scholarly journals 300,000-year-old wooden tools from Gantangqing, southwest China

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Xing Gao ◽  
Jian-Hui Liu ◽  
Qi-Jun Ruan ◽  
Junyi Ge ◽  
Yongjiang Huang ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Stone Tools ◽  
Middle Pleistocene ◽  
Detailed Knowledge ◽  
Plant Foods ◽  
Tropical Environments ◽  
Storage Organs ◽  
Small Hand ◽  
Tangible Evidence ◽  
Probable Role

Abstract Early Palaeolithic wooden implements are exceptionally rare. The best known are the spears and throwing sticks from Schöningen, Germany dated to ca. 300–330 thousand years (kyr) ago 1,2 and the 171-kyr old digging sticks from Poggetti Vecchi, Italy 3. Here, we report a unique assemblage of 35 wooden implements from the site of Gantangqing, southwestern China, which was found associated with stone tools, antler soft hammers and cut-marked bones, and is dated to ca. 361–250 kyr at 95% probability. The wooden implements include digging sticks and complete, small, hand-held pointed tools. The tips of several had starch grains of plants with starch-rich rhizomes. We suggest that most of these tools were used for digging the rhizomes of sub-aquatic plants on the edges of an ancient lake. This discovery provides the earliest tangible evidence for the exploitation of sub-surface plant foods in the Middle Pleistocene. It also highlights the probable role of plant foods (especially underground storage organs [USOs]) in sub-tropical and tropical environments in which a wide variety of edible plants were available, and implies that hominins had a detailed knowledge of which plants, and which parts of plants, were edible. These tools also show that organic materials played an important role in Middle Pleistocene technology, and the sophistication of many of these tools off-sets the seemingly “primitive” design of stone tools in the East Asian Early Palaeolithic.

Technology and Society during the Middle Pleistocene: Hominid Group Size, Social Learning and Industrial Variability

1994 ◽  
Vol 4 (1) ◽  
pp. 3-32 ◽  
Author(s):  
Steven Mithen
Keyword(s):  
Social Learning ◽  
Group Size ◽  
Stone Tools ◽  
Homo Erectus ◽  
Middle Pleistocene ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
Lower Palaeolithic ◽  
Palaeolithic Archaeology

A model is developed for the relationship between the tool behaviour and social behaviour ofHomo erectus.This explores the role of social learning as the link between social organization and techniques—the methods used to manufacture stone tools. Predictions are made as to how techniques should vary with increasing group size and these are evaluated through a case study from the Middle Pleistocene of southeast England. The case study suggests that inter-assemblage variability in the Lower Palaeolithic can partly be attributed to different relative intensities of individual and social learning arising from varying hominid group size and social interaction in open and closed (i.e. wooded) environments. As such, the paper seeks to integrate material from three fields—comparative socioecology, primate social learning and Palaeolithic archaeology—to explore the relationship between society and technology.

A Probable Role of Eosinophilia, IgE and Complement in Bullous Pemphigoid Patients

1975 ◽  
Vol 37 (4) ◽  
pp. 532-540 ◽  
Author(s):  
Zenro IKEZAWA ◽  
Yo KAMEDA ◽  
Mitsuaki UCHIYAMA ◽  
Hiroshi NAKAJIMA ◽  
Toru BABA
Keyword(s):  
Bullous Pemphigoid ◽  
Probable Role

scholarly journals Probable role of Brain Natriuretic Peptide (BNP) in lung hypertension secondary to scleroderma

2013 ◽  
pp. 23-25
Author(s):  
P. Faggioli ◽  
S. Finazzi ◽  
E. Vicenzi ◽  
L. Giani ◽  
M. Rondena ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Pulmonary Hypertension ◽  
Progressive Systemic Sclerosis ◽  
New Drugs ◽  
Positivity Ratio ◽  
Probable Role ◽  
Biochemical Observation ◽  
And Gender ◽  
Roche Diagnostics ◽  
Worse Prognosis

BACKGROUND Scleroderma, when complicated with pulmonary hypertension (PHT), presents a worse prognosis; recently treatment with new drugs seems to offer good perspectives, especially in early diagnosis and treatment. The standard approach for diagnosing PHT consists in measurement of the pulmonary artery pressure (PAP) by means of echodoppler. AIM OF INVESTIGATION Aim of this work is evaluating the significance of the NT-proBNP parameter, matched to echodoppler, in diagnosing scleroderma PHT. MATERIALS AND METHODS Sixty (60) patients, who came to observation for progressive systemic sclerosis underwent echodoppler in order to measure the PAP (normal values up to 30 mmHg). NT-proBNP was determined on serum sample using ECLIA method by Modular E170 (Roche Diagnostics); manufacturer reference values for age and gender were used. Forty-three (43) patients underwent a further NT-proBNP sampling 5 days later in order to assess parameter stability. RESULTS PHT and non- PHT patients showed statistically different (p < 0,001) medians (126 vs 69 pg/ml). No pathologic values of NT-proBNP were measured in the group with PAP < 30 mmHg, while 27% of cases who had PAP between 30 and 40 showed pathologic concentrations. The positivity ratio increases to 57% in patients showing PAP > 40 mmHg. No relevant correlation (r = 0,2) was found between PAP and NT-proBNP. Mean average between the two sampling groups was 31%. CONCLUSIONS In scleroderma patients, combination of NT-proBNP and PAP seems to improve the diagnosis of pulmonary hypertension, especially in presence of borderline pulmonary pressure values. We therefore propose the biochemical observation of NT-proBNP when PAP is > 30 mmHg and in monitoring the evolution of the pathology.

Ground-Stone Tools and Hunter-Gatherer Subsistence in Southwest Asia: Implications for the Transition to Farming

1994 ◽  
Vol 59 (2) ◽  
pp. 238-263 ◽  
Author(s):  
Katherine I. Wright
Keyword(s):  
Food Processing ◽  
Younger Dryas ◽  
Stone Tools ◽  
Plant Food ◽  
Southwest Asia ◽  
Processing Methods ◽  
Plant Foods ◽  
Ground Stone ◽  
Early Farming ◽  
Wild Cereals

Ground-stone tools and hunter-gatherer subsistence in late Pleistocene southwest Asia are examined in light of ethnographic and experimental data on processing methods essential for consumption of various plant foods. In general, grinding and pounding appear to be labor-intensive processing methods. In particular, the labor required to make wild cereals edible has been widely underestimated, and wild cereals were unlikely to have been “attractive” to foragers except under stress conditions. Levantine ground-stone tools were probably used for processing diverse plants. The earliest occurrence of deep mortars coincides with the glacial maximum, camp reoccupations, the onset of increasingly territorial foraging, and the earliest presently known significant samples of wild cereals. Two major episodes of intensification in plant-food processing can be identified in the Levant, coinciding respectively with the earliest evidence for sedentism (12,800-11,500 B.P.) and the transition to farming (11,500-9600 B.P.). The latter episode was characterized by rising frequencies of grinding tools relative to pounding tools, and suggests attempts to maximize nutritional returns of plants harvested from the limited territories characteristic of sedentary foraging and early farming. This episode was probably encouraged by the Younger Dryas, when density and storability of foods may have outweighed considerations of processing costs.

Music Therapy with Adolescents in Medical Settings

2015 ◽  
Author(s):  
John Mondanaro ◽  
Joanne Loewy
Keyword(s):  
Music Therapy ◽  
Traumatic Injury ◽  
Disease Process ◽  
Detailed Knowledge ◽  
Music Therapist ◽  
Self Reflection ◽  
Music Psychotherapy ◽  
Social Belonging ◽  
New Diagnosis

Adolescence is a time of change marking the transition from childhood to adulthood. When a teenager is ill and requiring hospitalization many of the constructs upon which individual identity rests such as contact with peers, and social belonging, can become compromised. Music therapy offers a way to address the personal and psychological stress that can result from hospitalization. In this chapter the authors highlight conditions in medicine that are common to teens. Music psychotherapy approaches are described that promote expression in individual and group modalities, and can also provide avenues for self-reflection related to the disease process, such as the receiving of a new diagnosis, or in cases where traumatic injury has occurred. The role of the music therapist in working with the medical team, the patient, and the patient’s family is presented with reference to the detailed knowledge and experience of the authors in providing music psychotherapy to adolescents.

scholarly journals Spinal Tolerance and Dependence: Some Observations on the Role of SpinalN-Methyl-D-Aspartate Receptors and Phosphorylation in the Loss of Opioid Analgesic Responses

2000 ◽  
Vol 5 (1) ◽  
pp. 33-39
Author(s):  
Tony L Yaksh ◽  
Xiao-Ying Hua
Keyword(s):  
Nmda Receptor ◽  
Opioid Analgesic ◽  
Dose Effect ◽  
Concurrent Treatment ◽  
Analgesic Effects ◽  
Delta Opioids ◽  
Probable Role ◽  
Pkc Isozymes ◽  
The Right

The continuous delivery of opiates can lead to a reduction in analgesic effects. In humans, as in other animals, some component of this change in sensitivity seems likely to have a strong pharmacodynamic component. Such loss of effect, deemed to be tolerance in the present article, can be readily demonstrated in animals with repeated bolus and continuous intrathecal infusion of mu and delta opioids and alpha-2 adrenergic agonists. Research has shown that this loss of effect can be diminished by concurrent treatment withN-methyl-D-aspartate (NMDA) receptor antagonists and by the suppression of the activity of spinal protein kinase C (PKC). This suggests in part the probable role of PKC-mediated phosphorylation in the right shift in the dose-effect curves observed with continuous opiate or adrenergic exposure. Importantly, this right shift is seen to occur in parallel with an increase in the phosphorylating activity in the dorsal horn and in the expression of several PKC isozymes. The target of this phosphorylation is not certain. Phosphorylation of the NMDA receptor enhances its functionality, while phosphorylation of the opioid receptor or associated channels seems to diminish their activity or to enhance internalization. While the focus is on several specific components, the accumulating data emphasize the biological complexity of these changes in spinal drug reactivity.

STABILIZATION OF Bi(2223) SUPERCONDUCTING PHASE BY VANADIUM OXIDE ADDITION

1993 ◽  
Vol 07 (01n03) ◽  
pp. 157-161 ◽  
Author(s):  
D. SURESH BABU ◽  
G. NARSING RAO ◽  
L. BROHAN ◽  
M. GANNE
Keyword(s):  
Critical Current Density ◽  
Current Density ◽  
Flux Pinning ◽  
Volume Fraction ◽  
Ac Susceptibility ◽  
Superconducting Phase ◽  
Nominal Composition ◽  
Oxide Addition ◽  
Probable Role

We report on the ac susceptibility, microwave absorption and dc magnetization of Bi 2− x V x Sr 2 Ca 2 Cu 3 O y (nominal composition). The low T c (2212) phase ( T c = 85 K ) dominates in the x = 0 sample with extremly weak flux pinning. In x = 0.4 sample, both flux pinning and volume fraction of the high T c (2223) phase ( T c = 105 K ) were increased. The intragrain critical current density of the sample with x = 0.4 was estimated and found to be comparable with that of Pb doped Bi 2 Sr 2 Ca 2 Cu 3 O y superconductor. The data suggest that addition of V 2 O 5 in Bi 2 Sr 2 Ca 2 Cu 3 O y system increases the volume fraction of the high T c phase. Probable role of vanadium in enhancing the high T c (2223) phase in Bi-V-Sr-Ca-Cu-O system is discussed.

scholarly journals The Role of the Hedgehog Pathway in Cholangiocarcinoma

Cancers ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (19) ◽  
pp. 4774
Author(s):  
Giulia Anichini ◽  
Laura Carrassa ◽  
Barbara Stecca ◽  
Fabio Marra ◽  
Chiara Raggi
Keyword(s):  
Anticancer Agents ◽  
Cell Biology ◽  
Detailed Knowledge ◽  
Molecular Features ◽  
Cell Proliferation And Differentiation ◽  
Predominant Type ◽  
Proliferation And Differentiation ◽  
Cholangiocarcinoma Cell ◽  
Hh Signaling

Cholangiocarcinoma (CCA) is a poorly treatable type of cancer and, along with hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC), is the predominant type of primitive liver cancer in adults. The lack of understanding of CCA biology has slowed down the identification of novel targets and the development of effective treatments. While tumors share some general characteristics, detailed knowledge of specific features is essential for the development of effectively tailored therapeutic approaches. The Hedgehog (HH) signaling cascade regulates stemness biology, embryonal development, tissue homeostasis, and cell proliferation and differentiation. Its aberrant activation has been associated with a variety of solid and hematological human malignancies. Several HH-inhibiting compounds have been indeed developed as potential anticancer agents in different types of tumors, with Smoothened and GLI inhibitors showing the most promising results. Beside its well-established function in other tumors, findings regarding the HH signaling in CCA are still controversial. Here we will give an overview of the most important clinical and molecular features of cholangiocarcinoma, and we will discuss the available evidence of the crosstalk between the HH signaling pathway and the cholangiocarcinoma cell biology.

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