The Desert Culture in Southwest Asia

Paper by Frank Hol

The creative centuries : diversity and innovation in iranian Neolithic ceramics

Los primeros siglos del Neolítico cerámico se caracterizan por las diferencias regionales en arcillas y diseños cerámicos, que reflejan la creatividad en decoración y modelado. Durante el Neolítico tardío se opta por un repertorio limitado de diseños y productos que trascienden las fronteras regionales. Los estudios de caso del oeste de Irán ilustran estas tendencias.The early centuries of the ceramic Neolithic are noted for regional differences in ceramic wares and designs, which reflect creative innovation in decoration and modeling. During the later Neolithic there is growing convergence on a limited repertoire of designs and wares, which transcend regional boundaries. Case studies from Western Iran illustrate these trend

Managing the Data: The Tell Ziyadeh Archaeological Project

Archaeological research depends on several types of data; material, contextual and analytical. Material data refers to the actual artifacts, features, and sites themselves. Contextual data are location, local geography, chronology, cross-correlations among data sets, historical and ethnographic. Analyses may be geochemical (petrographic, isotopic, pXRF), stylistic, or comparative archaeological. For an effective understanding of archaeological sites, a research project must be based on a research design suited for effective data recovery, analysis, interpretation and synthesis. With the development of digital technology, the amount of data that can be incorporated into each archaeological project has grown exponentially, and making these data accessible for other researchers and creating digital archives is critically important, especially as archaeology is a highly destructive science. In this poster, we use the example of our Tell Ziyadeh project, to show how archaeologists deal with such issues

Typing Copyless Message Passing

We present a calculus that models a form of process interaction based on copyless message passing, in the style of Singularity OS. The calculus is equipped with a type system ensuring that well-typed processes are free from memory faults, memory leaks, and communication errors. The type system is essentially linear, but we show that linearity alone is inadequate, because it leaves room for scenarios where well-typed processes leak significant amounts of memory. We address these problems basing the type system upon an original variant of session types.Comment: 50 page

An asteroseismic membership study of the red giants in three open clusters observed by Kepler: NGC6791, NGC6819, and NGC6811

Studying star clusters offers significant advances in stellar astrophysics due to the combined power of having many stars with essentially the same distance, age, and initial composition. This makes clusters excellent test benches for verification of stellar evolution theory. To fully exploit this potential, it is vital that the star sample is uncontaminated by stars that are not members of the cluster. Techniques for determining cluster membership therefore play a key role in the investigation of clusters. We present results on three clusters in the Kepler field of view based on a newly established technique that uses asteroseismology to identify fore- or background stars in the field, which demonstrates advantages over classical methods such as kinematic and photometry measurements. Four previously identified seismic non-members in NGC6819 are confirmed in this study, and three additional non-members are found -- two in NGC6819 and one in NGC6791. We further highlight which stars are, or might be, affected by blending, which needs to be taken into account when analysing these Kepler data.Comment: 12 pages, 9 figures, 5 tables, accepted by Ap

The influence of genotype information on psychiatrists’ treatment recommendations: more experienced clinicians know better what to ignore

Background This study applies attribute nonattendance to medical decision making. We aimed to demonstrate how this type of analysis can be used in medical decision making to assess whether psychiatrists were influenced in their treatment recommendations by information on the genotype of a patient, despite knowing the patient’s response to treatment as measured by the Positive and Negative Syndrome Scale. A patient’s genetic information may be used to predict their response to therapy; such information, however, becomes redundant, and should not influence decisions, once a clinician knows the patient’s actual response to treatment. Methods Sixty-seven psychiatrists were presented with patients’ pre- or post-treatment scores on the Positive and Negative Syndrome Scale for two hypothetical treatments for schizophrenia. Psychiatrists were also informed whether the patient possessed a genotype linked to hyper-responsiveness to one of the treatments, and were asked to recommend one of these two treatments. Attribute nonattendance assessed whether the information on genotype influenced psychiatrists’ treatment recommendations. Results Years of experience predicted whether psychiatrists were influenced by the genetic information. Psychiatrists with 1 year or less of experience had a 46% probability of considering genetic information, whereas psychiatrists with at least 15 years of experience had a lower probability (7%). Conclusions Psychiatrists and other clinicians should be cautious about allowing a patient’s genetic information to carry unnecessary weight in their clinical decision making

Squealer Dealers: The Market for Information in Federal Drug Trafficking Prosecutions

Federal data on drug trafficking sentences are used to determine factors that affect market quantities of providing information against other defendants (i.e., defendant probabilities of receiving testimony-related sentence reductions) and market prices of information (i.e., the sizes of such sentence reductions). Women and better-educated defendants experience high demand (higher quantities and prices) for information. Blacks, Hispanics, and non-U.S. citizens experience low demand. Defendants expecting longer sentences have higher supply of information. Conditional on expected sentence, crack dealers, high-level dealers, and dealers with long criminal histories experience low demand, while low-level dealers experience high demand. Women of all races experience high demand for information

Conservative kidney management and kidney supportive care:core components of integrated care for people with kidney failure

Integrated kidney care requires synergistic linkage between preventative care for people at risk for chronic kidney disease and health services providing care for people with kidney disease, ensuring holistic and coordinated care as people transition between acute and chronic kidney disease and the 3 modalities of kidney failure management: conservative kidney management, transplantation, and dialysis. People with kidney failure have many supportive care needs throughout their illness, regardless of treatment modality. Kidney supportive care is therefore a vital part of this integrated framework, but is nonexistent, poorly developed, and/or poorly integrated with kidney care in many settings, especially in low- and middle-income countries. To address this, the International Society of Nephrology has (i) coordinated the development of consensus definitions of conservative kidney management and kidney supportive care to promote international understanding and awareness of these active treatments; and (ii) identified key considerations for the development and expansion of conservative kidney management and kidney supportive care programs, especially in low resource settings, where access to kidney replacement therapy is restricted or not available. This article presents the definitions for conservative kidney management and kidney supportive care; describes their core components with some illustrative examples to highlight key points; and describes some of the additional considerations for delivering conservative kidney management and kidney supportive care in low resource settings.</p

The evolution of energy demand: politics, daily life and public housing, Britain 1920s-70s

This article offers a fresh perspective on the historical evolution of energy consumption in Britain from the 1920s-70s. The twentieth century witnessed a series of energy transitions – from wood and coal to gas, electricity and oil – that have transformed modern lives. The literature has primarily charted this transformation by following supply, networks and technologies. We need to know more about people and their homes in this story, because it was here where energy was used. The article investigates the forces that shaped domestic demand by focusing on working class households in public housing. It examines the interaction between political frameworks, public housing infrastructures and the changing norms and practices of people’s daily lives. It does so by connecting social and political history with material culture. A set of case studies compares the different paths taken in three urban areas (London; Stocksbridge, an old industrial town; and Stevenage, a “new town”) in the provision of new infrastructures of gas, electricity and heating. Evidence collected at the time by the London County Council and other local authorities is used to analyse the uptake, use and resistance to changes in domestic infrastructure and new technologies, such as gas-lit coke ovens, underfloor heating and central heating. The case studies make a more general pitch for a new historical study of energy that places people’s lifestyles, their ideas of comfort and political attempts to change them more squarely at the centre of inquir