Egyptian pit-looms from the late first millennium AD — attempts in reconstruction from the archaeological evidence

In discussions on the development of weaving technology, specifically treadle looms in the Mediterranean area, Egypt is often referred to as one of the earliest countries in which people used foot-powered looms for producing cloth. It is thought to have been in regular use in the production of cloth as early as the second half of the 1st millennium AD. This belief is built on results from excavations undertaken during the early 20th century by the Egypt Exploration Fund at the hill of Sheikh Abd el-Qurna in Luxor, as well as on textile studies. Unfortunately, none of the postulated looms has ever been found and no pictorial evidence has survived illustrating the apparatus that the weavers worked on. Texts provide only scant information, none of which is sufficiently descriptive. For the reconstruction of the weaving device used in Egypt during the Late Roman and Early Islamic periods one therefore depends on the scarce archaeological and architectural information from excavations. This consists predominantly of pits, which were identified by Herbert E. Winlock as substructures of a horizontal treadle loom. However, Winlock’s identification was criticised by various researchers, and subsequently his suggestion was disproved by the experimental reconstruction of a loom within one of the pits of the monastery of Epiphanius, as well as the comparison with more recent archaeological evidence. Although Winlock was with much certainty correct in proposing that the pits were once loom emplacements, the type and features of the weaving apparatus are still uncertain

Cellular structure and sexual development of somatosensory cortex

Schaltkreise der Großhirnrinde von Säugetieren bestehen aus unterschiedlichen Zellarten, deren charakteristische Physiologie, Morphologie und Konnektivität die Verarbeitung eintreffender neuronaler Signale bestimmen. Im Rahmen dieser Doktorarbeit wurde die zelluläre Spezialisierung zweier kortikaler Schaltkreise untersucht: einerseits die der Eingangsschicht oder Schicht 4 (Kapitel 2 bis 4) und andererseits die der Ausgangsschicht oder Schicht 5 (Kapitel 5). Der erste Teil der Dissertation umfasst drei Publikationen, welche die Verarbeitung von genitalen Berührungen in der kortikalen Schicht 4 von Nagern als Forschungsgegenstand haben. Die Arbeiten konzentrieren sich auf strukturelle Veränderungen während der Pubertät, da sich die Bedeutung genitaler Berührungen in dieser Zeit stark verändert. Die Erforschung des „Barrel Cortex“ führte zu der Erkenntnis, dass der somatosensorische Kortex eine topographische Repräsentation der Körperoberfläche enthält. Diese wird kurz nach der Geburt gebildet und weist danach kaum Veränderungen auf. Erstaunlicherweise vergrößert sich während der Pubertät der Bereich dieser Körperkarte, der genitale Berührungen verarbeitet. Dieser Prozess kann durch frühe sexuelle Berührungen beschleunigt werden. Im zweiten Teil dieser Dissertation wurde die kortikale Ausgangsstruktur untersucht. Diese ist von verschiedenen Projektionsneuronen besiedelt. Angesichts der drastischen Größenunterschiede dieser Projektionsneurone haben wir deren Genomgröße untersucht. Unsere Ergebnisse legen nahe, dass einige außerordentlich große Projektionsneurone zusätzliche Kopien ihres gesamten Chromosomensatzes enthalten. Insgesamt wurden in dieser Dissertation zwei neue Formen zellulärer Spezialisierung in der Hirnrinde aufgezeigt: (i) Schicht 4 weist zelltypspezifische entwicklungs- und erfahrungsabhängige Veränderungen im Genitalfeld auf. (ii) Schicht 5 enthält Projektionsneurone, deren erstaunliche Zellgröße auf ein polyploides Genom zurückzuführen ist.Functionally specialized circuits in the mammalian neocortex contain different neuronal cell-types, which process information depending on their physiology, morphology and synaptic connectivity. This doctoral thesis explores two functionally distinct cortical circuits, namely its input (Chapters 2 to 4) and output (Chapter 5) structures, layer 4 and layer 5 respectively. The first part of the thesis comprises three studies that examine the processing of genital touch in the cortical input layer, layer 4. We investigated how layer 4 and its inputs are structurally refined during puberty, a time when genital touch gains biological relevance. Earlier work from layer 4 of barrel cortex suggested that somatosensory cortex contains a topographic representation of the body surface. We find that the part of this body map that processes genital touch expands significantly during puberty and that this expansion could be advanced by the early experience of sexual touch. Our data further suggests that this expansion is not due to differences in the peripheral innervation of genitals. Finally, chronic imaging of excitatory neurons within layer 4 revealed cell-type specific functional and structural changes within genital cortex during puberty. The second part of this thesis focuses on the cellular specialization of the cortical output layer, layer 5, which contains different types of excitatory projection neurons. We investigated genomic differences as novel mechanism underlying projection neuron diversity. Our data suggests that some exceptionally large projection neurons may contain an increased DNA content, a phenomenon also referred to as polyploidy. Overall, this thesis highlights two novel instances of cellular specialization in the cortex: (i) Within the cortical input layer, we observed development and experience driven changes in the area which processes genital touch. (ii) Within the cortical output layer, we identified putatively polyploid projection neurons

Dynamic Security-aware Routing for Zone-based data Protection in Multi-Processor System-on-Chips

In this work, we propose a NoC which enforces the encapsulation of sensitive traffic inside the asymmetrical security zones while using minimal and non-minimal paths. The NoC routes guarantee that the sensitive traffic is communicated only through the trusted nodes which belong to the security zone. As the shape of the zones may change during operation, the sensitive traffic must be routed through low-risk paths. We test our proposal and we show that our solution can be an efficient and scalable alternative for enforce the data protection inside the MPSoC

Elephantine, Ägypten. Gesamtprojekt Elephantine und Teilprojekt Lebenswirklichkeiten (Realities of Life). Die Arbeiten des Jahres 2016 bis Sommer 2017

The temple of Satet, its reconstruction and the building of the so-called Annex Museum to house the finds from its excavations can be counted as one of the major achievements of the DAI in its last 50 years of work on Elephantine Island. The current project “Realities of Life” will provide the basis of a new exhibition concept for the Aswan Museum. The teaching program for local colleagues on modern archaeological methodology will rely not only on this museum and the ongoing excavation work, but was provided with an infrastructural background through the renovation of the excavation house of the institute on site

Elephantine, Ägypten. Projekt Lebenswirklichkeiten (Realities of Life)

Since 1969 the excavations of the DAI and its cooperative partner, the Swiss Institute in Cairo, on Elephantine Island, have concentrated mainly on the building history of the settlement as well as the study of the temples of Khnum and Satet and their surroundings, from the Early Dynastic Period approx. 4th mil. BC) until the Late Roman Period (until 642 AD in Egypt). The project “Realities of Life”, initiated in autumn 2013, now redirects the focus of the work of the DAI onto the living conditions and daily life of the people inhabiting the Middle Kingdom town (ca. 1980–1760 BC). These scientific aims will be pursued with a strong reliance on archaeometric methods and local scientific cooperation, which could be set up during the initial phase of the project

Targeted delivery of a vaccine protein to Langerhans cells in the human skin via the C-type lectin receptor Langerin

Human skin is a preferred vaccination site as it harbors multiple dendritic cell (DC) subsets, which display distinct C-type lectin receptors (CLR) that recognize pathogens. Antigens can be delivered to CLR by antibodies or ligands to boost antigen-specific immune responses. This concept has been established in mouse models but detailed insights into the functional consequences of antigen delivery to human skin DC in situ are sparse. In this study, we cloned and produced an anti-human Langerin antibody conjugated to the EBV nuclear antigen 1 (EBNA1). We confirmed specific binding of anti-Langerin-EBNA1 to Langerhans cells (LC). This novel LC-based vaccine was then compared to an existing anti-DEC-205-EBNA1 fusion protein by loading LC in epidermal cell suspensions before coculturing them with autologous T cells. After restimulation with EBNA1-peptides, we detected elevated levels of IFN-γ- and TNF-α-positive CD4+ T cells with both vaccines. When we injected the fusion proteins intradermally into human skin explants, emigrated skin DC targeted via DEC-205-induced cytokine production by T cells, whereas the Langerin-based vaccine failed to do so. In summary, we demonstrate that antibody-targeting approaches via the skin are promising vaccination strategies, however, further optimizations of vaccines are required to induce potent immune responses

Unverpixelter Hass

UNVERPIXELTER HASS Unverpixelter Hass / Kahane, Anetta (Rights reserved) ( -

Female right-wing dropouts and meanings of violence = Saídas de mulheres da extrema direita e significados de violência

No contexto radical de extrema direita, geralmente considerado um espaço de interação dominado por homens, mulheres são imperfeitamente percebidas como atores independentes. O resultado é uma visão limitada das realidades no interior dos contextos de extrema direita e assim da mesma forma da violência cometida por mulheres de extrema direita. Com base na análise de reconstruções biográficas de caso, esse artigo expande imagens estereotipadas de mulheres radicais de extrema direita e discute o significado de violência nos processos de sua entrada e saída. Demostra-se que o comportamento violento e atitudes em relação à violência são configuradas por uma história biográfica geral da pessoa e serve a diferentes objetivos que não podem ser explicados somente em termos de gêner

Elephantine, Ägypten. Neues zu Lebenswirklichkeiten (Projekt »Realities of Life«) im späten Mittleren Reich am ersten Nilkatarakt. Weitere Forschungsergebnisse der Jahre 2019 und 2020

Within the Middle Kingdom living quarters of the town of Elephantine, the German Archaeological Institute Cairo is focusing in the scope of the project »Realities of Life« on all kinds of finds down to the smallest samples to gain insight into daily life on the island around 1800 BCE. The study of ash deposits and fireplaces in House 169 has recently been especially rewarding. Evidence for food production, waste management and animal keeping during the habitation periods of this building in the northwestern town could be gained. Statistical methods used on the only rarely studied find group of dung underlines the results from the zooarchaeological analysis of animal remains, which suggest that goats were the predominantly kept caprine on the island