Mannose-binding lectin (MBL) is an innate immune system pattern recognition molecule that kills a wide range of pathogens via the lectin complement pathway. MBL deficiency is associated with severe infection but the best measure of this deficiency is undecided. We investigated the influence of MBL functional deficiency on the development of sepsis in 195 adult patients, 166 of whom had bloodstream infection and 35 had pneumonia. Results were compared with 236 blood donor controls. MBL function (C4b deposition) and levels were measured by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay. Using receiver-operator characteristics of MBL function in healthy controls, we identified a level of <0.2 U microL(-1) as a highly discriminative marker of low MBL2 genotypes. Median MBL function was lower in sepsis patients (0.18 U microL(-1)) than in controls (0.48 U microL(-1), P<0.001). MBL functional deficiency was more common in sepsis patients than controls (P<0.001). MBL functional deficient patients had significantly higher sequential organ failure assessment (SOFA) scores and higher MBL function and levels were found in patients with SOFA scores predictive of good outcome. Deficiency of MBL function appears to be associated with bloodstream infection and the development of septic shock. High MBL levels may be protective against severe sepsis.

International audienceAlthough the ancient site of Utica has been studied since the 19th century, the location of its harbors remains unresolved as they were buried under sediments as the Mejerda delta prograded and left Utica 10 km inland. Using relief data and a coring survey with sedimentological analysis, we identify the dynamics of the delta's progradation, which produced a double system of alluvial fans. These show that the ancient bay of Utica silted up faster and earlier than was thought, probably before the end of the Punic period. Combined with the radiocarbon dates from coring, this suggests that the harbor lay on the northwestern side of the Utica promontory, communicating with the sea by a marine corridor west of the northern compartment of the delta. As the infilling of the ancient bay progressed, this corridor narrowed until it disappeared completely in the early 5th/mid-6th century A.D., when a peat bog developed on the northern side of the promontory, sealing the fate of Utica as a port. This relative environmental stability ended in the 9th–10th century A.D. when about 4 m of sediment, probably of fluvial origin, covered the peat bog, leaving the site more than 4.5 m above the local sea level. C 2015 Wiley Periodicals, Inc

Two articles in recent issues of Antiquity have taken opposing views of the infant burials in the 'Tophet', the precinct at Carthage, sacred to the goddess Tanit, that contained funerary urns of thousands of cremated infants. The first (Smith et al. 2011) held that these must be evidence of the infant sacrifice that was so loudly condemned by Greek and Roman writers, since the infants were not perinatal, although most were under two months old at the time of death. In a rejoinder, Schwartz et al. (2012) argued that the Carthage Tophet was the place of burial for the very young regardless of the cause of death. They estimated age at death between prenatal and six months, consistent with the recorded incidence of perinatal mortality in certain societies in recent periods.Here we close the debate with two related papers. In the first of these, Patricia Smith and her co-authors return to argue that infant sacrifice is still (in their view) the most likely interpretation of the data, based on the age distribution of the deceased. In the second, Paolo Xella and colleagues, too, are convinced that infant sacrifice took place. They step aside from the details of the cremated remains, however, to emphasise a range of other social and archaeological aspects of the Tophets in Carthage and elsewhere that are critical for understanding these sanctuaries and their rituals.

Capitolia, temples to the triad of divinities Iuppiter Optimus Maximus, Iuno Regina and Minerva Augusta, are often considered part of the standard urban 'kit' of Roman colonies. Their placement at one end of the forum is sometimes seen as schematizing and replicating in miniature the relationship between the Capitolium at Rome and the Forum Romanum below it. Reliably attested Capitolia are, however, rarer in the provinces than this widespread view assumes and there seems to be no relationship between civic status and the erection of a Capitolium. Indeed, outside Italy there are very few Capitolia other than in the African provinces, where nearly all known examples belong to the second or early third century A.D., mostly in the Antonine period. This regional and chronological clustering demands explanation, and since it comes too late to be associated with the foundation of colonies, and there is no pattern of correlation with upgrades in civic status, we propose that the explanation has to do with the growing power and inuence of North African élites, who introduced the phenomenon from Rome. Rather than being a form of temple imposed from the centre on the provinces, Capitolia were adopted by provincial élites on the basis of their relationship with Rome.The notion that Capitolia were a standard feature of Roman urbanism in the Western provinces, a model exported from Rome itself, is central to many inuential studies of Roman urbanism. Over the last 160 years, studies on provincial Capitolia specically and Roman cities generally have argued or assumed that Capitolia were common or normal features of Roman cities in the central and western Mediterranean, and of colonies in particular; that they typically stood on or overlooking fora and were planned on a common axis with them; and that they can be recognized by their tripartite cella and high podium. 1 While notes of caution or indeed doubt on several of these points * We would like to thank for their comments and advice