Wichita State University

About: Wichita State University is a education organization based out in Wichita, Kansas, United States. It is known for research contribution in the topics: Population & Poison control. The organization has 4988 authors who have published 9563 publications receiving 253824 citations. The organization is also known as: WSU & Fairmount College.

Wood of the Gods: The ritual use of pine (Pinus spp.) by the ancient Lowland Maya

Abstract: The recovery of pine (Pinus spp.) charcoal remains from ceremonial contexts at sites in the Maya Lowlands suggests that pine had a significant role in ancient Maya ritual activities. Data collected by the authors reveal that pine remains are a regular component of archaeobotanical assemblages from caves, sites that were used almost exclusively for ritual purposes, and that pine is often the dominant taxon of wood charcoal recovered. Comparisons with archaeobotanical data from surface sites likewise reveals that pine is common in ceremonial deposits. The authors propose that the appearance of pine remains in ceremonial contexts indicates pine was a valued element of Maya ritual paraphernalia. By basing interpretations with analogous information from ethnography, ethnohistory, iconography, and epigraphy, the use of pine during rituals is argued to be have been linked with a symbolic complex of ritual burning and offering “food” sacrifices to deities. The possibility is raised that burning pine, perhaps as torches, during some ancient rituals was similar to the modern use of candles. The diversity of ceremonial contexts yielding pine suggests that burning pine may have been a basic element of ritual activities that was essential to establish the legitimacy of ritual performances.

Fast and Effective Ion Mobility-Mass Spectrometry Separation of d-Amino-Acid-Containing Peptides.

Abstract: Despite often minute concentrations in vivo, d-amino acid containing peptides (DAACPs) are crucial to many life processes. Standard proteomics protocols fail to detect them as d/l substitutions do not affect the peptide parent and fragment masses. The differences in fragment yields are often limited, obstructing the investigations of important but low abundance epimers in isomeric mixtures. Separation of d/l-peptides using ion mobility spectrometry (IMS) was impeded by small collision cross section differences (commonly ∼1%). Here, broad baseline separation of DAACPs with up to ∼30 residues employing trapped IMS with resolving power up to ∼340, followed by time-of-flight mass spectrometry is demonstrated. The d/l-pairs coeluting in one charge state were resolved in another, and epimers merged as protonated species were resolved upon metalation, effectively turning the charge state and cationization mode into extra separation dimensions. Linear quantification down to 0.25% proved the utility of high resolu...