scholarly journals AncientYersinia pestisgenomes from across Western Europe reveal early diversification during the First Pandemic (541–750)

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Marcel Keller ◽  
Maria A. Spyrou ◽  
Christiana L. Scheib ◽  
Andreas Kröpelin ◽  
Brigitte Haas-Gebhard ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Roman Empire ◽  
Yersinia Pestis ◽  
Virulence Factors ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Western Europe ◽  
Methodological Approach ◽  
Genomic Region ◽  
Early Medieval Period ◽  
Early Diversification ◽  
Genome Decay

AbstractThe first historically documented pandemic caused byYersinia pestisstarted as the Justinianic Plague in 541 within the Roman Empire and continued as the so-called First Pandemic until 750. Although palaeogenomic studies have previously identified the causative agent asY. pestis, little is known about the bacterium’s spread, diversity and genetic history over the course of the pandemic.To elucidate the microevolution of the bacterium during this time period, we screened human remains from 20 sites in Austria, Britain, Germany, France and Spain forY. pestisDNA and reconstructed six new genomes. We present a novel methodological approach assessing SNPs in ancient bacterial genomes, facilitating qualitative analyses of low coverage genomes from a metagenomic background. Phylogenetic analysis reveals the existence of previously undocumentedY. pestisdiversity during the 6th–7thcenturies, and provides evidence for the presence of multiple distinctY. pestisstrains in Europe. We offer genetic evidence for the presence of the Justinianic Plague in the British Isles, previously only hypothesized from ambiguous documentary accounts, as well as southern France and Spain, and that southern Germany seems to have been affected by at least two distinctY. pestisstrains. Four of the reported strains form a polytomy similar to others seen across theY. pestisphylogeny, associated with the Second and Third Pandemics. We identified a deletion of a 45 kb genomic region in the most recent First Pandemic strain affecting two virulence factors, intriguingly overlapping with a deletion found in 17th–18th-century genomes of the Second Pandemic.Significance StatementThe first historically reported pandemic attributed toYersinia pestisstarted with the Justinianic Plague (541–544) and continued for around 200 years as the so-called First Pandemic. To date, only oneY. pestisstrain from this pandemic has been reconstructed using ancient DNA. In this study, we present six new genomes from Britain, France, Germany and Spain, demonstrating the geographic range of plague during the First pandemic and showing microdiversity in the Early Medieval Period. Moreover, we detect similar genome decay during the First and Second Pandemic (17thto 18thcentury) that includes the same two virulence factors, thus providing an example of potential convergent evolution ofY. pestisduring large scale epidemics.

scholarly journals Ancient Yersinia pestis genomes from across Western Europe reveal early diversification during the First Pandemic (541–750)

2019 ◽  
Vol 116 (25) ◽  
pp. 12363-12372 ◽  
Author(s):  
Marcel Keller ◽  
Maria A. Spyrou ◽  
Christiana L. Scheib ◽  
Gunnar U. Neumann ◽  
Andreas Kröpelin ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Roman Empire ◽  
Yersinia Pestis ◽  
Western Europe ◽  
18Th Century ◽  
Methodological Approach ◽  
Genomic Region ◽  
Nucleotide Polymorphisms ◽  
Early Diversification ◽  
Pandemic Strains ◽  
Low Coverage

The first historically documented pandemic caused by Yersinia pestis began as the Justinianic Plague in 541 within the Roman Empire and continued as the so-called First Pandemic until 750. Although paleogenomic studies have previously identified the causative agent as Y. pestis, little is known about the bacterium’s spread, diversity, and genetic history over the course of the pandemic. To elucidate the microevolution of the bacterium during this time period, we screened human remains from 21 sites in Austria, Britain, Germany, France, and Spain for Y. pestis DNA and reconstructed eight genomes. We present a methodological approach assessing single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) in ancient bacterial genomes, facilitating qualitative analyses of low coverage genomes from a metagenomic background. Phylogenetic analysis on the eight reconstructed genomes reveals the existence of previously undocumented Y. pestis diversity during the sixth to eighth centuries, and provides evidence for the presence of multiple distinct Y. pestis strains in Europe. We offer genetic evidence for the presence of the Justinianic Plague in the British Isles, previously only hypothesized from ambiguous documentary accounts, as well as the parallel occurrence of multiple derived strains in central and southern France, Spain, and southern Germany. Four of the reported strains form a polytomy similar to others seen across the Y. pestis phylogeny, associated with the Second and Third Pandemics. We identified a deletion of a 45-kb genomic region in the most recent First Pandemic strains affecting two virulence factors, intriguingly overlapping with a deletion found in 17th- to 18th-century genomes of the Second Pandemic.

scholarly journals New trajectories or accelerating change? Zooarchaeological evidence for Roman transformation of animal husbandry in Northern Italy

2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Angela Trentacoste ◽  
Ariadna Nieto-Espinet ◽  
Silvia Guimarães ◽  
Barbara Wilkens ◽  
Gabriella Petrucci ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Roman Empire ◽  
Bronze Age ◽  
Iron Age ◽  
Late Antiquity ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Western Europe ◽  
Production Systems ◽  
Animal Husbandry ◽  
Northern Italy ◽  
Scale Production

AbstractThroughout the Western provinces of the Roman Empire, greater economic and political connectivity had a major impact on agricultural production, which grew in scale and specialisation after integration with the Roman state. However, uniquely in Western Europe, farming strategies in Italy began to evolve centuries before the Roman conquest, and many ‘Roman’ patterns associated with livestock size and the relative proportions of different taxa first emerged during the early and middle centuries of the first millennium BC. These changes imply a significant reorganisation of production strategies well before Roman hegemony, even in relatively marginal areas of Italy. Zooarchaeological studies have documented further significant changes to livestock production in Roman times, but the relationship between these developments and earlier trends remains unclear. Through analysis of zooarchaeological data for species representation and livestock biometry from lowland northern Italy (Po–Friulian Plain), this study investigates animal exploitation between the Bronze Age and Late Antiquity in order to characterise the influence of Roman political and economic organisation on animal husbandry. Results demonstrated subregional variation in species representation, and different trajectories in the biometric evolution of cattle, sheep and goats, compared to pigs. Initial steps established in the Iron Age towards a more complex and dynamic livestock economy were accelerated and further reconfigured in Roman times, facilitated by Roman economic organisation and the specialised and large-scale production systems within it. Zooarchaeological trends continued to progress over the Roman period, until further changes at the very end of the chronology considered here—around the sixth century AD—suggest another wave of change.

Authority, Space, and Literary Media

2018 ◽  
Vol 8 (3) ◽  
pp. 193-219
Author(s):  
Laura Feldt
Keyword(s):  
Roman Empire ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Western Europe ◽  
Social Space ◽  
Decisive Role ◽  
Religious Authority ◽  
Late Antique ◽  
The Status ◽  
Societal Changes

This article discusses religious authority changes in late antique Gaul, where spatial and literary media played important roles in how religious authority was maintained, negotiated, and transformed in Western Europe in the aftermath of the Roman empire. The analysis uses theories of social space to analyse and discuss how the authority of the desert space, and ascetic practice, was negotiated through the literary medium of Eucherius of Lyon’s Epistula de laude eremi (In Praise of the Desert), as well as how the authority of the text as a medium is constructed. This analysis then forms the basis for a discussion of religious authority changes in late Antique Gaul following the success of ascetics as bishops, and the role of spatial and literary media in this process. In a world of large scale societal changes, literary media promoting ascetic holy figures, and the ascetic space of the desert, played a decisive role in transformations of authority and in negotations of the meanings of authoritative texts. Such media were created and used by ascetics, bishops, and theologians as means with which to change forms of religious authority, in an era in which the status of asceticism was a matter of contention and the authority of monks and church leaders was insecure. The authority transformations of the era became consequential for Western European history.

Going the Distance

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ron Harris
Keyword(s):  
Large Scale ◽  
Western Europe ◽  
Family Firms ◽  
Global Trade ◽  
Long Distance ◽  
Business Corporation ◽  
Modern Economy ◽  
Key Factor ◽  
Silk Route ◽  
Passive Investors

Before the seventeenth century, trade across Eurasia was mostly conducted in short segments along the Silk Route and Indian Ocean. Business was organized in family firms, merchant networks, and state-owned enterprises, and dominated by Chinese, Indian, and Arabic traders. However, around 1600 the first two joint-stock corporations, the English and Dutch East India Companies, were established. This book tells the story of overland and maritime trade without Europeans, of European Cape Route trade without corporations, and of how new, large-scale, and impersonal organizations arose in Europe to control long-distance trade for more than three centuries. It shows that by 1700, the scene and methods for global trade had dramatically changed: Dutch and English merchants shepherded goods directly from China and India to northwestern Europe. To understand this transformation, the book compares the organizational forms used in four major regions: China, India, the Middle East, and Western Europe. The English and Dutch were the last to leap into Eurasian trade, and they innovated in order to compete. They raised capital from passive investors through impersonal stock markets and their joint-stock corporations deployed more capital, ships, and agents to deliver goods from their origins to consumers. The book explores the history behind a cornerstone of the modern economy, and how this organizational revolution contributed to the formation of global trade and the creation of the business corporation as a key factor in Europe's economic rise.

Scientific-methodological approach to the substantiation of the rational seasonal scenario of using combine harvesters by large-scale agricultural producers

2020 ◽  
pp. 205-217
Author(s):  
V. Skibchyk ◽  
V. Dnes ◽  
R. Kudrynetskyi ◽  
O. Krypuch
Keyword(s):  
Large Scale ◽  
System Analysis ◽  
Methodological Approach ◽  
Production Unit ◽  
Agricultural Producers ◽  
New Approach ◽  
Rational Use ◽  
Road Map ◽  
Analysis And Synthesis ◽  
Combine Harvesters

Аnnotation Purpose. To increase the efficiency of technological processes of grain harvesting by large-scale agricultural producers due to the rational use of combine harvesters available on the farm. Methods. In the course of the research the methods of system analysis and synthesis, induction and deduction, system-factor and system-event approaches, graphic method were used. Results. Characteristic events that occur during the harvesting of grain crops, both within a single production unit and the entire agricultural producer are identified. A method for predicting time intervals of use and downtime of combine harvesters of production units has been developed. The roadmap of substantiation the rational seasonal scenario of the use of grain harvesters of large-scale agricultural producers is developed, which allows estimating the efficiency of each of the scenarios of multivariate placement of grain harvesters on fields taking into account influence of natural production and agrometeorological factors on the efficiency of technological cultures. Conclusions 1. Known scientific and methodological approaches to optimization of machine used in agriculture do not take into account the risks of losses of crops due to late harvesting, as well as seasonal natural and agrometeorological conditions of each production unit of the farmer, which requires a new approach to the rational use of rational seasonal combines of large agricultural producers. 2. The developed new approach to the substantiation of the rational seasonal scenario of the use of combined harvesters of large-scale agricultural producers allows taking into account the costs of harvesting of grain and the cost of the lost crop because of the lateness of harvesting at optimum variants of attraction of additional free combine harvesters. provides more profit. 3. The practical application of the developed road map will allow large-scale agricultural producers to use combine harvesters more efficiently and reduce harvesting costs. Keywords: combine harvesters, use, production divisions, risk, seasonal scenario, large-scale agricultural producers.

Towards Control of an Estuary

1987 ◽  
Vol 19 (9) ◽  
pp. 155-174
Author(s):  
Henk L. F. Saeijs
Keyword(s):  
Shallow Water ◽  
Storm Surge ◽  
Salt Marshes ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Western Europe ◽  
Oxygen Depletion ◽  
Negative Effects ◽  
Intertidal Flats ◽  
Environmental Consequences ◽  
Short Time

The Delta Project is in its final stage. In 1974 it was subjected to political reconsideration, but it is scheduled now for completion in 1987. The final touches are being put to the storm-surge barrier and two compartment dams that divide the Oosterschelde into three areas: one tidal, one with reduced tide, and one a freshwater lake. Compartmentalization will result in 13% of channels, 45% of intertidal flats and 59% of salt marshes being lost. There is a net gain of 7% of shallow-water areas. Human interventions with large scale impacts are not new in the Oosterschelde but the large scale and short time in which these interventions are taking place are, as is the creation of a controlled tidal system. This article focusses on the area with reduced tide and compares resent day and expected characteristics. In this reduced tidal part salt marshes will extend by 30–70%; intertidal flats will erode to a lower level and at their edges, and the area of shallow water will increase by 47%. Biomass production on the intertidal flats will decrease, with consequences for crustaceans, fishes and birds. The maximum number of waders counted on one day and the number of ‘bird-days' will decrease drastically, with negative effects for the wader populations of western Europe. The net area with a hard substratum in the reduced tidal part has more than doubled. Channels will become shallower. Detritus import will not change significantly. Stratification and oxygen depletion will be rare and local. The operation of the storm-surge barrier and the closure strategy chosen are very important for the ecosystem. Two optional closure strategies can be followed without any additional environmental consequences. It was essential to determine a clearly defined plan of action for the whole area, and to make land-use choices from the outset. How this was done is briefly described.

scholarly journals Geo-Spatial Analysis of Population Density and Annual Income to Identify Large-Scale Socio-Demographic Disparities

2021 ◽  
Vol 10 (7) ◽  
pp. 432
Author(s):  
Nicolai Moos ◽  
Carsten Juergens ◽  
Andreas P. Redecker
Keyword(s):  
Population Density ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Methodological Approach ◽  
Spatial Relationship ◽  
Postal Code ◽  
Annual Income ◽  
Choropleth Maps ◽  
Clustering Approach ◽  
Relationship Of ◽  
Insight Into

This paper describes a methodological approach that is able to analyse socio-demographic and -economic data in large-scale spatial detail. Based on the two variables, population density and annual income, one investigates the spatial relationship of these variables to identify locations of imbalance or disparities assisted by bivariate choropleth maps. The aim is to gain a deeper insight into spatial components of socioeconomic nexuses, such as the relationships between the two variables, especially for high-resolution spatial units. The used methodology is able to assist political decision-making, target group advertising in the field of geo-marketing and for the site searches of new shop locations, as well as further socioeconomic research and urban planning. The developed methodology was tested in a national case study in Germany and is easily transferrable to other countries with comparable datasets. The analysis was carried out utilising data about population density and average annual income linked to spatially referenced polygons of postal codes. These were disaggregated initially via a readapted three-class dasymetric mapping approach and allocated to large-scale city block polygons. Univariate and bivariate choropleth maps generated from the resulting datasets were then used to identify and compare spatial economic disparities for a study area in North Rhine-Westphalia (NRW), Germany. Subsequently, based on these variables, a multivariate clustering approach was conducted for a demonstration area in Dortmund. In the result, it was obvious that the spatially disaggregated data allow more detailed insight into spatial patterns of socioeconomic attributes than the coarser data related to postal code polygons.

Het Hoge Kempen ruraal-industrieel transitielandschap

2019 ◽  
Vol 4 (3) ◽  
pp. 194-207
Author(s):  
PIET GELEYNS
Keyword(s):  
Large Scale ◽  
Western Europe ◽  
Farming System ◽  
Small Scale ◽  
Coal Miners ◽  
Garden Cities ◽  
World Heritage List ◽  
The World ◽  
Outstanding Universal Value ◽  
Extensive Farming

The Hoge Kempen rural industrial transition landscape: a layered landscape of Outstanding Universal Value? Up until the beginning of the 20th century, the eastern part of the Belgian province of Limburg was a sparsely populated and not very productive part of the country. The dominating heathland was maintained with sheep, which were an essential part of a small-scale extensive farming system. This all changed when coal was discovered in 1901. Seven large coalmines were established in a few decades, each one employing thousands of coal-miners. This also meant that entire new garden cities were built, to house the coal-miners and their families. The confrontation between the small-scale traditional land-use and the new large-scale industrial developments defines the landscape up to today. The scale and the force of the turnover are considered unprecedented for Western Europe, which is why it is being presented by Belgium for inclusion in the World Heritage List.

scholarly journals Modeling the regional impact of ship emissions on NO<sub>x</sub> and ozone levels over the Eastern Atlantic and Western Europe using ship plume parameterization

2010 ◽  
Vol 10 (14) ◽  
pp. 6645-6660 ◽  
Author(s):  
P. Huszar ◽  
D. Cariolle ◽  
R. Paoli ◽  
T. Halenka ◽  
M. Belda ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Large Scale ◽  
Western Europe ◽  
Surface Ozone ◽  
Chemical Species ◽  
Nitrogen Monoxide ◽  
Ozone Production ◽  
Nox Emissions ◽  
Ship Emissions ◽  
Concentrated Source ◽  
The Impact

Abstract. In general, regional and global chemistry transport models apply instantaneous mixing of emissions into the model's finest resolved scale. In case of a concentrated source, this could result in erroneous calculation of the evolution of both primary and secondary chemical species. Several studies discussed this issue in connection with emissions from ships and aircraft. In this study, we present an approach to deal with the non-linear effects during dispersion of NOx emissions from ships. It represents an adaptation of the original approach developed for aircraft NOx emissions, which uses an exhaust tracer to trace the amount of the emitted species in the plume and applies an effective reaction rate for the ozone production/destruction during the plume's dilution into the background air. In accordance with previous studies examining the impact of international shipping on the composition of the troposphere, we found that the contribution of ship induced surface NOx to the total reaches 90% over remote ocean and makes 10–30% near coastal regions. Due to ship emissions, surface ozone increases by up to 4–6 ppbv making 10% contribution to the surface ozone budget. When applying the ship plume parameterization, we show that the large scale NOx decreases and the ship NOx contribution is reduced by up to 20–25%. A similar decrease was found in the case of O3. The plume parameterization suppressed the ship induced ozone production by 15–30% over large areas of the studied region. To evaluate the presented parameterization, nitrogen monoxide measurements over the English Channel were compared with modeled values and it was found that after activating the parameterization the model accuracy increases.

scholarly journals Topophilia, Placemaking, and Boundary Work

2022 ◽  
Vol 6 (GROUP) ◽  
pp. 1-33
Author(s):  
Janghee Cho ◽  
Samuel Beck ◽  
Stephen Voida
Keyword(s):  
Large Scale ◽  
Methodological Approach ◽  
Work Practice ◽  
Small Scale ◽  
Work From Home ◽  
Humanistic Geography ◽  
Working From Home ◽  
Long Term Impact

The COVID-19 pandemic fundamentally changed the nature of work by shifting most in-person work to a predominantly remote modality as a way to limit the spread of the coronavirus. In the process, the shift to working-from-home rapidly forced the large-scale adoption of groupware technologies. Although prior empirical research examined the experience of working-from-home within small-scale groups and for targeted kinds of work, the pandemic provides HCI and CSCW researchers with an unprecedented opportunity to understand the psycho-social impacts of a universally mandated work-from-home experience rather than an autonomously chosen one. Drawing on boundary theory and a methodological approach grounded in humanistic geography, we conducted a qualitative analysis of Reddit data drawn from two work-from-home-related subreddits between March 2020 and January 2021. In this paper, we present a characterization of the challenges and solutions discussed within these online communities for adapting work to a hybrid or fully remote modality, managing reconfigured work-life boundaries, and reconstructing the home's sense of place to serve multiple, sometimes conflicting roles. We discuss how these findings suggest an emergent interplay among adapted work practice, reimagined physical (and virtual) spaces, and the establishment and continual re-negotiation of boundaries as a means for anticipating the long-term impact of COVID on future conceptualizations of productivity and work.

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