Il culto di Minerva nel bresciano. Geografia e forme del sacro fra interpretatio e innovazione

The paper considers the evidence of the cult of Minerva in the Brescia area in Roman times. The analysis of the cultual data in the context of the more general archaelogical and territorial framework reveals a complex and diverse scenario. The late Iron Age witnessed the development of the Gruppo Breno-Dos dell’Arca of Valcamonica to the north, with a strong gravitational pull towards the Alpine area; the plain to the south became part of the Celtic (Cenomani) sphere of influence since the end of the fourth century B.C. This cultual duality resisted until the Romanization and is reflected in the worship of Minerva, the spread and characteristics of which seem to testify a varied response to different strategies of Romanization

I Trumplini fra Camuni, Reti e Celti: alcune note sulle fonti storiche e i dati archeologici fra età del Ferro e romanizzazione

I Trumplini sono citati da numerose fonti storiografiche e epigrafiche antiche: presenti fra le gentes alpinae devictae nel Trofeo di La Turbie e fra i popoli effigiati nel Sebasteion di Afrodisia di Caria, essi sono nominati distintamente rispetto a Camuni, Sabini e Reti. I dati archeologici dalla Val Trompia, per quanto scarsi e frammentari e non indicativi di una specifica identità etnica, testimoniano per il territorio l’apertura fin dal III sec. a.C. verso il mondo celtico e l’esistenza di stretti rapporti culturali ed economici con la pianura e con Brescia.  The Trumplini are mentioned by numerous ancient historical and epigraphic sources: present among the gentes alpinae devictae Trophy in La Turbie and among peoples portrayed in Sebasteion of Aphrodisias in Caria, they are cited distinctly from the Camunni, Sabini and Raeti. The archaeological data from Valtrompia, though insufficient and not specific to an ethnic identity, testifies an opening to the Celtic world since the third century B.C. and the existence of close cultural and economic ties with Brescia and the plains

Zoster-Associated Prothrombotic Plasma Exosomes and Increased Stroke Risk

Herpes zoster (HZ; shingles) caused by varicella zoster virus reactivation increases stroke risk for up to 1 year after HZ. The underlying mechanisms are unclear, however, the development of stroke distant from the site of zoster (eg, thoracic, lumbar, sacral) that can occur months after resolution of rash points to a long-lasting, virus-induced soluble factor (or factors) that can trigger thrombosis and/or vasculitis. Herein, we investigated the content and contributions of circulating plasma exosomes from HZ and non-HZ patient samples. Compared with non-HZ exosomes, HZ exosomes (1) contained proteins conferring a prothrombotic state to recipient cells and (2) activated platelets leading to the formation of platelet-leukocyte aggregates. Exosomes 3 months after HZ yielded similar results and also triggered cerebrovascular cells to secrete the proinflammatory cytokines, interleukin 6 and 8. These results can potentially change clinical practice through addition of antiplatelet agents for HZ and initiatives to increase HZ vaccine uptake to decrease stroke risk

AI is a viable alternative to high throughput screening: a 318-target study

: High throughput screening (HTS) is routinely used to identify bioactive small molecules. This requires physical compounds, which limits coverage of accessible chemical space. Computational approaches combined with vast on-demand chemical libraries can access far greater chemical space, provided that the predictive accuracy is sufficient to identify useful molecules. Through the largest and most diverse virtual HTS campaign reported to date, comprising 318 individual projects, we demonstrate that our AtomNet® convolutional neural network successfully finds novel hits across every major therapeutic area and protein class. We address historical limitations of computational screening by demonstrating success for target proteins without known binders, high-quality X-ray crystal structures, or manual cherry-picking of compounds. We show that the molecules selected by the AtomNet® model are novel drug-like scaffolds rather than minor modifications to known bioactive compounds. Our empirical results suggest that computational methods can substantially replace HTS as the first step of small-molecule drug discovery

Robust estimation of bacterial cell count from optical density

Optical density (OD) is widely used to estimate the density of cells in liquid culture, but cannot be compared between instruments without a standardized calibration protocol and is challenging to relate to actual cell count. We address this with an interlaboratory study comparing three simple, low-cost, and highly accessible OD calibration protocols across 244 laboratories, applied to eight strains of constitutive GFP-expressing E. coli. Based on our results, we recommend calibrating OD to estimated cell count using serial dilution of silica microspheres, which produces highly precise calibration (95.5% of residuals <1.2-fold), is easily assessed for quality control, also assesses instrument effective linear range, and can be combined with fluorescence calibration to obtain units of Molecules of Equivalent Fluorescein (MEFL) per cell, allowing direct comparison and data fusion with flow cytometry measurements: in our study, fluorescence per cell measurements showed only a 1.07-fold mean difference between plate reader and flow cytometry data

Sacerdoti e offerenti nel territorio bresciano

La ciudad de Brescia y su territorio se distinguen por la riqueza de los datos arqueológicos referidos a la presencia en época romana de sacerdotes y oferentes. En la primera parte del texto se presenta el cuadro de los conocimientos referidos a los epígrafes de sacerdotes en Brescia y en Valcamonica, donde se concentra la mayor parte de estos hallazgos. En la segunda parte del texto se profundiza el estudio sobre la devoción al dios Mercurio a través del análisis de los epígrafes y de algunos supuestos lugares de culto

Sepolture tra Liguri, Veneti, Insubri e Cenomani tra II e I sec. a.C.

Breve saggio di sintesi sulle caratteristiche dell'archeologia della morte nella tarda età di romanizzazione nel Venet