Folsom Mammoth Hunters? The Terminal Pleistocene Assemblage from Owl Cave (10BV30), Wasden Site, Idaho

The 1960s and 1970s excavations at Owl Cave (10BV30) recovered mammoth bone and Folsom-like points from the same strata, suggesting evidence for a post-Clovis mammoth kill. However, a synthesis of the excavation data was never published, and the locality has since been purged from the roster of sites with human / extinct megafauna associations. Here, we present data on bone from the oldest stratum, review provenience data, conduct a bone-surface modification study, and present the results of a protein-residue analysis. Our study fails to make the case for mammoth hunting by Folsom peoples. Although two of the fragments tested positive for horse or elephant protein, recent AMS dates indicate that all mammoth remains predate Folsom, and horse remains absent from the Owl Cave collection. Further, In unambiguously cultural surface modifications were identified on any of the mammoth remains. Given the available data, the Owl Cave deposits are most parsimoniously read as containing a Folsom-age occupation in the buried context, the first of its kind in the West West, but one nonetheless part of the Palimpsest of Pleistocene materials terminal

Answering the demands of digital genomics

The continuing revolution in DNA sequencing and biological sensor technologies is driving a digital transformation to our approaches for observation, experimentation, and interpretation that form the foundation of modern biology and genomics. Whereas classical experiments were limited to thousands of hand-collected observations, today's improved sensors allow billions of digital observations and are improving at an exponential rate that exceeds Moore's law. These improvements have made it possible to monitor the dynamics of biological processes on an unprecedented scale, but have proportionally greater quantitative and computational requirements. The exponentially growing digital demands have motivated extensive research into improved algorithms and parallel systems. Recently, a great deal of research has been focused on applying emerging scalable computing systems to genomic research. One of the most promising is the Hadoop open-source implementation of MapReduce: it is specifically designed to scale to very large datasets, its intuitive design supports rich parallel algorithms, and is naturally applied to analysis of many biological assays. There has also been success accelerating numerically intensive genomics applications using heterogeneous processors such as GPUs and FPGAs. These are promising early results, but it is clear that continued computational research will become even more important in the years to come

Opportunistic Immunisation in the Outpatients Department: A Pilot Feasibility Study

Dear Editor, The considerable human and financial cost of outbreaks of vaccine preventable diseases is well documented. Lost opportunities to vaccinate are recognised as one of the reasons for low vaccination rates.1 In March 2015, Metro North Public Health Unit commenced a pilot opportunistic immunisation project in partnership with a local hospital. The aim of the project was to assess the feasibility of providing immunisation services and promoting vaccination in outpatient clinic based settings.Full Tex

Structure and collapse of a surface-grown strong polyelectrolyte brush on sapphire

Contains fulltext : 94114.pdf (publisher's version ) (Open Access

Evaluating the benefit of serology during potential Australian bat lyssavirus and rabies post-exposure prophylaxis

Post-exposure prophylaxis (PEP) for potential lyssavirus exposures consists of wound management, rabies vaccination and may include rabies immunoglobulin (RIG). Rabies serology is sometimes indicated if there is risk of PEP failure. Objectives: Evaluate the benefit of serology by indication. Methods: Chart review of potential lyssavirus exposures managed at a Public Health Unit (June 2015 – December 2022) where serology was requested was conducted. The proportion of non-therapeutic titres was compared by sex, age, Indigenous status, serology indication, and whether RIG was given. Results: 46 notifications with serology were included. Males (5/19) and people over 40 (3/16) were more likely to demonstrate a non-therapeutic response. 2/3 of cases where vaccine doses were not given in the deltoid were non-therapeutic. The rate of non-therapeutic titres was similar for RIG given into the ipsilateral arm (2/11) and given excess RIG for weight (1/4). Although this small sample was inconclusive in isolation, it was also noted that all cases who did not receive RIG had therapeutic serology, whereas 6/35 of those receiving RIG had non-therapeutic serology. Conclusions: This study supports broader literature questioning the utility of systemic RIG administration as likely limited and potentially detrimental considering the increased risk of immune interference. Implications for public health: Highlights a need to review Australian national guidelines to align with World Health Organization advice recommending local RIG administration only.Full Tex

Comprehensive expression atlas of fibroblast growth factors and their receptors generated by a novel robotic in situ hybridization platform.

A recently developed robotic platform termed "Genepaint" can carry out large-scale nonradioactive in situ hybridization (ISH) on tissue sections. We report a series of experiments that validate this novel platform. Signal-to-noise ratio and mRNA detection limits were comparable to traditional ISH procedures, and hybridization was transcript-specific, even in cases in which probes could have hybridized to several transcripts of a multigene family. We established an atlas of expression patterns of fibroblast growth factors (Fgfs) and their receptors (Fgfrs) for the embryonic day 14.5 mouse embryo. This atlas provides a comprehensive overview of previously known as well as novel sites of expression for this important family of signaling molecules. The Fgf/Fgfr atlas was integrated into the transcriptome database (www.genepaint.org), where individual Fgf and Fgfr expression patterns can be interactively viewed at cellular resolution and where sites of expressions can be retrieved using an anatomy-based search