Critique the film A Prophet directed by Jacques Audiard

Sacbe, the Ancient Maya Road System

Sacbe, the Ancient Maya Road System A sacbe (sometimes spelled zac be and pluralized as sacbeob or zac beob) is the Mayan word for the linear architectural features connecting communities throughout the Maya world. Sacbeob functioned as roads, walkways, causeways, property lines, and dikes. The word sacbe translates to stone road or white road but clearly sacbeob had layers of additional meanings to the Maya, as mythological routes, pilgrimage pathways, and concrete markers of political or symbolic connections between city centers. Some sacbeob are mythological, subterranean routes and some trace celestial pathways; evidence for these roadways are reported in Maya myths and colonial records. Finding the Sacbeob Identifying the routes of the sacbe on the ground has been extremely difficult until recently  when techniques such as radar imaging, remote sensing, and GIS became widely available. Of course,  Maya historians remain an important source of information for these ancient roadways. The issue is complex, ironically enough, because there are written records that contradict one another. Several of the sacbe have been identified archaeologically, many others are still unknown but have been reported in colonial period documents such as the Books of Chilam Balam. In my research for this article, I did not discover any explicit discussions on how old the sacbeob are  but based on the ages of the connecting cities, they were functioning at least as early as the Classic period (AD 250-900). Functions In addition to simply roadways that facilitated movement between places, researchers Folan and Hutson argue that sacbeob were visual representations of economic and political connections between centers and their satellites, conveying the concepts of power and inclusion. Causeways may have been used in processions that emphasized this idea of community. One function described in recent scholarly literature is the role of the sacbe road system in the Maya market network. The exchange system of the Maya kept the far-flung (and very loosely connected) communities in touch  and made it possible both to trade goods and make and sustain political connections. Market centers with central locations and associated causeways include Coba, Maax Na, Sayil, and Xunantunich. Deities and Sacbeob Maya deities associated with roadways include Ix Chel in several of her manifestations. One is Ix Zac Beeliz or she who walks the white road. In a mural at Tulum, Ix Chel is shown carrying two small images of the Chaac god as she is walking along a mythological or real roadway. The deity Chiribias (Ix Chebel Yax or the Virgin of Guadalupe) and her husband Itzam Na are sometimes associated with roads, and the legend of the Hero Twins includes a journey through the underworld along several sacbeob. From Cob to Yaxuna The longest known sacbe is the one that stretches 100 kilometers (62 miles) between the Maya centers of Cob and Yaxuna on the Yucatn Peninsula of Mexico, called the Yaxuna-Cob causeway or Sacbe 1. Along Sacbe 1s east-west course are water holes (dzonot), steles with inscriptions and several small Maya communities. Its roadbed measures approximately 8 meters (26 feet) wide and typically 50 centimeters (20 inches) high, with various ramps and platforms alongside. Sacbe 1 was stumbled into by early twentieth century explorers, and rumors of the road became known to the Carnegie Institution archaeologists working at  Cob  by the early 1930s. Its entire length was mapped by Alfonso Villa Rojas and Robert Redfield in the mid-1930s. Recent investigations by Loya Gonzalez and Stanton (2013) suggest that the sacbes main purpose may have been to connect Cob to the large market centers of Yaxuna and, later,  Chichà ©n Itz, in order to better control trade throughout the peninsula. Other Sacbe Examples The Tzacauil sacbe is a solid rock causeway, which starts at the Late Preclassic acropolis of Tzacauil and ends just short of the large center of Yaxuna. Varying in width between 6 and 10 meters, and in height between 30 and 80 centimeters, this sacbes roadbed includes some crudely cut facing stones. From Cob to Ixil, 20 kilometers in length, is a noh be followed and described in the 1970s by Jacinto May Hau, Nicolas Caamal Canche, Teoberto May Chimal, Lynda Florey Folan and William J. Folan. This 6-meter wide sacbe crosses a marshy area and includes numerous small and large ramps. Close to Coba was a fairly large platform next to a vaulted building, which the Maya guides referred to as a customs house or  way station. This road may have defined the boundaries of Cobas urban area and region of power. From Ich Caan Ziho through  Akà ©Ã‚  to Itzmal, is a sacbe approximately 60 km in length, of which only a portion is in evidence. Described by Ruben Maldonado Cardenas in the 1990s, a network of roads still used today leads from Ake to Itzmal. Sources Bolles D, and Folan WJ. 2001.  An analysis of roads listed in colonial dictionaries and their relevance to pre-hispanic linear features in the Yucatan peninsula.  Ancient Mesoamerica  12(02):299-314. Folan WJ, Hernandez AA, Kintz ER, Fletcher LA, Heredia RG, Hau JM, and Canche N. 2009.  Coba, Quintana Roo, Mexico: A Recent Analysis of the Social, Economic and Political Organization of a Major Maya Urban Center.  Ancient Mesoamerica  20(1):59-70. Hutson SR, Magnoni A, and Stanton TW. 2012.  Ã¢â‚¬Å"All that is solid†¦Ã¢â‚¬ : Sacbes, settlement, and semiotics at Tzacauil, Yucatan.  Ancient Mesoamerica  23(02):297-311. Loya Gonzlez T, and Stanton TW. 2013.  Impacts of politics on material culture: evaluating the Yaxuna-Coba sacbe.  Ancient Mesoamerica  24(1):25-42. Shaw LC. 2012.  The elusive Maya marketplace: An archaeological consideration of the evidence.  Journal of Archaeological Research  20:117-155.

Role of Phytooestrogen in the Prevention of Breast Cancer Coursework

Role of Phytooestrogen in the Prevention of Breast Cancer - Coursework Example They have been suggested to have anticarcinogenic potential (Boccardo et al, 2006). Plant lignans are currently being widely studied for their potential benefits for human health as their consumption has been correlated with lower risks for developing chronic diseases, such as breast cancer and coronary heart disease. However, studies of some classes of lignans, in particular the furofurans, are hampered by the lack of suitable standards to allow accurate analysis (Haajanen and Botting, 2006). A study investigating the association between lignan intake and breast cancer in the early 1980s included small groups of women who were classified as vegetarian, or meat-eating. Over the course of 1 year, the concentrations of lignans excreted in their urine were compared with those of breast cancer patients who had had small breast tumours removed by surgery. The women with breast-cancer had a tendency to excrete smaller concentrations of lignans than vegetarians (Lamartiniere, 2000). Isoflavonoids and lignans are diet constituents with chemo-preventive properties. They occur in certain vegetables as their glycosides from which they are released by the bacterial micro-flora in the gut. The mechanisms by which these agents interfere with the process of carcinogenesis are only poorly understood. Although many epidemiological studies have shown that a phytoestrogen-rich diet, in which isoflavones and lignans are both found, is protective against breast cancer development (Lamartiniere, 2000) the use of soy and its isoflavone GEN by postmenopausal breast cancer patients is controversial (Duncan et al, 2003). The mammalian phytoestrogens enterodiol (END) and enterolactone (ENL) are produced in the colon by the action of bacteria on the plant precursors matairesinol (MAT), secoisolariciresinol (SECO), their glycosides, and other precursors in the diet. Both END and ENL have been shown to possess weakly estrogenic and antiestrogenic activities, and it has been suggested that the high production of these antiestrogenic mammalian lignans in the gut may serve to protect against breast cancer in women and prostate cancer in men. Various in vitro experiments suggested END and ENL significantly inhibited the growth of human colon tumor cells, and the E2-induced proliferation of MCF-7 breast cancer cells was inhibited by ENL (Wang, 2002). Human Studies Till now, the evidence for a cancer-protective role of dietary nutrients, particularly those with antioxidant properties, has been based on women without any known genetic pre-disposition and it is important to identify and evaluate dietary factors which may modify the risk of cancer in BRCA carriers. Diet modification may modulate the risk of hereditary breast cancer by decreasing DNA damage (possibly linked to estrogen exposure) or by enhancing DNA repair. The prevention of hereditary breast cancer through diet is an attractive complement to current management strategies and deserves exploration (Kotsopoulos and Narod, 2005). In a recent study by Lambert et al six lignans, including the cyclolignan 3,4-dihydroxy-3,4-dimethoxy-6,7 cyclolignan, were isolated from the flowering tops of Larrea tridentata. Furthermore the flavanone, (S)-4, 5-dihydroxy-7-methoxyflavanone, was isolated