Logistic Mobility Research Articles

Joint Design for Electric Fleet Operator and Charging Service Provider: Understanding the Non-Cooperative Nature

This work proposes a new modeling framework for jointly optimizing the charging network design and the logistic mobility planning for an electric vehicle fleet. Existing literature commonly assumes the existence of a single entity – the social planner, as a powerful decision maker who manages all resources. However, this is often not the case in practice. Instead of making this assumption, we specifically examine the innate non-cooperative nature of two different entities involved in the planning problem. Namely, they are the charging service provider (CSP) and the fleet operator (FO). To address the strategic interaction between entities, a bi-level mixed integer program is formulated, with the CSP/FO’s problem expressed in the upper/lower levels respectively, in a joint decision making process. These decisions involve the CSP’s infrastructure siting, sizing, substation capacity upgrades, the FO’s fleet composition, vehicle routing, charging, and delivery assignment. To solve the problem, an iterative fashion is adopted to solve and reach optimality. We conduct detailed numerical studies on a synthesized small network and the simulation results reveal the unique aspects of this two-entity framework. This modeling perspective can be generalized to other system design problems with two interacting agents planning and operating resources across networks.

Neanderthal logistic mobility during MIS3: Zooarchaeological perspective of Abric Romaní level P (Spain)

Mobility strategies of Neanderthal groups are studied through the characterization and analysis of archaeological sites and traditionally compared to the types of settlements present-day hunter-gatherer groups, based on their mobility strategies. The faunal record of level P of Abric Romaní is a unique source of information for analysing the foraging behaviour developed by Neanderthals during MIS3. The assemblage is divided into two separate and well-defined sublevels: Pa and Pb. Through the taphonomic study of the remains and their spatial distribution, it was possible to define the characteristics of these human occupations. The analyses indicate that the assemblage was the result of at least two different types of occupations: 1) A transitory residential camp during short halts, focusing on the exploitation of red deer; 2) A hunting camp/intermediate butchering site for the specialized capture of horses. The presence of occupations focusing on the supply of specific resources is typical of collector groups. The results of the zooarchaeological study of level P characterize the Neanderthals of Abric Romaní as groups involved in a logistic mobility system, who moved throughout the territory depending on the availability of large ungulates.

A system view of smart mobility and its implications for Ghanaian cities

Urbanisation in the cities of Sub-Saharan Africa has been associated with urban sprawl and increased vehicular traffic, which undermine the agglomeration effects of the cities on socioeconomic development. These adverse effects will exacerbate as the human population of the region continues to increase. Some scholars argue that making the cities mobility-smart could mitigate the adverse effects of urbanisation in the region. However, the conventional literature on smart mobility in Sub-Saharan Africa does little to demonstrate how the concept can be applied. In this regard, the purpose of this study is two pronged: a) to assess the mobility smartness of Ghanaian cities and b) to demonstrate how the concept can be operationalised to mitigate some of the adverse effects of urbanisation in the cities. The research process began with a review of relevant literature to conceptualise smart mobility. The conceptual framework was then used to assess the mobility-smartness of Ghanaian cities, which was followed by a discussion of how the concept of smart cities can be operationalised in Ghanaian cities. The results show that the cities in Ghana, like many cities in Sub-Saharan Africa, depend mainly on the road sub-sector for the movement of people and freight. The rapid increases in vehicular population without a commensurate expansion in road infrastructure have undermined the cities’ productivity. The conclusion from this is that the cities are not mobility-smart and for this to change, the paper argues that efforts should be made to improve people mobility, information logistic mobility and information mobility. These require technological literate and receptive population and investments in transport infrastructure.

A juvenile with compromised osteogenesis provides insights into past hunter-gatherer lives

The Late Archaic in northeastern North America (4500-2800 B.P.) pre-dates reliance on pottery and domesticated plants. It is thought to reflect a highly mobile, seasonal migratory foraging/hunting regimen. A juvenile skeleton with pervasive bone wasting and fragile jaws from the Hind Site (AdHk-1), ca. 3000 B.P., southwestern Ontario, provides evidence of the social context of her family group, including aspects of mobility and food management. The well-preserved bones and teeth are considered in bioarchaeological context. Radiographic, osteometric and cross-sectional geometric approaches to assessing musculoskeletal function are presented, plus differential diagnosis of the bone wasting condition. All bones of the probable female (aged approx. 16yr) show stunting and wasting. Wedged lower vertebral bodies, porous trabeculae, undeveloped bicondylar angles (femur) and abnormally low cortical long bone mass are consistent with chronically reduced ambulation. Few teeth remain in the dramatically resorbed alveoli; slight tooth wear and substantial calculus suggest a modified (soft) diet. Osteogenesis imperfecta type IV is the most probable etiology. The extended survival of this juvenile who may never have walked reflects collective care. The case provides evidence of a past lifeway that appears to have been organized around logistic mobility, including occupational stability and food storage.

Hunting, Gathering, and Fishing on the Coast of the Atacama Desert: Chinchorro Population Mobility Patterns Inferred from Strontium Isotopes

AbstractWe discuss how the Chinchorro population of hunter‐gatherers and fishermen organized their mobility patterns between the rich marine ecosystems of the Pacific coast and the extreme hyperarid core of the Atacama Desert through the application of strontium isotopes (87Sr/86Sr). We analyzed tooth enamel samples of 35 individuals from the coast (n = 28), inland oasis (n = 6), and the Andean highlands (n = 1). The Sr isotopic composition of modern and archaeological bone samples from sea mammals and land herbivores were obtained from 10 localities. Coastal human individuals show a similar Sr signal to sea mammals, confirming that the former were born and raised in the littoral zone. These results along with archaeological data suggest that the Chinchorro maintained logistic mobility along the coast. Similarly, a woman buried in the highlands (Patapatane) has a Sr signal closer to marine values, suggesting that some Chinchorro also maintained a logistic mobility linked to the Andean interior. In contrast, the Sr ratios of individuals from the inland oasis (Tiliviche) are intermediate between marine Sr values and those of local fauna. This seems to indicate that, although these Chinchorro individuals were raised in this oasis, they were part of a broad logistic mobility pattern connected with the coast.

A second life: Recycling production waste during the Middle Palaeolithic in layer L at Grotta del Cavallo (Lecce, Southeast Italy)

This paper presents the modalities of recycling in lithic assemblage in layer L at Grotta del Cavallo (Middle Palaeolithic, Southeast Italy). The layer exhibits a high diversity of exogenous (>50 km) and local (<5 Km) raw material, including marine shells for producing retouched tools. Recycling is attested in local raw material and in shell valves. I identified four recycling modalities, related to four object categories, and analysed each one separately: lithic retouched tools, macro tools, short products with sharp edges, and marine-shell tools with two orthogonal edges. I interpreted this behaviour in relation to a time-cost model. The aim was to evaluate the role of recycling in changing technological costs and to investigate if recycling was a planned strategy and how it was incorporated into the techno-economic organisation of the human group. The lithic assemblage displays a high spatio-temporal segmentation of productive sequences based on discoidal methods, the production of small flakes, the majority less than 3 cm in length, and a high technical investment in retouch. The results of the recycling cost-benefit analysis suggest that this behaviour was integrated into an economic setting regulated by time constrictions during tasks performed at the site within a logistic mobility. In this layer, recycling was an occasional behaviour, which allowed humans to respond to unplanned needs, and was facilitated by the low degree of volumetric constraints in the productive methods applied and by the short dimensions of the tools used. Recycling was an element that contributed to define the cultural entity, appearing as a specific trait in a given human group.

Gendered Logistic Mobility Among the Earliest Farmers in the Sonoran Desert

Archaeological evidence suggests that early farmers in the Sonoran Desert practiced a mixed subsistence strategy that likely involved logistical foraging by a segment of the population to supplement agricultural investments on the floodplains. Patterned differences in labor investments in archaeological populations can often be extrapolated by comparing cross-sectional geometry in long bones, which can vary as a result of repetitive behaviors. We compare cross-sectional geometry (dimensions) of the femur between site location, archaeological phase, and by sex (males vs. females) in a series of skeletal samples from the Early Agricultural period (2100 B.C.—A.D. 50) to test the hypothesis that males exhibit greater anterior-posterior dimensions of the femur midshaft compared to females. We found that the cross-sectional geometry of the femur is significantly different between the sexes, indicating that males participated in foraging forays more frequently than females, and we suggest that these early farmers employed a gendered logistic mobility strategy. These differences reflect a continued investment in foraged resources (subsistence and materials) during the Early Agricultural period in the Sonoran Desert and have important implications for the division of labor and the construction of gender roles among these communities.

Manganese coating of the Tabun faunal assemblage: Implications for modern human behaviour in the Levantine Middle Palaeolithic

During the taphonomic and archaeozoological reappraisal of Garrod's material from Tabun Cave (Mount Carmel, Israel) a distinctive dark colouring of bones was observed in the Level C and D assemblages. Based on several geochemical tests, the presence of insoluble manganese oxides in those coatings was confirmed. The origin of this mineral, given the geological context, could be attributed to the decomposition of large quantities of organic matter due to an intensive human occupation of the site in MIS 5. This fact reinforces the hypothesis of the existence of a larger logistic mobility around more permanent residential sites among anatomically modern humans in the Levantine Middle Palaeolithic, which constitutes early evidence of a more complex economic behaviour.

The Magdalenian in central and southern Portugal: Human ecology at the end of the Pleistocene

During the Magdalenian and early Epipaleolithic between ca. 20,000 and 10,000 cal BP, mild and temperate environmental conditions existed in southwestern Iberia due to the position of the Polar Front, and proximity to the Mediterranean, North Africa and the Atlantic warm currents coming from the tropics. Thus, Portugal was marked by a relatively high diversity of terrestrial and marine animal species that were fully exploited by humans during this period.The differential use of caves, rock-shelters and open-air sites and the stone raw material economy suggests various patterns of land use characterized by inland-coastal movements through river valleys cutting through the limestone massif. Data suggest a logistic mobility pattern for Portuguese Magdalenian hunter-gatherer groups based on both diversification and specialization of natural resources.

Changes in skeletal robusticity in an iron age agropastoral group: The samnites from the Alfedena necropolis (Abruzzo, Central Italy)

Cross-sectional geometrical (CSG) properties of an Iron Age Samnite group from the Alfedena necropolis (Abruzzo, Italy, 2600-2400 B.P.) are compared with a Ligurian Neolithic sample (6000-5500 B.P.). In the period under examination, Samnites were organized in a tribal confederation led by patrilinear aristocracies, indicating incipient social stratification. In comparison, Neolithic society lacked clear signs of social hierarchy. The subsistence of both groups was mainly based on pastoralism and agriculture, but changes in habitual behavior are expected due to the socio-economic transformations that characterized the Iron Age. The Samnites' warlike ideology suggests that unimanual weapon-use and training would have become frequent for males. The intensification of agriculture and the adoption of transhumant pastoralism, performed by a smaller subset of the population, likely led to a lower average level of logistic mobility. The strongly genderized ideology of the period suggests a strict sexual division of labor, with women primarily performing sedentary tasks. CSG properties based on periosteal contours were calculated for humeri, femora, and tibiae (N = 61). Results corroborated the expectations: Alfedena males show substantial humeral bilateral asymmetry, indicating prevalent use of one arm, likely due to weapon training. In both sexes lower limb results indicate reduced mobility with respect to the Neolithic group. Sexual dimorphism is significant in both humeral asymmetry and lower limb indicators of mobility. Although both groups could be broadly defined as agropastoral based on archeological and historical evidence, CSG analysis confirmed important differences in habitual behavior.

THE IMPACT OF THE 8,200 CAL BP CLIMATIC EVENT ON HUMAN MOBILITY STRATEGIES DURING THE IBERIAN LATE MESOLITHIC

Recent marine and lake core studies in the Western Mediterranean Basin and Iberia have changed the traditional perception of Holocene climate change. Particularly important in this region, the 8,200 cal BP event is marked by colder and more arid conditions. During this episode, we identify a pattern of abandonment episodes at five Late Mesolithic sites. We suggest that such desertion episodes are correlated with adjustments in the logistic mobility system undertaken in the context of broader structural changes in regional settlement organization.

A First Approximation of Holocene Inter-Assemblage Variability in Central Alaska

Ben A. Potter Ben A. Potter, Department of Anthropology, University of Alaska Fairbanks, 310 Eielson Building, P.O. Box 757720, Fairbanks, Alaska 99775–7720

Post-Pleistocene adaptations in the Vindhya–Ganga valley complex

Post-Pleistocene adaptations have been described in terms of two distinctive adaptive trajectories: the Near Eastern pathway leading to genetic domestication of certain species and the temperate pathway involving technological specialisation and intensive resource management. With a view to identifying alternative responses in warm tropical/sub-tropical regions, this paper explores the nature of adaptation of Mesolithic populations of the Gangetic plains and the Vindhya hills and plateau, north central India. The archaeological evidence suggests that the response here involved a process of population diversification leading to socio-economic niche specialisation. Hunter-gatherer complexity in the Ganga valley, within a hunting–gathering–fishing mode of subsistence, involving logistic mobility pattern, onsite burial practice, large-scale production of bone/antler artefacts and an exchange system in a wider area, is explained in terms of an alternative regional model of hunter-gatherer adaptations operating within a partitioned social network system based on the principle of inter-group complementarity. The paper suggests that the apparent regional variability in adaptive responses of the three regions could converge if comparisons are based on a unitary theme of security and saving manifested, though, in differing notions of storage—‘social banking’ in the case under consideration.

Regional settlement systems in Mesolithic northern England: Scalar issues in mobility and territoriality

Current models of the Mesolithic settlement and mobility systems of northern England have largely resulted in a highly constrained view of the spatial use of the changing postglacial landscape. The ethnography of northern hemisphere hunter-gatherers in North America is at odds with such interpretations. It can be shown that in mid and high latitude forested environments mobile hunter-gatherers (a) use large areas on a seasonal basis and (b) engage in long distance logistic mobility. The application of these observations to the Mesolithic of northern England leads to reappraisal of both the spatial scope of regional settlement systems, and the degree to which upland and coastal environments are employed in the subsistence–settlement strategy. The results are improved appreciation for the process of colonization and the “filling in” of the region as well as a more dynamic view of regional Mesolithic mobility systems, both of which have important implications for the role of sites such as Star Carr in regional context.

Long-Distance Logistic Mobility as an Organizing Principle among Northern Hunter-Gatherers: A Great Lakes Middle Holocene Settlement System

Concepts of residential and logistic mobility are applied to survey assemblages from multiple decades of research along the interior drainages of central lower Michigan. Drawing on the ethnographic record of boreal hunter-gatherers and archaeological interpretations of long-distance logistic mobility from the Mesolithic of northern England and continental Europe, it is argued that the importance of logistic mobility is underrepresented in summaries of northern hemisphere hunter-gatherers. Reconstruction of Middle Holocene environments suggests that the resource structure of the central Michigan uplands was one that fostered use of logistic mobility, and that interior Middle Archaic assemblages and site structures reveal special function activities systemically tied to residential and other special function sites at lower coastal elevations, as well as currently submerged under Lake Huron. We conclude that rising levels of Lake Huron ca. 4500 B.P. resulted in decreased land area, population packing, and a consequent shift to residential mobility by the Late Archaic. Further, the results of this analysis can serve as a comparative framework for recognizing the role of logistic mobility in the evolution of hunter-gatherer adaptive strategies in other regions.

Hunter-Gatherers: An Interdisciplinary Perspective (review)

Reviewed by: Hunter-Gatherers: An Interdisciplinary Perspective Daniel Sellen Hunter-Gatherers: An Interdisciplinary Perspective, edited by Catherine Panter-Brick, Robert H. Layton, and Peter Rowly-Conwy. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 2001. 341 pp. $30.00 (paperback), $85.50 (hardback). Hunter-Gatherers is an important collection that aims to combine a broader range of perspectives than recent books on hunter-gatherers have, and the editors seek to summarize current understanding of the enormous diversity in ecology, biology, and social organization and activity of hunting and gathering populations. After a brief introductory chapter by the editors that reviews the different approaches to definition and characterization of hunter-gatherers, the ensuing 10 chapters take a cross-cultural, diachronic, and comparative approach to a number of issues of special relevance to hunter-gatherers. These issues include behavioral ecology (B. Winterhalder); the archeological record on complexity and relationship to agriculture (P. Rowly-Conwy); the analysis of variability in technology (R. Torrence); comparison of present and past subsistence and technology (S. L. Kuhn and M. C. Stiner); the prehistory and history of hunter-gatherer language shift and language spread (P. McConvell); key debates concerning demography (R. Pennington); nutritional ecology (M. R. Jenike); evolutionary responses to climate, diet, and disease (A. Froment); approaches to the study of artwork and artistry (M. W. Conkey); and relations with non-hunter-gatherers and nation-states (R. Layton). I expect that several of these chapters will become widely cited by human biologists. Bruce Winterhalder offers one of the most concise and lively of his several summaries of the application of optimal foraging theory to humans. An initial section summarizes how we can analyze the strategic importance of variation in diet resource selection and patch residence, habitat use, residential and logistic mobility, field processing, harvest transportation, and territoriality. Then Winterhalder provides a timely and concise review of recently generated theoretical debate and data on food transfers in the context of hunter-gatherer social foraging and group life. Teasing apart the evolutionary and human biological implications of scrounging, reciprocity, showing off, costly signaling, risk minimization, and possibly other unnoticed forms of food transfer is an exciting challenge for behavioral ecological and nutritional anthropologists, and it has the potential to contribute enormously to models of the evolution of human sociality, life history, and diversity in hunter-gatherer and other subsistence strategies. The chapter could serve as a primer for students interested in these sorts of studies, although [End Page 407] one might quibble that the discussion of the four "regular features" of hunter-gatherers (apparent underproduction and lack of material accumulation, food sharing, egalitarianism, and gendered division of labor) excludes "complex" hunter-gatherers such as those in the American Pacific Northwest and archeological populations from Central Europe, Japan, and other regions. Mark Jenike offers a helpful summary and review of most of the available data on diet composition, energy intake, physical activity, and body size and proportion among recent and extant hunter-gatherer populations. These data, although piecemeal and drawn from only a handful of populations, evidence a striking diversity in adaptive response to the socioecological factors that link bodies and diets in different settings. The figure in the chapter that shows the range of body mass index values for men and women in various populations in relation to cut-offs indicating chronic energy deficiency (CED) is especially valuable. Although the figure confirms the general impression that hunter-gatherers are usually able to avoid serious undernutrition, the indication that women are at risk of CED in smaller populations and the observation that for many populations these aggregate mean values are close to the 18.5 cut-off value force us to reject the notion that hunter-gatherers rarely experienced nutritional stress. Rather, Jenike presents a picture of modern hunter-gatherers as having diverse and highly plastic biocultural responses to different dimensions of food shortage, and he concludes that mild to moderate nutritional stress is almost certainly underdetected among ancient hunter-gatherers. Renee Pennington marshals various lines of data to support the argument that human population growth was almost negligible throughout most of our foraging history because of infertility resulting from infectious disease. Although the inference that "there were so few of us for...

Logistic Mobility and Expedient Technology: A Response to Sullivan

Logistic Mobility and Expedient Technology: A Response to Sullivan

Oncologic examination of the institutionalized geriatric patient.

Clinical examination of geriatric patients presents certain logistic problems, including transportation, patient mobility, and insufficient personnel. To overcome these problems the medical director of two homes for the aged established a program whereby a gynecologist examines female residents in their own beds. This arrangement has eliminated the risk and inconvenience of transport and has proved acceptable to the patients.