Gestión del patrimonio arqueológico subacuático y costero en los mares de Israel (II): los yacimientos litorales en riesgo

The two articles titled Management of the underwater and coastal archaeological heritage in Israel's seas – parts A and B aim at presenting the diversity, nature and significance of an important cultural resource at risk, namely the underwater and coastal archaeological sites of Israel. Part I introduces the typology of the sites on the Mediterranean coast and the inland seas (The Sea of Galilee and the Dead Sea). Part II presents the main endangered sites along the Mediterranean coast of Israel, their archaeological and historical significance, the risks they are facing and the measures that have to be taken in order to ensure their long term preservation.Los dos artículos presentados con el título “Gestión del patrimonio arqueológico subacuático y costero en los mares de Israel” apuntan a la diversidad, naturaleza y trascendencia de un importante recurso cultural en riesgo, concretamente los yacimientos arqueológicos submarinos y costeros de Israel. En la primera parte introducíamos la tipología de los asentamientos sobre la costa mediterránea y los mares interiores (el Mar de Galilea y el Mar Muerto). Esta segunda parte presenta los yacimientos más amenazados a lo largo de las costas israelíes del Mediterráneo, su histórica y arqueológica importancia, los riesgos a los que se enfrentan y las medias que deben ser tomadas con objeto de asegurar su preservación a largo plazo

Gestión del patrimonio arqueológico subacuático y costero en los mares de Israel (I)

The Maritime cultural heritage of Israel reflects important chapters in the history of humanity, including the Neolithic revolution and the beginning of agriculture, the emergence of the first empires and the foundation of the three monotheistic religions. Erosion due to sea level rise and human activity is destroying important coastal and underwater archaeological sites. Low levels in the Sea of Galilee and the Dead Sea exposed many archaeological remains, which are threatened by erosion, treasure hunting and coastal development. Without intensive rescue and protection activities, the valuable cultural maritime heritage will vanish within a few decades. Legal and operational tools are currently applied in order to assure integrated coastal zone management, to control coastal development and to protect the marine cultural resources. Among these are the Antiquities Law, the Planning and Building Law, the Nature and Parks Law and the Law for the Protection of the Coastal Environment. Coastal and underwater sites are mapped and monitored, protected coastal and underwater sites are declared and rescue surveys are carried out in the endangered sites. A national risk assessment document of the coastal and underwater heritage and detailed preservation and protection plans have been prepared. Pilot projects for protecting and preserving the sea walls of Ashkelon, Apollonia and Akko were completed and several damaged harbors in the Sea of Galilee were reconstructed.El patrimonio marítimo cultural de Israel representa un importante capítulo en la historia de la Humanidad, incluyendo la Revolución Neolítica y los inicios de la agricultura, la aparición de los primeros imperios y la fundación de las tres religiones monoteístas. La erosión debida a la subida del nivel del mar y la actividad humana están destruyendo importantes yacimientos arqueológicos costeros y submarinos. La bajada del nivel en el Mar de Galilea y en el Mar Muerto ha expuesto muchos restos arqueológicos amenazados por la erosion, los expoliadores y el desarrollo litoral. Sin un intenso control y sin actividades protectoras se perderá el valioso patrimonio cultural marítimo en pocas décadas. Las herramientas jurídicas y operativas actualmente se están aplicando para proteger la gestión integrada de zonas costeras, para controlar el desarrollo litoral y proteger los recursos culturales marítimos. Entre estas disposiciones se encuentran la Ley de Antigüedades, la Ley de Planificación y Construcción, la Ley de Naturaleza y Parques, y la Ley para la Protección del Medio Ambiente Costero. Los yacimientos litorales y submarinos están cartografiados y supervisados, los protegidos están declarados y las actuaciones de rescate se están produciendo en los yacimientos más amenazados. Se ha elaborado un documento nacional relativo a los riesgos sobre el patrimonio litoral y subacuático, y se han detallado planes para su protección y conservación. Se han culminado los proyectos pilotos para la recuperación de las murallas marítimas de Ascalon, Apolonia y Acco, y varios puertos dañados en el Mar de Galilea se han restaurado

RGB-D datasets using microsoft kinect or similar sensors: a survey

RGB-D data has turned out to be a very useful representation of an indoor scene for solving fundamental computer vision problems. It takes the advantages of the color image that provides appearance information of an object and also the depth image that is immune to the variations in color, illumination, rotation angle and scale. With the invention of the low-cost Microsoft Kinect sensor, which was initially used for gaming and later became a popular device for computer vision, high quality RGB-D data can be acquired easily. In recent years, more and more RGB-D image/video datasets dedicated to various applications have become available, which are of great importance to benchmark the state-of-the-art. In this paper, we systematically survey popular RGB-D datasets for different applications including object recognition, scene classification, hand gesture recognition, 3D-simultaneous localization and mapping, and pose estimation. We provide the insights into the characteristics of each important dataset, and compare the popularity and the difficulty of those datasets. Overall, the main goal of this survey is to give a comprehensive description about the available RGB-D datasets and thus to guide researchers in the selection of suitable datasets for evaluating their algorithms

Molecular basis of evolutionary loss of the α1,3-galactosyltransferase gene in higher primates

Galactose-α1,3-galactose (αGal) epitopes, the synthesis of which requires the enzyme product of α1,3-galactosyltransferase (α1,3GT), are sugar chains on the cell surface of most mammalian species. Notable exceptions are higher primates including Old World monkeys, apes, and humans. The αGal-negative species as well as mice with deletion of the α1,3GT gene produce abundant anti-αGal antibodies. The evolutionary loss of αGal epitopes has been attributed to point mutations in the coding region of the gene. Because no transcripts could be found in the higher primate species with Northern blot analysis, a potential alternative explanation has been loss of upstream regulation of the gene. Here, we have demonstrated that the rhesus promoter is functional. More importantly, a variety of full-length transcripts were detected with sensitive PCR-based methods in the tissues of rhesus monkeys, orangutans, and humans. Five crucial mutations were delineated in the coding region of the human and rhesus and three in the orangutan, any one of which could be responsible for inactivation of the α1,3GT gene. Two of the mutations were shared by all three higher primates. These findings, which elucidate the molecular basis for the evolutionary loss of αGal expression, may have implications in medical research

Isolation of the regulatory regions and genomic organization of the porcine α1,3-galactosyltransferase gene¹

Background. α1,3-galactosyltransferase (α1,3GT) is an enzyme that produces carbohydrate chains termed αGal epitopes found in most mammals, although some species of higher primates, including human, are notable exceptions. The evolutionary origin of the lost α1,3GT enzyme activity is not yet known, although it has been suggested that the promoter activity of this gene in the ancestors of higher primates was inactivated. Methods. We used 5'-or 3'-RACE, GenomeWalking, reverse transcriptase polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) and dual Luciferase reporter assay for identification of the full-length cDNA, which includes the transcription initiation site and the promoter region of porcine α1,3GT gene. Results. The region around exon 1 is guanine and cytosine (GC)-rich (about 70%), comprising a CpG island spanning more than 1.5 kbp. The 5'-flanking region of exon 1 contains multiple transcription factor consensus motifs, including GC-box, SP1, AP2, and GATA-box sites, in the absence of TATA or CAAT-box sequences. The entire gene consists of three 5' noncoding and six coding region exons spanning more than 52 kbp. Detailed analysis of α1,3GT transcripts revealed two major alternative splicing patterns in the 5'-untranslated region (5'-UTR) and evidence for minor splicing activity that occurs in a tissue-specific manner. Interspecies comparison of 5'-UTR shows minimal homology between porcine and routine sequences except for exon 2, which suggests that the regulatory regions differ among species. Conclusions. These observations have important implications for experiments involving genetic manipulation of the α1,3GT gene in transgenic animals in terms of promoter utilization, and particularly in genetically engineering cells for the animal cloning technology by nuclear transfer

Optical waveform sampling of a 320 Gbits/s serial data signal using a hydrogenated amorphous silicon waveguide

We propose using a hydrogenated amorphous silicon waveguide for ultra-high-speed serial data waveform sampling. 320 Gbit/s serial optical data sampling is experimentally demonstrated with +12 dB intrinsic four wave mixing conversion efficiency