Remains of Leatherback turtles, Dermochelys coriacea, at Mid-Late Holocene archaeological sites in coastal Oman: clues of past worlds

Small, irregular isolated bones identified as remains of leatherback turtles (Dermochelys coriacea) were recovered from Mid to Late Holocene sites at Ra’s al-Hamra and Ra’s al-Hadd, coastal Oman. These provide the third instance of this animal being documented from any prehistoric site anywhere, and the records provide one of the oldest, if not the oldest, dates for this distinctive chelonian—even though they do not refer to fossils. Decades of research in this region has yielded vast amounts of archeological information, including abundant evidence of intense exploitation and utilization of marine turtles from about 6,500 to 4,000 BP. During part of this period, turtle remains in human burials have been extraordinary; the turtle involved, Chelonia mydas, has been abundant in the region during modern times. Yet despite intense and varied forms of prehistoric marine resource exploitation, and major, long-term archeological work, no other turtle species has been previously authenticated from these, or other coastal sites. The documentation of remains of the largest and most distinctive of living marine turtles, D. coriacea, at Ra’s al-Hamra and Ra’s al-Hadd, presented herein, provide detailed information that serves as the basis for future interpretations and discussions regarding incomplete, disarticulated remains from the Mid to Late Holocene, particularly in reference to taphonomic questions and diverse environmental conditions

The Hyper-Disciplining of Black Students: Psychological and Sociological Investigations into American Schools

The overarching aim of the dissertation is to interrogate the interactional dynamics contributing to the over disciplining of Black students and to contextualize those interactional dynamics within the meso- and macro-level forces that constrain and sustain them. Along with other populations of American students, Black students are disproportionately disciplined even when controlling for poverty, academic achievement, and rates of misbehavior. Black students, however, deserve particular attention because of the unique macro-cultural presence of antiblackness within American schools. Utilizing three distinct data collection techniques—a survey with racial priming, focus groups, and classroom videoing—this dissertation investigates if and how certain psychological and sociological phenomena on a micro-level perpetuate or disrupt ‘the hyper-disciplining of Black students.’ The dissertation consists of three studies. The first study uses ethnographic microanalysis of social interaction to complicate how bias, either implicit or explicit, is identified within educator discourse, as well as how bias acts as an interactional resource for teachers. The second study uses bivariate statistical analysis with randomized survey design to understand if, when, and how implicit racial bias impacts student-teacher disciplinary interactions. Finally, the third study uses ethnographic microanalysis of video-derived classroom data to study how culturally relevant student-teacher disciplinary interactions might mitigate the hyper-disciplining of Black students. The dissertation has seven major empirical findings. (1) In one predominately Black high school, educators rely on racially-coded stereotypic discourse, motivated by explicit or implicit bias, to describe students and their school’s disciplinary climate. (2) During educator-educator interactions, racially-coded stereotypic discourse, motivated by explicit or implicit bias, facilitates educator bonding. (3) Teachers may lower behavioral standards for Black students in an attempt to override implicit anti-Black biases. (4) Teachers’ implicit processes are more likely to impact punitive disciplinary decisions than rehabilitative ones. (5) Culturally relevant student- teacher disciplinary interactions show micro-level evidence of success and may be one pragmatic path forward for advocates looking to stymie the hyper-disciplining of Black students. In order to reach a level of interactional success, culturally relevant discipline (6) must support Black students’ identities as learners and also (7) necessitates a fully developed critical consciousness of the teacher. The findings of these three studies generate knowledge about how macro-cultural forces like antiblackness are sustained or disrupted on an everyday basis in schools. The dissertation has implications for how students, educators, and policy-makers can understand and react to the hyper-disciplining of Black students. It concludes with recommendations for each stakeholder group based off of the novel findings of the three studies

New investigations at the prehistoric shell midden of Ra’s al-Hamra 6 (Sultanate of Oman): results of the 2012 and 2013 excavation seasons

In 2012 and 2013, in view of the planned construction of an Information Centre near the site, the Ministry of Heritage & Culture together with the technical support of the Italian Archaeological Mission resumed field research at the shell-midden of RH-6 in the Qurum Natural Reservation Capital Area. RH-6 is located about 600 m from the nearby site of RH-5. The site was first investigated in the 1980s by P. Biagi whose work outlined the main characteristics of its occupation. It is dated to the sixth and fifth millennia BC and is on of the earliest known sites along the Eastern littoral of the Arabian Peninsula (ELA). During the two seasons of filedwork, four main sectors were investigated. Sector A, a well-structured settlement, included postholes cut directly into the bedrock, which define some oval huts and two auxiliary structures, used for fish and shell processing respectively. In Sector B, several graves were documented allowing new thinking about funerary practices. In Sector C, a thorough stratigraphic excavation was carried out in a 2 x 2 m test trench dug to a depth of 1.75 m in order to document the whole sequence of occupation, and Trench North in the northern part of the site

A revised radiocarbon chronology of the aceramic shell midden of Ra's al-Hamra 6 (Muscat, Sultanate of Oman): implication for occupational sequence, marine reservoir, and human mobility

International audienceRa's al-Hamra 6 (RH-6) is one of the earliest stratified archaeological sites along the eastern littoral of the Arabian Peninsula. This shell midden was radiocarbon dated to the 6th–5th millennium cal BC, but the majority of the dates were obtained before the advent of accelerator mass spectrometry (AMS) 14 C dating and suffer from large uncertainties. In addition, most of these dates were obtained on marine and mangrove shells and required correction for local variations from the global average marine 14 C reservoir age (MRA). This proved difficult because no consensus value exists for this period in the area. Recent excavations at RH-6 offered the opportunity to redate this important site in order to precisely determine its occupation history and later use as a graveyard, and establish the marine reservoir effect for this time period. Thirty-eight samples of charcoal, shells, and human bone apatite were selected for 14 C dating. Bayesian modeling of the 14 C dates suggests that the formation of the shell midden spanned ~1 millennium, between the mid-6th and the mid-5th millennium cal BC. Positive and consistent ΔR values were calculated throughout the entire sequence, ranging from 99 ± 27 to 207 ± 43 14 C yr. At the beginning of the 4th millennium cal BC, RH-6 was used as a graveyard, as suggested by the 14 C dating of a shell in strict association with an individual buried at the surface of the site. 14 C dating of human bone apatite allowed us to calculate that 89% of this individual's diet derived from marine resources. This finding confirms previous observations showing the overwhelming presence of marine and mangrove-dwelling species in the faunal and charcoal assemblage, and implies a low mobility, or mobility restricted to the coast for this population during the 4th millennium cal BC

Remains of Leatherback turtles, Dermochelys coriacea, at Mid-Late Holocene archaeological sites in coastal Oman : clues of past worlds

Small, irregular isolated bones identified as remains of leatherback turtles (Dermochelys coriacea) were recovered from Mid to Late Holocene sites at Ra's al-Hamra and Ra's al-Hadd, coastal Oman. These provide the third instance of this animal being documented from any prehistoric site anywhere, and the records provide one of the oldest, if not the oldest, dates for this distinctive chelonian-even though they do not refer to fossils. Decades of research in this region has yielded vast amounts of archeological information, including abundant evidence of intense exploitation and utilization of marine turtles from about 6,500 to 4,000 BP. During part of this period, turtle remains in human burials have been extraordinary; the turtle involved, Chelonia mydas, has been abundant in the region during modern times. Yet despite intense and varied forms of prehistoric marine resource exploitation, and major, long-term archeological work, no other turtle species has been previously authenticated from these, or other coastal sites. The documentation of remains of the largest and most distinctive of living marine turtles, D. coriacea, at Ra's al-Hamra and Ra's al-Hadd, presented herein, provide detailed information that serves as the basis for future interpretations and discussions regarding incomplete, disarticulated remains from the Mid to Late Holocene, particularly in reference to taphonomic questions and diverse environmental conditions

Subsistence and environment in Ra’s al-Hamra 6 (Muscat, Sultanate of Oman)

International audienc

Guidelines for the use and interpretation of assays for monitoring autophagy (4th edition)

In 2008, we published the first set of guidelines for standardizing research in autophagy. Since then, this topic has received increasing attention, and many scientists have entered the field. Our knowledge base and relevant new technologies have also been expanding. Thus, it is important to formulate on a regular basis updated guidelines for monitoring autophagy in different organisms. Despite numerous reviews, there continues to be confusion regarding acceptable methods to evaluate autophagy, especially in multicellular eukaryotes. Here, we present a set of guidelines for investigators to select and interpret methods to examine autophagy and related processes, and for reviewers to provide realistic and reasonable critiques of reports that are focused on these processes. These guidelines are not meant to be a dogmatic set of rules, because the appropriateness of any assay largely depends on the question being asked and the system being used. Moreover, no individual assay is perfect for every situation, calling for the use of multiple techniques to properly monitor autophagy in each experimental setting. Finally, several core components of the autophagy machinery have been implicated in distinct autophagic processes (canonical and noncanonical autophagy), implying that genetic approaches to block autophagy should rely on targeting two or more autophagy-related genes that ideally participate in distinct steps of the pathway. Along similar lines, because multiple proteins involved in autophagy also regulate other cellular pathways including apoptosis, not all of them can be used as a specific marker for bona fide autophagic responses. Here, we critically discuss current methods of assessing autophagy and the information they can, or cannot, provide. Our ultimate goal is to encourage intellectual and technical innovation in the field