Temple building on the Egyptian margins: the geopolitical issues behind Seti II and Ramesses IX’s activity at Amheida

Middle Eastern Studie

Emptiness as a Project

This article aims to shed light on Warsaw’s urban design traditions based on expertise in passive landscape solutions as tested in local conditions. It focuses on the work of designers originating from the Greenery Studio of the Warsaw Reconstruction Office (BOS) from the 1940s to the 1990s. The studio’s designs relied on open space arrangements and the urban microclimate component was treated as equal in importance to buildings.Planned in a modern way, drawing on the principles of the Athens Charter of 1933, Warsaw’s reconstructed urban structure can be approached today not with a focus on hygiene, but in terms of thermal comfort. Post-war solutions demonstrate that empty urban spaces can be designed to prepare the city for the increasingly felt effects of climate warming and extreme meteorological phenomena. Warsaw’s public space and housing estate common spaces ought to serve as areas that readily accommodate microclimates and thus become of benefit to the society. Last but not least, this approach may reduce the number of AC units installed in the city

Dakhleh Oasis Project, Petroglyph Unit: seasons 2012 and 2013

In the 2012 and 2013 seasons the Petroglyph Unit concentrated on two major assignments: first, recording rock art sites in the Central Oasis, in the area of the so-called Painted Wadi and in adjoining areas, either unexplored or only partly explored earlier, and second, locating again and documenting Winkler’s sites 66 and 67, both in the eastern part of the Oasis. These two sites are of mostly homogeneous, Neolithic origin, while rock art recorded in the Central Oasis dates from the Neolithic through very recent times

Prognostic Value of FasL, BDNF, and IL-1β as Predictors of Therapeutic Response in Schizophrenia

Background/Objectives: Pro-inflammatory, neurotrophic, and proapoptotic factors affect the course of schizophrenia; however, their impact on the clinical response during relapse is not well recognized. A member of TNF family, Fas ligand (FasL), participates in apoptosis, but its connection with treatment-resistant schizophrenia is unknown. Methods: For this preliminary exploratory study, 53 patients with schizophrenia relapse and 45 healthy subjects were enrolled. Pro-inflammatory interleukin IL-1β, brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF), FasL levels, and clinical evaluations (PANSS, SANS, SAPS) were studied at admission, after a 4-week therapy, and at remission. Results: In the clozapine-treated therapy-resistant group, IL-1β correlated negatively with clinical improvement (admission, 4-week treatment). In patients not treated with clozapine, IL-1β correlated negatively with disease duration (admission). A negative correlation occurred between FasL and clinical improvement in general symptoms (admission, 4-week treatment), FasL and leukocyte count (admission), and IL-1β and BDNF levels (4-week treatment). In the clozapine-treated group, the negative correlation between FasL levels and the leukocyte count was absent. Conclusions: The severity of psychopathology in patients with schizophrenia seems to correlate with higher IL-1β and lower BDNF. The novelty of our findings is the observation that higher FasL is negatively associated with the degree of clinical improvement. Thus, a decline of FasL during treatment may be proposed as a predictor of clinical recovery. With caution, we suggest that clozapine use may be linked to a protective effect against FasL signaling and the alleviation of apoptotic processes