Mice, scats and burials: unusual concentrations of microfauna found in human burials at the Neolithic site of Catalhoyuk, Central Anatolia

Three human burials were found at Çatalhöyük that contained large microfaunal assemblages. Taphonomic analysis demonstrated that many of these elements had passed through the digestive tract of a small carnivore, indicating that the microfauna entered the burials in carnivore scats rather than as carcasses. One of the burials in particular (F. 513) contained an enormous quantity of microfauna which was concentrated over the torso of the body. It is concluded that the scats were deliberately placed in the burials by the human inhabitants of the site as part of ritualistic practice. Furthermore, it is suggested that small carnivores were encouraged to enter Çatalhöyük in order to control house mice, and other small mammal, numbers

Claudia Muzio (1889-1936), her life and career : a thesis in fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Philosophy, Massey University Conservatorium of Music, College of Fine Arts, Design and Music, Wellington, New Zealand

The Italian soprano Claudia Muzio was, in the course of her short career (1910-1935) hailed as one of the world's great singers. There is a great deal of evidence, in the form of reviews and testimonials by her contemporaries, that Claudia became famous amongst critics and audiences alike for her dedication, histrionic ability and the beauty and intelligence of her singing. Claudia was what we would call today a role model. There was a dedicated following of young girls and women, the Muzio Fan Club, which started in Chicago and soon had members throughout the United States. Only one other soprano of the day had such a following, Geraldine Farrar, whose 'gerryflapper' following was more impressive, though not so much devoted to the singing of their idol as to her style Both genetically and environmentally, conditions were ideal for Claudia to become what she did. Her parents, though at the time Claudia was born to them they were still unmarried, were both musicians Carlo Muzio, though, soon turned his attention to stage directing. Giovanna Gavirati, his mistress and Claudia's natural, and later legal, mother, was a singer and had a sister who was a professional singer as well. Added to those already favourable conditions was the constant backstage environment in which Claudia spent her childhood, "at work" with her parents who doted on her and were reluctant to leave her behind when they travelled between several of the major opera houses of the world – Covent Garden in London, The Metropolitan in New York, the San Carlo in Naples and others.[from Introduction

Space telerobotic systems: Applications and concepts

The definition of a variety of assembly, servicing, and maintenance missions has led to the generation of a number of space telerobot concepts. The remote operation of a space telerobot is seen as a means to increase astronaut productivity. Dexterous manipulator arms are controlled from the Space Shuttle Orbiter cabin or a Space Station module. Concepts for the telerobotic work system have been developed by the Lyndon B. Johnson Space Center through contracts with the Grumman Aerospace Corporation and Marin Marietta Corporation. These studies defined a concept for a telerobot with extravehicular activity (EVA) astronaut equivalent capability that would be controlled from the Space Shuttle. An evolutionary development of the system is proposed as a means of incorporating technology advances. Early flight testing is seen as needed to address the uncertainties of robotic manipulation in space. Space robotics can be expected to spin off technology to terrestrial robots, particularly in hazardous and unstructured applications

Large-N Baryons, Chiral Loops, and the Emergence of the Constituent Quark

Meson loop corrections to baryon axial currents are computed in the 1/N expansion. It is already known that the one-loop corrections are suppressed by a factor 1/N; here it is shown that the two-loop corrections are suppressed by (1/N)^2. To leading order, these corrections are exactly what would be calculated in the constituent quark model. Some applications are discussed

Minimally Allowed Neutrinoless Double Beta Decay Rates From Approximate Flavor Symmetries

Neutrinoless double beta decay ($\beta\beta0\nu$) is among the only realistic probes of Majorana neutrinos. In the standard scenario, dominated by light neutrino exchange, the process amplitude is proportional to $m_{ee}$, the $e-e$ element of the Majorana mass matrix. Naively, current data allows for vanishing $m_{ee}$, but this should be protected by an appropriate flavor symmetry. All such symmetries lead to mass matrices inconsistent with oscillation phenomenology. I perform a spurion analysis to break all possible Abelian symmetries that guarantee vanishing $\beta\beta0\nu$ rates and search for minimally allowed values. I survey 230 broken structures to yield $m_{ee}$ values and current phenomenological constraints under a variety of scenarios. This analysis also extracts predictions for both neutrino oscillation parameters and kinematic quantities. Assuming reasonable tuning levels, I find that $m_{ee}>4\times 10^{-6}$ eV at 99% confidence. Bounds below this value might indicate the Dirac neutrino nature or the existence of new light (eV-MeV scale) degrees of freedom that can potentially be probed elsewhere.Comment: 19 Pages, 4 .eps Figures, 3 Table

Large N_c

The 1/N_c expansion of QCD with N_c=3 has been successful in explaining a wide variety of QCD phenomenology. Here I focus on the contracted spin-flavor symmetry of baryons in the large-N_c limit and deviations from spin-flavor symmetry due to corrections suppressed by powers of 1/N_c. Baryon masses provide an important example of the 1/N_c expansion, and successful predictions of masses of heavy-quark baryons continue to be tested by experiment. The ground state charmed baryon masses have all been measured, and five of the eight ground state bottom baryon masses have been found. Results of the 1/N_c expansion can aid in the discovery of the remaining bottom baryons. The brand new measurement of the \Omega_b^- mass by the CDF collaboration conflicts with the original D0 discovery value and is in excellent agreement with the prediction of the 1/N_c expansion.Comment: 4 pages, Invited talk at CIPANP 2009, May 26-31, 2009, to be published in the proceeding

Space fabrication: Graphite composite truss welding and cap forming subsystems

An automated beam builder for the fabrication of space structures is described. The beam builder forms a triangular truss 1.3 meters on a side. Flat strips of preconsolidated graphite fiber fabric in a polysulfone matrix are coiled in a storage canister. Heaters raise the material to forming temperature then the structural cap section is formed by a series of rollers. After cooling, cross members and diagonal tension cords are ultrasonically welded in place to complete the truss. The stability of fabricated structures and composite materials is also examined