"...our data suggested that the Japanese population could be best modeled by admixtures of three ancestral components (hereafter K1 to K3). K1 to K3 were the highest in Okinawa, Northeast, and West, respectively (Fig. 1D and table S4). K1 (Okinawa) component maintains a relatively stable fraction of around 12% in Hondo subgroups, except for South (which is a region adjacent to Okinawa), with a higher proportion of 22%. K2 (Northeast) and K3 (West) components showed a cline from West to East."
Xiaoxi Liu et al., Decoding triancestral origins, archaic introgression, and natural selection in the Japanese population by whole-genome sequencing. Sci. Adv. 10, eadi8419 (2024). DOI: https://www.doi.org/10.1126/sciadv.adi8419
"Even though it was hoped that machines might overcome human bias, this assumption often fails due to a problematic or theoretically implausible selection of variables that are fed into the model and because of small size, low representativeness, and presence of bias in the training data [5.]."
Suchotzki, K. and Gamer, M. (2024) 'Detecting deception with artificial intelligence: promises and perils,' Trends in Cognitive Sciences [Preprint]. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tics.2024.04.002.
"While ChatGPT-4 correlates closely with established risk stratification tools regarding mean scores, its inconsistency when presented with identical patient data on separate occasions raises concerns about its reliability."
Heston TF, Lewis LM (2024) ChatGPT provides inconsistent risk-stratification of patients with atraumatic chest pain. PLOS ONE 19(4): e0301854. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0301854
"Incense spheres discovered in Tang hoards, which are the earliest artefacts found to date, reveal multicultural origins upon close examination. Persian and Sogdian silversmith elements, Buddhist ideas and Syriac Christian liturgical practices, may all have left their traces on the making of the object."
Fang, F. X. (2024). Scent, Art and Astronomy: New Light on Tang Incense Spheres and Their Global Connections. The Medieval History Journal, 0(0). https://doi.org/10.1177/09719458231226000
"In most work in the history of science, the approach is to show how a particular event or outcome was the result of various social and intellectual influences. Bayesian history of science, on the other hand, focuses on the lines of evidence relevant to the historical development to see if the direction taken by an individual or group of scientists was consistent or inconsistent with the evidence at hand."
Henry Small; Bayesian history of science: The case of Watson and Crick and the structure of DNA. Quantitative Science Studies 2023; 4 (1): 209–228. doi: https://doi.org/10.1162/qss_a_00233
"In most work in the history of science, the approach is to show how a particular event or outcome was the result of various social and intellectual influences. Bayesian history of science, on the other hand, focuses on the lines of evidence relevant to the historical development to see if the direction taken by an individual or group of scientists was consistent or inconsistent with the evidence at hand."
Henry Small; Bayesian history of science: The case of Watson and Crick and the structure of DNA. Quantitative Science Studies 2023; 4 (1): 209–228. doi: https://doi.org/10.1162/qss_a_00233
"We present a set of large pedigrees, reconstructed using ancient DNA, spanning nine generations and comprising around 300 individuals. We uncover a strict patrilineal kinship system, in which patrilocality and female exogamy were the norm and multiple reproductive partnering and levirate unions were common. The absence of consanguinity indicates that this society maintained a detailed memory of ancestry over generations."
Gnecchi-Ruscone, G.A., Rácz, Z., Samu, L. et al. Network of large pedigrees reveals social practices of Avar communities. Nature (2024). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-024-07312-4
"We present a set of large pedigrees, reconstructed using ancient DNA, spanning nine generations and comprising around 300 individuals. We uncover a strict patrilineal kinship system, in which patrilocality and female exogamy were the norm and multiple reproductive partnering and levirate unions were common. The absence of consanguinity indicates that this society maintained a detailed memory of ancestry over generations."
Gnecchi-Ruscone, G.A., Rácz, Z., Samu, L. et al. Network of large pedigrees reveals social practices of Avar communities. Nature (2024). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-024-07312-4
"Our research pioneers an innovative methodology for generating synthetic training data tailored to Old Aramaic letters. Our pipeline synthesizes photo-realistic Aramaic letter datasets, incorporating textural features, lighting, damage, and augmentations to mimic real-world inscription diversity. Despite minimal real examples, we engineer a dataset of 250 000 training and 25 000 validation images covering the 22 letter classes in the Aramaic alphabet."
First evidence for human occupation of a lava tube in Arabia: The archaeology of Umm Jirsan Cave and its surroundings, northern Saudi Arabia
"The lava tube does not appear to have served as a permanent habitation location, but rather as a site that likely lay on herding routes and that allowed access to shade and water for passing herders and their animals. Prior to this, as well as during pastoral periods, the lava tube was likely also linked with hunting activities, which probably remained a cornerstone of local economies into the Bronze Age."
Stewart M, Andrieux E, Blinkhorn J, Guagnin M, Fernandes R, et al. (2024) First evidence for human occupation of a lava tube in Arabia: The archaeology of Umm Jirsan Cave and its surroundings, northern Saudi Arabia. PLOS ONE 19(4): e0299292. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0299292
"Our analysis of 49 coins from the North Sea zone indicates that Byzantine silver plate was the source of silver for the initial minting of the first post-Roman silver coins in England, Frisia and parts of Francia. From c. AD 750, freshly mined silver from Melle, Aquitaine, was introduced to this North Sea zone, becoming the dominant source following the coinage reforms of AD 793."
"This essay will read Hegel's comments on the Orient in light of his larger philosophy and then examine how Japanese scholars, specifically Okakura Tenshin (1863–1913) construct what could be called a Hegel-inspired defense of the concept of Asia or the Orient."
#Image attribution: Jakob Schlesinger, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons. Page URL: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Jakob_Schlesinger_-_Hegel_1831.jpg
"Rereading the sources surveyed by Green and Fancy, we have found no evidence in the various texts that would tie the various epidemics/pandemics in Iraq, Syria, and Egypt to plague, supposedly brought unintentionally by the advancing Mongol army that besieged Baghdad in early 1258."
"Why is it that SDO and RWA are bound together at the genetic level not only with policy attitudes, but also with two of the most relevant Big Five personality traits, agreeableness and openness to experience? We conjecture that the underlying reason for these patterns of results may be that the human selective context of resource competition likely affected fundamental personality variation (especially trait Openness), but also independent traits designed to deal with problems of hierarchy-navigation (RWA/SDO), and their downstream political correlates."
"Why is it that SDO and RWA are bound together at the genetic level not only with policy attitudes, but also with two of the most relevant Big Five personality traits, agreeableness and openness to experience? We conjecture that the underlying reason for these patterns of results may be that the human selective context of resource competition likely affected fundamental personality variation (especially trait Openness), but also independent traits designed to deal with problems of hierarchy-navigation (RWA/SDO), and their downstream political correlates."
The genetic underpinnings of right-wing authoritarianism and social dominance orientation explain political attitudes beyond Big Five personality.
"Why is it that SDO and RWA are bound together at the genetic level not only with policy attitudes, but also with two of the most relevant Big Five personality traits, agreeableness and openness to experience? We conjecture that the underlying reason for these patterns of results may be that the human selective context of resource competition likely affected fundamental personality variation (especially trait Openness), but also independent traits designed to deal with problems of hierarchy-navigation (RWA/SDO), and their downstream political correlates."
"Our overarching finding is that except for very high northern latitudes, ESMs project ongoing and future extreme temperature acceleration beyond background warming levels during the hottest months."
"The modus operandi of men like Hawkins was to sail to Guinea, acquire a cargo of enslaved people, by force and/or barter, and ship them to the Spanish Caribbean and Mexico.91 Here, Hawkins would claim inclement weather had forced him to the area (a tactic used by many illicit traders), offer platitudes to local officials and sometimes promise to help clear out foreign pirates from the area.92 In return, he asked the Spanish to purchase his enslaved people. If that failed, he became aggressive, after which the local elites, often under-manned and in relatively lightly defended settlements, would agree to purchase his human cargo."
"The modus operandi of men like Hawkins was to sail to Guinea, acquire a cargo of enslaved people, by force and/or barter, and ship them to the Spanish Caribbean and Mexico.91 Here, Hawkins would claim inclement weather had forced him to the area (a tactic used by many illicit traders), offer platitudes to local officials and sometimes promise to help clear out foreign pirates from the area.92 In return, he asked the Spanish to purchase his enslaved people. If that failed, he became aggressive, after which the local elites, often under-manned and in relatively lightly defended settlements, would agree to purchase his human cargo."
"The article asks whether people on the right of the ideological spectrum appraise the past, present, and future differently from people on the left. The data show that this is so in the case of the past: In all countries examined, right- compared to left-wing supporters evaluated the past as being more positive. In the United States and Poland, and possibly also in the United Kingdom (although in the latter country the results of the regression analysis are not confirmed by the Pearson correlation), an effect emerges also when considering the good-prospect future scenario: This was evaluated more positively on the left."
"It is about the Land according to the redefined Judaism that emerged in the centuries following the destruction of the Jerusalem Temple in 70 CE. This Judaism replaced the temple cult with Torah study - a study that pertained in part to that very temple cult, that became a portable homeland, and that reconfigured the Land."
"Studying texts from the cities and countryside and tracking developments over time, Alstola shows that there was notable diversity in the Judeans’ socio-economic status and integration into Babylonian society."
Alstola, T. (19 Dec. 2019). Judeans in Babylonia, Leiden, The Netherlands: Brill. Available From: Brill https://doi.org/10.1163/9789004365421 [Accessed 29 April 2024]
"How did Asia come to be represented on European World maps? When and how did Asian Countries adopt a continental system for understanding the world? How did countries with disparate mapping traditions come to share a basic understanding and vision of the globe? "
Hostetler, L. (eds) (31 Jan. 2024). Reimagining the Globe and Cultural Exchange: The East Asian Legacies of Matteo Ricci's World Map, Leiden, The Netherlands: Brill. Available From: Brill https://doi.org/10.1163/9789004684782 [Accessed 30 April 2024]
"How did Asia come to be represented on European World maps? When and how did Asian Countries adopt a continental system for understanding the world? How did countries with disparate mapping traditions come to share a basic understanding and vision of the globe? "
Hostetler, L. (eds) (31 Jan. 2024). Reimagining the Globe and Cultural Exchange: The East Asian Legacies of Matteo Ricci's World Map, Leiden, The Netherlands: Brill. Available From: Brill https://doi.org/10.1163/9789004684782 [Accessed 30 April 2024]