A középkori Székelyföld = The Medieval Székelys (Hungarian minority group in Eastern Transylvania, Romania)

A pályázat a középkori Székelyföld történetének és régészetének monografikus igényű kutatására vállalkozott. A munka három témakör köré csoportosult: I. Egy, a közelmúltban feltárt, rendkívül gazdag leletanyagot rejtő, 15-16. századi székelykeresztúri udvarház monografikus feldolgozása elkészült és 2008-ban nyomtatásban megjelent. A monográfia az udvarházak és ezek leletei, különösképpen kályhacsempéi és tüzelőberendezései elemzésén túlmenően a középkori székelyföldi nemesség kérdését is áttekintette. E témakörben külön tanulmány is készült. A székelyföldi várakról és védelmi célra felhasznált barlangokról több tanulmány is megjelent (Sófalvi András, Székelyudvarhely). II. A késő középkori, kora újkori csíksomlyói ferences kolostorra vonatkozó kéziratos források (oklevelek, számadáskönyvek és leltárak, elbeszélő források) kiadása már a sajtó alá rendezéshez közeledik (Muckenhaupt Erzsébet, Csíkszereda). III. A pályázat alapvető célját képező, a a középkori Székelyföld régészetét és történetét felölelő monográfia kézirata három részből áll: 1) több fejezetre oszló történeti-régészeti összefoglalás, terjedelmes illusztrációs anyaggal (Benkő Elek); 2) a székelyföldi középkori állatcsontanyag vizsgálata és értékelése (Gál Erika, Budapest); 3) A középkori Székelyföld embertani anyagának teljességre törekvő feldolgozása (Fóthi Erzsébet, Bernert Zsolt, Hajdu Tamás, Budapest). A kötet legfontosabb megállapításai magyarul, illetve németül külön is megjelentek (Benkő Elek). | The project aspired to process the medieval history and archaeology of the Szekler Region in eastern Transylvania. The major themes were assembled in three fields: I. Working up a medieval manor house excavated in the last years at Cristuru Secuiesc, a monograph was published in 2008, which inclused, in addition to the treatment of different types of manor houses and their findings a survey on medieval nobility of the Szekler Region. About medieval castles and caves converted to defensive purposes several publications were elaborated (András Sófalvi). II. The transcript and annotation of late medieval and early modern written sources (documents, accounts, consriptions and chronicles) of the franciscan friary of Csíksomlyó is in the final stage before publication (Erzsébet Muckenhaupt). III. The manuscript of a comprehensive book about the history and archaeology of the Szekler Region contains threee great parts: 1) a large study, divided into several chapters on different historical and archaeological problems from the the much-disputed issues of the early history and 'origin' of the Szeklers untill the 16th-17th centuries, including an instructive case study of sedes (village law court) Aranyos (Elek Benkő), 2) the working up of animal bones of medieval villages, market-towns, castles and manor houses (Erika Gál) and 3) the analysis of the complete medieval anthropological material of the Szekler Region (Erzsébet Fóthi, Zsolt Bernert, Tamás Hajdu)

NLRC5 Functions beyond MHC I Regulation—What Do We Know So Far?

NLRC5 is a member of the NLR family that acts as a transcriptional activator of MHC class I genes. In line with the function of several related NLR proteins in innate immune responses, there is, however, also ample evidence that NLRC5 contributes to innate and adaptive immune responses beyond the regulation of MHC class I genes. In human and murine cells, for example, NLRC5 was proposed to contribute to inflammatory and type I interferon responses. The role of NLRC5 in these and other cellular processes is hitherto still not well understood and blurred by discrepancies in the reported data. Here, we provide a detailed and critical discussion of the available experimental data on the emerging biological functions of NLRC5 in innate immune responses in men and mice. Better awareness of the multiple roles of NLRC5 will help to define its overall contribution to immune responses and cancer

The environmental history of a former salt town in Transylvania (Sic, Northern Romania)

The medieval market-town of Sic (Szék in Hungarian) was an important Transylvanian settlement due to its remarkable salt mining. The impact of the mining activities on the environment and the history of water management were investigated based on a palaeoecological study, performed on the large Reedbed of Sic (Stufărişurile/Nádas-tó). We found that in the last 3000 years the anthropogenic impact has been continuous in the territory, but the types and intensity of the disturbances changed with time. The most notable environmental transitions took place after 1000 AD, suggesting a significant intensification of salt mining. Forest cover significantly drop, but salt concentration and the frequency of halophytic species in the investigated marshland increased during the Late Middle Ages. The dominance of halophytic marshland species reached their peak in the 17th century. This coincides with the apogee of mining activities and human lake management. The most remarkable deforestation occurred in the 18th century, when the present-day landscape with negligible forest cover was developed