Girikihaciyan: A Halafian Site in Southeastern Turkey

This report presents the results of excavations undertaken at the site of Girikihaciyan in southeastern Turkey during 1968 and 1970 by the Joint Prehistoric Project, Istanbul-Chicago under the overal direction of Professor Halet Cambel, University of Istanbul, and Professor Robert J. Braidwood, Oriental Institute, University of Chicago.Series: Monographs 3

CMB-S4: Forecasting Constraints on Primordial Gravitational Waves

CMB-S4---the next-generation ground-based cosmic microwave background (CMB) experiment---is set to significantly advance the sensitivity of CMB measurements and enhance our understanding of the origin and evolution of the Universe, from the highest energies at the dawn of time through the growth of structure to the present day. Among the science cases pursued with CMB-S4, the quest for detecting primordial gravitational waves is a central driver of the experimental design. This work details the development of a forecasting framework that includes a power-spectrum-based semi-analytic projection tool, targeted explicitly towards optimizing constraints on the tensor-to-scalar ratio, $r$, in the presence of Galactic foregrounds and gravitational lensing of the CMB. This framework is unique in its direct use of information from the achieved performance of current Stage 2--3 CMB experiments to robustly forecast the science reach of upcoming CMB-polarization endeavors. The methodology allows for rapid iteration over experimental configurations and offers a flexible way to optimize the design of future experiments given a desired scientific goal. To form a closed-loop process, we couple this semi-analytic tool with map-based validation studies, which allow for the injection of additional complexity and verification of our forecasts with several independent analysis methods. We document multiple rounds of forecasts for CMB-S4 using this process and the resulting establishment of the current reference design of the primordial gravitational-wave component of the Stage-4 experiment, optimized to achieve our science goals of detecting primordial gravitational waves for $r > 0.003$ at greater than $5\sigma$, or, in the absence of a detection, of reaching an upper limit of $r < 0.001$ at $95\%$ CL.Comment: 24 pages, 8 figures, 9 tables, submitted to ApJ. arXiv admin note: text overlap with arXiv:1907.0447

Finishing the euchromatic sequence of the human genome

The sequence of the human genome encodes the genetic instructions for human physiology, as well as rich information about human evolution. In 2001, the International Human Genome Sequencing Consortium reported a draft sequence of the euchromatic portion of the human genome. Since then, the international collaboration has worked to convert this draft into a genome sequence with high accuracy and nearly complete coverage. Here, we report the result of this finishing process. The current genome sequence (Build 35) contains 2.85 billion nucleotides interrupted by only 341 gaps. It covers ∼99% of the euchromatic genome and is accurate to an error rate of ∼1 event per 100,000 bases. Many of the remaining euchromatic gaps are associated with segmental duplications and will require focused work with new methods. The near-complete sequence, the first for a vertebrate, greatly improves the precision of biological analyses of the human genome including studies of gene number, birth and death. Notably, the human enome seems to encode only 20,000-25,000 protein-coding genes. The genome sequence reported here should serve as a firm foundation for biomedical research in the decades ahead

Aurenche Olivier, 1981. - La Maison orientale. L'Architecture du Proche-Orient ancien des origines au milieu du IVe millénaire.

Watson Patty Jo. Aurenche Olivier, 1981. - La Maison orientale. L'Architecture du Proche-Orient ancien des origines au milieu du IVe millénaire.. In: Paléorient, 1982, vol. 8, n°2. pp. 111-112

The Theory and Practice of Ethnoarcheology with special reference to the Near East

Ethnoarcheology, broadly defined, refers to any use by archeologists of published or unpublished data drawn from ethnographie sources and used to aid archeological interpretation. Recently there has been a burst of interest among archeologists in obtaining relevant ethnographie data by undertaking fieldwork in living communities themselves. The theory and practice of ethnoarcheology are discussed, and a summary is provided of results from some recent studies in the "living archeology" of the Near East.L'ethnoarchéologie, prise au sens large, a trait à l'utilisation par les archéologues, de données, publiées ou non, provenant de sources ethnographiques utilisées dans le but d'aider à l'interprétation archéologique. Les archéologues se sont récemment rendu compte de l'intérêt que pouvaient présenter des données ethnographiques pertinentes qui résultent d'un travail sur le terrain dans les communautés vivantes mêmes. La discussion porte sur la théorie et sur la pratique de l'ethnoarchéologie : l'article nous offre un récapitulatif des résultats tirés de quelques études récentes de « l'archéologie vivante » au Proche-Orient.Watson Patty Jo. The Theory and Practice of Ethnoarcheology with special reference to the Near East. In: Paléorient, 1980, vol. 6. pp. 55-64

Aurenche Olivier, 1981. - La Maison orientale. L'Architecture du Proche-Orient ancien des origines au milieu du IVe millénaire.

Watson Patty Jo. Aurenche Olivier, 1981. - La Maison orientale. L'Architecture du Proche-Orient ancien des origines au milieu du IVe millénaire.. In: Paléorient, 1982, vol. 8, n°2. pp. 111-112