Assyrian Imperial Administration 680-627 BCE : A Comparison Between Babylonia and the West Under Esarhaddon and Assurbanipal

There is a common misconception among those who are not scholars in the field that the Assyrian Empire was an aggressive one, relying simply on force, rather than reason, to assert its will over its neighbours and conquer vast territories. Granted that the Assyrian war machine was unparalleled at its apex, its rulers did not hesitate to use oaths, treaties and pacts wherever possible. Assyrian foreign policy was complex and aided Assyrian kings in conquering vast territories, not only with force, but also with words and the threat of force. In the matter of imperial administration, however, there appear variations in the policies aimed at the western states of Assyria\u27s empire, and the policy directed at Babylon. This dissertation aims to cast light upon those differences, and offer answers to questions that surface. Administration of conquered lands takes into account cultural and lingual proximity, as well as religious ideology. Another aim is to present the differences in Assyrian imperial administration under the kings Esarhaddon and Assurbanipal, and explores answers as to why these differences arise, as well as exploring whether foreign or civil policy was used. It also aims to encourage the notion that Assyria was not just a ruthless military power, but also an early empire willing to apply different methods to the creation, and administration, of its empire

Positive biocompatibility of several graphene derivatives with dopaminergic cells at long term culture

The emerging carbon nanomaterial graphene (G) and its oxidized derivative graphene oxide (GO) have recently gained considerable attention in biomedical applications such as cancer therapy or biosensors. It has for example been demonstrated that G has an efficient bioconjugation with common biomolecules and activates cell differentiation of neuronal stem cells (Li et al., 2013). This way, G could acts as a physical support or scaffold to promote axonal sprout as a “deceleration” support for the DA cells derived from neural stem cells. Since GO in its multilayer form and with multiples carboxilate and epoxy groups seems to shows interesting biological properties (Yang et al., 2013) the aim of the present work has been to test different graphene derivatives searching for the best scaffold to be used in stem cell differentiation. For this purpose we have tested the cytotoxicity of GO and reduced GO, and specifically its biocompatibility with SN4741, a dopaminergic cells line derived from mouse substance nigra, measuring the effect in the cells at long term culture. The cells were cultured in Dulbecco’s modified Eagle’s medium 10% FCS (Gibco) to about 80% confluence. Cells were incubated applying 1.000 cells in 96-well microliter plates with graphene using three chemically different types of GO as powders and films: 1) GO, which is hydrophilic; 2) partially reduced GO (PRGO) which is hydrophobic and 3) fully reduced GO (FRGO), also hydrophobic, in five concentrations: 1 mg/ml; 0.1 mg/ml; 0.05 mg/ml; 0.02 mg/ml and 0.01 mg/ml, in each type of graphene. Cells were cultured with GO and cell viability was determined after 24 hours, 1 week and 2 weeks using the MTT assay (Roche) and cytotoxicitity was determined by the lactate dehydrogenase (LDH) (Roche) assay measured at 560nm. The results demonstrated positive biocompatibility between the G-derivatives and SN4741 cells. We conclude that the use of our G-derivative scaffolds can enhance the neural differentiation towards neurons (TH positive) providing a cell growth microenvironments and appropriate synergistic cell guidance cues. This findings demonstrated that biocompatibility of scaffolds is a pre-requisite for generation of successful clinical application of graphene. It could offer a platform for neural stem cells and a promising approach for neural regeneration in the research of neurological diseases like PD. Long-term studies on the biological effects of graphene will now be performed for the development of therapeutic treatment as the goal. (Refs: Li N., Zhang Q, Gao S. et a., 2013, Nature/Sci Rep. 3:1604. doi: 10.1038/srep01604; Yan K., Li Y., Tan X., et al., 2013, Small., 9(9-10): 1492-1503)1. Universidad de Malaga. Campus de Excelencia Internacional Andalucia Tech, España. 2. The Norwegian Research Council (grant nº 215086, Oslo, Noruega. 3. Karolinska Institute Reasearch Fund, Estocolmo, Suecia

Carbon storage in the soil under different land uses in the south of Portugal

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Estudio de un método de aprendizaje combinado mediante el uso de la expresión artística y del cuento del camaleón del autor Leo Lion-ni, para el estímulo del aprendizaje significativo a través de las emociones

Este trabajo se basa en el empleo combinado de una metodología basada en cuentos artísticos de Leo Lionni y en artes plásticas. Se han empleado 5 actividades para desarrollarlas en base al cuento del Camaleón, llamado “Mi camaleón” dado que los alumnos han desarrollado de manera artística el camaleón. El estudio está centrado en el desarrollo de capacidades: el arte como lenguaje expresivo, actitud positiva ante el arte plástico y la cultura andaluza, conocimiento de algunas obras y sus autores de interés nacional e internacional creatividad e imaginación, psicomotricidad fina como la presión manual y amplitud de movimientos según el soporte y el material utilizado, o hábitos de limpieza. Se emplearon una serie de ítems para evaluar la eficacia del aprendizaje. Los resultados mostraron un elevado éxito en partición y aprendizaje. Sin embargo, se observó que en aquellas actividades de creación autónoma existía una carencia de creatividad, que sugiere que el empleo o uso excesivo de tecnologías TICs no favorece el desarrollo de estas actividades artísticas de creación propia

Productivity of silvoarable systems established with Prunus avium L. in Galicia (NW Spain)

info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Extending the limits of feature-based SLAM with B-splines

This paper describes a simultaneous localization and mapping (SLAM) algorithm for use in unstructured environments that is effective regardless of the geometric complexity of the environment. Features are described using B-splines as modeling tool, and the set of control points defining their shape is used to form a complete and compact description of the environment, thus making it feasible to use an extended Kalman-filter (EKF) based SLAM algorithm. This method is the first known EKF-SLAM implementation capable of describing general free-form features in a parametric manner. Efficient strategies for computing the relevant Jacobians, perform data association, initialization, and map enlargement are presented. The algorithms are evaluated for accuracy and consistency using computer simulations, and for effectiveness using experimental data gathered from different real environments. © 2009 IEEE

Productivity of silvopastoral systems under Pinus radiata D. Don estimated with Yield-SAFE model

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