Spatial analysis and heritage conservation. Leveraging 3-D data and GIS for monitoring earthen architecture

This paper discusses new advances in heritage site monitoring using a geo-spatial method for assessing the state of preservation of earthen architecture overtime as a preventive conservation measure. The proposed method leverages a comprehensive (quantitative–qualitative) approach that gathers multi-temporal data including environmental information collected by means of environmental loggers, qualitative vulnerability assessment of mud-brick walls, and surface change detection information obtained by comparing terrestrial laser scanning point cloud capturing the decay of building's wall features over time. Producing a detailed spatial understanding of the conservation issues that affect mud-brick walls in large earthen sites, this method can be used by conservators to rapidly identify which buildings require immediate intervention and lay the basis for future evaluation of the conservation actions undertaken. To test the effectiveness of the proposed geospatial model in producing a comprehensive view of the environmental risk and pattern of decay that affect mudbrick structures, this paper presents analyses and results obtained in a six-year study at Çatalhöyük, Turkey. Our results corroborate the effectiveness of the proposed method and prove that it can be successfully employed to create preventive conservation measures at other earthen sites inside and outside the Near East

Nesting Ecology of Sedge Wrens in Hall County, Nebraska

The status of the Sedge Wren (Cistothorus platensis) in Nebraska is not well known. Cink (1973) summarized summer records from 1867 to 1971 and described only a few nest records. One nest discovered on 28 August 1902 at Capitol Beach, Lancaster Co., was assumed empty, apparently because of the late date. Bedell (1987) recorded July and August sightings in south central Nebraska and raised the question of whether these birds were migrants or nesting. Sedge Wrens are frequently polygynous (Crawford 1977, Burns 1982) and may exhibit two waves of nesting effort in some areas (Burns 1982). Nest initiation appears to fall into two periods depending on the latitude; one from early May to June in Michigan (Walkinshaw 1935), Minnesota (Burns 1982), North Dakota (stewart 1975), and Wisconsin (Manci and Rusch 1988), and the other beginning in late July through August in Kansas (Cink pers. comm., Williams 1981) and Arkansas (Meanley 1952) in addition to more northern latitudes as cited above. This may explain why Sedge Wrens are often not encountered during typical May and June breeding bird censuses, especially in southern and western portions of their nesting range (Robbins et al. 1986). This paper compares nesting densities on a grazed versus an ungrazed area and describes the nesting phenology of Sedge Wrens during the 1988 nesting season in Hall Co

Evaluating Communication and Collaboration Among Healthcare Students

The purpose of this pilot study was to determine if the Interprofessional Collaborator Assessment Rubric (ICAR): Communication and Collaboration Dimensions would demonstrate good inter-rater reliability and be a useful and efficient tool to evaluate professional communication and collaboration between occupational therapy (OT) and physician assistant (PA) students. An additional aim of this study was to assess students’ thoughts, perceptions, and perceived value regarding these types of interprofessional opportunities. A sequential explanatory mixed methods design was used. An interclass correlation coefficient (ICC) examined the inter-rater reliability of the instrument for both faculty raters (n = 7) and standardized patient (SP) raters (n =5). Qualitative data was gathered from focus groups to assess the utility of the ICAR: Communication and Collaboration. Quantitative and qualitative data were also gathered from a convenience sample of student participants (n =19) to investigate the perceived value of this interprofessional experience. Quantitative data revealed that there was moderate inter-rater reliability for four out of five of the subscales. Three themes emerged from the rater and student focus groups. Students found the interprofessional education (IPE) opportunity to be valuable. They also felt that it enhanced their understanding of the OT/PA profession, as well as their comfort and ability to collaborate and communicate with other professionals. The results of this study suggest that the ICAR: Communication and Collaboration Dimensions has the potential to maintain inter-rater reliability among healthcare students. The results of this study also indicate that healthcare students view IPE events as being highly valuable and beneficial

Control of Centrin Stability by Aurora A

Aurora A is an oncogenic serine/threonine kinase which can cause cell transformation and centrosome amplification when over-expressed. Human breast tumors show excess Aurora A and phospho-centrin in amplified centrosomes. Here, we show that Aurora A mediates the phosphorylation of and localizes with centrin at the centrosome, with both proteins reaching maximum abundance from prophase through metaphase, followed by their precipitous loss in late stages of mitosis. Over-expression of Aurora A results in excess phospho-centrin and centrosome amplification. In contrast, centrosome amplification is not seen in cells over-expressing Aurora A in the presence of a recombinant centrin mutant lacking the serine phosphorylation site at residue 170. Expression of a kinase dead Aurora A results in a decrease in mitotic index and abrogation of centrin phosphorylation. Finally, a recombinant centrin mutation that mimics centrin phosphorylation increases centrin's stability against APC/C-mediated proteasomal degradation. Taken together, these results suggest that the stability of centrin is regulated in part by Aurora A, and that excess phosphorylated centrin may promote centrosome amplification in cancer

Role of CAP350 in Centriolar Tubule Stability and Centriole Assembly

BACKGROUND: Centrioles are microtubule-based cylindrical structures composed of nine triplet tubules and are required for the formation of the centrosome, flagella and cilia. Despite theirs importance, centriole biogenesis is poorly understood. Centrosome duplication is initiated at the G1/S transition by the sequential recruitment of a set of conserved proteins under the control of the kinase Plk4. Subsequently, the procentriole is assembled by the polymerization of centriolar tubules via an unknown mechanism involving several tubulin paralogs. METHODOLOGY/PRINCIPAL FINDINGS: Here, we developed a cellular assay to study centrosome duplication and procentriole stability based on its sensitivity to the microtubule-depolymerizing drug nocodazole. By using RNA interference experiments, we show that the stability of growing procentrioles is regulated by the microtubule-stabilizing protein CAP350, independently of hSAS-6 and CPAP which initiate procentriole growth. Furthermore, our analysis reveals the critical role of centriolar tubule stability for an efficient procentriole growth. CONCLUSIONS/SIGNIFICANCE: CAP350 belongs to a new class of proteins which associate and stabilize centriolar tubules to control centriole duplication

New insights on commemoration of the dead through mortuary and architectural use of pigments at Neolithic Çatalhöyük, Turkey

The cultural use of pigments in human societies is associated with ritual activities and the creation of social memory. Neolithic Çatalhöyük (Turkey, 7100–5950 cal BC) provides a unique case study for the exploration of links between pigments in burials, demographic data and colourants in contemporary architectural contexts. This study presents the first combined analysis of funerary and architectural evidence of pigment use in Neolithic Anatolia and discusses the possible social processes underlying the observed statistical patterns. Results reveal that pigments were either applied directly to the deceased or included in the grave as a burial association. The most commonly used pigment was red ochre. Cinnabar was mainly applied to males and blue/green pigment was associated with females. A correlation was found between the number of buried individuals and the number of painted layers in the buildings. Mortuary practices seem to have followed specific selection processes independent of sex and age-at-death of the deceased. This study offers new insights about the social factors involved in pigment use in this community, and contributes to the interpretation of funerary practices in Neolithic Anatolia. Specifically, it suggests that visual expression, ritual performance and symbolic associations were elements of shared long-term socio-cultural practices

New insights on commemoration of the dead through mortuary and architectural use of pigments at Neolithic Çatalhöyük, Turkey.

The cultural use of pigments in human societies is associated with ritual activities and the creation of social memory. Neolithic Çatalhöyük (Turkey, 7100-5950 cal BC) provides a unique case study for the exploration of links between pigments in burials, demographic data and colourants in contemporary architectural contexts. This study presents the first combined analysis of funerary and architectural evidence of pigment use in Neolithic Anatolia and discusses the possible social processes underlying the observed statistical patterns. Results reveal that pigments were either applied directly to the deceased or included in the grave as a burial association. The most commonly used pigment was red ochre. Cinnabar was mainly applied to males and blue/green pigment was associated with females. A correlation was found between the number of buried individuals and the number of painted layers in the buildings. Mortuary practices seem to have followed specific selection processes independent of sex and age-at-death of the deceased. This study offers new insights about the social factors involved in pigment use in this community, and contributes to the interpretation of funerary practices in Neolithic Anatolia. Specifically, it suggests that visual expression, ritual performance and symbolic associations were elements of shared long-term socio-cultural practices

Expression profiling of formalin-fixed paraffin-embedded primary breast tumors using cancer-specific and whole genome gene panels on the DASL® platform

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>The cDNA-mediated Annealing, extension, Selection and Ligation (DASL) assay has become a suitable gene expression profiling system for degraded RNA from paraffin-embedded tissue. We examined assay characteristics and the performance of the DASL 502-gene Cancer Panel^v1(1.5K) and 24,526-gene panel (24K) platforms at differentiating nine human epidermal growth factor receptor 2- positive (HER2+) and 11 HER2-negative (HER2-) paraffin-embedded breast tumors.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>Bland-Altman plots and Spearman correlations evaluated intra/inter-panel agreement of normalized expression values. Unequal-variance <it>t</it>-statistics tested for differences in expression levels between HER2 + and HER2 - tumors. Regulatory network analysis was performed using Metacore (GeneGo Inc., St. Joseph, MI).</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Technical replicate correlations ranged between 0.815-0.956 and 0.986-0.997 for the 1.5K and 24K panels, respectively. Inter-panel correlations of expression values for the common 498 genes across the two panels ranged between 0.485-0.573. Inter-panel correlations of expression values of 17 probes with base-pair sequence matches between the 1.5K and 24K panels ranged between 0.652-0.899. In both panels, <it>erythroblastic leukemia viral oncogene homolog 2 </it>(<it>ERBB2</it>) was the most differentially expressed gene between the HER2 + and HER2 - tumors and seven additional genes had p-values < 0.05 and log2 -fold changes > |0.5| in expression between HER2 + and HER2 - tumors: <it>topoisomerase II alpha </it>(<it>TOP2A</it>), <it>cyclin a2 </it>(<it>CCNA2</it>), <it>v-fos fbj murine osteosarcoma viral oncogene homolog </it>(<it>FOS</it>), <it>wingless-type mmtv integration site family, member 5a </it>(<it>WNT5A</it>), <it>growth factor receptor-bound protein </it><it>7 </it>(<it>GRB7</it>), <it>cell division cycle 2 </it>(<it>CDC2</it>), <it>and baculoviral iap repeat-containing protein 5 </it>(<it>BIRC5</it>). The top 52 discriminating probes from the 24K panel are enriched with genes belonging to the regulatory networks centered around <it>v-myc avian myelocytomatosis viral oncogene homolog </it>(<it>MYC</it>), <it>tumor protein p53 </it>(<it>TP53</it>), and <it>estrogen receptor α </it>(<it>ESR1</it>). Network analysis with a two-step extension also showed that the eight discriminating genes common to the 1.5K and 24K panels are functionally linked together through <it>MYC</it>, <it>TP53</it>, and <it>ESR1</it>.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>The relative RNA abundance obtained from two highly differing density gene panels are correlated with eight common genes differentiating HER2 + and HER2 - breast tumors. Network analyses demonstrated biological consistency between the 1.5K and 24K gene panels.</p