An Analysis of Form and Function of Ceramic Rim Sherds from LA 20,000, A 17th Century Estancia Outside Santa Fe, New Mexico

This thesis examines a sample of ceramic sherds from LA 20,000 to determine the functional uses of the locally made ceramics and their relationship to food preparation, consumption, and identity. LA 20,000, the Sanchez site, is a Spanish colonial estancia, or ranching headquarters, located in La Cienega, New Mexico, roughly 12 miles southwest of Santa Fe and was occupied during the seventeenth century before the Pueblo Revolt of 1680. It is important to understand Pueblo, or native made, ceramics because all ceramic assemblages recovered from 17th-century Spanish sites in New Mexico consist of a majority of native made ceramics. I analyzed the ceramic rim sherds recovered from the site to determine vessel form, vessel size, and vessel function. The results of this study reveal that the inhabitants of LA 20,000 continued to display their Spanish identity by making wheat bread and using individual serving vessels as well as introducing new Spanish vessel forms to the repertoire of locally made ceramics. This study can be used as a comparative tool to other Spanish and Pueblo sites from the same time period in New Mexico

Systematic, comprehensive, evidence-based approach to identify neuroprotective interventions for motor neuron disease: using systematic reviews to inform expert consensus

Objectives: Motor neuron disease (MND) is an incurable progressive neurodegenerative disease with limited treatment options. There is a pressing need for innovation in identifying therapies to take to clinical trial. Here, we detail a systematic and structured evidence-based approach to inform consensus decision making to select the first two drugs for evaluation in Motor Neuron Disease-Systematic Multi-arm Adaptive Randomised Trial (MND-SMART: NCT04302870), an adaptive platform trial. We aim to identify and prioritise candidate drugs which have the best available evidence for efficacy, acceptable safety profiles and are feasible for evaluation within the trial protocol. Methods: We conducted a two-stage systematic review to identify potential neuroprotective interventions. First, we reviewed clinical studies in MND, Alzheimer’s disease, Huntington’s disease, Parkinson’s disease and multiple sclerosis, identifying drugs described in at least one MND publication or publications in two or more other diseases. We scored and ranked drugs using a metric evaluating safety, efficacy, study size and study quality. In stage two, we reviewed efficacy of drugs in MND animal models, multicellular eukaryotic models and human induced pluripotent stem cell (iPSC) studies. An expert panel reviewed candidate drugs over two shortlisting rounds and a final selection round, considering the systematic review findings, late breaking evidence, mechanistic plausibility, safety, tolerability and feasibility of evaluation in MND-SMART. Results: From the clinical review, we identified 595 interventions. 66 drugs met our drug/disease logic. Of these, 22 drugs with supportive clinical and preclinical evidence were shortlisted at round 1. Seven drugs proceeded to round 2. The panel reached a consensus to evaluate memantine and trazodone as the first two arms of MND-SMART. Discussion: For future drug selection, we will incorporate automation tools, text-mining and machine learning techniques to the systematic reviews and consider data generated from other domains, including high-throughput phenotypic screening of human iPSCs

Systematic, comprehensive, evidence-based approach to identify neuroprotective interventions for motor neuron disease : Using systematic reviews to inform expert consensus

Funding Information: For the purpose of open access, the authors have applied a Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) licence to any Author Accepted Manuscript version arising from this submission. MND-SMART is funded by grants from MND Scotland, My Name’5 Doddie Foundation (DOD/14/15) and specific donations to the Euan MacDonald Centre. The Chandran lab is supported by the UK Dementia Research Institute, which receives its funding from UK DRI Ltd, funded by the UK Medical Research Council, Alzheimer’s Society and Alzheimer’s Research UK. EE is a clinical academic fellow jointly funded by MND Scotland (MNDS) and the Chief Scientist Office (CSO) (217ARF R45951). ARM was a Lady Edith Wolfson Clinical Fellow, jointly funded by the Medical Research Council (MRC) and the Motor Neurone Disease Association (MR/R001162/1). ASalzinger is funded by Marie Sklodowska-Curie actions Innovative Training Network (ITN). BTS is funded by Rowling fellowship.Peer reviewedPublisher PD

A Systematic Approach to Identify Neuroprotective Interventions for Motor Neuron Disease

Funding Statement For the purpose of open access, the authors have applied a Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) licence to any Author Accepted Manuscript version arising from this submission. MND-SMART is funded by grants from MND Scotland, My Name'5 Doddie Foundation (DOD/14/15) and specific donations to the Euan MacDonald Centre. The Chandran lab is supported by the UK Dementia Research Institute, which receives its funding from UK DRI Ltd, funded by the UK Medical Research Council, Alzheimer's Society and Alzheimer's Research UK. E.E is a clinical academic fellow jointly funded by MND Scotland (MNDS) and the Chief Scientist Office (CSO) (217ARF R45951). A.R.M. was a Lady Edith Wolfson Clinical Fellow, jointly funded by the Medical Research Council (MRC) and the Motor Neurone Disease Association (MR/R001162/1). A.Salzinger is funded by Marie Sklodowska-Curie actions Innovative Training Network (ITN). B.T.S is funded by Rowling fellowship.Preprin