The Wallacea Archipelago provides an extraordinary laboratory for the study of human colonisation and adaptation, yet few detailed archaeological studies have been conducted in the region that span ...the earliest phase of human settlement. Laili Cave, in northern Timor-Leste, preserves the oldest human occupation in this insular region with a cultural sequence spanning 11,200 to 44,600 cal BP. Small-bodied vertebrates and invertebrates were recovered to the lowest excavated levels, associated with highly concentrated stone artefacts. We report on human behavioural adaptations within the context of Pleistocene environments and changing landscapes using zooarchaeological, stone artefact, bathymetric, and experimental isotopic analyses. Results indicate that Pleistocene humans used the abundant local chert liberally and engaged in mobile broad-spectrum exploitation of invertebrates and fishes from marine, estuarine, and freshwater environments within close proximity of Laili Cave. The faunal assemblage indicates heterogeneous but relatively stable environments during the late Pleistocene. Variability in subsistence strategies over time appears to be a response to changing landscapes and concomitant local resources. This record contrasts with marine specialisations evident from other sites in Timor-Leste and within the broader Wallacean region.
•Laili Cave, Timor-Leste, preserves the oldest human occupation in Wallacea 11,200 to 44,600 cal BP•Pleistocene humans used abundant local chert and engaged in mobile broad-spectrum foraging.•The faunal assemblage indicates heterogeneous but relatively stable environments during the late Pleistocene.•Variability in subsistence strategies over time was a response to changing landscapes and ecology.
The 19 amino acid signal peptide of rat liver aldehyde dehydrogenase, possessing a lysine substitution for an arginine and containing 3 extra amino acid residues at the C terminus, was studied by ...two-dimensional NMR in a dodecylphosphocholine micelle. In this membrane-like environment, the peptide contains two alpha-helical regions, both of which are amphiphilic, separated by a hinge region. The helix located closer to the C terminus is more stable than is the helix located near the N terminus. This suggests that the hydrophobic face of the C-terminal helix is buried within the hydrophobic region of the micelle. On the basis of these results a general model for protein translocation is presented in which the C-terminal amphiphilic helix of the signal region in the preprotein first binds to the mitochondrial membrane and then diffuses to the translocation receptor. The receptor then recognizes the N-terminal helix of the signal region, which is not anchored to the membrane. To explain how this signal peptide was imported into isolated mitochondria in the absence of energy or receptor protein Pak, Y. K., & Weiner, H. (1990) J. Biol. Chem. 265, 14298-14307, a model for signal peptide translocation across a membrane barrier without the need for auxiliary membrane proteins is proposed. In this model the faces of the two helices fold upon each other, resulting in the mutual shielding of positively charged residues by the complementary hydrophilic face of the other amphiphilic helix.
The hadronic part of the electron structure function F2e has been measured for the first time, using e+e− data collected by the DELPHI experiment at LEP, at centre-of-mass energies of ...s=91.2–209.5 GeV. The data analysis is simpler than that of the measurement of the photon structure function. The electron structure function F2e data are compared to predictions of phenomenological models based on the photon structure function. It is shown that the contribution of large target photon virtualities is significant. The data presented can serve as a cross-check of the photon structure function F2γ analyses and help in refining existing parameterisations.
Neutral Higgs bosons of the Standard Model (SM) and the Minimal Supersymmetric Standard Model (MSSM) were searched for in the data collected in 1999 by the DELPHI experiment at centre-of-mass ...energies between 191.6 and 201.7 GeV with a total integrated luminosity of 228 pb(-1). These analyses, in combination with our results at lower energies, set 95% confidence level lower mass bounds on the Standard Model Higgs boson (107.3 GeV/c(2)) and on the lightest neutral scalar (85.9 GeV/c(2)) and neutral pseudoscalar (86.5 GeV/c(2)) Higgs bosons in representative scans of the MSSM parameter space. An extended scan of the MSSM parameter space was also performed to test the robustness of these limits.
A search for pair-produced charged Higgs bosons was performed in the high energy data collected by the DELPHI detector at LEP II at centre-of-mass energies from 189 GeV to 202 GeV. The three ...different final states, taunutaunu, c (s) over bar(c) over bars and c (s) over bar taunu were considered. New methods were applied to reject wrong hadronic jet pairings and for the tau identification, where a discriminator based on tau polarisation and polar angles was used. No excess of data compared to the expected Standard Model processes was observed and the existence of a charged Higgs boson with mass lower than 71.5 GeV/c(2) is excluded at the 95% confidence level. (C) 2002 Published by Elsevier Science B.V.