Bossier Tribes, Caddo in North Louisiana\u27s Pineywoods

Clarence Webb (1948) christened Bossier more than a half century ago. Its namesake was the northwestern Louisiana parish where several Bossier sites were located, but it could just as easily been named after Webster, Claiborne, Harrison, Columbia, or other political subdivisions in northwestern Louisiana, southwestern Arkansas, or eastern Texas where its distinctive pottery was found. This is Caddo country, linguistically and ethnically. Bossier is the issue of Caddoan cultural tradition, a culmination of agents, practices, and histories that transpired in the Red River valley and adjoining Pineywoods hills between ca. A.D. 1300 and 1500. Bossier is best known for its pottery. Pottery hoists the load for this examination, but other factors such as presence or absence of mounds and relative geographic location help me contextualize Bossier pottery and contemplate Bossier materiality as the product of human minds and hands. I organize pottery data, new and old, by a simple arithmetic measure, an average index of similarity. I don\u27t see how more robust statistical comparisons could do any better when data come from potsherds picked up from bare spots on the ground but not from underneath the pine straw. Powerful statistics don\u27t create powerful data. They don\u27t create data at all

Extended Weight Systems Pavement Analysis

Kentucky established its Extended Weight Coal or Coal By-products Haul Road System (EWCHRS) in 1986. This road network includes segments of the Coal Haul Highway System on which more than 50,000 tons coal or coal byproducts were transported by motor vehicles during the previous calendar year. In the past few years, the state has introduced extended weight (EW) systems focused on petroleum products and metal commodities. Trucks can operate above posted weight limits on these networks by paying annual fees that range from $160 to$2,000. While EW networks benefit motor carriers by improving efficiency, vehicles that exceed weight limits can damage pavement and reduce its service life. This study examines the relationship between pavement age and pavement condition on EWCHRS routes and non-EWCHRS routes to understand the implications of EW networks for infrastructure life-cycles. Using data from 2008 through 2020 (with the exception of 2016) to perform regression analysis, researchers found that routes which spent at least 20% of the study period on the EWCHRS saw pavement life decline by 1.5 – 2 years. In general, a positive correlation was observed between exposure on the EWCHRS and loss of pavement life, which can increase maintenance, repair, and rehabilitation costs. While the future of commodity-specific EW networks in Kentucky is unclear, data management strategies can be adopted by the Kentucky Transportation Cabinet to improve its support of existing and future EW networks

NCeSS Project : Data mining for social scientists

We will discuss the work being undertaken on the NCeSS data mining project, a one year project at the University of Manchester which began at the start of 2007, to develop data mining tools of value to the social science community. Our primary goal is to produce a suite of data mining codes, supported by a web interface, to allow social scientists to mine their datasets in a straightforward way and hence, gain new insights into their data. In order to fully define the requirements, we are looking at a range of typical datasets to find out what forms they take and the applications and algorithms that will be required. In this paper, we will describe a number of these datasets and will discuss how easily data mining techniques can be used to extract information from the data that would either not be possible or would be too time consuming by more standard methods

Real-Time Measurement of Face Recognition in Rapid Serial Visual Presentation

Event-related potentials (ERPs) have been used extensively to study the processes involved in recognition memory. In particular, the early familiarity component of recognition has been linked to the FN400 (mid-frontal negative deflection between 300 and 500 ms), whereas the recollection component has been linked to a later positive deflection over the parietal cortex (500–800 ms). In this study, we measured the ERPs elicited by faces with varying degrees of familiarity. Participants viewed a continuous sequence of faces with either low (novel faces), medium (celebrity faces), or high (faces of friends and family) familiarity while performing a separate face-identification task. We found that the level of familiarity was significantly correlated with the magnitude of both the early and late recognition components. Additionally, by using a single-trial classification technique, applied to the entire evoked response, we were able to distinguish between familiar and unfamiliar faces with a high degree of accuracy. The classification of high versus low familiarly resulted in areas under the curve of up to 0.99 for some participants. Interestingly, our classifier model (a linear discriminant function) was developed using a completely separate object categorization task on a different population of participants

Analysis of Truck Weight Limit Regulations

In the United States vehicle weight limits are set by laws and regulations enacted at the state and federal levels. On interstates the maximum allowable gross vehicle weight is 80,000 lbs. States use different rules for permitting overdimensional and overweight (OD/OW) vehicles, and most have carve outs that exempt specific commodities from standard weight limits. This results in a complex legal and regulatory landscape that enforcement personnel can find difficult to negotiate. This report discusses strategies that can be adopted in the state of Kentucky to improve enforcement and mitigate infrastructure damage caused by OD/OW loads. After presenting a thorough review of laws pertaining to vehicle weight limits at the national and state levels, the report presents the results of a nationwide survey administered to agency staff directly involved in weight limit enforcement. Survey respondents reported that OW trucks inflict a disproportionate amount of damage on pavements and bridges that permitting fees and fuel taxes are insufficient to ameliorate roadway damage caused by these vehicles, and that commodity exemptions and staff shortages make enforcement a challenging proposition. In addition to sharing many of the opinions of agency staff elsewhere, Kentucky personnel said that many bridges and roadways are not designed to withstand repeated loads of 80,000 lbs. of gross vehicle weight, heavier vehicles with commodity exemptions are especially damaging to collector and local roads, and that enforcement efforts need to be redoubled. Recommendations for improving weight limit enforcement in Kentucky cover areas such as legislation (e.g., reducing the number of commodity exemptions, using axle-based weight limits), highway design, enforcement and judicial practices, and permitting and fees. Implementing these recommendations can help Kentucky modernize and standardize its enforcement efforts

Trypanosoma brucei gambiense group 1 is distinguished by a unique amino acid substitution in the HpHb receptor implicated in human serum resistance

Trypanosoma brucei rhodesiense (Tbr) and T. b. gambiense (Tbg), causative agents of Human African Trypanosomiasis (sleeping sickness) in Africa, have evolved alternative mechanisms of resisting the activity of trypanosome lytic factors (TLFs), components of innate immunity in human serum that protect against infection by other African trypanosomes. In Tbr, lytic activity is suppressed by the Tbr-specific serum-resistance associated (SRA) protein. The mechanism in Tbg is less well understood but has been hypothesized to involve altered activity and expression of haptoglobin haemoglobin receptor (HpHbR). HpHbR has been shown to facilitate internalization of TLF-1 in T.b. brucei (Tbb), a member of the T. brucei species complex that is susceptible to human serum. By evaluating the genetic variability of HpHbR in a comprehensive geographical and taxonomic context, we show that a single substitution that replaces leucine with serine at position 210 is conserved in the most widespread form of Tbg (Tbg group 1) and not found in related taxa, which are either human serum susceptible (Tbb) or known to resist lysis via an alternative mechanism (Tbr and Tbg group 2). We hypothesize that this single substitution contributes to reduced uptake of TLF and thus may play a key role in conferring serum resistance to Tbg group 1. In contrast, similarity in HpHbR sequence among isolates of Tbg group 2 and Tbb/Tbr provides further evidence that human serum resistance in Tbg group 2 is likely independent of HpHbR functio

Development Status of the Fission Power System Technology Demonstration Unit

This paper summarizes the progress that has been made in the development of the Fission Power System Technology Demonstration Unit (TDU). The reactor simulator core and Annular Linear Induction Pump have been fabricated and assembled into a test loop at the NASA Marshall Space Flight Center. A 12 kWe Power Conversion Unit (PCU) is being developed consisting of two 6 kWe free-piston Stirling engines. The two 6 kWe engines have been fabricated by Sunpower Inc. and are currently being tested separately prior to integration into the PCU. The Facility Cooling System (FCS) used to reject convertor waste heat has been assembled and tested at the NASA Glenn Research Center (GRC). The structural elements, including a Buildup Assembly Platform (BAP) and Upper Truss Structure (UTS) have been fabricated, and will be used to test cold-end components in thermal vacuum prior to TDU testing. Once all components have been fully tested at the subsystem level, they will be assembled into an end-to-end system and tested in thermal vacuum at GRC

A Review of Kentucky’s Extended-Weight Hauling Programs

Kentucky established its Extended Weight Coal or Coal By-products Haul Road System (EWCHRS) to increase the state’s competitiveness within the coal industry and reduce financial burdens on coal haulers. A new extended-weight haul system for unrefined petroleum products will come online in 2022. To facilitate enforcement of weight limits throughout Kentucky, this report surveys literature on how overweight vehicles affect roads and bridges, describes statutes and regulations governing weight limits in the state, discusses policies and strategies used throughout the US to handle overweight vehicles, and makes recommendations for improving extended-weight policies in Kentucky. It is apparent that pavements and bridges repeatedly exposed to overweight vehicles have shorter life-cycles, but methods for quantifying deterioration rates are lacking. In both Kentucky and throughout the US, agency personnel find that not enough revenues are collected from permitting fees to offset damage caused by overweight trucks. The enforcement landscape is made complex by exemptions that apply to specific industries and commodities. Without adequate staffing and weigh station operations, robust enforcement of weight limits is very challenging. Some of the recommendations for Kentucky to improve its extended-weight policies include studying the feasibility of a statewide long-haul network that accommodates all commodities, modifying the EWCHRS fee structure to generate enough funds to repair damage inflicted by overweight vehicles, strengthen enforcement of weight limits on the EWCHRS, mandate installation of GPS systems on vehicles that travel the EWCHRS to streamline mileage reporting and improve driver awareness of prohibited routes, and eliminate inconsistencies, ambiguities, and redundancies in regulatory and statutory language

Nociceptin Signals Through Calcium in \u3ci\u3eTetrahymena thermophila\u3c/i\u3e

Tetrahymena thermophila are free-living, ciliated, eukaryotic organisms that respond to stimuli by moving toward chemoattractants and avoiding chemorepellents. Chemoattractant responses involve faster ciliary beating, which propels the organisms forward more rapidly. Chemorepellents signaling involves ciliary reversal, which disrupts forward swimming, and causes the organisms to jerk back and forth, swim in small circles, or spin in an attempt to get away from the repellent. Many food sources, such as proteins, are chemoattractants for these organisms, while a variety of compounds are repellents. Repellents in nature are thought to come from the secretions of predators, or from ruptured organisms, which may serve as danger signals. Interestingly, several hormones involved in human pain signaling have been shown to be chemorepellents in Tetrahymena, including substance P, ACTH, PACAP, VIP, and nociceptin. Recently, we have been studying Tetrahymena response to nociceptin, using pharmacological inhibitors in order to elucidate components of the nociceptin signaling pathway. We have found that G-protein inhibitors and a number of mammalian tyrosine kinase inhibitors have no effect on nociceptin avoidance. However, the tyrosine kinase inhibitor, genistein, inhibits avoidance to nociceptin. Nociceptin avoidance is also inhibited by the calcium chelator, EGTA, which implicates calcium in the avoidance response. Electrophysiology studies done in a calcium-containing buffer show that 50 μM nociceptin causes a sustained depolarization of approximately 30 mV, further supporting the hypothesis that calcium is involved in nociceptin signaling. J-113397, an inhibitor of the human nociceptin receptor, also inhibits nociceptin avoidance in Tetrahymena. We are currently working to determine whether other inhibitors of the human nociceptin receptor have any effect on Tetrahymena, in order to get a more complete picture of the signaling pathway