LIKE LISTENING TO A SEASHELL: A MIDDEN ANALYSIS FROM LA CONSENTIDA, OAXACA, MEXICO

Oaxaca is a state in Southern Mexico with a long history of human occupation. In fact, some of the earliest village sites in Mexico are found there, dating to the Early Formative period (2000 – 1000 BCE). These early settlements provide archaeologists an opportunity to study a time period which saw increasing development of social complexity in Mesoamerica. For this thesis, I examined shellfish remains recovered from middens during excavation at the coastal Oaxacan site of La Consentida conducted by Dr. Guy Hepp in 2012 as part of the La Consentida Archaeological Project. I examine this material for evidence of paleoenvironmental conditions and their change over time, archaic land use practices, and social practices including feasting and status differentiation. This thesis will contribute to other regional studies through analysis of material collected from these middens. I examine this shell in numerous ways, including by speciation, measurement, contextual analysis, and archaeometric techniques documenting occurrences of feasting La Consentida. In the course of my analysis, I find that the inhabitants of La Consentida utilized the nearby estuaries and lagoons as sources of the shellfish found at the site, and the inhabitants consumed them as part of feasting behavior. They further utilized some of the remains in the production of shell tools and decorative items. I will discuss two shell beads, three shell pendants, and one shell cutting tool recovered during excavations for evidence of manufacturing practices and tool use at La Consentida

The effect of a font intervention for 4th and 5th graders with dyslexia

Dyslexie is a font developed by Christian Boer specifically to enhance reading fluency in students with dyslexia. The present study examined its potential impact on the performance of 36 4th and 5th grade students with SLD on story reading. We found that Dyslexie, when compared to other common fonts that have been adjusted to control for Dyslexie’s large size and spacing, appears to have no effect on readers’ ability to read text correctly, comprehend text, or read faster

Antimetabolic effects of plant proteins on homopteran insect pests

Homopteran insect pests can cause severe economical damage to crop plants by both direct physical means and as vectors of plant viral diseases. They are notoriously difficult insects to control by conventional methods, primarily due to their ability to evolve resistance-breaking biotypes within a relatively short time period. The production of genetically modified crop plants, expressing insecticidal genes, offers a novel method of control for a wide range of insect species. Once suitable gene products, such as plant- derived proteins, have been identified as having insecticidal effect against specific insects in vitro, their effect can be determined in vivo by expressing the relevant gene in transgenic plants. Insect feeding trials were carried out to determine the effects of incorporating a range of plant-derived proteins into artificial diets fed to planthopper, leafliopper and aphid pests and to aphids in planta. The lectins Galanthus nivalis agglutinin (GNA) and wheat germ agglutinin (WGA), and the enzyme soybean lipoxygenase (LPO) were shown to exhibit significant antimetabolic effects towards first and third instar nymphs of rice brown planthopper (Nilaparvata lugens Stal) when incorporated into artificial diet at 0 1% {w/v}, 0-1% (w/v) and 0 08% {w/v} levels respectively. The lectin GNA was also shown to exhibit a significant antimetabolic effect towards third instar nymphs of the rice green leafhopper (Nephottetix cinciteps Uhler) and the peach potato aphid {Myzus persicae Sulzer). A number of inert proteins, lectins, protein inhibitors and enzymes also tested showed relatively little or no effect towards both insects. The mechanism of action of all three effective proteins was examined using BPH as a model insect. As judged by honeydew production, the proteins all had a deterrent effect on insect feeding. However, subsequent toxic effects are also indicated. When fed sub-optimal concentrations of effective proteins in combination no synergistic or additive effects were observed, indicating that pyramiding the genes of these effective proteins would be of no advantage in protecting the crop against BPH

Marshall University Music Department Presents Marshall University Percussion Ensemble, Steven Hall, conductor, Charles Powell, assistant conductor

https://mds.marshall.edu/music_perf/1739/thumbnail.jp

The emergence of 4-cycles in polynomial maps over the extended integers

Let $f(x) \in \mathbb{Z}[x]$; for each integer $\alpha$ it is interesting to consider the number of iterates $n_{\alpha}$, if possible, needed to satisfy $f^{n_{\alpha}}(\alpha) = \alpha$. The sets $\{\alpha, f(\alpha), \ldots, f^{n_{\alpha} - 1}(\alpha), \alpha\}$ generated by the iterates of $f$ are called cycles. For $\mathbb{Z}[x]$ it is known that cycles of length 1 and 2 occur, and no others. While much is known for extensions to number fields, we concentrate on extending $\mathbb{Z}$ by adjoining reciprocals of primes. Let $\mathbb{Z}[1/p_1, \ldots, 1/p_n]$ denote $\mathbb{Z}$ extended by adding in the reciprocals of the $n$ primes $p_1, \ldots, p_n$ and all their products and powers with each other and the elements of $\mathbb{Z}$. Interestingly, cycles of length 4, called 4-cycles, emerge for polynomials in $\mathbb{Z}\left[1/p_1, \ldots, 1/p_n\right][x]$ under the appropriate conditions. The problem of finding criteria under which 4-cycles emerge is equivalent to determining how often a sum of four terms is zero, where the terms are $\pm 1$ times a product of elements from the list of $n$ primes. We investigate conditions on sets of primes under which 4-cycles emerge. We characterize when 4-cycles emerge if the set has one or two primes, and (assuming a generalization of the ABC conjecture) find conditions on sets of primes guaranteed not to cause 4-cycles to emerge.Comment: 14 pages, 1 figur

Scattering of electromagnetic waves in metamaterial superlattices

The authors study experimentally both transmission and reflection of microwave radiation from metamaterialsuperlattices created by layers of periodically arranged wires and split-ring resonators. The authors measure the dependence of the metamaterial resonance on the spatial period of the superlattice and demonstrate resonance broadening and splitting for the binary metamaterial structures.The authors acknowledge support from the Australian Research Council and thank Ekmel Ozbay for providing additional details of the experimental results published earlier by his group

Ramsey Theory Problems over the Integers: Avoiding Generalized Progressions

Two well studied Ramsey-theoretic problems consider subsets of the natural numbers which either contain no three elements in arithmetic progression, or in geometric progression. We study generalizations of this problem, by varying the kinds of progressions to be avoided and the metrics used to evaluate the density of the resulting subsets. One can view a 3-term arithmetic progression as a sequence $x, f_n(x), f_n(f_n(x))$, where $f_n(x) = x + n$, $n$ a nonzero integer. Thus avoiding three-term arithmetic progressions is equivalent to containing no three elements of the form $x, f_n(x), f_n(f_n(x))$ with $f_n \in\mathcal{F}_{\rm t}$, the set of integer translations. One can similarly construct related progressions using different families of functions. We investigate several such families, including geometric progressions ($f_n(x) = nx$ with $n > 1$ a natural number) and exponential progressions ($f_n(x) = x^n$). Progression-free sets are often constructed "greedily," including every number so long as it is not in progression with any of the previous elements. Rankin characterized the greedy geometric-progression-free set in terms of the greedy arithmetic set. We characterize the greedy exponential set and prove that it has asymptotic density 1, and then discuss how the optimality of the greedy set depends on the family of functions used to define progressions. Traditionally, the size of a progression-free set is measured using the (upper) asymptotic density, however we consider several different notions of density, including the uniform and exponential densities.Comment: Version 1.0, 13 page

The National Commission On Fiscal Responsibility And Reform: How Its Report Can Impact Marginal Tax Rates

The United States government has a serious budget problem.  In 2010 President Barack Obama created the National Commission on Fiscal Responsibility and Reform to deal with the problem by identifying policies to improve the fiscal situation.  Among the Commission’s recommendations was a proposal to modify payments under Social Security.  For most recipients, the modifications would decrease Social Security benefits although benefits would increase for the poorest quintile of recipients.  The purpose of this paper is to construct a model for evaluating the proposed shift in Social Security payments.  From the perspective of Social Security recipients, the model shows the cutbacks as the partial loss of an annuity stream, as the loss of a lump sum that is capable of generating the partial annuity stream, and as a tax increase for the remainder of the recipients’ working years as they deposit a special tax into a retirement account designed to replace the lost benefits.