Ian Wood

Monasteries and the Geography Of Power in the Age of Bede

Abstract Northumbria is usually thought to have been divided into two geographical regions, Deira and Bernicia. This article questions whether the division was really territorial or whether it was connected rather with the memorialisation of members of the ruling dynasties, which can be detected in monastic foundations, above all in the Vale of Pickering and on the Lower Tyne. These foundations both suggest that there was some distinction between northern and southern Northumbria, and at the same time illustrate the blurring of those distinctions in the course of the seventh and eighth centuries, with Deirans being remembered on the Tyne, and Bernicians in Ryedale.

Avitus of Vienne, letters and selected prose

Alcimus Ecdicius Avitus, bishop of Vienne from c.494 to c.518, is known for his poetic works, but his Latin prose style has led to some neglect of his letters. This first complete translation of the letters into English gives access to an important source for the history of the Burgundian Kingdom in the early sixth century.

168 Exploring the Role of Microrna-21 On Human Saphenous Vein Smooth Muscle Cell Function

Introduction MicroRNAs (miRs) are short, non-coding RNAs that negatively regulate gene expression and are reportedly dysregulated in pathological conditions. MiR-21 is expressed throughout the cardiovascular (CV) system and particularly in vascular smooth muscle cells (SMC). Altered SMC function is pivotal to adaptation of saphenous vein (SV) bypass grafts, aberrancies of which may compromise patency rates. The aim of this study was to explore the potential role of miR-21 in human SV-SMC function. Methodology Cultured SV-SMC from multiple patients were exposed to PDGF-BB for 24–72 h before measuring miR-21 expression levels. In further experiments, an 84-gene microarray analysis of SMC overexpressing miR-21 (premiR-21 transfection) was performed. Significant changes in selected targets were confirmed using real time RT-PCR and Taqman primers. Result PDGF-BB (10 ng/ml) significantly augmented miR-21 expression (P < 0.05, n = 5), an effect abolished by inhibition of either the AKT or ERK signalling pathways. In premiR-21 transfected SMC, a 90% reduction in the proinflammatory cytokine IL-1α (P = 0.13, n = 6) and 6-fold increase in matrix metalloproteinase MMP-1 (P < 0.05, n = 6) mRNA levels were observed relative to control (premiR negative transfected) cells. Comparable changes were mirrored in native SV-SMC treated with PDGF. Conclusion PDGF increased miR-21 expression via AKT and ERK pathway activation. Elevated levels of miR-21 downregulated IL-1α but upregulated MMP-1 gene expression in human SV-SMC. Understanding the stimuli and molecular mechanisms that promote aberrant miR-21 expression, its effects on downstream mRNA targets and ultimately on SMC function may reveal novel therapeutics to target adverse SV graft remodelling.

The Term ›barbarus‹ in Fifth-, Sixth-, and Seventh-Century Gaul

It is well known that the Romans, like the Greeks, looked down on the barbarians. The very word barbarus, which was supposed to echo the inability of the barbarian to speak, is an indication of the extent to which it represented the Other. For the Roman the barbarus was usually both savage and dangerous. Despite this image, the fifth and sixth centuries saw some important changes in the implications of the term. The first major change came in the writings of Christians. The Christian barbarian was certainly more laudable than the pagan, and he or she might be more laudable than a pagan Rohman. For Salvian the barbarian might be more laudable than any Roman: just as Tacitus used the Germani to criticise the Romans of the late first and early second century, so Salvian used the barbarus of the mid fifth century to attack the behaviour of his fellows. A more dramatic change in the implications of the word came with the acquisition of power by the rulers of the kingdoms which emerged in the ruins of the Roman Empire. The Gibichungs in Burgundy were happy to accept the word barbarus as a descriptor of their own followers, as it appears were the Visigoths, the Ostrogoths and the Franks. The term is used in this manner in Burgundian, Gothic and Frankish law codes. It thus came to indicate one’s race, and could be used without any sense of it being pejorative or a marker of inferiority. The word did, however, continue to have negative implications in certain texts. In works of hagiography it could carry connotations of heresy: because many of the Germanic peoples passed through a phase in which they followed arian rather than orthodox doctrine, the word barbarus could be used to distinguish the arian barbarians from catholic Romans. Moreover, the strikingly neutral use of the word in the law codes came steadily to be outweighed in the course of the seventh century by a rather more traditional stress on the barbarus as dangerous, and increasingly as a hostile neighbour, who might either be a heretic or a pagan.