Phytolith Palaeoenvironments at Mumba Rock Shelter

The rock shelter site of Mumba in northern Tanzania plays a pivotal role in the overall study of the late Pleistocene archaeology of East Africa with an emphasis on the Middle to Later Stone Age transition. We used phytolith analysis to reconstruct general plant habitat physiognomy around the site from the onset of the late Pleistocene to recent times, tallying 4246 individual phytoliths from 19 archaeological samples. Statistical analysis explored phytolith richness, diversity, dominance, and evenness, along with principal components to compare phytolith distributions over the site’s sequence with known plant habitats today. Generally, the phytolith record of Mumba signifies paleoenvironments with analogs in the Somalia – Masai bushland and grassland, as well as Zambezian woodlands.

Marine flatworms (Platyhelminthes: Polycladida) found in empty barnacle shells, including a new species, from southern Mexican Pacific

The association of some species of polyclads of the suborder Acotylea with barnacles has been recorded worldwide. In contrast, no species of the suborder Cotylea has been recorded present in these crustaceans. The aim of this work is to describe the species of polyclads found in the empty barnacle shells on the coasts of Oaxaca, southern Mexican Pacific. Thirty polyclad specimens in the barnacles’ empty shells were collected, corresponding to two species. A new species of acotylean, Stylochus mistus sp. nov., was found in Paraconcavus pacificus; and the cotylean Prosthiostomum cf. parvicelis in Megabalanus peninsularis. Both species of polyclads are considered to use the shells of Megabalanus and Paraconcavus as an occasional shelter site; however, it is not ruled out that these species feed on these barnacles, as polyclads normally prey on the communities they inhabit. This work records for the first time the presence of a cotylean polyclad in barnacles, as well as the first record of the polyclad genera Stylochus and Prosthiostomum from the southern Mexican Pacific.

Field observations of a cryptic agamid (Chameleon Dragon Chelosania brunnea Gray, 1845) in semi-arid savanna woodland of northern Australia

ABSTRACT Chameleon Dragons Chelosania brunnea Gray, 1845 are well known amongst naturalists of northern Australia as being one of the most cryptic and least frequently observed of Australia’s large, iconic lizards. Despite their broad distribution across the savanna woodlands that dominate northern Australia, very few records exist of this species and, as a consequence, nearly nothing is known about their natural history. Here, we present records of 19 Chameleon Dragons, detected during clearing activities of a small area of semi-arid woodland at Delamere Air Weapons Range, Northern Territory. Additionally, we provide notes on sexual dimorphism, antipredator behaviour and shelter site use in this species. We discuss how some of this novel information may explain why this species is so rarely detected and suggests that this cryptic agamid may be much more common in savanna woodland than currently appreciated.

Towards the Mid-Late Holocene Environment of Mochena Borago Rock Shelter, Wolayta, South Ethiopia

With the objective of understanding the mid-late Holocene subsistence pattern and the local ecology, archaeobotanical investigation was conducted on soil samples collected from 29 contexts from the rock shelter site of Mochena Borago. The samples were collected by the French Archaeological Mission in 2000 and 2001 field seasons. Flotation was carried out using bucket and 2.0 mm mesh size sieve. Recovered botanical remains were classified based on size and grain morphology. Seed analysis was conducted at 5-20x magnification. A total of 112 seeds and fruit stones were identified which include 55 Sapindaceae cf. Deinbollia type (dune soap-berry), 33 Myrtaceae cf. Syzigium guineense type (sometimes called waterberry), 9 Plectranthus edulis (Wolayta dinich/potato), 7 Euphorbiaceae Croton sp. (rushfoil), 2 Cordia cf. africana (wanza in Amharic), 1 Ebenaceae cf. Diospyros (commonly known as ebony trees), 1 Olea europea ssp. africana (Olive Oil). Plectranthus edulis is an indigenous crop for the study area and Cordia cf. africana and Olea europea ssp. africana are reported for the first time in archaeological context of the whole region of Ethiopia. The study provided data on the ancient economy and ecology of the site in a region where archaeobotanical research is limited.

Multi-Criteria Location Model of Emergency Shelters in Humanitarian Logistics

Natural disasters can cause serious casualties and economic losses, and emergency shelters are effective measures to reduce disaster risks and protect lives. At present, the location models of refuge facilities often ignore the diversion of shelter from the perspective of humanitarian logistics and the needs of victims. Such models also seldom consider the impact of the pre-storage of relief materials on the location of shelters. In this study, on the basis of the different needs of disaster victims, shelters are divided into two types—basic life and psychological medical service guarantees. While considering the full coverage of shelter needs, capacities, and budget constraints, the shelter distance, the optimized distribution of refugees, and the pre-stock quantity of goods are optimized. The facility service quality is optimized on the basis of qualitative factors. This study proposes a multi-standard constrained site selection model to optimize the pre-disaster shelter site-allocation problem. The model is helpful for decision makers to influence shelter siting and victims’ allocating process through their expertise and to obtain a solution that compromises multiple objectives. In this study, several basic cases are generated from the actual data of certain areas in Sichuan Province, a disaster-prone region in China, to verify the effectiveness of the model.

An Optimization-Based Approach to Social Network Group Decision Making with an Application to Earthquake Shelter-Site Selection

The social network has emerged as an essential component in group decision making (GDM) problems. Thus, this paper investigates the social network GDM (SNGDM) problem and assumes that decision makers offer their preferences utilizing additive preference relations (also called fuzzy preference relations). An optimization-based approach is devised to generate the weights of decision makers by combining two reliable resources: in-degree centrality indexes and consistency indexes. Based on the obtained weights of decision makers, the individual additive preference relations are aggregated into a collective additive preference relation. Further, the alternatives are ranked from best to worst according to the obtained collective additive preference relation. Moreover, earthquakes have occurred frequently around the world in recent years, causing great loss of life and property. Earthquake shelters offer safety, security, climate protection, and resistance to disease and ill health and are thus vital for disaster-affected people. Selection of a suitable site for locating shelters from potential alternatives is of critical importance, which can be seen as a GDM problem. When selecting a suitable earthquake shelter-site, the social trust relationships among disaster management experts should not be ignored. To this end, the proposed SNGDM model is applied to evaluate and select earthquake shelter-sites to show its effectiveness. In summary, this paper constructs a novel GDM framework by taking the social trust relationship into account, which can provide a scientific basis for public emergency management in the major disasters field.