Anglo-Saxon diet in the Conversion period: A comparative isotopic study using carbon and nitrogen

© 2018 Elsevier Ltd Seventh-century Anglo-Saxon England is characterised by great social and religious change. The arrival of missionaries from Rome in 597 CE initiated the gradual process of conversion to Christianity. There is growing evidence for increasing hierarchy and social stratification in the archaeological record at this time, including prominent kingly burials. This paper investigates whether diet was influenced by social stratification and to a lesser extent religion in two seventh-century cemetery populations: Melbourn, Cambridgeshire, and Polhill, Kent. Analysis of carbon and nitrogen stable isotopes from 116 human individuals was undertaken. Factors considered included age, sex, wealth and other notable grave features. Results showed that the diets of both populations were largely unaffected by these wider social processes, with negligible differences between social groups. The results were placed in the context of wider Anglo-Saxon dietary studies and highlight that Anglo-Saxon populations consistently display overwhelmingly similar ranges of carbon and nitrogen isotopes

"We Always Find a Way": A Portrait of Indigenous Women's Activism and Intersectional Brilliance in Chiang Mai, Thailand

Ph.D

PREDICTING GROUND REACTION FORCES FROM 2D VIDEO: BRIDGING THE LAB TO FIELD NEXUS

The accurate measurement of ground reaction forces (GRFs) is confined to laboratory-based settings. This poses an ongoing problem for sports biomechanists working in the field given the necessity of this variable for input into the commonly employed inverse dynamics modelling approach. In addition, GRFs are also used by the wider sport science community for assessing player “workload” metrics. Non-invasive in-field estimation of GRFs could facilitate the development of an in-field tool which has the potential to revolutionise the side-line management of players from a number of perspectives. The aim of this study was to use a least squares estimator (LSE) matrix to estimate GRFs from 2D video with r\u3e0.8 results found for the vertical and horizontal GRF components. These results provide early support for the efficacy of non-invasive estimation of GRFs in the field determined from 2D video footage in isolation

Matched Pair Calibration for Ranking Fairness

We propose a test of fairness in score-based ranking systems called matched pair calibration. Our approach constructs a set of matched item pairs with minimal confounding differences between subgroups before computing an appropriate measure of ranking error over the set. The matching step ensures that we compare subgroup outcomes between identically scored items so that measured performance differences directly imply unfairness in subgroup-level exposures. We show how our approach generalizes the fairness intuitions of calibration from a binary classification setting to ranking and connect our approach to other proposals for ranking fairness measures. Moreover, our strategy shows how the logic of marginal outcome tests extends to cases where the analyst has access to model scores. Lastly, we provide an example of applying matched pair calibration to a real-word ranking data set to demonstrate its efficacy in detecting ranking bias.Comment: 19 pages, 8 figure

A global disorder of imprinting in the human female germ line

Imprinted genes are expressed differently depending on whether they are carried by a chromosome of maternal or paternal origin. Correct imprinting is established by germline-specific modifications; failure of this process underlies several inherited human syndromes. All these imprinting control defects are cis-acting, disrupting establishment or maintenance of allele-specific epigenetic modifications across one contiguous segment of the genome. In contrast, we report here an inherited global imprinting defect. This recessive maternal-effect mutation disrupts the specification of imprints at multiple, non-contiguous loci, with the result that genes normally carrying a maternal methylation imprint assume a paternal epigenetic pattern on the maternal allele. The resulting conception is phenotypically indistinguishable from an androgenetic complete hydatidiform mole, in which abnormal extra-embryonic tissue proliferates while development of the embryo is absent or nearly so. This disorder offers a genetic route to the identification of trans-acting oocyte factors that mediate maternal imprint establishment

Senataxin modulates resistance to cisplatin through an R-loop mediated mechanism in HPV-associated Head and Neck Squamous Cell Carcinoma

AbstractIntroductionOropharyngeal Squamous Cell Carcinoma (OPSCC) is a site defined subtype of head and neck cancer with two distinct clinical subtypes: HPV-associated (HPV+) and HPV-independent (HPV-); both of which are commonly treated with chemoradiotherapy involving cisplatin. Cisplatin creates DNA crosslinks, which lead to eventual cell death via apoptosis. Clinical outcomes in HPV-OPSCC are poor and although HPV+ has an improved response to therapy, a subset of patients suffer from distant metastases, with a poor prognosis. Therefore, there is a need to understand the molecular basis underlying treatment resistance. A common mechanism of chemotherapy resistance is upregulation of DNA repair, and a major source of endogenous DNA damage are DNA/RNA hybrids, known as R-loops. R-loops are three stranded DNA/RNA hybrids formed in the genome as a by- product of transcription and are normally transient; however, they can persist and become a source of genomic instability. The contribution of R-loops to the development of cisplatin resistance in OPSCC is unknown.MethodsHPV+ and HPV- cisplatin resistant cell lines were developed, and RNA-sequencing was used to investigate changes in gene expression. Changes in R-loop dynamics were explored using slot blots and DRIP-qPCR. The effect of depleting known R-loop regulators on cisplatin sensitivity was assessed using siRNA. R-loop burden in a cohort of HPV+ and HPV- OPSCC tumours was explored using S9.6 immunohistochemistry.ResultsDevelopment of cisplatin resistant clones led to changes in gene expression consistent with resistance, alongside alterations in the expression of known R-loop regulators. Both HPV+ and HPV- resistant cells had elevated global R-loop levels and in HPV+ resistant cells there was a corresponding upregulation of the R-loop resolving protein, senataxin, which was not observed in HPV- resistant cells. Depletion of senataxin led to increased sensitivity to cisplatin in both HPV+ and HPV- resistant cells, however, the effect was greater in HPV+ cells. Quantification of R-loop levels by S9.6 immunohistochemistry revealed that HPV+ tumours and tumours with bone metastases had a higher R-loop burden.ConclusionR-loops are involved in modulating sensitivity to cisplatin and may represent a potential therapeutic target.</jats:sec

A Supposedly Developed Country’s Response to a Healthcare Crisis: Lessons from the COVID-19 Pandemic for Future National Emergencies

The world has just suffered through a pandemic that was responsible for the 7 million deaths. The expectation prior to this devastation would have been those countries like the United States, which are considered “developed”, would have been prepared and able to ameliorate the effects of such a catastrophic event. However, this was not the case. In fact, many countries not necessarily considered underdeveloped or undeveloped weathered this crisis by mounting a much more organized response. This chapter will review the history of similar episodic epidemics, the failures that led to over a million deaths in the United States, and most importantly what is necessary to a similar event in the future to be dealt preventing the devastation that did occur in a most “developed” country like the United States. These lesions and their possible extrapolation worldwide, hoping will prevent a recurrence of the devastation we have recently experienced in the United States