The examination and identification of bite marks in foods using 3D scanning and 3D comparison methods

Bite mark analysis offers the opportunity to identify the biter based on the individual characteristics of the dentitions. Normally, the main focus is on analysing bite mark injuries on human bodies, but also, bite marks in food may play an important role in the forensic investigation of a crime. This study presents a comparison of simulated bite marks in different kinds of food with the dentitions of the presumed biter. Bite marks were produced by six adults in slices of buttered bread, apples, different kinds of Swiss chocolate and Swiss cheese. The time-lapse influence of the bite mark in food, under room temperature conditions, was also examined. For the documentation of the bite marks and the dentitions of the biters, 3D optical surface scanning technology was used. The comparison was performed using two different software packages: the ATOS modelling and analysing software and the 3D studio max animation software. The ATOS software enables an automatic computation of the deviation between the two meshes. In the present study, the bite marks and the dentitions were compared, as well as the meshes of each bite mark which were recorded in the different stages of time lapse. In the 3D studio max software, the act of biting was animated to compare the dentitions with the bite mark. The examined food recorded the individual characteristics of the dentitions very well. In all cases, the biter could be identified, and the dentitions of the other presumed biters could be excluded. The influence of the time lapse on the food depends on the kind of food and is shown on the diagrams. However, the identification of the biter could still be performed after a period of time, based on the recorded individual characteristics of the dentitions.

Loss of astrocyte polarity marks blood-brain barrier impairment during experimental autoimmune encephalomyelitis

In multiple sclerosis (MS), and its animal model experimental autoimmune encephalomyelitis (EAE), dysfunction of the blood-brain barrier (BBB) leads to edema formation within the central nervous system. The molecular mechanisms of edema formation in EAE/MS are poorly understood. We hypothesized that edema formation is due to imbalanced water transport across the BBB caused by a disturbed crosstalk between BBB endothelium and astrocytes. Here, we demonstrate at the light microscopic and ultrastructural level, the loss of polarized localization of the water channel protein aquaporin-4 (AQP4) in astrocytic endfeet surrounding microvessels during EAE. AQP4 was found to be redistributed over the entire astrocytic cell surface and lost its arrangement in orthogonal arrays of intramembranous particles as seen in the freeze-fracture replica. In addition, immunostaining for the astrocytic extracellular matrix receptor beta-dystroglycan disappeared from astroglial membranes in the vicinity of inflammatory cuffs, whereas immunostaining for the dystroglycan ligands agrin and laminin in the perivascular basement membrane remained unchanged. Our data suggest that during EAE, loss of beta-dystroglycan-mediated astrocyte foot process anchoring to the basement membrane leads to loss of polarized AQP4 localization in astrocytic endfeet, and thus to edema formation in EAE.

Saint Margaret's Tattoos: Empowering Marks on White Skin

Saint Margaret, as presented in the “Katherine Group” life of the virgin martyr, claims to have Christ’s “marks” and “seals” on her. Bringing together postmodern theories of body modification and Paul Zumthor’s concept of mouvance, this essay reads these marks as tattoos that consist of virtual (tattoo fantasies), oral (tattoo narratives), and written elements (the actual marks on skin). Margaret defends and empowers herself by claiming to possess Christ’s ownership tattoo. Her oppressor Olibrius, in turn, intends to overwrite that mark palimpsestically and hence to empower himself, not unlike slave-owners in antiquity. While the gruesome torture scenes suggest that Olibrius wins the upper hand in this contest, the outcome of the narrative instead proves that Margaret triumphs. She dies a virgin after defiantly appropriating, in her tattoo narrative, the torture marks as her own, divine tattoo.

In search of epigenetic marks in testes and sperm cells of differentially fed boars

In search of transmittable epigenetic marks we investigated gene expression in testes and sperm cells of differentially fed F0 boars from a three generation pig feeding experiment that showed phenotypic differences in the F2 generation. RNA samples from 8 testes of boars that received either a diet enriched in methylating micronutrients or a control diet were analyzed by microarray analysis. We found moderate differential expression between testes of differentially fed boars with a high FDR of 0.82 indicating that most of the differentially expressed genes were false positives. Nevertheless, we performed a pathway analysis and found disparate pathway maps of development_A2B receptor: action via G-protein alpha s, cell adhesion_Tight junctions and cell adhesion_Endothelial cell contacts by junctional mechanisms which show inconclusive relation to epigenetic inheritance. Four RNA samples from sperm cells of these differentially fed boars were analyzed by RNA-Seq methodology. We found no differential gene expression in sperm cells of the two groups (adjusted P-value>0.05). Nevertheless, we also explored gene expression in sperm by a pathway analysis showing that genes were enriched for the pathway maps of bacterial infections in cystic fibrosis (CF) airways, glycolysis and gluconeogenesis p.3 and cell cycle_Initiation of mitosis. Again, these pathway maps are miscellaneous without an obvious relationship to epigenetic inheritance. It is concluded that the methylating micronutrients moderately if at all affects RNA expression in testes of differentially fed boars. Furthermore, gene expression in sperm cells is not significantly affected by extensive supplementation of methylating micronutrients and thus RNA molecules could not be established as the epigenetic mark in this feeding experiment.

Mobilities and Pottery Production Archaeological and Anthropological Perspectives

Our workshop aims at a deeper understanding of various itineraries of pottery and dif-ferent forms of human mobilities in which pottery is relevant, bringing together archae-ological and anthropological perspectives. For thousands of years, pottery has been an important part of many societies’ material culture and therefore a major research topic in both disciplines. In past and present societies the material existence of ceramic vessels is informed by various movements across time and space but also by periods of stasis: from the mo-ment of their production until their exclusion from daily practices, either disposed as waste, excluded as funerary objects or stored as collectibles. In their seemingly endless material durability, ceramic vessels might outlive their human producers, distributors or consumers and travel farther and longer. Still they are embedded in the regimes of human mobility, ranging from daily subsistence-based mobility to long-term migrations. In such processes, pottery shifts between spatial, temporal, social, economic and cultural contexts. Thereby ceramic vessels are appropriated and integrated in new contexts of action and meaning, sometimes leading to material transformations. This workshop takes place in the context of our archaeological research project „Mobili-ties, Entanglements and Transformations in Neolithic Societies on the Swiss Plateau (3900-3500 BC)“ to which our PhDs are connected. We address the above outlined topic by analysing the production of pottery. Based on dendrochronologically dated settle-ments between 3900 and 3500 BC, two regional pottery styles and their local variations are well known, Pfyn and Cortaillod. The vessels share the same habitus and were made of clays and temper deriving from the settlements’ surroundings. However, some vessels specific to other pottery styles are also present on the sites. They are characteristic for pottery styles known from more or less far off regions (Michelsberg, Munzingen or Néo-lithique Moyen Bourguignon). Some of them were travelling objects, as their non local raw materials show. Others seem to have been produced locally, pointing to long-term mobility and a change of residence from neighbouring social groups.

Itineraries of pottery: a mixed methods approach to mobility

Neolithic wetland sites in the Swiss Plateau provide an extraordinary database for the study of mobilities, entanglements and transformations in material culture. Based on dendrochronologically dated settlements between 3900 and 3500 BC, two regional pottery styles and their local variations are well known, Pfyn and Cortaillod. The vessels share the same habitus and were made of local raw materials. However, some vessels specific to other pottery styles are also present in the sites. By focusing on itineraries of vessels and shifts in pottery knowledge, their appropriation in different contexts and the resulting material entanglements, we want to approach the multiple regimes of mobility: At Lake Constance - known for Pfyn pottery - specific Michelsberg vessels like tulip beakers and lugged jars occur in small numbers. These travelling objects were produced with exogenous raw materials and transported to the sites from Southern Germany. At Concise (Lake Neuchâtel) besides the local Cortaillod pottery the whole repertoire of NMB pottery, characteristic for Eastern France, was also produced. Further cases from the same space-time frame point to other regimes of mobility. In our two PhD-projects we compare pottery practices - styles, techniques, raw materials - from over 20 key sites in the region. Based on Bourdieu’s reflexive anthropology, we apply different qualitative and quantitative archaeological and archaeometrical methods, thus striving for a deeper understanding of habitus and the transformative potential of moving people, objects and ideas on local and regional scales and related social contexts.

Pottery as an indication of mobilities?

Pottery is one of the most common and stylistically differentiated sources in prehistoric archaeology. This might be the reason why it served as a waste projection surface for archaeological notions about culture, identity, and mobility in the past. As we do not have access to emic categorisations of Neolithic societies we focus on contexts of practice in which pottery was incorporated. It is the moment of production, which left some of the clearest traces on the vessels. Different ways of using raw materials, specific techniques, and characteristic pottery styles can be observed. We understand them as a result of habitus, as socially shared internalized schemes, patterns and habits in pottery production. Taking this as a staring point, two main pottery groups can be differed on the Swiss Plateau between 3900 and 3500 BC: the Mediterranean influenced Cortaillod pottery in Western Switzerland and the Danubian influenced Pfyn pottery in North-Eastern Switzerland. These pottery styles were not only entangled to some degree. Furthermore, in some settlements vessels made in “foreign” styles - Michelsberg, Munzingen, Néolithique Moyen Bourguignon - are present too. Some of them were travelling objects, as their nonlocal raw materials show. Others were locally made, indicating long-term mobility of their producers. To analyse these phenomena of mobilites and entanglements in our PhDs we plan to apply different archaeological and archaeometrical methods, thus striving for a deeper understanding of the transformative potential of moving people, objects and ideas in Neolithic societies on the Swiss Plateau.

Mobilities, Entanglements, Transformations. Outline of a Research Project on Pottery Practices in Neolithic Wetland Sites of the Swiss Plateau

A large number of later Neolithic sites (3900–3500BC) in Switzerland, Southern Germany and Eastern France offer outstandingly well preserved archaeological materials from cultural layers. Due to the wide use of dendrochronology, settlement remains and artefact assemblages can now be placed into a precise and fixed chronological framework, thus presenting a unique case within prehistoric archaeology. In earlier research, chronological and regional units were constructed on the basis of pottery. These spacial and temporal units of typical pottery sets were understood as Neolithic cultures, as culturally more or less homogenous entities connected with (ethnic) identities. Today, with a larger data corpus of excavated settlements at hand, we can begin to understand that this period of the past was in fact characterised by a multitude of cultural entanglements and transformations. This is indicated by the occurrence of local and non-local pottery styles in one and the same settlement: for example typically local Cortaillod pottery is found together with NMB-styled pottery in settlements at Lake Neuchâtel or Michelsberg pottery is regularly occurring in settlements at Lake Constance where Pfyn pottery style is the typical local one. These and many more examples show that there must have been complex entanglements of social ties expanding between Eastern France, Southern Germany and the Swiss Plateau. Given these circumstances the former notions of Neolithic culture should be critically revised. Therefore, in late 2014, the Prehistoric Archaeology Department at the Archaeological Institute of University of Berne started a four-year research project funded by Swiss National Science Foundation in late 2014: ‘Mobilities, Entanglements and Transformations in Neolithic Societies of the Swiss Plateau (3900-3500 BC)’. It’s objective is to address the topic sketched above by adopting a mixed methods research (MMR)-design combining qualitative and quantitative approaches from archaeology and archaeometry. The approach is theoretically based on Pierre Bourdieu’s reflexive sociology and his concept of habitus but includes further concepts of practice theories. By shifting the focus to the movement of people, ideas and things – to pottery production practices in contexts of mobility – a deeper understanding of the transformative capacities of encounters can be achieved. This opens the path for new insights of Neolithic societies including social, cultural and economic dynamics that were underestimated in former research.