The Ornaments of the Arma Veirana Early Mesolithic Infant Burial

Personal ornaments are widely viewed as indicators of social identity and personhood. Ornaments are ubiquitous from the Late Pleistocene to the Holocene, but they are most often found as isolated objects within archaeological assemblages without direct evidence on how they were displayed. This article presents a detailed record of the ornaments found in direct association with an Early Mesolithic buried female infant discovered in 2017 at the site of Arma Veirana (Liguria, Italy). It uses microscopic, 3D, and positional analyses of the ornaments as well as a preliminary perforation experiment to document how they were perforated, used, and what led to their deposit as part of the infant’s grave goods. This study provides important information on the use of beads in the Early Mesolithic, in general, as well as the relationship between beads and young subadults, in particular. The results of the study suggest that the beads were worn by members of the infant’s community for a considerable period before they were sewn onto a sling, possibly used to keep the infant close to the parents while allowing their mobility, as seen in some modern forager groups. The baby was then likely buried in this sling to avoid reusing the beads that had failed to protect her or simply to create a lasting connection between the deceased infant and her community.Funding was provided by the Wenner-Gren Foundation (#9412), L.S.B. Leakey Foundation, National Geographic Society Waitt Program (#W391-15), Hyde Family Foundation [via the Human Origins Migrations and Evolutionary Research (HOMER) consortium], Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC) Insight Development Grant (#430–2018-00846), University of Colorado Denver, Washington University in St. Louis, Université de Montréal, and ERC n. 724046 – SUCCESS (to S.B.; http://www.erc-success.eu/). Part of the ornament analysis was supported by the European Research Council under the European Union’s Horizon 2020 Research and Innovation Program (grant agreement no. 639286 HIDDEN FOODS to E.C; http://www.hidden-foods.eu) to E.C. CHEI (University of California San Diego) supported 3D imaging. S. Talamo has received funding from the European Research Council under the European Union’s Horizon 2020 Research and Innovation Programme (grant agreement no. 803147 RESOLUTION, https://site.unibo.it/resolution-erc/en). The micro-CT scans have been co-funded by EuroBioimaging, Italian Multi-sited Multi-modal Molecular Imaging (MMMI) Node, application n.EuBI_FANE130

Locally affordable and scalable arsenic remediation for South Asia using ECAR

An estimated 60 million low income people in South Asia are affected by chronic exposure to naturally occurring arsenic in drinking water sources. Few household and community level technologies have proven to be sustainable and scalable. Electro-chemical Arsenic Remediation (ECAR) is a low cost, robust, highly effective and easily scalable technology that has been designed to fit within a scalable and sustainable business model. In this paper, we describe ECAR treatment results from arsenic-contaminated synthetic and real groundwater and field trials of 100L and 600L scale prototype systems operated at rural schools in West Bengal, India. We demonstrate robust and reliable arsenic removal, the low production of waste sludge and the potential for successful sludge stabilization in concrete. We estimate the operating costs and benefits of ECAR based on field results

Dynamical description of the breakup of one-neutron halo nuclei 11Be and 19C

We investigate the breakup of the one-neutron halo nuclei 11Be and 19C within a dynamical model of the continuum excitation of the projectile. The time evolution of the projectile in coordinate space is described by solving the three-dimensional time dependent Schroedinger equation, treating the projectile-target (both Coulomb and nuclear) interaction as a time dependent external perturbation. The pure Coulomb breakup dominates the relative energy spectra of the fragments in the peak region, while the nuclear breakup is important at higher relative energies. The coherent sum of the two contributions provides a good overall description of the experimental spectra. Cross sections of the first order perturbation theory are derived as a limit of our dynamical model. The dynamical effects are found to be of the order of 10-15% for the beam energies in the range of 60 - 80 MeV/nucleon. A comparison of our results with those of a post form distorted wave Born approximation shows that the magnitudes of the higher order effects are dependent on the theoretical model.Comment: 15 pages, ReVTeX, 5 figures, typos corrected, accepted for publication in Physical Review

The Ornaments of the Arma Veirana Early Mesolithic Infant Burial

Personal ornaments are widely viewed as indicators of social identity and personhood. Ornaments are ubiquitous from the Late Pleistocene to the Holocene, but they are most often found as isolated objects within archaeological assemblages without direct evidence on how they were displayed. This article presents a detailed record of the ornaments found in direct association with an Early Mesolithic buried female infant discovered in 2017 at the site of Arma Veirana (Liguria, Italy). It uses microscopic, 3D, and positional analyses of the ornaments as well as a preliminary perforation experiment to document how they were perforated, used, and what led to their deposit as part of the infant’s grave goods. This study provides important information on the use of beads in the Early Mesolithic, in general, as well as the relationship between beads and young subadults, in particular. The results of the study suggest that the beads were worn by members of the infant’s community for a considerable period before they were sewn onto a sling, possibly used to keep the infant close to the parents while allowing their mobility, as seen in some modern forager groups. The baby was then likely buried in this sling to avoid reusing the beads that had failed to protect her or simply to create a lasting connection between the deceased infant and her community.publishedVersio

Rotationally inelastic scattering of ND 3

Differential cross sections (DCSs) are reported for rotationally inelastic scattering of ND3 with H2, measured using a crossed molecular beam apparatus with velocity map imaging (VMI). ND3 molecules were quantum-state selected in the ground electronic and vibrational levels and, optionally, in the j±k = 14- rotation-inversion level prior to collisions. Inelastic scattering of state-selected ND3 with H2 was measured at the mean collision energy of 580 cm-1 by resonance-enhanced multiphoton ionisation spectroscopy and VMI of ND3 in selected single final j'±k' levels. Comparison of experimental DCSs with close-coupling quantum-mechanical scattering calculations serves as a test of a recently reported ab initio potential energy surface. Calculated integral cross sections reveal the propensities for scattering into various final j'±k' levels of ND3 and differences between scattering by ortho and para H2. Integral and differential cross sections are also computed at a mean collision energy of 430 cm-1 and compared to our recent results for inelastic scattering of state-selected ND3 with He.</p

2014 Military Family Lifestyle Survey: Comprehensive Report

This report summarizes the results and analysis of the fifth annual Blue Star Families Military Family Lifestyle Survey. It covers military lifestyle, civilian intersections, transitioning and veteran employment, financial readiness, and military family members\u27 about and benefits

Homo naledi, a new species of the genus Homo from the Dinaledi Chamber, South Africa.

Homo naledi is a previously-unknown species of extinct hominin discovered within the Dinaledi Chamber of the Rising Star cave system, Cradle of Humankind, South Africa. This species is characterized by body mass and stature similar to small-bodied human populations but a small endocranial volume similar to australopiths. Cranial morphology of H. naledi is unique, but most similar to early Homo species including Homo erectus, Homo habilis or Homo rudolfensis. While primitive, the dentition is generally small and simple in occlusal morphology. H. naledi has humanlike manipulatory adaptations of the hand and wrist. It also exhibits a humanlike foot and lower limb. These humanlike aspects are contrasted in the postcrania with a more primitive or australopith-like trunk, shoulder, pelvis and proximal femur. Representing at least 15 individuals with most skeletal elements repeated multiple times, this is the largest assemblage of a single species of hominins yet discovered in Africa

Sphingomyelin synthase-related protein SMSr controls ceramide homeostasis in the ER

Ceramides are central intermediates of sphingolipid metabolism with critical functions in cell organization and survival. They are synthesized on the cytosolic surface of the endoplasmic reticulum (ER) and transported by ceramide transfer protein to the Golgi for conversion to sphingomyelin (SM) by SM synthase SMS1. In this study, we report the identification of an SMS1-related (SMSr) enzyme, which catalyses the synthesis of the SM analogue ceramide phosphoethanolamine (CPE) in the ER lumen. Strikingly, SMSr produces only trace amounts of CPE, i.e., 300-fold less than SMS1-derived SM. Nevertheless, blocking its catalytic activity causes a substantial rise in ER ceramide levels and a structural collapse of the early secretory pathway. We find that the latter phenotype is not caused by depletion of CPE but rather a consequence of ceramide accumulation in the ER. Our results establish SMSr as a key regulator of ceramide homeostasis that seems to operate as a sensor rather than a converter of ceramides in the ER

D* Production in Deep Inelastic Scattering at HERA

This paper presents measurements of D^{*\pm} production in deep inelastic scattering from collisions between 27.5 GeV positrons and 820 GeV protons. The data have been taken with the ZEUS detector at HERA. The decay channel $D^{*+}\to (D^0 \to K^- \pi^+) \pi^+$ (+ c.c.) has been used in the study. The $e^+p$ cross section for inclusive D^{*\pm} production with $5<Q^2<100 GeV^2$ and $y<0.7$ is 5.3 \pms 1.0 \pms 0.8 nb in the kinematic region {$1.3<p_T(D^{*\pm})<9.0$ GeV and $| \eta(D^{*\pm}) |<1.5$}. Differential cross sections as functions of p_T(D^{*\pm}), $\eta(D^{*\pm}), W$ and $Q^2$ are compared with next-to-leading order QCD calculations based on the photon-gluon fusion production mechanism. After an extrapolation of the cross section to the full kinematic region in p_T(D^{*\pm}) and $\eta$(D^{*\pm}), the charm contribution $F_2^{c\bar{c}}(x,Q^2)$ to the proton structure function is determined for Bjorken $x$ between 2 $\cdot$ 10$^{-4}$ and 5 $\cdot$ 10$^{-3}$.Comment: 17 pages including 4 figure