TY - JOUR A1 - Hermanussen, Michael A1 - Alt, Christoph A1 - Staub, Kaspar A1 - Aßmann, Christian A1 - Groth, Detlef T1 - The impact of physical connectedness on body height in Swiss conscripts JF - Journal of biological and clinical anthropology : Anthropologischer Anzeiger ; Mitteilungsorgan der Gesellschaft für Anthropologie N2 - Background: Human populations differ in height. Recent evidence suggests that social networks play an important role in the regulation of adolescent growth and adult height. We further investigated the effect of physical connectedness on height. Material and methods: We considered Switzerland as a geographic network with 169 nodes (district capitals) and 335 edges (connecting roads) and studied effects of connectedness on height in Swiss conscript from 1884-1891, 1908-1910, and 2004-2009. We also created exponential-family random graph models to separate possible unspecific effects of geographic vicinity. Results: In 1884-1891, in 1908-1910, and in 2004-2009, 1st, 2nd and 3rd order neighboring districts significantly correlate in height (p<0.01). The correlations depend on the order of connectedness, they decline with increasing distance. Short stature districts tend to have short, tall stature districts tend to have tall neighbors. Random network analyses suggest direct road effects on height. Whereas in 1884-1891, direct road effects were only visible between 1st order neighbors, direct road effects extended to 2nd and 3rd in 1908-1910, and in 2004-2009, also to 4th order neighbors, and might reflect historic improvements in transportation. The spatial correlations did not significantly change when height was controlled for goiter (1884-1889) and for median per capita income (2006), suggesting direct road effects also in goiter-allowed-for height and income-allowed-for height. Conclusion: Height in a district depends on height of physically connected neighboring districts. The association decreases with increasing distance in the net. The present data suggest that people can be short because their neighbors are short; or tall because their neighbors are tall (community effect on growth). Psycho-biological effects seem to control growth and development within communities that go far beyond our current understanding of growth regulation. KW - body height KW - connectedness KW - community effect KW - conscripts KW - Switzerland Y1 - 2014 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1127/0003-5548/2014/0466 SN - 0003-5548 VL - 71 IS - 4 SP - 313 EP - 327 PB - Schweizerbart CY - Stuttgart ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Elsner, Julia A1 - Schibler, Joerg A1 - Hofreiter, Michael A1 - Schlumbaum, Angela T1 - Burial condition is the most important factor for mtDNA PCR amplification success in Palaeolithic equid remains from the Alpine foreland JF - Archaeological and anthropological sciences N2 - Faunal remains from Palaeolithic sites are important genetic sources to study preglacial and postglacial populations and to investigate the effect of climate change and human impact. Post mortem decay, resulting in fragmented and chemically modified DNA, is a key obstacle in ancient DNA analyses. In the absence of reliable methods to determine the presence of endogenous DNA in sub-fossil samples, temporal and spatial surveys of DNA survival on a regional scale may help to estimate the potential of faunal remains from a given time period and region. We therefore investigated PCR amplification success, PCR performance and post mortem damage in c. 47,000 to c. 12,000-year-old horse remains from 14 Palaeolithic sites along the Swiss Jura Mountains in relation to depositional context, tissue type, storage time and age, potentially influencing DNA preservation. The targeted 75 base pair mitochondrial DNA fragment could be amplified solely from equid remains from caves and not from any of the open dry and (temporary) wetland sites. Whether teeth are better than bones cannot be ultimately decided; however, both storage time after excavation and age significantly affect PCR amplification and performance, albeit not in a linear way. This is best explained by the-inevitable-heterogeneity of the data set. The extent of post mortem damage is not related to any of the potential impact factors. The results encourage comprehensive investigations of Palaeolithic cave sites, even from temperate regions. KW - Ancient DNA KW - DNA preservation KW - Horse KW - Cave KW - Switzerland Y1 - 2015 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1007/s12520-014-0213-4 SN - 1866-9557 SN - 1866-9565 VL - 7 IS - 4 SP - 505 EP - 515 PB - Springer CY - Heidelberg ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Fritsch, Nina-Sophie A1 - Verwiebe, Roland A1 - Liedl, Bernd T1 - Declining Gender Differences in Low-Wage Employment in Germany, Austria and Switzerland JF - Comparative Sociology N2 - Although the low-wage employment sector has enlarged over the past 20 years in the context of pronounced flexibility in restructured labor markets, gender differences in low-wage employment have declined in Germany, Austria and Switzerland. In this article, the authors examine reasons for declining gender inequalities, and most notably concentrate on explanations for the closing gender gap in low-wage employment risks. In addition, they identify differences and similarities among the German-speaking countries. Based on regression techniques and decomposition analyses (1996-2016), the authors find significantly decreasing labor market risks for the female workforce. Detailed analysis reveals that (1) the concrete positioning in the labor market shows greater importance in explaining declining gender differences compared to personal characteristics. (2) The changed composition of the labor markets has prevented the low-wage sector from increasing even more in general and works in favor of the female workforce and their low-wage employment risks in particular. KW - low-wage employment KW - gender inequality KW - labor market KW - Germany KW - Austria KW - Switzerland Y1 - 2019 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1163/15691330-12341507 SN - 1569-1322 SN - 1569-1330 VL - 18 IS - 4 SP - 449 EP - 488 PB - Brill CY - Leiden ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Fritsch, Nina-Sophie A1 - Verwiebe, Roland A1 - Liedl, Bernd T1 - Declining Gender Differences in Low-Wage Employment in Germany, Austria and Switzerland JF - Comparative Sociology N2 - Although the low-wage employment sector has enlarged over the past 20 years in the context of pronounced flexibility in restructured labor markets, gender differences in low-wage employment have declined in Germany, Austria and Switzerland. In this article, the authors examine reasons for declining gender inequalities, and most notably concentrate on explanations for the closing gender gap in low-wage employment risks. In addition, they identify differences and similarities among the German-speaking countries. Based on regression techniques and decomposition analyses (1996-2016), the authors find significantly decreasing labor market risks for the female workforce. Detailed analysis reveals that (1) the concrete positioning in the labor market shows greater importance in explaining declining gender differences compared to personal characteristics. (2) The changed composition of the labor markets has prevented the low-wage sector from increasing even more in general and works in favor of the female workforce and their low-wage employment risks in particular. KW - low-wage employment KW - gender inequality KW - labor market KW - Germany KW - Austria KW - Switzerland Y1 - 2019 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1163/15691330-12341507 SN - 1569-1330 SN - 1569-1322 VL - 18 IS - 4 SP - 449 EP - 448 PB - Brill CY - Leiden ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Rottler, Erwin A1 - Francke, Till A1 - Bürger, Gerd A1 - Bronstert, Axel T1 - Long-term changes in central European river discharge for 1869–2016 BT - impact of changing snow covers, reservoir constructions and an intensified hydrological cycle JF - Hydrology and Earth System Sciences N2 - Recent climatic changes have the potential to severely alter river runoff, particularly in snow-dominated river basins. Effects of changing snow covers superimpose with changes in precipitation and anthropogenic modifications of the watershed and river network. In the attempt to identify and disentangle long-term effects of different mechanisms, we employ a set of analytical tools to extract long-term changes in river runoff at high resolution. We combine quantile sampling with moving average trend statistics and empirical mode decomposition and apply these tools to discharge data recorded along rivers with nival, pluvial and mixed flow regimes as well as temperature and precipitation data covering the time frame 1869-2016. With a focus on central Europe, we analyse the long-term impact of snow cover and precipitation changes along with their interaction with reservoir constructions. Our results show that runoff seasonality of snow-dominated rivers decreases. Runoff increases in winter and spring, while discharge decreases in summer and at the beginning of autumn. We attribute this redistribution of annual flow mainly to reservoir constructions in the Alpine ridge. During the course of the last century, large fractions of the Alpine rivers were dammed to produce hydropower. In recent decades, runoff changes induced by reservoir constructions seem to overlap with changes in snow cover. We suggest that Alpine signals propagate downstream and affect runoff far outside the Alpine area in river segments with mixed flow regimes. Furthermore, our results hint at more (intense) rain-fall in recent decades. Detected increases in high discharge can be traced back to corresponding changes in precipitation. KW - empirical mode decomposition KW - atmospheric blocking KW - heavy precipitation KW - streamflow trends KW - climate-change KW - rhine basin KW - time-series KW - events KW - Switzerland KW - variability Y1 - 2020 U6 - https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-24-1721-2020 SN - 1027-5606 SN - 1607-7938 VL - 24 IS - 4 SP - 1721 EP - 1740 PB - Copernicus CY - Göttingen ER -