The Arabs in Malta

The Islamic Era in the history of Malta is the ponasinorum of Maltese historiography. No other period of Maltese history is so fraught with admitted or hidden psychological complexes, with unconscious fears and hates that imaginary skeletons in the national cupboard should become common property to the delight and scorn of all. Much the same attitude once characterized other parts of the Mediterranean littoral which had lived for centuries under the hegemony of the Arabs during the High Middle Ages.peer-reviewe

Burials in Maltese churches : 1419-1530/40 *

* First published in Hyphen [Malta], iv (1984), 39-45: reprinted here with a few minor emendations.The report made in 1575 by Pietro Dusina, the Apostolic Visitor to the Maltese diocese charged with the task of rooting out a number of abuses and defects, might suggest that the private ownership of graves in the Maltese churches, so common a phenomenon until burial in churches was stopped in the course of the last century, had not started before the year 1575. In fact, Dusina reported several times that the dead were buried in earth instead of in proper graves. Even for the cathedral at Mdina he had to leave instructions for this "impiety" to stop. However ample evidence survives in other sources to show that some graves existed much before 1575 and were also owned privately and used as family graves despite the custom of burial in common earth.peer-reviewe

A land inheritance dispute in Gozo in 1485

This article describes in detail a dispute between Joanni de Bonnichio and Gullielmus Kinzi against Petrus, Jacobus and Liuni de Pontremoli, about a piece of land in the district of Ghammar in Gozo, between the 8th and 9th February 1485.peer-reviewe

The gold hoard of 1525

In the Middle Ages, an inhabitant of Malta could only make some riches either by marrying into a wealthy family or by a valuable prize brought in by the local corsairs. However, there was still a steady supply of treasure, mostly in the form of gold coins and medals hidden around the islands. Most of the gold had belonged to previous inhabitants who had been, or were about to be, invaded by an alien culture or religion. This article focuses on the search and investigation on the discovery of the hidden gold.peer-reviewe

The history of Gozo from the early middle ages to modern time

Though hardly twenty six square miles in area, the little island of Gozo, some four miles to the north-west of Malta, has its own particular history to boast of, parallel to that of Malta and that of Sicily but not so identical that it has not had its own individual story to tell. 1 In general outline, one might certainly think that there was little to differentiate the history of the two main Maltese islands. They normally changed foreign domination in the same way and pretty much at the same time, Arabs following Byzantines, Normans that of the former, then the Suabians, the Angevins, the Aragonese, the Order of St. John of Jerusalem or Rhodes, the French, the British and finally independence. 2 The main geographical factors influencing one have influenced the other, whether climatological, telluric or geopolitical. In broad outline the main cultural currents influencing both islands have been the same. For most practical purposes, consequently, there is little to distinguish culturally a Gozitan person from a Maltese one.peer-reviewe

The abolition of slavery in Malta

A few years before the outbreak of the French Revolution, the Emperor of Morocco began to ransom Moslem slaves from Malta on a large scale. This throws a curious slide-light on the eighteenth century, the age of enlightenment, though it is doubtful whether there was any connection at all with such a peculiarly European climate of opinion: it is unlikely that similar ideas could have penetrated into Morocco which, with Ethiopia, then ranked among the most xenophobic countries of Africa. The first reference to an exchange of slaves between Malta and Morocco occurs in a letter of Grand Master Pinto, sent to his ambassador in Rome on 4 September 1769.peer-reviewe

Comparative frequency of Coagulation Factor II and Coagulation Factor V Alleles among new-born and senior citizens

Resistance to activated protein C is one of the most common inherited disorders associated with hereditary thrombophilia. A missense mutation in the gene coding for coagulation factor V (CF V Leiden) and which renders this procoagulant factor resistant to inactivation by activated protein C results in an inherited risk for venous thrombosis. Recently, another mutation has been identified in the prothrombin gene (CF II G20210A) which was also associated with increased risk for venous thrombosis. In this study, we sought to establish the frequency of the two alleles in a random sample of Maltese newborn and compare these with the frequencies of the same alleles among senior citizens and patients with clinical thrombophilia. The control population of 554 newborn samples processed for the same point mutations gave 13 (2.3%) who were CF V Leiden heterozygotes and 7 (2.7%) who were CF II G20210A heterozygotes. Neither homozygotes nor trans-heterozygotes (i.e. CF V Leden and CF II2 0210A heterozygotes) were observed. The 348 senior citizens gave 9 (2.6%) CF V Leiden heterozygotes and 8 (2.4%) CF II G20210A heterozygotes. Neither homozygotes nor trans-heterozygotes (i.e. CF V Leden and CF II20210A heterozygotes) were observed. The 328 patients referred to the Laboratory of Molecular Genetics, University of Malta, with clinical thrombosis gave 23 (7.01%) CF V Leiden heterozygotes and 24 (7.31%) CF II G20210A heterozygous. One patient was found to be trans-heterozygous for the two mutations. The data suggested that although CF V G1691A and CF II G20210A may increase risk for thrombophilia, they do not impact on the survival of the carriers, but the transheterozygozity may also confer increased risk. The high allele frequency may be best explained by positive natural selection.peer-reviewe

The Falzon family and the capomastro of its house at Mdina

From before 1300 right down to the seventeenth century, but especially after 1399, the family with the surname Falzon, under several different spellings, always took a prominent part in the municipal affairs of the Malta, although its social position could not compare with that of the principal feudal families long settled in Mdina. In the fifteenth and early sixteenth centuries it shared power in the small municipal administration of Mdina with the Sordinos, the Caxaros, the Falcas, the Vaccaros and one or two others, although none of these could compare in sheer wealth and power with the greater feudal families, like the Desguanes, the Mazaras, the De Navas, the De Guevaras, and, earlier on, the Gattos. This the Falzons persisted in doing for generation after generation, when other families like the Vagnolu, the D'Alaimo, the Calavas, the Vassallos, even the Sillatos, the De Nasis, and the Sonellos were unable to perform for the same length of time and with the same uniform success.peer-reviewe

Local allele frequencies of the 5-HTTLPR serotonin transporter promoter polymorphism

The Serotonin Transporter protein (5-Hydroxytryptamine transporter; 5-HTT) is an important reuptake receptor of serotonin from the synaptic cleft. The protein is encoded by the SLC6A4 gene. A size polymorphism, the 5-HTT Linked Polymorphic Region (5-HTTLPR; SLC6A4, 44-BP INS/DEL), exists within the promoter of this gene. The presence of this polymorphism has been associated with an increased susceptibility for a variety of neurological conditions including Parkinson disease, chronic pain, anxiety and depression related phenotypes. This 5' regulatory promoter polymorphism consists of a 44–base pair insertion resulting in a long or short allele. The short allele is linked to a pronounced reduction in transcriptional efficiency producing lower numbers of transporter protein and a reduced rate of serotonin reuptake. Allele frequencies for this polymorphism show substantial variation in different populations. The frequency of the 5-HTTLPR in the population of Malta was determined in 608 cord blood DNA samples. Allele size difference of the 5-HTTLPR was detected using Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR) and agarose gel electrophoresis. In total, 288 samples were found to be heterozygous (L/S) carrying 1 copy of the short allele and 1 copy of the long allele, while 129 samples were homozygous for the short allele (S/S) and 189 samples were homozygous for the long allele (L/L). Unexpectedly, 2 samples were found to carry a copy of the extra-long allele (XL) which is reportedly only found in African and Asian populations. Allele frequencies for L, S and XL alleles were 54.86%, 44.98% and 0.16% respectively. These local frequencies are similar to those of other European populations with the exception of the occurrence of the XL allele. These findings highlight the changing dynamics of population gene pools, the importance of selecting suitably matched controls for case-control studies and the importance of ethnicity information in the design, execution and interpretation of genetic diagnostic tests.peer-reviewe

Concepts for integrating DevOps methodologies with model-driven cloud management based on TOSCA

The paradigm of Cloud computing introduces new approaches to manage IT services and applications. Those approaches overcome traditional IT infrastructure and service management. One of the main goals of Cloud computing is to automate the whole management of IT services in order to reduce costs and to make the execution of management tasks less error-prone. To make this happen, Cloud providers offer proprietary tools to create and manage services in the Cloud. However, when services get more complex it is hard to manage them because those tools aim to be simple and thus provide limited functionality only. In addition, a particular service that was built based on a certain Cloud offering is bound to this offering including all its management aspects. Consequently, a service cannot be easily moved from one Cloud provider's infrastructure to another one's infrastructure. Today, tools and frameworks implementing so called "DevOps methodologies" can be used to realize management of Cloud services without binding a service to a particular Cloud provider. Nevertheless, complex services are still hard to manage by following those methodologies. To make such services manageable and enable automation of management tasks, a holistic service model is needed. Thus, model-driven Cloud management is an emerging paradigm to realize a holistic management approach for services in the Cloud. Because the DevOps approach and the model-driven approach are originating in different backgrounds, model-driven Cloud management does not cover some aspects of DevOps methodologies that are key for Cloud services. This thesis is focused on integrating DevOps methodologies with model-driven Cloud management. The goal is to combine the strengths of both approaches in order to minimize the shortcomings of the individual approaches