The early second millennium ceramic assemblage from Kenan Tepe, Southeastern Turkey: a preliminary assessment

pre-printIn the initial survey of the upper Tigris river valley the authors o f the survey report concluded that ‘either this portion o f the Tigris basin was bypassed entirely by Middle Bronze Age development attested to elsewhere or, more likely, it is characterised by a thus far unreported and unrecognised assemblage* (Algaze et al. 1991: 183). Recent research by members of the Upper Tigris Archaeological Research Project (UTARP) at the site o f Kenan Tepe confirms the latter hypothesis, that the early second millennium in this area is marked by a regionally distinct material culture assemblage that is influenced by ceramic traditions in upper Mesopotamia and other material culture traditions in Anatolia. This article outlines our initial assessment of these data including an analysis of the ceramic corpus, architecture, archaeobotany, small finds and carbon-14, and places these data in a regional context. We conclude by speculating that the inhabitants of Kenan Tepe may have participated in interaction spheres that linked the upper Tigris river region to greater Mesopotamia and Anatolia

Race and health : dilemmas of the South African health researcher

CITATION: Volmink, J. et al. 2020. Race and health : dilemmas of the South African health researcher, in Jansen, J. & Walters, C. (eds). 2020. Fault lines : a primer on race, science and society. Stellenbosch: SUN PReSS, doi:10.18820/9781928480495/07.The original publication is available at https://africansunmedia.store.it.si/zaWe begin this chapter by discussing responses by members of our team to comments on articles submitted to major international journals focusing on health research. Recently, when one of our manuscripts was close to being accepted, the editors asked the author team to change its use of the term “coloured” to “mixed race”. Shortly after this, another journal asked us to change the term “coloured” to “people of diverse origin”. Some years ago, we were asked by a journal published in the USA to change our use of “coloured” by describing our (South African) research participants as “African American”! Lastly, when a reviewer read a manuscript we wrote about the Mamre Community Health Project, a project in a South African community where most inhabitants identify as “coloured”, we were asked to expand on the rituals and practices of what the reviewer called “the Mamre”. In this particular case, the implication was that there was an African tribe called “the Mamre” similar in nature, we assume, to “the Nuer”, a “tribe” described by Evans-Pritchard1 in the middle of the twentieth century.Publisher's versio

Engineered blood and lymphatic capillaries in 3-D VEGF-fibrin-collagen matrices with interstitial flow

In vitro endothelial cell organization into capillaries is a long standing challenge of tissue engineering. We recently showed the utility of low level interstitial flow in guiding the organization of endothelial cells through a 3-D fibrin matrix-containing covalently bound vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF). Here this synergistic phenomenon was extended to explore the effects of matrix composition on in vitro capillary morphogenesis of human blood versus lymphatic endothelial cells (BECs and LECs). Different mixtures of fibrin and collagen were used in conjunction with constant concentrations of matrix-bound VEGF and slow interstitial flow over 10 days. Interestingly, the BECs and LECs each showed a distinct preference in terms of organization for matrix composition: LECs organized the most extensively in a fibrin-only matrix, while BEC organization was optimized in the compliant collagen-containing matrices. Furthermore, the BECs and LECs produced architecturally different structures; while BECs organized in thick, branched networks containing wide lumen, the LECs were elongated into slender, overlapping networks with fine lumen. These data demonstrate the importance of the 3-D matrix composition in facilitating and coordinating BEC and LEC capillary morphogenesis, which is important for in vitro vascularization of engineered tissues

Hadronic Vacuum Polarization Contribution to g-2 of the Leptons and alpha(M_Z)

We review and compare recent calculations of hadronic vacuum polarization effects. In particular, we consider the anomalous magnetic moments g-2 of the leptons and alpha(M_Z), the effective fine structure constant at the Z--resonance.Comment: 11 pages, 11 postscript figures, uses espcrc2.sty. Postscript version available at http://www.ifh.de/~fjeger/desy-96-121.ps.gz To be published in the proceedings of Zeuthen Workshop on Elementary Particle Theory: QCD and QED in Higher Orders, Rheinsberg, Germany, 21-26 Apr 199

Evaluation of α(MZ2)\alpha(M_{\rm Z}^2) and (g−2)μ(g-2)_\mu

This talk summarizes the recent developments in the evaluation of the leading order hadronic contributions to the running of the QED fine structure constant $\alpha(s)$, at $s=M_{\rm Z}^2$, and to the anomalous magnetic moment of the muon $(g-2)_\mu$. The accuracy of the theoretical prediction of these observables is limited by the uncertainties on the hadronic contributions. Significant improvement has been achieved in a series of new analyses which is presented historically in three steps: (I), use of $\tau$ spectral functions in addition to $e^+e^-$ cross sections, (II), extended use of perturbative QCD and (III), application of QCD sum rule techniques. The most precise values obtained are: $\Delta\alpha_{\rm had}(M_{\rm Z}^2)$, $=(276.3\pm1.6)\times10^{-4}$, yielding $\alpha^{-1}(M_{\rm Z}^2)=128.933\pm0.021$, and $a_\mu^{\rm had}=(692.4\pm6.2)\times 10^{-10}$ with which one finds for the complete Standard Model prediction $a_\mu^{\rm SM}=(11 659 159.6\pm6.7)\times10^{-10}$. For the electron $(g-2)_e$, the hadronic contribution is $a_e^{\rm had}=(187.5\pm1.8)\times 10^{-14}$.Comment: 13 page

The Lynx X-Ray Observatory: Concept Study Overview and Status

Lynx, one of four strategic mission concepts under study for the 2020 Astrophysics Decadal Survey, will provide leaps in capability over previous and planned X-ray missions, and will provide synergistic observations in the 2030s to a multitude of space- and ground-based observatories across all wavelengths. Lynx will have orders of magnitude improvement in sensitivity, on-axis sub-arcsecond imaging with arcsecond angular resolution over a large field of view, and high-resolution spectroscopy for point-like and extended sources. The Lynx architecture enables a broad range of unique and compelling science, to be carried out mainly through a General Observer Program. This Program is envisioned to include detecting the very first supermassive black holes, revealing the high-energy drivers of galaxy and structure formation, characterizing the mechanisms that govern stellar activity - including effects on planet habitability, and exploring the highest redshift galaxy clusters. An overview and status of the Lynx concept are summarized

Oblique Corrections To The W Width

The lowest-order expression for the partial $W$ width to $e \nu ,~\Gamma (W \to e \nu) = G_\mu M_W^3 /(6 \pi \sqrt{2})$, has no oblique radiative corrections from new physics if the measured $W$ mass is used. Here $G_\mu = (1.16639 \pm 0.00002) \times 10^{-5}$ GeV/$c^2$ is the muon decay constant. For the present value of $M_W = (80.14 \pm 0.27)$ GeV/$c^2$, and with $m_t = 140$ GeV$/c^2$, one expects $\Gamma (W \to e \nu) = (224.4 \pm 2.3)$ MeV. The total width $\Gamma_{\rm tot}(W)$ is also expected to lack oblique corrections from new physics, so that $\Gamma_{\rm tot} (W)/ \Gamma (W \to e \nu) = 3 + 6 [1 + \{\alpha_s (M_W)/\pi \}]$. Present data are consistent with this prediction.Comment: 15 pages (LaTeX), one PostScript figure not included (available upon request

Cosmic Flows on 100 Mpc/h Scales: Standardized Minimum Variance Bulk Flow, Shear and Octupole Moments

The low order moments, such as the bulk flow and shear, of the large scale peculiar velocity field are sensitive probes of the matter density fluctuations on very large scales. In practice, however, peculiar velocity surveys are usually sparse and noisy, which can lead to the aliasing of small scale power into what is meant to be a probe of the largest scales. Previously, we developed an optimal ``minimum variance'' (MV) weighting scheme, designed to overcome this problem by minimizing the difference between the measured bulk flow (BF) and that which would be measured by an ideal survey. Here we extend this MV analysis to include the shear and octupole moments, which are designed to have almost no correlations between them so that they are virtually orthogonal. We apply this MV analysis to a compilation of all major peculiar velocity surveys, consisting of 4536 measurements. Our estimate of the BF on scales of ~ 100 Mpc/h has a magnitude of |v|= 416 +/- 78 km/s towards Galactic l = 282 degree +/- 11 degree and b = 6 degree +/- 6 degree. This result is in disagreement with LCDM with WMAP5 cosmological parameters at a high confidence level, but is in good agreement with our previous MV result without an orthogonality constraint, showing that the shear and octupole moments did not contaminate the previous BF measurement. The shear and octupole moments are consistent with WMAP5 power spectrum, although the measurement noise is larger for these moments than for the BF. The relatively low shear moments suggest that the sources responsible for the BF are at large distances.Comment: 13 Pages, 7 figures, 4 tables. Some changes to reflect the published versio

Precision Physics at LEP

1 - Introduction 2 - Small-Angle Bhabha Scattering and the Luminosity Measurement 3 - Z^0 Physics 4 - Fits to Precision Data 5 - Physics at LEP2 6 - ConclusionsComment: Review paper to appear in the RIVISTA DEL NUOVO CIMENTO; 160 pages, LateX, 70 eps figures include