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

Estimating the Economic Value of Australian Stock Herding Dogs

This study aimed to estimate the value of the typical Australian herding dog in terms of predicted return on investment. This required an assessment of the costs associated with owning herding dogs and estimation of the work they typically perform. Data on a total of 4,027 dogs were acquired through The Farm Dog Survey which gathered information from 812 herding dog owners around Australia. The median cost involved in owning a herding dog was estimated to be a total of AU$7,763 over the period of its working life. The work performed by the dog throughout this time was estimated to have a median value of AU$40,000. So, herding dogs typically provided their owners with a 5.2-fold return on investment. When respondents were asked to nominate the maximal, one-off, veterinary expenditure they would consider to remedy an illness or injury for an especially valued dog, the median response was AU$1,001–2,000 which is not concordant with the dogs’ calculated median lifetime value. The current findings equip working dog owners with useful information to make financially appropriate expenditure decisions related to their working dogs. This is expected to increase farm profitability and improve welfare for farm dogs

Valuable Behavioural Phenotypes in Australian Farm Dogs

This report presents findings regarding the ways to optimise the performance of livestock working dogs in Australia. The methods available to optimise dog performance include both environmental and genetic factors. The objectives of this study were to identify objective measures of desirable behavioural phenotypes in Australian livestock working dogs and explore genetic parameters of these \u27quality of working life\u27 traits within the Kelpie breed. The document reports on genotyping that reveals gene-behaviour associations and describes heritability estimates that underpin a database for potential estimated breeding value (EBV) calculations

Valuable Behavioural Phenotypes in Australian Farm Dogs

This report presents findings regarding the ways to optimise the performance of livestock working dogs in Australia. The methods available to optimise dog performance include both environmental and genetic factors. The objectives of this study were to identify objective measures of desirable behavioural phenotypes in Australian livestock working dogs and explore genetic parameters of these \u27quality of working life\u27 traits within the Kelpie breed. The document reports on genotyping that reveals gene-behaviour associations and describes heritability estimates that underpin a database for potential estimated breeding value (EBV) calculations

Estimating the Economic Value of Australian Stock Herding Dogs

This study aimed to estimate the value of the typical Australian herding dog in terms of predicted return on investment. This required an assessment of the costs associated with owning herding dogs and estimation of the work they typically perform. Data on a total of 4,027 dogs were acquired through The Farm Dog Survey which gathered information from 812 herding dog owners around Australia. The median cost involved in owning a herding dog was estimated to be a total of AU$7,763 over the period of its working life. The work performed by the dog throughout this time was estimated to have a median value of AU$40,000. So, herding dogs typically provided their owners with a 5.2-fold return on investment. When respondents were asked to nominate the maximal, one-off, veterinary expenditure they would consider to remedy an illness or injury for an especially valued dog, the median response was AU$1,001–2,000 which is not concordant with the dogs’ calculated median lifetime value. The current findings equip working dog owners with useful information to make financially appropriate expenditure decisions related to their working dogs. This is expected to increase farm profitability and improve welfare for farm dogs

Evolution of pulmonary inflammation and nutritional status in infants and young children with cystic fibrosis

Introduction Improved nutrition is the major proven benefit of newborn screening programmes for cystic fibrosis (CF) and is associated with better clinical outcomes. It was hypothesised that early pulmonary inflammation and infection in infants with CF is associated with worse nutrition. Methods Weight, height and pulmonary inflammation and infection in bronchoalveolar lavage (BAL) were assessed shortly after diagnosis in infants with CF and again at 1, 2 and 3 years of age. Body mass index (BMI) was expressed as z-scores. Inflammatory cells and cytokines (interleukin 1b (IL-1b), IL-6, IL-8 and tumour necrosis factor a (TNFa)), free neutrophil elastase activity and myeloperoxidase were measured in BAL. Mixed effects modelling was used to assess longitudinal associations between pulmonary inflammation, pulmonary infection (Staphylococcus aureus and Pseudomonas aeruginosa) and BMI z-score after adjusting for potential confounding factors. Results Forty-two infants were studied (16 (38%) male; 39 (93%) pancreatic insufficient); 36 were diagnosed by newborn screening (at median age 4 weeks) and six by early clinical diagnosis (meconium ileus). Thirty-one (74%) received antistaphylococcal antibiotics. More than two-thirds were asymptomatic at each assessment. Mean BMI z-scores wer

Behavior of Cold-Formed Steel Metal Industrial Buildings

This paper presents research focused on understanding the observed behavior of cold-formed steel (CFS) metal buildings during Hurricane Harvey, which made landfall Friday, August 25, 2017 between Port Aransas and Port O’Connor, Texas. Through the Geotechnical Extreme Event Reconnaissance (GEER) association (funded by the National Science Foundation) a team of structural engineers and researchers performed rapid and detailed assessments of structural damage caused by the hurricane. The National Science Foundation gathered photographs, damage assessments sheets, and three-dimensional laser point cloud data of severely damaged cold-formed steel industrial buildings. The Port Aransas County Airport experienced severe damage to several cold-formed steel small aircraft hangars. The failure of one of these hangars is the basis for this investigation. The laser point cloud data was utilized to create a model of a hangar structure in MASTAN2. Multiple analyses were completed in MASTAN2 to determine the failure mode and damage propagation mechanisms. Also, analyses were completed to determine the behavior of the undamaged structure and the structure after loss of the hangar doors. The objective of this research is to determine the behavior of cold-formed steel structures under extreme loads to form recommendations for future construction. Furthermore, this work is among the first to use post-disaster data to examine structural cold-formed steel performance

Towards magnetic slowing of atoms and molecules

We outline a method to slow paramagnetic atoms or molecules using pulsed magnetic fields. We also discuss the possibility of producing trapped particles by adiabatic deceleration of a magnetic trap. We present numerical simulation results for the slowing and trapping of molecular oxygen

The quality of different types of child care at 10 and 18 months. A comparison between types and factors related to quality.

The quality of care offered in four different types of non-parental child care to 307 infants at 10 months old and 331 infants at 18 months old was compared and factors associated with higher quality were identified. Observed quality was lowest in nurseries at each age point, except that at 18 months they offered more learning activities. There were few differences in the observed quality of care by child-minders, grandparents and nannies, although grandparents had somewhat lower safety and health scores and offered children fewer activities. Cost was largely unrelated to quality of care except in child-minding, where higher cost was associated with higher quality. Observed ratios of children to adults had a significant impact on quality of nursery care; the more infants or toddlers each adult had to care for, the lower the quality of the care she gave them. Mothers' overall satisfaction with their child's care was positively associated with its quality for home-based care but not for nursery settings

Superconducting d-wave junctions: The disappearance of the odd ac components

We study voltage-biased superconducting planar d-wave junctions for arbitrary transmission and arbitrary orientation of the order parameters of the superconductors. For a certain orientation of the superconductors the odd ac components disappear, resulting in a doubling of the Josephson frequency. We study the sensitivity of this disappearance to orientation and compare with experiments on grain boundary junctions. We also discuss the possibility of a current flow parallel to the junction.Comment: 5 pages, 3 figure