Archaeological occurrences of terrestrial herpetofauna in the insular Caribbean: cultural and biological significance

Although the importance of the archaeological record for addressing questions of biodiversity is gaining ground, its relevance for describing past faunal communities is still under-exploited, particularly for the most under-documented areas and species. Among the most poorly documented taxa are reptiles and amphibians, which are rarely studied in detail in the archaeological record, even in tropical areas where most of these species occur today. Here I evaluate the archaeological and paleontological significance of reptiles and amphibians from the Indigenous archaeological record of the insular Caribbean. Quantitative (bone counts) and qualitative (taxonomic identification) analyses allow researchers to discuss the role of herpetofauna in the subsistence strategies of Indigenous populations as well as their interest for assessing past insular biodiversity. This overview sheds light on both the poor representation of herpetofaunal taxa in Caribbean archaeological deposits and trends in the potential exploitation of reptiles and amphibians by Indigenous populations. In terms of paleoecology, the presented results reveal strong regional differences in the quality and density of data as well as the inadequacy of available archaeofaunal data for addressing questions of past biodiversity.1. Introduction 2. Regional setting 2.1. The insular Caribbean: a highly diverse set of islands 2.2. The past human occupation of the Caribbean 2.3. Modern Caribbean herpetofauna 3. Material and methods 3.1. Caribbean zooarchaeological quantitative and qualitative data 3.2. Statistical analyses 4. Results 4.1. The place of herpetofauna in indigenous archaeofaunal assemblages 4.2 Herpetofauna taxa identified in the assemblages 5. Discussion 5.1. Trends in the exploitation of herpetofauna by the indigenous 5.2. Herpetofaunal taxonomic diversity in the Caribbean archaeological record 5.3. Occurrence and zooarchaeological data regarding the different taxa 5.4. Is the Caribbean archaeological record relevant for addressing questions of biodiversity? 6. Conclusio

Le Robert – Grotte de l’Îlet Chancel

La grotte de l’îlet Chancel avait été identifiée comme présentant un potentiel intérêt archéologique et paléontologique dans le cadre d’une opération de prospection et d’inventaire du karst martiniquais conduite en 2013. Cette hypothèse s’appuyait sur la configuration de ce site qui s’avère être idéale : une grotte sèche à configuration de piège sédimentaire située à faible distance de la mer. Dans le but de tester cette hypothèse, une opération de sondage archéologique a été conduite en nove..

La Trinité – Morne Castagne

L’objectif de cette opération était de tester le potentiel archéologique et paléontologique des abris du Morne Castagne via la conduite d’un sondage dans un de ces abris. Ce morne étant l’un des rares contextes calcaires de l’île de la Martinique, il représentait une opportunité unique de pouvoir découvrir des accumulations de restes de vertébrés anciens bien préservés dans un contexte naturel. Un sondage d’un mètre carré a été pratiqué, sous le grand abri du Morne Castagne. Ce sondage a pu ê..

Therapeutic mobilities

This Special Issue expands mobilities research through the idea of therapeutic mobilities, which consist of multiple movements of health-related things and beings, including, though not limited to, nurses, doctors, patients, narratives, information, gifts and pharmaceuticals. The therapeutic emerges from the encounters of mobile human and non-human, animate and inanimate subjects with places and environments and the individual components they are made of. We argue that an interaction of mobilities and health research offers essential benefits: First, it contributes to knowledge production in a field of tremendous social relevance, i.e. transnational health care. Second, it encourages researchers to think about and through functionally limited, ill, injured, mentally disturbed, unwell and hurting bodies. Third, it engages with the transformative character of mobilities at various scales. And fourth, it brings together different kinds of mobilities. The papers in this Special Issue contribute to three themes key for the therapeutic in mobilities: a) transformations (and stabilizations) of selves, bodies and positionalities, b) uneven im/mobilities and therapeutic inequalities and c) multiple and contingent im/mobilities. Therapeutic mobilities comprise practices and processes that are multi-layered and mutable; sometimes bizarre, sometimes ironic, often drastically uneven; sometimes brutal, sometimes beautiful – and sometimes all of this at the same time

P479Extracellular S100A4 induces arterial smooth muscle cell activation in a RAGE-dependent manner

Background: It has been proposed that smooth muscle cells (SMCs) from the arterial wall are heterogeneous and that only a subset of medial SMCs are prone to accumulate into the intima leading to atheromatous plaque formation. We isolated 2 distinct SMC phenotypes from porcine coronary artery: spindle-shaped (S) and rhomboid (R). Biological features of R-SMCs (i.e. enhanced proliferative and migratory activities as well as poor level of differentiation) explain their capacity to accumulate into the intima. We identified S100A4 as being a marker of the R-SMCs in vitro and of intimal SMCs, both in pig and human. S100A4 is a Ca2+-binding protein that can also be secreted; it has extracellular functions probably via the receptor for advanced glycation end products (RAGE). Purpose: Explore the role of S100A4 in SMC phenotypic change, a phenomenon characteristic of atherosclerotic plaque formation. Methods and Results: Transfection of a human S100A4-containing plasmid in spindle-shaped (S) SMCs (devoid of S100A4) led to approximately 10% of S100A4-overexpressing SMCs, S100A4 release, and a transition towards a R-phenotype of the whole SMC population. Furthermore treatment of S-SMCs with S100A4-rich conditioned medium collected from S100A4-transfected S-SMCs induced a transition towards a phenotype typical of the R-SMCs, which was associated with decreased SMC differentiation markers, increased proliferation and migration, as well as induced proteolytic activity through activation of urokinase-type plasminogen activator (uPA), matrix metalloproteinases (MMP-1,-2, -3, and -9) and their inhibitors (TIMP-1). Furthermore, extracellular S100A4 yielded activation of NF-kB in a RAGE-dependent manner. Blockade of extracellular S100A4 in R-SMCs with S100A4 neutralizing antibody induced a transition from R- to S-phenotype, decreased proliferative activity and upregulation of SMC differentiation markers. In contrast, silencing of S100A4 mRNA in R-SMCs did not change the level of extracellular S100A4 nor SMC morphology in spite of decreased proliferative activity. Conclusions: Our results indicate that SMC phenotypic changes are essentially dependent on extracellular S100A4 activity. It could be a new target to prevent SMC accumulation during atherosclerosis and restenosi

Le prieuré bénédictin de Saint-Paul-en-Chablais. Premières recherches historiques et archéologiques

International audienc

Construction d’un espace sanitaire transfrontalier : le recours aux soins des Laotiens en Thaïlande

Résumé Cette étude s’intéresse aux mouvements de patients appréhendés à l’échelle régionale et plus précisément au sein de l’espace frontalier lao-thaïlandais où apparaissent de nouvelles dynamiques thérapeutiques transfrontalières : le recours aux soins des Laotiens dans des hôpitaux thaïlandais limitrophes, que nous appelons par commodité recours transfrontalier. Cette pratique engagée par une partie de la population vivant dans les bordures frontalières accompagne l’ouverture récente du La..

Construction d’un espace sanitaire transfrontalier : le recours aux soins des Laotiens en Thaïlande

Résumé Cette étude s’intéresse aux mouvements de patients appréhendés à l’échelle régionale et plus précisément au sein de l’espace frontalier lao-thaïlandais où apparaissent de nouvelles dynamiques thérapeutiques transfrontalières : le recours aux soins des Laotiens dans des hôpitaux thaïlandais limitrophes, que nous appelons par commodité recours transfrontalier. Cette pratique engagée par une partie de la population vivant dans les bordures frontalières accompagne l’ouverture récente du La..

Biological responses in stented arteries

Vascular walls change their dimension and mechanical properties in response to injury such as balloon angioplasty and endovascular stent implantation. Placement of bare metal stents induces neointimal proliferation/restenosis which progresses through different phases of repair with time involving a cascade of cellular reactions. These phases just like wound healing comprise distinct steps consisting of thrombosis, inflammation, proliferation, and migration followed by remodelling. It is noteworthy that animals show a rapid progression of healing after stent deployment compared with man. During stenting, endothelial cells are partially to completely destroyed or crushed along with medial wall injury and stretching promoting activation of platelets, and thrombus formation accompanied by inflammatory reaction. Macrophages and platelets play a central role through the release of cytokines and growth factors that induce vascular smooth muscle cell accumulation within the intima. Smooth muscle cells undergo complex phenotypic changes including migration and proliferation from the media towards the intima, and transition from a contractile to a synthetic phenotype; the molecular mechanisms responsible for this change are highlighted in this review. Since studies in animals and man show that smooth muscle cells play a dominant role in restenosis, drugs like rapamycin and paclitaxel have been coated on stent with polymers to allow local slow release of drugs, which have resulted in dramatic reduction of restenosis that was once the Achilles' heel of interventional cardiologist

Les circulations en santé : des produits, des savoirs, des personnes en mouvement : argumentaire

L’objectif de ce dossier thématique est d’interroger la construction d’une catégorie émergente en sciences sociales que sont les circulations en santé dont la mondialisation et la notion de santé globale sont des éléments clés. Dans le contexte général de la mobilité comme phénomène social, l’usage du terme de circulation apparaît intéressant à explorer pour mieux caractériser les mouvements de va-et-vient des individus entre différents contextes sanitaires ainsi que le pouvoi..