Marking the Victory in Ancient Greece: some Remarks on Classical Trophy Monuments

Victory monuments played a vital role in the life of individuals and the civilisation as a whole in ancient Greece. They were an embodied celebration and memorial, both of a specific triumph and of military conflict as such, keeping alive the memory of past actions that would otherwise be forgotten. They carried a message of success both for the present era and for future generations, who thus found a focus in which to admire and honour the courage of their ancestors. The Greeks believed that just as the gods directed and influenced individual human lives, they also decided on the outcomes of conflicts and they therefore considered it their duty to give thanks to them. At first, they gave thanks immediately after a battle by erecting a tropaion on the battlefield, which from the time of the Greek-Persian Wars began to be built from more durable materials. A further gesture was made later by dedicating other weapons captured from the enemy to the gods either at a Pan-Hellenic sanctuary such as Delphi, Olympia or Isthmia, or at a local temple. This was an established custom that was supposed to ensure the support and favour of the gods in subsequent conflicts. Another custom was that a certain period after the end of a war, permanent monuments would be erected by the winning side away from the battlefield and dedicated to a specific god – either within the structure of the victorious polis or at a sanctuary

A Systematic Mapping Approach of 16q12.2/FTO and BMI in More Than 20,000 African Americans Narrows in on the Underlying Functional Variation: Results from the Population Architecture using Genomics and Epidemiology (PAGE) Study

Genetic variants in intron 1 of the fat mass- and obesity-associated (FTO) gene have been consistently associated with body mass index (BMI) in Europeans. However, follow-up studies in African Americans (AA) have shown no support for some of the most consistently BMI-associated FTO index single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs). This is most likely explained by different race-specific linkage disequilibrium (LD) patterns and lower correlation overall in AA, which provides the opportunity to fine-map this region and narrow in on the functional variant. To comprehensively explore the 16q12.2/FTO locus and to search for second independent signals in the broader region, we fine-mapped a 646-kb region, encompassing the large FTO gene and the flanking gene RPGRIP1L by investigating a total of 3,756 variants (1,529 genotyped and 2,227 imputed variants) in 20,488 AAs across five studies. We observed associations between BMI and variants in the known FTO intron 1 locus: the SNP with the most significant p-value, rs56137030 (8.3×10-6) had not been highlighted in previous studies. While rs56137030was correlated at r2>0.5 with 103 SNPs in Europeans (including the GWAS index SNPs), this number was reduced to 28 SNPs in AA. Among rs56137030 and the 28 correlated SNPs, six were located within candidate intronic regulatory elements, including rs1421085, for which we predicted allele-specific binding affinity for the transcription factor CUX1, which has recently been implicated in the regulation of FTO. We did not find strong evidence for a second independent signal in the broader region. In summary, this large fine-mapping study in AA has substantially reduced the number of common alleles that are likely to be functional candidates of the known FTO locus. Importantly our study demonstrated that comprehensive fine-mapping in AA provides a powerful approach to narrow in on the functional candidate(s) underlying the initial GWAS findings in European populations

Governanca em enfermagem: revisao integrativa da literatura

O objetivo deste estudo foi identificar e caracterizar os tipos de governança em enfermagem, destacando seu impacto na prática dos enfermeiros e no cuidado em saúde. Trata-se de revisão integrativa a partir das bases de dados MEDLINE, CINAHL, LILACS e na biblioteca eletrônica SciELO, de 2007 a 2011, com os descritores Governança /Governance e Enfermagem/ Nursing, totalizando 25 artigos. Foram identificados três modelos de governança, estudados principalmente nos Estados Unidos e Inglaterra: governança compartilhada, governança clínica e governança pública. Entre os impactos desses modelos, destacam-se: melhoria da qualidade assistencial, maior autonomia profissional dos enfermeiros, melhoria da articulação entre os serviços de saúde e maior satisfação profissional entre enfermeiros. Pontua-se a necessidade da realização de estudos sobre a temática na América Latina, com o intuito de avaliar sua aplicabilidade em diferentes contextos

La reeducación grafomotora y su incidencia en problemas con disgrafía en los niños y niñas de segundo año de educación básica.

This article refers to the analysis of the difficulties of dysgraphia presented by boys and girls in the second year of Basic Education, in response to this, it seeks to correct these difficulties through a plan of pedagogical activities of graphomotor re-education; It was an action-investigative study of a quantitative-qualitative and descriptive nature, the methods used were: scientific, descriptive, inductive, analytical and statistical, the instruments applied were: the TALE writing sub-test of Joseph Toro and Monserrat Cervera (6 to 10 years old), aimed at the sample to identify dysgraphia difficulties such as: irregularity, oscillation, anomalous lines, line spacing, overlapping, welds, fluidity of the writing rhythm, posture, among others, in addition a survey was used aimed at teachers and another to parents, a plan of pedagogical activities of graphomotor re-education was developed and executed, which allowed me to get the children to correctly carry out the proposed activities and significantly correct the difficulties they presented, therefore the effectiveness of the implementation of this proposal.Este artículo hace referencia al análisis de las dificultades de la disgrafía que presentan los niños y niñas de segundo año de Educación Básica, frente a ello se busca corregir estas dificultades a través de un plan de actividades pedagógicas de reeducación grafomotora; fue un estudio de tipo acción-investigativo de carácter cuanti–cualitativo y descriptivo, los métodos que se utilizaron fueron: científico, descriptivo, inductivo, analítico y estadístico, los instrumento aplicados fueron: el sub-test de escritura de TALE de Joseph Toro y Monserrat Cervera (6 a 10 años), dirigida a la muestra para identificar  dificultades de disgrafía como: irregularidad, oscilación, líneas anómalas, interlineación, superposición, soldaduras, fluidez del ritmo escritor, postura, entre otras, además se utilizó una encuesta dirigida a docentes y a otra a padres de familia, se desarrolló y ejecuto una plan de actividades pedagógicas de reeducación grafomotora, lo cual me permitió lograr que los niños realizaran correctamente las actividades propuestas y corrigieran de manera significativa las dificultades que presentaban, por lo tanto se valida la eficacia de la aplicación de esta propuesta

A review of elliptical and disc galaxy structure, and modern scaling laws

A century ago, in 1911 and 1913, Plummer and then Reynolds introduced their models to describe the radial distribution of stars in `nebulae'. This article reviews the progress since then, providing both an historical perspective and a contemporary review of the stellar structure of bulges, discs and elliptical galaxies. The quantification of galaxy nuclei, such as central mass deficits and excess nuclear light, plus the structure of dark matter halos and cD galaxy envelopes, are discussed. Issues pertaining to spiral galaxies including dust, bulge-to-disc ratios, bulgeless galaxies, bars and the identification of pseudobulges are also reviewed. An array of modern scaling relations involving sizes, luminosities, surface brightnesses and stellar concentrations are presented, many of which are shown to be curved. These 'redshift zero' relations not only quantify the behavior and nature of galaxies in the Universe today, but are the modern benchmark for evolutionary studies of galaxies, whether based on observations, N-body-simulations or semi-analytical modelling. For example, it is shown that some of the recently discovered compact elliptical galaxies at 1.5 < z < 2.5 may be the bulges of modern disc galaxies.Comment: Condensed version (due to Contract) of an invited review article to appear in "Planets, Stars and Stellar Systems"(www.springer.com/astronomy/book/978-90-481-8818-5). 500+ references incl. many somewhat forgotten, pioneer papers. Original submission to Springer: 07-June-201

Bananas as an Energy Source during Exercise: A Metabolomics Approach

This study compared the acute effect of ingesting bananas (BAN) versus a 6% carbohydrate drink (CHO) on 75-km cycling performance and post-exercise inflammation, oxidative stress, and innate immune function using traditional and metabolomics-based profiling. Trained cyclists (N = 14) completed two 75-km cycling time trials (randomized, crossover) while ingesting BAN or CHO (0.2 g/kg carbohydrate every 15 min). Pre-, post-, and 1-h-post-exercise blood samples were analyzed for glucose, granulocyte (GR) and monocyte (MO) phagocytosis (PHAG) and oxidative burst activity, nine cytokines, F2-isoprostanes, ferric reducing ability of plasma (FRAP), and metabolic profiles using gas chromatography-mass spectrometry. Blood glucose levels and performance did not differ between BAN and CHO (2.41±0.22, 2.36±0.19 h, P = 0.258). F2-isoprostanes, FRAP, IL-10, IL-2, IL-6, IL-8, TNFα, GR-PHAG, and MO-PHAG increased with exercise, with no trial differences except for higher levels during BAN for IL-10, IL-8, and FRAP (interaction effects, P = 0.003, 0.004, and 0.012). Of 103 metabolites detected, 56 had exercise time effects, and only one (dopamine) had a pattern of change that differed between BAN and CHO. Plots from the PLS-DA model visualized a distinct separation in global metabolic scores between time points [R2Y(cum) = 0.869, Q2(cum) = 0.766]. Of the top 15 metabolites, five were related to liver glutathione production, eight to carbohydrate, lipid, and amino acid metabolism, and two were tricarboxylic acid cycle intermediates. BAN and CHO ingestion during 75-km cycling resulted in similar performance, blood glucose, inflammation, oxidative stress, and innate immune levels. Aside from higher dopamine in BAN, shifts in metabolites following BAN and CHO 75-km cycling time trials indicated a similar pattern of heightened production of glutathione and utilization of fuel substrates in several pathways

Fabrication and Properties of Porphyrin Nano- and Micro-particles with Novel Morphology

New types of porphyrin nano- and micro-particles composed of J- and H-heteroaggregates were prepared by electrostatic self-assembly of two oppositely charged porphyrins, tetrakis(4-trimethylammoniophenyl)porphyrin (H2TAPP4+) and tetrakis(4-sulfonatophenyl)porphyrin cobalt(II) (CoTPPS4−), in aqueous solutions. Transmission electron microscopy (TEM) images showed novel morphology and size distribution of porphyrin particles fabricated under different experimental conditions. The assembly process of the nano- and micro-particles was monitored by UV–Vis spectra. Fluorescence spectra and UV–Vis spectra provided optical information on the formation of the nano- and micro-particles. Cyclic voltammograms of the porphyrin particles indicated that the electron gain and loss of the H2TAPP4+ion were restrained, and the electron transfer of the CoTPPS4−ion was promoted in the J- and H-type porphyrin heteroaggregates within the particles. The stability and constitution of the nano- and micro-particles were confirmed by UV-light irradiation, heat-treatment, and pH and ionic strength changes. Photoelectrochemical measurements showed that the photoelectron transfer of TiO2modified with the particles was more efficient than that of TiO2sensitized by either monomers. The photoelectronic and photocatalytic properties of the products indicated that the pyramidal or spherical configuration of the nano- and micro-particles was favorable for the absorption and transfer of the energy. It can be found that TiO2sensitized by the porphyrin nano- and micro-particles exhibits significant improvement in energy conversion and photocatalytic activity with reference to pure TiO2

Effects of a Caffeine-Containing Energy Drink on Simulated Soccer Performance

[Background] To investigate the effects of a caffeine-containing energy drink on soccer performance during a simulated game. A second purpose was to assess the post-exercise urine caffeine concentration derived from the energy drink intake. [Methodology/Principal Findings] Nineteen semiprofessional soccer players ingested 630±52 mL of a commercially available energy drink (sugar-free Red Bull®) to provide 3 mg of caffeine per kg of body mass, or a decaffeinated control drink (0 mg/kg). After sixty minutes they performed a 15-s maximal jump test, a repeated sprint test (7×30 m; 30 s of active recovery) and played a simulated soccer game. Individual running distance and speed during the game were measured using global positioning satellite (GPS) devices. In comparison to the control drink, the ingestion of the energy drink increased mean jump height in the jump test (34.7±4.7 v 35.8±5.5 cm; P<0.05), mean running speed during the sprint test (25.6±2.1 v 26.3±1.8 km · h−1; P<0.05) and total distance covered at a speed higher than 13 km · h−1 during the game (1205±289 v 1436±326 m; P<0.05). In addition, the energy drink increased the number of sprints during the whole game (30±10 v 24±8; P<0.05). Post-exercise urine caffeine concentration was higher after the energy drink than after the control drink (4.1±1.0 v 0.1±0.1 µg · mL−1; P<0.05). [Conclusions/significance] A caffeine-containing energy drink in a dose equivalent to 3 mg/kg increased the ability to repeatedly sprint and the distance covered at high intensity during a simulated soccer game. In addition, the caffeinated energy drink increased jump height which may represent a meaningful improvement for headers or when players are competing for a ball

A High-Resolution Whole-Genome Map of Key Chromatin Modifications in the Adult Drosophila melanogaster

Epigenetic research has been focused on cell-type-specific regulation; less is known about common features of epigenetic programming shared by diverse cell types within an organism. Here, we report a modified method for chromatin immunoprecipitation and deep sequencing (ChIP–Seq) and its use to construct a high-resolution map of the Drosophila melanogaster key histone marks, heterochromatin protein 1a (HP1a) and RNA polymerase II (polII). These factors are mapped at 50-bp resolution genome-wide and at 5-bp resolution for regulatory sequences of genes, which reveals fundamental features of chromatin modification landscape shared by major adult Drosophila cell types: the enrichment of both heterochromatic and euchromatic marks in transposons and repetitive sequences, the accumulation of HP1a at transcription start sites with stalled polII, the signatures of histone code and polII level/position around the transcriptional start sites that predict both the mRNA level and functionality of genes, and the enrichment of elongating polII within exons at splicing junctions. These features, likely conserved among diverse epigenomes, reveal general strategies for chromatin modifications