Beyond religion: cultural exchange and economy in northern Phoenicia and the Hauran, Syria

This PhD research challenges current scholarly debate on religion and religious architecture during the Roman Empire by offering a new understanding on the role of rural sanctuaries and a new approach on the subject. It re-evaluates the socio-economic significance of rural sanctuaries, and of the society that they represent, to a regional level and in a wider context of the Near East. This research can be seen as innovative because scholarly work on Syrian sanctuaries from the Roman period has, up to the present day, mainly discussed their religious connotations, including their architecture and deities, with no reference to their potential socio-economic significance. Furthermore, these studies have mostly focused on sanctuaries in cities rather than rural centres, and a comprehensive analytical overview is still lacking. This thesis demonstrates that a comprehensive analysis of archaeological, iconographic and written evidence placed within a historical and socio-economic context and landscape can provide us with a different perspective on rural cult centre, i.e. their central social and economic role in their region and within the Near East. The rural cult centres that this study looks at are from the pre-provincial to the provincial period (c.100BC-AD300) from the northern Phoenicia and the Hauran, both in Syria. Their location at cross points between neighbouring and more distant cultures makes these areas an interesting and revealing object of study to fully comprehend the social significance of rural cult centres and the connections of the study areas with other cultures. Furthermore, both study areas present direct and indirect evidence of economic activities associated with rural sanctuaries. The central socio-economic role of rural cult centres is argued because of the following aspects revealed in this study. They are: their independency from the nearby cities and from political authorities that controlled the study areas, the plurality and diversity of worshippers, their economic self-sufficiency and their organization (with personnel in charge of temple’s administrative and economic affairs), and the connections of the society of the study areas with distant cultures of the Near East

Roman Soldiers in the Religious, Social, and Spatial Network of the Hauran

L’article explore le profil des soldats romains dans les sites de culte de l’Hauran par le biais de network and spatial analysis. Le but sera atteint par l’étude des interactions entre les agents sociaux des temples et les divinités, de la même manière que la proximité des sites cultuels et entre les sites et les routes. Malgré la grande quantité de dédicaces, surtout dans les sites de culte le long des routes romaines, l’échelle du principal patronage (agentivité ? exploitation des sites de culte ?) des soldats ne différait pas de celle des autres membres de la communauté. Les soldats appuyaient les programmes de construction religieuse déjà existants dans les villages, mis en place par les communautés locales, et faisaient des dédicaces dans des sites de culte où individus, bouleutai et anciens combattants souvent contribuaient, mais il n’y a pratiquement aucune trace de collaboration directe entre ces groupes et les soldats. Même si les soldats faisaient des dédicaces aux divinités qui n’étaient pas souvent adorées par les bienfaiteurs de l’administration locale, néanmoins ils adoraient la divinité précédemment vénérée, Zeus Kyrios.This article explores the profile of soldiers at cult sites in the Hauran by means of network and spatial analysis. It does so by studying the interplay between the temples’ social agents and deities, as well as the proximity between cult sites, and between the sites and roads. Despite the large quantity of their dedications, mostly at cult sites along Roman roads, the scale of soldiers’ main patronage did not differ from other members of the community. Soldiers supported pre-existing religious building programs in villages initiated by local communities and made dedications at cult sites where individuals, bouleutai, and veterans often contributed, but there is hardly any record of direct collaboration between these groups and soldiers. While soldiers made dedications to deities that were not often worshipped by benefactors from the local administration, they did worship the previously venerated deity Zeus Kyrios

Optimization and validation of a LC-HRMS method for aflatoxins determination in urine samples

Mycotoxins’ exposure by inhalation and/or dermal contact can occur in different branches of industry especially where heavily dusty settings are present and the handling of dusty commodities is performed. This study aims to explore the possible contribution of the occupational exposure to aflatoxins by analysing urine samples for the presence of aflatoxins B1 and M1 and aflatoxin B1-N7-guanine adduct. The study was conducted in 2017 on two groups of volunteers, the workers group, composed by personnel employed in an Italian feed plant (n = 32), and a control group (n = 29), composed by the administrative employees of the same feed plant; a total of 120 urine samples were collected and analysed. A screening method and a quantitative method with high-resolution mass spectrometry determination were developed and fully validated. Limits of detections were 0.8 and 1.5 pg/mLurine for aflatoxin B1 and M1, respectively. No quantitative determination was possible for the adduct aflatoxin B1-N7-guanine. Aflatoxin B1 and its adduct were not detected in the analysed samples, and aflatoxin M1, instead, was found in 14 samples (12%) within the range 1.9–10.5 pg/mLurine. Only one sample showed a value above the limit of quantification (10.5 pg/mLurine). The absence of a statistical difference between the mean values for workers and the control group which were compared suggests that in this specific setting, no professional exposure occurs. Furthermore, considering the very low level of aflatoxin M1 in the collected urine samples, the contribution from the diet to the overall exposure is to be considered negligible

Biomonitoring data for assessing aflatoxins and ochratoxin a exposure by italian feedstuffs workers

Mycotoxins exposure by inhalation and/or dermal contact is possible in different branches of industry especially where heavily dusty settings are present and the handling of dusty commodities is performed. This study aims to explore the validity of the biomonitoring as a tool to investigate the intake of mycotoxins in a population of workers operating in an Italian feed plant. Serum samples were collected for the determination of aflatoxins B1 (AFB1), AFB1-Lysine adduct and ochratoxin A (OTA). A method based on liquid-liquid extraction coupled with high resolution mass spectrometry determination was developed and fully validated. For AFB1, a high number of non-detected samples (90%) was found and no statistical difference was observed comparing workers and control group. None of the analyzed samples showed the presence of AFB1-Lysine adduct. For OTA, the 100% of the analyzed samples was positive with a 33% of the samples showing a concentration higher than the limit of quantification (LOQ), but no statistical difference was highlighted between the average levels of exposed and control groups. In conclusion, the presence of AFB1 and OTA in serum cannot be attributable to occupational exposure

Alienation and Redemption: the praxis of (Roman) archaeology in Britain

The TRAC session that led to this series of combined mini-papers was consciously designed as a forum for discussion, the aim being to consider how to tackle perceived systemic problems in the archaeology of Roman Britain (as much as the archaeology of other periods) that lead to destructive methods, interpretive fallacies and poor job satisfaction. The shared feeling of those present seemed to be that the systems prevalent in both developer-funded (or ‘commercial’) archaeology, university archaeology departments and even in the museum context are overly driven by ideas of competition, division and acquisition for its own sake, the apparently dominant neoliberal values of our time. Such values are not akin to the valuing of the historic environment per se, but rather promote constraining hierarchies within and between organisations, and a basic lack of communication and team working

Meta-Analysis of Genome-Wide Association Studies in Celiac Disease and Rheumatoid Arthritis Identifies Fourteen Non-HLA Shared Loci

Epidemiology and candidate gene studies indicate a shared genetic basis for celiac disease (CD) and rheumatoid arthritis (RA), but the extent of this sharing has not been systematically explored. Previous studies demonstrate that 6 of the established non-HLA CD and RA risk loci (out of 26 loci for each disease) are shared between both diseases. We hypothesized that there are additional shared risk alleles and that combining genome-wide association study (GWAS) data from each disease would increase power to identify these shared risk alleles. We performed a meta-analysis of two published GWAS on CD (4,533 cases and 10,750 controls) and RA (5,539 cases and 17,231 controls). After genotyping the top associated SNPs in 2,169 CD cases and 2,255 controls, and 2,845 RA cases and 4,944 controls, 8 additional SNPs demonstrated P<5×10−8 in a combined analysis of all 50,266 samples, including four SNPs that have not been previously confirmed in either disease: rs10892279 near the DDX6 gene (Pcombined = 1.2×10−12), rs864537 near CD247 (Pcombined = 2.2×10−11), rs2298428 near UBE2L3 (Pcombined = 2.5×10−10), and rs11203203 near UBASH3A (Pcombined = 1.1×10−8). We also confirmed that 4 gene loci previously established in either CD or RA are associated with the other autoimmune disease at combined P<5×10−8 (SH2B3, 8q24, STAT4, and TRAF1-C5). From the 14 shared gene loci, 7 SNPs showed a genome-wide significant effect on expression of one or more transcripts in the linkage disequilibrium (LD) block around the SNP. These associations implicate antigen presentation and T-cell activation as a shared mechanism of disease pathogenesis and underscore the utility of cross-disease meta-analysis for identification of genetic risk factors with pleiotropic effects between two clinically distinct diseases

Human RSPO1/R-spondin1 Is Expressed during Early Ovary Development and Augments β-Catenin Signaling

Human testis development starts from around 42 days post conception with a transient wave of SRY expression followed by up-regulation of testis specific genes and a distinct set of morphological, paracrine and endocrine events. Although anatomical changes in the ovary are less marked, a distinct sub-set of ovary specific genes are also expressed during this time. The furin-domain containing peptide R-spondin1 (RSPO1) has recently emerged as an important regulator of ovary development through up-regulation of the WNT/β-catenin pathway to oppose testis formation. Here, we show that RSPO1 is upregulated in the ovary but not in the testis during critical early stages of gonad development in humans (between 6–9 weeks post conception), whereas the expression of the related genes WNT4 and CTNNB1 (encoding β catenin) is not significantly different between these tissues. Furthermore, reduced R-spondin1 function in the ovotestis of an individual (46,XX) with a RSPO1 mutation leads to reduced β-catenin protein and WNT4 mRNA levels, consistent with down regulation of ovarian pathways. Transfection of wild-type RSPO1 cDNA resulted in weak dose-dependent activation of a β-catenin responsive TOPFLASH reporter (1.8 fold maximum), whereas co-transfection of CTNNB1 (encoding β-catenin) with RSPO1 resulted in dose-dependent synergistic augmentation of this reporter (approximately 10 fold). Furthermore, R-spondin1 showed strong nuclear localization in several different cell lines. Taken together, these data show that R-spondin1 is upregulated during critical stages of early human ovary development and may function as a tissue-specific amplifier of β-catenin signaling to oppose testis determination

Production of He-4 and (4) in Pb-Pb collisions at root(NN)-N-S=2.76 TeV at the LHC

Results on the production of He-4 and (4) nuclei in Pb-Pb collisions at root(NN)-N-S = 2.76 TeV in the rapidity range vertical bar y vertical bar <1, using the ALICE detector, are presented in this paper. The rapidity densities corresponding to 0-10% central events are found to be dN/dy4(He) = (0.8 +/- 0.4 (stat) +/- 0.3 (syst)) x 10(-6) and dN/dy4 = (1.1 +/- 0.4 (stat) +/- 0.2 (syst)) x 10(-6), respectively. This is in agreement with the statistical thermal model expectation assuming the same chemical freeze-out temperature (T-chem = 156 MeV) as for light hadrons. The measured ratio of (4)/He-4 is 1.4 +/- 0.8 (stat) +/- 0.5 (syst). (C) 2018 Published by Elsevier B.V.Peer reviewe

Kriterien und Vorschläge zur Evaluation textbasierter Chatbots für die touristische Sprachbildung am Beispiel von Lufthansa BestPrice und Duolingo Bots

This paper aims to discuss some relevant evaluation criteria and suggestions for the improvement of text-based chatbots for tourism-specific German as Foreign Language classes in an academic setting. After outlining some findings of the research on chatbot-based language learning and some requirements for future professionals in tourism, the paper offers an analysis of two chatbots (i. e. Duolingo Bots and Lufthansa BestPrice) considering their use for touristic German learning at university. The selected findings show that it is still problematic for chatbots to switch the chat partners’ role and to give high-quality feedback on users’ input.Ziel dieses Beitrags sind die Diskussion von fremdsprachendidaktisch relevanten Evaluationskriterien und die Formulierung von Verbesserungsvorschlägen bezüglich textbasierter Chatbots für den universitären tourismusbezogenen DaF-Unterricht. Hierzu wird nach einer Einführung in die Ergebnisse der Forschung zum chatbotgestützten Fremdsprachenunterricht sowie in die Anforderungen an das angestrebte Berufsprofil von Tourismusbeschäftigten das Angebot der Chatbots Duolingo Bots und Lufthansa BestPrice im Hinblick auf die berufsvorbereitende Sprachlehrpraxis analysiert. Ausgewählte Ergebnisse zeigen, dass der Rollenwechsel der Chat-Partner sowie die Qualität der Rückmeldung der untersuchten Chatbots immer noch problematisch sind