THE BEAR IN THE FOOTPRINT: USING ETHNOGRAPHY TO INTERPRET ARCHAEOLOGICAL EVIDENCE OF BEAR HUNTING AND BEAR VENERATION IN THE NORTHERN ROCKIES

Archaeological evidence of prehistoric bear hunting and bear veneration in the northern Rocky Mountains and northwestern Plains is presented. Ethnographic documents and the writings of trappers, traders, and explorers are assessed in order to establish an interpretative framework to help decipher archaeological contexts in the region that include bear remains and rock art depicting bears. Examining prehistoric archaeological contexts in Montana and Wyoming within this framework suggests evidence of bear hunting and veneration similar to the regional ethnographic record. Data trends imply there may be a relationship between such sites and variables like site location, seasonality, function, and age. Contexts with bear remains were regularly located along stream corridors, and several sites showed winter occupation and hints of the ritual treatment of bear skulls and paws. An apparent increase in hunting during the Late Prehistoric Period was likely affiliated with warfare and healing. Compatible theoretical approaches are articulated in an effort to more clearly understand bear hunting and veneration in ecologic, symbolic, and utilitarian terms. Possible motivations include economic, social signaling, bear power attainment, and revenge incentives. Multiple archaeological signatures are forwarded at the conclusion that may indicate bear veneration, help identify and locate such sites, and enlighten our knowledge of specific hunting practices and potential motives

Torsion pendulum facility for direct force measurements of LISA GRS related disturbances

A four mass torsion pendulum facility for testing of the LISA GRS is under development in Trento. With a LISA-like test mass suspended off-axis with respect to the pendulum fiber, the facility allows for a direct measurement of surface force disturbances arising in the GRS. We present here results with a prototype pendulum integrated with very large-gap sensors, which allows an estimate of the intrinsic pendulum noise floor in the absence of sensor related force noise. The apparatus has shown a torque noise near to its mechanical thermal noise limit, and would allow to place upper limits on GRS related disturbances with a best sensitivity of 300 fN/Hz^(1/2) at 1mHz, a factor 50 from the LISA goal. Also, we discuss the characterization of the gravity gradient noise, one environmental noise source that could limit the apparatus performances, and report on the status of development of the facility.Comment: Submitted to Proceedings of the 6th International LISA Symposium, AIP Conference Proceedings 200

Improving Human Reliability Analysis for Railway Systems Using Fuzzy Logic

The International Union of Railway provides an annually safety report highlighting that human factor is one of the main causes of railway accidents every year. Consequently, the study of human reliability is fundamental, and it must be included within a complete reliability assessment for every railway-related system. However, currently RARA (Railway Action Reliability Assessment) is the only approach available in literature that considers human task specifically customized for railway applications. The main disadvantages of RARA are the impact of expert’s subjectivity and the difficulty of a numerical assessment for the model parameters in absence of an exhaustive error and accident database. This manuscript introduces an innovative fuzzy method for the assessment of human factor in safety-critical systems for railway applications to address the problems highlighted above. Fuzzy logic allows to simplify the assessment of the model parameters by means of linguistic variables more resemblant to human cognitive process. Moreover, it deals with uncertain and incomplete data much better than classical deterministic approach and it minimizes the subjectivity of the analyst evaluation. The output of the proposed algorithm is the result of a fuzzy interval arithmetic, $\alpha$ -cut theory and centroid defuzzification procedure. The proposed method has been applied to the human operations carried out on a railway signaling system. Four human tasks and two scenarios have been simulated to analyze the performance of the proposed algorithm. Finally, the results of the method are compared with the classical RARA procedure underline compliant results obtain with a simpler, less complex and more intuitive approach

Use of surrogate endpoints in healthcare policy : proposal for consistent adoption of a validation framework

We propose a three step framework for the evaluation of surrogate endpoints for health policy decisions on health technologies

Small optic suspensions for Advanced LIGO input optics and other precision optical experiments

We report on the design and performance of small optic suspensions developed to suppress seismic motion of out-of-cavity optics in the Input Optics subsystem of the Advanced LIGO interferometric gravitational wave detector. These compact single stage suspensions provide isolation in all six degrees of freedom of the optic, local sensing and actuation in three of them, and passive damping for the other three

Maca (Lepidium meyenii): In Vitro Evaluation of Rumen Fermentation and Oxidative Stress

The aim of this study was to investigate the chemical composition of three maca (Lepidium meyenii Walp.) ecotypes (yellow, black, and red) and their in vitro fermentation characteristics and antioxidant effects on cow rumen liquor. The three ecotypes were added to a total mixed ratio (TMR) in different doses (0, 150, and 300 mg/g) and incubated in vitro under anaerobic conditions for 120 h. Methane production was recorded after 24 h of incubation. Antioxidant status and degree of lipid peroxidation were also evaluated after 24 and 120 h of incubation with the fermentation liquor. An analysis of the chemical composition showed high concentrations of non-structural carbohydrates in all maca ecotypes, particularly in the yellow ecotypes. Moreover, despite an increase in gas production, it seems that the TMR supplemented with each maca ecotype, particularly at the highest dose, increases the amount of volatile fatty acids and reduces methane production. Finally, the addition of maca can induce an antioxidant effect. Our findings suggest that the three ecotypes of maca are rich in non-structural carbohydrates which affect the in vitro fermentation kinetics and reduce methane production

Pushing the envelope for high temperature nanoindentation measurements

One of the primary motivations for development of instrumented indentation was to measure the mechanical properties of thin films and individual phases/grains. Characterization of thin film mechanical properties as a function of temperature is of immense industrial and scientific interest. The major bottlenecks in elevated temperature measurements have been thermal drift, signal stability (noise) and oxidation of the surfaces. Thermal drift is a measurement artifact that arises due to thermal expansion/contraction of indenter tip and loading column. This gets superimposed on the mechanical behavior data precluding accurate extraction of mechanical properties of the sample at elevated temperatures. Vacuum is essential to prevent sample/tip oxidation and to push the envelope for high temperature testing. This poster will present the high temperature vacuum nanoindenter designed at Anton Paar that can perform reliable load-displacement measurements over a wide temperature ranges (up to 700 °C). This system is based on the Ultra Nanoindentation Tester (UNHT) that utilizes an active surface referencing technique comprising of two independent axes, one for surface referencing and another for indentation. The differential depth measurement technology results in negligible compliance of the system due to symmetric architecture and very low thermal drift rates at high temperatures as the thermal drift is actively compensated by the surface referencing technology. The sample, indenter and reference tip are heated separately and the surface temperatures matched to obtain drift rates as low as 10 nm/min at 700 °C on copper Test results on standard calibration materials like fused silica and oxygen free high conductive copper, used for validating the system, will be presented. The developed experimental protocol for minimizing thermal drift and the challenges associated with high temperature testing will be discussed