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The Roman abhorrence of human sacrifice presented by ancient literary sources stands in contrast to the frequency of rites requiring the death of a human being performed by the Romans during the Republic (509-44 BCE). After examining the ways our sources talk about ritual murder, especially as it was practiced by foreign peoples and subversive or tyrannical elements within Roman society, this discussion turns to the issue of the forms of ritual murder performed by the Romans. Of these various rites, the only one clearly identified by them as human sacrifice, that is, as an offering to the gods of a human life, is the live interment of Gauls and Greeks. Other forms of ritual murder-the burial of unchaste Vestal Virgins and the drowning of hermaphroditic children-were not, in Roman opinion, sacrifice. This distinction made the disposal of Vestal Virgins and hermaphrodites acceptable.

The start-up of the first full scale Anammox reactor is complete. The reactor shows stable operation, even at loading rates of 10 kg N/m3.d. This performance is the result of the formation of Anammox granules, which have a high density and settling velocities exceeding 100 m/h. With this performance, the Anammox granular sludge technology has been proven on full scale.

A 45-year-old woman with history of iritis, uveitis, and sarcoidosis of the skin presented with a subacute cervical myelopathy. Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) showed patchy, multifocal, gadolinium-enhancing intramedullary lesions of the spinal cord, and extramedullary lesions of the basal cisterns and fourth ventricle. Symptoms and MRI abnormalities were improved within 1 month of corticosteroid therapy.

In a previous study, it was found that positive, palatability-dependent consummatory reactions in rats to intraorally infused tastes were facilitated by chlordiazepoxide (10 mg/kg). In contrast, the rats' more neutral or aversive reactions to these tastes were not facilitated by chlordiazepoxide. This suggested that chlordiazepoxide might selectively enhance the positive palatability of tastes. This effect was replicated in the present experiment, and in addition, the benzodiazepine antagonists Ro 15-1788 and CGS 8216 were found to counteract the enhancement of positive ingestive reactions produced by chlordiazepoxide. These antagonist effects generally suggest that the benzodiazepine receptor complex may be involved in making tastes more palatable after chlordiazepoxide administration.