An Archaeological Site on the North Coast of Ellesmere Island

In July 1965, at the end of a long walk westward from Alert, I marked down an Eskimo site on the south side of the well-developed delta terrace at the mouth of the Wood River, 82°30' N, 63°07' W. In setting and lay-out it resembled sites of the Independence I and II cultures that we found at Tanquary Fiord in 1963 .... It was not until August 1972 that I was able to revisit the delta of the Wood River.... The Eskimo site is 11.5 m above sea level ... and lies 3 m from the edge of the delta terrace and about 60 m from the sea. The level terrace, composed mainly of shingle and gravel with scattered flat rocks and small boulders, ends above the foreshore in a steep bank, the material of which is more or less at angle of rest and lightly vegetated. The distinctive feature of the site is the central hearth, which measures 260 cm in length by 69 cm in breadth. It is oriented at right angles to the shore so that the entrance of the tent ring faces the sea, and it is formed in the usual way of flat slabs (in this case 3 in number) of fissile rock set on edge in the ground. Outside the central hearth only 4 rocks define the tent ring .... About 6 m to the north of this main structure there is a rough circle (1.5 m in diameter) of small boulders, and a similar feature 35 m to the south; the latter comprises 6 boulders with maximum dimensions of 35 cm set on the arc of a rough circle about 2 m in diameter. The site is protected to the south by a cliff in bedrock to a height of about 100 m. In the middle of the central hearth, with minimum disturbance of the floor, we made a small collection of charcoal and charred bones for radiocarbon dating. Radiocarbon analysis of the charcoal ... has yielded an age of 1070 ±270 yr BP .... The discovery of the Wood River site raises the question of how many others remain to be discovered on the north coast of Ellesmere Island. Very little is to be seen at the surface, and it is likely that similar sites in the Alert area to the east have escaped notice, although by now they may have been destroyed by the passage of vehicles. On the long coast of northern Ellesmere Island no other archaeological sites have been found but then few people have had the interest and opportunity at the right time of year to look for them. ... Two further comments are offered with diffidence, since I am not an archaeologist. First, the radiocarbon age of the charcoal, if it can be accepted as a maximum age for occupation of the site, belies what appeared to be a distinctive feature of the Independence culture, namely the central hearth. Can it be that this was a feature that persisted to the end of the Dorset period in certain areas? Secondly, on the question of the movement north of these Eskimos, they may all have crossed the plateau southwest of the Grant Ice Cap from the Lake Hazen area and then followed the valley of the Wood River to its mouth, thus by-passing the Robeson Channel coast. From excavations in 1958, Dr. M. S. Maxwell concluded that hunters from the south visited the Lake Hazen area during the period from about A.D. 1000 to 1450. However, sites of both Independence and Thule cultures have since been found at the head of Tanquary Fiord .... Thus, although Maxwell found no evidence that Eskimos had made the passage from Tanquary Fiord to Lake Hazen, it now seems certain that immigration came from that direction at some time, thus completely by-passing the Smith Sound route

Some Canadians in the Antarctic

The note shows that individual Canadians have been involved in every phase of Antarctic exploration and research from 1898 to the present time.Key words: Antarctic, expeditionsMots clés: antarctique, expéditio

Studies on cholesterol 7α-Hydroxylase

Attempts were made to solubilize the enzyme cholesterol 7α-hydroxylase from native rat liver microsomes and from rat liver microsomal acetone and butanol powders. Mechanical techniques such as freezing and thawing, repeated homogenisation and sonication, and also the use of hydrolytic enzymes such as Phospholipase A and those contained in pancreatin and Naja naja venom, all failed to solubilize the enzyme. Solubilizing agents such as urea, n-butanol, sodium deoxycholate and cholate, cetyltrimethylammonium bromide, and all the non-ionic detergents tested, with the exception of Nonidet P40 and P42, failed to release into solution cholesterol 7α -hydroxylase activity or greatly inhibited this enzyme. Nonidet P42 solubilized microsomes were applied to a column of DEAE-cellulose, and chromatography separated cytochrome P-450, cytochrome b5 and NADPH-cytochrome c oxidoreductase from each other. Fractions eluted from DEAE-cellulose contained very little or no cholesterol 7α-hydroxylase activity, but on recombination of the cytochrome P-450 fraction with a fraction containing NADPH-cytochrome c oxidoreductase, cholesterol 7α-hydroxylase activity was reconstituted. The interdependence of cytochrome P-450 and NADPH-cytochrome c oxidoreductase and the effect of cytochrome b5 was investigated in the reconstituted cholesterol 7α-hydroxylase system. Further attempts have been made to increase the purity of cytochrome P-450 and NADPH-cytochrome c oxidoreductase, and these partially purified fractions were recombined and tested for their ability to support the 7α-hydroxylation of cholesterol. Some chemical and biochemical properties of Nonidet P42 solubilized rat liver microsomes and rat liver microsomal acetone and butanol powders have also been investigated to characterise the system. The effect of modifications to the cholesterol side chain on cholesterol 7α-hydroxylase activity has been observed. Studies on the substrate specificity of cholesterol 7α—hydroxylase have revealed that this enzyme is very sensitive to small changes in the side chain of the sterol

The Rolls on the Ellesmere Ice Shelf

Surface rolls are characteristic features of both the Ellesmere ice shelf and the floating ice islands derived from it. These surface features are described and their origin and evolution discussed. Various theories of origin are considered which involve such forces as pressure from the polar pack, movement of glaciers, temperature variations, tidal movements and wind. Of these, wind action appears the most likely to have caused the rolls, and it is suggested that their development was analogous to the formation of seif dunes in desert. "They should be regarded as fossil snow dunes that have been perpetuated by the annual drainage of melt-water.

Mathematical modelling of immune condition dynamics : a clinical perspective

This thesis describes the use of mathematical modelling to analyse the treatment of patients with immune disorders; namely, Multiple Myeloma, a cancer of plasma cells that create excess monoclonal antibody; and kidney transplants, where the immune system produces polygonal antibodies against the implanted organ. Linear and nonlinear compartmental models play an important role in the analysis of biomedical systems; in this thesis several models are developed to describe the in vivo kinetics of the antibodies that are prevalent for the two disorders studied. These models are validated against patient data supplied by clinical collaborators. Through this validation process important information regarding the dynamic properties of the clinical treatment can be gathered. In order to treat patients with excess immune antibodies the clinical staff wish to reduce these high levels in the patient to near healthy concentrations. To achieve this they have two possible treatment modalities: either using artificial methods to clear the material, a process known as apheresis, or drug therapy to reduce the production of the antibody in question. Apheresis techniques differ in their ability to clear different immune complexes; the effectiveness of a range of apheresis techniques is categorised for several antibody types and antibody fragments. The models developed are then used to predict the patient response to alternative treatment methods, and schedules, to find optimal combinations. In addition, improved measurement techniques that may offer an improved diagnosis are suggested. Whilst the overall effect of drug therapy is known, through measuring the concentration of antibodies in the patient’s blood, the short-term relationship between drug application and reduction in antibody synthesis is still not well defined; therefore, methods to estimate the generation rate of the immune complex, without the need for invasive procedures, are also presented

Stratified Water of a Glacial Lake in Northern Ellesmere Island

Antoinette Bay constitutes the central arm of Greely Fiord and extends 40 km. east-northeastward from its junction with Tanquary Fiord in about 80°50'N, 79°W. A large tidewater glacier, flowing northwestward from the Mer de Glace Agassiz to the southeast, has blocked off the head of the bay (or, more properly, fiord) and separates it from the long narrow lake that is the natural extension of the fiord to the east. We visited Antoinette Bay and the lake on June 2 and 3, 1963 during the course of an oceanographic traverse over the sea-ice from the field station of the Defence Research Board at the head of Tanquary Fiord. Antoinette Bay is a typical steep-sided fiord; a single sounding, taken 10 km. from its mouth, showed no bottom at 240 m. The lake, which is unnamed, was visited on the chance of finding interesting structural and temperature conditions in the lake water. ..