The Story of an Egyptian Cat Mummy Through CT Examination

Much of the fascination surrounding Egyptian civilization is linked to the practice of mummification. In fact, to ensure the preservation of the body, the ancient Egyptians mummified both human and animal subjects. However, mummified animal remains are less well studied, although they represent a significant part of the material culture and history of ancient Egypt. The introduction of non-invasive imaging methods has allowed researchers to study the material hidden within the wrappings of mummies. In this article, the cat mummy currently exhibited at the Museo Etnologico Missionario di San Francesco di Fiesole (Florence, Italy), originating from Luxor and legally acquired during an expedition in the 20th century, was analyzed using computed tomography (CT). The CT enabled the identification of the casing content, showing the presence of an entire cat skeleton. The cat had several fractures, some of which were identified in the cervical region, possibly related to the cause of death. Furthermore, the zooarcheological analysis allowed the identification of the age at death of the cat, providing further information about the story of the mummy. This research provides a further contribution to the analysis of mummies, with a case study of a cat mummy that emphasizes the importance of CT scans in humanistic studies and museum environments

Time, intersubjectivity, and musical relationship in Alfred Schutz

In questo lavoro, affronto alcuni aspetti della relazione tra tempo e intersoggettività in Alfred Schutz . Presento una sintesi dell’architettura metodologica del sociologo austriaco, delineando la specificità della relazione tra tempo e coscienza. Prendo in esame la trattazione dell’esperienza musicale come esempio di declinazione peculiare di una serie di dinamiche temporali connesse alla costituzione intersoggettiva dei significati. Infine, espongo alcune tesi di autori che si sono occupati della relazione tra tempo, intersoggettività e musica in Schutz. La relazione musicale è un esempio di contesto dotato di senso, non oggetto di concettualizzazione, che esemplifica la relazione tra senso soggettivo ed esperienza dell’altro. La teoria dell’appresentazione di Schutz è il centro del processo di costituzione dei significati della prensione dell’altro. L’emersione dei significati è legata alle dinamiche dei poli passivi e attivi della coscienza e alla costituzione, nella we-relation, di una dimensione radicalmente intersoggettiva nella quale si supera la distinzione cartesiana tra interno ed esterno.Time, intersubjectivity, and musical relationship in Alfred Schutz Riccardo Venturini In this work I tackle certain aspects of the relationship between time and intersubjectivity in Alfred Schutz. I present a summary of the methodological architecture of the Austrian sociologist, outlining the specificity of the relationship between time and consciousness. I discuss the treatment of the musical experience as an example of the peculiar declination of a series of temporal dynamics connected to the intersubjective creation of meanings. Finally, I set out some thoughts related to the debate on the relationship between time, intersubjectivity and music in Schutz. The musical relationship is a context endowed with meaning, not the object of conceptualization, that allows us to identify in a paradigmatic way the relationship between the subjective sense and experience of the other. The theory of appresentation of Schutz is the center of the process of constitution of meaning of the understanding of the other. The emergence of meaning is related to the dynamics of the passive and active poles of the consciousness and the constitution, in the we-relation, of a radically intersubjective dimension that exceeds the Cartesian distinction between inside and outside

Non-invasive estimation of in vivo optical properties and hemodynamic parameters of domestic animals: a preliminary study on horses, dogs, and sheep

Biosensors applied in veterinary medicine serve as a noninvasive method to determine the health status of animals and, indirectly, their level of welfare. Near infrared spectroscopy (NIRS) has been suggested as a technology with this application. This study presents preliminary in vivo time domain NIRS measurements of optical properties (absorption coefficient, reduced scattering coefficient, and differential pathlength factor) and hemodynamic parameters (concentration of oxygenated hemoglobin, deoxygenated hemoglobin, total hemoglobin, and tissue oxygen saturation) of tissue domestic animals, specifically of skeletal muscle (4 dogs and 6 horses) and head (4 dogs and 19 sheep). The results suggest that TD NIRS in vivo measurements on domestic animals are feasible, and reveal significant variations in the optical and hemodynamic properties among tissue types and species. In horses the different optical and hemodynamic properties of the measured muscles can be attributed to the presence of a thicker adipose layer over the muscle in the Longissimus Dorsi and in the Gluteus Superficialis as compared to the Triceps Brachii. In dogs the absorption coefficient is higher in the head (temporalis musculature) than in skeletal muscles. The smaller absorption coefficient for the head of the sheep as compared to the head of dogs may suggest that in sheep we are indeed reaching the brain cortex while in dog light penetration can be hindered by the strongly absorbing muscle covering the cranium

Delayed decline of gamma-globin expression in infant age associated with the presence of Ggamma -158 (C>T) polymorphism

Persistent production of fetal hemoglobin (HbF) in adult has ameliorative effects on hemoglobinopathies and great efforts are currently made to achieve an exhaustive understanding of the molecular mechanisms of the switching in globin gene expression. One of the factors reported to be associated with the expression of fetal globin genes is the Xmn I Ggamma-158 polymorphism, although it is still unclear if it is involved in this mechanism either by itself or in strong linkage disequilibrium with other loci. Here, we report a novel effect of the Xmn I Ggamma-158 site that was found associated with a significant delayed decline of HbF production in infant age. The prolonged decay trend was enhanced when the Ggamma-158 C-->T substitution was co-inherited with a beta-thalassemic trait. Our observations reinforce the hypothesis that this region plays an important role in the expression of the gamma-globin genes and give new insights on the intriguing and still poorly understood mechanisms of globin gene expression switching

Discovering the ancient Egyptian hieroglyphs with Deep Learning

This book explores the application of Deep Convolutional Neural Networks to the field of ancient Egyptian Hieroglyphs transliteration. Such tools belong to the broader field known as Artificial Intelligence (AI), which is probably today the most impacting and disruptive technology we are working on. In the field of ancient languages transliteration and translation, AI applications are just at the beginning, despite they are spreading faster day after day. So, who knows which will be the impact of such technology in the years comin

Alexithymic traits and somatic symptoms in children and adolescents: a screening approach to explore the mediation role of depression

The association among alexithymia, somatic symptoms and clinical correlates has been scantly investigated in children. The present study examined alexithymic features and somatic symptomatology in schoolchildren with high and low levels of depression, testing the role of depressive symptoms in mediating the associations between alexithymia and somatic symptoms. Seven-hundred schoolchildren were involved in this study and divided into two subgroups (8–10 years and 11–14 years) in order to test differences according to the age. Participants completed the Children’s Somatization Inventory-24 for the assessment of somatic symptoms, the Alexithymia Questionnaire for Children to evaluate alexithymic features and the Children’s Depression Inventory-2 to investigate depressive symptoms. Results showed that children with high levels of depression reported both higher alexithymia and somatic symptoms levels. Despite a direct effect of alexithymia on somatic symptoms, the mediation analyses also highlighted an indirect effect of alexythimia on somatic symptoms through depressive symptoms. Findings suggested that a depressive symptomatology may clarify why schoolchildren with high alexithymia scores tend to report higher levels of health problems. Results also support the possibility that depressive symptoms may contribute to the development of somatic symptomatology among schoolchildren in the presence of high levels of alexithymia