Ceramic Production and Consumption in the Sierra de los Tuxtlas, Veracruz, Mexico

Ceramics constitute an overwhelming majority of the pre-Columbian archaeological record. So large is this database, in fact, that more than 25 years ago Gordon Willey expressed some exasperation concerning what to do with .. .literally tons of potsherds (1961:230). While at times annoying, the sheer size of this database commands attention. Contemporary studies of the production, consumption, and disposal of pottery can inform us about the many ways in which ceramics reflect cultural behavior. These data, in turn, can provide insight into the social, economic, and political systems of ancient Mesoamerica

An Enhanced Archive Facilitating Climate Impacts and Adaptation Analysis

We describe the expansion of a publicly available archive of downscaled climate and hydrology projections for the United States. Those studying or planning to adapt to future climate impacts demand downscaled climate model output for local or regional use. The archive we describe attempts to fulfill this need by providing data in several formats, selectable to meet user needs. Our archive has served as a resource for climate impacts modelers, water managers, educators, and others. Over 1,400 individuals have transferred more than 50 TB of data from the archive. In response to user demands, the archive has expanded from monthly downscaled data to include daily data to facilitate investigations of phenomena sensitive to daily to monthly temperature and precipitation, including extremes in these quantities. New developments include downscaled output from the new Coupled Model Intercomparison Project phase 5 (CMIP5) climate model simulations at both the monthly and daily time scales, as well as simulations of surface hydrologi- cal variables. The web interface allows the extraction of individual projections or ensemble statistics for user-defined regions, promoting the rapid assessment of model consensus and uncertainty for future projections of precipitation, temperature, and hydrology. The archive is accessible online (http://gdo-dcp.ucllnl.org/downscaled_ cmip_projections)

Ariel - Volume 4 Number 6

Editors David A. Jacoby Eugenia Miller Tom Williams Associate Editors Paul Bialas Terry Burt Michael Leo Gail Tenikat Editor Emeritus and Business Manager Richard J. Bonnano Movie Editor Robert Breckenridge Staff Richard Blutstein Mary F. Buechler J.D. Kanofsky Rocket Weber David Maye

The Effect of Topical Fluoride on Dental Caries Experience in Adult Females of a Military Population

Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/66668/2/10.1177_00220345550340011801.pd

The role of discharge variability in determining alluvial stratigraphy

We illustrate the potential for using physics-based modeling to link alluvial stratigraphy to large river morphology and dynamics. Model simulations, validated using ground penetrating radar data from the Río Paraná, Argentina, demonstrate a strong relationship between bar-scale set thickness and channel depth, which applies across a wide range of river patterns and bar types. We show that hydrologic regime, indexed by discharge variability and flood duration, exerts a first-order influence on morphodynamics and hence bar set thickness, and that planform morphology alone may be a misleading variable for interpreting deposits. Indeed, our results illustrate that rivers evolving under contrasting hydrologic regimes may have very similar morphology, yet be characterized by marked differences in stratigraphy. This realization represents an important limitation on the application of established theory that links river topography to alluvial deposits, and highlights the need to obtain field evidence of discharge variability when developing paleoenvironmental reconstructions. Model simulations demonstrate the potential for deriving such evidence using metrics of paleocurrent variance

Herbivore defence compounds occur in pollen and reduce bumblebee colony fitness

Herbivory defence chemicals in plants can affect higher trophic levels such as predators and parasitoids, but the impact on pollinators has been overlooked. We show that defensive plant chemicals can damage pollinator fitness when expressed in pollen. Crop lupins (Lupinus species from Europe and South America) accumulate toxic quinolizidine alkaloids in vegetative tissues, conferring resistance to herbivorous pests such as aphids. We identified the alkaloid lupanine and its derivatives in lupin pollen, and then provided this compound at ecologically-relevant concentrations to queenless microcolonies of bumblebees (Bombus terrestris) in their pollen to determine how foraging on these crops may impact bee colony health and fitness. Fewer males were produced by microcolonies provided with lupanine-treated pollen and they were significantly smaller than controls. This impact on males was not linked to preference as workers willingly fed lupanine-treated pollen to larvae, even though it was deleterious to colony health. Agricultural systems comprising large monocultures of crops bred for herbivore resistance can expose generalist pollinators to deleterious levels of plant compounds, and the broader environmental impacts of crop resistance must thus be considered

Semirigid Geometry

We provide an intrinsic description of $N$-super \RS s and $TN$-\SR\ surfaces. Semirigid surfaces occur naturally in the description of topological gravity as well as topological supergravity. We show that such surfaces are obtained by an integrable reduction of the structure group of a complex supermanifold. We also discuss the \s moduli spaces of $TN$-\SR\ surfaces and their relation to the moduli spaces of $N$-\s\ \RS s.Comment: 29p

Statistical implications of pooling RNA samples for microarray experiments

BACKGROUND: Microarray technology has become a very important tool for studying gene expression profiles under various conditions. Biologists often pool RNA samples extracted from different subjects onto a single microarray chip to help defray the cost of microarray experiments as well as to correct for the technical difficulty in getting sufficient RNA from a single subject. However, the statistical, technical and financial implications of pooling have not been explicitly investigated. RESULTS: Modeling the resulting gene expression from sample pooling as a mixture of individual responses, we derived expressions for the experimental error and provided both upper and lower bounds for its value in terms of the variability among individuals and the number of RNA samples pooled. Using virtual pooling of data from real experiments and computer simulations, we investigated the statistical properties of RNA sample pooling. Our study reveals that pooling biological samples appropriately is statistically valid and efficient for microarray experiments. Furthermore, optimal pooling design(s) can be found to meet statistical requirements while minimizing total cost. CONCLUSIONS: Appropriate RNA pooling can provide equivalent power and improve efficiency and cost-effectiveness for microarray experiments with a modest increase in total number of subjects. Pooling schemes in terms of replicates of subjects and arrays can be compared before experiments are conducted

Synthesis, Characterization, and Molecular Structure of Bis(tetraphenylcyclopentdienyl)rhodium(II)⊗

A 5 day diglyme reflux of Rh(acac)3 and K(C5HPh4), followed by treatment with aqueous HPF6, produces orange-yellow [(C5HPh4)2Rh]PF66 in 40 - 50% yield. Reduction of [(C5HPh4)2Rh]PF6 with sodium amalgam in THF yields olive green (C5HPh4)2Rh in 70% yield. (C5HPh4)2Rh crystallizes in the triclinic [Error : unloaded OLE object or mail attachment]space group with unit-cell parameters of a = 8.622 (3) Å, b = 10.778 (4) Å, c = 12.894 (5) Å, a = 65.58 (3)°, b = 72.66 (3)°, g = 83.52 (3)°, and Z = 1. The least squares data refined to RF = 7.63% and RwF = 10.12% for the 2479 independent observed reflections with Fo \u3e 5s(Fo ). The metal-centroid distance is 1.904 Å and all other bond lengths and angles are similar to known octaphenylmetallocenes. ESR spectra of (C5HPh4)2Rh in low-temperature glasses display a rhombic g-tensor with resolution of Rh hyperfine splitting on one-g-component. Analysis of the spectral parameters is consistent with a d7 configuration derived from a nearly degenerate dxz, dyz ground state. Voltammetry and coulometry establish the electron-transfer series (C5HPh4)2Rh1+/0/1- with E° values of -1.44 V and -2.13 V vs ferrocene. The heterogeneous charge transfer rate of the second reduction is about three orders of magnitude lower than that of the first