scholarly journals Lovely Ugly Bes! Animalistic Aspects in Ancient Egyptian Popular Religion

Arts ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 9 (2) ◽  
pp. 51
Author(s):  
Branko F. van Oppen de Ruiter
Keyword(s):  
Pregnant Women ◽  
Popular Religion ◽  
Ancient Egypt ◽  
The Sun ◽  
Ancient Egyptian ◽  
Religious Significance ◽  
To Come ◽  
And Function ◽  
Newborn Children

The popular yet demonic guardian of ancient Egypt, Bes, combines dwarfish and leonine features, and embodies opposing traits such as a fierce and gentle demeanor, a hideous and comical appearance, serious and humorous roles, an animalistic and numinous nature. Drawing connections with similarly stunted figures, great and small cats, sacred cows, baboons, demonic monsters, universal gods and infant deities, this article will focus on the animalistic associations of the Bes figure to illustrate that this leonine dwarf encompassed a wider religious significance than apotropaic and regenerative functions alone. Bes was thought to come from afar but was always close; the leonine dwarf guarded the sun god Ra along the diurnal solar circuit; the figure protected pregnant women and newborn children; it was a dancer and musician; the figure belonged to the company of magical monsters of hybrid appearance as averter of evil and sword-wielding fighter. Exploring the human and animal, demonic and numinous aspects of this leonine dwarf will not only further our understanding of its nature and function, but also its significance and popularity.

Towards a Comparative Approach to Demonology in Antiquity: The Case of Ancient Egypt and Mesopotamia

2013 ◽  
Vol 14 (1) ◽  
pp. 11-26 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rita Lucarelli
Keyword(s):  
New York ◽  
Ancient Egypt ◽  
Ancient World ◽  
Comparative Approach ◽  
New York University ◽  
General Introduction ◽  
International Conference ◽  
Ancient Egyptian ◽  
Evil Spirits ◽  
And Function

Abstract This essay provides a general introduction to demonology in antiquity as well as a focus on ancient Egypt and Mesopotamia. It is also meant as an introduction to those papers which were originally presented at the international conference titled “Evil Spirits, Monsters and Benevolent Protectors: Demonology in Ancient Egypt and Mesopotamia,” held on April 23, 2012 at the Institute for the Study of the Ancient World of New York University, contained in the first section of this volume. Questions of the definition and function of demons in ancient Egyptian and Mesopotamian civilizations are raised and discussed in light of a comparative approach to the study of ancient religions.

See how they ran: morphological and functional aspects of skeletons from ancient Egyptian shrew mummies (Eulipotyphla: Soricidae: Crocidurinae)

2019 ◽  
Vol 100 (4) ◽  
pp. 1199-1210
Author(s):  
Neal Woodman ◽  
Alec T Wilken ◽  
Salima Ikram
Keyword(s):  
Ancient Egypt ◽  
Locomotor Function ◽  
Form And Function ◽  
Greco Roman ◽  
Ancient Egyptian ◽  
Modern Species ◽  
Functional Aspects ◽  
Components Analysis ◽  
And Function ◽  
The Last Two Millennia

Abstract Animals served important roles in the religious cults that proliferated during the Late (ca. 747–332 BCE) and Greco-Roman Periods (332 BCE–CE 337) of ancient Egypt. One result was the interment of animal mummies in specialized necropolises distributed throughout the country. Excavation of a rock-tomb that was re-used during the Ptolemaic Period (ca. 309–30 BCE) for the interment of animal mummies at the Djehuty Site (TT 11–12) near Luxor, Egypt, was carried out in early 2018 by a Spanish–Egyptian team sponsored by the Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas, Madrid. The tomb burned sometime after deposition of the mummies, leaving behind abundant disassociated skeletal remains, primarily of avians, but also including two species of shrews (Soricidae): Crocidura olivieri and C. religiosa. To investigate possible intraspecific variation in morphology and locomotor function in these two species during the last two millennia, we measured morphological features of individual postcranial bones from the two archaeological samples and calculated indices that have been used to assess locomotor function. We compared the measurements to those from modern C. olivieri, C. religiosa, and C. suaveolens using principal components analysis, and we compared locomotor indices to those we calculated for the three modern species of Crocidura and to those from nine species of myosoricine shrews. Osteological features of the postcranial skeleton of conspecific Ptolemaic and modern samples of C. olivieri and C. religiosa are generally similar in character and proportion, and, skeletally, these shrews and modern C. suaveolens are consistent with soricids having a primarily ambulatory locomotor mode. One exception is the deltopectoral crest of the humerus, which appears to be longer in modern C. religiosa. Despite general conservation of form and function, Ptolemaic C. olivieri had larger body size than modern Egyptian populations and were more similar in size to modern C. olivieri nyansae from Kenya than to modern C. olivieri olivieri from Egypt.

A Mucin-Specific Protease Enables Molecular and Functional Analysis of Human Cancer-Associated Mucins

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Stacy A. Malaker ◽  
Kayvon Pedram ◽  
Michael J. Ferracane ◽  
Elliot C. Woods ◽  
Jessica Kramer ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Mass Spectrometry ◽  
Molecular Mechanisms ◽  
Cultured Cells ◽  
High Resolution Mass Spectrometry ◽  
Human Cancer ◽  
Glycosylation Sites ◽  
Bacterial Protease ◽  
Specific Protease ◽  
To Come ◽  
And Function

<div> <div> <div> <p>Mucins are a class of highly O-glycosylated proteins that are ubiquitously expressed on cellular surfaces and are important for human health, especially in the context of carcinomas. However, the molecular mechanisms by which aberrant mucin structures lead to tumor progression and immune evasion have been slow to come to light, in part because methods for selective mucin degradation are lacking. Here we employ high resolution mass spectrometry, polymer synthesis, and computational peptide docking to demonstrate that a bacterial protease, called StcE, cleaves mucin domains by recognizing a discrete peptide-, glycan-, and secondary structure- based motif. We exploited StcE’s unique properties to map glycosylation sites and structures of purified and recombinant human mucins by mass spectrometry. As well, we found that StcE will digest cancer-associated mucins from cultured cells and from ovarian cancer patient-derived ascites fluid. Finally, using StcE we discovered that Siglec-7, a glyco-immune checkpoint receptor, specifically binds sialomucins as biological ligands, whereas the related Siglec-9 receptor does not. Mucin-specific proteolysis, as exemplified by StcE, is therefore a powerful tool for the study of glycoprotein structure and function and for deorphanizing mucin-binding receptors. </p> </div> </div> </div>

When Ancient Egyptians Copied Egyptian Work

2020 ◽  
pp. 146-162
Author(s):  
Tamás A. Bács
Keyword(s):  
Visual Culture ◽  
Ancient Egypt ◽  
Artistic Activity ◽  
Ancient Egyptian

Repetition or the practice of copying preeminently structured artistic activity in ancient Egypt. Besides its role in training, as a technique of learning to practice an art, and also serving documentary purposes in creating record copies, it served as a conscious artistic strategy in the act of representation. Different modes of the practice coexisted, such as replication or the effort to reproduce perfect replicas, differential reproduction that encouraged variation as well as emulation and could result in transformation, and finally eclectic imitation that characterized “archaism.” What were deemed as appropriate to serve as models for imitation in ancient Egyptian visual culture at any moment depended not only on the particular aesthetic and historical contexts but also on their accessibility, be it physical or archival.

scholarly journals What Happened to Your College Town: The Changing Relationship of Higher Education and College Towns, 1940–2000

2021 ◽  
Vol 61 (3) ◽  
pp. 320-340
Author(s):  
Kate Rousmaniere
Keyword(s):  
Higher Education ◽  
Higher Education Institutions ◽  
History Of Higher Education ◽  
Campus Housing ◽  
College Towns ◽  
Education Enrollment ◽  
History Of ◽  
To Come ◽  
And Function ◽  
Relationship Of

AbstractThis essay examines the history of what is commonly called the town-gown relationship in American college towns in the six decades after the Second World War. A time of considerable expansion of higher education enrollment and function, the period also marks an increasing detachment of higher education institutions from their local communities. Once closely tied by university offices that advised the bulk of their students in off-campus housing, those bonds between town and gown began to come apart in the 1970s, due primarily to legal and economic factors that restricted higher education institutions’ outreach. Given the importance of off-campus life to college students, over half of whom have historically lived off campus, the essay argues for increased research on college towns in the history of higher education.

scholarly journals Evaluation of prenatal changes in fetal cardiac morphology and function in maternal diabetes mellitus using a novel fetal speckle-tracking analysis: a prospective cohort study

2021 ◽  
Vol 19 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Dong Wang ◽  
Caixia Liu ◽  
Xinyu Liu ◽  
Ying Zhang ◽  
Yu Wang
Keyword(s):  
Diabetes Mellitus ◽  
Cohort Study ◽  
Pregnant Women ◽  
Gestational Age ◽  
Speckle Tracking ◽  
Control Group ◽  
Second Trimester ◽  
Cardiac Morphology ◽  
Sphericity Index ◽  
And Function

Abstract Background Due to metabolic changes in the second trimester and the increasing number of pregnant women with obesity and advanced maternal age, the incidence of gestational diabetes mellitus (GDM) remains high. This study aimed to evaluate the effects of GDM on fetal cardiac morphology and function, and to determine whether these changes increase with increasing estimated fetal weight (EFW). Methods Fifty-eight women with GDM (GDM group) and 58 women with a healthy pregnancy (control group) were included in this prospective observational cohort study. Each group included subgroups of 31 pregnant women with a gestational age between 24+0 weeks and 27+6 weeks as well as 27 pregnant women with a gestational age between 28+0 weeks and 40+0 weeks. For all fetuses, a cine of 2–3 s in the four-chamber view was obtained, and online speckle-tracking analysis was performed using the GE Automatic Fetal Heart Assessment Tool (fetal HQ; General Electric Healthcare Ultrasound, Zipf, Austria) to measure the global sphericity index (GSI), global longitudinal strain (GLS), fractional area change (FAC), 24-segment sphericity index (SI), and 24-segment end-diastolic diameter of the left ventricle (LV) and right ventricle (RV). Data were analyzed using the independent t-test and Wilcoxon rank-sum test, as applicable. Results The GDM group (mean HbA1c value was 5.3 ± 0.57 mmol/L) showed a lower GSI value than the control group (1.21 vs. 1.27, P = 0.000), which indicated a rounder shape of the heart. In addition, fetuses in the GDM group demonstrated significant impairment in cardiac function compared to those in the control group (LV-GLS: -18.26% vs. -22.70%, RV-GLS: -18.52% vs. -22.74%, LV-FAC: 35.30% vs. 42.36%, RV-FAC: 30.89% vs. 36.80%; P = 0.000 for all). Subgroup analyses according to gestational age (24+0–27+6 weeks and 28+0–40+0 weeks) showed that the statistical differences were retained between the GDM and control groups in each subgroup. Conclusions Fetuses of women with GDM present with signs of biventricular systolic dysfunction according to deformation analysis using fetal HQ. Additionally, the heart had a rounder shape in the GDM group than in the control group. This study showed that fetal HQ can be used to assess fetal cardiac morphology and function easily and quickly, and the effects of GDM on fetal cardiac morphology and function appeared from the second trimester. Thus, whether earlier and stricter clinical intervention was necessary remained to be further studied. Furthermore, future studies will need to supplement the effects of blood glucose levels on GLS, FAC, GSI, and 24-segment SI. Additionally, the long-term follow-up after birth should also be improved to observe the influence of changes in the indicators on the prognosis.

The royal mummies of ancient Egypt:An odyssey of discoveries and a fascinating source of data

1970 ◽  
Vol 80 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Frédéric Bauduer
Keyword(s):  
Ancient Egypt ◽  
Age At Death ◽  
Valuable Source ◽  
Ancient Egyptian ◽  
Egyptian History ◽  
Source Of Information

Thanks to mummification, the physical remains of many rulers of ancient Egypt are still observable today and constitute a valuable source of information. By evaluating the age at death and sometimes elucidating the degree of kinship and circumstances of death, our knowledge of ancient Egyptian history becomes more precise. Different pathologic conditions have been found and the evolution of the mummification process can be seen through time.The most spectacular discovery was that of Tutankhamen’s mummy, the single totally undisturbed tomb, associated with a fabulous treasure.The mummy of Ramses II has been extensively studied, the only one that flew to Paris where an irradiation was delivered in order to eradicate a destructive fungal infection.The identification of Akhenaten’s mummy and the explanation for his peculiar appearance are still unsolved problems.Noticeably, many Royal mummies remain of uncertain identity or undiscovered hitherto.

scholarly journals Stellar Surface Convection, Line Asymmetries, and Wavelength Shifts

1999 ◽  
Vol 170 ◽  
pp. 268-277 ◽  
Author(s):  
Dainis Dravins
Keyword(s):  
Adaptive Optics ◽  
Temporal Variability ◽  
Stellar Surface ◽  
Time Variability ◽  
The Sun ◽  
Atmospheric Physics ◽  
Spatially Resolved ◽  
Activity Cycles ◽  
To Come ◽  
Surface Convection

AbstractWavelength positions of photospheric absorption lines may be affected by surface convection (stellar granulation). Asymmetries and wavelength shifts originate from correlated velocity and brightness patterns: rising (blueshifted) elements are hot (bright), and convective blueshifts result from a larger contribution of such blueshifted photons than of redshifted ones from the sinking and cooler (darker) gas. For the Sun, the effect is around 300 m s−1, expected to increase in F-type stars, and in giants. Magnetic fields affect convection and induce lineshift variations over stellar activity cycles. A sufficient measuring precision reveals also the temporal variability of line wavelengths (due to the evolution of granules on the stellar surface). A major future development to come from adaptive optics and optical interferometry will be the study of wavelength variations across spatially resolved stars, together with their spatially resolved time variability. Thus, precise radial velocities should soon open up new vistas in stellar atmospheric physics.

scholarly journals Lipoprotein metabolism of pregnant women is associated with both their genetic polymorphisms and those of their newborn children

2005 ◽  
Vol 46 (11) ◽  
pp. 2405-2414 ◽  
Author(s):  
Olivier S. Descamps ◽  
Monique Bruniaux ◽  
Pierre-Francois Guilmot ◽  
René Tonglet ◽  
Francis R. Heller
Keyword(s):  
Pregnant Women ◽  
Genetic Polymorphisms ◽  
Lipoprotein Metabolism ◽  
Newborn Children
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