Jenny Strauss Clay, Irad Malkin, Yannis Z. Tzifopoulos (ed.), Panhellenes at Methone: graphê in Late Geometric and Protoarchaic Methone. Trends in classics - supplementary volumes, 44 . Berlin; Boston: De Gruyter, 2017. Pp. x, 377. ISBN 9783110501278. $137.99.

Review of Jenny Strauss Clay, Irad Malkin, Yannis Z. Tzifopoulos (ed.), Panhellenes at Methone: graphê in Late Geometric and Protoarchaic Methone. Trends in classics - supplementary volumes, 44

Escritura e Identidad: el caso de Pafos

During most of Antiquity, the Greek-speaking kingdoms in Cyprus used syllabic writing systems for the Cypriot dialect. Paphos, which was one of the most powerful kingdoms in the island, used a special variant of the Cypriot syllabary. Although the circumstances seemed to favour the adoption of the Greek alphabet as a writing system, the Paphians used their syllabary systematically from the 8th century until 306 BC approximately. Nevertheless, this chronological frame could be extended if we take into account some isolated documents from the 1st century BC and if we consider the Opheltas inscription to be an archaic sample of the Paphian syllabary, as some scholars suggest. In that case, the first use of the Paphian syllabary would be dated in the 11th century BC. This paper aims to analyse the distinctive features of the Paphian syllabary and its sub-dialect and to locate them within their linguistic, geographic and historical frameworks, so as to understand why the use of the syllabic system was so important in Paphos and the reasons why it was used for such a long time in spite of the existence of an alphabetic system for the Greek language. This work was published during my collaboration in the project "Context of and Relations between Early Writing Systems (CREWS)", funded by the European Research Council (ERC) under the Research and Innovation programme Horizon 2020 of the European Union (EU), grant no.67775

Optical detection of a <i>Noctiluca scintillans</i> bloom

Noctiluca scintillans blooms are often observed as reddish patches in Belgian waters in June-July in calm weather. The possibility of mapping these blooms is investigated here. In June 2005 a dataset of in situ measured reflectance spectra, airborne hyperspectral images, experimental reflectance and absorption spectra of Noctiluca scintillans was collected. The strong optical signature of dense Noctiluca scintillans blooms suggests that mapping these blooms should be feasible. A detection algorithm is proposed based on a combination of a high reflectance threshold with a condition of sharp increase in reflectance in the range 520-580 nm. This algorithm will detect only intense blooms but should distinguish between Noctiluca scintillans and both intense phytoplankton blooms and very turbid water. Noctiluca scintillans detection by optical sensors mounted on ships and airplanes has been confirmed for the June 2005 bloom in Belgian waters. Detection from satellites should also be feasible but only if suitable wavelengths are available and only if the spatial resolution is sufficiently high. The optical properties of this species are thought to be related to gut content. The applicability of this algorithm to other regions and situations therefore remains to be tested

Screening of Fusarium graminearum isolates for enzymes extracellular and deoxynivalenol production

Fusarium graminearum, the main etiological agent of Fusarium Head Bligh, has high intraspecific genetic diversity, which is related to the variability in the aggressiveness among isolates against wheat. The aggressiveness involves different mechanisms as the production and liberation of extracellular enzymes and mycotoxins. In the present report, several F. graminearum isolates obtained from wheat spikes from Pampas region, Argentina, were screened for polygalacturonase (pectinase), proteolytic and lipase extracellular enzymatic activities production, as well as by the capacity to produce deoxynivalenol. The enzymatic production in terms of magnitude was varied among isolates, which could be related to a differential capacity to infect wheat. Both polygalacturonase as proteolytic activities had a maximum activity in the first days of incubation. Instead, the lipase activity reached its maximum activity advanced incubation time. Deoxynivalenol production was delayed over time with respect to the first enzymatic activities, which would infer its relation with the progress of the disease in the host, more than with the early stages of infection. The characterization carried out in this research, would allow us to apply a selection criterion among isolates for further research.Fil: Ortega, Leonel Maximilano. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico la Plata. Centro de Investigación y Desarrollo En Fermentaciones Industriales (i); ArgentinaFil: Alconada Magliano, Teresa Maria. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico la Plata. Centro de Investigación y Desarrollo En Fermentaciones Industriales (i); ArgentinaFil: Astoreca, Andrea Luciana. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico la Plata. Centro de Investigación y Desarrollo En Fermentaciones Industriales (i); ArgentinaFil: Kikot, Gisele Eleonora. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico la Plata. Centro de Investigación y Desarrollo En Fermentaciones Industriales (i); Argentin

Estimating pCO2 from remote sensing in the Belgian Coastal Zone

In coastal waters, a purely field observation based approach will probably be insufficient to better constrain estimates of air-sea CO2 fluxes, to study their inter-annual variability and their long-term changes. One approach to achieve these goals is to use remotely sensed fields of relevant biogeochemical variables to extrapolate available data, and produce maps of the partial pressure of CO2 (pCO2) and air-sea CO2 fluxes. In the open ocean this approach has to some extent been successfully used based on fields of chlorophyll-a (Chla) and sea surface temperature (SST). This approach remains challenging in coastal waters that have complex optical properties (Case-II waters) and that exhibit highly dynamic pCO2 temporal and spatial variations. In the frame of the Belgian funded BELCOLOUR-II project (Optical remote sensing of marine, coastal and inland waters; http://www.mumm.ac.be/BELCOLOUR/), three field cruises per year (April, July and September) for optical measurements were carried in 2007, 2008, 2009 in the Southern Bight of the North Sea (SBNS). Based on these data-sets, we derived algorithms to compute pCO2 from Chl-a and sea surface salinity (SSS) using multipolynomial regressions (MPR). Here we report the first application of the MPR algorithms to derive pCO2 fields in the Belgian coastal zone based on data gathered in 2007, using remote sensed Chl-a (MERIS) and SSS computed with a 3-D hydrodynamical model of SBNS (COHERENS).info:eu-repo/semantics/publishe

Antifungal Activity against Aspergillus parasiticus of Supernatants from Whey Permeates Fermented with Kefir Grains

Aspergillus parasiticus, a common fungal contaminant in food, produces aflatoxin B1, which is classified as human carcinogen. Kefir is an ancient fermented beverage obtained by the fermentation of different substrates with kefir grains. A very important waste produced by the dairy cheese industry is the whey permeate, which nowadays is a strong ambient contaminant. The aim of this work was to assess the effect of whey permeates fermented with kefir grains against A. parasiticus growth, aflatoxin B1 biosynthesis, and the kefir microorganisms protection against the cell damage produced by aflatoxin B1. It was observed that kefir-cell-free-supernatants (CFS) produced fungal inhibition. A fungicidal effect was observed with 65% v/v of CFS in the culture medium (final pH 4.55 and total undissociated lactic and acetic acid concentration 34.08 mM). Under these conditions, aflatoxin production was not detected. Finally, it was found that non-viable kefir microorganisms protected HepG2 cells from the damage produced by aflatoxin B1

Development and application of an algorithm for detecting <i>Phaeocystis globosa</i> blooms in the Case 2 Southern North Sea waters

While mapping algal blooms from space is now well-established, mapping undesirable algal blooms in eutrophicated coastal waters raises further challenge in detecting individual phytoplankton species. In this paper, an algorithm is developed and tested for detecting Phaeocystis globosa blooms in the Southern North Sea. For this purpose, we first measured the light absorption properties of two phytoplankton groups, P. globosa and diatoms, in laboratory-controlled experiments. The main spectral difference between both groups was observed at 467 nm due to the absorption of the pigment chlorophyll c3 only present in P. globosa, suggesting that the absorption at 467 nm can be used to detect this alga in the field. A Phaeocystis-detection algorithm is proposed to retrieve chlorophyll c3 using either total absorption or water-leaving reflectance field data. Application of this algorithm to absorption and reflectance data from Phaeocystis-dominated natural communities shows positive results. Comparison with pigment concentrations and cell counts suggests that the algorithm can flag the presence of P. globosa and provide quantitative information above a chlorophyll c3 threshold of 0.3 mg m-3 equivalent to a P. globosa cell density of 3 × 106 cells L-1. Finally, the possibility of extrapolating this information to remote sensing reflectance data in these turbid waters is evaluated

Early Greek Alphabetic Writing

Despite the flourishing of epichoric studies on the Archaic Greek scripts in the 1960s, embodied by archaeologists Lilian Hamilton Jeffery and Margherita Guarducci, most scholarship on early alphabetic writing in Greece has focused on questions around the origin of ‘the Greek alphabet’ instead of acknowledging the diversity of alphabetic systems that emerged in Geometric and Archaic times. The present book proposes to bring back the epichoric approach by focusing on the different ways in which the earliest epigraphic evidence represents the spoken Greek dialects. However, instead of continuing the palaeographic methodology of previous studies, this analysis follows the latest trends in grapholinguistics, more specifically the methodology of comparative graphematics. By examining the grapheme-phoneme relationships across Greek-speaking regions, it is possible to recognize that diversity and to draw connections with neighboring contemporaneous alphabets, such as those for Phrygian, Eteocretan and Etruscan. This work, carried out within the Contexts of and Relations between Early Writing Systems (CREWS) project, aims to contribute towards the conceptualization of the so-called epichoric scripts as independent alphabets, as well as their framing within the ecology of ancient Mediterranean writing systems. Contexts of and Relations between Early Writing Systems (CREWS) is a project funded by the European Research Council under the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation program (grant agreement No. 677758), and based in the Faculty of Classics, University of Cambridge