Garum, Liquamen and Muria: A new approach to the problem of definition

Introduction The picture of fish sauce that emerges from the ancient literature is complex. The ancient writers who discuss these products do so without the precision we need and often contradict each other so that a precise understanding of which sauce corresponds to which recipe, production process or name is less than clear. The ancient literary evidence is largely provided by two quite distinct kinds of text: on the one hand 1st c. AD elite Roman consumer perspectives from letters, Natura..

Moving beyond the rhetoric of consumer input in health technology assessment deliberations

At a health system level the importance of patient and public input into healthcare decision-making is well recognised. Patient and public involvement not only provides a mechanism to legitimise decisions but also contributes to improved translation of these decisions into practice, ultimately leading to better patient outcomes. Recent reviews in the health technology assessment space have identified the need for, and increased use of, patient input through systematic methodologies. Yet what does this mean in practical terms? This paper outlines both short and longer-term options for strengthening patient input into health technology assessment deliberations. This is particularly important given the planned reforms in this area and the commitment to public consultation as part of the reform process

The Characterization of Ribosomal RNA Gene Chromatin from Physarum Polycephalum

We have isolated ribosomal RNA gene (rDNA) chromatin from Physarum polycephalum using a nucleolar isolation procedure that minimizes protein loss from chromatin and, subsequently, either agarose gel electrophoresis or metrizamide gradient centrifugation to purify this chromatin fraction (Amero, S. A., Ogle, R. C., Keating, J. L., Montoya, V. L., Murdoch, W. L., and Grainger, R. M. (1988) J. Biol. Chem. 263, 10725-10733). Metrizamide-purified rDNA chromatin obtained from nucleoli isolated according to the new procedure has a core histone/DNA ratio of 0.77:1. The major core histone classes comigrate electrophoretically with their nuclear counterparts on Triton-acid-urea/sodium dodecyl sulfate two-dimensional gels, although they may not possess the extent of secondary modification evident with the nuclear histones. This purified rDNA chromatin also possesses RNA polymerase I activity, and many other nonhistone proteins, including two very abundant proteins (26 and 38 kDa) that may be either ribonucleoproteins or nucleolar matrix proteins. Micrococcal nuclease digestion of the metrizamide-purified rDNA chromatin produces particles containing 145-base pair DNA fragments identical in length to those in total chromatin and which contain both transcribed and nontranscribed rDNA sequences. Some smaller fragments (30, 70, and 110 base pairs) are also seen, but their sequence content is not known. These particles sediment uniformly at 11 S in sucrose gradients containing 15 mM NaCl, and at 4-11 S in gradients containing 0.35 M NaCl. Particles enriched in gene or nontranscribed spacer sequences are not resolved in these sucrose gradients or in metrizamide gradients. Our findings suggest that the rDNA chromatin fraction we have identified contains transcriptionally active genes and that an organized, particle-containing structure exists in active rDNA chromatin

The Purification of Ribosomal RNA Gene Chromatin from Physarum Polycephalum

We have undertaken the purification of ribosomal RNA gene (rDNA) chromatin from the slime mold Physarum polycephalum, in order to study its chromatin structure. In this organism rDNA exists in nucleoli as highly repeated minichromosomes, and one can obtain crude chromatin fractions highly enriched in rDNA from isolated nucleoli. We first developed a nucleolar isolation method utilizing polyamines as stabilization agents that results in a chromatin fraction containing far more protein than is obtained by the more commonly used divalent cation isolation methods. The latter method appears to result in extensive histone loss during chromatin isolations. Two methods were then used for purifying rDNA chromatin from nucleoli isolated by the polyamine procedure. We found that rDNA chromatin migrates as a single band in agarose gels, well separated from other components in the chromatin preparation. Although the utility of this technique is somewhat limited by low yields and by progressive stripping of protein from rDNA chromatin, it can provide useful information about rDNA chromatin protein composition. The application of this technique to the fractionation of gene and spacer chromatin fragments produced by restriction enzyme digestion is discussed. We also found that rDNA chromatin, if RNase-treated, bands discretely in metrizamide equilibrium density gradients with a density lighter than that of non-nucleolar chromatin. These characteristics suggest that we have identified a transcriptionally active rDNA chromatin fraction which possesses a lower protein to DNA ratio than does non-nucleolar chromatin. This technique yields sufficient purified rDNA chromatin for further biochemical studies and does not cause extensive protein stripping. The procedures developed here should be applicable to the analysis of a variety of chromatin fractions in other systems

Superspreaders drive the largest outbreaks of hospital onset COVID-19 infections.

SARS-CoV-2 is notable both for its rapid spread, and for the heterogeneity of its patterns of transmission, with multiple published incidences of superspreading behaviour. Here, we applied a novel network reconstruction algorithm to infer patterns of viral transmission occurring between patients and health care workers (HCWs) in the largest clusters of COVID-19 infection identified during the first wave of the epidemic at Cambridge University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, UK. Based upon dates of individuals reporting symptoms, recorded individual locations, and viral genome sequence data, we show an uneven pattern of transmission between individuals, with patients being much more likely to be infected by other patients than by HCWs. Further, the data were consistent with a pattern of superspreading, whereby 21% of individuals caused 80% of transmission events. Our study provides a detailed retrospective analysis of nosocomial SARS-CoV-2 transmission, and sheds light on the need for intensive and pervasive infection control procedures

Integrated miRNA/cytokine/chemokine profiling reveals severity-associated step changes and principal correlates of fatality in COVID-19

Inflammatory cytokines and chemokines (CC) drive COVID-19 pathology. Yet, patients with similar circulating CC levels present with different disease severity. Here, we determined 171 microRNAomes from 58 hospitalized COVID-19 patients (Cohort 1) and levels of 25 cytokines and chemokines (CC) in the same samples. Combining microRNA (miRNA) and CC measurements allowed for discrimination of severe cases with greater accuracy than using miRNA or CC levels alone. Severity group-specific associations between miRNAs and COVID-19-associated CC (e.g., IL6, CCL20) or clinical hallmarks of COVID-19 (e.g., neutrophilia, hypoalbuminemia) separated patients with similar CC levels but different disease severity. Analysis of an independent cohort of 108 patients from a different center (Cohort 2) demonstrated feasibility of CC/miRNA profiling in leftover hospital blood samples with similar severe disease CC and miRNA profiles, and revealed CCL20, IL6, IL10, and miR-451a as key correlates of fatal COVID-19. These findings highlight that systemic miRNA/CC networks underpin severe COVID-19

Fish & Ships

Les poissons et leurs dérivés sont durant l’Antiquité une des bases de l’alimentation en Méditerranée. Pour autant, l’état de nos connaissances sur ces produits souffre aujourd’hui encore de nombreuses lacunes, que cet ouvrage tente partiellement de combler. Pour cela, il était nécessaire de réunir des études de spécialistes de différents horizons, d’une part pour faire le point sur des zones qui désormais sont les vitrines de nos disciplines - l’Afrique et la péninsule Ibérique notamment -, et d’autre part pour mettre l’accent sur des aires géographiques ou des périodes qui sont encore trop peu connues ou étudiées. Cet ouvrage, articulé autour de trois thèmes respectivement dédiés à des approches historiographiques et technologiques, à des études archéologiques sur l’Afrique et, enfin, à d’autres consacrées au reste de la Méditerranée, est majoritairement composé d’articles écrits par de jeunes chercheurs dont les travaux récents constituent un apport documentaire fondamental pour le renouvellement des problématiques qui sont à l’origine de la rencontre publiée ici. En ce sens, ce volume marque une étape dans l’avancée de nos connaissances en ce domaine

A Comparative Risk Assessment Of Burden Of Disease And Injury Attributable To 67 Risk Factors And Risk Factor Clusters In 21 Regions, 1990–2010: A Systematic Analysis For The Global Burden Of Disease Study 2010

Background Quantification of the disease burden caused by different risks informs prevention by providing an account of health loss different to that provided by a disease-by-disease analysis. No complete revision of global disease burden caused by risk factors has been done since a comparative risk assessment in 2000, and no previous analysis has assessed changes in burden attributable to risk factors over time

Recipe

Quail pie For four individual pies 4 quails Stuffing mix as below Splash of white wine per pie Knob of butter per pie Short crust pastry mix as below Egg yolk for glaze The stuffing 1 onion, finely diced 60 g portobello mushrooms, chopped fine Oil 30 g pistachio, chopped 250 g lean pork mince 30 g raisins 30 g nibbed almonds 1 fresh or dried date, chopped 1 egg 60 g bread crumbs 1 level tea spoon ginger powder 1 level tea spoon cinnamon powder Generous pepper and a little salt Fry the onion a..

What’s in an Experiment? Roman Fish Sauce: an Experiment in Archaeology

This journal recently reported on an attempt to make fish sauce according to the recipe in Gargilius Martialis in order to asses their taste (Comis and Re 2009). This experiment seemed to fail on many levels and in fact the authors are quite honest in their conclusions that a great deal of further research is needed on the nature of these sauces before we can begin to consider what they may have tasted like. By a strange coincidence, at the time when I read this article in the summer of 2009, I was engaged in the preliminary preparations for extensive experiments to manufacture fish sauces for my MA dissertation in Archaeology at Reading University. My background is one which is ideally suited to engage in this project: as a professional chef who took a degree in Ancient History and went on to become a food historian, I have published widely on Roman food, including a new edition and translation of Apicius (Grocock and Grainger 2006). In my previous research into Roman food, it was clear that it was not going to be possible to truly understand ancient cuisine without first trying to gain some comprehension of the nature of garum and liquamen, and that required first hand experiments