Epigrafía del Paisaje en el análisis de la materialidad funeraria

In this paper, we propose to study the funerary dimension through iconographic representations and descriptions about the provision of offerings in relation to political institutions (temples and palaces) and the state administration of Ur in Mesopotamia and Thebes in Egypt, considering the places in the landscape, valuing both its physical properties and weighing its intangible aspects. To this end, we focus on an approach that is based on the analysis of documents that refer to funeral spaces, but also highlighting aspects concerning their production, distribution, and storage. In this way, elements related to their systemic contexts and their semantic characters (or internal components) are emphasized. For this reason, we call this analysis perspective Landscape Epigraphy and it can be thought of in parallel to that of «materiality of the linguistic sign», which maintains that writing can be considered a materiality that recreates the universe of social relations, by bring together in the modality of texts and iconographies, cultural interventions, and mental representations with the selected places in the regional space. To do this, a tripartition of the landscape between humans, places, and objects is contemplated, focusing on: (a) practices, (b) agents, and (c) spatialities.En el presente trabajo, proponemos estudiar la dimensión funeraria a través de representaciones iconográficas y descripciones sobre la provisión de ofrendas en relación con las instituciones políticas (templos y palacios) y la administración estatal de Ur en Mesopotamia y de Tebas en Egipto, considerando los lugares en el paisaje, valorando tanto sus propiedades físicas como ponderando sus aspectos intangibles. A tal fin, nos focalizamos en un abordaje que se sustenta en el análisis de documentos que refieren a espacios funerarios, pero destacando también aspectos concernientes a su producción, distribución y almacenamiento. De este modo, enfatizamos elementos relativos a sus contextos sistémicos y sus caracteres semánticos (o componentes internos). Por tal motivo, a esta perspectiva de análisis, la denominamos Epigrafía del Paisaje y puede ser pensada en paralelo a la de «materialidad del signo lingüístico», la cual sostiene que la escritura puede considerarse una materialidad que recrea el universo de las relaciones sociales, al reunir en la modalidad de textos e iconografías, intervenciones culturales y representaciones mentales con los lugares seleccionados en el espacio regional. Para ello, se contempla una tripartición del paisaje entre humanos, lugares y objetos haciendo foco en: (a) las prácticas, (b) los agentes intervinientes y (c) las espacialidades reconocibles

Neferhotep’s tomb (TT49) funerary chapel: advances in the documentation process

En el marco de la Misión Argentina en Luxor, se llevó a cabo una nueva documentación fotográfica y digitalización de la iconografía de la tumba tebana TT49 perteneciente a Neferhotep, quien fuera funcionario bajo el reinado de Ay. En la campaña de 2018 la documentación de epigrafía se focalizó en los cuatro pilares de la capilla funeraria del monumento y se tomaron nuevas fotografías para actualizar el material disponible y proceder a su dibujo digital. Se considera que el análisis de los dibujos digitales y observaciones realizadas durante el proceso de copiado contribuyen al estudio de las especificidades de la tumba. El objetivo del presente trabajo es presentar el proceso de digitalización y las estrategias adoptadas para mejorar los dibujos a fin de contribuir al corpus documental y estilístico post-amarniano.As part of the tasks of the of the Argentine Mission in Luxor, new photographic documentation and digitalization of the iconography of the Theban tomb TT49, belonging to Neferhotep, was carried out. He was an officer under Ay’s reign. During the 2018 fieldwork, the epigraphic documentation focused on the four pillars of the funerary chapel. The team took new pictures to update the available photographic material and to work on their digital drawings. The analysis of digital drawings and observations made during the copy process contributes to the study of the tomb´s specificities. The aim of this paper is to present the digitalization process and the strategies used to improve the drawings in order to contribute to the post-amarnian documentary and stylistic corpus

Effects of urban density on carbon dioxide exchanges: observations of dense urban, suburban and woodland areas of southern England

Anthropogenic and biogenic controls on the surface–atmosphere exchange of CO2 are explored for three different environments. Similarities are seen between suburban and woodland sites during summer, when photosynthesis and respiration determine the diurnal pattern of the CO2 flux. In winter, emissions from human activities dominate urban and suburban fluxes; building emissions increase during cold weather, while traffic is a major component of CO2 emissions all year round. Observed CO2 fluxes reflect diurnal traffic patterns (busy throughout the day (urban); rush-hour peaks (suburban)) and vary between working days and non-working days, except at the woodland site. Suburban vegetation offsets some anthropogenic emissions, but 24-h CO2 fluxes are usually positive even during summer. Observations are compared to estimated emissions from simple models and inventories. Annual CO2 exchanges are significantly different between sites, demonstrating the impacts of increasing urban density (and decreasing vegetation fraction) on the CO2 flux to the atmosphere

Social Networks Shape the Transmission Dynamics of Hepatitis C Virus

Hepatitis C virus (HCV) infects 170 million people worldwide, and is a major public health problem in Brazil, where over 1% of the population may be infected and where multiple viral genotypes co-circulate. Chronically infected individuals are both the source of transmission to others and are at risk for HCV-related diseases, such as liver cancer and cirrhosis. Before the adoption of anti-HCV control measures in blood banks, this virus was mainly transmitted via blood transfusion. Today, needle sharing among injecting drug users is the most common form of HCV transmission. Of particular importance is that HCV prevalence is growing in non-risk groups. Since there is no vaccine against HCV, it is important to determine the factors that control viral transmission in order to develop more efficient control measures. However, despite the health costs associated with HCV, the factors that determine the spread of virus at the epidemiological scale are often poorly understood. Here, we sequenced partial NS5b gene sequences sampled from blood samples collected from 591 patients in São Paulo state, Brazil. We show that different viral genotypes entered São Paulo at different times, grew at different rates, and are associated with different age groups and risk behaviors. In particular, subtype 1b is older and grew more slowly than subtypes 1a and 3a, and is associated with multiple age classes. In contrast, subtypes 1a and 3b are associated with younger people infected more recently, possibly with higher rates of sexual transmission. The transmission dynamics of HCV in São Paulo therefore vary by subtype and are determined by a combination of age, risk exposure and underlying social network. We conclude that social factors may play a key role in determining the rate and pattern of HCV spread, and should influence future intervention policies

Anthropogenic heat flux: advisable spatial resolutions when input data are scarce

Anthropogenic heat flux (QF) may be significant in cities, especially under low solar irradiance and at night. It is of interest to many practitioners including meteorologists, city planners and climatologists. QF estimates at fine temporal and spatial resolution can be derived from models that use varying amounts of empirical data. This study compares simple and detailed models in a European megacity (London) at 500 m spatial resolution. The simple model (LQF) uses spatially resolved population data and national energy statistics. The detailed model (GQF) additionally uses local energy, road network and workday population data. The Fractions Skill Score (FSS) and bias are used to rate the skill with which the simple model reproduces the spatial patterns and magnitudes of QF, and its sub-components, from the detailed model. LQF skill was consistently good across 90% of the city, away from the centre and major roads. The remaining 10% contained elevated emissions and B hot spots ^ representing 30 – 40% of the total city-wide energy. This structure was lost because it requires workday population, spatially resolved building energy consumption and/or road network data. Daily total building and traffic energy consumption estimates from national data were within ± 40% of local values. Progressively coarser spatial resolutions to 5 km improved skill for total Q F , but important features (hot spots, transport network) were lost at all resolutions when residential population controlled spatial variations. The results demonstrate that simple QF models should be applied with conservative spatial resolution in cities that, like London, exhibit time-varying energy use patterns

Molecular evolution of zika virus during its emergence in the 20th century

Zika virus (ZIKV) is a mosquito-borne flavivirus first isolated in Uganda in 1947. Although entomological and virologic surveillance have reported ZIKV enzootic activity in diverse countries of Africa and Asia, few human cases were reported until 2007, when a Zika fever epidemic took place in Micronesia. In the context of West Africa, the WHO Collaborating Centre for Arboviruses and Hemorrhagic Fever at Institut Pasteur of Dakar (http://www.pasteur.fr/recherche/banques/CRORA/) reports the periodic circulation of ZIKV since 1968. Despite several reports on ZIKV, the genetic relationships among viral strains from West Africa remain poorly understood. To evaluate the viral spread and its molecular epidemiology, we investigated 37 ZIKV isolates collected from 1968 to 2002 in six localities in Senegal and Côte d'Ivoire. In addition, we included strains from six other countries. Our results suggested that these two countries in West Africa experienced at least two independent introductions of ZIKV during the 20th century, and that apparently these viral lineages were not restricted by mosquito vector species. Moreover, we present evidence that ZIKV has possibly undergone recombination in nature and that a loss of the N154 glycosylation site in the envelope protein was a possible adaptive response to the Aedes dalzieli vector.Institute Pasteur of Dakar in SenegalFAPESP (Fundação de Amparo a Pesquisa do Estado de Sao Paulo, Brazil) projects #00/04205-6FAPESP (Fundação de Amparo a Pesquisa do Estado de Sao Paulo, Brazil) projects #08/17013-6FAPESP (Fundação de Amparo a Pesquisa do Estado de Sao Paulo, Brazil) projects#10/19341-4CAPES studentship, AI (project #12/04818-5)FAPESP scholarships and PMAZCNPq-PQNIH, R01-AI06914

BF Integrase Genes of HIV-1 Circulating in São Paulo, Brazil, with a Recurrent Recombination Region

Although some studies have shown diversity in HIV integrase (IN) genes, none has focused particularly on the gene evolving in epidemics in the context of recombination. The IN gene in 157 HIV-1 integrase inhibitor-naïve patients from the São Paulo State, Brazil, were sequenced tallying 128 of subtype B (23 of which were found in non-B genomes), 17 of subtype F (8 of which were found in recombinant genomes), 11 integrases were BF recombinants, and 1 from subtype C. Crucially, we found that 4 BF recombinant viruses shared a recurrent recombination breakpoint region between positions 4900 and 4924 (relative to the HXB2) that includes 2 gRNA loops, where the RT may stutter. Since these recombinants had independent phylogenetic origin, we argue that these results suggest a possible recombination hotspot not observed so far in BF CRF in particular, or in any other HIV-1 CRF in general. Additionally, 40% of the drug-naïve and 45% of the drug-treated patients had at least 1 raltegravir (RAL) or elvitegravir (EVG) resistance-associated amino acid change, but no major resistance mutations were found, in line with other studies. Importantly, V151I was the most common minor resistance mutation among B, F, and BF IN genes. Most codon sites of the IN genes had higher rates of synonymous substitutions (dS) indicative of a strong negative selection. Nevertheless, several codon sites mainly in the subtype B were found under positive selection. Consequently, we observed a higher genetic diversity in the B portions of the mosaics, possibly due to the more recent introduction of subtype F on top of an ongoing subtype B epidemics and a fast spread of subtype F alleles among the B population

Urban signals in high-resolution weather and climate simulations: role of urban land-surface characterisation

Two urban schemes within the Joint UK Land Environment Simulator (JULES) are evaluated offline against multi-year flux observations in the densely built-up city centre of London and in suburban Swindon (UK): (i) the 1-tile slab model, used in climate simulations, (ii) the 2-tile canopy model MORUSES (Met Office–Reading Urban Surface Exchange Scheme), used for numerical weather pre- diction over the UK. Offline, both models perform better at the suburban site, where differences between the urban schemes are less pronounced due to larger vegetation fractions. At both sites, the outgoing short- and longwave radiation is more accurately represented than the turbulent heat fluxes. The seasonal varia- tions of model skill are large in London, where the sensible heat flux in autumn and winter is strongly under-predicted if the large city-centre magnitudes of anthro- pogenic heat emissions are not represented. The delayed timing of the sensible heat flux in the 1-tile model in London results in large negative bias in the morning. The partitioning of the urban surface into canyon and roof in MORUSES improves this as the roof-tile is modelled with a very low thermal inertia, but phase and amplitude of the gridbox-averaged flux critically depend on accurate knowledge of the plan-area fractions of streets and buildings. Not representing non-urban land- cover (e.g. vegetation, inland water) in London results in severely under-predicted latent heat fluxes. Control runs demonstrate that the skill of both models can be greatly improved by providing accurate land-cover and morphology information and using representative anthropogenic heat emissions, which is essential if the model output is intended to inform integrated urban services

Phylogeographic Analysis of HIV-1 Subtype C Dissemination in Southern Brazil

The HIV-1 subtype C has spread efficiently in the southern states of Brazil (Rio Grande do Sul, Santa Catarina and Paraná). Phylogeographic studies indicate that the subtype C epidemic in southern Brazil was initiated by the introduction of a single founder virus population at some time point between 1960 and 1980, but little is known about the spatial dynamics of viral spread. A total of 135 Brazilian HIV-1 subtype C pol sequences collected from 1992 to 2009 at the three southern state capitals (Porto Alegre, Florianópolis and Curitiba) were analyzed. Maximum-likelihood and Bayesian methods were used to explore the degree of phylogenetic mixing of subtype C sequences from different cities and to reconstruct the geographical pattern of viral spread in this country region. Phylogeographic analyses supported the monophyletic origin of the HIV-1 subtype C clade circulating in southern Brazil and placed the root of that clade in Curitiba (Paraná state). This analysis further suggested that Florianópolis (Santa Catarina state) is an important staging post in the subtype C dissemination displaying high viral migration rates from and to the other cities, while viral flux between Curitiba and Porto Alegre (Rio Grande do Sul state) is very low. We found a positive correlation (r2 = 0.64) between routine travel and viral migration rates among localities. Despite the intense viral movement, phylogenetic intermixing of subtype C sequences from different Brazilian cities is lower than expected by chance. Notably, a high proportion (67%) of subtype C sequences from Porto Alegre branched within a single local monophyletic sub-cluster. These results suggest that the HIV-1 subtype C epidemic in southern Brazil has been shaped by both frequent viral migration among states and in situ dissemination of local clades