The Neolithic Settlement Landscape of the Southeastern Swabian Alb

This paper presents goals, methods, and preliminary results of a collaborative project investigating Neolithic settlement and land use of the southeastern Swabian Alb limestone plateau region in southwestern Germany. The project combines systematic surveys of plowed fields and analysis of large private collections to investigate site distributions on the plateau, which is largely poor in surface water but a source of regionally important chert raw material. GIS based comparisons of site locations in terms of soil type and their agricultural potential, distance to water, and distance to chert sources show that numerous sites from the Bandkeramik to the younger Neolithic are associated with either chert sources or high-quality settlement locations. A number of extensive private collections provide a rich foundation to investigate functional and chronological differences among site locations. Preliminary results of lithics and ceramics analyses of nine sites indicate chronological variability as well as dissimilar characteristics in blade core technology and abundance and types of retouched tools between chert-extraction sites and settlements

Anatomic brain asymmetry in vervet monkeys.

Asymmetry is a prominent feature of human brains with important functional consequences. Many asymmetric traits show population bias, but little is known about the genetic and environmental sources contributing to inter-individual variance. Anatomic asymmetry has been observed in Old World monkeys, but the evidence for the direction and extent of asymmetry is equivocal and only one study has estimated the genetic contributions to inter-individual variance. In this study we characterize a range of qualitative and quantitative asymmetry measures in structural brain MRIs acquired from an extended pedigree of Old World vervet monkeys (n = 357), and implement variance component methods to estimate the proportion of trait variance attributable to genetic and environmental sources. Four of six asymmetry measures show pedigree-level bias and one of the traits has a significant heritability estimate of about 30%. We also found that environmental variables more significantly influence the width of the right compared to the left prefrontal lobe

Predictors of Plasma Concentrations of DDE and PCBs in a Group of U.S. Women.

We evaluated predictors of plasma concentrations of dichlorodiphenyldichloroethylene (DDE), a metabolite of dichlorodiphenyltrichloroethane (DDT), and polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) in a group of 240 women, controls from a breast cancer case-control study nested in the Nurses' Health Study. We considered personal attributes such as age, serum cholesterol, region of residence, adiposity, lactation, and dietary intake. DDE levels increased 0.17 ppb/year of age ($p$ = 0.0003), and PCBs increased 0.08 ppb ($p$ = 0.0001). DDE and PCBs increased 0.20 ($p$ = 0.02) and 0.13 ppb ($p$ = 0.001), respectively, per 10 mg/dl serum cholesterol. Women living in the western United States had higher levels of DDE (mean = 11.0 ppb; $p$ = 0.003), and women in the Northeast and Midwest had higher levels of PCBs (mean = 5.6 ppb; $p$ = 0.0002) as compared to women from other parts of the country (mean DDE = 6.3; mean PCBs = 4. 5 ppb). Levels of DDE could not be predicted from consumption of meat, fish, poultry, dairy products, vegetables, fruits, and grains. There was a positive association between fish consumption and PCB concentrations among women in the Northeast and Midwest. Using data from the cases in the nested case-control study to assess the predictive ability of the models, we confirmed that the most reliable predictors of DDE were age and serum cholesterol, and the most important predictors of PCBs were age, serum cholesterol, and residence in the Midwest or Northeast. The null results for the majority of the food variables suggest that specific dietary factors, other than fish, are not currently a substantial contributor to human exposure to DDE and PCBs

Increasing Rates of Obesity among HIV-Infected Persons during the HIV Epidemic

The prevalence and factors associated with overweight/obesity among human immunodeficiency virus (HIV)-infected persons are unknown.We evaluated prospective data from a U.S. Military HIV Natural History Study (1985-2004) consisting of early diagnosed patients. Statistics included multivariate linear regression and longitudinal linear mixed effects models.Of 1682 patients, 2% were underweight, 37% were overweight, and 9% were obese at HIV diagnosis. Multivariate predictors of a higher body mass index (BMI) at diagnosis included more recent year of HIV diagnosis, older age, African American race, and earlier HIV stage (all p<0.05). The majority of patients (62%) gained weight during HIV infection. Multivariate factors associated with a greater increase in BMI during HIV infection included more recent year of diagnosis, lower BMI at diagnosis, higher CD4 count, lower HIV RNA level, lack of AIDS diagnosis, and longer HIV duration (all p<0.05). Nucleoside agents were associated with less weight gain; other drug classes had no significant impact on weight change in the HAART era.HIV-infected patients are increasingly overweight/obese at diagnosis and during HIV infection. Weight gain appears to reflect improved health status and mirror trends in the general population. Weight management programs may be important components of HIV care

The clinical features of polymerase proof-reading associated polyposis (PPAP) and recommendations for patient management

Pathogenic germline exonuclease domain (ED) variants of POLE and POLD1 cause the Mendelian dominant condition polymerase proof-reading associated polyposis (PPAP). We aimed to describe the clinical features of all PPAP patients with probably pathogenic variants. We identified patients with a variants mapping to the EDs of POLE or POLD1 from cancer genetics clinics, a colorectal cancer (CRC) clinical trial, and systematic review of the literature. We used multiple evidence sources to separate ED variants into those with strong evidence of pathogenicity and those of uncertain importance. We performed quantitative analysis of the risk of CRC, colorectal adenomas, endometrial cancer or any cancer in the former group. 132 individuals carried a probably pathogenic ED variant (105 POLE, 27 POLD1). The earliest malignancy was colorectal cancer at 14. The most common tumour types were colorectal, followed by endometrial in POLD1 heterozygotes and duodenal in POLE heterozygotes. POLD1-mutant cases were at a significantly higher risk of endometrial cancer than POLE heterozygotes. Five individuals with a POLE pathogenic variant, but none with a POLD1 pathogenic variant, developed ovarian cancer. Nine patients with POLE pathogenic variants and one with a POLD1 pathogenic variant developed brain tumours. Our data provide important evidence for PPAP management. Colonoscopic surveillance is recommended from age 14 and upper-gastrointestinal surveillance from age 25. The management of other tumour risks remains uncertain, but surveillance should be considered. In the absence of strong genotype–phenotype associations, these recommendations should apply to all PPAP patients. SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s10689-021-00256-y

A Comparison of Pedagogical Knowledge Structures of Preservice Students and Teacher Educators in Two Institutions

Understanding how the knowledge structures of preservice teachers develop as expertise is acquired would seem to be an important aspect of teacher preparation. The purpose of this study was to compare the pedagogical knowledge structures about effective teaching of preservice teachers and teacher educators in the professional preparation programs of two different institutions. Two groups of preservice teachers at two different points in their preparation program at each of the two institutions were asked to complete a concept map (Roehler et al., 1987) about effective teaching. One group completed the concept map just after the first teaching methods course, and the other group completed the map just prior to student teaching. These data were compared with concept maps of teacher educators at each institution. Quantitative and qualitative data revealed differences between the groups of preservice teachers and between the preservice teachers and the teacher educators

Genetic variation and gene expression across multiple tissues and developmental stages in a non-human primate

By analyzing multitissue gene expression and genome-wide genetic variation data in samples from a vervet monkey pedigree, we generated a transcriptome resource and produced the first catalog of expression quantitative trait loci (eQTLs) in a nonhuman primate model. This catalog contains more genome-wide significant eQTLs per sample than comparable human resources and identifies sex- and age-related expression patterns. Findings include a master regulatory locus that likely has a role in immune function and a locus regulating hippocampal long noncoding RNAs (lncRNAs), whose expression correlates with hippocampal volume. This resource will facilitate genetic investigation of quantitative traits, including brain and behavioral phenotypes relevant to neuropsychiatric disorders

A New Self-Report Measure of Self-Management of Type 1 Diabetes for Adolescents

The development of instruments to measure self-management in youth with type 1 diabetes has not kept up with current understanding of the concept