De dubbele waterput uit het laat-Romeinse castellum van Oudenburg (prov. West-Vlaanderen): tafonomie, chronologie en interpretatie

This article focuses on a remarkable well structure that was brought to light by the Flemish Heritage Institute during recent archaeological research at the south-western corner of the Saxon Shore fort at Oudenburg (2001-2005). The site of Oudenburg is situated 8 km from the Flemish coastline, in the polder area between Bruges and Ostend. During Roman times however, positioned strategically on an elevated sandy ridge, the site overlooked the coastal plain consisting of mudflats and marshes intersected by natural gullies. The remains of the fort at Oudenburg were discovered in 1956-1957 by J. Mertenslater excavation campaigns in 1960 and 1970 on the western defence area revealed a sequence of three successive forts. The 1960s excavations on two late Roman military cemeteries more than 400 m to the west of the castellum revealed burials of 4th-century fort inhabitants with rich grave goods. During archaeological research within the fort walls in 1976-1977 the first information was collected about the inner organisation of the fort and the remains of a stone building of late 3rd-century date were excavated. It was only in 2001 that new excavations could take place on the fort area. This systematic research resulted in a finer chronology for the occupation of the castellum. A succession of five main fort periods was revealed, dating between ca. 200 and the beginning of the 5th century AD. These excavations yielded insight into the spatial organisation of the south west area of the fort, which had different functions in each successive fort period. The first three phases belonged to wood and earthen fortstemporary installations in times of trouble and Germanic threat. Probably in the later 3rd century AD, a more permanent fort measuring 153 by 176 m was built in stonethis was renovated and reoccupied during the second quarter of the 4th century AD. The characteristics of the ground plan, its topographical position and several finds pointing to a close link with the Saxon Shore forts on the coast of south Britannia, suggest that Oudenburg was probably part of the Litus Saxonicum. In this paper the so-called double well, a context of the fifth fort period (4th centurybeginning 5th century), is analysed. During this period the south-western area of the castellum was dominated by a stone bath building with hypocaust system. Later in the 4th century, long fences were constructed to divide the area into yards, a timber-framed construction with simple plan may be identified as a stable structure, and a large oak basin was probably a reservoir for drinking water. The double well, which received feature number OS 2562, seems to be a key context for this fort period

EDULISS: a small-molecule database with data-mining and pharmacophore searching capabilities

We present the relational database EDULISS (EDinburgh University Ligand Selection System), which stores structural, physicochemical and pharmacophoric properties of small molecules. The database comprises a collection of over 4 million commercially available compounds from 28 different suppliers. A user-friendly web-based interface for EDULISS (available at http://eduliss.bch.ed.ac.uk/) has been established providing a number of data-mining possibilities. For each compound a single 3D conformer is stored along with over 1600 calculated descriptor values (molecular properties). A very efficient method for unique compound recognition, especially for a large scale database, is demonstrated by making use of small subgroups of the descriptors. Many of the shape and distance descriptors are held as pre-calculated bit strings permitting fast and efficient similarity and pharmacophore searches which can be used to identify families of related compounds for biological testing. Two ligand searching applications are given to demonstrate how EDULISS can be used to extract families of molecules with selected structural and biophysical features

Associations between systolic interarm differences in blood pressure and cardiovascular disease outcomes and mortality

Systolic interarm differences in blood pressure have been associated with all-cause mortality and cardiovascular disease. We undertook individual participant data meta-analyses to (1) quantify independent associations of systolic interarm difference with mortality and cardiovascular events; (2) develop and validate prognostic models incorporating interarm difference, and (3) determine whether interarm difference remains associated with risk after adjustment for common cardiovascular risk scores. We searched for studies recording bilateral blood pressure and outcomes, established agreements with collaborating authors, and created a single international dataset: the Inter-arm Blood Pressure Difference - Individual Participant Data (INTERPRESS-IPD) Collaboration. Data were merged from 24 studies (53 827 participants). Systolic interarm difference was associated with all-cause and cardiovascular mortality: continuous hazard ratios 1.05 (95% CI, 1.02–1.08) and 1.06 (95% CI, 1.02–1.11), respectively, per 5 mm Hg systolic interarm difference. Hazard ratios for all-cause mortality increased with interarm difference magnitude from a ≥5 mm Hg threshold (hazard ratio, 1.07 [95% CI, 1.01–1.14]). Systolic interarm differences per 5 mm Hg were associated with cardiovascular events in people without preexisting disease, after adjustment for Atherosclerotic Cardiovascular Disease (hazard ratio, 1.04 [95% CI, 1.00–1.08]), Framingham (hazard ratio, 1.04 [95% CI, 1.01–1.08]), or QRISK cardiovascular disease risk algorithm version 2 (QRISK2) (hazard ratio, 1.12 [95% CI, 1.06–1.18]) cardiovascular risk scores. Our findings confirm that systolic interarm difference is associated with increased all-cause mortality, cardiovascular mortality, and cardiovascular events. Blood pressure should be measured in both arms during cardiovascular assessment. A systolic interarm difference of 10 mm Hg is proposed as the upper limit of normal

The End of Roman Pottery Production in Southern Britain

This paper seeks to show that a full or partial monetary economy may have continued to operate in parts of Britain into the 2nd quarter of the 5th century at least; changing our perception of early 5th century material culture in South-East Britain from one leaving very few traces in the archaeological record to one which is an extension of that previously thought to be restricted to the period c.AD 370-410 but which can now be seen to span the period c.AD 370-430/440. Some Romano-British style pottery appears to have continued being made on a much more limited scale into the mid-5th century: a distinctive type of convex-sided dish with solid spaced bosses can be shown to have been made at or near Dorchester-upon-Thames, Portchester and Alice Holt Forest during the 5th century and continued being produced at the first-mentioned place for long enough to be copied by local Anglo-Saxon potters. Adjustments in dating mean that certain peculiarly insular types of military equipment such as the Tortworth strap-end and horse-headed buckle, hitherto dated to the last years of the 4th century, could belong to British soldiers of the early 5th century

X-ray and Radio Variabilities of PSR J2032+4127 near Periastron

We present X-ray and radio monitoring observations of the gamma-ray binary PSR J2032+4127/MT91 213 during its periastron passage in late 2017. Dedicated Chandra, XMM-Newton, NuSTAR X-ray observations and VLA radio observations of this long orbit (50 years), 143 ms pulsar/Be star system clearly revealed flux and spectral variability during the passage. The X-ray spectrum hardened near periastron, with a significant decrease in the power-law photon index from Gamma=2 to 1.2 and evidence of an increased absorption column density. We identified a possible spectral break at a few keV in the spectrum that suggests synchrotron cooling. A coincident radio and X-ray flare occurred one week after periastron, which is possibly the result of the pulsar wind interacting with the Be stellar disk and generating synchrotron radiation. However, a multi-wavelength comparison indicates that the X-ray and radio spectra cannot be simply connected by a single power-law component. Hence, the emission in these two energy bands must originate from different particle populations

Wastewater-Based Epidemiology of Stimulant Drugs: Functional Data Analysis Compared to Traditional Statistical Methods

Background Wastewater-based epidemiology (WBE) is a new methodology for estimating the drug load in a population. Simple summary statistics and specification tests have typically been used to analyze WBE data, comparing differences between weekday and weekend loads. Such standard statistical methods may, however, overlook important nuanced information in the data. In this study, we apply functional data analysis (FDA) to WBE data and compare the results to those obtained from more traditional summary measures. Methods We analysed temporal WBE data from 42 European cities, using sewage samples collected daily for one week in March 2013. For each city, the main temporal features of two selected drugs were extracted using functional principal component (FPC) analysis, along with simpler measures such as the area under the curve (AUC). The individual cities’ scores on each of the temporal FPCs were then used as outcome variables in multiple linear regression analysis with various city and country characteristics as predictors. The results were compared to those of functional analysis of variance (FANOVA). Results The three first FPCs explained more than 99% of the temporal variation. The first component (FPC1) represented the level of the drug load, while the second and third temporal components represented the level and the timing of a weekend peak. AUC was highly correlated with FPC1, but other temporal characteristic were not captured by the simple summary measures. FANOVA was less flexible than the FPCA-based regression, and even showed concordance results. Geographical location was the main predictor for the general level of the drug load. Conclusion FDA of WBE data extracts more detailed information about drug load patterns during the week which are not identified by more traditional statistical methods. Results also suggest that regression based on FPC results is a valuable addition to FANOVA for estimating associations between temporal patterns and covariate information

Associations Between Systolic Interarm Differences in Blood Pressure and Cardiovascular Disease Outcomes and Mortality: Individual Participant Data Meta-Analysis, Development and Validation of a Prognostic Algorithm: The INTERPRESS-IPD Collaboration.

Systolic interarm differences in blood pressure have been associated with all-cause mortality and cardiovascular disease. We undertook individual participant data meta-analyses to (1) quantify independent associations of systolic interarm difference with mortality and cardiovascular events; (2) develop and validate prognostic models incorporating interarm difference, and (3) determine whether interarm difference remains associated with risk after adjustment for common cardiovascular risk scores. We searched for studies recording bilateral blood pressure and outcomes, established agreements with collaborating authors, and created a single international dataset: the Inter-arm Blood Pressure Difference - Individual Participant Data (INTERPRESS-IPD) Collaboration. Data were merged from 24 studies (53 827 participants). Systolic interarm difference was associated with all-cause and cardiovascular mortality: continuous hazard ratios 1.05 (95% CI, 1.02-1.08) and 1.06 (95% CI, 1.02-1.11), respectively, per 5 mm Hg systolic interarm difference. Hazard ratios for all-cause mortality increased with interarm difference magnitude from a ≥5 mm Hg threshold (hazard ratio, 1.07 [95% CI, 1.01-1.14]). Systolic interarm differences per 5 mm Hg were associated with cardiovascular events in people without preexisting disease, after adjustment for Atherosclerotic Cardiovascular Disease (hazard ratio, 1.04 [95% CI, 1.00-1.08]), Framingham (hazard ratio, 1.04 [95% CI, 1.01-1.08]), or QRISK cardiovascular disease risk algorithm version 2 (QRISK2) (hazard ratio, 1.12 [95% CI, 1.06-1.18]) cardiovascular risk scores. Our findings confirm that systolic interarm difference is associated with increased all-cause mortality, cardiovascular mortality, and cardiovascular events. Blood pressure should be measured in both arms during cardiovascular assessment. A systolic interarm difference of 10 mm Hg is proposed as the upper limit of normal. Registration: URL: https://www.crd.york.ac.uk/prospero/display_record.php?ID=CRD42015031227