Michael E. Smith, Ph.D. - US grants

In 1985 and 1986 with NSF support, Dr. Smith conducted an archaeological survey and excavation in the Morelos region of Mexico. After a first season of survey, his team excavated a sample of eight house remains at the site of Capilco and 21 at Cuexcomate. From these large samples of ceramics, lithics and other cultural remains were recovered. During the late Post classic period when these sites were occupied, the Morelos region was incorporated into the Aztec empire. The goal of the research was to understand social and economic organization at the household and community levels in a rural setting and to trace their changes through time, in response to both local and broader trans-regional factors such as the Aztec incorporation. Dr. Smith and his collaborators will now analyze the large corpus of materials collected. In an attempt to refine the chronology, they will characterize ceramic assemblages and incorporate surface material into the excavated sequence. They will also obtain radiocarbon dates as well as hydration dates from obsidian tools. Petrographic analyses on ceramic remains will permit sourcing and thus provide information on trade networks and extra-regional relationships. It will also permit determination of vessel function. Analysis of metallic objects will allow reconstruction of manufacturing techniques. Faunal and human skeletal remains, also recovered in the course of excavation, will also be studied. This research is important because it will increase our understanding of the interaction between elite urban centers and their rural hinterlands. In many developing nations (and in such first world countries such as Spain) similar situations exist today, and the urban-rural tensions are clear. Archaeology provides a valuable insight into such issues because of the long term data it provides.

We propose to develop an inexpensive, portable, computerized system -- The Cerebral Function Analyzer (CFA) -- for monitoring the effects of alcohol on basic cognitive functions. During Phase I, we demonstrated the feasibility of our approach in a study of the effects of low to moderate blood alcohol concentration levels [.03- .08% BAC] on eight subjects. A first version of the CFA successfully detected subtle changes in cognitive performance between sober and intoxicated states, and also discriminated alcohol intoxication from placebo and fatigue states. During Phase II, we propose to improve both the tasks and analysis to optimize the system for use in research, clinical and industrial applications in which subjects would be tested repeatedly.

The research in this proposal investigates the influence that a motivated state, sodium appetite, has on gustatory neural responses in the pontine parabrachial nuclei (PBN). These nuclei process gustatory and visceral sensory information involved in salt appetite and a variety of other ingestive behaviors and regulatory systems. Bilateral damage to the PBN prevents a rat from expressing a sodium appetite. Extracellular recordings from single PBN gustatory neurons will be assessed during sapid stimulation with a concentration range of NaCl and at least 3 other standard chemicals, sucrose, citric acid and quinine HCl in rats that are either sodium replete or deficient. Initially, the sodium appetite will be raised by dietary deprivation. Subsequent studies will use a standard diuretic regimen, furosemide, to induce a rapid sodium deficiency. At least the dietary protocol will be performed in both acutely prepared, lightly anesthetized rats and chronically prepared, awake, behaving animals. These parallel studies are desirable both for my own training (acute recording is easier than chronic) and because evidence already exists on the effects of salt appetite from peripheral and the first central gustatory neurons in the nucleus of the solitary tract. With one exception, all these prior studies were in anesthetized rats. The data from these experiments will provide insight into the potential neural mechanisms related to development of a motivated behavior, salt appetite.

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): How aging and noise exposure interact to produce hearing loss is an important issue for understanding its etiology. The relationship between age-related hearing loss (AHL) and noise-induced hearing loss (NIHL) is not always additive. Studies using mammalian models suggest that sensitivity to acoustic trauma may be greatest during the extremes of ontogeny - that is, in developing animals and in senescent animals. Zebrafish (Danio redo) have become a popular vertebrate model for examining embryogenesis and genetic defects because there is considerable synteny between zebrafish and human genes. Thus zebrafish mutations that affect ear development, or interact with age to affect hearing, may shed light on similar pathologies in humans. Although age-related shifts in hearing has been examined in developing fishes, the effects of degeneration due to senescence have not been examined in zebrafish or any other teleost. In order to fully understand the effects of inner ear genetic mutations and NIHL in the zebrafish model, baseline data of age-related shifts in hearing capabilities in wild type zebrafish are needed. The purposes of the proposed research will be to 1) examine shifts in hearing capabilities with age and 2) determine how aging (AHL) and noise exposure (NIHL) interact to cause hearing loss in zebrafish. To fulfill these goals, zebrafish will be exposed to specific sound exposures at various ages, and then pathology of the inner ear (via SEM) and hearing thresholds (via auditory brainstem response) will be examined.

With National Science Foundation support, Dr. Michael E. Smith and an international team of colleagues will conduct two field seasons of archaeological research at the central Mexican site of Calixtlahuaca. By mapping and excavating houses and terraces, archaeologists will contribute to our understanding of two key processes in early human history: the growth of cities and urbanization, and the expansion of empires. Calixtlahuaca was first explored in the 1930s by Mexican archaeologist Jose Garcia Payon, who excavated and restored monumental temples and palaces. When information from new excavations is combined with the results of the earlier fieldwork, archaeologists will help solve several puzzles in the development of early urbanism: why did cities develop? What was the nature of daily life in ancient cities? How did imperialism and conquest affect city life? Calixtlahuaca initially developed as the capital of a small empire, and then it was conquered by the more powerful Aztec empire and converted to an Aztec province. Calixtlahuaca presents a unique opportunity to illuminate the nature and significance of urbanization and imperialism in early human societies.

Smith's research began with a thorough study of the collections and results from Garcia Payon's fieldwork at Calixtlahuaca. The first fieldwork season will focus on mapping the site and making intensive collections of artifacts from the site surface. When the artifacts are analyzed, the results will provide a foundation for a longer second fieldwork season devoted to excavations of houses and agricultural terraces. Archaeologists have found that the study of residences provides the best information on the social, economic, and religious lives of ancient peoples. During the second season several specialized techniques will be applied at the site. Geoarchaeological testing will allow the reconstruction of the role of terracing on slopes, and ground-penetrating radar will help locate houses to excavate. Specialists in ancient plant remains and human burials will supervise the collection of technical information to help reconstruct life at Calixtlahuaca. A brief third season of laboratory work will focus on the cataloging and study of artifacts and other materials from the excavations.

Calixtlahuaca is an ideal setting to study ancient central Mexican urbanism and imperialism. When the results of this fieldwork are compared to Smith's prior fieldwork in another region of central Mexico (Morelos), our understanding of these fundamental processes will improve greatly.

As the first modern archaeological study of an Aztec-period site in the Toluca Valley, the chronology and other results of this fieldwork will help archaeologists understand other sites in this area. Numerous graduate and undergraduate students"U.S., Mexican, and European"will receive fieldwork and laboratory training. International cooperation between the U.S. and Mexico will be promoted through the work of several Mexican collaborators as well as through interactions with local archaeologists and historians working in the Toluca area.

[unreadable] DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Alzheimer's disease (AD) is a devastating disease that is reaching epidemic proportions as the US population ages. Early diagnosis of AD is crucial for individuals and families to plan for their futures, to obtain appropriate care, and to start treatment as early as possible. Despite this clear and pressing need, early AD is severely under-diagnosed. Research studies show that quantification of cerebral atrophy from MRI could aid in AD diagnosis; the current grant proposes to complete the steps necessary for FDA regulatory approval of a software device that could provide such information automatically to clinicians. Our first aim is to integrate, refine and further optimize the structural analysis stream developed in previous SBIR grants. This will involve porting research code into an FDA-approvable code base, refinement of skull- stripping and partial volume estimation methods, and their integration into the segmentation processing stream software. We will implement a method for identifying cases where the automatic quantification may have yielded inaccurate results, and refine discriminant functions to optimally classify different diagnostic categories. Our second aim is to modify our existing image pipeline software for clinical utilization as a robust commercial .product, adding industry standard (DICOM) services, inbound sequence parameter filtering and error/exception/management reporting, and an effective graphical interface for rapid clinical review, all within a completely automated processing flow integrated in a radiology department's digital environment. Our third aim is to evaluate the safety and efficacy this medical software device in order to obtain FDA Pre- Market Approval for its clinical use as an adjunct in the diagnosis of AD. This will require compliance with all relevant FDA regulations and guidelines, blinded laboratory testing and scientific validation of the automated quantitative segmentation results, clinical validation of user labeling (instructions and user interface usability) through external beta testing, and statistical validation of diagnostic labeling by using the stream in a well- controlled clinical population with AD. If successful, the current project would result in an FDA-approved product that will be widely used to increase the accurate and early diagnosis of AD. [unreadable] [unreadable]

With support from the National Science Foundation Dr. Michael E. Smith will conduct the first stage of a project to construct an archaeological laboratory and storage facility in the Mexican state of Morelos. This facility will store artifacts and other materials from fieldwork in Morelos by U.S. and Mexican archaeologists. The state of Morelos has some of the richest, best-preserved, and most-important archeological sites in Mexico. Starting in 1972 the National Science Foundation funded a series of major archaeological projects in the state. Dr. David C. Grove conducted excavations at the famous site of Chalcatzingo (900-400 B.C.) that clarified the nature of Olmec influence and chiefdom development in central Mexico. Dr. Kenneth G. Hirth undertook mapping and excavations at the hilltop urban center Xochicalco (A.D. 200-900), where he found exciting new evidence on the nature of early economics, technology, and urban planning. Dr. Michael E. Smith excavated Aztec city, town, and village sites (A.D. 1100-1520), revealing for the first time the nature of life in the provinces of the Aztec empire. In addition, graduate students working with Grove, Hirth, and Smith have conducted archaeological research in Morelos with NSF funds.

The collections of artifacts from these fieldwork projects form an important and irreplaceable body of scientific evidence. As new methods and issues arise, archaeologists frequently return to collections from previous fieldwork to produce new insights and research advances. By law, collections of artifacts must be stored in facilities owned by the Mexican government. The Morelos Regional Center of Mexico's National Anthropology Institute initially provided storage for this material. Starting in the 1990s, however, a combination of continuing fieldwork and declining space availability resulted in a crisis in the storage and curation of archaeological collections in Morelos. If this crisis were not addressed, the Regional Center would be forced to begin discarding the research collections from NSF projects in the state. The present project addresses this crisis by providing permanent storage for the artifact collections from the projects described above as well as collections from other projects by U.S. and Mexican archaeologists.

The new building will be constructed on the property of the Morelos Regional Center in Cuernavaca. It will have three large storage rooms filled with sturdy shelving. Two of the rooms will house collections by U.S. projects, with space available for material from future projects. The third storage room will be dedicated to material from fieldwork by staff archaeologists at the Regional Center. There will also be a laboratory room with tables for the study of these and other collections. The building has been designed and will be built by a noted Mexican architect-Rolando Dada-who has also designed a built other buildings for the Regional Center. The Regional Center will be in charge of maintenance, upkeep, and security.

This project will safeguard scientifically important but threatened collections of archaeological materials from a long series of NSF-funded projects in Morelos. This will enable these collections to continue to yield new insights and findings long after completion of the initial fieldwork. The facility will also support scientific research by Mexican archaeologists on the staff of the Morelos Regional Center by providing space for analysis and storage. This project makes significant contributions to both research and the development of scientific infrastructure in Mexico.

[unreadable] DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): This project will develop software to facilitate co-registration, visualization and rapid quantitative analysis of changes in longitudinally-acquired magnetic resonance images (MRIs) of the human brain. That is, it aims to provide increased automation and enhanced visualization tools for four dimensional (4D) neuromorphometric analysis. Major technical challenges must be overcome if serial change detection and analysis methods are to be effective. To be successful this project will need to implement and validate algorithmic approaches that can compensate for confounding differences between serial image data sets while accurately identifying and quantifying changes in structures of interest. CorTechs has already demonstrated the capability of developing intelligent image analysis methods for computationally deriving quantitative measures of brain anatomy and pathology in single time-point MRI measurements of patients with neurological conditions, methods that we will build on in the current application. In Phase I we will demonstrate feasibility by first implementing techniques to minimize the potential influence of image artifacts and other irrelevant differences on the assessment of anatomical change between serial data sets. We will also develop methods to optimize the spatial coregistration of such longitudinal data, and to facilitate the quantification and visual comprehension of anatomical deformations between serial scans of patients with progressive neurological disease. In addition, the validity and value of such methods will be illustrated through tests of their improvement to the detection of atrophic processes. In Phase II we would seek to further refine and extend these techniques, apply them to a wider variety of clinical conditions, empirically evaluate the improvements in radiology workflow enabled by the technology, and obtain FDA clearance for them as medical device software suitable for routine clinical use. We anticipate marketing the resulting 4D neuromorphometric methods in the form of intelligent image analysis tools that will provide computational support both to researchers and to physicians involved with the clinical review of serial MRI data. There is a growing need in clinical neuroradiology for effective and efficient computational support methods that can improve the detection and measurement of changes in brain structure over time. Potential applications of improved serial change detection and analysis methods include the derivation of atrophy measures in neurodegenerative disorders such as Alzheimer's disease (AD), or in diseases with secondary neuronal or axonal injury such as multiple sclerosis (MS) or uncontrolled epilepsy. Other important applications of 4D neuromorphometry methods may include its use in differential diagnosis, in the monitoring of brain tumor growth, and in the monitoring of recovery from, or tracking atrophy consequent to, traumatic brain injury, stroke, alcoholism, and depression. There is a large potential market for the tools this project will provide. [unreadable] [unreadable] [unreadable]

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): This SBIR project will develop a medical device software system, "FiberQuant", for the automatic identification and analysis of white matter fiber tracts based on data provided by diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) magnetic resonance images. The Phase I effort will first demonstrate feasibility by implementing methods and validating their application in a control population, but the resulting technology will be useful with regard to several neurological and psychiatric disorders. Major technical challenges must be overcome if such methods are to be effectively automated and transitioned into a medical device suitable for routine clinical use. To address these challenges, in Phase I we will implement methods for preprocessing DTI data that will include correction for eddy current distortion, B0 distortion, and motion. Building on CorTechs Labs'existing patented and commercially marketed atlas-based segmentation methods we will also create and apply a DTI fiber atlas to drive an automated track identification algorithm. Automatically derived fibers will be validated by comparison to manually derived fibers. Finally we will develop and apply unbiased methods for quantifying white matter properties in the automatically identified fiber tracts. The resulting software tools promise to have widespread scientific and clinical utility. CorTechs Labs has previously demonstrated the capability of developing intelligent image analysis methods for deriving quantitative measures of brain anatomy from MRI measurements, and in transitioning such methods into commercial, FDA-cleared medical devices. Assuming successful transition from Phase I, in Phase II we will extend these techniques by developing a normative database of diffusion-derived measures, to allow physicians to visualize the parts of fiber tracts that show significant deviation from the mean of a control population. Validation studies with a variety of patient groups will be performed to determine whether such tools would provide a means to identify abnormal white matter tissue. Properly validated, these tools will have diagnostic use as well as utility for presurgical planning. We ultimately plan to evaluate these tools in clinical beta site installations, and obtain FDA clearance for them as medical device software suitable for routine clinical use. 1 PUBLIC HEALTH RELEVANCE: There is a growing need for effective and efficient computational methods for automatically identifying and quantifying individual white matter fiber tracts in the human brain -- and potential abnormalities within given fiber tracts -- based on diffusion tensor imaging magnetic resonance data. Such tools could be useful for medical diagnosis and presurgical planning, as well as biomedical and pharmaceutical research. In both applications, the identification of individual white matter fiber tracts is of central importance, in order to locate the pathological changes in functionally relevant structures, as well as to provide regions-of-interest that improve statistical power relative to voxel- wise comparisons. There is a large potential market for the tools this project will provide. 1

With National Science Foundation support, Dr. Michael E. Smith and an international team of colleagues will conduct a series of technical analyses of archaeological artifacts and deposits excavated at the Aztec site of Calixtlahuaca. NSF-supported excavations uncovered a series of houses and terraces that present a unique opportunity to answer important questions about ancient urban centers. Like the shantytown areas that surround many Latin American cities today, the residential zones at Calixtlahuaca extended up steep slopes, with houses built on stone terraces. Yet the residents of this Aztec city were not poor rural immigrants; instead, their houses and artifacts reveal that they forged a prosperous way of life. Many families engaged in the production of textiles, stone tools and other craft items, and most houses contained ceramic vessels, stone tools, and bronze jewelry imported from distant zones. How did a hilltop city in a provincial area achieve such a high and sustainable standard of living for its residents? The analyses will help answer this question.
The NSF funds will be used for three major types of study. First, the excavated artifacts need to be counted, classified, and described. Professionals and students from the U.S., Mexico, Europe, and Canada will spend two months in each of the next three years doing this work. The results will shed light on the lifestyles, activities, and social conditions of the urban residents of Calixtlahuaca. All such research will take place in a laboratory facility in Toluca, Mexico. The second type of study will be technical scientific analyses of artifacts. Chemical analysis and other techniques will allow researchers to determine the places of origin of imported objects, to reconstruct the procedures of manufacture of local items, and to determine the ages of the houses and features of the sites through radiocarbon dating. The third group of analyses will be scientific studies of the soils and plant remains excavated in terraces and other deposits. This work will shed light on a unique Aztec form of successful agriculture: urban terraced cultivation. An understanding of this ancient sustainable farming system may help agronomists design appropriate small-scale agricultural strategies for the hilly areas of Mexico today.
When the analyses are completed, Dr. Smith will compare the results to his former excavations in Morelos, another region of central Mexico. Both were prosperous areas conquered by the Aztec Empire for their resources. Together, the two sets of results will clarify the processes of ancient imperial expansion and its impact on cities, farming, and society.
Numerous graduate and undergraduate students - U.S., Mexican, and European -will receive laboratory training and experience on this project. International cooperation between the U.S. and Mexico will be promoted through the work of several Mexican collaborators as well as through interactions with local archaeologists and historians working in the Toluca area. Dr. Smith's laboratory facility at the Colegio Mexiquense in Toluca contributes to an improved scientific infrastructure in this Mexican city.

Under the supervision of Dr. Michael E. Smith, Juliana Novic will examine the social composition of the neighborhoods of the ancient city of Calixtlahuaca. Social clustering is evident today in U.S. cities with phenomenon such as white flight, ethnic neighborhoods, and urban ghettos. Are these phenomena unique to modern society or do they have a deep historical trajectory? Did social clustering occur in ancient cities? Ms. Novic seeks to address these questions by looking at social clustering in the Aztec-period city of Calixtlahuaca, Mexico (AD 1100-1520). She will investigate the ways in which class, ritual, consumer culture, and resource procurement influenced the social fabric of Calixtlahuaca's neighborhoods. Very few archaeological case studies exist where the researcher is able to examine more than one facet of social clustering. Physical, chemical and mineralogical studies of artifacts from a NSF funded 2006 surface survey are used to provide data for statistically assessing social clustering.

Ms. Novic uses physical and mineralogical characteristics of the pottery to identify producers and styles. She then examines what people were purchasing in this early market economy, determine what that indicates about the consumer socially, and the relationship to neighborhood organization. The chemical analysis allows a precise reconstruction of the places from which people obtained their imported goods. Ms. Novic can look at the interrelationships among class, ritual, consumer preference, and resource procurement in neighborhood life. Similar questions about the relationship among class, religion, and economics are asked about modern cities, and this project is unique in asking these questions about past cities. The historical path that cities take is influenced by previous urban forms. Understanding neighborhood composition in Precolumbian cities can help one to understand the processes that lead to similar forms in modern cities. This can inform planners and developmental organizations seeking to improve the urban environment. This project is highly transdisciplinary, combining insights from Urban Studies, Sociology, Economics, Geography, and Archaeology. The new ideas produced will in turn influence the above mentioned fields.

The urban core of Calixtlahuaca is unique, with many different temples spread out and no paramount temple. This is different from most Mesoamerican cities and suggests that ritual life was highly varied at this site. Historical records state that many languages were spoken in the city. If social clustering occurred in Mesoamerican cities, Calixtlahuaca would be an ideal place to find it.

This research will seek to have broader impacts beyond the research topics presented. The project involves women from the local community in the analysis, thus providing them with an opportunity to learn a skill and learn about their history. The field laboratory is located at the Colegio Mexiquense. This provides an opportunity for intellectual exchange between scholars at the Colegio and US researchers on Precolumbian Mexico. The project is the final step in Ms. Novic's doctoral degree. Ms. Novic is Puerto Rican, a group that is underrepresented in the archaeological profession and in academia as a whole.

Under the guidance of Dr. Michael Smith, Ms Angela Huster will collect data for her doctoral dissertation. She will analyze archaeological ceramics from the site of Calixtlahuaca (1100-1430 CE) to evaluate provincial peoples' responses to being conquered and made part of the Aztec Empire. Calixtlahuaca was an important regional capital that was conquered by the Aztec Empire in the 1470s, and this project compares the time periods before the founding of the Aztec Empire, during the beginning of the empire but before Calixtlahuca's conquest, and after the Aztec conquest of the site. Comparative work on empires shows that when a power conquers an area, it has to follow up with negations with multiple local factions to establish lasting control over the region. Because an empire wants a stable, taxable population, conquered populations retain some degree of leverage in this process of establishing the terms of their rule. Both the empire and the province are likely to use multiple, often contradictory strategies to improve their position. Provincial actions can support imperial interests, undercut them, or be effectively neutral. This project tests the conditions under which conquered peoples are likely to adopt particular types of responses. The knowledge which emerges from this project has the potential to inform on multi-ethnic states which exist today in many regions of the world.

The project looks at responses in the form of changes in trade patterns and household activities likely related to ethnic identity. It uses three complementary methods of analyzing ceramics - type classification, attribute analysis, and Instrumental Neutron Activation Analysis (INAA) - to map out trade patterns for each time periods. The patterns will be used to look at how the Aztec conquest changed what and with whom people were trading, what they were making, and general degree of well being. The project also looks at changes in both ritual items including figurines and incense burners, and as well as food serving vessels to see how these spheres of behavior were affected by Aztec contact. In addition providing information of the Aztec Empire, the project results will be useful for comparative work at a variety of levels, including investigations of imperial rule, comparisons between regions of the Aztec Empire, comparisons between sites within the Toluca Valley, and correlations between early Spanish written records and archaeological evidence.

The broader impacts of the project include promoting interaction between American and Mexican scholars, providing training for both graduate and undergraduate students, and presenting project findings to both scholarly and public audiences. Ms Huster will do her field analysis at the Colegio Mexiquense in Toluca, Mexico, where she will consult with Mexican historians. The project will involve undergraduate volunteers in Mexico and Arizona, providing students with hands-on training in ceramics analysis, statistics, and database management. Findings will be presented through entries to the existing Calixtlahuaca Archaeological Project blog, community presentations in Mexico and the United States, conference presentations, and journal publications. The raw data from the project will be made publically available through The Digital Archaeological Repository. In addition, the INAA data collected will become part of a widely used University of Missouri ceramics reference database thus strengthening its regional coverage.

With National Science Foundation support, Dr. Michael E. Smith and a team of urban experts at Arizona State University will compare the ways city dwellers gained access to urban services in a sample of thirty ancient and historic cities. Planners and city officials today wrestle with difficult decisions about where to locate schools, clinics, parks, and other facilities. Scholars have found that the locations of some urban services allow particular groups better access than others. This project will identify the ways cities have organized their services throughout history. Non-governmental institutions (churches, guilds, neighborhood associations) have played a significant role in providing urban services in the past. Were these services more equally distributed than those provided by city authorities, or did governments do a better job of equitably providing services to residents? By answering these and other questions about services in ancient and historic cities, this project will give scholars and planners a broader base of knowledge to apply to modern cities around the world.
The research team includes experts from four disciplines-archaeology, geography, political science, and sociology. The co-Principal Investigators are Christopher Boone, Sharon Harlan, and Abigail York, with Senior Scientists George Cowgill and Barbara Stark. They will use concepts and methods from these and other fields to produce a broad picture of urban services in the past. The team will select cities from each of fourteen early urban traditions, ranging from ancient Egypt to Medieval Europe. For each city, the team will digitize historical or archaeological maps that portray housing and service facilities. The maps will then be analyzed spatially in a common framework using the methods of Geographical Information Science to show how the locations of service facilities relate to neighborhoods and the residences of elite and commoner families. The target services include shops/commercial services, religious services, and public assembly places. The team will also study historical or archaeological records for each city to reconstruct its social, economic and political patterns. This contextual information will be coded and analyzed in a common framework, and then the team will compare it to the results of the spatial analysis to determine what kinds of cities, political, and economic systems produce more equal service access for urban populations.
This project has three primary intellectual merits: (1) this will be the most rigorous comparative study of premodern cities yet undertaken; (2) the joint work of a team of scholars from four different scholarly disciplines will produce a particularly broad and comprehensive analysis of urban services; and (3) the application of methods and concepts derived from the analysis of modern urban services to a sample of past cities will produce results that are directly comparable to our knowledge of services in contemporary cities. This is a particularly important topic for the rapidly growing cities in the developing nations.
The broader impacts of this study include training and mentoring for two graduate students and a group of undergraduate interns including Hispanic students. In addition, the scientific knowledge we gather and systematically code about premodern cities will inform research and policy on the role of services contemporary urbanization in two ways: (1) it will provide a large comparative sample of cities for scholars and planners to draw on; and (2) it will provide a long-term historical perspective on cities, services, and urban change.

Researchers seek to understand how interaction between large states and small polities impacts populations of said small polities at the local and regional level. With increased global interconnectedness and the continued development of world-wide economic systems, the impacts of these systems on local populations, both positive and negative, have become an increasingly important focus of study. Archaeology is particularly well-suited to examine similar processes of interaction in the past and can therefore inform on these processes of economic and political expansion in the present. In the Classic Period (AD 300-900) of ancient Mesoamerica, the large city of Teotihuacan (located near present-day Mexico City), engaged in various forms of contact with many other regions. Forms of interaction included trade, conquest, and cultural dissemination. This project will focus on one location of interaction with Teotihuacan, the Sierra de los Tuxtlas Region of Southern Veracruz, Mexico. It will address the impacts of Teotihuacan influence on local populations in the region and assess the ways in which this influence altered regional social and economic systems. In doing so, this project will contribute to the general study of economic expansion and implements an approach to examine foreign-induced regional economic change from the local perspective, which can be applied broadly. This research will be conducted by Arizona State University doctoral student Nathan D. Wilson, under the direction of Dr. Michael E. Smith. Data from this project will serve as the basis for Mr. Wilson's doctoral dissertation.

This research addresses the issue of peripheral incorporation into larger systems and how this process is manifest regionally. It implements a world-systems framework in quantifying interaction between core-affiliated populations and a negotiated periphery. To evaluate this, it will study peripheral consumption of imported goods in the Western Tuxtlas Region (WTR) of southern Veracruz, Mexico. Through multiple lines of evidence, this research will ascertain the regional economic effects for two WTR polities that were connected to an intrusive center (Matacapan) displaying cultural affiliation to the Mexican highland capital of Teotihuacan. Prior research in the region has focused on intensive production and regional, interpolity distribution of specific pottery types associated with Matacapan. This project will build upon this previous research by: (1) more effectively quantifying consumption of these products in two neighboring polities and (2) assessing distribution and consumption of other Matacapan-produced goods. In doing so, it will construct a regional, diachronic view of the different ways through which these two indigenous polities (and different populations within one of the polities) incorporated into a Teotihuacan world-system via interaction with Matacapan. The proposed research is geared toward analytical methods (e.g., attribute analysis, Instrumental Neutron Activation Analysis [INAA], and petrography) to help differentiate between Early and Middle Classic Period contexts, assess the accuracy of visual sourcing of obsidian, and separate local utilitarian pottery types from imported versions. Sample selection from previously excavated materials will be done in Mexico, while sample preparation and chemical and mineralogical analyses will be completed by laboratories in the United States.

? DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): The overarching goal is to find platinum(II) complex drugs that show toxicity against cancer cells, while avoiding ototoxicity and hearing loss. This research will be conducted both in vitro, and in vivo in the zebrafish model. Current platinum-based drugs like cisplatin have diamine ligands and are highly ototoxic, i.e., produce sensory hair cell and hearing loss. Some novel platinum(II) complexes have triamine or heterocyclic ligands that exhibit unique DNA and protein binding properties that differ from that of complexes with diamine ligands. Dr. Kevin Williams (Biochemistry) at Western Kentucky University (WKU) has recently found differences in platinum(II) diamine and triamine complexes in their reactions with amino acid and nucleotide targets. These properties may result in reduced drug side effects such as ototoxicity. Dr. Michael Smith (Neurobiology) recently showed that ototoxicity could be examined in the zebrafish inner ear using two ototoxic chemicals- the aminoglycoside antibiotic gentamicin, and the platinum-based anti- cancer drug cisplatin. The proposed project is an interdisciplinary collaboration between these two laboratories at WKU. This proposal has two primary aims: 1) to determine whether novel platinum(II) complexes cause cytotoxicity to cancer cells, and 2) to determine whether the novel platinum(II) complexes are ototoxic (i.e., damage hair cells and cause hearing loss). In aim 1, we will test six novel compounds in six different cancer cell lines for anticancer activity using cytotoxicity assays, inductively coupled plasma-emission spectroscopy (ICP-ES) to measure uptake of platinum into cancer cell nuclei, and DNA binding assays. In aim 2, those compounds that are found to be cytotoxic to cancer cells in aim 1 will be tested for ototoxicity in a zebrafish inner ear model. Following microinjection with either a platinum-compound or buffer control, zebrafish hearing thresholds will be measured using auditory evoked potential (AEP) recording. Then the inner ears will be dissected and cell death and hair cell loss will be quantified in the sensory epithelia. The proposed study establishes a framework for understanding the effects of these novel platinum(II) complexes on cancer cells and hair cells, with the ultimate goal of providing the foundation for future investigations developing new chemotherapy drugs that avoid the side effect of hearing loss. This proposal accomplishes the AREA program objectives of: 1) supporting meritorious research; 2) exposing undergraduate and graduate students to research; and 3) strengthening the research environment in non- research intensive universities. Western Kentucky University aspires to be the best comprehensive public institution in Kentucky. This project supports this mission by enhancing the research environment and by providing undergraduate and graduate students with opportunities to be engaged in biomedical research, and supports both P.I.s' career goals of leading independently-funded research laboratories.

Dr. Michael E. Smith, Arizona State University, and a team of colleagues from the United States, Mexico, and Canada, will investigate the nature of early urbanism at the archaeological site of Teotihuacan, Mexico, one of the largest cities in the ancient New World. As cities become the dominant form of settlement in the world today, knowledge about the successful cities of the past can inform understanding of contemporary urbanism. The spatial patterns of urban expansion and decline in past cities show how city growth is connected to broader economic and political forces. This information can help scholars and planners devise strategies for improving cities and city life today. Much of this project will take place at the Arizona State University Teotihuacan Research Laboratory in Mexico, a facility that stores artifacts and anchors research at the site. The laboratory is a major piece of scientific infrastructure for archaeological research in Mexico, and its value will be strengthened by this project. Training will be provided for a postdoctoral scholar and both graduate and undergraduate students. Dr. Smith will create a comprehensive data archive for Teotihuacan that will benefit many researchers, and this work will contribute to the public understanding of science through various outreach activities designed to educate the public about Teotihuacan and ancient cities more generally.

As one of the largest and most extensively studied ancient cities of the New World, the World Heritage Site of Teotihuacan holds important clues about ancient urban life. This project will complete the work of prior research at the site and ensure that the scientific results of past and present archaeological projects at Teotihuacan are made available for the public and for scholars now and in the future. Dr. Smith's team will complete artifact analyses, organize field notes and records into databases, archive the data on tDAR (The Digital Archaeological Record), and write reports on the research. These activities will permit a series of research questions to be answered for the first time. Teotihuacan had a unique form of social and political organization, including ethnic neighborhoods, and its residents maintained a remarkably high level of material prosperity. Were these two features related? How did the city's leaders and residents manage to create and maintain a successful city over a period of more than five centuries? What was the relationship between the city's major craft economy - obsidian tool production - and its growth and decline? More generally, what specific lessons do early cities have for urbanization today? This project will build on the foundation of a detailed archaeological map of Teotihuacan and an important yet incomplete database, to generate new findings and to archive data and results for future generations.

Under the direction of Dr. Michael E. Smith of Arizona State University, Mr. Timothy Dennehy, will conduct research to address a central anthropological question: how do human societies change as they transition from foraging to agriculture? The origin of agriculture is one of the most heavily researched topics in the study of human prehistory, and much is known about the first people to independently adopt farming in each area of the world. Yet comparatively little is known about the pre-agricultural groups that occupied these same landscapes before farming arose. This hampers understanding of both domestication processes as well as the changes to human society that accompanied them. By analyzing multiple lines of evidence derived from the stone artifacts (lithics) from three sites in the Lowland Maya region of Mesoamerica, this project will contribute greatly to understanding of how human groups transition from a mobile hunting and gathering lifestyle to a more sedentary one focused on food production. This project also works cooperatively with descendant Maya communities in Belize, thus contributing to the training and education of an ethnic group underrepresented in the STEM fields.

Mr. Dennehy will examine how tropical forest foragers changed their mobility strategies over time in response to an environment that they themselves were altering through their manipulation of forest resources. The term "mobility strategy" here refers to the number of moves made by a group in a given year. On one end of the spectrum, a Residential Mobility Strategy entails many small moves in which the entire group sets up a new camp every few days. On the other end, a Logistical Mobility Strategy entails fewer residential moves but a greater number of small task-oriented (i.e. logistical) moves, wherein specialized groups of foragers undertake long-range trips to bring vital resources back to a central camp. Modern-day tropical forest groups that rely solely on wild resources tend to practice the former strategy; other modern-day groups who more extensively manipulate their environments and cultivate resources tend practice the latter. These two mobility strategies affect the amount of raw material available for stone tool production; in turn, raw material availability impacts several lithic traits, making this project's lithic analysis one of the only ways to indirectly assess mobility strategies. The rockshelters that are the focus of this study contain deposits that date from 8000-900 B.C., and cover the late Paleoindian/Early Archaic transition through the Late Archaic/Middle Preclassic transition, a record whose time-depth and completeness is unparalleled in the Maya world. This record is anchored at one end by the early hunter-gatherer societies who preceded domestication, and on the other by fully agricultural Maya groups; thus, it will provide evidence of the full spectrum of subsistence strategies utilized during the transition from foraging to agriculture. By examining mobility and subsistence throughout this long time period and at three different locations, this study offers a unique spatio-temporal perspective on changing Mesoamerican foraging societies.

This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.

Adrian Chase, of Arizona State University, will undertake research to study the urban form created and used by the ancient Maya. Ancient Maya urbanism is characterized by large low-density cities covering up to two hundred square kilometers; some had populations of up to (and sometimes over) 100,000 people; all had a reliance on seasonal tropical rainfall for both agriculture and subsistence. While Maya rulers, mostly known from texts recorded on stone monument, reigned over Classic Period (550 CE - 900 CE) Maya cities and states, court officials and support staff likely handled day-to-day administrative tasks within these cities. The ancient Maya provide an excellent case study to review the role that both top-down (elite) and bottom-up (household) processes can impact the day-to-day governance of ancient cities. This research incorporates excavation at the Maya city of Caracol, Belize, one of the most well documented Maya cities, with data analyses to determine governance patterns. Maya cities, like Caracol, were designed to harvest rainfall for both sustenance and agriculture, but these aspects alone did not provide for the longevity of these ancient cities. Caracol itself also thrived for over one thousand years because of its social and political organization. Additional understanding of governance at Caracol will help elucidate how this city functioned, shed light on its longevity, and provide data appropriate for theoretical formulations and cross-cultural comparisons. Research at Caracol also involves cooperation between United States and Belizean citizens, as well as building and reinforcing positive international ties between both countries on a variety of levels that include hands-on undergraduate archaeological training.


In this study, Adrian Chase assesses the degree to which aspects of the physical layout of a city (including the location of infrastructure, standardization of residential features, and neighborhood identity) provide practical proxies for identifying governance with Caracol, Belize as the test site location. Three datasets are used: 1) the distribution of urban service facility features around the city as a proxy for the degree of infrastructural power; 2) the degree of standardization of garden city features as a proxy for residential autonomy; and, 3) the patterning and distribution of ritual artifacts and their correlation with proposed neighborhoods as a proxy for the potential for collective action through neighborhood level identity. Through this research, concepts from more general urban theory in a variety of disciplines will be integrated with archaeological research through the operationalization of infrastructural power, household autonomy, and collective action at multiple scales of analysis: citywide, district, neighborhood, and plazuela household. Analysis of the built environment and archaeological material will augment the hieroglyphic narrative and provide a better understanding of the governance of a Late Classic Period Maya city.

This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.