Augustus und Florus vor 2000 Jahren: Zur Wiederentdeckung und Rekonstruktion der Originalfassung des Geschichtswerkes des Iulius Florus (14/15 N. Chr.)

The concise history of Rome, covering the 700 years from Romulus until Augustus and composed by an author with the cognomen Florus, is ranked since the Renaissance among the most often printed and most widely read ancient Latin prose works. But whereas this small work was until now commonly supposed to have been written by a “L. Annaeus” oder “P. Annius” Florus during the age of the emperor Trajan (or even later), the present article — based on four essays I have published already more than 20 years ago — demonstrates that almost the entire work was originally composed by a contemporary of Augustus, most likely by the same Iulius Florus to whom Horace addressed two famous letters (I 3 and II 2). We must, indeed, distinguish between two different versions of this work, namely on the one hand the genuine text edited by Iulius Florus, whose name appears as the author in the very important Codex Bambergensis (9th century), immediately after the consecration of the deceased Augustus (17 Sept. 14), and on the other hand a second edition prepared by an anonymous redactor in the era of Trajan (98–117), which was considered a revival of the Golden Age of Augustus; in addition, some further editions appeared later in the second century. All these new editions of Iulius Florus’s work contain just two crucial differences from his original text, namely two short interpolations in Iulius Florus’s preface: the short colon ut postea velut consenuerit, inserted into § 4, and the last sentence (§ 8), added to the original preface. Both interpolations, however, stand in marked contrast to the entire context of Florus’s composition. The main purpose of my article is, therefore, a reconstruction of the original form of Iulius Florus’s historical work, which contained not four or two books (as it is now generally assumed), but only one book, presented as a brevis tabella or breviarium of Roman history

Berndt Dugall, Direktor der Universitätsbibliothek Johann Christian Senckenberg - Goethe-Universität Frankfurt am Main, im Interview

In this interview, Berndt Dugall describes the changes in his professional life lasting nearly forty years. The transition from printed to electronic media has deeply changed role and function of libraries. Today's libraries have to offer their services in a completely changed environment. Competing with global enterprises, like Google and Amazon, libraries all over the world have to become a more consistent network, especially with regard to the international standards of their cataloguing rules. If libraries want to remain a key service provider, they have to react more quickly to changes and to find solutions, which are less perfect

Image-based window detection: an overview

Automated segmentation of buildings’ façade and detection of its elements is of high relevance in various fields of research as it, e. g., reduces the effort of 3 D reconstructing existing buildings and even entire cities or may be used for navigation and localization tasks. In recent years, several approaches were made concerning this issue. These can be mainly classified by their input data which are either images or 3 D point clouds. This paper provides a survey of image-based approaches. Particularly, this paper focuses on window detection and therefore groups related papers into the three major detection strategies. We juxtapose grammar based methods, pattern recognition and machine learning and contrast them referring to their generality of application. As we found out machine learning approaches seem most promising for window detection on generic façades and thus we will pursue these in future work

Genetic variation in genes interacting with BRCA1/2 and risk of breast cancer in Cypriot population.

Inability to correctly repair DNA damage is known to play a role in the development of breast cancer. Single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) of DNA repair genes have been identified, which modify the DNA repair capacity, which in turn may affect the risk of developing breast cancer. To assess whether alterations in DNA repair genes contribute to breast cancer, we genotyped 62 SNPs in 29 genes in 1,109 Cypriot women with breast cancer and 1,177 age-matched healthy controls. Five SNPs were associated with breast cancer. SNPs rs13312840 and rs769416 in the NBS1 gene were associated with a decrease in breast cancer risk (OR TT vs. TC/CC = 0.58; 95% CI, 0.37-0.92; P = 0.019 and OR GG vs. GT/TT = 0.23, 95% CI 0.06-0.85, P = 0.017, respectively). The variant allele of MRE11A rs556477 was also associated with a reduced risk of developing the disease (OR AA vs. AG/GG = 0.76; 95% CI, 0.64-0.91; P = 0.0022). MUS81 rs545500 and PBOV1 rs6927706 SNPs were associated with an increased risk of developing breast cancer (OR GG vs. GC/CC = 1.21, 95% CI, 1.02-1.45; P = 0.031; OR AA vs. AG/GG = 1.53, 95% CI, 1.07-2.18; P = 0.019, respectively). Finally, haplotype-based tests identified significant associations between specific haplotypes in MRE11A and NBS1 genes and breast cancer risk. Further large-scale studies are needed to confirm these results

Meta-Analysis of Genome-Wide Linkage Studies in Celiac Disease.

OBJECTIVE: A meta-analysis of genome-wide linkage studies allows us to summarize the extensive information available from family-based studies, as the field moves into genome-wide association studies. METHODS: Here we apply the genome scan meta-analysis (GSMA) method, a rank-based, model-free approach, to combine results across eight independent genome-wide linkages performed on celiac disease (CD), including 554 families with over 1,500 affected individuals. We also investigate the agreement between signals we identified from this meta-analysis of linkage studies and those identified from genome-wide association analysis using a hypergeometric distribution. RESULTS: Not surprisingly, the most significant result was obtained in the HLA region. Outside the HLA region, suggestive evidence for linkage was obtained at the telomeric region of chromosome 10 (10q26.12-qter; p = 0.00366), and on chromosome 8 (8q22.2-q24.21; p = 0.00491). Testing signals of association and linkage within bins showed no significant evidence for co-localization of results. CONCLUSION: This meta-analysis allowed us to pool the results from available genome-wide linkage studies and to identify novel regions potentially harboring predisposing genetic variation contributing to CD. This study also shows that linkage and association studies may identify different types of disease-predisposing variants

In-situ early age hydration of cement-based materials by synchrotron X-ray powder diffraction

Cement based binders are building materials of worldwide importance. Since these samples are very complex, the knowledge/control of their mineralogical composition are essential to design and predict materials with specific/improved performance. Rietveld quantitative phase analysis (RQPA) allows the quantification of crystalline phases and, when combined with specific methodologies, as the addition of an internal standard or the external standard approach (G-factor), amorphous and non-crystalline phases can also be quantified. However, to carry out a proper RQPA in hydrated cementitious-materials, a good powder diffraction pattern is necessary. In this work, synchrotron X-ray powder diffraction (SXRPD) has been used, allowing in-situ measurements during the early-age hydration process. This work deals with the early hydration study of cement-based materials. The studied samples were: a laboratory-prepared belite calcium sulphoaluminate (BCSAF) clinker (non-active) mixed with 10wt% gypsum, labelled G10B0; two active laboratory-prepared BCSAF clinkers (activated with 2wt% borax), one mixed with 10wt% gypsum and the other one with 10wt% monoclinic-bassanite, hereafter named G10B2 and B10B2, respectively; and an environmentally-friendly cement sample from Henkel, composed of bassanite mixed with 15wt% Portland cement and 10wt% Metakaolin, labelled H1. Anhydrous G10B0 contains beta-belite and orthorhombic-ye'elimite as main phases, while alpha'H-belite and pseudo-cubic-ye'elimite are stabilized in G10B2 and B10B2, with the corresponding sulphate source. Anhydrous H1 contains monoclinic and hexagonal bassanite and alite as main phases. Ye'elimite, in the non-active BCSAF cement pastes, dissolves at a higher pace than in the active one (degree of reaction is α~25% and α~10% at 1 h, respectively) (both prepared with gypsum), with the corresponding differences in ettringite crystallisation (degree of precipitation is α~30% and α~5%, respectively). Moreover, the type of sulphate source has important consequences on the hydration of the active BCSAF cement pastes. Bassanite is quickly dissolved and it precipitates as gypsum within the first hour of hydration (in B10B2). At that time, ettringite starts to crystallize, and after 12 hours is almost fully crystallized, similar to G10B2. In H1, bassanite transforms into gypsum within the first hour, being the principal hydration product; ettringite starts to be formed just after few hydration minutes. These results are crucial in the understanding and development of improved cement materials.Universidad de Málaga. Campus de Excelencia Internacional Andalucía Tech

Berndt Dugall, Direktor der Universitätsbibliothek Johann Christian Senckenberg - Goethe-Universität Frankfurt am Main, im Interview

In this interview, Berndt Dugall describes the changes in his professional life lasting nearly forty years. The transition from printed to electronic media has deeply changed role and function of libraries. Today's libraries have to offer their services in a completely changed environment. Competing with global enterprises, like Google and Amazon, libraries all over the world have to become a more consistent network, especially with regard to the international standards of their cataloguing rules. If libraries want to remain a key service provider, they have to react more quickly to changes and to find solutions, which are less perfect