Latest Articles

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  Section: Archaeology ; Topics: Archaeology

  palimpsestR: An R Package for the Identification and Probabilistic Decomposition of Archaeological Palimpsests

  Cocca, Enzo;   Montagnetti, Roberto;   Cattani, Maurizio  

  10.24072/pcjournal.762 - Peer Community Journal, Volume 6 (2026), article no. e74

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  This paper presents palimpsestr, an R package and Shiny application dedicated to the identification and probabilistic decomposition of archaeological palimpsests — deposits in which material from multiple occupation phases is superimposed and partially intermixed. Such deposits represent one of the most persistent analytical challenges in field archaeology, and existing tools (Harris Matrix recording systems, k-means spatial clustering, GIS overlays) typically address only one evidence domain at a time. palimpsestr implements the Stratigraphic Entanglement Field (SEF) framework, which integrates four evidence domains — horizontal coordinates, vertical elevation, chronological range, and cultural class — into a single diagonal-covariance Gaussian mixture model fitted by Expectation-Maximisation. The model is augmented with optional taphonomic weighting and stratigraphic entanglement penalties derived from the Harris Matrix. Three interpretable diagnostics — the Stratigraphic Entanglement Index (SEI), Excavation Stratigraphic Energy (ESE), and Palimpsest Dissolution Index (PDI) — allow practitioners to assess deposit coherence, detect potentially redeposited finds, and evaluate the reliability of chronological attribution at the find, unit, and phase levels. The framework supports archaeologists in three principal interpretive tasks: assessing the reliability and coherence of stratigraphic units (distinguishing genuine palimpsests from recording errors); identifying intrusive finds with respect to both their typology and their stratigraphic position; and providing the basis for future statistical estimation of type longevity (the duration of use of pottery and material categories). The package supports CSV/TSV/Excel/SQLite/PostgreSQL data import, GIS export to GeoPackage via the sf package, publication-quality plots via ggplot2 and interactive plots via plotly, and includes a built-in Shiny dashboard for non-programmatic use. Since the original release the statistical core has been substantially refined: the cultural class is now modelled as a per-phase categorical distribution (a Gaussian-times-multinomial mixed-type mixture) rather than as one-hot Gaussian columns, so that stratigraphic units are no longer split across phases by typology; the spatial and vertical similarity kernels are bounded and scale-invariant; the domain weights enter the likelihood and can be cross-validated; a uniform noise component yields a genuine posterior probability of intrusion and shields phase estimates from outliers; and optional treatments propagate per-find dating uncertainty and apply the stratigraphic constraint as a dynamically updated Neighborhood-EM field. The intrusion diagnostic also distinguishes the direction of the chronological mismatch (residual vs. latent-feature), and a companion helper (recommend_setup()) inspects a dataset and reports when its recording resolution limits the achievable inference. We present an overview of the application's functions and demonstrate its use through a case study at the multi-period Roman villa of Poggio Gramignano (Lugnano in Teverina, Italy). We also discuss the methodological assumptions of the SEF framework — in particular the implicit assumption of horizontal stratigraphy and the dependence of phase resolution on the spatial and chronological recording resolution of the data — and outline planned developments.

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  Section: Archaeology ; Topics: Archaeology

  Detecting Temporal Relations in Archaeology: Model and Algorithms

  Levy, Eythan  

  10.24072/pcjournal.761 - Peer Community Journal, Volume 6 (2026), article no. e73

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   This paper addresses the question of finding the optimal temporal relation between two time-periods, in the presence of uncertainties regarding their boundaries (i.e. unknown or bounded start/end). It proposes a fast algorithmic solution, implementated in the Python language, and an archaeological case study related to the Early Bronze Age in the Levant. Open-source Python implementations of our data model and algorithms can be downloaded on the author’s GitHub repository. Our solution is also implemented in the latest version (v. 3) of the ChronoLog modelling tool (https://chrono.ulb.be/).

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  Section: Health & Movement Sciences ; Topics: Physiology, Psychological and cognitive sciences

  Mental fatigue impairs cycling endurance performance and perception of effort, but not muscle activation

  Souron, Robin;   Sarcher, Aurélie;   Lacourpaille, Lilian;   Boulaouche, Inès; Richier, Calvin; Mangin, Thomas;   Gruet, Mathieu;   Doron, Julie;   Jubeau, Marc;   Pageaux, Benjamin  

  10.24072/pcjournal.760 - Peer Community Journal, Volume 6 (2026), article no. e72

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  Mental fatigue is induced by prolonged engagement in cognitively demanding tasks and impairs endurance performance. The neuropsychophysiological mechanisms underlying this decreased performance remain unclear, with suggestion that mental fatigue may disrupt motor command and consequently muscle activation. We aimed to test this hypothesis in a repeated cross-over design study in which 18 participants completed two experimental sessions involving a time-to-task failure cycling test at 80% of peak power output. Each cycling task was preceded by 1h of a prolonged Stroop task (Stroop condition) or a neutral control task (Control condition). Mental fatigue was assessed using a visual analog scale anchored with "not fatigued at all" and "extremely fatigued. Perception of effort and surface electromyography from ten lower-limb muscles of the right leg were recorded at regular intervals during cycling. Mental fatigue was higher in the Stroop compared to the Control condition (p = .002). Endurance cycling time was shorter in the Stroop than in the Control condition (887 ± 284 s vs. 999 ± 379 s, respectively; −111 ± 160 s, p = .009). No significant differences in electromyography parameters were observed between Stroop and Control conditions, for any muscle (p > .05). Perception of effort was higher in the Stroop condition from the onset of the cycling task (p = .006), and the rate of increase in perception of effort was significantly higher in the Stroop than Control condition (p = .031). Our findings do not support the hypothesis that mental fatigue alters motor control or increases central motor command, as no changes in muscle activation were detected. Conversely, our results reinforce the notion that prolonged cognitive engagement impairs endurance performance primarily through an increased perception of effort. Future research should consider combining surface electromyography with more sensitive neurophysiological techniques to investigate potential subtle changes in motor drive during dynamic, whole-body tasks under mental fatigue.

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  Section: Nutrition ; Topics: Psychological and cognitive sciences, Neuroscience, Physiology

  Associations of food choices and eating behaviors with mechanical and nervous gastric functions in obesity and metabolic and bariatric surgery: a scoping review

  Ritsch, Nina;   Bourque, Camille; Bergeron, Frédéric; Nazare, Julie-Anne;   Dougkas, Anestis;   Iceta, Sylvain  

  10.24072/pcjournal.737 - Peer Community Journal, Volume 6 (2026), article no. e71

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  Objective: This scoping review aimed to explore the associations of mechanical and nervous gastric functions (i.e., gastric capacity and accommodation, gastric tone, gastric motility and postprandial electrical activity, gastric emptying, satiation), with food choices, food reward, gustation, olfaction, and eating behavior in people with obesity, with or without metabolic and bariatric surgery. Methods: Using PRISMA-ScR guidelines and an artificial-intelligence assistant tool (AS Review), we performed a scoping review for studies that concomitantly observed mechanical or nervous gastric outcomes and food choices, food reward, gustation, olfaction, or disordered eating. Results: Fifteen studies were selected from 8029 abstracts initially screened, with only one study in the metabolic and bariatric surgery population. In patients with obesity, greater gastric capacity and higher food consumption to achieve satiation were associated with higher consumption of carbohydrates and overeating behaviors (e.g., binge eating), while higher gastric emptying speed was associated with overeating behaviors. There were no studies concerning sensory functions. Interventions to increase gastric electrical activity seemed to reduce overeating behaviors. The effect of metabolic and bariatric surgery on these possible associations remains largely unknown. Conclusion: Potential associations of altered gastric functions with food choices and components of eating behaviors in the context of obesity should be further explored.