The Matter of Chinese Painting, Case studies of 8th century murals

In the first part of this study a context is set for the research, and translations of classic and modern Chinese written sources are included. In the second part I have explored the technical and material aspects of Chinese painting, starting with a set of murals in three Tang tombs all dating to 706 CE. The tombs were excavated during the nineteen seventies in the Xi’an area of the central Chinese province of Shaanxi. I have collected samples of paint layers and ground layers from these tombs, and have analysed them. The study resulted in a new set of reference materials, because the data that I collected are not challenged in time or geographical location. Other paintings were however examined and compared to broaden the reach of the study. To give just one example: Works in the collection of the Freer and Sackler Gallery in Washington D.C. were included, because they are well documented in the conservation archive of the research department, which contains data that has been collected over many years and by several specialists.Universiteit LeidenThe research was supported by: Hulsewé-Wasniewski Foundation; The Research School for Asian, African and Amer-Indian Studies, [CNWS]; The Netherlands Foundation for the advancement of Tropical Research, [WOTRO]; Leiden University Fund, [LUF]; Henry Luce Foundation; The Netherlands Institute of Cultural Heritage, [ICN]Niet-projectgebonden publicaties talen en culturen van Chin

Discovery of widespread transcription initiation at microsatellites predictable by sequence-based deep neural network

Using the Cap Analysis of Gene Expression (CAGE) technology, the FANTOM5 consortium provided one of the most comprehensive maps of transcription start sites (TSSs) in several species. Strikingly, ~72% of them could not be assigned to a specific gene and initiate at unconventional regions, outside promoters or enhancers. Here, we probe these unassigned TSSs and show that, in all species studied, a significant fraction of CAGE peaks initiate at microsatellites, also called short tandem repeats (STRs). To confirm this transcription, we develop Cap Trap RNA-seq, a technology which combines cap trapping and long read MinION sequencing. We train sequence-based deep learning models able to predict CAGE signal at STRs with high accuracy. These models unveil the importance of STR surrounding sequences not only to distinguish STR classes, but also to predict the level of transcription initiation. Importantly, genetic variants linked to human diseases are preferentially found at STRs with high transcription initiation level, supporting the biological and clinical relevance of transcription initiation at STRs. Together, our results extend the repertoire of non-coding transcription associated with DNA tandem repeats and complexify STR polymorphism

The Matter of Chinese Painting, Case studies of 8th century murals

In the first part of this study a context is set for the research, and translations of classic and modern Chinese written sources are included. In the second part I have explored the technical and material aspects of Chinese painting, starting with a set of murals in three Tang tombs all dating to 706 CE. The tombs were excavated during the nineteen seventies in the Xi’an area of the central Chinese province of Shaanxi. I have collected samples of paint layers and ground layers from these tombs, and have analysed them. The study resulted in a new set of reference materials, because the data that I collected are not challenged in time or geographical location. Other paintings were however examined and compared to broaden the reach of the study. To give just one example: Works in the collection of the Freer and Sackler Gallery in Washington D.C. were included, because they are well documented in the conservation archive of the research department, which contains data that has been collected over many years and by several specialists.</table

Temporal habitat variability and the maintenance of sex in host populations of the pea aphid

The evolutionary maintenance of sex, despite competition from asexual reproduction, has long intrigued the evolutionary biologists owing to its numerous apparent short-term costs. In aphids, winter climate is expected to determine the maintenance of sexual lineages in the high latitude zones owing to their exclusive ability to produce frost-resistant eggs. However, diverse reproductive modes may coexist at a local scale where climatic influence is counteracted by microgeographical factors. In this study, we tested the influence of local habitat characteristics on regional coexistence of reproductive modes in the pea aphid, Acyrthosiphon pisum. In the laboratory, the induction of sexual morph production of many pea aphid genotypes from the local fields of annual (pea and faba bean) and perennial (alfalfa and red clover) crops in Western France indicated that A. pisum lineages from annual crops had a significantly higher investment in sexual reproduction than A. pisum lineages from the perennial hosts. We propose that temporal habitat variability exerts a selective pressure to maintain the sexual reproduction in A. pisum. The ecological and evolutionary consequences of the association between the mode of reproduction and the host population on gene flow restriction and on ecological specialization are discussed

Scientific examination of the traditional materials and techniques used in Yuan Dynasty wall paintings

Few publications are available on the materials and techniques used by ancient Chinese artists to create Yuan dynasty (1271-1368) wall paintings. Most of the information that is available appears in Chinese and is not well known by the international conservation community. This lack of knowledge may affect the interpretation and reliability of scientific examinations of Chinese heritage materials. This paper presents the initial findings of a study to compare the results of a literature survey on Yuan dynasty wall painting materials and techniques with the results of scientific examinations of samples collected from murals in a Yuan dynasty Daoist temple at Yaowang Shan (Medicine King Mountain) in Shaanxi Province, China

The island rule: made to be broken?

The island rule is a hypothesis whereby small mammals evolve larger size on islands while large insular mammals dwarf. The rule is believed to emanate from small mammals growing larger to control more resources and enhance metabolic efficiency, while large mammals evolve smaller size to reduce resource requirements and increase reproductive output. We show that there is no evidence for the existence of the island rule when phylogenetic comparative methods are applied to a large, high-quality dataset. Rather, there are just a few clade-specific patterns: carnivores; heteromyid rodents; and artiodactyls typically evolve smaller size on islands whereas murid rodents usually grow larger. The island rule is probably an artefact of comparing distantly related groups showing clade-specific responses to insularity. Instead of a rule, size evolution on islands is likely to be governed by the biotic and abiotic characteristics of different islands, the biology of the species in question and contingency