9,398 research outputs found

    Beam scanning by liquid-crystal biasing in a modified SIW structure

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    A fixed-frequency beam-scanning 1D antenna based on Liquid Crystals (LCs) is designed for application in 2D scanning with lateral alignment. The 2D array environment imposes full decoupling of adjacent 1D antennas, which often conflicts with the LC requirement of DC biasing: the proposed design accommodates both. The LC medium is placed inside a Substrate Integrated Waveguide (SIW) modified to work as a Groove Gap Waveguide, with radiating slots etched on the upper broad wall, that radiates as a Leaky-Wave Antenna (LWA). This allows effective application of the DC bias voltage needed for tuning the LCs. At the same time, the RF field remains laterally confined, enabling the possibility to lay several antennas in parallel and achieve 2D beam scanning. The design is validated by simulation employing the actual properties of a commercial LC medium

    Complicated objects: artifacts from the Yuanming Yuan in Victorian Britain

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    The 1860 spoliation of the Summer Palace at the close of the Second Opium War by British and French troops was a watershed event within the development of Britain as an imperialist nation, which guaranteed a market for opium produced in its colony India and demonstrated the power of its armed forces. The distribution of the spoils to officers and diplomatic corps by campaign leaders in Beijing was also a sign of the British Army’s rising power as an instrument of the imperialist state. These conditions would suggest that objects looted from the site would be integrated into an imperialist aesthetic that reflected and promoted the material benefits of military engagement overseas and foregrounded the circumstances of their removal to Britain for campaign members and the British public. This study mines sources dating to the two decades following the war – including British newspapers, auction house records, exhibition catalogs and works of art – to test this hypothesis. Findings show that initial movements of looted objects through the military and diplomatic corps did reinforce notions of imperialist power by enabling campaign members to profit from the spoliation through sales of looted objects and trophy displays. However, material from the Summer Palace arrived at a moment when British manufacturers and cultural leaders were engaged in a national effort to improve the quality of British goods to compete in the international marketplace and looted art was quickly interpolated in this national conversation. Ironically, the same “free trade” imperatives that motivated the invasion energized a new design movement that embraced Chinese ornament. As a consequence, political interpretations of the material outside of military collections were quickly joined by a strong response to Chinese ornament from cultural institutions and design leaders. Art from the Summer Palace held a prominent place at industrial art exhibitions of the postwar period and inspired new designs in a number of mediums. While the availability of Chinese imperial art was the consequence of a military invasion and therefore a product of imperialist expansion, evidence presented here shows that the design response to looted objects was not circumscribed by this political reality. Chinese ornament on imperial wares was ultimately celebrated for its formal qualities and acknowledged links to the Summer Palace were an indicator of good design, not a celebration of victory over a failed Chinese state. Therefore, the looting of the Summer Palace was ultimately an essential factor in the development of modern design, the essence of which is a break with Classical ornament

    Impact of plant growth promoting rhizobacteria (PGPR) on stress resistance of winter wheat (Triticum aestivum L.)

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    Wheat is one of the worldwide most cultivated crop and highly contribute to secure food production in different world regions. Although, it grows almost ubiquitous, its production is severely vulnerable to drought. Soil and rhizosphere microbial communities associated to plants come more and more into the focus of modern agrobiology research, as a solution to maintain productivity under drought, and reinforce sustainable production. Whereas numerous studies on wheat production and the beneficial influence of the soil microbiome under drought have been performed in arid and semiarid regions of the world, comparable studies in Central Europe are rare. This might change due to the ongoing climate crisis and expected less frequent precipitations during the vegetation season. So far, most studies that focus on acclimatization of the wheat rhizobiome to water deficit mostly consider, at best, two interacting factors, and lack to consider other biotic or abiotic drivers of rhizosphere microbial communities structure and function. Therefore, the aim of this thesis was to combine complementary analytical approaches to investigate drought-induced structural and functional changes in wheat rhizosphere bacterial communities and individual species in dependency of soil type, farming system, wheat cultivar and plant development stage, and to determine how these changes affect wheat performance as a consequence of possible climate change scenarios in Central Germany. The presented thesis starts with a general introduction and presentation of the project, followed by three consecutive chapters containing the main findings published in peer-reviewed articles. Starting with an experiment performed in the greenhouse (Chapter 1) and then moving to a realistic climate scenario under field conditions (Chapter 2 and 3), the three chapters demonstrate the sole and interacting effects of drought and farming system (Chapter 1-3), soil type and wheat cultivar (Chapter 1), as well as plant growth stages (Chapter 2 and 3) on bacterial communities and individual taxa of the wheat rhizobiome. The methods used reach from traditional cultivation and in-vitro bioassays (Chapter 3), over extracellular enzyme activity potentials (Chapter 1 and 2) to more advanced technologies such as metabarcoding (Chapter 1 and 2) and computational tools (Chapter 1 and 2), addressing single bacterial taxa as well as community level. Finalizing the thesis, a concluding synopsis compiles and critically reviews the gained results and formulates future study perspectives. In Chapter 1, we evaluated the impact of soil type (loamy vs. sandy), farming management (conventional vs. organic), wheat cultivar (non-demanding vs. demanding), and the interacting effects of these factors on wheat rhizobacterial community composition and function under extreme drought conditions. Water deficit exerted a strong pressure on rhizobacterial communities, and interacted with soil type and farming management, but not with the wheat cultivar types. In the sandy soil, we observed a strong drought-induced shift in community composition, with a decrease in species diversity and extracellulare enzyme production, while changes by drought were less prominent in the fertile loamy soil. A particular exception from this pattern was found for enzyme activities involved in carbon cycling in the sandy soil suggesting a positive plant-soil-feedback on enzyme activities by drought conditioning. In Chapter 2, two individual, but interrelated aims were pursued. First, we used the platform of the Global Change Experimental Facility (GCEF) to explore the impact of two farming practices (conventional vs. organic) and two climate treatments (ambient vs. future) on bacterial community composition and activity profiles of extracellulare enzymes involved in C,N and P cycles in the wheat rhizosphere at two different plant growth stages. The climate treatment in the GCEF had no effect on the rhizobacterial communities. Rhizobacterial community composition and functions significantly differed between vegetative and mature growth stages of the plants, in both conventional and organic farming. In a second step, we reused the data to explore further the accuracy of computational approaches, like Tax4Fun and PanFP, to predict functional profiles of bacterial communities based on 16S rDNA abundance data. To this end, we compared the measured enzyme activities with respective gene abundances in the community under different climate and farming treatments, and at the two plant development stages. This analysis revealed qualitative, but not necessarily quantitative concordances, i.e. we found effects of the different treatments on the measured enzyme activities reflected in the gene abundances. Chapter 3 is a complementary approach to Chapter 2 with a focus on individual bacterial species level. Culture-dependent methods were used to specifically isolate strong P-solubilizing bacteria from the rhizosphere of wheat, which were tested for their in-vitro drought tolerance. Among the more than 800 isolated species, Phyllobacterium, Pseudomonas and Streptomyces species dominated. While farming management and climate treatment had only minor effects on composition and functions of the isolates, the wheat growth stages had an impact, whereby a dominance of Pseudomonas species at the vegetative growth phase was replaced by dominance of Phyllobacterium species at the mature growth phase. Since P-solubilizing potential was paralleled by a high in vitro drought tolerance, Phyllobacterium species were characterized as promising plant growth promoting rhizobacteria (PGPR) of wheat under future drought conditions. In the synopsis part, we evaluated the multifactorial and multidisciplinary approaches and investigated to what extent the adaptations of bacterial communities in field and pot experiments coincided or differed. Overall, we found common and distinct adaptation processes of bacterial communities and individual species in the rhizosphere of wheat to drought, whereby single factors, but also interacting effects exerted a strong impact on these processes. This study underlines the importance of multifactorial approaches to reveal community- or species-specific plant-soil-feedbacks.:Contents 3 Preface 5 Bibliographic description 6 Zusammenfassung 9 Summary 13 Introduction 16 When extreme events become the new normal 17 Feedback to agricultural production and need for management adaptation 20 Difficulties in exploring the soil microbiome and identification of plant beneficial microbial taxa 22 Our approach with wheat 24 Bibliography 27 ֎ Chapter 1 31 Interactions Between Soil Properties, Agricultural Management and Cultivar Type Drive Structural and Functional Adaptations of the Wheat Rhizosphere Microbiome To Drought 31 Supplemental Tables 51 Supplemental Figures 55 ╬ Chapter 2 59 Can We Estimate Functionality of Soil Microbial Communities from Structure-Derived Predictions? A Reality Test in Agricultural Soils 59 Supplementary Tables 79 Supplemental Figures 84 Supplemental Material 1: 87 Variation in edaphic parameters according to experimental factors 87 Supplemental Material 2 88 Effect of abiotic soil parameters on bacterial community structure and function 88 Supplemental Material 3 90 Indicator species analysis 90 ۝ Chapter 3 95 Shifts Between and Among Populations of Wheat Rhizosphere Pseudomonas, Streptomyces and Phyllobacterium Suggest Consistent Phosphate Mobilization at Different Wheat Growth Stages Under Abiotic Stress 95 Supplementary Figures 112 Supplementary Tables 117 Synopsis 152 Multidisciplinary approaches combine advantages of cultivation-based and high throughput community-based methods 155 Multifactorial approaches to gain a more holistic understanding of plant-microbe interactions in pot experiments 157 Transferability of findings gained in the pot experiment to field conditions 159 Towards a wheat core microbiome? 161 Study limitations and outlook 163 Bibliography 164 Acknowledgements 169 Curriculum Vitae 171 Personal details 171 Education 171 Work experience 172 Research and Mentoring experience 172 Extracurricular activities 173 List of publications and Presentations 174 Publications in peer-reviewed journals: 174 Oral Presentations: 175 Poster Presentations: 175 Statutory declaration 176 Eidesstattliche Erklärung 177 Author contributions 178Weizen ist eine der weltweit am häufigsten angebauten Kulturpflanzen und trägt zur Sicherung der Nahrungsmittelproduktion in verschiedenen Regionen der Welt bei. Obwohl er fast überall angebaut werden kann, ist die Produktion durch Trockenheit limitiert. Daher rücken mehr und mehr die mikrobiellen Gemeinschaften im Boden und in der Rhizosphäre in den Mittelpunkt der modernen agrarbiologischen Forschung, um die Produktivität bei Trockenheit aufrechtzuerhalten und eine nachhaltige Produktion zu fördern. Während bereits zahlreiche Studien über die Weizenproduktion und den positiven Einfluss des Bodenmikrobioms in ariden und semiariden Regionen der Welt durchgeführt wurden, sind vergleichbare Studien in Mitteleuropa selten. Dies könnte sich aufgrund der anhaltenden Klimakrise und der zu erwartenden ausbleibenden Sommerniederschläge ändern. Dabei haben die meisten Studien, die sich mit der Akklimatisierung des Weizenrhizobioms an Wasserdefizite befasst haben, bestenfalls den Einfluss von Trockenheit und ein oder zwei weiteren biotischen oder abiotischen Einflussfaktoren, die zudem miteinander interagieren können, auf die Struktur und Funktion der mikrobiellen Gemeinschaften in der Rhizosphäre untersucht. Ziel dieser Arbeit war es daher, verschiedene komplementäre Analysemethoden zu kombinieren, um trockenheitsbedingte strukturelle und funktionelle Veränderungen in den bakteriellen Gemeinschaften und auch einzelner Arten in der Weizenrhizosphäre, in Abhängigkeit von Bodentyp, Landnutzungssystem, Weizensorte und Pflanzenentwicklungsstadium zu untersuchen, und zu ermitteln, wie sich diese Veränderungen auf die Produktivität des Weizens als Folge möglicher Szenarien des Klimawandels in Mitteldeutschland auswirken. Die vorliegende Arbeit leitet mit einer allgemeinen Einführung und Vorstellung des Projekts ein, gefolgt von drei aufeinanderfolgenden Kapiteln, die die wichtigsten Ergebnisse enthalten, die in von Fachleuten begutachteten Artikeln veröffentlicht wurden. Beginnend mit einem Experiment im Gewächshaus (Kapitel 1) und weiterführend zu einem realistischen Klimaszenario unter Feldbedingungen (Kapitel 2 und 3), beschreiben die drei Kapitel die alleinigen und interagierenden Auswirkungen von Trockenheit und Anbausystem (Kapitel 1-3), Bodentyp und Weizensorte (Kapitel 1), sowie Pflanzenwachstumsstadien (Kapitel 2 und 3) auf Bakteriengemeinschaften und einzelne Taxa des Weizenrhizobioms. Die verwendeten Methoden reichen dabei von der traditionellen Kultivierung und In-vitro-Bioassays (Kapitel 3), über extrazelluläre Enzymaktivitätspotenziale (Kapitel 1 und 2), bis hin zu fortschrittlicheren Technologien, wie Metabarcoding (Kapitel 1 und 2) und computergestützten Vorhersagen (Kapitel 1 und 2). Zum Abschluss der Arbeit werden in einer abschließenden Synopsis die gewonnenen Ergebnisse zusammengetragen und kritisch betrachtet, sowie Ideen für zukünftige Studien formuliert. In Kapitel 1 untersuchten wir die Auswirkungen des Bodentyps (lehmig vs. sandig), der Bewirtschaftung (konventionell vs. ökologisch), der Weizensorte (anspruchslos vs. anspruchsvoll) und die Wechselwirkungen zwischen diesen Faktoren auf die Zusammensetzung und Funktion der Bakteriengemeinschaft in der Rhizosphäre von Weizen unter extremen Trockenheitsbedingungen. Das Wasserdefizit übte einen starken Druck auf die Rhizosphärenbakteriengemeinschaften aus und stand in Wechselwirkung mit dem Bodentyp und der Bewirtschaftung, nicht aber mit den Weizensorten. In den Sandböden beobachteten wir eine starke trockenheitsbedingte Veränderung der Zusammensetzung der Gemeinschaft mit einem Rückgang der Artenvielfalt und der extrazellulären Enzymproduktion, während die Veränderungen durch die Trockenheit in den fruchtbaren Lehmböden weniger stark ausgeprägt waren. Eine besondere Ausnahme von diesem Muster wurde für Enzymaktivitäten gefunden, die am Kohlenstoffkreislauf im Sandboden beteiligt sind, was auf eine positive Rückkopplung zwischen Pflanze und Bodengemeinschaften unter Trockenheit hindeutet. In Kapitel 2 wurden zwei einzelne, jedoch miteinander verknüpfte Ziele verfolgt. Erstens nutzten wir die Plattform der Global Change Experimental Facility (GCEF), um die Auswirkungen von zwei Anbaupraktiken (konventionell vs. ökologisch) und zwei Klimabehandlungen (ambient vs. zukünftig) auf die Zusammensetzung der Bakteriengemeinschaft und die Aktivitätsprofile extrazellulärer Enzyme, die an den C-, N- und P-Zyklen in der Rhizosphäre von Weizen beteiligt sind, in zwei verschiedenen Pflanzenwachstumsstadien zu untersuchen. Die Klimabehandlung in der GCEF hatte keinen Einfluss auf die Rhizosphärenbakteriengemeinschaften. Die Zusammensetzung und die Funktionen der Rhizosphärenbakteriengemeinschaften unterschieden sich signifikant zwischen dem vegetativen und dem generativen Wachstumsstadium der Pflanzen, sowohl im konventionellen als auch im ökologischen Landbau. In einem zweiten Schritt nutzten wir die gewonnenen Daten, um die Genauigkeit rechnerischer Ansätze wie Tax4Fun und PanFP zur Vorhersage funktioneller Profile von Bakteriengemeinschaften auf der Grundlage von 16S rDNA-Daten zu überprüfen. Zu diesem Zweck verglichen wir die gemessenen Enzymaktivitäten mit den jeweiligen Genhäufigkeiten in der Gemeinschaft unter verschiedenen Klima- und Anbaubedingungen und in den beiden Entwicklungsstadien der Pflanzen. Diese Analyse ergab qualitative, aber nicht unbedingt quantitative Übereinstimmungen, d. h. wir fanden Auswirkungen der verschiedenen Behandlungen auf die gemessenen Enzymaktivitäten, die sich auch in den Genhäufigkeiten widerspiegeln. Kapitel 3 stellt einen ergänzenden Ansatz zu Kapitel 2 dar, wobei der Schwerpunkt auf einzelnen Bakterienarten liegt. Mit kulturabhängigen Methoden wurden gezielt stark Phosphat-solubilisierende Bakterien aus der Rhizosphäre von Weizen isoliert und auf ihre In-vitro-Trockenheitstoleranz getestet. Unter den mehr als 800 isolierten Arten dominierten Phyllobacterium-, Pseudomonas- und Streptomyces-Arten. Während Anbaumanagement und Klimabehandlung nur geringe Auswirkungen hatten, wirkten sich die Wachstumsstadien des Weizens signifikant auf die Zusammensetzung und Funktionen der Isolate aus, wobei eine Dominanz von Pseudomonas-Arten in der vegetativen Wachstumsphase durch eine Dominanz von Phyllobacterium-Arten in der generativen Wachstumsphase ersetzt wurde. Da das Potenzial zur P-Solubilisierung mit einer hohen in vitro-Trockenheitstoleranz einherging, wurden Phyllobacterium-Arten als vielversprechende pflanzenwachstumsfördernde Rhizobakterien (PGPR) für Weizen unter zukünftigen Trockenheitsbedingungen charakterisiert. In der Synopsis dieser Arbeit bewerteten wir die multifaktoriellen und multidisziplinären Ansätze, und untersuchten, inwieweit die Anpassungen der Bakteriengemeinschaften in Feld- und Topfversuchen übereinstimmen oder sich unterscheiden. Insgesamt fanden wir allgemeine, aber auch differenzielle Anpassungsprozesse von Bakteriengemeinschaften und einzelnen Arten in der Rhizosphäre von Weizen an die Trockenheit, wobei einzelne Faktoren, aber auch interagierende Effekte einen starken Einfluss auf diese Prozesse ausübten. Diese Studie unterstreicht damit die Bedeutung multifaktorieller Ansätze, um gemeinschafts- oder artspezifische Rückkopplungen zwischen Pflanze und Boden zu untersuchen.:Contents 3 Preface 5 Bibliographic description 6 Zusammenfassung 9 Summary 13 Introduction 16 When extreme events become the new normal 17 Feedback to agricultural production and need for management adaptation 20 Difficulties in exploring the soil microbiome and identification of plant beneficial microbial taxa 22 Our approach with wheat 24 Bibliography 27 ֎ Chapter 1 31 Interactions Between Soil Properties, Agricultural Management and Cultivar Type Drive Structural and Functional Adaptations of the Wheat Rhizosphere Microbiome To Drought 31 Supplemental Tables 51 Supplemental Figures 55 ╬ Chapter 2 59 Can We Estimate Functionality of Soil Microbial Communities from Structure-Derived Predictions? A Reality Test in Agricultural Soils 59 Supplementary Tables 79 Supplemental Figures 84 Supplemental Material 1: 87 Variation in edaphic parameters according to experimental factors 87 Supplemental Material 2 88 Effect of abiotic soil parameters on bacterial community structure and function 88 Supplemental Material 3 90 Indicator species analysis 90 ۝ Chapter 3 95 Shifts Between and Among Populations of Wheat Rhizosphere Pseudomonas, Streptomyces and Phyllobacterium Suggest Consistent Phosphate Mobilization at Different Wheat Growth Stages Under Abiotic Stress 95 Supplementary Figures 112 Supplementary Tables 117 Synopsis 152 Multidisciplinary approaches combine advantages of cultivation-based and high throughput community-based methods 155 Multifactorial approaches to gain a more holistic understanding of plant-microbe interactions in pot experiments 157 Transferability of findings gained in the pot experiment to field conditions 159 Towards a wheat core microbiome? 161 Study limitations and outlook 163 Bibliography 164 Acknowledgements 169 Curriculum Vitae 171 Personal details 171 Education 171 Work experience 172 Research and Mentoring experience 172 Extracurricular activities 173 List of publications and Presentations 174 Publications in peer-reviewed journals: 174 Oral Presentations: 175 Poster Presentations: 175 Statutory declaration 176 Eidesstattliche Erklärung 177 Author contributions 17

    Strategies for Early Learners

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    Welcome to learning about how to effectively plan curriculum for young children. This textbook will address: • Developing curriculum through the planning cycle • Theories that inform what we know about how children learn and the best ways for teachers to support learning • The three components of developmentally appropriate practice • Importance and value of play and intentional teaching • Different models of curriculum • Process of lesson planning (documenting planned experiences for children) • Physical, temporal, and social environments that set the stage for children’s learning • Appropriate guidance techniques to support children’s behaviors as the self-regulation abilities mature. • Planning for preschool-aged children in specific domains including o Physical development o Language and literacy o Math o Science o Creative (the visual and performing arts) o Diversity (social science and history) o Health and safety • Making children’s learning visible through documentation and assessmenthttps://scholar.utc.edu/open-textbooks/1001/thumbnail.jp

    INVESTIGATING THE PERCEPTION OF EXPATRIATES TOWARDS IMMIGRATION SERVICE QUALITY IN SHARJAH, UNITED ARAB EMIRATES THROUGH MIXED METHOD APPROACH

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    The public sectors in UAE are under immense pressure to demonstrate that their services are customer-focused and that continuous performance improvement is being delivered. The United Arab Emirates is a favoured destination for expatriates due to its own citizens form a minority of the population and are barely represented in the private sector workforce. These highly unusual demographics confer high importance on the national immigration services. Recently, increased interest in international migration, specifically within the United Arab Emirates, has been shown both by government agencies and by the governments of industrialised countries. Given the importance of the expatriate labour force to economic stability and growth in the Emirates, this research investigates how immigration services are perceived, with the aim of contributing to their improvement, thus ultimately supporting economic growth. It proposes a service quality perception framework to improve understanding within SID of how to raise levels of service delivered to migrants and other persons directly or indirectly affected by SID services. Qualitative data were collected by means of semi-structured interviews and quantitative data by means of a questionnaire survey based on the abovementioned framework. The survey data, on the variables influencing participants’ experiences and perceptions of SID services, were subjected to statistical analysis. The framework was then used to evaluate quality of service in terms of general impressions, delivery, location, response, SID culture and behaviour. Numerical data were analysed using inferential and descriptive statistics. It was found that service quality positively influenced service behaviour and that this relationship was mediated by SID culture. This research makes an original contribution to knowledge as one of the few studies of immigration to the United Arab Emirates. By examining the workings of one immigration department, it adds to the literature on immigration departments and organisational development in developing countries. It illuminates the mechanics of immigration services and demonstrates their increasing importance to the world economy

    Modern Folk Devils

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    The devilish has long been integral to myths, legends, and folklore, firmly located in the relationships between good and evil, and selves and others. But how are ideas of evil constructed in current times and framed by contemporary social discourses? Modern Folk Devils builds on and works with Stanley Cohen’s theory on folk devils and moral panics to discuss the constructions of evil. The authors present an array of case-studies that illustrate how the notion of folk devils nowadays comes into play and animates ideas of otherness and evil throughout the world. Examining current fears and perceived threats, this volume investigates and analyzes how and why these devils are constructed. The chapters discuss how the devilish may take on many different forms: sometimes they exist only as a potential threat, other times they are a single individual or phenomenon or a visible group, such as refugees, technocrats, Roma, hipsters, LGBT groups, and rightwing politicians. Folk devils themselves are also given a voice to offer an essential complementary perspective on how panics become exaggerated, facts distorted, and problems acutely angled.;Bringing together researchers from anthropology, sociology, political studies, ethnology, and criminology, the contributions examine cases from across the world spanning from Europe to Asia and Oceania

    The Uşaklı Höyük Survey Project (2008-2012)

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    This book presents the results of the survey conducted by the University of Florence, in the years 2008-2012, at the site and in the surrounding territory of Uşaklı Höyük on the central Anatolian plateau in Turkey. Geological, geomorphological, topographic and geophysical research have provided new information and data relating to the environment and the settlement landscape, as well as producing new maps of the area and indicating the presence of large buried buildings on the site. Analysis of the rich corpus of pottery collected from the surface indicates that the site and its territory were continuously settled from the late Early Bronze Age through the Iron Age and down to the Late Roman and Byzantine periods. A few fragments of cuneiform tablets with Hittite texts, a sealing with two impressions of a stamp seal, and pottery stamps illustrate the importance of Uşaklı Höyük and support the hypothesis of its identification with the town of Zippalanda, known from the Hittite sources as a seat of the cult of the Storm God
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