Botanical Resource Use in the Bronze and Iron Age of the Central Eurasian Mountain/Steppe Interface: Decision Making in Multiresource Pastoral Economies

This dissertation examines botanical resources as components of Central Asian economies in the Bronze: ca. 2500 - 800 B.C.) and Iron Ages: ca. 800 B.C. - A.D. 500) using a paleoethnobotanical data set from four archaeological sites, Begash, Mukri, Tasbas, and Tuzusai. These sites are located in the Semirech\u27ye region of eastern Kazakhstan, and they occupy distinctive microenvironmental zones along the mountain and steppe boundaries; furthermore, they show a great deal of material cultural similarity and are placed into the same culture groups by researchers. The introduction of macrobotanical studies to Central Asian archaeology allows for a critique of former models of economy. This dissertation is divided into three economic foci, agriculture, pastoralism, and exchange. First, I look at the role of wild plants as herd forage, specifically focusing on how resource patchiness helped shape social systems and networks. Then, I look at the role agriculture played at different sites and how this role changed over time. Finally, I discuss the role exchange played in the spread of domesticated plants and products such as textiles and grains. Agriculture: In this dissertation, I demonstrate that domesticated grains: broomcorn millet and compact free-threshing wheat) were present in the economy of the region as far back as the Late Bronze Age: 2200 cal B.C.). However, the role of these domesticates and the means of their acquisition are poorly understood. By the Late Bronze Age at the site of Tasbas: 1400 cal B.C.), full-scale agriculture was being practiced; specifically cultivating semispherical split-apex naked barley, highly-compact free-threshing wheat, broomcorn millet, possibly foxtail millet, and peas. The Iron Age transition in this region was marked by major social and demographic shifts, starting around 800 B.C. This dissertation helps to provide a direct causal link between these sociopolitical changes and the intensification of agriculture: following a Boserupian model). The inhabitants of sites such as Tuzusai, on the Talgar alluvial fan, shifted their economy more toward agricultural pursuits and away from mobile pastoralism. The incorporation of new agricultural resources, such as new varieties of wheat, hulled barley, and grapes marks this shift, which was also accompanied by possible intensification through irrigation and crop diversification. The shift toward agriculture was not uniform throughout Semirech\u27ye; at sites such as Begash and Mukri, economies were much more herd animal-based. Occupants of these sites may have cultivated small-scale, low-investment plots of broomcorn and foxtail millet, crops much more adaptive to a mobile pastoral economy. Pastoralism: The pastorally-focused economy of these areas relied on forage for herd animals located in orographically determined microenvironments: ecotopes). Herd movement and foraging patterns are also discussed in this dissertation based on the seed composition of burnt dung. The wild seeds in the assemblage indicate that herds were grazed in small forage-rich ecological pockets, rather than on the steppe proper. This system of focused herd grazing is still used today. Focusing economic activities on these pockets means that, while overall population was low, it was localized in specific locations. These pockets became nodes in a network of interaction and exchange across the region, providing locations for winter communal encampment and social meeting spots. Exchange: By the second millennium B.C. an exchange network had formed, connecting populations in South Asia to people in western China through a system of exchange, linked by mountain valleys. Goods such as metal ore, horses, and textiles were exchanged. This corridor of exchange seems to have brought agricultural technology from China southwest into South Asia and southwest Asian crops into China. By the Late Bronze Age a specific package of agricultural crops had formed across the entire mountain corridor. The increased exchange and interaction that marked the Iron Age transition eventually cumulated into the Silk Road, and it brought new crops and technology into Central Asia, ultimately leading to increased social complexity and stratification

Origins of the Apple: The Role of Megafaunal Mutualism in the Domestication of Malus and Rosaceous Trees

The apple (Malus domestica [Suckow] Borkh.) is one of the most economically and culturally significant fruits in the world today, and it is grown in all temperate zones. With over a thousand landraces recognized, the modern apple provides a unique case study for understanding plant evolution under human cultivation. Recent genomic and archaeobotanical studies have illuminated parts of the process of domestication in the Rosaceae family. Interestingly, these data seem to suggest that rosaceous arboreal crops did not follow the same pathway toward domestication as other domesticated, especially annual, plants. Unlike in cereal crops, tree domestication appears to have been rapid and driven by hybridization. Apple domestication also calls into question the concept of centers of domestication and human intentionality. Studies of arboreal domestication also illustrate the importance of fully understanding the seed dispersal processes in the wild progenitors when studying crop origins. Large fruits in Rosaceae evolved as a seed-dispersal adaptation recruiting megafaunal mammals of the late Miocene. Genetic studies illustrate that the increase in fruit size and changes in morphology during evolution in the wild resulted from hybridization events and were selected for by large seed dispersers. Humans over the past three millennia have fixed larger-fruiting hybrids through grafting and cloning. Ultimately, the process of evolution under human cultivation parallels the natural evolution of larger fruits in the clade as an adaptive strategy, which resulted in mutualism with large mammalian seed dispersers (disperser recruitment)

Vemurafenib‐induced granulomatous hepatitis

Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/135991/1/hep28692_am.pdfhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/135991/2/hep28692.pd

Introduction to the Special Issue: "Introduction and intensification of agriculture in Central Eurasia and adjacent regions"

For well over a century, scholars from across the social and biological sciences have been trying to understand the origins and spread of agriculture. This debate is often intertwined with discussions of climate change and human environmental impact. Over the past decade, this debate has spread into Central Eurasia, from western China to Ukraine and southern Russia to Turkmenistan, a part of the world often thought to have been largely dominated by pastoralists. A growing interest in the prehistory of Central Eurasia has spurred a new chapter in the origins of agriculture debate; archaeobotanical research is showing how important farming practices in this region were in regard to the spread of crops across the Old World. While early people living in Central Eurasia played an influential role in shaping human history, there is still limited understanding of the trajectories of social evolution among these populations. In March 2015, 30 leading scholars from around the globe came together in Berlin, Germany, to discuss the introduction and intensification of agriculture in Central Eurasia and adjacent regions. At the German Archaeological Institute in Berlin (Deutsches Archäologisches Institut, DAI), these scholars presented novel data on topics covering East, South, and Central Asia, spanning a wide realm of methodological approaches. The present special edition volume deals with a selection of the papers given at this conference, and it marks a significant step toward recognizing the contribution of Central Eurasian populations in the spread and development of agricultural systems over the course of the Holocene

On Overcoming Barriers to Application of Neuroinflammation Research

Throughout history, new ideas in medicine or science have met initial resistance by entrenched medical or scientific communities. Barriers to medical innovation fall into six main categories as listed here in order of historical chronology: (1) Theological, (2) Academic, (3) Scientific, (4) Financial, (5) Governmental, and (6) Commercial. Researchers in the field of neuroinflammation often encounter such obstacles that may include denialism. Despite these barriers, recognition of the therapeutic potential of targeting neuroinflammation for treatment of stroke, traumatic brain injury, Alzheimer’s disease, spinal pain, and a variety of additional brain disorders has accelerated in the past 10 years. Consequently, a paradigm shift in scientific thinking regarding neuroinflammation as a therapeutic target is now underway

Retreatment with interferon-alpha and ribavirin in primary interferon-alpha non-responders with chronic hepatitis C

Background/Aims: Combination therapy with interferon-alpha (IFN-alpha) plus ribavirin is more efficacious than IFN-alpha monotherapy in previously untreated patients with chronic hepatitis C and patients with IFN-alpha relapse. Only limited data are available in IFN-alpha non-responders. In a multicenter trial we therefore evaluated the efficacy of combination therapy in IFN-alpha-resistant chronic hepatitis C. Methods: Eighty-two patients (mean age 46.8 years, 54 males, 28 females) with chronic hepatitis C were treated with IFN-alpha-2a (3 x 6 MIU/week) and ribavirin (14 mg/kg daily) for 12 weeks. Thereafter, treatment was continued only in virological responders (undetectable serum HCV RNA at week 12) with an IFN-alpha dose of 3 x 3 MIU/week and without ribavirin for a further 9 months. The primary study endpoint was an undetectable HCV RNA by RT-PCR at the end of the 24-week follow-up period. Results: After 12 weeks of combination therapy, an initial virological response was observed in 29 of 82 (35.4%) patients. Due to a high breakthrough rate after IFN-a dose reduction and ribavirin discontinuation, an end-of-treatment response was only achieved in 12 of 82 (14.6%) patients. After the follow-up period, a sustained virological response was observed in 8 of 82 (9.8%) patients. Infection with HCV genotype 3 was the only pretreatment parameter, which could predict a sustained response (HCV-1, 5%; HCV-3, 57.1%; p < 0.001). Conclusions: Despite a high initial response rate of 35.4%, sustained viral clearance was achieved only in 9.8% of the retreated primary IFN-alpha non-responders. Higher IFN-alpha induction and maintenance dose, as well as prolonged ribavirin treatment may possibly increase the virological response rates in non-responders, particularly in those infected by HCV-1

Idéologies et formations sociales

Robert Paris, maître de conférencesDominique Spengler, psychiatre des hôpitaux Idéologie, imaginaire, inconscient : « Fin de siècle », fin d’un monde ? Nous avons commencé par une géographie des inquiétudes et des mouvements qui marquent cette « fin de siècle » en revenant sur l’Europe centrale, Vienne et Budapest essentiellement. La lecture des Souvenirs de Stefan Zweig et l’évocation des figures de Hetzka, Nordau, Herzl, Gumplowicz et Karl Mannheim, nous ont permis de nous interroger sur la..

Idéologies et formations sociales

Robert Paris, maître de conférences avec Dominique Spengler, psychiatre des hôpitaux Idéologie, imaginaire, inconscient : le refoulé historique Après avoir rappelé les grandes lignes de notre problématique, nous avons clos notre étude antérieure de l’œuvre de Marcelle Tinayre en commentant son roman La Rebelle (1905). Le destin du petit Claude, le fils de l’héroïne, fruit d’une « imprudence » de sa mère, a été mis en parallèle avec le sort dévolu à l’enfant adultérin ou illégitime chez Maupas..

Idéologies et formations sociales

Robert Paris, maître de conférences avec Dominique Spengler, psychiatre des hôpitaux Idéologie, imaginaire, inconscient : « fin de siècle », fin d’un monde ? Après avoir rappelé ou précisé les grandes lignes de notre démarche, on a poursuivi l’analyse de la crise qui travaille cette « fin de siècle ». Revenant sur les « piliers de l’ordre » tels que les définissent Paul Bourget, puis Léon Daudet – « le Vatican, l’état-major prussien, la Chambre des lords anglais et l’Académie française » –, o..

Idéologies et formations sociales

Robert Paris, maître de conférences avec Dominique Spengler, psychiatre des hôpitaux Idéologie, imaginaire, inconscient : le refoulé historique Notre séminaire a tourné cette année autour des premiers romans de Marcelle Tinayre, écrivain féministe qui fit scandale en son temps, bien oubliée aujourd’hui, peut-être injustement. L’œuvre romanesque de cette collaboratrice de La Fronde offrait en effet l’occasion de confronter son idéologie explicite, idéologie avouée, revendiquée même, et ce que ..