Reexamining Ceramic Standardization During Agricultural Transition: A Geometric Morphometric Investigation of Initial – Early Yayoi Earthenware, Japan

We often hear that selves are no longer formed through producing material things at work, but by consuming them in leisure, leading to ‘meaningless’ modern lives. This important book reveals the cultural shift to be more complex, demonstrating how people in postindustrial societies strive to form meaningful and moral selves through both the consumption and production of material culture in leisure. Focusing on the material culture of food, the book explores these theoretical questions through an ethnography of those individuals for whom food is central to their self: ‘foodies'. It examines what foodies do, and why they do it, through an in-depth study of their lived experiences. The book uncovers how food offers a means of shaping the self not as a consumer but as an amateur who engages in both the production and consumption of material culture and adopts a professional approach which reveals the new moralities of productive leisure in self-formation. The chapters examine a variety of practices, from fine dining and shopping to cooking and blogging, and include rare data on how people use media such as cookbooks, food television, and digital food media in their everyday life. This book is ideal for students, scholars, and anyone interested in the meaning of food in modern life.

Cranial morphological differences within U. deningeri – U. spelaeus lineage: A double traditional and geometric morphometrics approach

Geometric morphometrics of the scutum for differentiation of trombiculid mites within the genus Walchia (Acariformes: Prostigmata: Trombiculidae), a probable vector of scrub typhus

The use of modern and traditional methods of fertility control in Bangladesh: A multivariate analysis

We examined morphological diversification in introduced pumpkinseed, Lepomis gibbosus from Iberian reservoirs using traditional morphometric (TM) and geometric morphometric (GM) approaches to assess the degree of external differentiation among pumpkinseeds occupying four habitats separated along simultaneous dimensions of flow and trophic structure. Results from both approaches showed significant differentiation among pumpkinseeds occupying these habitats. Among functional characters deemed significant in differentiating among morphs, body depth and caudal dimensions were the most consistently significant under the TM approach, whereas differences in the caudal peduncle region were more evident under the GM approach. Recent comparative studies advocate the use of GM over TM; however, our results demonstrate that TM is beneficial for quantifying differences in specific morphological characters, which is the crux of studies in functional morphology.

Simple SummaryStomoxys flies (Diptera: Muscidae) are bloodsucking insects that feed on both animals and humans. They are a major vector of a variety of animal pathogens, including agents of trypanosomosis, anaplasmosis, bovine leucosis, African horse sickness, lumpy skin disease, etc. This study investigated the effectiveness of landmark-based geometric morphometrics of wings to discriminate among three morphologically similar species of Stomoxys in Thailand: Stomoxys bengalensis, Stomoxys calcitrans, and Stomoxys sitiens. Our study reveals that geometric morphometrics can accurately discriminate the three species of Stomoxys based on wing shape. Therefore, wing geometric morphometrics can be used in addition to traditional morphological methods to identify these flies as species.The flies of the genus Stomoxys Geoffroy, 1762 (Diptera: Muscidae), are regarded as pests of veterinary and medical importance. In Thailand, Stomoxys calcitrans (Linnaeus, 1758) is the most abundant species and is widely distributed throughout the country. This Stomoxys species can coexist with two other morphologically similar species: Stomoxys bengalensis Picard, 1908, and Stomoxys sitiens Rondani, 1873. Hence, discriminating using morphological characteristics is difficult, especially if the specimen is damaged or loses its diagnostic characteristics. In this study, we evaluated the effectiveness of the landmark-based geometric morphometric (GM) approach to discriminate among the three Stomoxys spp.: S. bengalensis, S. calcitrans, and S. sitiens. Left-wing images of S. bengalensis (n = 120), S. calcitrans (n = 150), and S. sitiens (n = 155) were used for the GM analyses. The results of the wing shape analyses revealed that the GM approach was highly effective for discriminating three Stomoxys, with high accuracy scores ranging from 93.75% to 100%. This study adds to the evidence that landmark-based GM is an excellent alternative approach for discriminating Stomoxys species.

Geometric morphometric and traditional methods for sex assessment using the posterior ilium.

Assessing the shape plasticity between Russian biotopes in Pterostichus dilutipes (Motschulsky, 1844) (Coleoptera: Carabidae) a geometric morphometric approach

Two modes of post-embryonic development, hemianamorphosis and epimorphosis, show a distinct pattern among extant centipede (Chilopoda) orders. Although studies on post-embryonic development in Lithobiomorpha date back to the 19th and the 20th century, many ambiguities referring to nomenclature of their post-embryonic stages still exist. In this paper coherent terminology of the post-embryonic stages in Lithobius melanops, which could be applied to other lithobiomorphs, is proposed. Additionally, morphological variability of selected morphological traits was analyzed using traditional and geometric morphometric approaches. We recognized five anamorphic (anamorph 0 to 4) and five epimorphic stages (agenitalis, immaturus, praematurus, pseudomaturus and maturus). Measurement and count of certain morphometric characters, detailed description of genital appendages, shape and size variation of the forcipular apparatus, the cephalic capsule and the terminal legs are given. Moreover, for the purpose of geometric morphometric analyses we separated specimens of epimorphic stages into three groups (agenitalis-, praematurus- and maturus-like) based on the level of differentiation of genital appendages. Sexual size dimorphism of the forcipular apparatus was observed only in the praematurus group. Also, significant inter-group forcipular size and shape differences are found between some tested groups. Furthermore, significant differences in size and shape were recorded for the cephalic capsule between all groups. Finally, significant size differences in ultimate legs are present between all epimorphic groups, while shape differences were detected only between agenitalis and maturus groups. Our results contribute to overcoming terminological disparities and provide guidelines for distinguishing stages via discrete and continuous changes during post-embryonic development of the anamorphic centipede.

Revealing the effects of cerium dioxide nanoparticles through the analysis of morphological changes in Chironomus riparius

Outline-based geometric morphometrics: Wing cell differences for mosquito vector classification in the Tanaosri mountain range, Thailand

Geometric morphometrics is a powerful tool for the study of morphological variation that possesses numerous advantages over the more traditional approach based on linear measurements. We analyzed skull morphology, comparing traditional with geometric morphometrics, of 3 different developmental pathways in Mastomys natalensis (Rodentia: Muridae) from a single population. During early development growth patterns were influenced by environmental factors, specifically rainfall pattern, consistent with previous reports that growth trajectories vary according to the amount and distribution of rain. Results confirmed that early growth rate is one of the main determinants of size and shape differences in the skull in the 3 developmental pathways (generation types) of M. natalensis. Other factors, such as food quality and consistency, also could play an important role. Overall, geometric morphometrics appeared more sensitive than the traditional method in detecting variation in skull morphology, but both approaches led to very comparable conclusions. Phenotypic plasticity is an alternative explanation to local adaptations for ecogeographical morphological variation.

What role did ritual play in the transition from mobile hunter-gatherer groups to sedentary agriculturists? In the context of several recent archaeological and ethnographic research examinations into the connection between ritual activity and group cohesion, archaeologists have begun to re-evaluate the role of ritual during the initial agricultural transition in southwest Asia. By tracing the evolution of rituals, as well as examining the ritual, economic and social changes associated with the agricultural transition, this chapter asserts that the transition to agriculture is characterized by the emergence of new, hierarchical and standardized ritual practices. In doing so, it is proposed that the selection of hierarchical, highly prescribed rituals played an essential part in generating the required level of social cohesion in the context of the myriad of challenges facing early agriculturalist communities and paralleled a wider change in human group dynamics towards a greater degree of hierarchy and inequality, as the agricultural transition progressed. This work brings together insights from evolutionary theory, cultural evolution, prehistoric archaeology and the cognitive anthropology of ritual to generate a new perspective on the evolution of ritual during the agricultural transition.

Cranial Vault Modification and Ethnicity in Middle Horizon San Pedro de Atacama, Chile

Abstract. Ariawan I, Herdiyeni Y, Siregar IZ. 2020. Short Communication: Geometric morphometric analysis of leaves venation in Shorea spp. for identification using Digital Image Processing. Biodiversitas 21: 3303-3309. Shorea is one of the genera of the Dipterocarpaceae family which consists of more than 190 species. Massive exploitation of forests has threatened the sustainability of Shorea in nature. A total of 156 species has been listed on the IUCN (International Union for Conservation of Nature) red list. From the 156 species, 59.6% are in the critically endangered category, so urgent conservation is needed. However, during collection of Shorea at the seedling phase for conservation purposes, it is often difficult to distinguish among them that can cause errors in their collection process. To avoid these errors, identification needs to be done, usually based on plant leaf and flower morphology. Leaves are easier because they have the main features that distinguish each plant species, one of which is the venation structure. Geometric morphometric techniques are a modern approach recognized as useful for the identification of species in many plants. Geometric morphometrics analyzes the position of the venation point using coordinate geometry values. This research was aimed to extract venation features of Shorea leaves using a geometric morphometric approach. The extraction process result in some features, such as straightness, different angle, length ratio, scale projection, and secondary nerves. On extracted features, an analysis was then performed to find out the best features in classifying species of Shorea spp. The results of this study indicated that the geometric morphometric approach could extract the value of the features of straightness, different angle, length ratio, scale projection, and secondary nerves. The secondary nerve feature is the best feature because it can distinguish between fourcommonly planted species of Shorea spp. (S. acuminata, S. leprosula, S. ovalis, and S. selanica). By using the support vector machine classification technique to identify species of Shorea spp., the classification results obtained an average accuracy of 84.46%.