Beyond 2020: How General Education Archaeology Curricula Should Adapt to the COVID-19 Pandemic

Archaeology often justifies its existence by invoking the trope that we must learn about the past in order to create a better future. The COVID-19 pandemic is itself an event that will enter the historical record. Thus, the universality of this public health crisis is a unique opportunity to assess the relevance of university-level archaeology curricula to our present historical moment. We studied an upper division general education course on the archaeology of complex societies at a public liberal arts college in California. The instrument of data collection was a questionnaire administered at the end of the Fall 2020, Spring 2021, and Spring 2022 semesters. Students read an article about archaeological approaches to pandemics, then reflected on how it connected to course content and to their own experiences during the COVID-19 pandemic. Content analysis of student responses suggests that course themes of complex societies, the environment, archaeological evidence, the future, and social hierarchy resonated most with students on both intellectual and personal levels. We also identified emergent concerns with diseases (COVID-19 and others) and cultural responses to them, employment status, and psychological effects, suggesting that these themes are increasingly relevant to archaeology students during and beyond the COVID-19 pandemic

Postoperative complications are associated with long-term changes in the gut microbiota following colorectal cancer surgery

Changes in the gut microbiome have already been associated with postoperative complications in major abdominal surgery. However, it is still unclear whether these changes are transient or a long-lasting effect. Therefore, the aim of this prospective clinical pilot study was to examine long-term changes in the gut microbiota and to correlate these changes with the clinical course of the patient. Methods: In total, stool samples of 62 newly diagnosed colorectal cancer patients undergoing primary tumor resection were analyzed by 16S-rDNA next-generation sequencing. Stool samples were collected preoperatively in order to determine the gut microbiome at baseline as well as at 6, 12, and 24 months thereafter to observe longitudinal changes. Postoperatively, the study patients were separated into two groups-patients who suffered from postoperative complications

Suppression of interferon gene expression overcomes resistance to MEK inhibition in KRAS-mutant colorectal cancer.

Despite showing clinical activity in BRAF-mutant melanoma, the MEK inhibitor (MEKi) trametinib has failed to show clinical benefit in KRAS-mutant colorectal cancer. To identify mechanisms of resistance to MEKi, we employed a pharmacogenomic analysis of MEKi-sensitive versus MEKi-resistant colorectal cancer cell lines. Strikingly, interferon- and inflammatory-related gene sets were enriched in cell lines exhibiting intrinsic and acquired resistance to MEK inhibition. The bromodomain inhibitor JQ1 suppressed interferon-stimulated gene (ISG) expression and in combination with MEK inhibitors displayed synergistic effects and induced apoptosis in MEKi-resistant colorectal cancer cell lines. ISG expression was confirmed in patient-derived organoid models, which displayed resistance to trametinib and were resensitized by JQ1 co-treatment. In in vivo models of colorectal cancer, combination treatment significantly suppressed tumor growth. Our findings provide a novel explanation for the limited response to MEK inhibitors in KRAS-mutant colorectal cancer, known for its inflammatory nature. Moreover, the high expression of ISGs was associated with significantly reduced survival of colorectal cancer patients. Excitingly, we have identified novel therapeutic opportunities to overcome intrinsic and acquired resistance to MEK inhibition in colorectal cancer

The PREDICTS database: a global database of how local terrestrial biodiversity responds to human impacts

Biodiversity continues to decline in the face of increasing anthropogenic pressures such as habitat destruction, exploitation, pollution and introduction of alien species. Existing global databases of species’ threat status or population time series are dominated by charismatic species. The collation of datasets with broad taxonomic and biogeographic extents, and that support computation of a range of biodiversity indicators, is necessary to enable better understanding of historical declines and to project – and avert – future declines. We describe and assess a new database of more than 1.6 million samples from 78 countries representing over 28,000 species, collated from existing spatial comparisons of local-scale biodiversity exposed to different intensities and types of anthropogenic pressures, from terrestrial sites around the world. The database contains measurements taken in 208 (of 814) ecoregions, 13 (of 14) biomes, 25 (of 35) biodiversity hotspots and 16 (of 17) megadiverse countries. The database contains more than 1% of the total number of all species described, and more than 1% of the described species within many taxonomic groups – including flowering plants, gymnosperms, birds, mammals, reptiles, amphibians, beetles, lepidopterans and hymenopterans. The dataset, which is still being added to, is therefore already considerably larger and more representative than those used by previous quantitative models of biodiversity trends and responses. The database is being assembled as part of the PREDICTS project (Projecting Responses of Ecological Diversity In Changing Terrestrial Systems – www.predicts.org.uk). We make site-level summary data available alongside this article. The full database will be publicly available in 2015

Effect of angiotensin-converting enzyme inhibitor and angiotensin receptor blocker initiation on organ support-free days in patients hospitalized with COVID-19

IMPORTANCE Overactivation of the renin-angiotensin system (RAS) may contribute to poor clinical outcomes in patients with COVID-19. Objective To determine whether angiotensin-converting enzyme (ACE) inhibitor or angiotensin receptor blocker (ARB) initiation improves outcomes in patients hospitalized for COVID-19. DESIGN, SETTING, AND PARTICIPANTS In an ongoing, adaptive platform randomized clinical trial, 721 critically ill and 58 non–critically ill hospitalized adults were randomized to receive an RAS inhibitor or control between March 16, 2021, and February 25, 2022, at 69 sites in 7 countries (final follow-up on June 1, 2022). INTERVENTIONS Patients were randomized to receive open-label initiation of an ACE inhibitor (n = 257), ARB (n = 248), ARB in combination with DMX-200 (a chemokine receptor-2 inhibitor; n = 10), or no RAS inhibitor (control; n = 264) for up to 10 days. MAIN OUTCOMES AND MEASURES The primary outcome was organ support–free days, a composite of hospital survival and days alive without cardiovascular or respiratory organ support through 21 days. The primary analysis was a bayesian cumulative logistic model. Odds ratios (ORs) greater than 1 represent improved outcomes. RESULTS On February 25, 2022, enrollment was discontinued due to safety concerns. Among 679 critically ill patients with available primary outcome data, the median age was 56 years and 239 participants (35.2%) were women. Median (IQR) organ support–free days among critically ill patients was 10 (–1 to 16) in the ACE inhibitor group (n = 231), 8 (–1 to 17) in the ARB group (n = 217), and 12 (0 to 17) in the control group (n = 231) (median adjusted odds ratios of 0.77 [95% bayesian credible interval, 0.58-1.06] for improvement for ACE inhibitor and 0.76 [95% credible interval, 0.56-1.05] for ARB compared with control). The posterior probabilities that ACE inhibitors and ARBs worsened organ support–free days compared with control were 94.9% and 95.4%, respectively. Hospital survival occurred in 166 of 231 critically ill participants (71.9%) in the ACE inhibitor group, 152 of 217 (70.0%) in the ARB group, and 182 of 231 (78.8%) in the control group (posterior probabilities that ACE inhibitor and ARB worsened hospital survival compared with control were 95.3% and 98.1%, respectively). CONCLUSIONS AND RELEVANCE In this trial, among critically ill adults with COVID-19, initiation of an ACE inhibitor or ARB did not improve, and likely worsened, clinical outcomes. TRIAL REGISTRATION ClinicalTrials.gov Identifier: NCT0273570

Embodying life and death: Osteobiographical narratives from Alalakh

Renewed excavations in 2003–2004 at Alalakh (Tell Atchana), a regional capital of ancient Syria during the Middle and Late Bronze Age (ca. 2000–1200 BCE), exposed the burials of at least 58 people. Along with published and unpublished data from burials excavated at Alalakh by Sir Leonard Woolley in the 1930s–1940s, this mortuary assemblage has been subjected to a bioarchaeological investigation into how embodied personhood was socially produced through daily routines and mortuary rituals. To analyze the skeletal data, I have employed morphological and metric methods focusing on sex determination, age estimation, health and nutritional status, activity-induced alterations, and skeletal and dental non-metric variation. A close examination of each burial\u27s archaeological contexts—emphasizing spatial and stratigraphic relationships, associated material culture, and relative preservation and articulation—has revealed three phases of burial activity, from the Middle Bronze IIC through Late Bronze IIA periods. I discuss the “Plastered Tomb”—a multiple burial distinguished by its excellent preservation, unique architectural features, and elaborate material wealth—in particular detail. As residents of the largest of the nucleated tell-type settlements in the Amuq valley, whose kingdom was frequently embroiled in political conflict, the Alalakh population seems to have struggled frequently with malnutrition and infectious diseases (as evident in moderate-to-high frequencies, yet generally mild presentations, of cribra orbitalia, endocranial lesions, and linear enamel hypoplasias). Such conditions of hardship may have initiated the use of the city\u27s eastern periphery as a cemetery to dispose of larger-than-usual numbers of dead in an efficient manner. The meaningful placement of dead bodies in this designated space eventually transformed the city\u27s edges into a visible mortuary landscape whose use continued for generations. For the interpretation of these skeletal and archaeological data, I have utilized osteobiographical methods, which draw on socio-historic contextual information to investigate the fluid categories of identity that constitute an embodied person over the life course. The fictive narratives that I have written employ multiple voices and perspectives to play along the life–death continuum, thus acknowledging the multivocality that characterizes both the creation of archaeological knowledge and the plurality of past lived experiences

The Dilmun Bioarchaeology Project: A First Look at the Peter B. Cornwall Collection at the Phoebe A. Hearst Museum of Anthropology

This article presents an overview of the Peter B. Cornwall collection in the Phoebe A. Hearst Museum of Anthropology at the University of California, Berkeley. Cornwall conducted an archaeological survey and excavation project in eastern Saudi Arabia and Bahrain in 1940 and 1941. At least twenty‐four burial features were excavated in Bahrain from five different tumuli fields, and surface survey and artefact collection took place on at least sixteen sites in Saudi Arabia and Bahrain. The skeletal evidence, objects and faunal remains were subsequently accessioned by the Hearst Museum. The authors recently formed the Dilmun Bioarchaeology Project to investigate this collection. This article provides background information on Cornwall’s expedition and an overview of the collection. Additionally, skeletal evidence and associated objects from two tumuli in Bahrain, D1 and G20, are presented to illustrate the collection’s potential contribution. Although the tumuli’s precise locations cannot be determined, associated objects help assign relative dates to these interments at the beginning of the second millennium BCE, the Early Dilmun Period

Face-to-Face with the Past: Reconstructing a Teenage Boy from Early Dilmun

Since 2008, the Dilmun Bioarchaeology Project has analyzed the human skeletal remains and artifacts that Peter B. Cornwall excavated from Bahrain in the 1940s, now held in the Hearst Museum of Anthropology. One mode of interpretation and dissemination pursued by the DBP team is forensic facial reconstruction. The subject of the first reconstruction is a twelve- to fifteen-year-old male who lived during the Early Dilmun period (ca. 2050–1800 b.c.e.). The resulting sculpture incorporates skeletal data about his identity and health as well as visual cues grounded in archaeological and sociohistorical contexts. It will be one of two reconstructions at the center of a traveling museum exhibition beginning in 2013. The goal of the exhibition is to present members of past societies to the interested public in a tangible fashion that encourages empathy and an appreciation of our shared humanity

Face-to-Face with the Past: Reconstructing a Teenage Boy from Early Dilmun

Since 2008, the Dilmun Bioarchaeology Project has analyzed the human skeletal remains and artifacts that Peter B. Cornwall excavated from Bahrain in the 1940s, now held in the Hearst Museum of Anthropology. One mode of interpretation and dissemination pursued by the DBP team is forensic facial reconstruction. The subject of the first reconstruction is a twelve- to fifteen-year-old male who lived during the Early Dilmun period (ca. 2050–1800 b.c.e.). The resulting sculpture incorporates skeletal data about his identity and health as well as visual cues grounded in archaeological and sociohistorical contexts. It will be one of two reconstructions at the center of a traveling museum exhibition beginning in 2013. The goal of the exhibition is to present members of past societies to the interested public in a tangible fashion that encourages empathy and an appreciation of our shared humanity