The Rock Island Site: A Basketmaker II Defensive Site

The Rock Island site (NR C9-5 aka 42Sa4542) in SE Utah, is a large Grand Gulch phase Basketmaker II (BM II) site. It is located in a very defendable location on an isolated mesa remnant between the North Road canyon forks on the east side of Cedar Mesa, Utah (Figures 1, 2). This site was discovered and partially collected during the “Drainage Canyon Inventory and Sampling” subproject of the Cedar Mesa Project in 1974 (Lipe and Matson 1971, Matson, Lipe and Haase 1988, 1990). It was reported very briefy by Matson (1994) and even more briefy by Matson and Cole (2002). It is the only BM II defensive site found on Cedar Mesa or yet identifed anywhere. In terms of lithics, it was by far the largest BM II site found on Cedar Mesa by Lipe and Matson of about at total of 300 documented BM II sites and the approximately 200 substantially collected by the Cedar Mesa Project (CMP) and related research

Pre-contact baseline ecological reconstruction in Burrard Inlet

This paper presents our research methodology to reconstruct pre-contact baseline marine ecological conditions in Burrard Inlet. Following the Back to the Future methodology outlined by Pauley et al. (1998) and emphasizing applied archaeological techniques, we will undertake multi-disciplinary research to reconstruct pre-contact baseline marine ecological conditions in Burrard Inlet. The marine ecosystems supported several communities of Tsleil-Waututh people in Burrard Inlet for millennia. The remains of Tsleil-Waututh village sites (shell middens) are very rich records of archaeofauna representing the accumulated remains of locally harvested species from about 1000 BC to AD 1792. Our research will investigate already excavated samples of archaeofauna and additional excavations of shell midden sites to develop a detailed record of pre-contact species abundance and diversity. Detailed analyses will include: • Extensive radiocarbon dating to identify the age of all samples and identify change through time. • Identification of large samples of archaeofauna (especially shellfish and fish) from major Tsleil-Waututh village sites • Analysis of the DNA from ancient and modern salmonid samples to identify past species abundance and to asses genetic continuity in local runs. • Analysis of the DNA from ancient and modern herring samples to determine if ancient herring populations here were local or migratory. • Analysis of ancient and modern clam shells using isotopic paleosclerology to identify resource harvesting pressure and season of harvest. The results of these techniques will be combined with research into historical and archival sources, and research into Tsleil-Waututh oral histories and traditional use studies to assess the pre-contact baseline ecological conditions of Burrard Inlet. All of this information will be used to develop a mass balance equation that represents the trophic structure of the pre-contact marine ecosystem in Burrard Inlet

A First Nation history and approach to acidification in Burrard Inlet

In Burrard Inlet, the shellfish resources First Nations have traditionally relied upon are being affected by acidification. The archaeological record and traditional ecological knowledge coupled with long term data on pH levels can potentially be used to understand changes in species composition over the last 3000 years. However, because of 40 years of bivalve harvest restrictions, the effect of acidification on bivalve species composition has not been well recognized by First Nation communities. If the intention is to re-establish bivalve harvest opportunities in Burrard Inlet, First Nations will have to recognize and address acidification, perhaps by implementing recommendations from the Washington State Blue Ribbon Panel on Ocean Acidification

Using Ethnohistoric Data to Correct Historical Ecological Baselines: Urbanization and the Collapse of Forage Fish in Vancouver

Indigenous people and government bodies are often at odds when it comes to acceptable levels of impacts to local ecology that are based on two very different historical and cultural perspectives. For Coast Salish peoples such as Tsleil-Waututh Nation (TWN), who have lived around the Salish Sea for thousands of years, recent historical fisheries records are a pale reflection of the former abundance harvested by their ancestors. For modern ecologists and fisheries scientists, recent fisheries records (post colonization) provide historic baseline and objectives for current management. While this latter perspective is pervasive among regulators, we argue that historical and ongoing negative impacts on local marine resources remain severe and greatly underestimated. In Canada, this historically distorted perspective of both federal and provincial government policymaking leads to mismanagement of current and future fisheries. The historical ecology of forage fish in the Vancouver region is an excellent example of this, and of how Indigenous knowledge can be used to correct currently accepted, but misleading, baselines and objectives for conservation management

Indigenous Sex-selective Salmon Harvesting Demonstrates Pre-contact Marine Resource Management in Burrard Inlet, British Columbia, Canada

To gain insight into pre-contact Coast Salish fishing practices, we used new palaeogenetic analytical techniques to assign sex identifications to salmonid bones from four archaeological sites in Burrard Inlet (Tsleil-Waut), British Columbia, Canada, dating between about 2300–1000 BP (ca. 400 BCE–CE 1200). Our results indicate that male chum salmon (Oncorhynchus keta) were preferentially targeted at two of the four sampled archaeological sites. Because a single male salmon can mate with several females, selectively harvesting male salmon can increase a fishery’s maximum sustainable harvest. We suggest such selective harvesting of visually distinctive male spawning chum salmon was a common practice, most effectively undertaken at wooden weirs spanning small salmon rivers and streams. We argue that this selective harvesting of males is indicative of an ancient and probably geographically widespread practice for ensuring sustainable salmon populations. The archaeological data presented here confirms earlier ethnographic accounts describing the selective harvest of male salmon

Re-expression of SMARCA4/BRG1 in Small Cell Carcinoma of Ovary, Hypercalcemic Type (SCCOHT) promotes an epithelial-like gene signature through an AP-1-dependent mechanism

Small cell carcinoma of the ovary, hypercalcemic type (SCCOHT) is a rare and aggressive form of ovarian cancer. SCCOHT tumors have inactivating mutations in SMARCA4 (BRG1), one of the two mutually exclusive ATPases of the SWI/SNF chromatin remodeling complex. To address the role that BRG1 loss plays in SCCOHT tumorigenesis, we performed integrative multi-omic analyses in SCCOHT cell lines +/- BRG1 reexpression. BRG1 reexpression induced a gene and protein signature similar to an epithelial cell and gained chromatin accessibility sites correlated with other epithelial originating TCGA tumors. Gained chromatin accessibility and BRG1 recruited sites were strongly enriched for transcription-factor-binding motifs of AP-1 family members. Furthermore, AP-1 motifs were enriched at the promoters of highly upregulated epithelial genes. Using a dominant-negative AP-1 cell line, we found that both AP-1 DNA-binding activity and BRG1 reexpression are necessary for the gene and protein expression of epithelial genes. Our study demonstrates that BRG1 reexpression drives an epithelial-like gene and protein signature in SCCOHT cells that depends upon by AP-1 activity

Semaglutide and cardiovascular outcomes in patients with obesity and prevalent heart failure: a prespecified analysis of the SELECT trial

Background: Semaglutide, a GLP-1 receptor agonist, reduces the risk of major adverse cardiovascular events (MACE) in people with overweight or obesity, but the effects of this drug on outcomes in patients with atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease and heart failure are unknown. We report a prespecified analysis of the effect of once-weekly subcutaneous semaglutide 2·4 mg on ischaemic and heart failure cardiovascular outcomes. We aimed to investigate if semaglutide was beneficial in patients with atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease with a history of heart failure compared with placebo; if there was a difference in outcome in patients designated as having heart failure with preserved ejection fraction compared with heart failure with reduced ejection fraction; and if the efficacy and safety of semaglutide in patients with heart failure was related to baseline characteristics or subtype of heart failure. Methods: The SELECT trial was a randomised, double-blind, multicentre, placebo-controlled, event-driven phase 3 trial in 41 countries. Adults aged 45 years and older, with a BMI of 27 kg/m2 or greater and established cardiovascular disease were eligible for the study. Patients were randomly assigned (1:1) with a block size of four using an interactive web response system in a double-blind manner to escalating doses of once-weekly subcutaneous semaglutide over 16 weeks to a target dose of 2·4 mg, or placebo. In a prespecified analysis, we examined the effect of semaglutide compared with placebo in patients with and without a history of heart failure at enrolment, subclassified as heart failure with preserved ejection fraction, heart failure with reduced ejection fraction, or unclassified heart failure. Endpoints comprised MACE (a composite of non-fatal myocardial infarction, non-fatal stroke, and cardiovascular death); a composite heart failure outcome (cardiovascular death or hospitalisation or urgent hospital visit for heart failure); cardiovascular death; and all-cause death. The study is registered with ClinicalTrials.gov, NCT03574597. Findings: Between Oct 31, 2018, and March 31, 2021, 17 604 patients with a mean age of 61·6 years (SD 8·9) and a mean BMI of 33·4 kg/m2 (5·0) were randomly assigned to receive semaglutide (8803 [50·0%] patients) or placebo (8801 [50·0%] patients). 4286 (24·3%) of 17 604 patients had a history of investigator-defined heart failure at enrolment: 2273 (53·0%) of 4286 patients had heart failure with preserved ejection fraction, 1347 (31·4%) had heart failure with reduced ejection fraction, and 666 (15·5%) had unclassified heart failure. Baseline characteristics were similar between patients with and without heart failure. Patients with heart failure had a higher incidence of clinical events. Semaglutide improved all outcome measures in patients with heart failure at random assignment compared with those without heart failure (hazard ratio [HR] 0·72, 95% CI 0·60-0·87 for MACE; 0·79, 0·64-0·98 for the heart failure composite endpoint; 0·76, 0·59-0·97 for cardiovascular death; and 0·81, 0·66-1·00 for all-cause death; all pinteraction>0·19). Treatment with semaglutide resulted in improved outcomes in both the heart failure with reduced ejection fraction (HR 0·65, 95% CI 0·49-0·87 for MACE; 0·79, 0·58-1·08 for the composite heart failure endpoint) and heart failure with preserved ejection fraction groups (0·69, 0·51-0·91 for MACE; 0·75, 0·52-1·07 for the composite heart failure endpoint), although patients with heart failure with reduced ejection fraction had higher absolute event rates than those with heart failure with preserved ejection fraction. For MACE and the heart failure composite, there were no significant differences in benefits across baseline age, sex, BMI, New York Heart Association status, and diuretic use. Serious adverse events were less frequent with semaglutide versus placebo, regardless of heart failure subtype. Interpretation: In patients with atherosclerotic cardiovascular diease and overweight or obesity, treatment with semaglutide 2·4 mg reduced MACE and composite heart failure endpoints compared with placebo in those with and without clinical heart failure, regardless of heart failure subtype. Our findings could facilitate prescribing and result in improved clinical outcomes for this patient group. Funding: Novo Nordisk

Non-domestic architecture in prehistoric complex hunter-gatherer communities : an example from Keatley Creek, on the Canadian Plateau of British Columbia

This thesis explores the variability in housepit use in the large prehistoric village on the Canadian Plateau of Keatley Creek. A comparative analysis of domestic housepits and potential ritual structures was undertaken to determine whether or not ST 106 was used as a winter domestic residence, or used for other purposes. Twenty-four methods of comparison were used to identify differences and similarities between the groups of domestic housepits and potential ritual structures. The results of this study indicate that these potential ritual structures cluster as a group distinct from the domestic housepits. The sample of potential ritual structures differs from the domestic housepits most notably by: distinctive spatial distribution at the site, association with feasting facilities, high fish element density, low debitage density, high proportions of bifacial thinning flakes, and high proportions of rare or unique artifacts. The late Kamloops horizon occupation of structure 106 displays all of these trends and clusters most closely with the Plateau horizon occupation of ST 9. Comparison of the material attributes recovered from ST 106 and the other potential ritual structures with material expectations of various non-domestic structures for the study region suggests that these structures were used as feasting or meeting-houses and not domestic residences. These potential ritual structures originate in the Classic Lillooet (2600-1100 B.P.) occupation of the site and were used up until the late Kamloops horizon.Arts, Faculty ofAnthropology, Department ofGraduat

The political economy of stone celt exchange in pre-contact British Columbia : the Salish nephrite/jade industry

This study investigates patterns of trade and exchange in pre-contact British Columbia through spatial and mineralogical analyses of stone celts and celt production debris with specific focus on celts made of nephrite/jade. More specifically, I explore the hypothesis that emerging elites in British Columbia controlled or manipulated aspects of the production-exchange cycle of stone celts to gain profit and prestige. This research is framed according to concepts of political economy as applied to the study of archaeological remains, focusing on the social organization of labor and how wealth was generated and distributed within past societies. A sample of 2029 relevant artifacts were identified and analyzed using a near-infrared (NIR) spectrometer to determine their mineralogy, to statistically correlate those made of nephrite to their place of manufacture, and these results were analyzed spatially using GIS mapping techniques. Through these analyses 6 distinctive regions were identified based on unique reliance on celts made of particular raw materials and were interpreted as separate interaction spheres. I hypothesize that such interaction spheres were at least partially structured by integration of disparate groups at seasonal trade fairs where celts, among many other goods were exchanged. It was found that nearly all celts on the Salish Sea and the Canadian Plateau were made in two discrete localities along the Fraser River. While there was considerable potential for elites to intensify the production of stone celts, there is little archaeological evidence that they did so. The exchange of functional celts on the Salish Sea may have been mediated or directed by either elites or specialist woodworkers, but such evidence is equivocal. I hypothesized that the patterns celt distribution by site on the Salish Sea could be in part accounted for by the existence of high and low status winter villages – perhaps a two-tier settlement hierarchy. On the Canadian Plateau, large non-utilitarian celts appear to have had predominantly social, rather than functional roles, and were integrated into a widespread system of elite interaction.Arts, Faculty ofAnthropology, Department ofGraduat