-death discipline that is demography. While grounded in evidence and argument—with more than 500 footnoted references and 360 figures, many of them data visualizations—it adopts a style somewhat looser than the standard textbook. Readers will find verifiable and evidence based conclusions interspersed with stylistic flourishes and, at times, sentiments that are candid and unvarnished. But throughout, it remains anchored to the principle that has always guided my work: <i>ex testimoniis veritas</i>—truth comes from evidence.</p><p><br></p>

Notes on Contributors

What is ‘demography’? A short answer, sufficient perhaps to quickly satisfy the lay inquirer, is ‘the study of human populations’. More elaborate definitions are, however, to be found in the literature. Several are reproduced in Table 1.1, where page references make it clear that it is common for books like this one to commence by addressing the question just posed. Some definitions are more restrictive than others. The Belgian Achille Guillard is credited with having first coined and defined the term ‘demography’. Of the more recent definitions cited, that attributed to the IUSSP advances us a little beyond ‘the study of human populations’, but remains general and non-specific. Hauser and Duncan provide more detail, introducing the notion of ‘territorial distribution’ to provide a touchpoint with geography and itemizing four processes through which populations change over time. Bogue asserts the ‘statistical and mathematical’ nature of demography, adds ‘marriage’ as a fifth process generating change and claims theory-building as a long-run disciplinary goal. Shryock, Siegel and Associates in their encyclopaedic two-volume survey of demographic techniques offer that demography may be defined either ‘narrowly or broadly’, whilst Wunsch and Termote explicitly acknowledge only three processes of change, although their second sentence broadens the agenda a la Shryock et al. Weeks’s definition is a real catch-all, that of Hinde highlights future prediction as an important element of demography, Preston, Heuveline and Guillot are succinct (perhaps too succinct to be very helpful), and Weinstein and Pillai emphasize that demographers deal with aggregates of living individuals. Siegel and Swanson’s definition revises that of Shryock, Siegel and Associates in the earlier edition of The Methods and Materials of Demography.

Identifying essential genes on a genome scale is resource intensive and has been performed for only a few eukaryotes. For less studied organisms essentiality might be predicted by gene homology. However, this approach cannot be applied to non-conserved genes. Additionally, divergent essentiality information is obtained from studying single cells or whole, multi-cellular organisms, and particularly when derived from human cell line screens and human population studies. We employed machine learning across six model eukaryotes and 60 381 genes, using 41 635 features derived from the sequence, gene function information and network topology. Within a leave-one-organism-out cross-validation, the classifiers showed high generalizability with an average accuracy close to 80% in the left-out species. As a case study, we applied the method to Tribolium castaneum and Bombyx mori and validated predictions experimentally yielding similar performances. Finally, using the classifier based on the studied model organisms enabled linking the essentiality information of human cell line screens and population studies.

Haploid high quality reference genomes are an important resource in genomic research projects. A consequence is that DNA fragments carrying the reference allele will be more likely to map successfully, or receive higher quality scores. This reference bias can have effects on downstream population genomic analysis when heterozygous sites are falsely considered homozygous for the reference allele. In palaeogenomic studies of human populations, mapping against the human reference genome is used to identify endogenous human sequences. Ancient DNA studies usually operate with low sequencing coverages and fragmentation of DNA molecules causes a large proportion of the sequenced fragments to be shorter than 50 bp—reducing the amount of accepted mismatches, and increasing the probability of multiple matching sites in the genome. These ancient DNA specific properties are potentially exacerbating the impact of reference bias on downstream analyses, especially since most studies of ancient human populations use pseudo-haploid data, i.e. they randomly sample only one sequencing read per site. We show that reference bias is pervasive in published ancient DNA sequence data of prehistoric humans with some differences between individual genomic regions. We illustrate that the strength of reference bias is negatively correlated with fragment length. Most genomic regions we investigated show little to no mapping bias but even a small proportion of sites with bias can impact analyses of those particular loci or slightly skew genome-wide estimates. Therefore, reference bias has the potential to cause minor but significant differences in the results of downstream analyses such as population allele sharing, heterozygosity estimates and estimates of archaic ancestry. These spurious results highlight how important it is to be aware of these technical artifacts and that we need strategies to mitigate the effect. Therefore, we suggest some post-mapping filtering strategies to resolve reference bias which help to reduce its impact substantially.

Reviewed by: Women's ILO: Transnational Networks, Global Labour Standards and Gender Equity, 1919 to Present ed. by Eileen Boris, Dorothea Hoehtker, and Susan Zimmermann Elizabeth McKillen Eileen Boris, Dorothea Hoehtker, and Susan Zimmermann, eds., Women's ILO: Transnational Networks, Global Labour Standards and Gender Equity, 1919 to Present ( Leiden: Brill 2018) The International Labour Organization (ilo) will celebrate its centennial in 2019. Studies by scholars and ilo functionaries of this long-lived and uniquely structured affiliate of the League of Nations and United Nations abound, but the role of women in shaping its policies has received only sporadic attention. Such neglect is not surprising because, until recently, women have constituted a very small percentage of the members of the ilo governing body, or of the delegates and technical advisors sent by individual nations to the yearly ilo conferences. Yet this edited collection of fourteen essays makes a convincing case that women have played an important role in shaping the ilo's policies toward women workers and in ensuring the ratification and implementation of ilo conventions governing women's work in diverse national contexts. The book is divided into two overlapping sections. The first section primarily considers the role of transnational women's networks in shaping debates and policies within the ilo; the second focuses on the ways in which ilo standards were negotiated and implemented within particular nations, regions, and populations of workers. In an important opening chapter of the first section, Dorothy Sue Cobble explores the neglected role of women in the "origin story" of the ilo. (27) The blueprints for the ilo were first drawn up by the all-male Commission on International Labour Legislation at the Versailles Peace Conference in 1919. Fearful of the growing contagion of Bolshevism and other forms of labour radicalism in the aftermath of World War I, they recommended an innovative tripartite structure for the ilo: the yearly conferences would include national delegations of government, business, and labour representatives, and the governing body would also include representatives from all three groups. These groups were charged with working together to raise labour standards in order to prevent the injustices and poverty that caused social unrest and threatened world peace. A coalition of women's groups visited the commission to voice their concerns and several women's organizations asked that representation for women also be mandated as a component of the tripartite structure of the ilo. Instead, the Commission required only that the ilo's director appoint women to the ilo staff and recommended that national delegations include at least one woman in an advisory position. Of the 40 nations that sent delegations to the founding convention of the ilo in Washington, DC in the autumn of 1919, none appointed a woman as a voting delegate and most included only a few female advisors. The US and British-based Women's Trade Union League, however, responded by staging their own International Congress of Working Women (icww) in Washington, DC at the same time as the ilo convention. Their meeting included over two hundred women from nineteen nations, some of whom were also advisors to their national delegations at the ilo convention. The icww prepared a set of resolutions and policy statements that were then championed by the women advisors at the ilo meeting. The icww recommendations proved particularly important in shaping the ilo's Maternity Convention [End Page 302] to include a far-reaching demand for six weeks paid benefits for women before and after childbirth. icww proposals were also taken into consideration in debates over conventions on child labour and the prohibition of night work for women. Subsequent articles by Françoise Thébaud, Kirsten Scheiwe, and Lucia Artner highlight the way women continued to influence debates over labour standards for women during the interwar period through the no's Correspondence Committee on Women's Work and its dedicated staff members. The Cold War, as Eileen Boris demonstrates, complicated the quest for international labour standards as the no's protective legislation for women came under attack by feminist activists from Communist bloc countries as well as legal equality feminists based in the UN Commission on the Status of Women. Silke Neunsinger...

In this chapter, we shall discuss some of the results obtained by the French school of human population geneticists. Some of these studies are still unfinished, since studies of human populations are necessarily long-term projects; some of the results are provisional, but we feel that they may be of interest to the English-speaking reader, since accounts of this work have not until now been available in English.1

(1967). The concept of adaptation in the study of human populations. Eugenics Quarterly: Vol. 14, No. 4, pp. 299-299.

Nine participants outlined findings in the area of neurobehavioral effects of dioxin-like compounds and presented plans for new studies. Neurobehavioral effects are among the most sensitive and well studied toxicity end points for this class of compounds. A focus of the workshop was presentation of designs for major new studies in human populations outside the United States that are intended to extend and clarify the results of two previous large-scale studies in populations in Michigan and North Carolina. Improved methods for exposure assessment and more focused approaches to understanding specific neurobehavioral deficits were highlighted. Animal studies and in vitro mechanistic studies are emphasizing the importance of alterations in neurotransmitter systems and thyroid function that may underlie behavioral dysfunction. There is continuing improvement in analytical and study design methods to identify the most active congeners of PCB mixtures in the environment. These diverse studies will contribute to effective response of public health and regulatory groups to this continuing problem.