The “Out of Africa Tribe” (II): Paleolithic warriors with big canoes and protective weapons

It is generally difficult to establish a timeline for the appearance of different technologies and tools during human cultural evolution. Here I use stochastic character mapping of discrete traits using human mtDNA phylogenies rooted to the Reconstructed Sapiens Reference Sequence (RSRS) as a model to address this question. The analysis reveals that the ancestral state of Homo sapiens was hunting, using material innovations that included bows and arrows, stone axes and spears. However, around 80,000 y before present, a transition occurred, from this ancestral hunting tradition, toward the invention of protective weapons such as shields, the appearance of ritual fighting as a socially accepted behavior and the construction of war canoes for the fast transport of large numbers of warriors. This model suggests a major cultural change, during the Palaeolithic, from hunters to warriors. Moreover, in the light of the recent Out of Africa Theory, it suggests that the “Out of Africa Tribe” was a tribe of warriors that had developed protective weapons such as shields and used big war canoes to travel the sea coast and big rivers in raiding expeditions.

Development of automated image analysis tools for verification of radiotherapy field accuracy with an electronic portal imaging device

The successful management of cancer with radiation relies on the accurate deposition of a prescribed dose to a prescribed anatomical volume within the patient. Treatment set-up errors are inevitable because the alignment of field shaping devices with the patient must be repeated daily up to eighty times during the course of a fractionated radiotherapy treatment. With the invention of electronic portal imaging devices (EPIDs), patient's portal images can be visualized daily in real-time after only a small fraction of the radiation dose has been delivered to each treatment field. However, the accuracy of human visual evaluation of low-contrast portal images has been found to be inadequate. The goal of this research is to develop automated image analysis tools to detect both treatment field shape errors and patient anatomy placement errors with an EPID. A moments method has been developed to align treatment field images to compensate for lack of repositioning precision of the image detector. A figure of merit has also been established to verify the shape and rotation of the treatment fields. Following proper alignment of treatment field boundaries, a cross-correlation method has been developed to detect shifts of the patient's anatomy relative to the treatment field boundary. Phantom studies showed that the moments method aligned the radiation fields to within 0.5mm of translation and 0.5$\sp\circ$ of rotation and that the cross-correlation method aligned anatomical structures inside the radiation field to within 1 mm of translation and 1$\sp\circ$ of rotation. A new procedure of generating and using digitally reconstructed radiographs (DRRs) at megavoltage energies as reference images was also investigated. The procedure allowed a direct comparison between a designed treatment portal and the actual patient setup positions detected by an EPID. Phantom studies confirmed the feasibility of the methodology. Both the moments method and the cross-correlation technique were implemented within an experimental radiotherapy picture archival and communication system (RT-PACS) and were used clinically to evaluate the setup variability of two groups of cancer patients treated with and without an alpha-cradle immobilization aid. The tools developed in this project have proven to be very effective and have played an important role in detecting patient alignment errors and field-shape errors in treatment fields formed by a multileaf collimator (MLC). ^

Room for Experiment: The Countess of Arundel’s "Site of Medication"

The so-called Dutch Pranketing Room of Alethea Talbot, Countess of Arundel, at Tart Hall was a site of domestic experiments, courtly splendour and global ambition. Lady Arundel, the probable author of a famous recipe book, would have used Tart Hall for cooking and experiments as well as for impressive dinner parties, and she would have used large amounts of sugar to create intricate imitations of meat and vegetables to astonish, entertain and delight her guests. Linking household practice with global trade as well as artistic creation, Lady Arundel’s banquets are situated not only between a national tradition of cooking, as it appears in Markham’s manuals, and the new possibilities the arising global trade provided, but also played with a mismatch between taste and sight. This mediating role could be compared to that played by the artists the Countess employed. Within this context it is worth noting that a series of paintings displayed in the building’s gallery showed still lifes, markets, and a cook. The inventory of Tart Hall gives an insight into the world of the widely travelled collector and patron of Van Dyck and Rubens, but raises also a number of questions. In my talk I would like to explore the Countess’ Pranketing Room as a site of mediation between alimentary and painterly experiments, considering the use of recipes, experience, invention and transformation

Female Imitatio Christi in early modernity – the search for strong virgins like St Wilgefortis

At first glance you think that this is Christ crucified. At a second glance, you recognize a woman hanging on a cross. This is not an invention of the 20th century but reaches back to history where we we can find women cross-dressed or even bearded as men. St Wilgefortis or St Uncumber was a bearded and crucified woman who was venerated widely in northern Europe during the fifteeneth and sixteenth centuries. Wilgefortis is a corruption of the term „virgo fortis“ („strong virgin“). She and other female saints were considered as „imitations of Christ“. The paper deals with the reasons why this saint became so popular and how even today ideas about such strong virgins which mirror androgynous symbolism live on in popular culture.

Force-controlled patch clamp of beating cardiac cells.

From its invention in the 1970s, the patch clamp technique is the gold standard in electrophysiology research and drug screening because it is the only tool enabling accurate investigation of voltage-gated ion channels, which are responsible for action potentials. Because of its key role in drug screening, innovation efforts are being made to reduce its complexity toward more automated systems. While some of these new approaches are being adopted in pharmaceutical companies, conventional patch-clamp remains unmatched in fundamental research due to its versatility. Here, we merged the patch clamp and atomic force microscope (AFM) techniques, thus equipping the patch-clamp with the sensitive AFM force control. This was possible using the FluidFM, a force-controlled nanopipette based on microchanneled AFM cantilevers. First, the compatibility of the system with patch-clamp electronics and its ability to record the activity of voltage-gated ion channels in whole-cell configuration was demonstrated with sodium (NaV1.5) channels. Second, we showed the feasibility of simultaneous recording of membrane current and force development during contraction of isolated cardiomyocytes. Force feedback allowed for a gentle and stable contact between AFM tip and cell membrane enabling serial patch clamping and injection without apparent cell damage.

Strategy and Circumstance: the Response of American Firms to Japanese Competition in Semiconductors, 1980-1995

The transistor was an American invention, and American firms led the world in semiconductor production and innovation for the first three decades of that industry's existence. In the 1980s, however, Japanese producers began to challenge American dominance. Shrill cries arose from the literature of public policy, warning that the American semiconductor industry would soon share the fate of the lamented American consumer electronics business. Few dissented from the implications: the only hope for salvation would be to adopt Japanese-style public policies and imitate the kinds of capabilities Japanese firms possessed. But the predicted extinction never occurred. Instead, American firms surged back during the 1990s, and it now seems the Japanese who are embattled. This striking American turnaround has gone largely unremarked upon in the public policy literature. And even scholarship in strategic management, which thrives on stories of success instead of stories of failure, has been comparatively silent. Drawing on a more thorough economic history of the worldwide semiconductor industry (Langlois and Steinmueller 1999), this essay attempts to collect some of the lessons for strategy research of the American resurgence. We argue that, although some of the American response did consist in changing or augmenting capabilities, most of the renewed American success is in fact the result not of imitating superior Japanese capabilities but rather of taking good advantage of a set of capabilities developed in the heyday of American dominance. Serendipity played at least as important a role as did strategy.

Identification of genes associated with quantitative traits involved in cardiovascular disease and lipoprotein metabolism

Cardiovascular disease (CVD) is a threat to public health. It has been reported to be the leading cause of death in United States. The invention of next generation sequencing (NGS) technology has revolutionized the biomedical research. To investigate NGS data of CVD related quantitative traits would contribute to address the unknown etiology and disease mechanism of CVD. NHLBI's Exome Sequencing Project (ESP) contains CVD related phenotypes and their associated NGS exomes sequence data. Initially, a subset of next generation sequencing data consisting of 13 CVD-related quantitative traits was investigated. Only 6 traits, systolic blood pressure (SBP), diastolic blood pressure (DBP), height, platelet counts, waist circumference, and weight, were analyzed by functional linear model (FLM) and 7 currently existing methods. FLM outperformed all currently existing methods by identifying the highest number of significant genes and had identified 96, 139, 756, 1162, 1106, and 298 genes associated with SBP, DBP, Height, Platelet, Waist, and Weight respectively. ^

Method of threshing grain

This invention relates generally to grain threshing apparatus and in particular to an improved method of an apparatus for threshing grain wherein an impeller is rotatable within a concave or tubular screen. An object of this invention is to provide an improved method and apparatus for threshing grain.

Apparatus for threshing grain

This invention relates generally to grain threshing apparatus and in particular to an apparatus for threshing grain wherein an impeller is rotatable within a concave or tubular screen. This application is a division of application Serial No. 560,552, now Patent No. 2,906,270. An object of this invention is to provide an improved apparatus for threshing grain.

Rotary tiller slot planter and method for using the same

The rotary tiller slot planter of the present invention comprises a subsoiler shank positioned to engage the soil and make a trench therein. A pair of rotary tiller blades are rotatably mounted on the opposite sides of the sub-soil shank in planes parallel thereto. The center-lines of the rotary tiller wheels are located behind the subsoil shank. Each of the wheels have a plurality of blades extending radially outwardly from the rotational axis thereof and terminating in outer radial ends which engage the soil slightly ahead of the subsoiler shank and adjacent the lateral edges of the trench. A seed tube shank is positioned behind the subsoiler shank and between the tiller wheels. The seed tube shank has a lower end positioned to extend below the soil surface. A seed tube is positioned behind the seed tube shank for depositing seed in the soil. The rotation of the blades on opposite sides of the subsoil shank causes the soil to be mechanically aggregated and aerated and helps prepare a seed bed for the seeds. Also, the rotating tiller blades chop the debris which may be along the trench and throw soil backwards so as to cover the planted seed. Shorter rotary blades on the tiller wheels are shaped to throw debris and the upper one-half inch of soil sideways away from the row.

Laennec, el método anatomoclínico y la invención del estetoscopio : parte 1 : de Bretaña a París, hasta la gran invención

Hasta comienzos del siglo XIX, el examen físico del paciente tenía un lugar secundario en el diagnóstico médico. El enfoque diagnóstico comenzó a cambiar a partir del método anátomo-clínico desarrollado principalmente en la Escuela de Medicina de París. En la revolución allí iniciada tuvo un papel muy destacado la invención del estetoscopio por René Théophile Hyacinthe Laennec (1781-1826). Este es un relato de la vida y circunstancias de Laennec desde su nacimiento hasta el descubrimiento de la auscultación mediata por medio del estetoscopio. En la segunda parte me referiré a la obra principal de Laennec y su impacto en la práctica de la medicina desde esta invención hasta el fallecimiento de su inspirado autor.

La écfrasis en la ficción del modernismo europeo : Entre las leyes de la perspectiva y el arte abstracto

Acercarse al período modernista en las artes europeas implica enfrentarse al cuestionamiento del concepto de representación. Las artes plásticas -la pintura y más tarde la escultura- se liberan gradualmente del mandato que regía desde el Renacimiento en cuanto a su dependencia de las leyes de la perspectiva; se deja de lado la figuración hasta arribar a la abstracción. Asimismo, la experimentación en literatura se aprecia en cada uno de sus géneros, siguiendo ahora la mayoría de ellos el modelo de la pintura. En este contexto, la definición de écfrasis con mayor aceptación entre la crítica actual: "la representación verbal de una representación visual", debe revisarse al estudiar este momento histórico si, tal como demuestra Ruth Webb en "Ekphrasis ancient and modern: the invention of a genre", su definición refleja las relaciones entre las artes de cada período. Se propone, entonces, un recorrido por textos teóricos sobre la écfrasis para examinar luego textos en prosa del período modernista en lengua inglesa, y así intentar dilucidar a qué tipo de texto o fragmento de texto se puede aplicar la categoría de ecfrástico según su propio contexto histórico y artístico

De la rueda de libros a la escritura enciclopédica

En 1588, el inventor italiano Agostino Ramelli publicó el libro Le diverse et artificiose machine. Entre las muchas máquinas de ingeniería hidráulica y militar, un total de 195 aparatos, destaca un artilugio construido para facilitar la lectura de varios libros a la vez. Esta llamada "rueda de libros" se suele citar en publicaciones recientes como precursora del hipertexto ya que esta máquina para leer permite saltar de un texto a otro de la misma manera que nos movemos entre páginas WEB y módulos textuales. Se trata de una invención que los investigadores describen como reacción al desafío que plantea la enorme cantidad de saber libresco que circula gracias a otra invención que era la imprenta con letras móviles. Aunque muy posiblemente nunca hubiera llegado a construirse, se trata de un artefacto que funciona potencialmente como una máquina de producir textos o, dicho de otra manera, como dispositivo de impulsar un determinado tipo de escritura. Me propongo leer florilegios, obras enciclopédicas y polianteas como Lugares comunes de Juan de Aranda o la escritura enciclopédica en obras como el Guzmán de Alfarache, La pícara Justina o el Libro de todas las cosas como productos virtuales de la rueda de libros.

El microrrelato como fragmento de un amplio conjunto narrativo en Bartleby y compañía de Enrique Vila-Matas

En Bartleby y compañía Enrique Vila-Matas reúne un gran número de relatos breves y brevísimos de escritores que en cierto momento de su vida dejaron de escribir. La autonomía de estos 'microrrelatos' es parecida a la de los relatos orales que los autores/editores de los siglos XV y XVI reunían en antologías y colecciones de cuentos o libros de caballería y de pastores. Mientras que la invención de la imprenta facilita el desarrollo de texturas más enredadas y un sutil sistema de subordinaciones que confieren una creciente coherencia a amplios conjuntos narrativos, Enrique Vila-Matas opta por una estructura esencialmente paratáctica. Mediante un juego de alusiones a una multitud de hipotextos, esta estructura sugiere un estado de fragmentación y una libertad de asociación que ilustra la temática central del libro, el rechazo de una 'literatura alimenticia' a favor de la literatura del No.