Structural variation in the humerus and femur in the American Great Plains and adjacent regions : differences in subsistence strategy and physical terrain

Analysis of long bone cross-sectional architecture has been increasingly used in the last three decades to help reconstruct behavior, especially activity patterns, from archaeologically derived skeletal material. This research has shown a strong correlation between cross-sectional geometric properties and mobility and terrain. However, few studies have focused on the American Great Plains or looked at hypotheses using a large dataset with considerable spatial distribution and time depth. The purpose of this research project is to examine structural variation and sexual dimorphism in the humerus and femur within and among groups from the American Great Plains and adjacent regions. The goals are threefold. The first goal is to investigate the degree to which long bone external dimensions can be used to predict diaphyseal cross-sectional properties (e.g., total periosteal area and moments of area). The second goal is to examine the effects of activity level, mobility, and terrain type on the crosssectional morphology of proximal limb bones. The final goal is to inspect the pattern of structural variation in the American Great Plains

Review of \u3ci\u3eArch Lake Woman: Physical Anthropology and Geoarchaeology. \u3c/i\u3eBy Douglas W. Owsley, Margaret A. Jodry, Thomas W. Stafford, Jr., C. Vance Haynes, Jr., and Dennis J. Stanford.

Approximately 10,000 radiocarbon years before present, the body ofa 17- to 19-year-old female, probably associated with the Plainview Culture, was buried on the south side of Arch Lake, located near the present-day border of New Mexico and Texas. The young woman was interred in an extended supine position with a necklace of talc beads low on her neck, a bag containing red pigment and a unifacial stone tool on her left hip, and a bone tool placed on her chest. Her grave remained relatively undisturbed until 1967 when it was exposed, discovered, and carefully excavated by archaeologists. The Arch Lake Woman\u27s skeleton is among the oldest found in North America and therefore of significant interest to archaeologists and physical anthropologists. While known at the time to be a fascinating archaeological find, the Arch Lake Woman remains have not been extensively studied. In 2000, Douglas Owsley and a team ofPaleoamerican experts undertook an extensive reinvestigation of the skeleton, radiocarbon dates, burial geology, and artifact assemblage. The skeletal remains investigation included the development of a biological profile, new radiocarbon dating, stable isotope analysis, and comparison of the Arch Lake Woman\u27s skeletal features to those of other early Americans, Native Americans, Africans, and Europeans. The investigation also included geoarchaeological analysis of the burial location, microprobe analysis of the red pigment in the burial fill, and comparison of Early American mortuary practices

Neutral winds above 200Km at high latitudes

Motion from multiple chemical releases between 200 and 300 km from 15 rockets launched from 4 high latitude locations are analyzed. The observations in the evening and midnight hours at magnetic altitudes or = 65 deg suggest that in these regions ion drag is the dominant force in driving neutral winds between 200 and 300 km. This conclusion is based on both the agreement between ion and neutral drift directions, and the fact that there are distinct changes in the wind associated with (a) the reversal in east-west ion drift at the Harang discontinuity, and (b) the transition from auroral belt, sunward ion drift and polar cap, anti-solar ion drift

AMPS definition study on Optical Band Imager and Photometer System (OBIPS)

A study was conducted to define the characteristics of a modular optical diagnostic system (OBIPS) for AMPS, to provide input to Phase B studies, and to give information useful for experiment planning and design of other instrumentation. The system described consists of visual and UV-band imagers and visual and UV-band photometers; of these the imagers are most important because of their ability to measure intensity as a function of two spatial dimensions and time with high resolution. The various subsystems of OBIPS are in themselves modular with modules having a high degree of interchangeability for versatility, economy, and redundancy

Book Reviews

Reviews of the following books: The Wilderness from Chamberlain Farm: A Story of Hope for the American Wild by Dean B. Bennett; The French Baron of Pentagouet: Baron St. Castin and the Struggle for Empire in Early New England by Ailene S. Taylor; Bold Vision: The Development of the Parks of Portland, Maine, edited by Theo H.B.M. Holtwijk and Earle G. Shettleworth, Jr.; Charles Nolcini: The Life and Music of an Italian American in the Age of Jackson by Vincent A. Lapomarda; A Most Remarkable Mix: Sketches of Notable Freeporters by John D. Davi

A GIS approach for predicting prehistoric site locations.

Use of geographic information system (GIS)-based predictive mapping to locate areas of high potential for prehistoric archaeological sites is becoming increasingly popular among archaeologists. Knowledge of the environmental variables influencing activities of original inhabitants is used to produce GIS layers representing the spatial distribution of those variables. The GIS layers are then analyzed to identify locations where combinations of environmental variables match patterns observed at known prehistoric sites. Presented are the results of a study to locate high-potential areas for prehistoric sites in a largely unsurveyed area of 39,000 acres in the Upper Chesapeake Bay region, including details of the analysis process. The project used environmental data from over 500 known sites in other parts of the region and the results corresponded well with known sites in the study area

The ‘ForensOMICS’ approach for postmortem interval estimation from human bone by integrating metabolomics, lipidomics, and proteomics

The combined use of multiple omics allows to study complex interrelated biological processes in their entirety. We applied a combination of metabolomics, lipidomics and proteomics to human bones to investigate their combined potential to estimate time elapsed since death (i.e., the postmortem interval [PMI]). This 'ForensOMICS' approach has the potential to improve accuracy and precision of PMI estimation of skeletonized human remains, thereby helping forensic investigators to establish the timeline of events surrounding death. Anterior midshaft tibial bone was collected from four female body donors before their placement at the Forensic Anthropology Research Facility owned by the Forensic Anthropological Center at Texas State (FACTS). Bone samples were again collected at selected PMIs (219-790-834-872days). Liquid chromatography mass spectrometry (LC-MS) was used to obtain untargeted metabolomic, lipidomic, and proteomic profiles from the pre- and post-placement bone samples. The three omics blocks were investigated independently by univariate and multivariate analyses, followed by Data Integration Analysis for Biomarker discovery using Latent variable approaches for Omics studies (DIABLO), to identify the reduced number of markers describing postmortem changes and discriminating the individuals based on their PMI. The resulting model showed that pre-placement metabolome, lipidome and proteome profiles were clearly distinguishable from post-placement ones. Metabolites in the pre-placement samples suggested an extinction of the energetic metabolism and a switch towards another source of fuelling (e.g., structural proteins). We were able to identify certain biomolecules with an excellent potential for PMI estimation, predominantly the biomolecules from the metabolomics block. Our findings suggest that, by targeting a combination of compounds with different postmortem stability, in the future we could be able to estimate both short PMIs, by using metabolites and lipids, and longer PMIs, by using proteins

Conductivity of carbon nanotube polymer composites

Dissipative Particle Dynamics (DPD) simulations were used to investigate methods of controlling the assembly of percolating networks of carbon nanotubes (CNTs) in thin films of block copolymer melts. For suitably chosen polymers the CNTs were found to spontaneously self-assemble into topologically interesting patterns. The mesoscale morphology was projected onto a finite-element grid and the electrical conductivity of the films computed. The conductivity displayed non-monotonic behavior as a function of relative polymer fractions in the melt. Results are compared and contrasted with CNT dispersion in small-molecule fluids and mixtures

Extension of the fuzzy integral for general fuzzy set-valued information

The fuzzy integral (FI) is an extremely flexible aggregation operator. It is used in numerous applications, such as image processing, multicriteria decision making, skeletal age-at-death estimation, and multisource (e.g., feature, algorithm, sensor, and confidence) fusion. To date, a few works have appeared on the topic of generalizing Sugeno's original real-valued integrand and fuzzy measure (FM) for the case of higher order uncertain information (both integrand and measure). For the most part, these extensions are motivated by, and are consistent with, Zadeh's extension principle (EP). Namely, existing extensions focus on fuzzy number (FN), i.e., convex and normal fuzzy set- (FS) valued integrands. Herein, we put forth a new definition, called the generalized FI (gFI), and efficient algorithm for calculation for FS-valued integrands. In addition, we compare the gFI, numerically and theoretically, with our non-EP-based FI extension called the nondirect FI (NDFI). Examples are investigated in the areas of skeletal age-at-death estimation in forensic anthropology and multisource fusion. These applications help demonstrate the need and benefit of the proposed work. In particular, we show there is not one supreme technique. Instead, multiple extensions are of benefit in different contexts and applications

NUV/Blue spectral observations of sprites in the 320-460 nm region: N2{\mathrm N_2} (2PG) Emissions

A near-ultraviolet (NUV) spectrograph (320-460 nm) was flown on the EXL98 aircraft sprite observation campaign during July 1998. In this wavelength range video rate (60 fields/sec) spectrographic observations found the NUV/blue emissions to be predominantly N2 (2PG). The negligible level of N2+ (1NG) present in the spectrum is confirmed by observations of a co-aligned, narrowly filtered 427.8 nm imager and is in agreement with previous ground-based filtered photometer observations. The synthetic spectral fit to the observations indicates a characteristic energy of ~1.8 eV, in agreement with our other NUV observations.Comment: 7 pages, 2 figures, 1 table, JGR Space Physics "Effects of Thunderstorms and Lightning in the Upper Atmosphere" Special Sectio