The biological affinities of several Romano-British and Anglo-Saxon populations as shown by dental morphology

The aim of the research presented in this thesis is to test the applicability of some of the techniques of dental anthropology to begin to provide answers to certain questions facing British archaeology. The question directly confronted in this thesis is how the change in fifth century Britain, manifested by a change in cultural material from archaeological sites, came to pass. The transition from the Romano-British period to the Anglo-Saxon period in the country now known as England is often assumed to have occurred as a result of invasions from people known as Angles, Saxons and Jutes. A common belief is that these Continental invaders wiped out the local population. The resultant replacement of the earlier culture with a 'Germanic' culture is due to these invasions. The competing hypothesis is that of biological continuity with cultural replacement. Either of these hypotheses can be supported when one examines only cultural aspects of the populations. Pottery, clothing, building and burial styles, as well as the history of the English language, have all been used to support versions of both hypotheses. It is at least theoretically possible for all of these cultural trappings to change without any biological contribution from an outside source. To ascertain which hypothesis more accurately describes the events of the fifth century in Britain, one must first know how the populations from the later period are related to those from the earlier period. To do that, one must assess the biological profiles of each population and compare them. The remains of a total of 799 people from seven sites dated to the Romano-British and Anglo-Saxon periods are evaluated using the Arizona State University Dental Anthropology Scoring method. Six of the sites were chosen in pairs, one from the Romano-British period and one from the Anglo-Saxon period in each pair, in order to test for continuity or discontinuity across time. The site pairs were spread across Southern England to test for changes across geography. Several statistical methods are used to explore the data. The results of two different distance measures show that people buried in Anglo-Saxon sites are closely related to people buried in nearby Romano-British sites. These results clearly support the hypothesis of biological continuity in the face of cultural change

Bodies in Transition – Dissolving the Boundaries of Embodied Knowledge

This volume engages from the perspective of the an- cient Mediterranean world with current debates in the field of cultural studies revolving around the idea of embodied knowledge. In particular, it deals with the dissolution of the concept of the ideal body as a repos- itory of knowledge through instances of deformation or hybridization. The starting point comprises a series of case studies of less than perfect bodies: bodies that are misshapen, stigmatized, fragmented, as well as hybrid human/ animal creatures, transgendered persons, and bodies on the cultural periphery of the classical world. All of these examples represent deviations from the ‘normal’ order of things and evoke familiar feelings of alienation. The ordered knowledge that has shaped the body is subverted and falls into disorder. One strategy for dealing with this is to canonize trans- gression in visual form. Fluid bodies are captured in the image and domesticated, creating a visual order in disorder. The body-as-ruin is a fixed figure of fluidity and thus especially receptive to attributions of mean- ing, which helps explain its persistence as a cultural trope. It allows for the observation of cultural change

Evolving energy landscapes in the South Wales Valleys: Exploring community perception and participation

Emerging and future sustainable energy systems will greatly impact upon landscapes and are likely to require wholesale societal transformation. In Wales, recent policy proposals to achieve decarbonisation prescribe greater roles for local and community energy. However, wider citizen engagement and public discourse on comprehensive energy transformations appear somewhat stagnant. The ‘Stories of Change’ project has sought to catalyse more plural public debates around energy futures. As part of the project, we explored past and present everyday energy relationships with communities in the Valleys of south Wales. At a time of energy transition, and legislative and policy flux, the Valleys afford opportunities to reveal stories about past and present energy experiences and relationships in order to gain enhanced understanding into emerging social meanings of new energy infrastructures and evolving energy landscapes. Here we focus on relationships with ‘old’ energy landscapes; how these and the prevailing socio-economic landscape influence the perceptions and creation of emerging ones; and, how communities are engaged and involved in the making of new energy landscapes. We consider finally how these might inform implementation of proposed energy policy, especially in a Welsh context

Clinical outcomes and response to treatment of patients receiving topical treatments for pyoderma gangrenosum: a prospective cohort study

Background: pyoderma gangrenosum (PG) is an uncommon dermatosis with a limited evidence base for treatment. Objective: to estimate the effectiveness of topical therapies in the treatment of PG. Methods: prospective cohort study of UK secondary care patients with a clinical diagnosis of PG suitable for topical treatment (recruited July 2009 to June 2012). Participants received topical therapy following normal clinical practice (mainly Class I-III topical corticosteroids, tacrolimus 0.03% or 0.1%). Primary outcome: speed of healing at 6 weeks. Secondary outcomes: proportion healed by 6 months; time to healing; global assessment; inflammation; pain; quality-of-life; treatment failure and recurrence. Results: Sixty-six patients (22 to 85 years) were enrolled. Clobetasol propionate 0.05% was the most commonly prescribed therapy. Overall, 28/66 (43.8%) of ulcers healed by 6 months. Median time-to-healing was 145 days (95% CI: 96 days, ∞). Initial ulcer size was a significant predictor of time-to-healing (hazard ratio 0.94 (0.88;80 1.00); p = 0.043). Four patients (15%) had a recurrence. Limitations: No randomised comparator Conclusion: Topical therapy is potentially an effective first-line treatment for PG that avoids possible side effects associated with systemic therapy. It remains unclear whether more severe disease will respond adequately to topical therapy alone

Validation of ozone measurements from the Atmospheric Chemistry Experiment (ACE)

This paper presents extensive bias determination analyses of ozone observations from the Atmospheric Chemistry Experiment (ACE) satellite instruments: the ACE Fourier Transform Spectrometer (ACE-FTS) and the Measurement of Aerosol Extinction in the Stratosphere and Troposphere Retrieved by Occultation (ACE-MAESTRO) instrument. Here we compare the latest ozone data products from ACE-FTS and ACE-MAESTRO with coincident observations from nearly 20 satellite-borne, airborne, balloon-borne and ground-based instruments, by analysing volume mixing ratio profiles and partial column densities. The ACE-FTS version 2.2 Ozone Update product reports more ozone than most correlative measurements from the upper troposphere to the lower mesosphere. At altitude levels from 16 to 44 km, the average values of the mean relative differences are nearly all within +1 to +8%. At higher altitudes (45 60 km), the ACE-FTS ozone amounts are significantly larger than those of the comparison instruments, with mean relative differences of up to +40% (about + 20% on average). For the ACE-MAESTRO version 1.2 ozone data product, mean relative differences are within +/- 10% (average values within +/- 6%) between 18 and 40 km for both the sunrise and sunset measurements. At higher altitudes (similar to 35-55 km), systematic biases of opposite sign are found between the ACE-MAESTRO sunrise and sunset observations. While ozone amounts derived from the ACE-MAESTRO sunrise occultation data are often smaller than the coincident observations (with mean relative differences down to -10%), the sunset occultation profiles for ACE-MAESTRO show results that are qualitatively similar to ACE-FTS, indicating a large positive bias (mean relative differences within +10 to +30%) in the 45-55 km altitude range. In contrast, there is no significant systematic difference in bias found for the ACE-FTS sunrise and sunset measurements