Recent investigations at Cahal Pech, Belize, documented a previously unrecognized Middle Preclassic (700–500 cal BC) E-Group complex. Located in an open public plaza, the monumental complex likely functioned as a forum for communal public events. In the Late Preclassic, the E-Group was replaced by an ancestor shrine where several royal tombs are located, as well as buildings separating public civic space from private elite space. These shifts in monumental construction temporally track the development of ideological manifestations of power and provide evidence for the formalization of dynastic rulership by an emerging elite class.

Collagen fiber organization requires characterization in many biomedical applications, but it is difficult to objectively quantify in standard histology tissue sections. Quantitative polarized light imaging is a low‐cost technique that allows for rapid measurement of collagen fiber orientation and thickness. In this study, we utilize a quantitative polarized light imaging system to characterize fiber orientation and thickness from wound sections. Full thickness skin wound sections that were previously stained with hematoxylin and eosin were used to assess collagen fiber content and organization at different points during the wound healing process. Overall, wounds exhibited a measurable increase in collagen fiber thickness and a nonlinear change in fiber reorganization within the wound. Our study demonstrates that quantitative polarized light imaging is an inexpensive alternative or supplement to standard histology protocols, requiring no additional stains or dyes, and yields repeatable quantitative assessments of collagen organization.

The church of Saint-Etienne (Saint-Vaast) in Beauvais was much discussed in the early literature on medieval architecture, particularly in regard to the vaults over the initial bays of the nave aisles. The vaults have long been considered among the earliest rib vaults in northern France, although their exact date had never been determined. The challenge to date these vaults precisely became critical in the late 1950s when local excavations under the present Late Gothic choir uncovered evidence that the original choir may have been rib-vaulted as well. This paper analyzes these unpublished excavations and their implications for the extant vaults of the nave aisles; it also provides a credible dating for the choir and these vaults. In the absence of constructional documents, the dating of Saint-Etienne must depend on stylistic comparisons correlated with the dates of major historical incidents in Beauvais that would have influenced the construction of the church. All of these factors taken together seem to indicate strongly the existence of a fully rib-vaulted choir at Saint-Etienne and of a unified campaign of construction encompassing this choir, the transept, and the initial bays of the nave aisles. Most significantly, a date as early as the 1070s is suggested for the vaults of the choir, thus making them the earliest known rib vaults in medieval architecture and forcing a re-examination of the structural aspect of medieval style in the 11th century.