preliminary study of glass production remains found in granada, spain, dated to the 16th and 17th centuries

UID/00729/2020 UID/Multi/04349/2013A set of 14 glass fragments and production remains dated to the 16th and 17th centuries was collected during rescue archaeological works conducted in Granada, Spain, and was characterised by µ-PIXE. This preliminary study constitutes the first analytical approach to glass manufacturing remains from a Spanish production dated to the early-modern period. µ-PIXE allowed for the quantification of major, minor and some trace elements of the glass fragments. It also allowed mapping the elemental distribution on the fragments that were identified as an interface of crucible/glass. This analysis constitutes an evaluation of the ionic exchange between glass and crucible. The glass colours vary from the natural green and blue hues to completely colourless samples. The results show that the majority of the glass samples are of soda-lime-silicate composition, and only one proved to be of a potassium-rich composition. From this, one can hypothesise that glass rich in sodium (following the Mediterranean tradition) and potassium-rich glass (following a central and north European tradition) were both locally produced. Since this location was known as la Calle Horno del Vidrio (Glass Furnace Street) and several production evidences were found, it is highly probable that an artisanal glass production existed in this area.publishersversionpublishe

Ni(II) carcinogenesis and binding to Cap43 protein

Nickel compunds are well known as human carcinogens. The carcinogenity of nickel compounds has been confirmed by numerous epidemiological studies in humans and animals. The leading concepts in nickel carcinogenesis involves oxidative promutagenic DNA damage and epigenetic effects in chromatin resulting from nickel binding inside the cell nucleus. We have analyzed, for Ni(II) binding, the 30-amino acid C-terminal fragment of the protein, by a combined pH-metric and spectroscopic study. The fragment showed to bind one, two and three metal ions depending on the metal to ligand molar ratio

Sand and Pebbles: The Study of Portuguese Raw Materials for Provenance Archaeological Glass

grant number 125421 UID/00729/2020Portuguese archaeological excavations dated to the 17th century onwards are extremely rich in glass artefacts, with this being a reality from the north to the south of the territory. Contrasting with this reality, no glass production locations from this period have been discovered or excavated so far, which makes the provenance attribution a challenging endeavour. One specific archaeological location, the Monastery of Santa Clara-a-Velha in Coimbra, held one of the largest glass archaeological assemblages dated to the 17th century unearthed in Portugal so far. Due to the large variety of objects’ shapes, glass colours and decorative features, this assemblage is a valuable candidate to hold glass artefacts produced in Portugal. Lacking archaeological excavation on glass furnaces in Portugal, the study of glassmaking raw materials is the most promising research line to investigate the provenance of glass circulating in Portugal. In this study, sand and pebbles from six different locations in the north/centre of Portugal were collected and melted to produce glass samples. The resulting glass samples were chemically characterised using LA-ICP-MS, to obtain the composition of the samples in major, minor and trace elements. The obtained results were compared with the composition of 37 historical samples from the Monastery of Santa Clara-a-Velha previously studied. Additionally, the thermal properties of selected synthesised glasses were analysed by Differential Scanning Calorimetry, allowing new insights on melting temperatures and glass workability. Results indicate that three artefacts with stylistic features attributed to a Portuguese production were locally made with sands collected in Coimbra.publishersversionpublishe

Role of Bcl-2 expression for productive herpes simplex virus 2 replication

AbstractHerpes simplex viruses infect a variety of cells in vitro. However, not all infected cells sustain a fully productive replication of these viruses. We have shown that, in U937 monocytoid cells, herpes simplex virus 2 (HSV-2) causes a low-productive infection characterized by apoptosis as cytopathic effect at a late stage of infection. This effect was associated with a down-regulation of the Bcl-2 protein. We therefore asked whether destabilization of Bcl-2 expression could act as a limiting factor for the productive HSV-2 infection. We found that overexpression of Bcl-2 in U937 cells dramatically increased the capability of these cells to sustain a fully productive infection, while protecting against apoptosis induced by HSV-2. Overall, our data indicate that Bcl-2 expression acts as a regulator of HSV-2 replication

Centrin 2: a novel marker of mature and neoplastic human astrocytes

As microtubule organizing centers, centrosomes play a pivotal role in cell division as well as in neurodevelopment and neuronal maturation. Among centrosomal proteins, centrin-2 (CETN2) contributes also to DNA repair mechanisms which are fundamental to prevent genomic instability during neural stem cell pool expansion. Nevertheless, the expression profile of CETN2 in human neural stem cells and their progeny is currently unknown. To address this question, we interrogated a platform of human neuroepithelial stem (NES) cells derived from post-mortem developing brain or established from pluripotent cells, and demonstrated that while CETN2 retains its centrosomal location in proliferating NES cells, its expression pattern changes upon differentiation. In particular, we found that CETN2 is selectively expressed in mature astrocytes with a broad cytoplasmic distribution. We then extended our findings on human autoptic nervous tissue samples. We investigated CETN2 distribution in diverse anatomical areas along the rostro-caudal neuraxis and pointed out a peculiar topography of CETN2-labelled astrocytes in humans which was not appreciable in murine tissues, where CETN2 was mostly confined to ependymal cells. As prototypical condition with glial overproliferation, we also explored CETN2 expression in glioblastoma multiforme, reporting a focal concentration of CETN2 in neoplastic astrocytes. This study expands CETN2 localization beyond centrosomes and reveals a unique expression pattern which makes it eligible as a novel astrocytic molecular marker, thus opening new roads to glial biology and human neural conditions

Nickel binding to Cap43 protein

Cap43 has been reported to be specifically induced by nickel compounds in a variety of cell lines. Although the function of Cap43 protein (MW 43,000) is not clear, it does appear to be induced in response to an increase in intracellular concentration of Ca2+, caused by nickel ion exposure in cultured human cells, for this reason is named Cap43: Calcium protein 43,000. Cap43 protein is expressed at low levels in normal tissues however, it is overexpressed in cancer cells. The high level of expression in cancerous status combined with the elevated stability of Cap43 protein makes it an excellent cancer marker. A possible way to better understand the molecular mechanisms implicated in toxicity and carcinogenicity of nickel compounds is to study the characteristics of the proteins expressed by the genes specifically induced by these carcinogens. For this reason we focused our attention to investigate the interaction ability of nickel to Cap43 protein. The peculiarity of Cap43 protein is in its new mono-histidinic motif consisting of ten amino acids TRSRSHTSEG fragment repeated three times in the C-terminus.</br

The gourd-shaped vessel: a Portuguese product?

Several glass assemblages excavated in Portugal and dated to the 17th century include a shape, derived from the traditional dried gourd bottle, that is uncommon elsewhere in Europe. Ten gourd-shaped bottles were selected from two archaeological assemblages (the monasteries of Santa Clara-a-Velha in Coimbra and Sao Joao de Tarouca) to be studied and chemically characterized by p-PIXE and LA-ICP-MS. The bright colors were analyzed by UV-Vis reflectance spectroscopy to identify the metallic ions responsible for those colors, thus revealing potential insights into color intent. Considering the complexity of the shape, some reproductions were made, indicating that the original glassmakers exercised high levels of temperature control and fully understood the Venetian technique of half-molding. Very high contents of alumina were found in the glass, which may indicate that the gourds were produced in Portugal using local raw materials.authorsversionpublishe

Nickel interaction with metal binding sequences of histone H4

Nickel compounds are well known as human carcinogens. We investigated the issue of Ni(II) binding within the histone octamer. Using histone sequences in conjuction with the structural data we identified a binding site for Ni(II) ions located in the N-terminal tail of the histone H4

Cap43 protein: an attractive motif for Ni(II) in the C-terminal domain

The carcinogenicity of nickel compounds has been confirmed by numerous epidemiological studies in humans and animals. A possible way to better understand the molecular mechanisms implicated in toxicity and carcinogenicity of nickel compounds is to study the characteristics of the proteins expressed by the genes specifically induced by these carcinogens. The present work supports the existence of an interesting binding site for Ni(II) at the C-terminal domain of Cap43 protein