110 research outputs found
OSL investigations at Hardisty, Alberta, Canada
This report is concerned with optically stimulated luminescence (OSL) dating
investigations of sediments associated with, and enclosing artefacts of First
Nations historic significance in the Battle River Valley area, near Hardisty,
east central Alberta. The OSL ages reported here provide chronological control
to the archaeological investigations at this site, led by Rob Wondrasek, which
have identified thousands of historical artefacts, including projectile points
and lithic fragments indicative of occupation. The investigations were
commissioned by Enbridge, ahead of the construction of the Edmonton-Hardisty
Pipeline, and form one part of a historic resources impact assessment study, to
characterise the archaeological site, and evaluate/mitigate the impact of the
pipeline related excavations. This report describes the background to the
investigation, sampling, and luminescence analysis undertaken to generate
sediment chronologies for the Hardisty sediment stratigraphies.
Ken Munyikwa visited the archaeological investigations at Hardisty in June 2014
to sample key stratigraphic units within the sediment stratigraphies for OSL
dating. Samples were collected from two profiles: from strata encompassing the
artefact-bearing horizon, and from strata immediately beneath and overlying
this horizon, thus providing terminus post quem (TPQ) and terminus ante quem
(TAQ) on the age of this unit. Samples were submitted to the luminescence
laboratories at SUERC for dating in August 2014. All samples were subjected to
laboratory preparation of sand-sized quartz, and purity checked by scanning
electron microscopy. Dose rates for the bulk sediment were evaluated using
analyses of the uranium, thorium and potassium concentrations obtained by high
resolution gamma spectrometry coupled with beta dose rate measurement using
thick source beta counting. Equivalent doses were determined by OSL from 64
aliquots of quartz per sample using the quartz single-aliquot-regenerative
(SAR) procedure. The material exhibited good OSL sensitivity and produced
acceptable SAR internal quality control performance. Dose distributions from
the aliquots were examined using radial plotting methods. All samples revealed
some heterogeneity in their equivalent dose distribution, reflecting variable
bleaching at deposition and indicating that each sample enclosed mixed-age
materials. Age estimates were based on the weighted mean estimate of the stored
dose, which weights the stored dose estimate towards the lowest population of
equivalent doses, potentially representing the better bleached (at deposition)
component.
The quartz OSL ages reported herein for the sand sequences at Hardisty-1 and Hardisty-2, have provided the first means to assess the temporal distribution of artefacts within the Hardisty profiles, and furthermore provide TPQ and TAQ for the inferred occupational phases. The sediment chronologies established for each profile are internally coherent, spanning at HD-01 from 7.8 ± 0.7 ka (SUTL2692) to 11.7 ± 0.5 ka (SUTL2694), and at HD-02 from 4.5 ± 0.2 ka (SUTL2695) to 8.7 ± 0.5 ka (SUTL2697; Table 4-1). TPQ for the occupation of the Hardisty site is provided by SUTL2697 at 8.7 ± 0.5 ka. TAQ for the occupation of the Hardisty site is provided by SUTL2695 at 4.5 ± 0.2 ka
The efficacy of protein supplementation during recovery from muscle-damaging concurrent exercise
This study investigated the effect of protein supplementation on recovery following muscle-damaging exercise, which was induced with a concurrent exercise design. Twenty-four well-trained male cyclists were randomised to three independent groups receiving 20 g protein hydrolysate, iso-caloric carbohydrate or low-calorific placebo supplementation, per serve. Supplement serves were provided twice daily, from the onset of the muscle-damaging exercise, for a total of four days and in addition to a controlled diet (6 g·kg-1·d-1 carbohydrate, 1.2 g·kg-1·d-1 protein, remainder from fat). Following the concurrent exercise session at time-point 0 h; a simulated high-intensity road cycling trial and 100 drop-jumps, recovery of outcome measures was assessed at 24, 48 and 72 h. The concurrent exercise protocol was deemed to have caused exercise-induced muscle damage (EIMD), owing to time effects (p0.05) were observed for any of the outcome measures. The present results indicate that protein supplementation does not attenuate any of the indirect indices of EIMD imposed by concurrent exercise, when employing great rigour around the provision of a quality habitual diet and the provision of appropriate supplemental controls
Aquatic Mammals
Abstract Within Australian waters, short-beaked common dolphins (Delphinus delphis) are exposed to a variety of human-induced impacts, including aquaculture and fisheries. Nonetheless, the occurrence and distribution of common dolphins within these waters remains unknown. Data detailed herein represent the first report of the occurrence and distribution of common dolphins from Australian waters. The density and relative abundance of common dolphins within Gulf St. Vincent (GSV), South Australia, was examined between September 2005 and May 2008 using systematic boat surveys. During 1,850 km of survey effort, a total of 108 independent groups, involving 564 common dolphins, were observed. Group size ranged from 2 to 21 individuals (mean = 5.26, SD = 3.687), with immature dolphins found in larger group sizes. Adults were the most frequent age class observed in this population (60.3%, n = 340), with neonates and calves observed most frequently between December and April. Sighting frequency was 3 groups/100 km² travelled, with an encounter rate of 16 common dolphins/100 km². The western longitude and southern latitude sections of GSV were used most frequently by this species, with most groups recorded in water depths of 35 to 40 m (mean = 37.2 m, SD = 1.4), and in areas 21 to 31 km from land (mean = 27.4 km, SD = 2.6). Common dolphin density was estimated to be 0.5 dolphins/100 km 2 , with a population estimate of 1,957 dolphins within their preferred habitat (waters deeper than 14 m). Results suggest the GSV is important for this species and that common dolphins use these waters as a nursery area
Exploring gender and fear retrospectively:stories of women’s fear during the ‘Yorkshire Ripper’ murders
The murder of 13 women in the North of England between 1975 and 1979 by Peter Sutcliffe who became known as the Yorkshire Ripper can be viewed as a significant criminal event due to the level of fear generated and the impact on local communities more generally. Drawing upon oral history interviews carried out with individuals living in Leeds at the time of the murders, this article explores women’s accounts of their fears from the time. This offers the opportunity to explore the gender/fear nexus from the unique perspective of a clearly defined object of fear situated within a specific spatial and historical setting. Findings revealed a range of anticipated fear-related emotions and practices which confirm popular ‘high-fear’ motifs; however, narrative analysis of interviews also highlighted more nuanced articulations of resistance and fearlessness based upon class, place and biographies of violence, as well as the way in which women drew upon fear/fearlessness in their overall construction of self. It is argued that using narrative approaches is a valuable means of uncovering the complexity of fear of crime and more specifically provides renewed insight onto women’s fear
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VACET: Proposed SciDAC2 Visualization and Analytics Center forEnabling Technologies
This paper accompanies a poster that is being presented atthe SciDAC 2006 meeting in Denver, CO. This project focuses on leveragingscientific visualization and analytics software technology as an enablingtechnology for increasing scientific productivity and insight. Advancesincomputational technology have resultedin an "information big bang,"which in turn has createda significant data understanding challenge. Thischallenge is widely acknowledged to be one of the primary bottlenecks incontemporary science. The vision for our Center is to respond directly tothat challenge by adapting, extending, creating when necessary anddeploying visualization and data understanding technologies for ourscience stakeholders. Using an organizational model as a Visualizationand Analytics Center for Enabling Technologies (VACET), we are wellpositioned to be responsive to the needs of a diverse set of scientificstakeholders in a coordinated fashion using a range of visualization,mathematics, statistics, computer and computational science and datamanagement technologies
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Seeing the Unseeable
The SciDAC Visualization and Analytics Center for Enabling Technologies (VACET) isa highly productive effort combining the forces of leading visualization researchersfrom five different institutions to solve some of the most challenging dataunderstanding problems in modern science. The VACET technology portfolio isdiverse, spanning all typical visual data analysis use models and effectivelybalancing forward-looking research with focused software architecture andengineering resulting in a production-quality software infrastructure. One of the keyelements in VACET's success is a rich set of projects that are collaborations withscience stakeholders: these efforts focus on identifying and overcoming obstacles toscientific knowledge discovery in modern, large, and complex scientific datasets
Genome modeling system: A knowledge management platform for genomics
In this work, we present the Genome Modeling System (GMS), an analysis information management system capable of executing automated genome analysis pipelines at a massive scale. The GMS framework provides detailed tracking of samples and data coupled with reliable and repeatable analysis pipelines. The GMS also serves as a platform for bioinformatics development, allowing a large team to collaborate on data analysis, or an individual researcher to leverage the work of others effectively within its data management system. Rather than separating ad-hoc analysis from rigorous, reproducible pipelines, the GMS promotes systematic integration between the two. As a demonstration of the GMS, we performed an integrated analysis of whole genome, exome and transcriptome sequencing data from a breast cancer cell line (HCC1395) and matched lymphoblastoid line (HCC1395BL). These data are available for users to test the software, complete tutorials and develop novel GMS pipeline configurations. The GMS is available at https://github.com/genome/gms
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Occam's Razor and Petascale Visual Data Analysis
One of the central challenges facing visualization research is how to effectively enable knowledge discovery. An effective approach will likely combine application architectures that are capable of running on today?s largest platforms to address the challenges posed by large data with visual data analysis techniques that help find, represent, and effectively convey scientifically interesting features and phenomena
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