19 research outputs found
Next-Generation Data Management Plans: Global, Machine-Actionable, FAIR
At IDCC 2016 the Digital Curation Centre (DCC) and University of California Curation Center (UC3) at the California Digital Library (CDL) announced plans to merge our respective data management planning tools, DMPonline and DMPTool, into a single platform. By formalizing our partnership and co-developing a core infrastructure for data management plans (DMPs), we aim to meet the skyrocketing demand for our services in our national, and increasingly international, contexts. The larger goal is to engage with what is now a global DMP agenda and help make DMPs a more useful exercise for all stakeholders in the research enterprise. This year we offer a progress report that encompasses our co-development roadmap and future enhancements focused on implementing use cases for machine-actionable DMPs
Prehispanic Maya foodways: archaeological and microbotanical evidence from Escalera al Cielo, Yucatan, Mexico
Maize is universally considered to be the basis of prehispanic Maya foodways and maize-beans-squash agriculture the primary means of food acquisition. This narrow view is attributable to a lack of direct evidence and an oversimplification of the ethnographic data. In this dissertation I employ new methods to recover evidence of ancient plant foods at Escalera al Cielo (EAC)—a Terminal Classic (A.D. 800-950) Puuc Maya settlement located in Yucatán, Mexico—and challenge the notion that all Maya everywhere ate an unvarying diet of agricultural staples. By highlighting the tremendous variety of environments, foods, and food practices as well as the potential biases contained within the ethnohistorical and ethnographic literature, I use the archaeological evidence to reevaluate established models and explore daily food practices at EAC.
The research focuses on domestic spaces from three excavated households, the artifacts that formed part of the culinary toolkit (e.g., ceramic vessels, grinding stones, chipped stone tools, and fired clay balls), and microbotanical residues (phytoliths and starch) associated with these spaces and artifacts. Modal analyses of artifacts and identifications of their residues permit testing of functional assumptions about culinary implements (e.g., "maize grinding stones").
The results reveal that most implements were multifunctional and that the food prepared and consumed at EAC included a range of cultivated and wild resources in addition to the expected staple ingredients of maize, beans, and multiple varieties of squash. There are also abundant starch residues from chile peppers (ground for seasonings and salsas), palm phytoliths that may represent foodstuffs, and at least three root crops—arrowroot, manioc, and Zamia sp.—the first of which may have been an additional staple ingredient. These new data illuminate regional food preferences, techniques of preparation, the diversity of food production and procurement strategies, symbolic associations of certain foods (identified in ritual contexts), and the skill and labor required of women who are widely considered to have been responsible for most food practices
COVID-19 Implications on Worksite Wellness Programming
As multi-racial and multi-ethnic populations are anticipated to be 11.6% of the U.S. population by 2060, it is essential that public health research and practice find ways to effectively capture and reach these diverse groups. Single racial identification has been a norm in public health practice; however, this method has limitations for capturing the health of multi-racial and multi-ethnic individuals. Drawing on personal experience of the author and multi-disciplinary scholarship, this research commentary examines the limitations of single-race identification and how this influences the processes of racialization. The author provides important implications for public health research by suggesting more complex and effective ways to capture personal racial identification and racial perceptions and addresses how to reach multi-racial and multi-ethnic groups through public health interventions where individuals might identify with multiple cultural identities
Variation in the Zinc Finger of PRDM9 is Associated with the Absence of Recombination along Nondisjoined Chromosomes 21 of Maternal Origin
Variation in the zinc finger-binding domain (ZFBD) of the protein PR Domain-Containing Protein 9 (PRDM9) is associated with altered placement of recombination in the human genome. As both the absence and altered placement of recombination are observed among chromosomes 21 that nondisjoin, we genotyped the PRDM9 ZFBD among mothers of children with Trisomy 21 in efforts to determine if variation within this region is associated with the recombination-related risk for chromosome 21 nondisjunction (NDJ). In our approach, PCR was used to amplify the ZFBD of PRDM9 and products were then subjected to bi-directional Sanger sequencing. DNA sequencing reads were aligned and compared to the sequence of the PRDM9 alleles previously identified. Chi-Square analysis was used to compare allele frequencies between cases (N=235, mothers of children with maternally-derived Trisomy 21) and controls (N=48, fathers of children with maternally-derived Trisomy 21). Results of our analysis showed that the frequency of PRDM9 ZF minor alleles is significantly increased among women displaying NDJ of chromosome 21 and no recombination on 21q (p=0.02). Even more, when compared to those for the PRDM9 major A-allele, these minor alleles displayed fewer predicted binding sites on 21q. These findings suggest that allelic variation in the ZF of PRDM9 may play a role in the risk for chromosome 21 NDJ by leading to reduced recombination on 21q. KEYWORDS: Nondisjunction; PRDM9; Recombination; Down syndrome; Zinc finger; Aneuploid
At the altar of lares : domesticity and housekeeping in Caroline Howard Gilman's Recollections of a housekeeper ; and, Plainly written : openness, politeness, and indirect discourse in Jane Austen's Emma
"Caroline Howard Gilman's novel is an early example of domestic fiction which sought to promote the authority of the middle-class woman. This paper explores the ways in which housekeeping was used as a tool of domesticity and a measurement of value in a domestic-oriented society. Gilman's text explores domesticity as both a catalyst for positive change as well as a limitation to class mutability. In using indirect discourse in her novel, Emma, Jane Austen exposes and critiques aspects of manners relating to gender and class. Despite valuing openness over empty politeness, Austen balances exposure and betrayal in her novel: although Emma's faults are made clear, the narrative does not betray her or make her unlikable. Austen exposes a critique of conventional social behavior without marking herself out as a radical. The intricate nature of indirect discourse allows the narrative to be both straightforward and reserved, to interrogate without openly rebelling."--Abstract from author supplied metadata
EarthSpace: Resources for Undergraduate Teaching
EarthSpace (http://www.lpi.usra.edu/earthspace/) is a national clearinghouse for information and resources for undergraduate faculty teaching planetary sciences, Earth sciences, astrophysics, and solar and space physics. Teaching materials include lectures, laboratory exercises, activities, homework assignments, and other resources. All materials are peer-reviewed and authors adhere to the Creative Commons Attribution (NC CC BY 3.0). Materials on the site are searchable by keyword, resource type, teaching topic, and author. Materials are cross-posted to other digital libraries online higher education communities. News and funding opportunities
are also emailed monthly in a newsletter via the community mailing list, HENews, and the RSS feed notifies members of new additions to the site. Instructors are invited to visit the site to search contributed materials, news, and opportunities, submit materials,
or volunteer to review submitted resources
Andrei Siniavskii. A hero of his time?
This thesis is an artistic biography of Andrei Siniavskii (1925-1997) as a
writer in and of his time, showing how this subtle and complex author found his
way in a society polarised into heroes and villains, patriots and traitors; how he
progresses from identification with the value system and ideology of his time to
reaction against it, his dissidence expressed in literary terms.
Beyond this, I hope to show how he moves to a new conception of the writer
in the fusion of his creative and critical selves that is dominated neither by the
voice of the collective ‘we’, nor by the voice of the individual ‘I’ but which
leaves space in the text for engagement by the reader. Individual readers,
passing manuscripts from hand to hand or reciting texts orally had assured the
continuity of the Russian literary tradition during the long bleak years when
literature seemed to mark time under the strictures of Soviet ideology and
Socialist Realist aesthetics. Siniavskii’s work is motivated by the passionate
belief that the way forward for Russian literature lay in this same spark
generated between individual reader and text.
My thesis is organised chronologically and is based on a close reading of
Siniavskii’s work. It explores the way his art does not simply reflect the
circumstances of his life and times but is actively shaped by an intricate
commerce between the two. I intend to show how Siniavskii’s distancing
himself, first ideologically then physically, from the Soviet system is
counterbalanced by his creative reintegration with Russia through literature
Disorientation research device testing of synthetic vision display technologies
A Commercial Aviation Safety Team (CAST) study of 18 worldwide loss-ofcontrol accidents and incidents determined that the lack of external visual references was associated with a flight crew’s loss of attitude awareness or energy state awareness in 17 of these events. CAST recommended development and implementation of virtual day-Visual Meteorological Condition (VMC) display systems, such as synthetic vision systems, to promote flight crew attitude awareness similar to a day-VMC environment. This paper describes the results of a joint NASA/NAMRU-D study that evaluated virtual day-VMC displays and a “background attitude indicator” concept as an aid to pilots in recovery from unusual attitudes. Experimental results and future research directions under this CAST initiative and the NASA “Technologies for Airplane State Awareness” research project are described
Specific Plasma Oxylipins Increase the Odds of Cardiovascular and Cerebrovascular Events in Patients with Peripheral Artery Disease
Oxylipins and fatty acids may be novel therapeutic targets for cardiovascular disease. The objective was to determine if plasma oxylipins or fatty acids can influence the odds of cardiovascular/cerebrovascular events. In 98 patients (25 female, 73 male) with peripheral artery disease, the prevalence of transient ischemic attacks, cerebrovascular accidents, stable angina and acute coronary syndrome was n= 16, 10, 16, and 24, respectively. Risk factors such as being male, diagnosed hypertension, diabetes mellitus, and hyperlipidemia were not associated with events. Plasma fatty acids and oxylipins were analyzed with gas chromatography and HPLC-MS/MS, respectively. None of 24 fatty acids quantified were associated with events. In contrast, 39 plasma oxylipins were quantified and 8 were significantly associated with events. These 8 oxylipins are known regulators of vascular tone. For example, every 1 unit increase in Thromboxane B2/Prostaglandin F1Îą and every 1 nM increase in plasma 16-hydroxyeicosatetraenoic acid, thromboxane B2, or 11,12-dihydroxyeicosatrienoic acid (DiHETrE) increased the odds of having had >2 events versus no event (pThe accepted manuscript in pdf format is listed with the files at the bottom of this page. The presentation of the authors' names and (or) special characters in the title of the manuscript may differ slightly between what is listed on this page and what is listed in the pdf file of the accepted manuscript; that in the pdf file of the accepted manuscript is what was submitted by the author
Expedited Assessment of Terrestrial Arthropod Diversity by Coupling Malaise Traps with DNA Barcoding
Monitoring changes in terrestrial arthropod communities over space and time requires a dramatic increase in the speed and accuracy of processing samples that cannot be achieved with morphological approaches. The combination of DNA barcoding and Malaise traps allows expedited, comprehensive inventories of species abundance whose cost will rapidly decline as high-throughput sequencing technologies advance. Aside from detailing protocols from specimen sorting to data release, this paper describes their use in a survey of arthropod diversity in a national park that examined 21,194 specimens representing 2,255 species. These protocols can support arthropod monitoring programs at regional, national, and continental scales.The presentation of the authors' names and (or) special characters in the title of the pdf file of the accepted manuscript may differ slightly from what is displayed on the item page. The information in the pdf file of the accepted manuscript reflects the original submission by the author
