The Siren Site and the Long Transition from Archaic to Late Prehistoric Lifeways on the Eastern Edwards Plateau of Central Texas

On behalf of the Texas Department of Transportation (TxDOT), SWCA Environmental Consultants (SWCA) conducted testing and data recovery investigations at the Siren site (41WM1126), a prehistoric multi-component site in the Interstate Highway 35 right-of-way along the South Fork of the San Gabriel River in Williamson County, Texas. The work was done to fulfill TxDOT’s compliance obligations under the National Historic Preservation Act and the Antiquities Code of Texas. The testing investigations were conducted under Antiquities Permit 3834, and the subsequent data recovery was under Permit 3938. Kevin Miller served as Principal Investigator on both permits. Though the site extends far beyond the area of potential effects both horizontally and vertically, the investigations focused on Late Archaic and Late Prehistoric components within a relatively limited area that would be subject to project impacts. The investigations were conducted in February 2006. The investigations identified five isolable components that were intermittently laid down from approximately 2600 to 900 years ago. A substantial Late Prehistoric Austin phase occupation is represented by Scallorn projectile points, stone tools, burned rock, faunal materials, and radiocarbon dates from cooking features. The component feature assemblage includes a cluster of discrete, well-preserved burned rock features that range from small fire-cracked rock concentrations to a large, slab-lined feature that dominates the cluster. The underlying components include four cultural strata representing a series of phases in the final millennium or so of the long Archaic period. These components span approximately 2600 to 1500 b.p., though earlier, deeply buried components were also noted on the site. These deeper deposits were not the focus of the investigations, however, since they would not be affected by the project. The Archaic components revealed a suite of small side-notched dart points such as Ensor, Fairland, and Frio, as well as many earlier broad-bladed styles such as Castroville, Montell, Marshall, and Pedernales. These robust components contained numerous burned rock features of varying size and function, abundant tools, well-preserved faunal materials, macrobotanical remains including geophytes from several earth ovens, and a large suite of radiocarbon dates. The features include an incipient burned rock midden, burned rock clusters, a debitage reduction area, a biface cache, slab-lined hearths, basin-shaped hearths, and small circular hearths. The distributions of artifacts and features within the Archaic components across the excavation blocks showed significant variations. These differences reflect sequential components that provide a view of diachronic trends in technology, subsistence, economy, and a suite of other behaviors and activities during the long transition from Archaic to Late Prehistoric adaptations. As previously determined by the testing excavations and further substantiated by the data recovery investigations, the Siren site, most notably the Late Archaic and Late Prehistoric components, is eligible for the National Register of Historic Places under Criterion D, 36 CFR 60.4, and eligible for State Archeological Landmark designation under Criteria 1 and 2 of the Rules of Practice and Procedure for the Antiquities Code of Texas, 13 TAC 26.8. The excavations and subsequent analysis have mitigated the adverse effects of the bridge construction by recovering the vast majority of the affected components within the area of potential effect. No further archaeological work is recommended. Portions of the site outside the area of potential effects have not been fully evaluated, and any future impacts beyond the mitigated areas warrant further assessment

The diagnostic value of ultrasonography-derived edema of the temporal artery wall in giant cell arteritis: a second meta-analysis

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Ultrasonography of temporal arteries is not commonly used in the approach of patients with suspected giant cell arteritis (GCA) in clinical practice. A meta-analysis of primary studies available through April 2004 concluded that ultrasonography could indeed be helpful in diagnosing GCA. We specifically re-examined the diagnostic value of the ultrasonography-derived halo sign, a dark hypoechoic circumferential thickening around the artery lumen, indicating vasculitic wall edema, in GCA.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>Original, prospective studies in patients with suspected GCA that examined ultrasonography findings of temporal arteries using the ACR 1990 classification criteria for GCA as reference standard, published through 2009, were identified. Only eight studies involving 575 patients, 204 of whom received the final diagnosis of GCA, fulfilled technical quality criteria for ultrasound. Weighted sensitivity and specificity estimates of the halo sign were assessed, their possible heterogeneity was investigated and pooled diagnostic odds ratio was determined.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Unilateral halo sign achieved an overall sensitivity of 68% (95% CI, 0.61-0.74) and specificity of 91% (95% CI, 0.88-0.94) for GCA. The values of inconsistency coefficient (I²) of both sensitivity and specificity of the halo sign, showed significant heterogeneity concerning the results between studies. Pooled diagnostic odds ratio, expressing how much greater the odds of having GCA are for patients with halo sign than for those without, was 34 (95% CI, 8.21-138.23). Diagnostic odds ratio was further increased to 65 (95% CI, 17.86-236.82) when bilateral halo signs were present (sensitivity/specificity of 43% and 100%, respectively). In both cases, it was found that DOR was constant across studies.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>Temporal artery edema demonstrated as halo sign should be always looked for in ultrasonography when GCA is suspected. Providing that currently accepted technical quality criteria are fulfilled, halo sign's sensitivity and specificity are comparable to those of autoantibodies used as diagnostic tests in rheumatology. Validation of revised GCA classification criteria which will include the halo sign may be warranted.</p

31st Annual Meeting and Associated Programs of the Society for Immunotherapy of Cancer (SITC 2016) : part two

Background The immunological escape of tumors represents one of the main ob- stacles to the treatment of malignancies. The blockade of PD-1 or CTLA-4 receptors represented a milestone in the history of immunotherapy. However, immune checkpoint inhibitors seem to be effective in specific cohorts of patients. It has been proposed that their efficacy relies on the presence of an immunological response. Thus, we hypothesized that disruption of the PD-L1/PD-1 axis would synergize with our oncolytic vaccine platform PeptiCRAd. Methods We used murine B16OVA in vivo tumor models and flow cytometry analysis to investigate the immunological background. Results First, we found that high-burden B16OVA tumors were refractory to combination immunotherapy. However, with a more aggressive schedule, tumors with a lower burden were more susceptible to the combination of PeptiCRAd and PD-L1 blockade. The therapy signifi- cantly increased the median survival of mice (Fig. 7). Interestingly, the reduced growth of contralaterally injected B16F10 cells sug- gested the presence of a long lasting immunological memory also against non-targeted antigens. Concerning the functional state of tumor infiltrating lymphocytes (TILs), we found that all the immune therapies would enhance the percentage of activated (PD-1pos TIM- 3neg) T lymphocytes and reduce the amount of exhausted (PD-1pos TIM-3pos) cells compared to placebo. As expected, we found that PeptiCRAd monotherapy could increase the number of antigen spe- cific CD8+ T cells compared to other treatments. However, only the combination with PD-L1 blockade could significantly increase the ra- tio between activated and exhausted pentamer positive cells (p= 0.0058), suggesting that by disrupting the PD-1/PD-L1 axis we could decrease the amount of dysfunctional antigen specific T cells. We ob- served that the anatomical location deeply influenced the state of CD4+ and CD8+ T lymphocytes. In fact, TIM-3 expression was in- creased by 2 fold on TILs compared to splenic and lymphoid T cells. In the CD8+ compartment, the expression of PD-1 on the surface seemed to be restricted to the tumor micro-environment, while CD4 + T cells had a high expression of PD-1 also in lymphoid organs. Interestingly, we found that the levels of PD-1 were significantly higher on CD8+ T cells than on CD4+ T cells into the tumor micro- environment (p < 0.0001). Conclusions In conclusion, we demonstrated that the efficacy of immune check- point inhibitors might be strongly enhanced by their combination with cancer vaccines. PeptiCRAd was able to increase the number of antigen-specific T cells and PD-L1 blockade prevented their exhaus- tion, resulting in long-lasting immunological memory and increased median survival

Cranial Morphology and Systematics of an Extraordinary Sample of the Late Neogene Dwarf Tapir, Tapirus Polkensis (Olsen)

The previously poorly known Tapiravus polkensis Olsen, 1960 (Mammalia, Perissodactyla, Tapiridae) is now known from abundant, well preserved specimens from both the type area in central Florida and from the Gray Fossil Site (GFS) in eastern Tennessee. The latter has produced over 75 individuals, the greatest number of tapirids from a single fossil site, including many articulated skeletons. Almost all linear measurements taken on skulls, mandibles, and cheek teeth from GFS have coefficients of variation less than 10 (most between 3 and 7), indicating the presence of a single species. However, the sample reveals considerable intraspecific variation for a few key morphologic features, including development of the sagittal crest, outline shape of the nasals, and number and relative strength of lingual cusps on the P1. The Florida sample of T. polkensis is more limited, but has the same state as the GFS sample for all preserved characters of systematic significance, and while the Florida teeth are on average smaller (especially narrower lower cheek teeth), they fall either within or just below the observed range of the Gray Fossil Site population. The new material supports a reassignment of Tapiravus polkensis to the genus Tapirus, and demonstrates that the geologic age of the species is significantly younger than previously thought, Hemphillian rather than Barstovian. Tapirus polkensis is the smallest known North American Tapirus, and smaller than any of the extant species in the genus, with an estimated average mass of 125 kg

Cranial morphology and systematics of an extraordinary sample of the Late Neogene dwarf tapir, Tapirus polkensis

The previously poorly known Tapiravus polkensis Olsen, 1960 (Mammalia, Perissodactyla, Tapiridae) is now known from abundant, well preserved specimens from both the type area in central Florida and from the Gray Fossil Site (GFS) in eastern Tennessee. The latter has produced over 75 individuals, the greatest number of tapirids from a single fossil site, including many articulated skeletons. Almost all linear measurements taken on skulls, mandibles, and cheek teeth from GFS have coefficients of variation less than 10 (most between 3 and 7), indicating the presence of a single species. However, the sample reveals considerable intraspecific variation for a few key morphologic features, including development of the sagittal crest, outline shape of the nasals, and number and relative strength of lingual cusps on the P1. The Florida sample of T. polkensis is more limited, but has the same state as the GFS sample for all preserved characters of systematic significance, and while the Florida teeth are on average smaller (especially narrower lower cheek teeth), they fall either within or just below the observed range of the Gray Fossil Site population. The new material supports a reassignment of Tapiravus polkensis to the genus Tapirus, and demonstrates that the geologic age of the species is significantly younger than previously thought, Hemphillian rather than Barstovian. Tapirus polkensis is the smallest known North American Tapirus, and smaller than any of the extant species in the genus, with an estimated average mass of 125 kg