Islands of Salt Antczak, Konrad A
2019, 2020, Volume:
6
eBook
Open access
The early-modern Venezuelan Caribbean did not lure seafarers with the saccharine delights of cane sugar but with the preserving qualities of solar sea salt. In this book, the historical ...archaeological study of this salty commodity offers a unique entryway into the hitherto unknown maritime mobilities and daily lives of the seafarers who camped at the saltpans of Venezuelan islands from the seventeenth to the late nineteenth centuries, cultivating and harvesting the white crystal of the sea. For the first time, this study offers a comprehensive documentary history of the saltpans of La Tortuga Island and Cayo Sal in the Los Roques Archipelago, uncovering the surprising importance of their salt. Long-term archaeological excavations at the campsites by these saltpans have brought to light the plethora of material remains left behind by seafarers during their seasonal and temporary salt forays. The exhaustive analysis of the thousands of recovered things – pipes, punch bowls, plates, teapots, buttons, bones – contrasted with documentary evidence, not only enables us to understand where these things came from but also by whom they were used. By engaging the evidence through my theoretical framework of assemblages of practice, I demonstrate how seafarers and things were vibrantly entangled in the everyday assemblages of practice of salt cultivation, dining and drinking. This multisited approach spanning 256 years, reveals that seafarers were fervent buyers of fashionable products, drinking hot tea from porcelain tea bowls, using colorful ceramic chamber pots for their hygienic needs and imbibing exotic rum punch by the scorching saltpans of the uninhabited Venezuelan islands. Intended for scholars, students and the interested public alike, this historical archaeological study positions humble seafarers in the limelight, not as the anonymous movers of international trade and facilitators of imperial interests, but as avid trans-imperial and extra-imperial consumers of the fruits of those very empires.
A prenatal sex steroid environment of high prenatal testosterone and low prenatal oestrogen inhibits lung development and may predispose individuals to be vulnerable to lung disease in later life. ...Therefore, the aim of this report was to investigate whether there is an association between right and left 2D:4D (biomarker of prenatal sex steroids exposure) and primary lung cancer in women and men. Also, we considered the relationship between right-left 2D:4D (Δ2D:4D, a negative correlate of high prenatal testosterone and low prenatal oestrogen) and the age of lung cancer diagnosis. The study included 109 patients (61 men) with lung cancer and 197 controls (78 men). In the study we found that: (i) women with lung cancer have lower 2D:4D compared to controls (the effect was independent of smoking), (ii) among women with cancer, age at diagnosis was positively related to 2D:4D, i.e. women with masculinized 2D:4D present earlier with the cancer than women with feminized 2D:4D, (iii) among men with lung cancer, those with the most aggressive form (small-cell lung cancer) had masculinized (low) Δ2D:4D compared to those with the less aggressive form (non-small cell lung cancer). The data suggests that masculinized right 2D:4D and Δ2D:4D are associated with a predisposition to lung cancer and/or the more aggressive forms of lung cancer.
The purpose of the paper is designation of the changes in the structure of cellulose after the methane fermentation process of
Miscanthus
and
Sorghum
harvested during the growing season and ...afterwards. The percentage and structure of cellulose before and after fermentation were studied. Investigations into changes of the cellulose structure were conducted by the SEC, FT-IR and XRD methods. The average percentage of cellulose after the growing season for
Miscanthus
varieties was higher and for
Sorghum
varieties was lower. As a result of the fermentation, the percentage of cellulose for both investigated species harvested in two growth seasons was lower. The degree of polymerisation for the plants harvested after the growing season was lower for the most feedstock. As a result of the fermentation process, the degree of polymerization increased for each of the investigated feedstock. However, crystallinity of cellulose remained at the same level for
Miscanthus
and decreased for
Sorghum
. It was shown that changes were different in the cellulose structure of the compared species.
Convinced that archaeology as a past‑oriented discipline should exert a transformative impact on the present, we discuss a series of initiatives that aim at interweaving the past of the Los Roques ...Archipelago, located 135 km off the central coast of Venezuela, into its present‑day community life. Pioneering archaeological research carried out on these islands since 1982 revealed an unexpectedly rich volume of diversified artifacts and contextual information on the Amerindian seamen who seasonally exploited the local natural resources between A.D. 1200 and 1500. We are confident that despite the historical discontinuity between the pre‑Hispanic seamen and the current population of the archipelago, the vibrant and colorful archaeological past will reach the present‑day inhabitants, enriching their socio‑cultural identity and influencing their way of life that currently oscillates entrapped between fishing and tourism‑oriented activities. We discuss the aims and methodology of community archeology activities that include talks, exhibits, publications, documentary films and – above all – archaeologicalworkshops that bring together the archaeologists and Los Roques schoolchildren in experiential archaeological events.
Despite the absence of endogenous chitin in humans, chitinases are present in the serum of healthy subjects and their levels are increased in a variety of chronic inflammatory conditions. It has been ...shown that chitotriosidase and structurally related chitinase-like protein-YKL-40 contribute to the pathogenesis of COPD. However, details regarding the relation of their systemic and local airways levels remain unknown.
To examine peripheral blood and sputum chitotriosidase and YKL-40 expression in smokers and patients with COPD.
Forty patients with COPD, 20 healthy smokers and 10 healthy never-smokers were studied. Serum and induced sputum chitotriosidase protein and activity levels, YKL-40 concentrations, and their gene expression in sputum cells and peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMC) were evaluated.
Both chitotriosidase protein levels and activity were higher in sputum obtained from COPD subjects compared to healthy never-smokers (
<0.05 and
<0.01, respectively). A similar pattern was observed for PBMC chitotriosidase mRNA expression (
<0.001). YKL-40 serum concentrations were elevated in healthy smokers and COPD subjects compared to healthy never-smokers (
<0.001 and
<0.01, respectively). In sputum, YKL-40 levels were increased in COPD compared to healthy never-smokers (
<0.01). PBMC YKL-40 mRNA expression was increased in COPD and healthy smokers compared to healthy never-smokers (
<0.0001). No associations were found between chitotriosidase or YKL-40 peripheral blood levels and sputum levels.
Our results demonstrate that chitotriosidase and YKL-40 are overexpressed in peripheral blood and airways in both healthy smokers and COPD subjects which may indicate smoking-related activation of macrophages, neutrophils, and epithelial cells.
Angiogenesis/angiostasis regulated by hypoxia inducible factor-1A (HIF-1A)/vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF)/inhibitor of growth protein 4 (ING-4) axis may be crucial for the course and ...outcome of sarcoidosis. Overexpression of angiogenic factors (activation of VEGF through HIF-1A) may predispose to chronic course and lung fibrosis, whereas immunoangiostasis (related to an overexpression of inhibitory ING-4) may be involved in granuloma formation in early sarcoid inflammation, or sustained or recurrent formation of granulomas. In this work we investigated gene expression of HIF-1A, VEGF and ING-4 in bronchoalveolar fluid (BALF) cells and in peripheral blood (PB) lymphocytes of sarcoidosis patients (n=94), to better understand mechanisms of the disease and to search for its biomarkers. The relative gene expression level (RQ value) was analyzed by qPCR. The results were evaluated according to the presence of lung parenchymal involvement (radiological stage I vs. II-IV), acute vs. insidious onset, lung function tests, calcium metabolism parameters, percentage of lymphocytes (BALL%) and BAL CD4+/CD8+ in BALF, age, and gender. In BALF cells, the ING-4 and VEGF RQ values were increased, while HIF-1A expression was decreased. In PB lymphocytes all studied genes were overexpressed. Higher expression of HIF-1A in PB lymphocytes of patients with abnormal spirometry, and in BALF cells of patients with lung volume restriction was found. VEGF gene expression in BALF cells was also higher in patients with abnormal spirometry. These findings were in line with previous data on the role of HIF-1A/VEGF/ING-4 axis in the pathogenesis of sarcoidosis. Up-regulated HIF-1A and VEGF genes are linked to acknowledged negative prognostics.
The early modern history of the Dutch Caribbean island of Bonaire has to a large extent been influenced by its most valuable resource: solar salt. Through a multidisciplinary approach combining a ...landscape study, underwater and terrestrial archaeological surveys, and documentary research, the maritime cultural landscape of Bonaire’s southernmost saltpan is analyzed holistically, revealing new aspects of the lives of the people who lived and toiled there.
The orderly deposition of histones onto DNA is mediated by conserved assembly complexes, including chromatin assembly factor-1 (CAF-1) and the Hir proteins
1–4. CAF-1 and the Hir proteins operate in ...distinct but functionally overlapping histone deposition pathways in vivo
5, 6. The Hir proteins and CAF-1 share a common partner, the highly conserved histone H3/H4 binding protein Asf1, which binds the middle subunit of CAF-1 as well as to Hir proteins
7–11. Asf1 binds to newly synthesized histones H3/H4
12, and this complex stimulates histone deposition by CAF-1
7, 11, 12. In yeast, Asf1 is required for the contribution of the Hir proteins to gene silencing
7, 13. Here, we demonstrate that Hir1, Hir2, Hir3, and Hpc2 comprise the HIR complex, which copurifies with the histone deposition protein Asf1. Together, the HIR complex and Asf1 deposit histones onto DNA in a replication-independent manner. Histone deposition by the HIR complex and Asf1 is impaired by a mutation in Asf1 that inhibits HIR binding. These data indicate that the HIR complex and Asf1 proteins function together as a conserved eukaryotic pathway for histone replacement throughout the cell cycle.
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