Book Reviews

Abandonment of Settlements and Regions: Ethnoarchaeological and Archaeological Approaches, edited by Catherine M. Cameron and Steve A. Tomka. Cambridge University Press. 1993. The Ouachita Mountains: A Guide for Fishermen, Hunters, and Travelers, by Milton D. Rafferty and John C. Catau. Norman: The University of Oklahoma Press. 1991. 308 pages, notes, references, index

The Caddo Indian Burial Ground (3MN386), Norman, Arkansas

Human burials were exposed accidentally during construction of a city sewer treatment plant in Norman, Arkansas, in October 1988. Archeological salvage excavations in the days following, directed by Ann Early of the Arkansas Archeological Survey’s Henderson Research Station, identified two burials, a small cluster of residential features, and artifacts dating from the Archaic through Caddo periods. After discussions between the various agencies and groups involved, a new location was found for the sewer treatment plant. The human bone and associated grave goods were returned to the Caddo Tribe for reburial, and the site was covered up for protection. The site, 3MN386, originally named the Norman Sewer Plant site and now called the Caddo Indian Burial Ground in Norman, is part of a city park. The Southern Montgomery County Development Council has plans to install a series of signs along a walking path at the park to interpret the site. Site 3MN386 is located on a low terrace next to the confluence of Huddleston Creek and the Caddo River. Based on the distribution of chipped stone debris, the site was at least 1.5 hectares (almost 4 acres) in area, but the full extent of the site was never determined by archeological investigations. The archeological salvage excavations in 1988 were limited to a small area of 25 x 30 m where the burials and other features were uncovered. While artifacts diagnostic of Archaic and Fourche Maline periods were found at the site, the main use of the site was in the Mississippian period. Two Caddoan occupations between about AD 1250-1500 are indicated based on the materials associated with these features: an earlier residential use of the site that left the remains of a large circular house with hearth and a burned ash floor deposit; and a later use of the site as a cemetery

Overlapping genetic susceptibility variants between three autoimmune disorders: rheumatoid arthritis, type 1 diabetes and coeliac disease

INTRODUCTION: Genome wide association studies, replicated by numerous well powered validation studies, have revealed a large number of loci likely to play a role in susceptibility to many multifactorial diseases. It is now well established that some of these loci are shared between diseases with similar aetiology. For example, a number of autoimmune diseases have been associated with variants in the PTPN22, TNFAIP3 and CTLA4 genes. Here we have attempted to define overlapping genetic variants between rheumatoid arthritis (RA), type 1 diabetes (T1D) and coeliac disease (CeD). METHODS: We selected eight SNPs previously identified as being associated with CeD and six T1D-associated SNPs for validation in a sample of 3,962 RA patients and 3,531 controls. Genotyping was performed using the Sequenom MassArray platform and comparison of genotype and allele frequencies between cases and controls was undertaken. A trend test P-value < 0.004 was regarded as significant. RESULTS: We found statistically significant evidence for association of the TAGAP locus with RA (P = 5.0 × 10-4). A marker at one other locus, C1QTNF6, previously associated with T1D, showed nominal association with RA in the current study but did not remain statistically significant at the corrected threshold. CONCLUSIONS: In exploring the overlap between T1D, CeD and RA, there is strong evidence that variation within the TAGAP gene is associated with all three autoimmune diseases. Interestingly a number of loci appear to be specific to one of the three diseases currently studied suggesting that they may play a role in determining the particular autoimmune phenotype at presentation

Credible knowledge: A pilot evaluation of a modified GRADE method using parent-implemented interventions for children with autism

Abstract Background Decision-making in child and youth mental health (CYMH) care requires recommendations that are developed through an efficient and effective method and are based on credible knowledge. Credible knowledge is informed by two sources: scientific evidence, and practice-based evidence, that reflects the "real world" experience of service providers. Current approaches to developing these recommendations in relation to CYMH will typically include evidence from one source or the other but do not have an objective method to combine the two. To this end, a modified version of the Grading Recommendations Assessment, Development and Evaluation (GRADE) approach was pilot-tested, a novel method for the CYMH field. Methods GRADE has an explicit methodology that relies on input from scientific evidence as well as a panel of experts. The panel established the quality of evidence and derived detailed recommendations regarding the organization and delivery of mental health care for children and youth or their caregivers. In this study a modified GRADE method was used to provide precise recommendations based on a specific CYMH question (i.e. What is the current credible knowledge concerning the effects of parent-implemented, early intervention with their autistic children?). Results Overall, it appeared that early, parent-implemented interventions for autism result in positive effects that outweigh any undesirable effects. However, as opposed to overall recommendations, the heterogeneity of the evidence required that recommendations be specific to particular interventions, based on the questions of whether the benefits of a particular intervention outweighs its harms. Conclusions This pilot project provided evidence that a modified GRADE method may be an effective and practical approach to making recommendations in CYMH, based on credible knowledge. Key strengths of the process included separating the assessments of the quality of the evidence and the strength of recommendations, transparency in decision-making, and the objectivity of the methods. Most importantly, this method combined the evidence and clinical experience in a more timely, explicit and simple process as compared to previous approaches. The strengths, limitations and modifications of the approach as they pertain to CYMH, are discussed

Suono e Spettacolo. Athanasius Kircher, un percorso nelle Immagini sonore.

The Society of Jesus made great propaganda efforts throughout the seventeenth century and chose the images and the play as a privileged means to communicate and persuade. Athanasius Kircher, a key figure of the seventeenth century, he decided to dominate the wild nature of sound through Phonurgia Nova, which includes a gallery of powerful symbolic images for Baroque aesthetics. The essay, through the grant of the images from the Library of the Department of Mathematics "Guido Castelnuovo" Sapienza University of Rome, aims to understand, through the pictures offered by Kircher, the sound phenomenon and the spectacle that this produces. In Phonurgia Nova a process of dramatization sound effects takes place, often through machines and "visions" applied to the theatrical reality, as experimental and astonishing environment beloved in baroque. Kircher illustrates the sound through explanatory figures, so to dominate the sound through the eyes. Sound is seen, admired and represented: its spectacle not only takes place through the implementation of sound machines or the "wonders" applied to the theater, but even through images, creating create a sense of wonder in in the erudite person of the seventeenth century

Social change and the family: Comparative perspectives from the west, China, and South Asia

This paper examines the influence of social and economic change on family structure and relationships: How do such economic and social transformations as industrialization, urbanization, demographic change, the expansion of education, and the long-term growth of income influence the family? We take a comparative and historical approach, reviewing the experiences of three major sociocultural regions: the West, China, and South Asia. Many of the changes that have occurred in family life have been remarkably similar in the three settings—the separation of the workplace from the home, increased training of children in nonfamilial institutions, the development of living arrangements outside the family household, increased access of children to financial and other productive resources, and increased participation by children in the selection of a mate. While the similarities of family change in diverse cultural settings are striking, specific aspects of change have varied across settings because of significant pre-existing differences in family structure, residential patterns of marriage, autonomy of children, and the role of marriage within kinship systems.Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/45661/1/11206_2005_Article_BF01124383.pd

Telling Our Story: 100 Years of Women at SMU

Five women representing various organizations at SMU gathered to share the history of these groups that have shaped the university in fundamental ways