Personal body ornamentation on the Southern Iberian Meseta: An archaeomineralogical study

Beads and pendants from the Castillejo del Bonete (Terrinches, Ciudad Real) and Cerro Ortega (Villanueva de la Fuente, Ciudad Real) burials were analysed using XRD, micro-Raman and XRF in order to contribute to the current distribution map of green bead body ornament pieces on the Iberian Peninsula which, so far, remain undetailed for many regions. XRD, micro-Raman and XRF analyses showed that most of the beads from Castillejo del Bonete (Late 3rd millennium cal. BC) were made from variscite or green phyllosilicates, while Cerro Ortega's (Late 4th millenniumcal. BC) beads were made out of fossil wood or Clinochlore. Significantly enough,while XRD pointed to variscite as the main crystallo-graphic phase, the elemental composition did not match any elemental compositions of known and characterised sources, thus suggesting an unknown south-eastern source or an extra-peninsular origin of these ornamental pieces

Cerro Ortega (Villanueva de la Fuente, Ciudad Real-Spain): a sepulcral shelter with multiple inhumation during the Neolithic-Chalcolithic transition in the South of the Iberian Plateau

Este trabajo supone una actualización de la documentación disponible sobre la necrópolis del Cerro Ortega, que incluye nuevas dataciones absolutas y su contexto cultural. Se aportan datos y materiales inéditos sobre algunos sitios arqueológicos fundamentales para comprender los procesos de cambio cultural entre los IV y III milenios cal BC en el interior peninsular: Cerro Ortega, Villamayor de Calatrava, Vega de los Morales (Aldea del Rey), Cueva Maturras (Argamasilla de Alba) y La Jalbegada, entre otros. La presentación de pulseras de piedra, ídolos, adornos personales de concha, hueso, pizarra, clinocloro, clinoferrosilita y calcita, así como la orientación a eventos astronómicos de un refugio sepulcral, proporciona información sobre los aspectos simbólicos de las primeras comunidades productoras de La Mancha. El estudio permite avanzar en el conocimiento de las bases neolíticas que permitieron formar el substrato calcolítico de la Cultura de las Motillas.This work is an update of the available documentation on the Cerro Ortega necropolis, which includes new absolute dates and its cultural context. Unpublished data and materials are provided on some fundamental archaeological sites to understand the processes of cultural change between the IV and III millennia cal BC in the interior of Iberia: Cerro Ortega, Villamayor de Calatrava, Vega de los Morales (Aldea del Rey), Cueva Maturras (Argamasilla de Alba) and La Jalbegada, among others. The presentation of stone bracelets, idols, personal adornments of shell, bone, slate, clinochlore, clinoferrosilite and calcite, as well as the orientation to astronomical events of a sepulchral shelter, provides information about the symbolic aspects of the first producing communities of La Mancha. The study allows us to observe the Neolithic bases that allowed to form the Chalcolithic substratum of the Culture of the Motillas.Depto. de Prehistoria, Historia Antigua y ArqueologíaFac. de Geografía e HistoriaTRUEMinisterio de Ciencia e Innovación (MICINN)pu

Pseudomonas aeruginosa antibiotic susceptibility profiles, genomic epidemiology and resistance mechanisms: a nation-wide five-year time lapse analysisResearch in context

Summary: Background: Pseudomonas aeruginosa healthcare-associated infections are one of the top antimicrobial resistance threats world-wide. In order to analyze the current trends, we performed a Spanish nation-wide high-resolution analysis of the susceptibility profiles, the genomic epidemiology and the resistome of P. aeruginosa over a five-year time lapse. Methods: A total of 3.180 nonduplicated P. aeruginosa clinical isolates from two Spanish nation-wide surveys performed in October 2017 and 2022 were analyzed. MICs of 13 antipseudomonals were determined by ISO-EUCAST. Multidrug resistance (MDR)/extensively drug resistance (XDR)/difficult to treat resistance (DTR)/pandrug resistance (PDR) profiles were defined following established criteria. All XDR/DTR isolates were subjected to whole genome sequencing (WGS). Findings: A decrease in resistance to all tested antibiotics, including older and newer antimicrobials, was observed in 2022 vs 2017. Likewise, a major reduction of XDR (15.2% vs 5.9%) and DTR (4.2 vs 2.1%) profiles was evidenced, and even more patent among ICU isolates [XDR (26.0% vs 6.0%) and DTR (8.9% vs 2.6%)] (p < 0.001). The prevalence of Extended-spectrum β-lactamase/carbapenemase production was slightly lower in 2022 (2.1%. vs 3.1%, p = 0.064). However, there was a significant increase in the proportion of carbapenemase production among carbapenem-resistant strains (29.4% vs 18.1%, p = 0.0246). While ST175 was still the most frequent clone among XDR, a slight reduction in its prevalence was noted (35.9% vs 45.5%, p = 0.106) as opposed to ST235 which increased significantly (24.3% vs 12.3%, p = 0.0062). Interpretation: While the generalized decrease in P. aeruginosa resistance, linked to a major reduction in the prevalence of XDR strains, is encouraging, the negative counterpart is the increase in the proportion of XDR strains producing carbapenemases, associated to the significant advance of the concerning world-wide disseminated hypervirulent high-risk clone ST235. Continued high-resolution surveillance, integrating phenotypic and genomic data, is necessary for understanding resistance trends and analyzing the impact of national plans on antimicrobial resistance. Funding: MSD and the Instituto de Salud Carlos III, Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación and Unión Europea—NextGenerationEU