scholarly journals Genetic resources in Finnish landrace rye (Secale cereale) and experimental evolving of its spring-habit from winter rye

Author(s):  
Hannu Ahokas

Rye was the most important grain crop in Finland towards the end of the 19th century. Rye was largely grown in burned lands, kaski (slash-and-burn) and kytö, in the past. In the primary form of kytö, shoveled topsoil was heated on fires slowly combusting extraneous wood, brushwood or reed, or in the secondary form, a dry upper layer of organic topsoil of field was burned in a prescribed frontal mode in situ. The kytö selected against the brittle spike type, largely eliminating the weedy seed banks in the soil. Likewise, seed handling, especially the common cleaning with a pohdin -device further eliminated partially brittle spike types and selected against weedy rye. Rye was a cash-crop for the peasants in the past and was mainly attempted to be exported as seed. The commonly used smoky riihi-drying sanitized and conserved grains, which retained germinabilty, and in part increased demand for seed abroad. The grains produced on burned lands were fortified with minerals, including the minor elements, and good winter-hardiness occurred in the Finnish rye. The immigrant Finns were probably the first since 1638 to grow rye from seeds brought along with them to New Sweden in North America, where de-domesticated or feral rye became a weed problem in the 1950s. Some genetically variable landraces could be sown during different times of the year, thanks to segregate plants adapted to different sowing-times. Sowing of a winter rye landrace in May, the season of spring grain sowing, enabled selection of spring-habit mutants or segregants, which could be used to establish a true-breeding spring stock of rye shown experimentally. In the past, mid-summer sowing could occur with co-cultivation, e.g. with the traditional slash-and-burn turnip as the first season crop, or the autumn seedling of rye could be used as pasture. The Finnish rye populations frequently had cytoplasmic male sterility (CMS) and nuclear restorer genes of anther fertility effective in the CMS. A non-leaky CMS and a leaky CMS (with male fertility in the late stems) are shown. Homozygosity obtained through forced self-pollination in a Finnish rye revealed unnoticed genes, such as dwarfs. A local rye population originating from Putkosjärvi area (64° 27’ N), in Ristijärvi Municipality, evidently devoid of the frequently contaminating weed, rye brome (Bromus secalinus), is thought to present an uncontaminated, ancient Finnish rye. The rye brome has contaminated growth in Finland at least since the Iron Age. Morphological variants, like brown spike or glume color and awnlessness were detected in the landrace. Two of 18 Finnish landraces were found to carry accessory or B chromosomes in a study in 1964. B chromosomes are known to interfere with the expression of some genes, perhaps also ensuring variation in the vernalisation needs of the plants.

Author(s):  
Magdalena Zarzyka-Ryszka

The paper describes the past and present distribution of Colchicum autumnale in the vicinity of Cracow, highlights the role of Stanisław Dembosz (who published the first locality of C. autumnale near Igołomia in 1841). Gives information about the occurrence of C. autumnale in Krzeszowice in the 19th century (reported by Bronisław Gustawicz), presents new localities noted in 2012–2014 in meadows in the north-eastern part of the Puszcza Niepołomicka forest and adjacent area (between the Vistula and Raba rivers), and gives a locality found in Cracow in 2005 (no longer extant).


2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (2) ◽  
pp. 817
Author(s):  
Ove Eriksson ◽  
Matilda Arnell ◽  
Karl-Johan Lindholm

Infield systems originated during the early Iron Age and existed until the 19th century, although passing many transitions and changes. The core features of infield systems were enclosed infields with hay-meadows and crop fields, and unenclosed outland mainly used for livestock grazing. We examine the transitions and changes of domesticated landscapes with infield systems using the framework of human niche construction, focusing on reciprocal causation affecting change in both culture and environment. A first major transition occurred during the early Middle Ages, as a combined effect of a growing elite society and an increased availability of iron promoted expansion of villages with partly communal infields. A second major transition occurred during the 18th and 19th centuries, due to a then recognized inefficiency of agricultural production, leading to land reforms. In outlands, there was a continuous expansion of management throughout the whole period. Even though external factors had significant impacts as well, human niche construction affected a range of cultural and environmental features regarding the management and structure of domesticated landscapes with infield systems. Thus, niche construction theory is a useful framework for understanding the historical ecology of infield systems.


2021 ◽  
Vol 10 (11) ◽  
pp. 2457
Author(s):  
Birgit J. Gerecke ◽  
Rolf Engberding

Noncompaction cardiomyopathy (NCCM) has gained increasing attention over the past twenty years, but in daily clinical practice NCCM is still rarely considered. So far, there are no generally accepted diagnostic criteria and some groups even refuse to acknowledge it as a distinct cardiomyopathy, and grade it as a variant of dilated cardiomyopathy or a morphological trait of different conditions. A wide range of morphological variants have been observed even in healthy persons, suggesting that pathologic remodeling and physiologic adaptation have to be differentiated in cases where this spongy myocardial pattern is encountered. Recent studies have uncovered numerous new pathogenetic and pathophysiologic aspects of this elusive cardiomyopathy, but a current summary and evaluation of clinical patient management are still lacking, especially to avoid mis- and overdiagnosis. Addressing this issue, this article provides an up to date overview of the current knowledge in classification, pathogenesis, pathophysiology, epidemiology, clinical manifestations and diagnostic evaluation, including genetic testing, treatment and prognosis of NCCM.


1968 ◽  
Vol 11 (03) ◽  
pp. 314-315
Author(s):  
Merrick Posnansky

In October 1968, the University of Ghana commenced an extensive program in African archaeology. Graduate students from overseas are eligible to enroll for courses at the University, though no scholarships are presently available for non-Ghanaians. The Department of Archaeology of the University of Ghana was established in 1951 under the professorship of A. W. Lawrence. It presently has a senior teaching establishment of four together with a curator and two senior research fellows under the chairmanship of Professor Merrick Posnansky. The Department has a small specialist library, a museum, laboratory, dark room, workshops, and a team of trained technical staff. Most of the Department's research work is normally conducted in the dry season from November to May each year. In the past Professor Oliver Davies, author of the Quaternary of the Guinea Coast (1964) and West Africa before the Europeans (1967), conducted extensive fieldwork relating to the Stone Age and neolithic periods of Ghana's past and made large surface collections from all parts of Ghana which provide a rich topographical source of information on archaeology in Ghana. The Department has conducted extensive excavations in Ghana and its research fellows are presently engaged in writing up the results of the Volta Basin Research Project, in which more than thirty sites have been excavated since 1963 in advance of the formation of a large lake consequent upon the construction of the Volta Dam. The majority of the excavated sites have been of Iron Age date. In September 1968, Mr. C. Flight commenced a new season of excavations at “Neolithic” rock shelter sites at Kintampo, where occupations and burials dated to the middle of the second millennium B.C. were uncovered in 1967. Other excavations conducted during 1968 included work by Mr. D. Calvocoressi at the funerary terracotta site of Ahinsan and by Mr. Duncan Mathewson at the seventeenth-century A.D. Gonja site of Jakpasere. In 1969 a training excavation will be conducted at Elmina on the sixteenth- to eighteenth-century A.D. town in the vicinity of the Portuguese castle.


Author(s):  
Marcelo Luiz Carvalho Gonçalves ◽  
Cassius Schnell ◽  
Luciana Sianto ◽  
Francoise Bouchet ◽  
Mathieu Le Bailly ◽  
...  

The identification of parasites in ancient human feces is compromised by differential preservation of identifiable parasite structures. However, protein molecules can survive the damage of the environment. It was possible to detected antigen of Entamoeba histolytica and Giardia duodenalis in historic and prehistoric human fecal remains using two enzyme immunoassay (ELISA) kits with monoclonal antibodies specific for E. histolytica and G. duodenalis, respectively. Specimens of desiccated feces and ancient latrine sediment from the New and the Old World were examined. The ELISA detected E. histolytica antigen in samples from Argentina, USA, France, Belgium, and Switzerland, dated to about 5300 years BP to the 19th Century AD. G. duodenalis antigen was detected in samples from USA, Belgium, and Germany, dated to about 1200 AD, 1600 AD, and 1700 AD. The detection of protozoan antigen using immunoassays is a reliable tool for the study of intestinal parasites in the past.


Author(s):  
T.L. Thurston

Archaeologists once viewed super-individual identity as primordial and tied to territorial boundaries, useful for describing an orderly past and creating national or ethnic genealogies. Current research ties identities not to regions, but to groups: complex cultural constructions, expressed in varied yet simultaneous manifestations of bonds with family, lineage, clan, or polity, each with multiple shifting markers. These can involve kinship, status, gender, age, occupation, shared experience, and social memory, in turn impacted by wider sociopolitical, religious, and economic concerns. Between Iron Age groups, cooperation, détente, and conflict were equally likely; trade, travel, and familiarity resulted in material and ideological co-mingling, while still preserving difference, and involved symbolic and practical novelty, as well as continuity with the past. Once, such complexities caused archaeologists to label identity research impossible or unnecessary, but its exclusion often leads to misinterpretation. Fortunately, thoughtful considerations of method, materiality, and scale have resulted in productive new approaches.


2018 ◽  
Vol 43 (1) ◽  
pp. 3-27
Author(s):  
Daniel Pioske

Over the past twenty years our understanding of Philistine Gath's history (Tell es-Safl) has been transformed by what has been revealed through the site's early Iron Age remains. But what has received much less attention is the effect these ruins have on how we read references to the location within the Hebrew Bible. The intent of this study is to draw on the archaeological evidence produced from Tell es-Safl as an interpretive lens by which to consider the biblical portrayal of the site rendered in the book of Samuel, where the material traces of more amicable associations between Gath and highland populations invite us to reconsider the city's depiction in this ancient literary work.


2016 ◽  
Vol 2016 ◽  
pp. 1-14 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sebastian Felgner ◽  
Dino Kocijancic ◽  
Michael Frahm ◽  
Siegfried Weiss

The rising incidence of cancer cases worldwide generates an urgent need of novel treatment options. Applying bacteria may represent a valuable therapeutic variant that is intensively investigated nowadays. Interestingly, the idea to apply bacteria wittingly or unwittingly dates back to ancient times and was revived in the 19th century mainly by the pioneer William Coley. This review summarizes and compares the results of the past 150 years in bacteria mediated tumor therapy from preclinical to clinical studies. Lessons we have learned from the past provide a solid foundation on which to base future efforts. In this regard, several perspectives are discussed by which bacteria in addition to their intrinsic antitumor effect can be used as vector systems that shuttle therapeutic compounds into the tumor. Strategic solutions like these provide a sound and more apt exploitation of bacteria that may overcome limitations of conventional therapies.


2020 ◽  
Vol 8 (4) ◽  
pp. 351-360
Author(s):  
Matthew D. Howland ◽  
Brady Liss ◽  
Thomas E. Levy ◽  
Mohammad Najjar

AbstractArchaeologists have a responsibility to use their research to engage people and provide opportunities for the public to interact with cultural heritage and interpret it on their own terms. This can be done through hypermedia and deep mapping as approaches to public archaeology. In twenty-first-century archaeology, scholars can rely on vastly improved technologies to aid them in these efforts toward public engagement, including digital photography, geographic information systems, and three-dimensional models. These technologies, even when collected for analysis or documentation, can be valuable tools for educating and involving the public with archaeological methods and how these methods help archaeologists learn about the past. Ultimately, academic storytelling can benefit from making archaeological results and methods accessible and engaging for stakeholders and the general public. ArcGIS StoryMaps is an effective tool for integrating digital datasets into an accessible framework that is suitable for interactive public engagement. This article describes the benefits of using ArcGIS StoryMaps for hypermedia and deep mapping–based public engagement using the story of copper production in Iron Age Faynan, Jordan, as a case study.


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