title: The chronology of occupation at Teouma, Vanuatu: Use of a modified chronometric hygiene protocol and Bayesian modeling to evaluate midden remains

authors: Petchey, Fiona

subjects: Teouma

abstract: A number of radiocarbon dates, both published and unpublished have been obtained from archaeological deposits across the Teouma site on the island of Efate in Vanuatu. These are on a range of materials from the midden and associated cemetery including charcoal (13) and shell (7) as well as a number of less commonly dated 14C sample types including bone from 2 terrestrial giant tortoises (?Meiolania damelipi), 8 pigs (Sus scrofa) and 2 chickens (Gallus gallus). Thirty-six human bone collagen dates and 5 Conus sp. shell ring artifacts from the cemetery context have been discussed in detail elsewhere (Petchey et al., 2014). In this paper, we evaluate the radiocarbon data according to observed contextual associations and established understandings of 14C offsets, and collate all available information in a Bayesian framework to establish the age and duration of the settlement at Teouma. This analysis provides a maximum age range for the Lapita deposits of between 3000 and 2560 cal BP and a most likely start date of 2920–2870 cal BP and end date of 2870–2750 cal BP (68.2% prob.). This is slightly younger age for the deposits than previously reported, but is in keeping with evaluation of the burials themselves, the majority of which are dated to between 2940 and 2720 cal BP. This age range indicates that the site was in use at the same time as colonization events in Tonga (2850–2830 cal BP) and Fiji (3020–2860 cal BP), and supports the hypothesis that Vanuatu was at the center of a region-wide interaction sphere for several generations after initial settlement.

text: The chronology of occupation at Teouma, Vanuatu: Use of a modified chronometric hygiene protocol and Bayesian modeling to evaluate midden remains A number of radiocarbon dates, both published and unpublished have been obtained from archaeological deposits across the Teouma site on the island of Efate in Vanuatu. These are on a range of materials from the midden and associated cemetery including charcoal (13) and shell (7) as well as a number of less commonly dated 14C sample types including bone from 2 terrestrial giant tortoises (?Meiolania damelipi), 8 pigs (Sus scrofa) and 2 chickens (Gallus gallus). Thirty-six human bone collagen dates and 5 Conus sp. shell ring artifacts from the cemetery context have been discussed in detail elsewhere (Petchey et al., 2014). In this paper, we evaluate the radiocarbon data according to observed contextual associations and established understandings of 14C offsets, and collate all available information in a Bayesian framework to establish the age and duration of the settlement at Teouma. This analysis provides a maximum age range for the Lapita deposits of between 3000 and 2560 cal BP and a most likely start date of 2920–2870 cal BP and end date of 2870–2750 cal BP (68.2% prob.). This is slightly younger age for the deposits than previously reported, but is in keeping with evaluation of the burials themselves, the majority of which are dated to between 2940 and 2720 cal BP. This age range indicates that the site was in use at the same time as colonization events in Tonga (2850–2830 cal BP) and Fiji (3020–2860 cal BP), and supports the hypothesis that Vanuatu was at the center of a region-wide interaction sphere for several generations after initial settlement.

year: 2015-12

title: Structure from randomness in halfspace learning with the zero-one loss

authors: Kabán, Ata

abstract: We prove risk bounds for halfspace learning when the data dimensionality is allowed to be larger than the sample size, using a notion of compressibility by random projection. In particular, we give upper bounds for the empirical risk minimizer learned efficiently from randomly projected data, as well as uniform upper bounds in the full high-dimensional space. Our main findings are the following: i) In both settings, the obtained bounds are able to discover and take advantage of benign geometric structure, which turns out to depend on the cosine similarities between the classifier and points of the input space, and provide a new interpretation of margin distribution type arguments. ii) Furthermore our bounds allow us to draw new connections between several existing successful classification algorithms, and we also demonstrate that our theory is predictive of empirically observed performance in numerical simulations and experiments. iii) Taken together, these results suggest that the study of compressive learning can improve our understanding of which benign structural traits – if they are possessed by the data generator – make it easier to learn an effective classifier from a sample.

text: Structure from randomness in halfspace learning with the zero-one loss We prove risk bounds for halfspace learning when the data dimensionality is allowed to be larger than the sample size, using a notion of compressibility by random projection. In particular, we give upper bounds for the empirical risk minimizer learned efficiently from randomly projected data, as well as uniform upper bounds in the full high-dimensional space. Our main findings are the following: i) In both settings, the obtained bounds are able to discover and take advantage of benign geometric structure, which turns out to depend on the cosine similarities between the classifier and points of the input space, and provide a new interpretation of margin distribution type arguments. ii) Furthermore our bounds allow us to draw new connections between several existing successful classification algorithms, and we also demonstrate that our theory is predictive of empirically observed performance in numerical simulations and experiments. iii) Taken together, these results suggest that the study of compressive learning can improve our understanding of which benign structural traits – if they are possessed by the data generator – make it easier to learn an effective classifier from a sample.

year: 2020

title: The baskets of knowledge: A curriculum for an indigenous psychology

authors: Waitoki, Waikaremoana

abstract: Through the chapters in this book we have walked alongside Ripeka and her whānau. We have taken a journey into potentiality; that of Ripeka’s as well as our own. Our introduction to this book asked what would happen when we witnessed Ripeka through our eyes as a Māori psychologist, when diverse and multi-layered cultural contexts form our starting point. What would happen when we understood the interconnectedness of whakapapa, and tikanga to Ripeka’s past, present and future and how they could be used to guide pathways forward? We asked what would happen when we viewed Ripeka and her whānau through a lens of unrelenting hope and unrealised potential. If all those things happened, what value are we able to add as Māori psychologists to Ripeka’s life, and to that of her whānau?

text: The baskets of knowledge: A curriculum for an indigenous psychology Through the chapters in this book we have walked alongside Ripeka and her whānau. We have taken a journey into potentiality; that of Ripeka’s as well as our own. Our introduction to this book asked what would happen when we witnessed Ripeka through our eyes as a Māori psychologist, when diverse and multi-layered cultural contexts form our starting point. What would happen when we understood the interconnectedness of whakapapa, and tikanga to Ripeka’s past, present and future and how they could be used to guide pathways forward? We asked what would happen when we viewed Ripeka and her whānau through a lens of unrelenting hope and unrealised potential. If all those things happened, what value are we able to add as Māori psychologists to Ripeka’s life, and to that of her whānau?

year: 2016