Journal articles on the topic 'Metal|ana'

Correction for ‘Unsymmetrical 1,1-diborated multisubstituted sp³-carbons formed via a metal-free concerted-asynchronous mechanism’ by Ana B. Cuenca et al., Org. Biomol. Chem., 2015, 13, 9659–9664.

The radical anion of dimesityltetraketone (ERed, I = -0.40 V) is easily generated in THF by potassium mirror/[2.2.2]-cryptand reduction. Its contact ion pairs with Na⊕, Cs⊕ and Ba⊕⊕ counter cations, prepared in THF solution by single electron transfer from the respective metals, are characterized by their ESR/ENDOR spectra, which exhibit temperature-dependent metal couplings of aNa⊕ = 0.061 mT (190 K), aCs⊕ = 0.021 mT (190 K), and aBa⊕⊕ = 0.145 mT (295 K).

Metals are suspected contributors of autoimmune disease among indigenous Americans. However, the association between metals exposure and biomarkers of autoimmunity is under-studied. In Nicaragua, environmental exposure to metals is also largely unexamined with regard to autoimmunity. We analyzed pooled and stratified exposure and outcome data from Navajo (n = 68) and Nicaraguan (n = 47) men of similar age and health status in order to characterize urinary concentrations of metals, compare concentrations with the US National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) male population, and examine the associations with biomarkers of autoimmunity. Urine samples were analyzed for metals via inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (ICP-MS) at the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Serum samples were examined for antinuclear antibodies (ANA) at 1:160 and 1:40 dilutions, using an indirect immunofluorescence assay and for specific autoantibodies using enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA). Logistic regression analyses evaluated associations of urinary metals with autoimmune biomarkers, adjusted for group (Navajo or Nicaraguan), age, and seafood consumption. The Nicaraguan men had higher urinary metal concentrations compared with both NHANES and the Navajo for most metals; however, tin was highest among the Navajo, and uranium was much higher in both populations compared with NHANES. Upper tertile associations with ANA positivity at the 1:160 dilution were observed for barium, cesium, lead, strontium and tungsten.

A sequence of omens has puzzled Assyriologists since 1866, when Henry C. Rawlinson published the first copy of these peculiar divinatory texts. The omens have the structure DIŠ MUL ana … GUR, “If a star turns into …”, where the object into which the star changes can be an animal, metal, stone or some other item. Such a change has been held to belong to the field of dreams or, more generally, to terrestrial events rather than to astronomy. In fact, however, these omens refer to a specific celestial phenomenon, the transformation of a “star” into a meteorite that can be picked up from the ground, as can also be seen in the phrasing of the corresponding namburbi-ritual, which some scribes appended to their recension of this omen sequence.

ABSTRACTTransition metals such as iron and manganese are crucial trace nutrients for the growth of most bacteria, functioning as catalytic cofactors for many essential enzymes. Dedicated uptake and regulatory systems have evolved to ensure their acquisition for growth, while preventing toxicity. Transcriptomic analysis of the iron- and manganese-responsive regulons ofAgrobacterium tumefaciensrevealed that there are discrete regulatory networks that respond to changes in iron and manganese levels. Complementing earlier studies, the iron-responsive gene network is quite large and includes many aspects of iron-dependent metabolism and the iron-sparing response. In contrast, the manganese-responsive network is restricted to a limited number of genes, many of which can be linked to transport and utilization of the transition metal. Several of the target genes predicted to drive manganese uptake are required for growth under manganese-limited conditions, and anA. tumefaciensmutant with a manganese transport deficiency is attenuated for plant virulence. Iron and manganese limitation independently inhibit biofilm formation byA. tumefaciens, and several candidate genes that could impact biofilm formation were identified in each regulon. The biofilm-inhibitory effects of iron and manganese do not rely on recognized metal-responsive transcriptional regulators, suggesting alternate mechanisms influencing biofilm formation. However, under low-manganese conditions thedcpAoperon is upregulated, encoding a system that controls levels of the cyclic di-GMP second messenger. Mutation of this regulatory pathway dampens the effect of manganese limitation.IMPORTANCEResponses to changes in transition metal levels, such as those of manganese and iron, are important for normal metabolism and growth in bacteria. Our study used global gene expression profiling to understand the response of the plant pathogenAgrobacterium tumefaciensto changes of transition metal availability. Among the properties that are affected by both iron and manganese levels are those required for normal surface attachment and biofilm formation, but the requirement for each of these transition metals is mechanistically independent from the other.

Soil-based risk assessment shows a U.S. city to exceed federal acceptable risk levels for both non-carcinogenic and carcinogenic health outcomes in many areas, with total risk and soil contamination being correlated with socioeconomic factors.

The halide anions are essential for supporting life. Therefore, halide anion analyses are of paramount importance. For this reason, we have performed both qualitative and quantitative ana- lyses of halides (chloride, bromide, iodide) using the Tl(III) complex of azodye, 4-(2-pyridylazo)re- sorcinol (PAR), a potential new chemical reagent/sensor that utilizes the substitution reaction whereas the Tl(III)PAR complex reacts with a halide to yield a more stable thallium(III)-halide while releasing the PAR ligand in a process accompanied by color change of the solution. The experimental conditions (e.g., pH, ratio metal ion-to-ligand ratio, etc.) for the substitution reaction between the metal complex and a halide were optimized to achieve increased sensitivity and a lower limit of detection (chloride 7 mM, bromide 0.15 mM, iodide 0.05 mM). It is demonstrated that this single chemosensor can, due to release of colored PAR ligand and the associated analyte-specific changes in the UV/VIS spectra, be employed for a multicomponent analysis of mixtures of anions (chloride + bromide, chloride + iodide, bromide + iodide). The spectrophotometric data evaluated by artificial neural networks (ANNs) enable distinguishing among the halides and to determine halide species concentrations in a mixture. The Tl(III)-PAR complex was also used to construct sensor arrays utilizing a standard 96-well plate format where the output was recorded at several wavelengths (up to 7) using a conventional plate reader. It is shown that the data obtained using a digital scanner employing only three different input channels may also be successfully used for a subsequent ANN analysis. The results of all approaches utilized for data evaluation were similar. To increase the practical utility of the chemosensor, we have developed a test paper strip indicator useful for routine naked-eye visual determination of halides. This test can also be used for halide anion determination in solutions using densitometer. The methodology described in this paper can be used for a simple, inexpensive, and fast routine analysis both in a laboratory as well as in a field setting.

Metal döküm ürünlerinin mekanik özelliklerini belirleyen önemli kısımlardan birisi dökülen sıvı metalin kalıba girişi sırasında filtrasyonunun yapılmasıdır. Seramik filtre kullanımı, filtre edilen sıvı metalden üretilen ürünlerin daha düşük empürite içermesi sebebiyle hassas kullanım alanları için önemli arz etmektedir. Bu çalışmada, alüminyum matrisli kompozit üretiminde kullanılmak üzere silisyum karbür seramik preformların üretiminde farklı kimyasal katkı malzemeleriyle hazırlanan seramik çamurdan replikasyon yöntemi ile makroporoz seramik köpüklerin üretimi gereçekleştirilecektir. Ana malzeme olarak, partikül formda SiC, sıvı faz oluşturucu katkı malzeme olarak MAS (magnezyum oksit, alüminyum oksit ve silika), stabilizör olarak ise silisik asit türevleri kullanılmıştır. Poliüretan kurban malzeme ile replika edilen seramik preform yapısı >1000C sıcaklıklarda 1-3 saat süreyle sinterlenmiştir. Ürünler makrostereo mikroskopla morfolojik açıdan incelenmiştir. Mekanik özellikleri ise basma testi ile belirlenmiştir. Morfolojik inceleme sonuçları ve basma test verileri incelendiğinde en iyi sonuç 1BMAS18 kompozisyoundan elde edilmiştir.

Kinolin çekirdeği, geniş bir spektrumda biyolojik aktivite sergileyen birçok doğal ve farmakolojik açıdan aktif bileşiğin ana iskeletini oluşturur. Sübstitüe edilmiş siyano kinolin bileşikleri, büyüme faktörü reseptörü protein tirozin kinaz aktivitesini inhibe edebilmektedir. Farklı gruplara sahip ajanlar ayrıca biyolojik sistemler arasında bağlanan küçük molekül inhibitörleri olarak da işlev görür. Son zamanlarda, sübstitüe edilmiş veya sübstitüe edilmemiş 1,2,3,4-tetrahidrokinolinin bromlama reaksiyonu temelli 6-bromo-, 6,8-dibromo- ve 3,6,8-tribromokinolinlerin sentezi için yeni bir sentetik stratejiler keşfettik. Metal-brom değişimi reaksiyonlarıyla bromlu kinolinlerden 6,8-disübstitüe edilmiş kinolin türevlerinin uygun sentez yollarını ve bromlu ürünlerin disübstitüe kinolinler için öncü bileşikler olduğu rapor edildi. Bu çalışmaların akabinde, 6,8-dibromokinolin, kenetleme ve yer değiştirme reaksiyonları ile fenil, siyano, metoksi ve hidroksi türevlerine dönüştürüldü. Bu strateji ile sentezlenen kinolin türevleri, spesifik antikanser aktiviteleri gösterdi. Yapı aktivite çalışmalarına uygun olarak, fenil, siyano, nitro, metoksi gruplarına sahip kinolin türevlerinin kolon, servikal, akciğer, göğüs kanser hücre hatlarına karşı etkili bir inhibisyon gösterdiği tespit edilmiştir.

Photochemistry is a mature science. A characteristic hallmark of a consolidated scientific discipline is that it increasingly broadens its scope of interests from an initial central core toward the periphery where it interacts with other areas. Most of the current scientific research is characterized by an enriching multidisciplinarity, focusing on topics that combine backgrounds from different fields. In this way, the largest advances are taking place at the interphase between areas where different fields meet.This multidisciplinarity is, I believe, also a characteristic feature of the current situation for photochemistry. Thus, photochemistry was initially focused on the understanding and rationalization at a molecular level of the events occurring after light absorption by simple organic compounds. Molecular organic photochemistry constituted the core of this discipline, and it largely benefited from advances in the understanding of the electronic states provided by quantum mechanics. Later, photochemistry started to grow toward areas such as photobiology, photoinduced electron transfer, supramolecular photochemistry, and photochemistry in heterogeneous media, always expanding its sphere of interest.This context of increasing diversity in topics and specialization is reflected in this issue of Pure and Applied Chemistry. The contributors correspond to some of the plenary plus two invited lectures of the XXth IUPAC Symposium that was held 17ñ22 July in Granada, Spain. The program included plenary and invited lectures and oral contributions grouped in 13 sections covering femtochemistry, photochemistry of biomacromolecules, single-molecule photochemistry, and computational methods in photochemistry to nanotechnology, among others. These workshop titles give an idea of the breadth of themes that were included in this symposium. While it is obvious that the list of contributions correspond to different subdisciplines in photochemistry, all of them have a common scientific framework to rationalize the facts.The purpose of the symposium was to present an overview of the current status of some research fronts in photochemistry. This issue begins with the 2004 Porter Medal Lecture awarded jointly by the Asian, European, and Interamerican Photochemical Societies that was given to Prof. Graham Fleming (University of California, Berkeley) for his continued advances in photosynthesis. Prof. Flemingís studies have constituted a significant contribution to the understanding of the interplay between the structure of photosynthetic centers of green plants and the mechanism of energy migration toward the photosynthetic centers. These events take place in a very short time scale and are governed by the spatial arrangement of the constituents.Continuing with photobiology, the second article by Prof. Jean Cadet (Grenoble University) describes the type of photochemical damage and photoproducts arising from DNA UV irradiation. Knowledge of these processes is important for a better understanding of skin cancer and the possibilities for DNA repair. Closely related with DNA damage occurring upon irradiation, the article by Prof. Tetsuro Majima (Osaka University) provides an account of his excellent work on photosensitized oneelectron oxidation of DNA.The concept of "conical intersection", developed initially by Robb and Bernardi to rationalize the relaxation of excited states, led to the foundation of computational photochemistry, which has proved to be of general application to photochemical reactions. In this issue, Prof. Massimo Olivucci (University of Siena) shows that quantum chemical calculations can also be applied to photochemical reactions occurring in photobiology and, in particular, to the problem of vision. These calculations are characterized by the large number of atoms that are included and the fact that they have to estimate at a high calculation level and with high accuracy the energy of states differring in a few kcal mol-1.The next article corresponds to one of the two invited lectures included in this issue. The one given by Dr. Virginie Lhiaubet-Vallet (Technical University of Valencia) in the workshop Photophysical and Photochemical Approaches in the Control of Toxic and Therapeutic Activity of Drugs describes the enantioselective quenching of chiral drug excited states by biomolecules. Moving from photobiology to free radical polymerization with application in microlithography, the article by Prof. Tito Scaiano (University of Ottawa) reports among other probes an extremely elegant approach to detect the intermediacy of radicals in photochemical reactions based on a silent fluorescent molecular probe containing a free nitroxyl radical.Solar energy storage is a recurrent topic and a long-desired application of photochemistry. In her comprehensive contribution, Prof. Ana Moore (Arizona State University) summarizes the continued seminal contribution of her group to the achievement of an efficient solar energy storage system based on the photochemical generation of long-lived charge-separated states. Another possibility of solar energy storage consists of water splitting. In his article, Prof. Haruo Inoue (Tokyo Metropolitan University) deals with artificial photosynthetic methods based on the use of ruthenium porphyrins as photosensitizers for the two-electron oxidation of water with formation of dioxygen.Also in applied photochemistry, Prof. Luisa De Cola (University of Amsterdam) reports on intramolecular energy transfer in dinuclear metal complexes having a meta-phenylene linker. The systems described by Prof. De Cola have potential application in the field of light-emitting diodes, since most of the complexes described exhibit electroluminescence. The second invited lecture is by Dr. Alberto Credi (University of Bologna), one of Europeís most promising young photochemists. In his interesting article, the operation upon light excitation of a rotaxane molecular machine is described. A macro-ring acting as electron donor moiety in a charge-transfer complex is threaded in a dumbbell-shaped component having two viologen units with different redox potential. Light absorption produces the cyclic movement of the macro-ring from one viologen station to the other.The last two contributions fall within the more classic organic photochemistry realm. Prof. Axel Griesbeck (University of Cologne) describes the multigram synthesis of antimalarial peroxides using singlet-oxygen photosensitizers adsorbed or bonded to polymer matrices. The last contribution comes from Prof. Heinz Roth (University of Rutgers), who has worked during his entire career in the fields of organic photochemistry and radical ion chemistry. Prof. Roth has summarized his vast knowledge in radical ion chemistry, reviewing the mechanism of triplet formation arising from radical ion pair recombination. This mechanism for triplet formation is currently gaining a renewed interest owing to the potential applicability to the development of phosphors.I hope that the present selection will be appealing and attractive for a broad audience of readers interested in photochemistry and will give readers an idea of the state of the art of some current topics in this area.Hermenegildo GarcíaConference Editor

To dwell and to build is not an art, is not a technique, but a realm where things belong. This is a statement addressed by Heidegger in Bauen Wohnen Denken, his text more connected with architecture that is more contemporary than ever. In effect, two questions as What is it to dwell? and How does building belong to dwelling? are intertwined with others like How to dwell in the current world? and How to give form to the quality of dwelling? The responses should point out again to Heideggerian’s line of thought: ‘Only if we are capable of dwelling, only then can we build’. He pushes the argument to the limit adding that dwelling is to conciliate ‘earth’, ‘heaven’, ‘the mortals’ and ‘the gods’ (the divine). To dwell and to build should be the preservation of such square. It is remarkable that Heidegger’s writings on this topic, that stimulated and still stimulate the architectural debate, were strongly influenced by the philosopher’s life in the Schwarzwald, close to the village of Todtnauberg. In Heidegger’s Hut (Adam Scharr) the hut in which Heidegger lived in for five decades, since he ordered its construction in 1922, is described, as well as the bonds he created with the landscape and all environment. The hut was a place for him to dwell and to think, because both belong together and were mutually influencing body, feelings and sense of place. And if Norberg-Shulz left the phenomenological legacy of the genius loci as the spirit of the place, with its particular atmosphere and fundamental implications for building, genius loci within Heidegger’s thoughts on building, dwelling and thinking recall the sense of protection and of sacredness of a place like the one called home. Life in balance with the spirit of the place showed Heidegger that the emotional space is measured very differently from space measured mathematically. And to build and to dwell are activities with a significant order that resonates in mind, body and spirit. For phenomenology, place is not just the geographic or topographic location, but consists of effective elements such as materials, form, texture, colour, light, shadow playing together. The interdependence of all those elements, along with others allows the opportunity for some spaces, with identical functions, to express diverse architectural features and therefore countlessatmospheres to perceive, enjoy and cherish. ‘Sometimes I can almost feel a particular door handle in my hand, a piece of metal shaped like the back of a spoon. I used to take hold of it when I went into my aunt’s garden. That door handle still seems to me like a special sign of entry into a world of different moods and smells. I remember the sound of the gravel under my feet, the soft gleam of the waxed oak staircase, I can hear the heavy front door closing behind me as I walk along the dark corridor and enter the kitchen, the only really brightly lit room in the house’, confesses Peter Zumthor. On the shoulders of these inspiring ideas and experiences, the plot for the 5th number of Sophia was designed. It called original articles that discuss the core of interiority in architecture as a matter open to diverse ideas and practices in the realm of built space to be experienced by its dwellers. Interiority to be argued as a dimension that differentiates a place of a non-place. The non-places are spots with which the individual does not create any relation; they are transit- places without memory, identity, history, personal construction, references, emotions of which solace is not a minor one. Interiority claims that kind of space that accommodates thoughts, dreams, nightmares, intimacy, changes, silence, noise, neurosis...life. Shelter, shape, place, atmosphere portray scenarios that enhance experiences, events, occurrences beyond the functionalistic rhetoric enveloping them. All the texts that compose this issue display the strong insights the authors chose to approach the proposed topic. They trigger new thoughts and new questions. Three articles and an interview appear as the hard core of this volume. Preserving heritage through new narratives: designing a guesthouse within a cross-disciplinary team from Pedro Bandeira Maia and Raul Pinto discusses a very demanding design program of transformation of an interior space from a former pharmacy to a guest house in a historical building from the nineteenth century. The article exposes the methodology followed by a cross disciplinary team debating the project’s narrative illustrated with very expressive images. The role of architecture in an engaging and meaningful experience of the physical exhibition from Bárbara Coutinho and Ana Tostões evolves from the main argument that the physical exhibition is the immediate way to encounter the arts in line with the phenomenological understanding of the aesthetic experience. It recalls the inspiring role of exhibition designs of Frederick Kiesler, Franco Albini and Lina Bo Bardi as examples to contrast with the growing process of digitalisation and dematerialisation of the involvement with art. Authors address then the reasons why for contemporary times it is important that an exhibition is designed to be a physical matter between spectators and art. The need for Shelter. Laugier, Ledoux, and Enlightenment’s shadows from Rui Aristides and José António Bandeirinha discourses about the human need for shelter as the essence that defines the discipline of architecture. This approach is developed within an historical framework, namely referring the legacy of Laugier and Ledoux intertwined with philosophical and political issues.Based upon these reasoning, the authors go further and tackle the architecture’s role regarding shelter in contemporary times. The interview The Power of Imagination made to Danish Designer Hans Thyge is an exciting journey to pertinent themes thought from the professional practice of a designer who after 30 years in design still believes in the use of a pencil and a paper to sketch and to imagine. ‘Interiors’ is central in this storytelling as a challenge to create spatial experiences and staging atmospheres. Also his own house, designed by him, is a key moment to make special considerations regarding dwelling and building. We are very thankful for authors’ contributions and vivid minds.

Microbial metabolism plays a key role in controlling the fate of toxic groundwater contaminants, such as arsenic. Dissimilatory metal reduction catalyzed by subsurface bacteria can facilitate the mobilization of arsenic via the reductive dissolution of As(V)-bearing Fe(III) mineral assemblages. The mobility of liberated As(V) can then be amplified via reduction to the more soluble As(III) by As(V)-respiring bacteria. This investigation focused on the reductive dissolution of As(V) sorbed onto Fe(III)-(oxyhydr)oxide by model Fe(III)- and As(V)-reducing bacteria, to elucidate the mechanisms underpinning these processes at the single-cell scale. Axenic cultures of Shewanella sp. ANA-3 wild-type (WT) cells [able to respire both Fe(III) and As(V)] were grown using 13C-labeled lactate on an arsenical Fe(III)-(oxyhydr)oxide thin film, and after colonization, the distribution of Fe and As in the solid phase was assessed using nanoscale secondary ion mass spectrometry (NanoSIMS), complemented with aqueous geochemistry analyses. Parallel experiments were conducted using an arrA mutant, able to respire Fe(III) but not As(V). NanoSIMS imaging showed that most metabolically active cells were not in direct contact with the Fe(III) mineral. Flavins were released by both strains, suggesting that these cell-secreted electron shuttles mediated extracellular Fe(III)-(oxyhydr)oxide reduction, but did not facilitate extracellular As(V) reduction, demonstrated by the presence of flavins yet lack of As(III) in the supernatants of the arrA deletion mutant strain. 3D reconstructions of NanoSIMS depth-profiled single cells revealed that As and Fe were associated with the cell surface in the WT cells, whereas for the arrA mutant, only Fe was associated with the biomass. These data were consistent with Shewanella sp. ANA-3 respiring As(V) in a multistep process; first, the reductive dissolution of the Fe(III) mineral released As(V), and once in solution, As(V) was respired by the cells to As(III). As well as highlighting Fe(III) reduction as the primary release mechanism for arsenic, our data also identified unexpected cellular As(III) retention mechanisms that require further investigation.

ABSTRACTPerovskite oxide films inclusive of high Tc cuprates were fabricated by pulsedlaser deposition (PLD) under both conventional Po2(0.01∼1Torr) and high vacuum(≤10−6 Torr) conditions and their surface morphology, crystal quality, and conductivity were evaluated. Under optimized conventional PLD conditions, we obtained high quality YBa2Cu3O7−δ (YBCO) films that showed clear energy gaps and atomically flat surface image in the small area (4x4nm) STM/STS measurements. AFM and SEM ana!yscs on wider film surfaces (∼1x1μm), however, revealed granular structure of about 250nm grains with their root mean square roughness of 5nm.Under high vacuum PLD, i.e. laser MBE conditions, not only epitaxial but also two dimensional growth has been verified for such films as SrTiO3−x, SrVO3−y, and (AE)CuO2−z(AE=alkaline earth metal) by the RHEED observation of fine streak patterns and intensity oscillations. AFM demonstrated atomically flat surfaces of these films. Oxgen or nitric oxide pressure at the laser MBE growth gave crucial effects on the electrical conductivity of SrTiO3−x. and predominant crystal phase of SrCuO2−z.Insulating BaTiO3 films with atomically flat surfaces could be fabricated by both conventional and high vacuum PLD conditions. RBS channeling measurements revealed very high epitaxial quality (χmin−2%) of our SrTiO3 and BaTiO3 films. The factors controlling the surface morphology and electrical properties of perovskite oxide epitaxial films,are discussed.

IntroductionThe common origin of the adjective “corporeal” and the noun “corpse” in the Latin root corpus points to the value of mortuary practices for investigating how the human body is objectified. In post-mortem rituals, the body—formerly the manipulator of objects—becomes itself the object that is manipulated. Thus, these funerary rituals provide a type of double reflexivity, where the object and subject of manipulation can be used to reciprocally illuminate one another. To this extent, any consideration of corporeality can only benefit from a discussion of how the body is objectified through mortuary practices. This paper offers just such a discussion with respect to a selection of two contrasting mortuary practices, in the context of the prehistoric past and the Classical Era respectively. At the most general level, we are motivated by the same intellectual impulse that has stimulated expositions on corporeality, materiality, and incarnation in areas like phenomenology (Merleau-Ponty 77–234), Marxism (Adorno 112–119), gender studies (Grosz vii–xvi), history (Laqueur 193–244), and theology (Henry 33–53). That is to say, our goal is to show that the body, far from being a transparent frame through which we encounter the world, is in fact a locus where historical, social, cultural, and psychological forces intersect. On this view, “the body vanishes as a biological entity and becomes an infinitely malleable and highly unstable culturally constructed product” (Shilling 78). However, for all that the cited paradigms offer culturally situated appreciations of corporeality; our particular intellectual framework will be provided by cognitive science. Two reasons impel us towards this methodological choice.In the first instance, the study of ritual has, after several decades of stagnation, been rewarded—even revolutionised—by the application of insights from the new sciences of the mind (Whitehouse 1–12; McCauley and Lawson 1–37). Thus, there are good reasons to think that ritual treatments of the body will refract historical and social forces through empirically attested tendencies in human cognition. In the present connection, this means that knowledge of these tendencies will reward any attempt to theorise the objectification of the body in mortuary rituals.In the second instance, because beliefs concerning the afterlife can never be definitively judged to be true or false, they give free expression to tendencies in cognition that are otherwise constrained by the need to reflect external realities accurately. To this extent, they grant direct access to the intuitive ideas and biases that shape how we think about the world. Already, this idea has been exploited to good effect in areas like the cognitive anthropology of religion, which explores how counterfactual beings like ghosts, spirits, and gods conform to (and deviate from) pre-reflective cognitive patterns (Atran 83–112; Barrett and Keil 219–224; Barrett and Reed 252–255; Boyer 876–886). Necessarily, this implies that targeting post-mortem treatments of the body will offer unmediated access to some of the conceptual schemes that inform thinking about human corporeality.At a more detailed level, the specific methodology we propose to use will be provided by conceptual blending theory—a framework developed by Gilles Fauconnier, Mark Turner, and others to describe how structures from different areas of experience are creatively blended to form a new conceptual frame. In this system, a generic space provides the ground for coordinating two or more input spaces into a blended space that synthesises them into a single output. Here this would entail using natural or technological processes to structure mortuary practices in a way that satisfies various psychological needs.Take, for instance, W.B. Yeats’s famous claim that “Too long a sacrifice / Can make a stone of the heart” (“Easter 1916” in Yeats 57-8). Here, the poet exploits a generic space—that of everyday objects and the effort involved in manipulating them—to coordinate an organic input from that taxonomy (the heart) with an inorganic input (a stone) to create the blended idea that too energetic a pursuit of an abstract ideal turns a person into an unfeeling object (the heart-as-stone). Although this particular example corresponds to a familiar rhetorical figure (the metaphor), the value of conceptual blending theory is that it cuts across distinctions of genre, media, language, and discourse level to provide a versatile framework for expressing how one area of human experience is related to another.As indicated, we will exploit this versatility to investigate two ways of objectifying the body through the examination of two contrasting mortuary practices—cremation and inhumation—against different cultural horizons. The first of these is the conceptualisation of the body as an object of a technical process, where the post-mortem cremation of the corpse is analogically correlated with the metallurgical refining of ore into base metal. Our area of focus here will be Bronze Age cremation practices. The second conceptual scheme we will investigate focuses on treatments of the body as a vegetable object; here, the relevant analogy likens the inhumation of the corpse to the planting of a seed in the soil from which future growth will come. This discussion will centre on the Classical Era. Burning: The Body as Manufactured ObjectThe Early and Middle Bronze Age in Western Europe (2500-1200 BCE) represented a period of change in funerary practices relative to the preceding Neolithic, exemplified by a move away from the use of Megalithic monuments, a proliferation of grave goods, and an increase in the use of cremation (Barrett 38-9; Cooney and Grogan 105-121; Brück, Material Metaphors 308; Waddell, Bronze Age 141-149). Moreover, the Western European Bronze Age is characterised by a shift away from communal burial towards single interment (Barrett 32; Bradley 158-168). Equally, the Bronze Age in Western Europe provides us with evidence of an increased use of cist and pit cremation burials concentrated in low-lying areas (Woodman 254; Waddell, Prehistoric 16; Cooney and Grogan 105-121; Bettencourt 103). This greater preference for lower-lying location appears to reflect a distinctive change in comparison to the distribution patterns of the Neolithic burials; these are often located on prominent, visible aspects of a landscape (Cooney and Grogan 53-61). These new Bronze Age burial practices appear to reflect a distancing in relation to the territories of the “old ancestors” typified by Megalithic monuments (Bettencourt 101-103). Crucially, the Bronze Age archaeological record provides us with evidence that indicates that cremation was becoming the dominant form of deposition of human remains throughout Central and Western Europe (Sørensen and Rebay 59-60).The activities associated with Bronze Age cremations such as the burning of the body and the fragmentation of the remains have often been considered as corporeal equivalents (or expressions) of the activities involved in metal (bronze) production (Brück, Death 84-86; Sørensen and Rebay 60–1; Rebay-Salisbury, Cremations 66-67). There are unequivocal similarities between the practices of cremation and contemporary bronze production technologies—particularly as both processes involve the transformation of material through the application of fire at temperatures between 700 ºC to 1000 ºC (Musgrove 272-276; Walker et al. 132; de Becdelievre et al. 222-223).We assert that the technologies that define the European Bronze Age—those involved in alloying copper and tin to produce bronze—offered a new conceptual frame that enabled the body to be objectified in new ways. The fundamental idea explored here is that the displacement of inhumation by cremation in the European Bronze Age was motivated by a cognitive shift, where new smelting technologies provided novel conceptual metaphors for thinking about age-old problems concerning human mortality and post-mortem survival. The increased use of cremation in the European Bronze Age contrasts with the archaeological record of the Near Eastern—where, despite the earlier emergence of metallurgy (3300–3000 BCE), we do not see a notable proliferation in the use of cremation in this region. Thus, mortuary practices (i.e. cremation) provide us with an insight into how Western European Bronze Age cultures mediated the body through changes in technological objects and processes.In the terminology of conceptual blending, the generic space in question centres on the technical manipulation of the material world. The first input space is associated with the anxiety attending mortality—specifically, the cessation of personal identity and the extinction of interpersonal relationships. The second input space represents the technical knowledge associated with bronze production; in particular, the extraction of ore from source material and its mixing with other metals to form an alloy. The blended space coordinates these inputs to objectify the human body as an object that is ritually transformed into a new but more durable substance via the cremation process. In this contention we use the archaeological record to draw a conceptual parallel between the emergence of bronze production technology—centring on transition of naturally occurring material to a new subsistence (bronze)—and the transitional nature of the cremation process.In this theoretical framework, treating the body as a mixture of substances that can be reduced to its constituents and transformed through technologies of cremation enabled Western European Bronze Age society to intervene in the natural process of putrefaction and transform the organic matter into something more permanent. This transformative aspect of the cremation is seen in the evidence we have for secondary burial practices involving the curation and circulation of cremated bones of deceased members of a group (Brück, Death 87-93). This evidence allows us to assert that cremated human remains and objects were considered products of the same transformation into a more permanent state via burning, fragmentation, dispersal, and curation. Sofaer (62-69) states that the living body is regarded as a person, but as soon as the transition to death is made, the body becomes an object; this is an “ontological shift in the perception of the body that assumes a sudden change in its qualities” (62).Moreover, some authors have proposed that the exchange of fragmented human remains was central to mortuary practices and was central in establishing and maintaining social relations (Brück, Death 76-88). It is suggested that in the Early Bronze Age the perceptions of the human body mirrored the perceptions of objects associated with the arrival of the new bronze technology (Brück, Death 88-92). This idea is more pronounced if we consider the emergence of bronze technology as the beginning of a period of capital intensification of natural resources. Through this connection, the Bronze Age can be regarded as the point at which a particular natural resource—in this case, copper—went through myriad intensive manufacturing stages, which are still present today (intensive extraction, production/manufacturing, and distribution). Unlike stone tool production, bronze production had the addition of fire as the explicit method of transformation (Brück, Death 88-92). Thus, such views maintain that the transition achieved by cremation—i.e. reducing the human remains to objects or tokens that could be exchanged and curated relatively soon after the death of the individual—is equivalent to the framework of commodification connected with bronze production.A sample of cremated remains from Castlehyde in County Cork, Ireland, provides us with an example of a Bronze Age cremation burial in a Western European context (McCarthy). This is chosen because it is a typical example of a Bronze Age cremation burial in the context of Western Europe; also, one of the authors (MG) has first-hand experience in the analysis of its associated remains. The Castlehyde cremation burial consisted of a rectangular, stone-lined cist (McCarthy). The cist contained cremated, calcined human remains, with the fragments generally ranging from a greyish white to white in colour; this indicates that the bones were subject to a temperature range of 700-900ºC. The organic content of bone was destroyed during the cremation process, leaving only the inorganic matrix (brittle bone which is, often, described as metallic in consistency—e.g. Gejvall 470-475). There is evidence that remains may have been circulated in a manner akin to valuable metal objects. First of all, the absence of long bones indicates that there may have been a practice of removing salient remains as curatable records of ancestral ties. Secondly, remains show traces of metal staining from objects that are no longer extant, which suggests that graves were subject to secondary burial practices involving the removal of metal objects and/or human bone. To this extent, we can discern that human remains were being processed, curated, and circulated in a similar manner to metal objects.Thus, there are remarkable similarities between the treatment of the human body in cremation and bronze metal production technologies in the European Bronze Age. On the one hand, the parallel between smelting and cremation allowed death to be understood as a process of transformation in which the individual was removed from processes of organic decay. On the other hand, the circulation of the transformed remains conferred a type of post-mortem survival on the deceased. In this way, cremation practices may have enabled Bronze Age society to symbolically overcome the existential anxiety concerning the loss of personhood and the breaking of human relationships through death. In relation to the former point, the resurgence of cremation in nineteenth century Europe provides us with an example of how the disposal of a human body can be contextualised in relation to socio-technological advancements. The (re)emergence of cremation in this period reflects the post-Enlightenment shift from an understanding of the world through religious beliefs to the use of rational, scientific approaches to examine the natural world, including the human body (and death). The controlled use of fire in the cremation process, as well as the architecture of crematories, reflected the industrial context of the period (Rebay-Salisbury, Inhumation 16).With respect to the circulation of cremated remains, Smith suggests that Early Medieval Christian relics of individual bones or bone fragments reflect a reconceptualised continuation of pre-Christian practices (beginning in Christian areas of the Roman Empire). In this context, it is claimed, firstly, that the curation of bone relics and the use of mobile bone relics of important, saintly individuals provided an embodied connection between the sacred sphere and the earthly world; and secondly, that the use of individual bones or fragments of bone made the Christian message something portable, which could be used to reinforce individual or collective adherence to Christianity (Smith 143-167). Using the example of the Christian bone relics, we can thus propose that the curation and circulation of Bronze Age cremated material may have served a role similar to tools for focusing religiously oriented cognition. Burying: The Body as a Vegetable ObjectGiven that the designation “the Classical Era” nominates the entirety of the Graeco-Roman world (including the Near East and North Africa) from about 800 BCE to 600 CE, there were obviously no mortuary practices common to all cultures. Nevertheless, in both classical Greece and Rome, we have examples of periods when either cremation or inhumation was the principal funerary custom (Rebay-Salisbury, Inhumation 19-21).For instance, the ancient Homeric texts inform us that the ancient Greeks believed that “the spirit of the departed was sentient and still in the world of the living as long as the flesh was in existence […] and would rather have the body devoured by purifying fire than by dogs or worms” (Mylonas 484). However, the primary sources and archaeological record indicate that cremation practices declined in Athens circa 400 BCE (Rebay-Salisbury, Inhumation 20). With respect to the Roman Empire, scholarly opinion argues that inhumation was the dominant funerary rite in the eastern part of the Empire (Rebay-Salisbury, Inhumation 17-21; Morris 52). Complementing this, the archaeological and historical record indicates that inhumation became the primary rite throughout the Roman Empire in the first century CE. Inhumation was considered to be an essential rite in the context of an emerging belief that a peaceful afterlife was reflected by a peaceful burial in which bodily integrity was maintained (Rebay-Salisbury, Inhumation 19-21; Morris 52; Toynbee 41). The question that this poses is how these beliefs were framed in the broader discourses of Classical culture.In this regard, our claim is that the growth in inhumation was driven (at least in part) by the spread of a conceptual scheme, implicit in Greek fertility myths that objectify the body as a seed. The conceptual logic here is that the post-mortem continuation of personal identity is (symbolically) achieved by objectifying the body as a vegetable object that will re-grow from its own physical remains. Although the dominant metaphor here is vegetable, there is no doubt that the motivating concern of this mythological fabulation is human mortality. As Jon Davies notes, “the myths of Hades, Persephone and Demeter, of Orpheus and Eurydice, of Adonis and Aphrodite, of Selene and Endymion, of Herakles and Dionysus, are myths of death and rebirth, of journeys into and out of the underworld, of transactions and transformations between gods and humans” (128). Thus, such myths reveal important patterns in how the post-mortem fate of the body was conceptualised.In the terminology of mental mapping, the generic space relevant to inhumation contains knowledge pertaining to folk biology—specifically, pre-theoretical ideas concerning regeneration, survival, and mortality. The first input space attaches to human mortality; it departs from the anxiety associated with the seeming cessation of personal identity and dissolution of kin relationships subsequent to death. The second input space is the subset of knowledge concerning vegetable life, and how the immersion of seeds in the soil produces a new generation of plants with the passage of time. The blended space combines the two input spaces by way of the funerary script, which involves depositing the body in the soil with a view to securing its eventual rebirth by analogy with the sprouting of a planted seed.As indicated, the most important illustration of this conceptual pattern can be found in the fertility myths of ancient Greece. The Homeric Hymns, in particular, provide a number of narratives that trace out correspondences between vegetation cycles, human mortality, and inhumation, which inform ritual practice (Frazer 223–404; Carney 355–65; Sowa 121–44). The Homeric Hymn to Demeter, for instance, charts how Persephone is abducted by Hades, god of the dead, and taken to his underground kingdom. While searching for her missing daughter, Demeter, goddess of fertility, neglects the earth, causing widespread devastation. Matters are resolved when Zeus intervenes to restore Persephone to Demeter. However, having ingested part of Hades’s kingdom (a pomegranate seed), Persephone is obliged to spend half the year below ground with her captor and the other half above ground with her mother.The objectification of Persephone as both a seed and a corpse in this narrative is clearly signalled by her seasonal inhumation in Hades’ chthonic realm, which is at once both the soil and the grave. And, just as the planting of seeds in autumn ensures rebirth in spring, Persephone’s seasonal passage from the Kingdom of the Dead nominates the individual human life as just one season in an endless cycle of death and rebirth. A further signifying element is added by the ingestion of the pomegranate seed. This is evocative of her being inseminated by Hades; thus, the coordination of vegetation cycles with life and death is correlated with secondary transition—that from childhood to adulthood (Kerényi 119–183).In the examples given, we can see how the Homeric Hymn objectifies both the mortal and sexual destiny of the body in terms of thresholds derived from the vegetable world. Moreover, this mapping is not merely an intellectual exercise. Its emotional and social appeal is visible in the fact that the Eleusinian mysteries—which offered the ritual homologue to the Homeric Hymn to Demeter—persisted from the Mycenaean period to 396 CE, one of the longest recorded durations for any ritual (Ferguson 254–9; Cosmopoulos 1–24). In sum, then, classical myth provided a precedent for treating the body as a vegetable object—most often, a seed—that would, in turn, have driven the move towards inhumation as an important mortuary practice. The result is to create a ritual form that makes key aspects of human experience intelligible by connecting them with cyclical processes like the seasons of the year, the harvesting of crops, and the intergenerational oscillation between the roles of parent and child. Indeed, this pattern remains visible in the germination metaphors and burial practices of contemporary religions such as Christianity, which draw heavily on the symbolism associated with mystery cults like that at Eleusis (Nock 177–213).ConclusionWe acknowledge that our examples offer a limited reflection of the ethnographic and archaeological data, and that they need to be expanded to a much greater degree if they are to be more than merely suggestive. Nevertheless, suggestiveness has its value, too, and we submit that the speculations explored here may well offer a useful starting point for a larger survey. In particular, they showcase how a recurring existential anxiety concerning death—involving the fear of loss of personal identity and kinship relations—is addressed by different ways of objectifying the body. Given that the body is not reducible to the objects with which it is identified, these objectifications can never be entirely successful in negotiating the boundary between life and death. In the words of Jon Davies, “there is simply no let-up in the efforts by human beings to transcend this boundary, no matter how poignantly each failure seemed to reinforce it” (128). For this reason, we can expect that the record will be replete with conceptual and cognitive schemes that mediate the experience of death.At a more general level, it should also be clear that our understanding of human corporeality is rewarded by the study of mortuary practices. 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