Electric Shadows (Dianying) *

Catalogue Essay on Isaac Julien's installation "Ten Thousand Waves". Probably also included in catalogue for Isaac Julien exhibition Sao Paulo Autumn 201

Fragments Speak: Reexamining the Rejected Pre-Du Yu Commentaries on the Zuozhuan

As this paper shows, though considered largely philological or lexical in nature,early medieval (1st–7th c. CE) commentaries on the Zuozhuan ?? (ca. 4th c. BCE), anearly Chinese historical narrative, not only bring to the fore ambiguities in the text itself, but also generate divergent literary scenarios and character judgments under-examined by modern Zuozhuan scholars. Commissioned by Tang Taizong’s ??? court (626–649 CE), the imperial compilers of the Zuozhuan zhengyi ???? (Corrected meaning of the Zuozhuan) adopted Du Yu’s ?? (222–284) commentary on the Zuozhuan and implicitly rejected Eastern Han (25–220 CE) commentaries. This article considers marginalized commentaries written before Du Yu’s time as particularly valuable because such earlier competing interpretations could destabilize—in our latter day perspective—the readings “fixed” by the early Tang authorization of Du Yu’s commentary

Reconstructing the Kongzi shilun: From the Arrangement of the Bamboo Slips to a Tentative Translation

This study is an attempt to provide a reliably based translation of the so-called Kongzi shilun. The first step towards this aim is to reconstruct the arrangement of the bamboo slips that constitute the manuscript. All the useful evidence for this task can be divided according to material and textual criteria and will be systematically analyzed. The former include, among others, the measurements and condition of the slips as well as the “blank end phenomenon”; the latter involve the sequence of the ode categories, textual parallelism, textual and topical coherence, etc. After reconstruction of the arrangement of the slips, new editions of the manuscript are given, both diplomatic and punctuated. The readings of the characters are based on recent studies with some modifications, which are explained in this paper. Finally, an English translation of the Kongzi shilun is provided

Functional connectivity of the precuneus in unmedicated patients with depression

Background The precuneus has connectivity with brain systems implicated in depression. Methods. We performed the first fully voxel - level resting state functional - connectivity neuroimaging analysis of depression of the precuneus, with 282 patients with major depressive disorder and 254 controls. Results In 125 unmedicated patients, voxels in the precuneus had significantly increased functional connectivity with the lateral orbito frontal cortex , a region implicated in non - reward and that is thereby implicated in depression. Functional connectivity was also increased in depression between the precuneus and dorsolateral prefrontal cortex; temporal cortex; and angular and supramarginal areas. In patients receiving medication, the functional connectivity between the lateral orbitofrontal cortex and precuneus was de creased back towards that in the controls. In the 254 controls, parcellation revealed superior anterior, superior posterior, and inferior subdivisions, with the inferior subdivision having high connectivity with the posterior cingulate cortex, parahippocampal gyrus, angular gyrus, and prefrontal cortex. It was the ventral subdivision of the precuneus that had increased connectivity in depression with the later al orbitofrontal cortex and adjoining inferior frontal gyrus. Conclusions The findings support the theory that the system in the lateral orbitofron tal cortex implicated in responding to not receiving expected rewards has increased effects on areas in which the self is represented, the precuneus. This may result in low self - esteem in depression. The increased connectivity of the precuneus with the pre frontal cortex short - term memory system may contribute to the rumination about low self - esteem in depression. These findings provide evidence that a target to ameliorate depression is the lateral orbitofrontal cortex

Functional connectivity of the anterior cingulate cortex in depression and in health

The first voxel-level resting-state functional connectivity (FC) neuroimaging analysis of depression of the anterior cingulate cortex (ACC) showed in 282 patients with major depressive disorder compared with 254 controls, some higher, and some lower FCs. However, in 125 unmedicated patients, primarily increases of FC were found: of the subcallosal anterior cingulate with the lateral orbitofrontal cortex, of the pregenual/supracallosal anterior cingulate with the medial orbitofrontal cortex, and of parts of the anterior cingulate with the inferior frontal gyrus, superior parietal lobule, and with early cortical visual areas. In the 157 medicated patients, these and other FCs were lower than in the unmedicated group. Parcellation was performed based on the FC of individual ACC voxels in healthy controls. A pregenual subdivision had high FC with medial orbitofrontal cortex areas, and a supracallosal subdivision had high FC with lateral orbitofrontal cortex and inferior frontal gyrus. The high FC in depression between the lateral orbitofrontal cortex and the subcallosal parts of the ACC provides a mechanism for more non-reward information transmission to the ACC, contributing to depression. The high FC between the medial orbitofrontal cortex and supracallosal ACC in depression may also contribute to depressive symptoms

Detection and toxicity evaluation of pyrrolizidine alkaloids in medicinal plants Gynura bicolor and Gynura divaricata collected from different Chinese locations

Two edible plants in Southeast Asia, Gynura bicolor and G.divaricata, are not only known to be nutritive but also useful as medicinal herbs. Previous phytochemical investigation of Gynura species showed the presence of hepatotoxic pyrrolizidine alkaloids (PAs), indicating the toxic risk of using these two plants. The present study was designed to analyze the distribution of PA components and tried to evaluate the preliminary toxicity of these two Gynura species. Eight samples of G.bicolor and G.divaricata from five different Chinese locations were collected and their specific PAs were qualitatively characterized by applying an UPLC/MS/MS spectrometry method. Using a pre-column derivatization HPLC method, the total retronecine ester-type PAs in their alkaloids extracts were quantitatively estimated as well. Finally, their genotoxicity was investigated with an effective high-throughput screening method referred to as Vitotox test and their potential cytotoxicity was tested on HepG2 cells. It was found that different types of PAs were widely present in Gynura species collected from south of China. Among them, no significant genotoxic effects were detected with serial concentrations through the present invitro assay. However, the cytotoxicity assay of Gynura plants collected from Jiangsu displayed weak activity at the concentration of 100mg/ml. It is important to note that this research validates in part the indication that the use of Gynura species requires caution