Mudbricks, Construction Methods, and Stratigraphic Analysis : A Case Study at Tell Timai (ancient Thmuis) in the Egyptian Delta

The Graeco-Roman site of Tell Timai (ancient Thmuis) in Lower Egypt is among the largest urban tells in the Nile Delta, boasting substantial amounts of preserved earthen architecture. Although earthen architecture made up the vast majority of public and domestic structures in ancient Egypt, it still does not receive the same analytical attention from archaeologists as other categories of evidence. This paper presents a case study for the archaeological investigation of the earthen architecture at Tell Timai. The goal was to develop a methodology that can be implemented in the field by excavators with little geoarchaeological training and limited laboratory access in order to generate useful data for determining building stratigraphy and studying construction processes. Through the close examination and sampling of three buildings of different periods and scales, we tested a new field methodology combining geoarchaeological techniques and mensiochronology. The results provide information useful for stratigraphy and phasing as well as for identifying specific patterns of mudbrick manufacturing, production, and construction during the Graeco-Roman period at Tell Timai.Peer reviewe

Coral community structure and recruitment in seagrass meadows

Coral communities are increasingly found to populate non-reef habitats prone to high environmental variability. Such sites include seagrass meadows, which are generally not considered optimal habitats for corals as a result of limited suitable substrate for settlement and substantial diel and seasonal fluctuations in physicochemical conditions relative to neighboring reefs. Interest in understanding the ability of corals to persist in non-reef habitats has grown, however little baseline data exists on community structure and recruitment of scleractinian corals in seagrass meadows. To determine how corals populate seagrass meadows, we surveyed the established and recruited coral community over 25 months within seagrass meadows at Little Cayman, Cayman Islands. Simultaneous surveys of established and recruited coral communities at neighboring back-reef sites were conducted for comparison. To fully understand the amount of environmental variability to which corals in each habitat were exposed, we conducted complementary surveys of physicochemical conditions in both seagrass meadows and back-reefs. Despite overall higher variability in physicochemical conditions, particularly pH, compared to the back-reef, 14 coral taxa were capable of inhabiting seagrass meadows, and multiple coral families were also found to recruit to these sites. However, coral cover and species diversity, richness, and evenness were lower at sites within seagrass meadows compared to back-reef sites. Although questions remain regarding the processes governing recruitment, these results provide evidence that seagrass beds can serve as functional habitats for corals despite high levels of environmental variability and suboptimal conditions compared to neighboring reefs

Sterics and Hydrogen Bonding Control Stereochemistry and Self-Sorting in BINOL-Based Assemblies

Here we demonstrate how the hydrogen-bonding ability of a BINOL-based dialdehyde subcomponent dictated the stereochemical outcome of its subsequent self-assembly into one diastereomeric helicate form when bearing free hydroxy groups, and another in the case of its methylated congener. The presence of methyl groups also altered the self-sorting behavior when mixed with another, short linear dialdehyde subcomponent, switching the outcome of the system from narcissistic to integrative self-sorting. In all cases, the axial chirality of the BINOL building block also dictated helicate metal center handedness during stereospecific self-assembly. A new family of stereochemically pure heteroleptic helicates were thus prepared using the new knowledge gained. We also found that switching from FeII to ZnII, or the incorporation of a longer linear ligand, favored heteroleptic structure formation

Direct low field J-edited diffusional proton NMR spectroscopic measurement of COVID-19 inflammatory biomarkers in human serum.

A JEDI NMR pulse experiment incorporating relaxational, diffusional and J-modulation peak editing has been implemented for a low field (80 MHz proton resonance frequency) spectrometer system to measure quantitatively two recently discovered plasma markers of SARS-CoV-2 infection and general inflammation. JEDI spectra capture a unique signature of two biomarker signals from acetylated glycoproteins (Glyc) and the supramolecular phospholipid composite (SPC) signals that are relatively enhanced by the combination of relaxation, diffusion and J-editing properties of the JEDI experiment that strongly attenuate contributions from the other molecular species in plasma. The SPC/Glyc ratio data were essentially identical in the 600 MHz and 80 MHz spectra obtained (R2 = 0.97) and showed significantly different ratios for control (n = 28) versus SARS-CoV-2 positive patients (n = 29) (p = 5.2 × 10-8 and 3.7 × 10-8 respectively). Simplification of the sample preparation allows for data acquisition in a similar time frame to high field machines (∼4 min) and a high-throughput version with 1 min experiment time could be feasible. These data show that these newly discovered inflammatory biomarkers can be measured effectively on low field NMR instruments that do not not require housing in a complex laboratory environment, thus lowering the barrier to clinical translation of this diagnostic technology

Direct low field J-edited diffusional proton NMR spectroscopic measurement of COVID-19 inflammatory biomarkers in human serum

A JEDI NMR pulse experiment incorporating relaxational, diffusional and J-modulation peak editing has been implemented for a low field (80 MHz proton resonance frequency) spectrometer system to measure quantitatively two recently discovered plasma markers of SARS-CoV-2 infection and general inflammation. JEDI spectra capture a unique signature of two biomarker signals from acetylated glycoproteins (Glyc) and the supramolecular phospholipid composite (SPC) signals that are relatively enhanced by the combination of relaxation, diffusion and J-editing properties of the JEDI experiment that strongly attenuate contributions from the other molecular species in plasma. The SPC/Glyc ratio data were essentially identical in the 600 MHz and 80 MHz spectra obtained (R2 = 0.97) and showed significantly different ratios for control (n = 28) versus SARS-CoV-2 positive patients (n = 29) (p = 5.2 × 10−8 and 3.7 × 10−8 respectively). Simplification of the sample preparation allows for data acquisition in a similar time frame to high field machines (∼4 min) and a high-throughput version with 1 min experiment time could be feasible. These data show that these newly discovered inflammatory biomarkers can be measured effectively on low field NMR instruments that do not not require housing in a complex laboratory environment, thus lowering the barrier to clinical translation of this diagnostic technology

Chromosome 1p13 genetic variants antagonize the risk of myocardial infarction associated with high ApoB serum levels

PMCID: PMC3480949This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited

Discrete exterior calculus (DEC) for the surface Navier-Stokes equation

We consider a numerical approach for the incompressible surface Navier-Stokes equation. The approach is based on the covariant form and uses discrete exterior calculus (DEC) in space and a semi-implicit discretization in time. The discretization is described in detail and related to finite difference schemes on staggered grids in flat space for which we demonstrate second order convergence. We compare computational results with a vorticity-stream function approach for surfaces with genus 0 and demonstrate the interplay between topology, geometry and flow properties. Our discretization also allows to handle harmonic vector fields, which we demonstrate on a torus.Comment: 21 pages, 9 figure

Revival of Philozoon Geddes for host-specialized dinoflagellates, ‘zooxanthellae’, in animals from coastal temperate zones of northern and southern hemispheres

The dinoflagellate family Symbiodiniaceae comprises numerous genera and species with large differences in diversity, ecology and geographic distribution. An evolutionarily divergent lineage common in temperate symbiotic cnidarians and designated in the literature by several informal names including ‘temperate–A’, AI, Phylotype A´ (A-prime) and ‘Mediterranean A’, is here assigned to the genus Philozoon. This genus was proposed by Geddes (1882) in one of the earliest papers that recognized ‘yellow cells’ as distinct biological entities separate from their animal and protist hosts. Using phylogenetic data from nuclear (rDNA), chloroplast (cp23S) and mitochondrial genes (cob and cox1), as well as morphology (cell size), ecological traits (host affinity) and geographic distributions, we emend the genus Philozoon Geddes and two of its species, P. medusarum and P. actiniarum, and describe six new species. Each symbiont species exhibits high host fidelity for particular species of sea anemone, soft coral, stony coral and a rhizostome jellyfish. Philozoon is most closely related to Symbiodinium (formerly Clade A), but, unlike its tropical counterpart, occurs in hosts in shallow temperate marine habitats in northern and southern hemispheres including the Mediterranean Sea, north-eastern Atlantic Ocean, eastern Australia, New Zealand and Chile. The existence of a species-diverse lineage adapted to cnidarian hosts living in high latitude habitats with inherently wide fluctuations in temperature calls further attention to the ecological and biogeographic reach of the Symbiodiniaceae