bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Antioch of Pisidia
Authors: Fant Clyde E. , Reddish Mitchell G.
Published: November 2020

Although overshadowed in the New Testament by a different Antioch (Antioch on the Orontes), Antioch of Pisidia was an important city during Hellenistic and Roman times. Archaeological excavations have uncovered the remains of a thriving city, complete with theater, baths, temples, stadium, nymphaeum, paved streets, and aqueduct. Augustus had a copy of his famous Res Gestae, the list of his accomplishments, inscribed on his sanctuary in the city. Several cities in the ancient world were called Antioch, named for various members of the Seleucid dynasty who bore the name of Antiochus. Antioch of Pisidia was located approximately 0.5 mile northeast of the modern town of Yalvaç and 22 miles southwest of Akşehir. (Pisidia was a mountainous region in the south-central section of Asia Minor.) Antioch was actually not a part of the Pisidian region but lay just north of Pisidia in the region of Phrygia. The city was sometimes called Pisidian Antioch (see Acts 13:14), meaning “Antioch near Pisidia,” as a way of distinguishing it from other cities named Antioch. When the Romans established the province of Galatia in 25 B.C.E., Antioch became a part of Galatia. In 295 C.E. the Romans redivided the area, creating the province of Pisidia, with Antioch as its capital. Antioch is situated on the southern foothills of the Sultan Mountains, on the northwest side of the Yalvaç River (ancient Anthius River). The city was spread over seven small hills, reminiscent of the seven hills of Rome, a similarity that was not lost on the Romans, who divided the city into seven districts, one on each of the seven hills. Backed up to the Sultan Mountains, Antioch enjoyed good natural defenses. Strategically located, the city was important both militarily and commercially. The land around Antioch was fertile, producing a variety of fruit and grains. Although a precise date cannot be determined, the city of Antioch was founded in the first half of the 3rd century B.C.E. by the one of the Seleucid rulers, either Seleucus I, Antiochus I, or Antiochus II. The Seleucids established several cities in the region, including Apollonia, Seleucia (Seleucia Sidera), and Laodicea Catacecaumene.
Seleucia Pieria
Authors: Fant Clyde E. , Reddish Mitchell G.
Published: November 2020

Seleucia Pieria, the ancient seaport for Antioch of Syria, once played a central role in the travels of the 1st-century Christian missionaries. Little remains of the city or its port. Nevertheless, one outstanding attraction still remains, and it alone is worth a visit to the site: the spectacular tunnel of Vespasian and Titus. To reach Seleucia Pieria, travel 18 miles south of Antakya (ancient Antioch) to the village of Samandağ, then proceed north along the beach road approximately 2 miles to the little settlement of Çevlik. Portions of the ancient breakwater are clearly visible from the refreshment stand above the beach. (Do not plan to swim—not that anyone would be tempted after viewing the polluted condition of the water.) The city and port of Seleucia Pieria were founded at the beginning of the 3rd century B.C.E. by one of the generals of Alexander the Great, Seleucus Nicator, who also founded Antioch. (The name Pieria was derived from Mt. Pieria, the mountain above the city.) His descendants, known as the Seleucids, battled for many years with the Ptolemies for control of Syria, Palestine, and Egypt, eventually losing out entirely. Originally Seleucia Pieria served as the capital of the new kingdom of Seleucus I. After Seleucus was assassinated (281 B.C.E.), however, his son, Antiochus I, moved the capital to Antioch, and Seleucia Pieria served as its strongly fortified port. During the Roman era the port was captured by Pompey, who granted it the status of a free city. Later, it became the location of a Roman fleet. At its zenith the city had a population of some 30,000 inhabitants. Many famous persons passed through the ancient port during its history. Besides the Christian missionaries Paul and Barnabas and several of the Roman emperors, other notables included the renowned wonderworker Apollonius of Tyana, in his own way a missionary of Pythagorean reform. According to Philostratus, Apollonius, too, set sail from Seleucia Pieria to go to Cyprus at virtually the same time as the Christian missionaries (Life of Apollonius 3). Seleucia Pieria is mentioned in the New Testament only in connection with the first missionary voyage of Paul and Barnabas (Acts 13:4): “So, being sent out by the Holy Spirit, they went down to Seleucia; and from there they sailed to Cyprus.”
How Can High Animal Diversity Be Supported in Low-Productivity Deserts?: The Role of Macrodetritivory and Habitat Physiognomy
Authors: Polis Gary A. , Lubin Yael
Published: November 2020

On large spatial scales, species diversity is typically correlated positively with productivity or energy supply (Wright et al. 1993, Huston 1994, Waide et al. 1999). In line with this general pattern, deserts are assumed to have relatively few species for two main reasons. First, relatively few plants and animals have acquired the physiological capabilities to withstand the stresses exerted by the high temperatures and shortage of water found in deserts (reviewed by Noy-Meir 1974, Evenari 1985, Shmida et al. 1986). A second, more ecological mechanism is resource limitation. In deserts, the low and highly variable precipitation levels, high temperatures and high evapotranspiration ratios limit both plant abundance and productivity to very low levels (Noy-Meir 1973, 1985, Polis 1991d). This lack of material at the primary producer level should exacerbate the harsh abiotic conditions and reduce the abundance of animals at higher trophic levels by limiting the types of resources and their availability. Animal abundance should be even further reduced because primary productivity is not only low, but also tends to be sporadic in time and space (MacMahon 1981, Crawford 1981, Ludwig 1986). Herbivores should have difficulties tracking these variations (e.g., Ayal 1994) and efficiently using the available food resources. Hence, herbivore populations in deserts have low densities relative to other biomes (Wisdom 1991) and most of the primary productivity remains unused (Crawford 1981, Noy-Meir 1985). This low abundance of herbivores should propagate through the food web and result as well in lower abundance of higher trophic levels. The number of individuals and the number of species are not always positively correlated; in particular, some examples of low diversity at high productivity with high densities are well documented (e.g., salt marshes, reviewed by Waide et al. 1999). However, several distinct mechanisms have led to the expectation that when productivity and the number of individuals are low, the number of species is also likely to be low. First, within trophic levels, the “statistical mechanics” model of Wright et al. (1993) may operate. In this model, the amount of energy present determines the probability distribution of population sizes for the members of the species pool in a region.
SHALOM: A Landscape Simulation Model for Understanding Animal Biodiversity
Authors: Rosenzweig Michael L. , Holt Robert D.
Published: November 2020

The ecological complexity of landscape components of biodiversity may be understood by examining relatively simple landscapes such as those of arid and semiarid lands. It is believed that such lands provide easy recognition of their components and a relatively simple interaction between their different diversities (Safriel et al. 1989). In general, ecological complexity emerges from the existence of environmental heterogeneity and scaling effects. The effects of scaling include the differential changes in observed patterns produced by processes that operate and interact at different tempospatial scales. For example, interspecific competition may have a strong influence on species coexistence and, therefore, diversity, at a local scale, may be insignificant for determining species diversity compared with a regional scale, where colonization–extinction dynamics may be the major determinant for species diversity. Environmental heterogeneity mainly results from three components: habitat diversity (the number of different habitats), habitat size (the size of each habitat’s patch), and habitat patchiness (the distribution of the different habitats’ patches in the landscape). Each component may affect species diversity by providing specific processes for coexistence, colonization, extinction, and population-size dependent effects. Additionally, as emphasized by Kotliar and Wiens (1990), different scales (Wiens 1989) should introduce different levels of heterogeneity that may influence the way organisms respond to their environment. Morris (1987) suggested that an organism that does not respond to a particular heterogeneity presented at one scale may respond to the heterogeneity presented at another scale. This concept has led ecologists to accept the idea that ecological processes and patterns are not fixed, but rather depend on the scale under study (e.g., Addicott et al. 1987, Kotliar and Wiens 1990, Dunning et al. 1992, Wiens et al. 1993). In this chapter we describe a spatially explicit, multispecies, process-based landscape simulation model, SHALOM (Species-Habitat Arrangement-Landscape-Oriented-Model) that has been designed to explore ecological complexity of large scales. After describing the model, we will present several simulation results to demonstrate the strengths of using such models for understanding biodiversity processes and patterns. We believe that this model can serve an important tool for exploring biodiversity in arid and semiarid lands.
Management for Biodiversity: Human and Landscape Effects on Dry Environments
Authors: Perevolotsky Avi , Shachak Moshe
Published: November 2020

Biodiversity is one of the principal pillars of natural ecosystems. In fact, biodiversity can be interpreted as a manifestation of the various biotic and abiotic components of the ecological systems and their mutual interactions or as the totality or variation (chapter 19). Biodiversity applies at different realms of ecological criteria: organism (genetic/phenological), species, habitat, and landscape (Loidi 1999, Noss 1990). Historically, it was the specific assemblage of organisms—the species diversity—that attracted the attention of scientists. Later, the effect of landscape structure on biological diversity, through habitat and niche properties, became an additional focus of biodiversity research (Malanson and Cramer 1999). The impact of different disturbances on the ecosystem and community structure has also become part of the study of landscape–biodiversity interrelationships (Moloney and Levin 1996; Trabaud and Galtie 1996). In this chapter we present a third dimension that affects biodiversity: human intervention through management and land-use patterns. One may consider this dimension as another source of disturbance, but we believe that such an approach is narrow. In contrast to disturbance, management is intentional, directional, goal-oriented, and, in some cases, scientifically or professionally guided. Human societies have modified the biodiversity of their environments since prehistoric time. Traditional land use that has evolved from ancient practice usually produces highly diverse landscapes based on knowledge of old systems of land exploitation (Loidi 1999). In Scotland, for example, biodiversity was enhanced by the interactions between farmers and the woodlands surrounding the agricultural fields (Tipping et al. 1999). Modern afforestation schemes fail to create diverse woodlands similar to the ancient ones. Maintenance of biodiversity through active management has recently become an important challenge for modern conservation (Monkkonen 1999). In this chapter, we use a conceptual model of human–biodiversity relationships and apply it to water-limited systems. The model describes how ecosystem services provided to traditional and modern societies are enhanced by management actions. The ecosystem services discussed in this chapter are water accumulation, food production (mainly through primary production), and recreation potential. The essence of the model is that without external input of water, ecosystem services are controlled by relationship between landscape mosaic, ecosystem processes, and organisms.
Basic Special Relativity
Authors: Dyall Kenneth G. , Faegri Knut
Published: November 2020

Special relativity is a fascinating and challenging branch of physics. It describes the physics of the high velocity/high energy regime, frequently turning up phenomena that appear paradoxical in view of our everyday experience. In this book we will be quite selective in our presentation of the theory of special relativity: we will concentrate on those features that we consider necessary for the later applications to relativistic quantum chemistry. We do this in good conscience, knowing that there is a vast literature on the subject, catering to a wide range of audiences—from the quite elementary to the very sophisticated. A few examples are listed in the reference list, but a visit to any nearby physics library will provide an ample selection of reading material for those wishing to delve deeper into the matter. In the present chapter we adopt a minimalist approach. We develop some of the basic concepts and formulas of special relativity, building on a rather elementary level of basic physics. The aim is to provide a sufficient foundation for those who want to proceed as quickly as possible to the more quantum chemical parts of the text. In later chapters we will introduce more advanced tools of physics and revisit some of the subjects treated here. The theory of special relativity deals with the description of physical phenomena in frames that move at constant velocity relative to each other. The classroom is one such frame, the car passing at constant speed outside the classroom is another. The trajectory of a ball being thrown up vertically in the car will look quite different whether we describe it relative to the interior of the car or relative to the interior of the classroom. In particular we will be concerned with inertial frames. We define an inertial frame as a frame where spatial relations are Euclidean and where there is a universal time such that free particles move with constant velocities. In classical Newtonian mechanics, relations between the spatial parameters and time in two inertial frames S and S’ are expressed in terms of the Galilean transformations.
Operators, Matrix Elements, and Wave Functions under Time-Reversal Symmetry
Authors: Dyall Kenneth G. , Faegri Knut
Published: November 2020

We now take on the task of developing the theory and methods for a relativistic quantum chemistry. The aim is to arrive at a qualitative as well as a quantitative understanding of the relativistic effects in molecules. We must be able to predict the effects of relativity on the wave functions and electron densities of molecules, and on the molecular properties arising from these. And we must develop methods and algorithms that enable us to calculate the properties and interactions of molecules with an accuracy comparable to that achieved for lighter systems in a nonrelativistic framework. Parts of this development follow fairly straightforwardly from our considerations of the atomic case in part II, but molecular systems represent challenges of their own. This is particularly true for the computational techniques. From the nonrelativistic experience we know that present-day quantum chemistry owes much of its success to the enormous effort that has gone into developing efficient methods and algorithms. This effort has yielded powerful tools, such as the use of basis-set expansions of wave functions, the exploitation of molecular symmetry, the description of correlation effects by calculations beyond the mean-field approximation, and so on. In developing a relativistic quantum chemistry, we must be able to reformulate these techniques in the new framework, or replace them by more suitable and efficient methods. In nonrelativistic theory, spin symmetry provides one of the biggest reductions in computational effort, such as in the powerful and elegant Graphical Unitary Group Approach (GUGA) for configuration interaction (CI) calculations (Shavitt 1988). For relativistic applications, time-reversal symmetry takes the place of spin symmetry, and this chapter is devoted to developing a formalism for efficient incorporation of this symmetry in our theory and methods. Time-reversal symmetry includes the spin symmetry of nonrelativistic systems, but there are significant differences from spin symmetry for systems with a Hamiltonian that is spin-dependent. The development of techniques that incorporate time-reversal symmetry presented here are primarily aimed at four-component calculations, but they are equally applicable to two-component calculations in which the spin-dependent operators are included at the self-consistent field (SCF) stage of a calculation.
Relativistic Effects on Molecular Bonding and Structure
Authors: Dyall Kenneth G. , Faegri Knut
Published: November 2020

Having covered much of the theory relevant to relativistic quantum chemistry, the logical next step would be to turn to the application of this theory in the calculation of chemical phenomena and in the interpretation of experimental data. We shy away from this task for the reason that research and development in the field have increased greatly over the past decades, and with the present level of activity, even doubling the volume of this book might not do justice to much of the excellent work being done in this field. Also, the present publication rates and tempo of developments would probably make much of our analysis obsolete or incomplete within a short time. Fortunately, the specialist literature has been reviewed quite frequently, and with the theoretical background from the previous sections of this work this wealth of information should be accessible to the reader. A good overview can be found in the volumes edited by Schwerdtfeger (2002, 2004). The bibliographies of Pyykkö (1986, 1993, 2000) should also be consulted to locate the relevant literature sources. There is, however, one area that we feel deserves some extra attention. This is the theory of bonding and structure in molecules. So far most of what we have presented could be regarded as pertaining as much to atomic physics as to quantum chemistry. Molecules have mainly appeared through the discussion of the molecular point groups and their treatment within the various schemes. Molecular orbital theory, valence bonding, and hybridization are concepts that are central to our understanding of molecular bonding and structure. In this final chapter, we therefore discuss how these concepts are influenced by relativity and what changes this might cause in the parameters we observe, such as valencies, bond lengths, vibrational frequencies, dissociation energies, and reaction barriers. Our concepts of molecules are based on our concepts of atoms. Molecular orbitals are conveniently viewed in terms of linear combinations of atomic orbitals. Thus, our understanding of relativistic effects on bonding should start with an understanding of the relativistic effects on atomic spinors. In chapter 7, we found that the mean radius of a hydrogenic spinor decreased due to relativistic effects.
The Makeup of Soil
Authors: White Robert E.
Published: November 2020

Minerals and organic matter comprise the solid phase of the soil. The geological origin of the soil minerals, and the input of organic matter from plants and ani­mals, are briefly discussed in section 1.2.1. A basic knowledge of the composition and properties of these materials is fundamental to understanding how a soil in­fluences the growth of grapevines. A striking feature of soil is the size range of the mineral matter, which varies from boulders (>600 mm diameter), to stones and gravel (600 to >2 mm diameter), to particles (<2 mm diameter)—the fine earth fraction. The fine earth fraction is the most important because of the type of miner­als present and their large surface areas. The ratio of surface area to volume de­fines the specific surface area of a particle. The smaller the size of an object, the larger is the ratio of its surface area to volume. This can be demonstrated by con­sidering spherical particles of radius 0.1 mm, 0.01 mm, and 0.001 mm (1 mi­crometer or micron, μm). The specific surface areas of these particles are 30, 300, and 3000 mm2/mm3, respectively. In practice, the specific surface area is mea­sured as the surface area per unit mass, which implies a constant particle density (usually taken as 2.65 Mg/m3). A large specific surface area means that more mol­ecules can be adsorbed on the surface. Representative values for the specific sur­face areas of sand, silt, and clay-size minerals are given in table 2.1. Note the large range in specific surface area, even for the clay minerals, from as little as 5 m2/g for kaolinite to 750 m2/g for Na-montmorillonite. Because specific surface areas are important, we need to know the size distri­bution of particles in the fine earth fraction. This is expressed as the soil’s texture. The types of minerals that make up the individual size fractions are also impor­tant because they too influence the reactivity of the surfaces. Both these topics are discussed here. All soils show a continuous distribution of particle sizes, called a frequency dis­tribution. This distribution relates the number (or mass) of particles of a given size to their actual size, measured by the diameter of an equivalent sphere.
Four-Legged Animals Skeleton & Muscles (Numerous Views)
Authors: Goldfinger Eliot
Published: November 2020

Horse (equid) characteristics: One digit per foot ending in symmetrical, horny hoof. Walks on very tip of toe. Elongated skull; large lower jaw. Large upper and lower incisors. In side view, neck widens as it approaches shoulder (elongated triangular shape). Mane present, upright on wild species. Tuft of hair often present on forehead (“forelock”). Rear profile of neck straight or arched. Pointed, upright ears. Long, slender limbs. Humerus and femur short; lower portion of limb long, especially forefoot and hind foot (adaptation for speed by shifting weight of muscles mass upward, close to the body). Ulna and fibula reduced and fused to adjacent, weight-supporting bones. Femur has projecting third trochanter on outer side of shaft for attachment of the gluteus superficialis muscle. Barrel-like trunk. Long hair on tail. In same group as tapirs and rhinoceroses.
Miscellaneous Animals Skeleton
Authors: Goldfinger Eliot
Published: November 2020

American bison characteristics: Has very long spinous processes on thoracic vertebrae (especially between the shoulders). Four digits with hoofs per limb. Two central toes are large and weight-bearing; vestigial inner and outer toes, with hoofs, are very small and located higher on side of foot and to the rear (they do not articulate with the skeleton and do not touch the ground). Walks on toes. Front half of body develops permanent long hair, especially on the top of the skull, the chin, and the forearms). Rear half looses thick fur cover in the summer, so difference between hair length of front and rear portions of body is very pronounced in warm months, with a clear line of demarcation. Both sexes have horns. African elephant characteristics: Middle of back profile concave/low (convex/high in Indian). Nose extends into long, flexible, muscular trunk with nostrils and one prehensile finger-like projection at tip (two in Indian). Large skull; short nasal bones located high on skull (for attachment of trunk). Brain surrounded by thick, airy bone. Single rounded prominences on top of head (double in Indian). Upper incisors elongated into continuously growing tusks, in both male and female. Very large ears (larger than Indian). Short neck—cervical vertebrae compressed front to back. Rib cage extends to pelvis. Thick, pillar-like columnar limbs (bones in almost vertical straight line) and shoulder and hip sockets face downward, all to support massive body weight. Short feet. All feet have five digits—some inner and outer toes may be reduced and without hoofs. Both front and rear feet have an extra small, elongated bone (prepollex in front and prehallux in rear) just to the inside of the first digit. Front foot has four or five hoofs (five in Indian). Hind foot usually has three, four, or five hoofs (four or five in Indian). Thick elastic pad on sole of foot. Foot in life somewhat cylindrical or conical. When the animal is lying on belly, knee touches ground (femur directed downward); lower leg continues straight back. Long tail has wispy tuft of coarse hair.
Modern Use and Environmental Impact of the Kava Plant in Remote Oceania
Authors: Merlin Mark , Raynor William
Published: November 2020

The kava plant, Piper methysticum Forst. f., is an attractive shrub in the pepper family, Piperaceae (figure 12.1). Known by various names in tropical Pacific, such as yagona, kava, kava kava, ’awa, seka, and sakau, it is propagated vegetatively, as are most of the traditional crops in the region. Kava has been used for many centuries to produce psychoactive preparations. Its active principles, several lipidlike substances known as kavalactones, are concentrated in the rootstock and roots. These psychoactive chemicals are ingested traditionally by Pacific islanders as cold-water infusions of chewed, ground, pounded, or otherwise macerated kava stumps and roots. Mind-altering kava preparations are, or once were, imbibed in a wide range of Pacific Ocean societies. These include peoples living in some lowland areas on the large Melanesian island of New Guinea in the western Pacific to very isolated islands such as those in Polynesian Hawai’i, 7,000 kilometers to the northeast (figure 12.2). Beyond this widespread local use in the tropical Pacific, utilization of kava in parts of Europe as a plant source for medicinal preparations has a relatively lengthy history. In Europe it has been used as a sedative, tranquilizer, muscle relaxant, relief from menopausal symptoms, and treatment for urinary tract and bladder ailments (Lebot et al. 1999). Over the past decade, there has been rapidly increasing interest in kava well beyond the areas of traditional use among Pacific Islanders (figure 12.3). This includes a huge surge in the use of kava products in Europe, North America, Australia, and elsewhere. Within the past 3 to 5 years there has been widespread recognition of its potential to emerge as a mainstream herbal product. Modern cultivation and use of kava in the Pacific has significantly expanded in some traditional use areas such as Vanuatu, Fiji, Tonga, Samoa, and Pohnpei. There are also significant signs of rejuvenated interest in kava cultivation in some traditional areas of use where it had been abandoned because of depopulation, political prohibition, or zealous missionary denunciation. Increasing use and cultivation of kava on these Pacific islands has been stimulated by local consumption rates and rising demand for commercial export.
Integrating Geographic Information Systems and Agent-Based Technologies for Modeling and Simulating Social and Ecological Phenomena
Authors: Randy Gimblett H.
Published: November 2020

To acquire a more thorough understanding of the complexity of natural systems, researchers have sought the assistance of advanced computer-based technologies in the development of integrated modeling and simulation systems. Computer simulations have been utilized in a variety of natural resource management applications from modeling animal populations, to forest fires, to hydrologic systems. Computer models may be developed to understand more about how a real system works, as when scientists develop models of ecological processes. Such models may facilitate predictions of a real system’s behavior under a variety of conditions, or a greater understanding of the structure of a real system. There are numerous advantages to developing and experimenting with models of real-system phenomena. Experimenting with the real system itself may be too costly and time consuming, or even impossible. Simulations are completely repeatable and nondestructive. The data produced by simulations is often easier to interpret than data from a real system. Geographic information systems (GIS) technology has led these developments providing powerful databases for storing and retrieving spatially referenced data. Spatial information is stored in many different themes representing quantitative, qualitative, or logical information. These data can have different resolutions that range from detailed local information to small-scale satellite imagery. GIS operators provide the means for manipulating and analyzing layers of spatial information and for generating new layers. Since it allows distributed parametrization, a GIS is useful for ecological models that need to explicitly incorporate the spatial structure and the variability of system behavior. A raster-based GIS represents spatial information as a grid of cells, and each cell corresponds to a uniform parcel of the landscape. Cells are spatially located by row and column and the cell size depends on the resolution required. GIS provides an excellent means of capturing real-world data in multiple layers (three dimensional) and resolutions (spatial scales) over time. Due to the complexity of ecosystem dynamics, interest has increased in using GIS for simulation of spatial dynamic processes.
Medicines that Work for Fibromyalgia
Authors: Wallace Daniel J. , Brock Wallace Janice
Published: November 2020

Nobody likes to take medicine. Many fibromyalgia patients, in particular, prefer to treat their condition with natural remedies, and many are reluctant to take prescribed medication. This problem is made more difficult because many of the most helpful preparations are designated as antidepressants. Some patients become concerned that this might create a stigma. “If you really believe what I am saying, and are convinced that I am not crazy, why are you giving me an antidepressant or antianxiety drug?” is a question we frequently hear. This problem is compounded when some insurance companies refuse to reimburse patients for these preparations, claiming that they are uncovered “psychiatric benefits.” Management of fibromyalgia includes medications from separate families or groups, in which at least one agent has been shown in double-blinded, controlled trials (where some of the study subjects get placebo, or sugar pills) to be effective in fibromyalgia patients. The rationale for using these drugs in treating fibromyalgia is reviewed in this chapter, but first the scientific logic behind putting these drugs on our “A” list will be discussed. In the United States, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approves drugs for specific indications. It takes many years and many dollars for an agent to be approved for a specific use, and since fibromyalgia was not recognized as a disorder until 1990, no drugs currently have FDA approval for the condition. Many of the remedies purported to help fibromyalgia are beyond the FDA’s regulatory control. These include a variety of vitamins and agents that are licensed as food supplements. As a result, promising preparations such as DHEA and melatonin (reviewed in chapter 22) are widely available without a prescription and are being taken by patients even though few controlled trials have documented their safety or efficacy. For example, there is no legal obligation to prove that a 3-mg tablet of melatonin really contains 3 mg. Also, each batch of medication can be mixed with varying preservatives, which may affect its delivery, or bioavailability. Some of our patients have no difficulty taking the medication but react to its packaging. Physicians who manage fibromyalgia patients must rely on scientific studies showing that a drug is effective in alleviating a particular condition.
Behind the Hype: Unproven, Experimental, Herbal, and Innovative Remedies
Authors: Wallace Daniel J. , Brock Wallace Janice
Published: November 2020

Advocates of practical though controversial lifestyle approaches have always found a sympathetic ear in the United States since the time folk practitioner Sylvester Graham’s principles of health, nutrition, and fitness (in addition to inventing the Graham cracker) achieved cult status in the 1840s. Heroic, misguided therapies were administered by allopathic (mainstream) physicians throughout the nineteenth century. This created fertile ground for promoters of patent medicines and nostrums to those escaping organized medicine’s use of leeches, cupping, phlebotomy (blood drawing) knives, and brutal laxative regimens. During the Progressive Era, medicine started to improve with the establishment of postgraduate training programs at Johns Hopkins University just before the turn of the century and the regulation of medicines as part of the Pure Food and Drug Act of 1906. The final revolution occurred when two-thirds of the medical schools in the United States closed following revelations of their inadequacies by the investigative Flexner Report funded by the Carnegie Foundation in 1910. Despite these changes, however, the appeal of alternative therapies to the American public continues unabated. The previous two chapters have described how mainstream, organized, conventional medicine approaches fibromyalgia. Even though their therapies usually provide significant relief of symptoms and signs, traditional physicians to some extent must regard themselves as failures. In the United States, one person in three has consulted a complementary medicine practitioner. These individuals spend $23 billion a year on this approach, $13 billion of which is out-of-pocket and not reimbursed by insurance. This exceeds all expenditures on hospital care in the United States. A 1996 Canadian study found that of several hundred fibromyalgia patients, 70 percent purchased unproven over-the-counter rubs, creams, vitamins, or herbs; 40 percent sought help from alternative medicine practitioners such as chiropractors, massage therapists, homeopaths, reflexologists, or acupuncturists; and 26 percent went on special diets. Since it is logical to believe that people who are tired and hurt want to get better, it follows that some fibromyalgia patients will try anything that is not harmful to improve their medical condition. This chapter is dedicated to patients who wish to “look before they leap” into nontraditional therapies.
The Magic of the Internet
Authors: Ehrenfeld David
Published: November 2020

I am the only person in my university building who wants no part of the university’s free e-mail and who does not surf the Internet, which makes me the last holdover from the days when conversations by voice, dusty books, and rectangular white envelopes with colored stamps in the upper right corner were our primary means of communication. Nevertheless, rumors of the new and wonderful electronic inventions reach me often—from my wife and children and especially from my students. Like the seven golden cities of Cibola, the Internet beckons; if I had the energy of Coronado, I would seek it out and master it. Being lazy, I sit in my office with nothing more modern than an automatic pencil, a telephone, and an aging Macintosh Centris equipped only with Microsoft Word 5.1,and think about what I am missing. I imagine the chat rooms, for instance, abuzz with scintillating conversations, the twenty-first century equivalent of the salon of Madame deStaël or that celebrated Oxford club where J. R. R. Tolkien and C. S. Lewis read to each other from their latest manuscripts. I know that chat rooms are not really rooms, but in my mind I can see one clearly: the lustrous walnut paneling, the floor-to-ceiling mullioned windows framed by the thick pleats of burgundy velvet drapes, the comfortable arm chair supholstered in rich mahogany leather, and next to one of the chairs—my chair—a small Louis Quatorze table holding a Waterford snifter with a generous dollop of Napoleonic brandy. Sometimes the rooms are contemporary in style, with walls consisting of giant liquid-crystal sur-faces that shimmer with ever-changing, abstract splashes of color o bold, functional patterns of steel-like beams intricately linked, endlessly dissolving and reconnecting. In place of chairs there are convivial arrangements of very large, “smart” cushions that rapidly mold them-selves to the contours of the body regardless of whether one wishes to sit or recline. And the conversations! Here must be the ultimate purpose for which language was invented, especially my language, English, with its unparalled wealth of words.
The Gingko and the Stump
Authors: Ehrenfeld David
Published: November 2020

I had a call from Bill Stevens at the science desk of the New York Times. “I’m doing a story about an article that is about to appear in Nature,” he said, “and I’d like to fax you a copy for your comments. The article is by Robert Costanza and twelve other economists, geographers, and ecologists. It’s called ‘The Value of the World’s Ecosystem Services and Natural Capital.’” As soon as I heard the title, I knew that I was not likely to see eye to eye with the authors. With some reluctance, partly because Costanza is a committed and accomplished environmentalist whom I didn’t like to criticize, I agreed to read and comment on the article. Soon I had it in hand. I started out to read the article thoroughly, word by word, examining the methods, the assumptions, and the numbers in the tables with care. But it was hard to do; I kept wanting to skim. Not that it was badly written; it was clear and lucid. Not that it was aggressive or arrogant in tone; indeed it was mildly apologetic. Not that it was ill-intentioned; its goal was to demonstrate that nature in the form of intact ecosystems is worth far more to us than we currently imagine. Nor were the estimates exaggerated; as the authors claimed, they were obviously understated, giving a minimal figure of $33 trillion for the annual value of nature. This is approximately twice the value of the global gross national product, they pointed out. In other words, nature is very valuable to us, even more valuable than the goods and services that people produce. One problem was immediately obvious. The authors did not seem to realize the dangers of what they were doing. Never mind the larger dangers to our essential humanity, but even the practical, economic dangers.
The Vine Cleaners
Authors: Ehrenfeld David
Published: November 2020

First fragment. I am in my apartment, a modern, starkly decorated eyrie in a high-rise building. I know it is my apartment in the intuitive but un-challengeable way one knows things in dreams. Actually, I am in a short hallway within the apartment—a parqueted floor and a window at the end of the hall stick in my mind. There is a storm going on, but the other side of the window seems very far away. It grows dark outside; lightning flashes intermittently. Sam, my youngest child, warns me to stay away from the window; he points out that there is a danger of tornadoes. As if to underscore the seriousness of the threat, the lights of the apartment begin to flicker. Second fragment. My wife, Joan, meets me at the door to the apartment. She looks upset. “The vine cleaners are here,” she whispers. It is clear to me that she wants to send them away—we don’t need vine cleaners for our potted plants—but it is too late. Looking past Joan, I see that the vine cleaners, an immigrant couple, are already at work, spraying and polishing the leaves. I can smell the perfumed chemical cleanser they are using. Perhaps, I think to myself, this is a free service provided by the management of the apartment building; but no, it isn’t, for now they are done and the man tells me that the vine cleaning costs $8.50. I hand him a $10 bill and get a one and two quarters in change. The couple waits. Do I tip them? A quarter each is hardly enough. Is a dollar too much? I hesitate. Out-side, the storm rages. Then the lights flicker again and go out, freezing the tableau. I opened my eyes with mixed feelings of relief and disorientation. Re-lief because the vine cleaners had vanished, along with the question of how much to tip them—there is no need to tip people in dreams. Disorientation because the place I had awakened in was so utterly different from the clinging aura of the dream, and yet this real place was also for a moment strange and unfamiliar.
A Politics Worthy of the Name
Authors: Orr David W.
Published: November 2020

Relative to the problems we face, our politics are about the most miserable that can be imagined. Those who purport to represent us and who on rare occasions try to lead us have been unable to take even the smallest steps to promote energy efficiency to avoid possibly catastrophic climatic change a few decades from now. They have failed to stop the hemorrhaging of life and protect biological diversity, soils, and forests. They ignore problems of urban decay, suburban sprawl, the poisoning of our children by persistent toxins, the destruction of rural communities, and the growing disparity between the rich and the poor. They cannot find the wherewithal to defend the public interest in matters of global trade or even in the financing of public elections. Indeed, the more potentially catastrophic the issue, the less likely it is to receive serious and sustained attention from political leaders at any level. Our public priorities, in other words, are upside down. Issues that will seem trivial or even nonsensical to our progeny are given great attention, while problems crucial to their well-being are ignored and allowed to grow into global catastrophes. At best they will regard us with pity, at worst as derelict and perhaps criminally so. The situation was not always this way. The leadership of this country was once capable of responding to threats to our security and health with alacrity and sometimes with intelligence. In light of the dismal performance of the U.S. political system relative to the large environmental and social issues looming ahead, we have, broadly speaking, three possible courses of action (assuming that we choose to act). The first is to turn the management of our environmental affairs over to a kind of permanent technocracy—a priesthood of global managers. The idea that experts ought to manage public affairs is at least as old as Plato. In its current incarnation, some propose to turn the management of the earth over to a group of global experts. Stripped to its essentials, this means smarter exploitation of nature culminating in the global administration of the planet with lots of satellites, remote sensing, and geographic information systems experts mapping one thing or another.
Terminology and Methodology
Authors: Holliday Vance T.
Published: November 2020

The long history of soil science (e.g., well over 100 yr in North America) and its bureaucratic institutionalization as a component of agricultural research in many countries resulted in the evolution of a substantial vocabulary and methodology for the discipline. A wide array of methods for the field and laboratory investigation of soils also is available to geoarchaeologists. The first part of this chapter is a discussion of some basic terms and definitions used in pedology and soil geomorphology. Some specific terms (e.g., soil stratigraphic nomenclature) are discussed as necessary elsewhere in the text and in appendix 1. There is a sizable body of nomenclature in pedology and soil geomorphology for describing and classifying soils. Indeed, there is a tendency in soils research toward an over-abundance of nomenclature and jargon (e.g., Fastovsky, 1991). All scientific fields necessarily have a specialized nomenclature, however. Researchers in any field, and especially interdisciplinarians such as archaeologists working with soils and soil scientists working with archaeology, should be aware of the nomenclature, jargon, and lingua franca of the new fields they enter.A pedologist who becomes involved with North American archaeology would have to become familiar with terms and concepts such as “Paleoindian” or “Archaic” or “site.” Likewise, archaeologists and geoscientists interested in understanding soils for geoarchaeological purposes must learn some basic soil science terminology and the principles behind issues of proper use (or misuse) of some terms. This fosters communication and problem solving and avoids ambiguities. The rest of this chapter is a discussion of some of the more widely used approaches in the field and in the laboratory, especially in archaeological contexts. Key points to be made are that, first, investigators select the methods that best suit the field situation and the research questions being posed; second, if comparisons are made to other research, the comparable methods should be used; and third, all field and laboratory methods should be referenced in publications and deviations from standard practices or procedures should be described. Some terms introduced below and elsewhere are well defined and generally agreed on, whereas others are variously or vaguely defined.
Human Impacts on Soils
Authors: Holliday Vance T.
Published: November 2020

Literally since they first set foot on the Earth’s surface, humans and their hominid ancestors have affected soils. The degree of effect humans have on soils varies from the most subtle, which could include simply walking across the soil, to the most dramatic, such as wholesale removal, mixing, or burial associated with urbanization. Butzer (1982, pp. 123–156) and Davidson (1982) present very useful summaries of the history and nature of such influence in a geoarchaeological context. Geoarchaeologists can be confronted with soils subjected to a wide degree of anthropogenic alteration. The detection of these alterations and their differential distribution can, in theory, be used to determine site boundaries, define stratigraphic relationships, delimit intrasite activity areas and features, and aid in their functional interpretation (Woods, 1984, p. 67). The primary challenge is detecting the human-induced alteration and then, of course, interpreting it. In a very broad sense, the detectability of human impact is roughly proportional to the degree of impact; that is, very subtle alterations are difficult or impossible to detect, but more substantial changes are more obvious. As in most other aspects of archaeology, interpreting the meaning of anthropogenic effects on soils is much more problematic. The study of human impacts on soils is one of the oldest applications of soil studies in archaeology, particularly in regions with a long history of significant human modification of the environment. The topic is also an important part of soil science and agriculture. As a result, there is a very large literature on the topic, especially for the Old World. There well may be more writing on this aspect of soils research in archaeology than on all others combined. The topic is of such interest because human impacts on soils can be so obvious and pervasive in archaeological contexts; recognizing human impacts is critical in sorting out artificial versus natural pedogenic and other geogenic processes; it provides another avenue of research into understanding the relationship between humans and their environment, especially the landscape; and it offers another means of getting at human behavior, either directly, as in studies of mound construction or agriculture, or more indirectly, as in studies of humaninduced soil erosion. Regardless, the subject has long been of interest in archaeology and geoarchaeology.