Primera aproximación a la infraestructura portuaria saguntina

El presente articulo describe los trabajos de arqueología subacuática realizados en el sector marino del B.I.C. del Grau Vell (Puerto de Arse-Saguntum) financiados por la Autoridad Portuaria de Valencia (A.P.V). Dichos trabajos han permitido documentar e interpretar tanto los restos de estructura conocidos como "Trencatimons", como otra serie de conjuntos arqueológicos sumergidos pertenecientes a la infraestructura portuaria del yacimiento, localizados durante las prospecciones realizadas para el Estudio de Impacto Ambiental de la futura ampliación del Puerto comercial de Sagunto

Phoenicians’ naval architecture techniques

El presente trabajo pretende esbozar una hipóte - sis preliminar sobre cómo debieron de ser las técnicas y los rasgos arquitectónicos principales de los barcos de la cultura fenicia, a partir de los escasos restos materiales en madera que han llegado hasta la actualidad, analizando su origen y su posible difusión por el Mediterráneo. Desde una visión de conjunto de la arquitectura naval antigua y a través de la in - terpretación de algunos pecios jonio massaliotas y otros en la península ibérica, hemos tratado de esbozar cuáles debie - ron de ser las principales técnicas constructivas de los feni - cios, que por sus superiores prestaciones acabaron desban - cando primero a las tradiciones de herencia griega, para ya posteriormente en época helenística, perpetuarse hasta el fin de la Antigüedad. La técnica constructiva que probablemente difundieron los fenicios por el Mediterráneo es el armado del casco por espigas y mortajas fijadas por clavijas. En el pre - sente trabajo se hace la propuesta arqueológica de que los fe - nicios unieron la carpintería transversal al casco mediante la técnica denominada “clavos a la punta retorcida”.This paper offers an initial hypothesis concerning the techniques and architectural features of Phoenician sail - ing vessels, based on the limited wooden remains that have survived to the present, analyzing their origins and possi - ble diffusion throughout the Mediterranean. We believe that it is possible to highlight the most likely main features of Phoenician ship construction through a contextual analy - sis that incorporates a broader view of ancient naval archi - tecture along with a more detailed analysis of several spe - cific sites, including some Ionians and Iberian shipwrecks. Due to their superior performance characteristics, Phoe - nician shipbuilding techniques initially displaced those of the Greek shipbuilding traditions, and subsequently in the Hellenistic period were adopted by the Romans, persist - ing through Late Antiquity and beyond. It seems clear that pegged mortise-and-tenon joinery was a construction tech - nique of Phoenician origin, and we further argue that the Phoenicians joined frames to the hull by means of so-called “clenched” nails

Los veleros de comercio romano del Mediterráneo Occidental : análisis de familias y firmas arquitecturales (s. III a.C. - II d.C.)

La thèse que nous présenté vise, à partir de l’analyse des épaves des navires de commerce romains de la Méditerranée occidentale, à définir des « familles architecturales » à partir de critères significatifs constituant autant de «signatures architecturales » caractéristiques d’une même origine. Ces familles sont ensuite mises en relation, sur le plan chronologique et sur le plan géographique, en liaison avec un espace de navigation donné, afin de déterminer leur origine. Cette démarche se situe, humblement, dans le prolongement des études d’archéologie navale les plus récentes qui ont mis en évidence, sur le plan méthodologique, le rôle des notions de « système architectural », de « famille architecturale », de « signature architecturale » et d’« espace de navigation » realicees par Pomey. Ces études ont ainsi montré qu’il était possible à travers cette grille d’analyse de mettre en évidence l’existence de familles architecturales en rapport avec des contextes culturels bien définis. A niveau du étude théorique nous proposons une analyse fondée au sein de certains groupes architecturaux, sur le système d’assemblage de la membrure au bordé. Ce dernier système, dans ses diverses combinaisons possibles, constitue en effet, autant de « signatures architecturales » privilégiées dans le cadre de mon étude. Les résultats obtenus, notamment en mettant en relation les familles architecturales ainsi obtenues avec leur contexte économique, constituent une avancée sur le plan de l’archéologie navale et un apport considérable à l’étude du commerce maritime du monde romain. Il devient ainsi possible, de façon de plus en plus précise, de proposer des datations et des origines à partir de la seule étude d’architecture navale des épaves de navire. Du point de vue méthodologique, la thèse comporte tout d’abord une première partie consacrée à l’état des connaissances en archéologie navale et aux rapports théoriques entre les routes maritimes et l’architecture navale. Dans cette partie, nous abord le problème de l’étude des épaves et de leurs limites chronologiques et géographiques. Cette partie s’achève par l’étude des origines de la construction navale antique dite à « tenons et mortaises ». La deuxième partie constitue le coeur de la thèse proprement dit. Elle comporte un corpus de 56 épaves réparties chronologiquement en quatre groupes selon leur chronologie : époque hellénistique ; Haut Empire ; IIe-IIIe siècles ap. J.-C. ; Bas Empire, intéressant uniquement la Méditerranée occidentale. La troisième partie est purement méthodologiques et précise d’un point de vue pratique les méthodes d’analyse et d’étude utilisées: fiches descriptives ; archéologie expérimentale et modèle d’étude ; problème structural de la charpente transversale et indice de robustesse ; tonnage et règles de proportions. La quatrième et dernière partie, enfin, est consacrée aux divers résultats obtenus. Sur le plan de l’analyse, distingue, en premier lieu, une tradition « hybride » gréco-punique et une tradition « hybride » ibéro-punique sur la line des recherches de Pomey. Pour le monde romain de la péninsule italique, l’auteur distingue à nouveau deux traditions, l’une d’influence punique, l’autre de tradition grecque. Pour l’époque impériale, nous metons en relation l’évolution technique qui avait été déjà mise en évidence à cette époque avec la notion d’espace maritime. C’est notamment le cas pour les navires à dolia qui font l’objet d’une attention particulière. Au sein de cette évolution, distinguons plusieurs groupes à partir du système d’assemblage bordé-membrure pris comme « signature architecturale », soit les groupes : Campanie-Latium ; Latium ; Narbonnaise ; Tarraconaise. En revanche le groupe de Bétique, un temps envisagé, n’apparaît pas fondé

Salainen virhe kiinteistökaupassa, myyjän aseman turvaaminen

Kiinteistön laatuvirheisiin kuuluva salainen virhe on usein syynä kiinteistön ostajan ja myyjän välillä syntyvään riitaan. Tällä tutkimuksella halusin ensimmäiseksi selvittää, millainen myyjän asema on kiinteistökaupassa salaisen virheen suhteen ja toiseksi etsiä keinoja siihen, kuinka myyjän asemaa voidaan parantaa. Tarkastelin salaista virhettä oman kodin myyjän näkökulmasta. Maakaari ja erityisesti sen toinen luku, joka pitää sisällään kiinteistön virhesää-dökset, muodostivat teoreettisen viitekehyksen tutkimukselleni. Teoriaosiossa esittelen salaisen virheen käsitteenä ja kerron myyjän ja ostajan vastuista ja velvollisuuksista kiinteistökaupassa. Empiiriseen osioon keräsin aineistoa haastattelemalla eri kiinteistöalan asian-tuntijoita. Haastatteluihin valitsin asianajajan, kiinteistönvälittäjän ja kuntotarkastajan tuomaan erilaisia näkemyksiä salaisesta virheestä. Haastattelujen pohjalta päädyin tarkastelemaan myyjän suojakeinoina kuntotarkastusta ja sen roolia salaisen virheen löytämisessä tai ennakoinnissa. Perehdyin myös kauppakirjaan lisättäviin vastuunrajoitusehtoihin, joilla osapuolet voivat rajata omaa vastuutaan salaiselta virheeltä. Lisäksi tutkin saatavilla olevia vakuutuksia, jotka voivat tuoda turvaa myyjälle kiinteistöä myytäessä. Lisäksi selvitin, kuinka tehokkaita mainitut suojakeinoja ovat käytännössä. Tutkin aikaisempia oikeustapauksia salaisesta virheestä ja esittelin mielestäni tärkeimmät lyhyesti tutkimuksessani. Täysin varmaa suojaa myyjän ei ole mahdollista saada salaista virhettä vas-taan. Myyjä voi kuitenkin pyrkiä turvaamaan oman asemansa kiinteistön huolellisella tarkastuksella, jonka tekee pätevä kuntotarkastaja, käyttämällä yksilöityjä vastuunrajoitusehtoja kauppakirjassa ja ottamalla piilovirhevakuutuksen, jonka ehtoihin on tutustunut huolellisesti.Disputes over conveyancing transactions are fairly common in Finland. These are often caused by a hidden defect discovered in a property. The seller’s liabil-ity for this defect lasts for a period of five years starting from the date of the conveyance. Within this time the seller has often spent the money received from the sale of his property. Buyer’s demand for compensation or even cancellation of the conveyance completely can leave the seller in severe financial difficulties. In this study I have looked into the ways of improving the seller’s status in situations where the conveyance becomes contentious due to hidden defect. The information presented in the empirical part of this study was collected by interviewing a range of experts in the property field. A solicitor, an estate agent and a property surveyor were chosen for the interviews in order to gain a broad understanding on the matter. This study found that there are no definite ways for the seller to protect his standing. However, a seller can try to minimize the possibility of liability for the hidden defect by conducting a thorough survey of the property, adding a specific clause to the Contract of Sale and utilising an insurance specifically designed for hidden defects

Daytime and nighttime aerosol optical depth implementation in CÆLIS

The University of Valladolid (UVa, Spain) has managed a calibration center of the AErosol RObotic NETwork (AERONET) since 2006. The CÆLIS software tool, developed by UVa, was created to manage the data generated by AERONET photometers for calibration, quality control and data processing purposes. This paper exploits the potential of this tool in order to obtain products like the aerosol optical depth (AOD) and Ångström exponent (AE), which are of high interest for atmospheric and climate studies, as well as to enhance the quality control of the instruments and data managed by CÆLIS. The AOD and cloud screening algorithms implemented in CÆLIS, both based on AERONET version 3, are described in detail. The obtained products are compared with the AERONET database. In general, the differences in daytime AOD between CÆLIS and AERONET are far below the expected uncertainty of the instrument, ranging in mean differences between −1.3×10−4 at 870 nm and 6.2×10−4 at 380 nm. The standard deviations of the differences range from 2.8×10−4 at 675 nm to 8.1×10−4 at 340 nm. The AOD and AE at nighttime calculated by CÆLIS from Moon observations are also presented, showing good continuity between day and nighttime for different locations, aerosol loads and Moon phase angles. Regarding cloud screening, around 99.9 % of the observations classified as cloud-free by CÆLIS are also assumed cloud-free by AERONET; this percentage is similar for the cases considered cloud-contaminated by both databases. The obtained results point out the capability of CÆLIS as a processing system. The AOD algorithm provides the opportunity to use this tool with other instrument types and to retrieve other aerosol products in the future. This research has been supported by the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation (grant no. RTI2018-097864-B-I00) and the European Union's Horizon 2020 research and innovation program (grant no. 871115).The authors gratefully thank AERONET and PHOTONS teams for the collaboration and support. The authors thank the Spanish Ministry of Science, Innovation and Universities for the support through the ePOLAAR project (RTI2018-097864-B-I00). This research has been supported by the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation (grant no. RTI2018-097864-B-I00) and the European Union's Horizon 2020 research and innovation program (grant no. 871115)

Clonal chromosomal mosaicism and loss of chromosome Y in elderly men increase vulnerability for SARS-CoV-2

The pandemic caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2, COVID-19) had an estimated overall case fatality ratio of 1.38% (pre-vaccination), being 53% higher in males and increasing exponentially with age. Among 9578 individuals diagnosed with COVID-19 in the SCOURGE study, we found 133 cases (1.42%) with detectable clonal mosaicism for chromosome alterations (mCA) and 226 males (5.08%) with acquired loss of chromosome Y (LOY). Individuals with clonal mosaic events (mCA and/or LOY) showed a 54% increase in the risk of COVID-19 lethality. LOY is associated with transcriptomic biomarkers of immune dysfunction, pro-coagulation activity and cardiovascular risk. Interferon-induced genes involved in the initial immune response to SARS-CoV-2 are also down-regulated in LOY. Thus, mCA and LOY underlie at least part of the sex-biased severity and mortality of COVID-19 in aging patients. Given its potential therapeutic and prognostic relevance, evaluation of clonal mosaicism should be implemented as biomarker of COVID-19 severity in elderly people. Among 9578 individuals diagnosed with COVID-19 in the SCOURGE study, individuals with clonal mosaic events (clonal mosaicism for chromosome alterations and/or loss of chromosome Y) showed an increased risk of COVID-19 lethality

Common variants in Alzheimer’s disease and risk stratification by polygenic risk scores

Funder: Funder: Fundación bancaria ‘La Caixa’ Number: LCF/PR/PR16/51110003 Funder: Grifols SA Number: LCF/PR/PR16/51110003 Funder: European Union/EFPIA Innovative Medicines Initiative Joint Number: 115975 Funder: JPco-fuND FP-829-029 Number: 733051061Genetic discoveries of Alzheimer's disease are the drivers of our understanding, and together with polygenetic risk stratification can contribute towards planning of feasible and efficient preventive and curative clinical trials. We first perform a large genetic association study by merging all available case-control datasets and by-proxy study results (discovery n = 409,435 and validation size n = 58,190). Here, we add six variants associated with Alzheimer's disease risk (near APP, CHRNE, PRKD3/NDUFAF7, PLCG2 and two exonic variants in the SHARPIN gene). Assessment of the polygenic risk score and stratifying by APOE reveal a 4 to 5.5 years difference in median age at onset of Alzheimer's disease patients in APOE ɛ4 carriers. Because of this study, the underlying mechanisms of APP can be studied to refine the amyloid cascade and the polygenic risk score provides a tool to select individuals at high risk of Alzheimer's disease

Mitochondrial physiology

As the knowledge base and importance of mitochondrial physiology to evolution, health and disease expands, the necessity for harmonizing the terminology concerning mitochondrial respiratory states and rates has become increasingly apparent. The chemiosmotic theory establishes the mechanism of energy transformation and coupling in oxidative phosphorylation. The unifying concept of the protonmotive force provides the framework for developing a consistent theoretical foundation of mitochondrial physiology and bioenergetics. We follow the latest SI guidelines and those of the International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry (IUPAC) on terminology in physical chemistry, extended by considerations of open systems and thermodynamics of irreversible processes. The concept-driven constructive terminology incorporates the meaning of each quantity and aligns concepts and symbols with the nomenclature of classical bioenergetics. We endeavour to provide a balanced view of mitochondrial respiratory control and a critical discussion on reporting data of mitochondrial respiration in terms of metabolic flows and fluxes. Uniform standards for evaluation of respiratory states and rates will ultimately contribute to reproducibility between laboratories and thus support the development of data repositories of mitochondrial respiratory function in species, tissues, and cells. Clarity of concept and consistency of nomenclature facilitate effective transdisciplinary communication, education, and ultimately further discovery