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Modes of chipped stone tool production: the early farming societies in the North-Western Pontic region
Get PDFThe chipped stone assemblages of early farmers in the south of the Eastern Europe take several forms. 1) They can have a developed laminar component, with production wastes underrepresented, with a high percentage of retouched items (mostly blades with lateral retouch and endscrapers on blades), an exploitation of a high-quality long-distance imported raw material. These assemblages usually are numerically small. 2) Others demonstrate a “simplified” technical set (wide use of hard-hammer), many wastes of production, relatively low percentage of formal tools, most retouched tools on flakes (mostly retouched flakes and endscrapers on flakes), an exploitation of medium quality local chert. These assemblages are relatively larger in numbers. The latter complexes are often explained via the interaction with a local hunter-gatherer population.
An alternative explanation can be sought via the notion of social organisation of flintworking. The early farmers were able to develop a complex system of flintworking based on intra- and inter- communal specialization and constant exchange of blanks and tools. The complexes of the first type result from an inclusion of a settlement into its exchange network. The complexes of the second type represent domestic production of households, satisfying its needs on its own, being excluded from its exchange network. So, early farmers’ flintknapping existed in two modes: “domestic” and “exchange”. “Exchange” mode is a common way of chipped stone tools production in early farming societies. “Domestic” mode is common in “borderline situation” under conditions of on-going Neolithisation of new terrain. Every early farming lithic assemblage can be treated as composed of products of these two modes to varying degree
Outside the box: Lithic raw material analysis as an indication of crossing cultural borderlines by the earliest Linear Pottery Culture?
Get PDFSouthern Bavaria marks a marginal area of the earliest Linear Pottery Culture in Central Europe. It is adjacent to the Southern Alpine Foreland, which represents an area for potential interaction with other cultural entities. Neolithic research in this region has largely focused on pottery analysis as a basis for answering chrono-cultural questions, leaving lithic analysis as a proxy for spatial processes at a lower resolution. For comparisons with the preceding Mesolithic however, the study of lithic finds is essential as they are the common denominator between the two periods. To confront this gap in the empirical data, a lithic assemblage from an earliest LBK site in the Isar valley of southern Bavaria was studied with a special focus on raw material analysis and typo-technological aspects of the Knappable Siliceous Sedimentary Rocks (henceforth, KSSR). The objective was to generate high-resolution raw material data obtained by sorting and determination of sedimentary microfacies. Results show that the main raw material components originate from two different regions of Bavaria, the Ortenburg district and the Donau-Altmühl region. Additionally, they reveal bridges across the Alps and into Switzerland, which supports the idea that clear-cut archaeological borders were in fact more permeable and that long-distance importation occurred from non-LBK regions. This opens up a discussion about the agents and processes of long-distance raw material transport, relations between cultural entities as well as the mobility of the earliest LBK itself across its archaeological distribution. Set in a diachronic perspective, it is shown that Southern Bavaria can be viewed as a transitional zone during the earliest phase of the LBK, with mobility occurring for different motives
Coronavirus (CoV) proteins in GtoPdb v.2025.1
Get PDFCoronaviruses are large, often spherical, enveloped, single-stranded positive-sense RNA viruses, ranging in size from 80-220 nm. Their genomes and protein structures are highly conserved. Three coronaviruses have emerged over the last 20 years as serious human pathogens: SARS-CoV was identified as the causative agent in an outbreak in 2002-2003, Middle East respiratory syndrome (MERS) CoV emerged in 2012 and the novel coronavirus SARS-CoV-2 emerged in 2019-2020. SARS-CoV-2 is the virus responsible for the infectious disease termed COVID-19 (WHO Technical Guidance 2020)
Reconfiguring Psy Expertise in the Digital Age: Two Cases from India
No full textMental health platforms and apps provide technologies and techniques for self-work, diagnosis, and management of everyday crises. Therapeutic interventions designed to work outside the clinic, they distribute and reconfigure psy expertise. Using the cases of a chatbot-based mental health app and a digital mental health platform, both developed in Bengaluru, India, this article ethnographically attends to new forms of expertise that emerge within digital mental health ecologies. What does it mean when software specialists, AI programmers, or conversational designers emerge as novel experts in mental health care, along with psychologists? How do they build on or depart from more conventional forms of expertise? How is psy expertise enacted in these spaces? Psy technologists, I argue, engage conventional psy expertise, even while establishing their psy technological expertise as alternative, sometimes even superior, ways of responding to emotional crises and mental distress. I first turn to the ways psy technologists conceive of mental health as a technical problem, reconfiguring mental health expertise. Next, I delineate some of the practices through which they enact expertise: engaging (and contesting) psychological expertise and conducting clinical trials. Finally, I investigate what it means to care for mental health digitally.
From axe to grooved stone: Evidence of recycling practices in the Neolithic
Get PDFThis paper examines the recycling and reuse of Neolithic stone tools, with a focus on a modified shaft-hole axe fragment discovered at Wierzbie, southwestern Poland. The study involved technological and use-wear analysis, supported by 3D modelling, to trace the life cycle of this tool and its transformation into a grooved stone. Stone tool recycling in prehistoric times often involved practices like edge resharpening and the adaptation of damaged tools, reflecting a pragmatic approach to resource management. The modified axe from Wierzbie illustrates a shift in tool function, highlighting a broader trend of reusing Neolithic implements, particularly in Late and Final Neolithic and Early Bronze Age contexts.
The tool\u27s chronology was determined through detailed morpho-typological analysis and 3D model comparisons with complete Corded Ware culture (CWC) shaft-hole axes, confirming its origins within the CWC. The axe made from diabase was modified after it was damaged. The unusual nature of its modification suggests it was likely recycled during the Final Neolithic or Early Bronze Age, possibly linked to the Bell Beaker culture. This is supported by similar grooved stones used as shaft straighteners in Central Europe, particularly within Bell Beaker contexts. Microscopic analysis of the tool\u27s surface reveals wear patterns consistent with its new function, including polishing and striation marks associated with shaping plant-derived material.
The results of this study highlight the adaptive strategies employed by prehistoric communities to prolong the lifespan of tools and materials, influenced by cultural and economic factors. This study highlights the complex life cycle of stone tools, demonstrating that recycling was not merely a functional necessity but also a culturally ingrained practice that helped maintain valuable resources within specific social and economic spheres. Through this lens, the Wierzbie artefact offers important insights into the technological ingenuity and material culture of prehistoric societies in Central Europe
Skills, scaling, and the role of youngsters in adaptation during the Northern European Final Palaeolithic
Get PDFAt any one time in the Palaeolithic, children constituted the largest group of individuals in a given community. While not many objects ascribed to children are known from these remote periods, it is beyond doubt that children participated in many aspects of daily life, including knapping. These youngsters played a vital role in generating technological variation and in societal adaptation. We here focus on the role of children in Northern European Final Palaeolithic societies that experienced markedly different climatic regimes in order to better understand how youngsters and their playful, exploratory learning may have contributed to adaptation. Using a mixed-methods approach we study inexperienced knappers with emphasis on three distinct groups of flintwork: blades, cores, and projectile points. We apply 2D geometric morphometrics coupled with technological attributes, quantitative and qualitative analyses to interrogate the variability within these groups with the aim of tracing the possible work of children through notions of skill level and artefact scaling. The purpose of this analysis is to investigate (i) how we can identify the signatures of children knapping flint, and (ii) how children’s participation in flintwork varied between inventories from periods characterised by distinctly different climates. Finally, to better understand the role of children in innovation and adaptation, we discuss how children’s knapping relates to the generation of technological variability, innovation, and differences in adaptation. The combined analytical focus on blades, points and cores allow us to more securely identify evidence for children, allowing us to compare their contributions to cultural variability across the two time periods
Class C Orphans in GtoPdb v.2025.3
Get PDFThis set contains class C \u27orphan\u27 G protein coupled receptors where the endogenous ligand(s) is not known
GABAA receptors in GtoPdb v.2025.3
Get PDFThe GABAA receptor is a ligand-gated ion channel of the Cys-loop family that includes the nicotinic acetylcholine, 5-HT3 and strychnine-sensitive glycine receptors. GABAA receptor-mediated inhibition within the CNS occurs by fast synaptic transmission, sustained tonic inhibition and temporally intermediate events that have been termed \u27GABAA, slow\u27 [45]. GABAA receptors exist as pentamers of 4TM subunits that form an intrinsic anion selective channel. Sequences of six α, three β, three γ, one δ, three ρ, one ε, one π and one θ GABAA receptor subunits have been reported in mammals [282, 238, 239, 289]. The π-subunit is restricted to reproductive tissue. Alternatively spliced versions of many subunits exist (e.g. α4- and α6- (both not functional) α5-, β2-, β3- and γ2), along with RNA editing of the α3 subunit [71]. The three ρ-subunits, (ρ1-3) function as either homo- or hetero-oligomeric assemblies [366, 50]. Receptors formed from ρ-subunits, because of their distinctive pharmacology that includes insensitivity to bicuculline, benzodiazepines and barbiturates, have sometimes been termed GABAC receptors [366], but they are classified as GABAA receptors by NC-IUPHAR on the basis of structural and functional criteria [16, 238, 239].Many GABAA receptor subtypes contain α-, β- and γ-subunits with the likely stoichiometry 2α.2β.1γ [170, 238]. It is thought that the majority of GABAA receptors harbour a single type of α- and β -subunit variant. The α1β2γ2 hetero-oligomer constitutes the largest population of GABAA receptors in the CNS, followed by the α2β3γ2 and α3β3γ2 isoforms. Receptors that incorporate the α4- α5-or α6-subunit, or the β1-, γ1-, γ3-, δ-, ε- and θ-subunits, are less numerous, but they may nonetheless serve important functions. For example, extrasynaptically located receptors that contain α6- and δ-subunits in cerebellar granule cells, or an α4- and δ-subunit in dentate gyrus granule cells and thalamic neurones, mediate a tonic current that is important for neuronal excitability in response to ambient concentrations of GABA [212, 276, 84, 19, 294]. GABA binding occurs at the β+/α- subunit interface and the homologous γ+/α- subunits interface creates the benzodiazepine site. A second site for benzodiazepine binding has recently been postulated to occur at the α+/β- interface ([258]; reviewed by [288]). The particular α-and γ-subunit isoforms exhibit marked effects on recognition and/or efficacy at the benzodiazepine site. Thus, receptors incorporating either α4- or α6-subunits are not recognised by ‘classical’ benzodiazepines, such as flunitrazepam (but see [363]). The trafficking, cell surface expression, internalisation and function of GABAA receptors and their subunits are discussed in detail in several recent reviews [52, 141, 191, 323] but one point worthy of note is that receptors incorporating the γ2 subunit (except when associated with α5) cluster at the postsynaptic membrane (but may distribute dynamically between synaptic and extrasynaptic locations), whereas those incorporating the δ subunit appear to be exclusively extrasynaptic. NC-IUPHAR [16, 238, 3, 2] class the GABAA receptors according to their subunit structure, pharmacology and receptor function. Currently, eleven native GABAA receptors are classed as conclusively identified (i.e., α1β2γ2, α2βγ2, α3βγ2, α4βγ2, α4β2δ, α4β3δ, α5βγ2, α6βγ2, α6β2δ, α6β3δ and ρ) with further receptor isoforms occurring with high probability, or only tentatively [238, 239]. It is beyond the scope of this Guide to discuss the pharmacology of individual GABAA receptor isoforms in detail; such information can be gleaned in the reviews [16, 96, 170, 176, 144, 282, 219, 238, 239, 285, 9, 10]. Agents that discriminate between α-subunit isoforms are noted in the table and additional agents that demonstrate selectivity between receptor isoforms, for example via β-subunit selectivity, are indicated in the text below. The distinctive agonist and antagonist pharmacology of ρ receptors is summarised in the table and additional aspects are reviewed in [366, 50, 146, 226].Several high-resolution cryo-electron microscopy structures have been described in which the full-length human α1β3γ2L GABAA receptor in lipid nanodiscs is bound to the channel-blocker picrotoxin, the competitive antagonist bicuculline, the agonist GABA (γ-aminobutyric acid), and the classical benzodiazepines alprazolam and diazepam [201]
1H. Liver X receptor-like receptors in GtoPdb v.2025.3
Get PDFLiver X and farnesoid X receptors (LXR and FXR, nomenclature as agreed by the NC-IUPHAR Subcommittee on Nuclear Hormone Receptors [78, 3]) are members of a steroid analogue-activated nuclear receptor subfamily, which form heterodimers with members of the retinoid X receptor family. Endogenous ligands for LXRs include hydroxycholesterols (OHC), while FXRs appear to be activated by bile acids. In humans and primates, NR1H5P is a pseudogene. However, in other mammals, it encodes a functional nuclear hormone receptor that appears to be involved in cholesterol biosynthesis [83]
GPR18, GPR55 and GPR119 in GtoPdb v.2025.3
No full textGPR18, GPR55 and GPR119 (provisional nomenclature), although showing little structural similarity to CB1 and CB2 cannabinoid receptors, respond to endogenous agents analogous to the endogenous cannabinoid ligands, as well as some natural/synthetic cannabinoid receptor ligands [105]. Although there are multiple reports to indicate that GPR18, GPR55 and GPR119 can be activated in vitro by N-arachidonoylglycine, lysophosphatidylinositol and N-oleoylethanolamide, respectively, there is a lack of evidence for activation by these lipid messengers in vivo. As such, therefore, these receptors retain their orphan status