Life and death in a civitas capital: metabolic disease and trauma in the children from late Roman Dorchester, Dorset

The impact that “Romanization” and the development of urban centers had on the health of the Romano-British population is little understood. A re-examination of the skeletal remains of 364 nonadults from the civitas capital at Roman Dorchester (Durnovaria) in Dorset was carried out to measure the health of the children living in this small urban area. The cemetery population was divided into two groups; the first buried their dead organized within an east–west alignment with possible Christian-style graves, and the second with more varied “pagan” graves, aligned north–south. A higher prevalence of malnutrition and trauma was evident in the children from Dorchester than in any other published Romano-British group, with levels similar to those seen in postmedieval industrial communities. Cribra orbitalia was present in 38.5% of the children, with rickets and/or scurvy at 11.2%. Twelve children displayed fractures of the ribs, with 50% of cases associated with rickets and/or scurvy, suggesting that rib fractures should be considered during the diagnosis of these conditions. The high prevalence of anemia, rickets, and scurvy in the Poundbury children, and especially the infants, indicates that this community may have adopted child-rearing practices that involved fasting the newborn, a poor quality weaning diet, and swaddling, leading to general malnutrition and inadequate exposure to sunlight. The Pagan group showed no evidence of scurvy or rib fractures, indicating difference in religious and child-rearing practices but that both burial groups were equally susceptible to rickets and anemia suggests a shared poor standard of living in this urban environment.

Culture and food: a model of yoghurt consumption in the EU

The completion of the Single European Market was expected to create a large market that would enable firms to capture economies of scale that would in turn result in lower prices to European consumers. These benefits are only likely to be realised if consumers in the various countries of the EU wish to consume the same products and respond to similar marketing strategies (with respect to promotion, distribution etc). This study examines, through a model of yoghurt consumption, whether cultural differences continue to determine food-related behaviour in the EU. The model is derived from the marketing literature and views the consumption decision as the outcome of a multi-stage process in which yoghurt knowledge, attitudes to different yoghurt attributes (such as bio-bifidus, low-fat, organic) and overall attitude towards yoghurt as a product all feed into the frequency with which yoghurt is consumed at breakfast, as a snack and as a dessert. The model uses data collected from a consumer survey in I I European countries and is estimated using probit and ordinal probit methods. The results suggest that important cultural differences continue to determine food-related behaviour in the I I countries of the study. (c) 2004 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Efficient and cost-effective experimental determination of kinetic constants and data: the success of a Bayesian systematic approach to drug transport, receptor binding, continuous culture and cell transport kinetics

Details about the parameters of kinetic systems are crucial for progress in both medical and industrial research, including drug development, clinical diagnosis and biotechnology applications. Such details must be collected by a series of kinetic experiments and investigations. The correct design of the experiment is essential to collecting data suitable for analysis, modelling and deriving the correct information. We have developed a systematic and iterative Bayesian method and sets of rules for the design of enzyme kinetic experiments. Our method selects the optimum design to collect data suitable for accurate modelling and analysis and minimises the error in the parameters estimated. The rules select features of the design such as the substrate range and the number of measurements. We show here that this method can be directly applied to the study of other important kinetic systems, including drug transport, receptor binding, microbial culture and cell transport kinetics. It is possible to reduce the errors in the estimated parameters and, most importantly, increase the efficiency and cost-effectiveness by reducing the necessary amount of experiments and data points measured. (C) 2003 Federation of European Biochemical Societies. Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Positive schizotypy and trauma-related intrusions

The current study extends previous investigation of schizotypy as a vulnerability factor for trauma-related intrusions through the use of a clinical sample. Fifty people seeking psychological interventions after experiencing a distressing or traumatic event completed measures of positive schizotypy, posttraumatic stress disorder symptomatology, peritraumatic dissociation, and mood. Individuals scoring high in positive schizotypy were vulnerable to experiencing more frequent trauma-related intrusions along with wider posttraumatic stress disorder symptomatology, including hypervigilance, avoidance, and low mood. Results are discussed within a theoretical context, suggesting that certain information processing styles associated with high schizotype individuals may account for a vulnerability to trauma-related intrusions.

Method of plant tissue culture and regeneration

Plants may be regenerated from stomatal cells or protoplasts of such cells. Prior to regeneration the cells or protoplasts may be genetically transformed by the introduction of hereditary material most preferably by a DNA construct which is free of genes which specify resistance to antibiotics. The regeneration step may include callus formation on a hormone-free medium. The method is particularly suitable for sugar beet.