Co-presence Analysis and Economic Patterns: Mediterranean Imports in the Celtic World

International audienceThis article presents one of the first steps of a project that aims at exploring the diffusion patterns of Mediterranean imported goods in Late Iron Age Europe (250–25 BC) and the organization of the commercial interactions of these goods. It brings together two archeologists and a mathematician in the study of a large inventory of 57,735 Italian and Greek imports discovered from England to Serbia. This large amount of new and unpublished data is analyzed through the joint use of network analysis tools and formal statistical methods. The analysis focuses on detecting patterns in the association of imported artifacts that are often found on the same sites. The objectives are to highlight groups of imports that may have circulated together and to emphasize regional selections by local populations. At this stage of the study, two main systems of imports have been highlighted used, respectively, in West and Central Europe. Interesting leads that will need further investigation include the imports status and the role they played in Celtic societies, as acculturated objects or more as objects for acculturation

Associations of clock genes polymorphisms with soft tissue sarcoma susceptibility and prognosis

BACKGROUND: Dysfunction of the circadian clock and polymorphisms of some circadian genes have been linked to cancer development and progression. We investigated the relationship between circadian genes germline variation and susceptibility or prognosis of patients with soft tissue sarcoma. PATIENTS AND METHODS: We considered the 14 single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) of 6 core circadian genes that have a minor allele frequency >\u20095% and that are known to be associated with cancer risk or prognosis. Genotyping was performed by q-PCR. Peripheral blood and clinic-pathological data were available for 162 patients with liposarcoma or leiomyosarcoma and 610 healthy donors. Associations between the selected clock genes polymorphisms and sarcoma susceptibility or prognosis were tested assuming 3 models of inheritance: additive, recessive and dominant. Subgroup analysis based on sarcoma histotype was performed under the additive genetic model. Multivariate logistic regression and multivariate Cox proportional hazard regression analyses were utilized to assess the association between SNPs with patient susceptibility and survival, respectively. Pathway variation analysis was conducted employing the Adaptive Rank Truncated Product method. RESULTS: Six out of the 14 analyzed SNPs were statistically significantly associated with susceptibility or prognosis of soft tissue sarcoma (P <\u20090.05). The present analysis suggested that carriers of the minor allele of the CLOCK polymorphism rs1801260 (C) or of PER2 rs934945 (T) had a reduced predisposition to sarcoma (26% and 35% respectively with the additive model) and liposarcoma (33% and 41% respectively). The minor allele (A) of NPAS2 rs895520 was associated with an increased predisposition to sarcoma of 33% and leiomyosarcoma of 44%. RORA rs339972 C allele was associated with a decreased predisposition to develop sarcoma assuming an additive model (29%) and leiomyosarcoma (36%). PER1 rs3027178 was associated with a reduced predisposition only in liposarcoma subgroup (32%). rs7602358 located upstream PER2 was significantly associated with liposarcoma survival (HR: 1.98; 95% CI 1.02-3.85; P\u2009=\u20090.04). Germline genetic variation in the circadian pathway was associated with the risk of developing soft tissue sarcoma (P\u2009=\u20090.035). CONCLUSIONS: Genetic variation of circadian genes appears to play a role in the determinism of patient susceptibility and prognosis. These findings prompt further studies to fully dissect the molecular mechanisms

Targeting Polymorphonuclear Leukocytes in Acute Myocardial Infarction

Several studies have recognized the strong impact that the acute myocardial infarctions (AMI) have on the morbidity and mortality of patients affected by cardiovascular diseases. Still open, however, is the field concerning the mediators and the pathways involved in the etiology of this cardiovascular event. The present review would support the relatively new discovered role that the polymorphonuclear leukocytes (PMNs) have in the pathogenesis of the AMI, through a brief analysis of past and ongoing research. Particularly, it is reviewed here the possibility that inhibition of the activity of PMNs and inhibition of the signaling pathways related to their activity may result useful in AMI and may improve the prognosis of this pathology. This review, indeed, presents and discusses new data on one of the lipid kinase, the phosphoinositide 3-kinase gamma (PI3Kγ), and its role in neutrophil recruitment during AMI

"Videns se in periculo mortis". Ultime volont\ue0 di prigionieri nel secolo XIII (Verona, Vicenza, Treviso)

Nel contributo si analizzano le ultime volont\ue0 di alcuni prigionieri che furono incarcerati e condannati a morte nell\u2019et\ue0 di Ezzelino III da Romano. Fra i personaggi che ricorrono con una certa frequenza nell\u2019elenco dei testimoni si segnalano in particolare alcuni uomini di Chiesa, la cui presenza all\u2019interno del carcere rinvia alla dimensione religiosa dell\u2019atto testamentario nel basso medioevo e al ruolo che fin dai primi secoli la Chiesa ebbe nell\u2019assistenza ai detenuti

Leprosy, Lepers and Leprosariums in Medieval Italy. Management of Assistance, Daily Life and Religious Experiences in Documents and Narration

This contribution is aimed at presenting the different phases of a research project entitled Leprosy, Lepers and Leprosaria in Medieval Italy. The Management of Charit, Daily Life and Religious Experiences in Documents and Narrative. The project has become necessary because, unlike the case of more generalized research on hospitals, in which Italian historians have continued maintain a high level of innovation in terms of topics and methodologies, since the early 1990s the scholarship in Italy on lepers and leper hospitals has seen a sharp decline in the number of works and a move away from the interdisciplinary approach that has characterized the numerous studies that have appeared in Europe and especially in France. The project aims to provide a map of Italian leproseries between the 12th- 14th centuries and, at the same time, to create an edition of thirteenth century documents of Verona’s leper hospital S. Giacomo alla Tomba, which constitutes a case-study in Italy’s panorama of documents.Il contributo si propone di presentare le diverse fasi di un progetto di ricerca intitolato Lebbra, lebbrosi e lebbrosari nell’Italia medievale. Gestione dell’assistenza, vita quotidiana ed esperienze religiose fra documenti e narrazione. Si è reso necessario avviare questo progetto perché, a differenza della più generale storia ospedaliera, dove la storiografia italiana ha mantenuto un alto livello di studi e notevole capacità di innovazione nei temi e nelle metodologie, la ricerca sui lebbrosi e sui lebbrosari in Italia ha registrato, a partire dall’inizio degli anni Novanta, un deciso calo di indagini e si è allontanata dal fecondo approccio interdisciplinare che ha invece caratterizzato le numerose pubblicazioni realizzatesi in Europa e soprattutto in Francia. Il progetto si propone di eseguire una mappatura dei lebbrosari italiani nei secoli XII-XIV e contemporaneamente di realizzare l’edizione dei documenti duecenteschi del lebbrosario veronese di S. Giacomo alla Tomba, che costituisce un case-study nel panorama documentario italiano

Religiones novae e ordini mendicanti

Il contributo effettua una sintesi problematica della storia e della storiografia relativa alla nascita e alla diffusione, fra XII e XIII secolo, delle principali religiones novae e degli ordini mendicanti sorti nell\u2019Occidente cristiano. Il contributo \ue8 corredato da una bibliografia ragionata

Circadian pathway genetic variation and cancer risk: Evidence from genome-wide association studies

Background: Dysfunction of the circadian clock and single polymorphisms of some circadian genes have been linked to cancer susceptibility, although data are scarce and findings inconsistent. We aimed to investigate the association between circadian pathway genetic variation and risk of developing common cancers based on the findings of genome-wide association studies (GWASs). Methods: Single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) of 17 circadian genes reported by three GWAS meta-analyses dedicated to breast (Discovery, Biology, and Risk of Inherited Variants in Breast Cancer (DRIVE) Consortium; cases, n = 15,748; controls, n = 18,084), prostate (Elucidating Loci Involved in Prostate Cancer Susceptibility (ELLIPSE) Consortium; cases, n = 14,160; controls, n = 12,724) and lung carcinoma (Transdisciplinary Research In Cancer of the Lung (TRICL) Consortium; cases, n = 12,160; controls, n = 16,838) in patients of European ancestry were utilized to perform pathway analysis by means of the adaptive rank truncated product (ARTP) method. Data were also available for the following subgroups: estrogen receptor negative breast cancer, aggressive prostate cancer, squamous lung carcinoma and lung adenocarcinoma. Results: We found a highly significant statistical association between circadian pathway genetic variation and the risk of breast (pathway P value = 1.9 x 10(-6); top gene RORA, gene P value = 0.0003), prostate (pathway P value= 4.1x10(-6); top gene ARNTL, gene P value = 0.0002) and lung cancer (pathway P value = 6.9 x 10(-7); top gene RORA, gene P value= 2.0 x 10(-6)), as well as all their subgroups. Out of 17 genes investigated, 15 were found to be significantly associated with the risk of cancer: four genes were shared by all three malignancies (ARNTL, CLOCK, RORA and RORB), two by breast and lung cancer (CRY1 and CRY2) and three by prostate and lung cancer (NPAS2, NR1D1 and PER3), whereas four genes were specific for lung cancer (ARNTL2, CSNK1E, NR1D2 and PER2) and two for breast cancer (PER1, RORC). Conclusions: Our findings, based on the largest series ever utilized for ARTP-based gene and pathway analysis, support the hypothesis that circadian pathway genetic variation is involved in cancer predisposition

Interpretation of the "obesity paradox": A 30-year study in patients with cardiovascular disease

Background: Several epidemiological reports indicate that the body mass index (BMI) is inversely related with mortality, in spite of the notion that obesity is a recognized cardio-metabolic risk factor. The aim of the study was to evaluate the independent impact of overweight and obesity on long-term mortality in a large cohort of patients with heart disease (HD). Methods: The study included 10,446 patients hospitalized in the last three decades for ischemic (60%) or nonischemic HD and followed-up for 10 years. The relationship between BMI and total or cardiovascular mortality was analyzed in the whole cohort, and in age-stratified categories (≤65 and >65 years). Considering that survival in HD patients has improved after the introduction of revascularization, beta-blockers, ACE inhibitors, and statins, the relationship was re-examined separately in patients hospitalized before and after 1990. Results: Diabetes, hyperuricemia, hypertension, glycaemia, and triglyceridemia increased across BMI groups. During follow-up (73?59 months) there were 1707 all-cause deaths (47% cardiac). Any relationship between BMI and mortality was lost in the ≤65 age category and in patients hospitalized before 1990, but it persisted in old patients hospitalized after 1990. Most significant independent predictors of mortality in all groups were hyperuricemia, diabetes and impaired ejection fraction. Conclusions: No independent relationship was found between BMI and mortality in subjects ≤65 years of age. This neutral relationship seems to be partly counteracted by treatment, particularly in old patients. A different effect of obesity onset in old vs. young age cannot be ruled out