Dedica dei Focidesi a Delfi

In the storage of the Archaeological Museum of Delphi two limestone fragments most probably belonging to the same inscription are preserved (inv. no. 1091 and inv. no. 37). The text consists of two lines, both heavily fragmentary; the letters are in the stoichedon pattern. 1091 reads τῶι at the beginning of the second line, whereas 37 reads αν, which is restored as [δεκάτ]αν in the first line, and λῶν in the second line, which is restored as [Θεσσαλ]ῶν (cf. Plut. De Pyth.or., 15: Φωκεῖς ἀπὸ Θεσσαλῶν). Both fragments feature traces of previous inscriptions engraved later in a Phocian context. As a consequence, it is highly probable that the authors of our inscription are Phocian. Modern scholarship maintains that the dedication referred to a tithe to Apollo by the Phocians after a victory over the Thessalians. However, as in the case of Syll.3 202B, there are at least four possible explanations: an archaic victory told by Herodotus, Pausanias and Plutarch; the battle of Argolas (modern Mendenitisa?), fought in 355 BC and referred to by Diodorus; a victory over the Galatians of Brennus (279 BC, cf. Paus. 10.8.3 and 10.23.3); an otherwise unknown victory by the Phocians

Grenzkonflikte und Gedenkrituale im antiken Sparta

Commemoration rituals and, more generally, the memory of war and war dead are continuously shaped in order to better represent the social and political instances of the group that is managing them. Such shaping activity also involves the program of festivals providing rituals of commemoration of war dead and applies all the more to frontier wars because of their recurrence. A typical example is the shaping of the Gymnopaidiai festival. There are three crucial events influencing at many levels the Gymnopaidiai and hinted by Sosybius (FGrHist 595 F 5): a battle at Thyrea (end of 8th century BC), commemorated by songs of Taletas and Alcman, later coming together in the Gymnopaidiai; the battle of the champions, as a consequence of which Sparta founded the Parparonia at Thyrea and inserted in the Gymnopaidiai peans of Dionisodotos; the recovery of the control over Thyrea by Argos (4th century BC), after which the Spartans transferred the Parparonia to Sparta, hence celebrated within the Gymnopaidiai. Instead, there is no evidence linking the Gymnopaidiai with the battle of Hysiai

Due dediche focidesi per una vittoria contro i Tessali? Analisi comparata di Syll.3 202B e Syll.3 203A

Il dossier sulla conflittualità tessalo-focidese comprende tradizionalmente oltre ad alcune fonti letterarie due epigrafi delfiche alquanto lacunose: Syll.3 202B e Syll.3 203A. I primi editori non hanno esitato a connetterle alle battaglie arcaiche descritte da Erodoto (VIII 27-28), Pausania (X 1, 3-11) e Plutarco (mul.virt. 2). Di recente è prevalso un atteggiamento di cautela suggerito soprattutto dalle pesanti integrazioni con le quali in passato si è intervenuto talora con disinvoltura eccessiva. D’altro canto questa cautela sconfina in certi casi in una deriva ipercritica che va di pari passo con una rigida separazione tra considerazioni epigrafiche da un lato e considerazioni storiche dall’altro, a discapito delle seconde. Questo studio si propone in primo luogo di riesaminare le due iscrizioni da un punto di vista epigrafico, comparandole con iscrizioni rinvenute a Delfi, Kalapodi, Elatea e Panopeo; in secondo luogo di riconsiderarle in un quadro complessivo cercando un equilibrio tra la suggestiva ma meccanica connessione di testimonianze epigrafiche e letterarie da un lato e l’ipercriticismo dall’altro. La combinazione di considerazioni di ordine epigrafico con un esame della storia delle Focide così come è riflessa nelle fonti letterarie di IV secolo e in quelle successive rende assai probabile l’ipotesi per cui le due epigrafi risalgano al IV secolo ma commemorino una vittoria arcaica sui Tessali. The dossier about the wars between Thessalians and Phokians also includes two very fragmentary inscriptions found in Delphi: Syll.3 202B and Syll.3 203A. The French and German epigraphists who edited them in the first half of referred to by Herodotus (8.27-28), Pausanias (10.1.3-11) and Plutarch (mul.virt. 2). In recent times, scholars have become more cautious because of the large amount of lacunae in the inscriptions that were rather freely restored in the past. On the other hand, this caution runs the risk of hypercriticism and goes hand in hand with a strict separation of historical remarks on the one side, and epigraphical ones, on the other side. This paper first tries to look for further clues by closely comparing Syll.3 202B and Syll.3 203A with other Phokian inscriptions found in Delphi, Kalapodi, Panopeus and Elateia. The paper then aims to combine the epigraphical approach with the historical one and to strike a balance between hypercriticism and positivistic inferences. A close consideration of the history of fourth-century Phokis confirms the results of a strict epigraphical analysis and provides further evidence supporting the restorations proposed by nineteenth-century epigraphists: Syll.3 202B and Syll.3 203A most probably date back to the fourth century but commemorate the archaic Thessalian-Phokian battles.

Due dediche focidesi per una vittoria contro i Tessali? Analisi comparata di Syll.3 202B e Syll.3 203A

Il dossier sulla conflittualità tessalo-focidese comprende tradizionalmente oltre ad alcune fonti letterarie due epigrafi delfiche alquanto lacunose: Syll.3 202B e Syll.3 203A. I primi editori non hanno esitato a connetterle alle battaglie arcaiche descritte da Erodoto (VIII 27-28), Pausania (X 1, 3-11) e Plutarco (mul.virt. 2). Di recente è prevalso un atteggiamento di cautela suggerito soprattutto dalle pesanti integrazioni con le quali in passato si è intervenuto talora con disinvoltura eccessiva. D’altro canto questa cautela sconfina in certi casi in una deriva ipercritica che va di pari passo con una rigida separazione tra considerazioni epigrafiche da un lato e considerazioni storiche dall’altro, a discapito delle seconde. Questo studio si propone in primo luogo di riesaminare le due iscrizioni da un punto di vista epigrafico, comparandole con iscrizioni rinvenute a Delfi, Kalapodi, Elatea e Panopeo; in secondo luogo di riconsiderarle in un quadro complessivo cercando un equilibrio tra la suggestiva ma meccanica connessione di testimonianze epigrafiche e letterarie da un lato e l’ipercriticismo dall’altro. La combinazione di considerazioni di ordine epigrafico con un esame della storia delle Focide così come è riflessa nelle fonti letterarie di IV secolo e in quelle successive rende assai probabile l’ipotesi per cui le due epigrafi risalgano al IV secolo ma commemorino una vittoria arcaica sui Tessali.The dossier about the wars between Thessalians and Phokians also includes two very fragmentary inscriptions found in Delphi: Syll.3 202B and Syll.3 203A. The French and German epigraphists who edited them in the first half of referred to by Herodotus (8.27-28), Pausanias (10.1.3-11) and Plutarch (mul.virt. 2). In recent times, scholars have become more cautious because of the large amount of lacunae in the inscriptions that were rather freely restored in the past. On the other hand, this caution runs the risk of hypercriticism and goes hand in hand with a strict separation of historical remarks on the one side, and epigraphical ones, on the other side. This paper first tries to look for further clues by closely comparing Syll.3 202B and Syll.3 203A with other Phokian inscriptions found in Delphi, Kalapodi, Panopeus and Elateia. The paper then aims to combine the epigraphical approach with the historical one and to strike a balance between hypercriticism and positivistic inferences. A close consideration of the history of fourth-century Phokis confirms the results of a strict epigraphical analysis and provides further evidence supporting the restorations proposed by nineteenth-century epigraphists: Syll.3 202B and Syll.3 203A most probably date back to the fourth century but commemorate the archaic Thessalian-Phokian battles

Grenzkonflikte und Gedenkrituale im antiken Sparta

Commemoration rituals and, more generally, the memory of war and war dead are continuously shaped in order to better represent the social and political instances of the group that is managing them. Such shaping activity also involves the program of festivals providing rituals of commemoration of war dead and applies all the more to frontier wars because of their recurrence. A typical example is the shaping of the Gymnopaidiai festival. There are three crucial events influencing at many levels the Gymnopaidiai and hinted by Sosybius (FGrHist 595 F 5): a battle at Thyrea (end of 8th century BC), commemorated by songs of Taletas and Alcman, later coming together in the Gymnopaidiai; the battle of the champions, as a consequence of which Sparta founded the Parparonia at Thyrea and inserted in the Gymnopaidiai peans of Dionisodotos; the recovery of the control over Thyrea by Argos (4th century BC), after which the Spartans transferred the Parparonia to Sparta, hence celebrated within the Gymnopaidiai. Instead, there is no evidence linking the Gymnopaidiai with the battle of Hysiai

Successful Pregnancy Outcome after Laparoscopic Cerclage in a Patient with Cervicovaginal Fistula

Obstetric fistula usually originates from obstructed labor or, less often, from invasive maneuvers on the genital tract or the pregnant uterus. Overall, it is a rare finding in the obstetric practice of high income countries. In this report we describe the case of a successful term pregnancy in a patient with a history of recurrent late miscarriage due to a large cervical fistula of traumatic origin, connecting the uterine cavity and the posterior vaginal fornix. A combined approach of laparoscopic cerclage and transvaginal fistula repair effectively restored cervical competence and created the conditions for a viable birth in a subsequent pregnancy. This unusual cause of cervical incompetence may be included in the indications which benefit from an abdominal cerclage carried out as a minimally invasive procedure in the nonpregnant state

Spotting local environments in self-assembled monolayer-protected gold nanoparticles

Organic-inorganic (O-I) nanomaterials are versatile platforms for an incredible high number of applications, ranging from heterogeneous catalysis, molecular sensing, cell targeting, imaging, cancer diagnosis and therapy, just to name a few. Much of their potential stems from the unique control of organic environments around inorganic sites within a single O-I nanomaterial, which allows for new properties inaccessible using purely organic or inorganic materials. Structural and mechanistic characterization plays a key role in understanding and rationally designing such hybrid nanoconstructs. Here, we introduce a general methodology to identify and classify local (supra)molecular environments in an archetypal class of O-I nanomaterials, i.e. self-assembled monolayer-protected gold nanoparticles (SAM-AuNPs). By using an atomistic machine-learning guided workflow based on the Smooth Overlap of Atomic Positions (SOAP) descriptor, we analyze a collection of chemically different SAM-AuNPs, and detect and compare local environments in a way that is agnostic and automated, i.e. with no need of a-priori information and minimal user intervention. In addition, the computational results coupled with experimental electron spin resonance measurements prove that is possible to have more than one local environment inside SAMs, being thickness of the organic shell and solvation primary factors in determining number and nature of multiple co-existing environments. These indications are extended to complex mixed hydrophilic-hydrophobic SAMs. This work demonstrates that it is possible to spot out and compare local molecular environments in SAM-AuNPs exploiting atomistic machine-learning approaches, establishes ground rules to control them, and holds the potential for rational design of O-I nanomaterials instructed from data

Evaluation of Factors Associated With Appropriate Drug Prescription and Effectiveness of Informative and Educational Interventions-The EDU.RE.DRUG Project

Background: EDU.RE.DRUG study is a prospective, multicentre, open-label, parallel-arm, controlled, pragmatic trial directed to general practitioners (GPs) and their patients. Methods: The study data were retrieved from health-related administrative databases of four local health units (LHUs) of Lombardy and four LHUs in Campania. According to the LHUs, the GPs/patients were assigned to (A) intervention on both GPs (feedback reports about appropriate prescribing among their patients and online courses) and patients (flyers and posters on proper drug use), (B) intervention on GPs, (C) intervention on patients, and (D) no intervention (control arm). A set of appropriate prescribing indicators (potential drug-drug interactions [pDDIs], potential and unnecessary therapeutic duplicates [pTDs], and inappropriate prescriptions in the elderly [ERD-list]) were measured at baseline and after the intervention phase. The effectiveness of the intervention was evaluated estimating the absolute difference in percentages of selected indicators carrying out linear random-intercept mixed-effect models. Results: A cohort of 3,586 GPs (2,567 in intervention groups and 1,019 in the control group) was evaluated. In Campania, the mean pre-intervention percentage of patients with at least one pDDI was always greater than 20% and always lower than 15% in Lombardy. The pre-post difference was quite heterogeneous among the LHUs, ranging from 1.9 to -1.4 percentage points. The mean pre-intervention percentage of patients with pTDs ranged from 0.59 to 2.1%, with slightly higher values characterizing Campania LHUs. The magnitude of the pre-post difference was very low, ranging from -0.11 to 0.20. In Campania, the mean pre-intervention percentage of patients with at least one ERD criterium was considerably higher than in Lombardy (approximately 30% in Lombardy and 50% in Campania). The pre-post difference was again quite heterogeneous. The results from the models accounting for GP geographical belonging suggested that none of the interventions resulted in a statistically significant effect, for all the three indicators considered. Conclusion: The proposed strategy was shown to be not effective in influencing the voluntary changes in GP prescription performance. However, the use of a set of explicit indicators proved to be useful in quantifying the inappropriateness. Further efforts are needed to find more efficient strategies and design more tailored interventions

Cyclic AMP efflux, via MRPs and A1 adenosine receptors, is critical for bovine sperm capacitation

Sperm capacitation has been largely associated with an increase in cAMP, although its relevance in the underlying mechanisms of this maturation process remains elusive. Increasing evidence shows that the extrusion of cAMP through multidrug resistance associated protein 4 (MRP4) regulates cell homeostasis not only in physiological but also in pathophysiological situations and studies from our laboratory strongly support this assumption. In the present work we sought to establish the role of cAMP efflux in the regulation of sperm capacitation. Sperm capacitation was performed in vitro by exposing bovine spermatozoa to bicarbonate 40 and 70 mM; cAMP; probenecid (a MRPs general inhibitor) and an adenosine type 1 receptor (A1 adenosine receptor) selective antagonist (DPCPX). Capacitation was assessed by chlortetracycline assay and lysophosphatidylcholine-induced acrosome reaction assessed by PSA-FITC staining. Intracellular and extracellular cAMP was measured by radiobinding the regulatory subunit of PKA under the same experimental conditions. MRP4 was detected by western blot and immunohistochemistry assays. Results showed that the inhibition of soluble adenylyl cyclase significantly inhibited bicarbonate-induced sperm capacitation. Furthermore, in the presence of 40 and 70 mM bicarbonate bovine spermatozoa synthesized and extruded cAMP. Interestingly, in the absence of IBMX (a PDEs inhibitor) cAMP efflux still operated in sperm cells, suggesting that cAMP extrusion would be a physiological process in the spermatozoa complementary to the action of PDE. Blockade of MRPs by probenecid abolished the efflux of the cyclic nucleotide resulting not only in the accumulation of intracellular cAMP but also in the inhibition of bicarbonate-induced sperm capacitation. The effect of probenecid was abolished by exposing sperm cells to cAMP. The high-affinity efflux pump for cAMP, MRP4 was expressed in bovine spermatozoa and localized to the midpiece of the tail as previously reported for soluble adenylyl cyclase and A1 adenosine receptor. Additionally, blockade of A1 adenosine receptor abolished not only bicarbonate-induced sperm capacitation but also that stimulated by cAMP. Present findings strongly support that cAMP efflux, presumably through MRP4, and the activation of A1 adenosine receptor regulate some events associated with bicarbonate-induced sperm capacitation, and further suggest a paracrine and/or autocrine role for cAMP.Fil: Osycka Salut, Claudia Elena. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Oficina de Coordinación Administrativa Houssay. Centro de Estudios Farmacológicos y Botánicos; Argentina. Universidad de Buenos Aires. Facultad de Medicina; ArgentinaFil: Diez, Federico Ruben. Universidad de Buenos Aires. Facultad de Farmacia y Bioquímica. Departamento de Farmacología; Argentina. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas; ArgentinaFil: Burdet, Juliana. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Oficina de Coordinación Administrativa Houssay. Centro de Estudios Farmacológicos y Botánicos; Argentina. Universidad de Buenos Aires. Facultad de Medicina; ArgentinaFil: Gervasi, Maria Gracia. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Oficina de Coordinación Administrativa Houssay. Centro de Estudios Farmacológicos y Botánicos; Argentina. Universidad de Buenos Aires. Facultad de Medicina; ArgentinaFil: Franchi, Ana Maria. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Oficina de Coordinación Administrativa Houssay. Centro de Estudios Farmacológicos y Botánicos; ArgentinaFil: Bianciotti, Liliana Graciela. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Oficina de Coordinación Administrativa Houssay. Instituto de Inmunología, Genética y Metabolismo; Argentina. Universidad de Buenos Aires. Facultad de Farmacia y Bioquímica. Departamento de Ciencias Biológicas. Cátedra de Fisiopatología; ArgentinaFil: Davio, Carlos Alberto. Universidad de Buenos Aires. Facultad de Farmacia y Bioquímica. Departamento de Farmacología; Argentina. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas; ArgentinaFil: Perez Martinez, Silvina Laura. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Oficina de Coordinación Administrativa Houssay. Centro de Estudios Farmacológicos y Botánicos; Argentina. Universidad de Buenos Aires. Facultad de Medicina; Argentin