Brian Kooyman’s reflections on Professor Peter Steyn’s paper

Brian Kooyman's reflections on Professor Steyn's paper on the need for a Chief Portfolio Office

Standing at The Crossroads: The Intersection of Sexual, Racial/ethnic, and Spiritual/religious Identities in African American Men Who have Sex with Men

The purpose of this research was to investigate Conflict in Allegiance (CIA), an intersectional construct, and its associations with racism in LGB communities, perceived homonegativity within racial and religious communities, and frequency of unprotected anal intercourse (UAI) among religiously affiliated African American men who have sex with men (AAMSM). A review of literature on the established relationships between disproportional HIV-incidence among AAMSM, racism, homonegativity, and UAI was presented. The experience of CIA was hypothesized to correlate with racism in LGB communities, homonegativity within racial and religious communities, and UAI. A sample of 238 religiously-affiliated AAMSM completed the Conflict in Allegiance Scale, Racism in LGB Communities Scale, Homonegativity within Racial and Religious Communities Scales, and a frequency of UAI scale. Pearson product moment correlations were utilized to examine the hypothesized relationships between the variables and revealed significant correlations between CIA and the oppression-related variables. CIA was also found to be significantly correlated with UAI. Differences in CIA among participants who were younger (18-35) and older (36+) from self-described liberal or conservative religious institutions were sought. A two-way analysis of variance revealed no difference in CIA between older and younger participants from liberal and conservative religious institutions. These major findings, including additional findings, current literature, and theories of sexual orientation identity development were presented. Limitations, areas of future research, and implications Counselor Education and clinical practice were identified

Late Pleistocene horse and camel hunting at the southern margin of the ice-free corridor: Reassessing the age of Wally’s Beach, Canada

The only certain evidence for prehistoric human hunting of horse and camel in North America occurs at the Wally’s Beach site, Canada. Here, the butchered remains of seven horses and one camel are associated with 29 nondiagnostic lithic artifacts. Twenty-seven new radiocarbon ages on the bones of these animals revise the age of these kill and butchering localities to 13,300 calibrated y B.P. The tight chronological clustering of the eight kill localities at Wally’s Beach indicates these animals were killed over a short period. Human hunting of horse and camel in Canada, coupled with mammoth, mastodon, sloth, and gomphothere hunting documented at other sites from 14,800–12,700 calibrated y B.P., show that 6 of the 36 genera of megafauna that went extinct by approximately 12,700 calibrated y B.P. were hunted by humans. This study shows the importance of accurate geochronology, without which significant discoveries will go unrecognized and the empirical data used to build models explaining the peopling of the Americas and Pleistocene extinctions will be in error

Functional distinctiveness of major plant lineages

Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/106060/1/jec12208.pdfhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/106060/2/jec12208-sup-0001-Supp_Info.pd

Cheek Tooth Morphology and Ancient Mitochondrial DNA of Late Pleistocene Horses from the Western Interior of North America: Implications for the Taxonomy of North American Late Pleistocene Equus

Horses were a dominant component of North American Pleistocene land mammal communities and their remains are well represented in the fossil record. Despite the abundant material available for study, there is still considerable disagreement over the number of species of Equus that inhabited the different regions of the continent and on their taxonomic nomenclature. In this study, we investigated cheek tooth morphology and ancient mtDNA of late Pleistocene Equus specimens from the Western Interior of North America, with the objective of clarifying the species that lived in this region prior to the end-Pleistocene extinction. Based on the morphological and molecular data analyzed, a caballine (Equus ferus) and a non-caballine (E. conversidens) species were identified from different localities across most of the Western Interior. A second non-caballine species (E. cedralensis) was recognized from southern localities based exclusively on the morphological analyses of the cheek teeth. Notably the separation into caballine and non-caballine species was observed in the Bayesian phylogenetic analysis of ancient mtDNA as well as in the geometric morphometric analyses of the upper and lower premolars. Teeth morphologically identified as E. conversidens that yielded ancient mtDNA fall within the New World stilt-legged clade recognized in previous studies and this is the name we apply to this group. Geographic variation in morphology in the caballine species is indicated by statistically different occlusal enamel patterns in the specimens from Bluefish Caves, Yukon Territory, relative to the specimens from the other geographic regions. Whether this represents ecomorphological variation and/or a certain degree of geographic and genetic isolation of these Arctic populations requires further study

Genome-wide Analyses Identify KIF5A as a Novel ALS Gene

To identify novel genes associated with ALS, we undertook two lines of investigation. We carried out a genome-wide association study comparing 20,806 ALS cases and 59,804 controls. Independently, we performed a rare variant burden analysis comparing 1,138 index familial ALS cases and 19,494 controls. Through both approaches, we identified kinesin family member 5A (KIF5A) as a novel gene associated with ALS. Interestingly, mutations predominantly in the N-terminal motor domain of KIF5A are causative for two neurodegenerative diseases: hereditary spastic paraplegia (SPG10) and Charcot-Marie-Tooth type 2 (CMT2). In contrast, ALS-associated mutations are primarily located at the C-terminal cargo-binding tail domain and patients harboring loss-of-function mutations displayed an extended survival relative to typical ALS cases. Taken together, these results broaden the phenotype spectrum resulting from mutations in KIF5A and strengthen the role of cytoskeletal defects in the pathogenesis of ALS.Peer reviewe

Torrence, Barton (Ed.): Ancient Starch Research

Ancient Starch Research Robin Torrence and Huw Barton (eds). Walnut Creek: Left Coast Press, 2006. 256 pp., 157 illustrations, $69.95 (hardcover)

Moa and moa hunting : an archaeological analysis of big game hunting in New Zealand

This study is an archaeological examination of the prehistoric hunting of moa, a family (Dinornithidae) of now extinct large flightless birds that inhabited New Zealand. The analysis employs a detailed butchering pattern analysis for the moa remains and combines it with a lithic usewear microchipping and polish analysis. The usewear analysis examines two lithic materials, porcellanite and silcrete. The criteria used to distinguish worked material in the usewear study. The general patterns of moa exploitation and butchering are defined in a faunal analysis of moa remains from sites from throughout New Zealand. Hunting strategies are examined in a case study of the Clutha River area of southern New Zealand, by interpreting the results of the butchering pattern analysis in combination with the usewear analysis results and some of the general aspects of site type and location. It is concluded that moa were hunted by an individual hunting strategy, probably with wooden spears. Hunting was done from habitation sites, not from temporary camps established from base camps. Hunting did not specialise in any one particular moa species. In addition to meat, bone marrow was also particular moa species. In addition to meat, bone marrow was also extracted and eaten. No evidence of meat preservation was found. The results correspond well with expectations based on analogies from traditional hunting of other large birds and in east Polynesia, suggesting the methodology is reliable for studying hunting and could be applied elsewhere. The study also includes an examination of bone anatomical landmarks as a means to identifying moa species. The hypothesised significance of the variation in these traits is used to make suggestions about possible moa behaviour. It is suggested that Megalapteryx didinus was more awkward than the other moa, that Anomalopteryx didiformis may have had a diet more similar to that of the kiwi than to that of the other moa, and that Dinornis species may have balanced their centre of gravity differently from other moa. Based on the manner in which moa were hunted, it is proposed that moa did not congregate in large flocks

Moa and moa hunting : an archaeological analysis of big game hunting in New Zealand

This study is an archaeological examination of the prehistoric hunting of moa, a family (Dinornithidae) of now extinct large flightless birds that inhabited New Zealand. The analysis employs a detailed butchering pattern analysis for the moa remains and combines it with a lithic usewear microchipping and polish analysis. The usewear analysis examines two lithic materials, porcellanite and silcrete. The criteria used to distinguish worked material in the usewear study. The general patterns of moa exploitation and butchering are defined in a faunal analysis of moa remains from sites from throughout New Zealand. Hunting strategies are examined in a case study of the Clutha River area of southern New Zealand, by interpreting the results of the butchering pattern analysis in combination with the usewear analysis results and some of the general aspects of site type and location. It is concluded that moa were hunted by an individual hunting strategy, probably with wooden spears. Hunting was done from habitation sites, not from temporary camps established from base camps. Hunting did not specialise in any one particular moa species. In addition to meat, bone marrow was also particular moa species. In addition to meat, bone marrow was also extracted and eaten. No evidence of meat preservation was found. The results correspond well with expectations based on analogies from traditional hunting of other large birds and in east Polynesia, suggesting the methodology is reliable for studying hunting and could be applied elsewhere. The study also includes an examination of bone anatomical landmarks as a means to identifying moa species. The hypothesised significance of the variation in these traits is used to make suggestions about possible moa behaviour. It is suggested that Megalapteryx didinus was more awkward than the other moa, that Anomalopteryx didiformis may have had a diet more similar to that of the kiwi than to that of the other moa, and that Dinornis species may have balanced their centre of gravity differently from other moa. Based on the manner in which moa were hunted, it is proposed that moa did not congregate in large flocks