In Defense of His Holiness: The Cellini Plaque

The plaque depicting Cellini was donated to Gettysburg College by Reverend Jeremiah Zimmerman, Class of 1873, who later became a lecturer at Syracuse University and a frequent benefactor of Gettysburg College. A highly educated alum, Reverend Zimmerman became a clergyman and traveled the world for over a decade to further his studies, ranging from Asian culture to ancient coinage. The plaque itself measures 32” x 26.75” x 2.5”, is of considerable weight for a porcelain plate, and is painted in the 19th century academic style to offer a dramatic interpretation of Benvenuto Cellini’s actions during the 1527 Sack of Rome. Specifically, the scene captures a dramatized (or even perhaps imagined) moment of Cellini outside the Castel Sant’Angelo, the site of a fortress used by the Holy See to defend against outside invaders. [excerpt

SUB LEGE TO SUB GRATIA: An Iconographic Study of Van Eyck’s Annunciation

When the Archangel Gabriel descended from heaven to inform the Virgin Mary of her status as God’s chosen vehicle for the birth of Jesus Christ, she was immediately filled with a sense of apprehension. Gabriel’s words, “...invenisti enim gratiam apud Deum [you have found favor with God],” reassured the Virgin that she would face no harm, and the scene of the Annunciation (what this moment has come to be called) has forever been immortalized in Christian belief as a watershed moment in the New Testament. While many Byzantine icons of the Medieval period sought to depict this snapshot in time and commemorate its importance, the most notable artistic examples of The Annunciation began to appear in the 15th century as the stylistic and symbolic traditions of the Renaissance began to take shape. While the works of artists such as Sandro Botticelli and Leonardo da Vinci have come to generally be known as the touchstones of this early Renaissance period, the talents and contributions of northern masters must not be overlooked

Lithostratigraphy, sedimentation and evolution of the Volta Basin in Ghana

We present a revised lithostratigraphy for the Voltaian Supergroup of Ghana, based on a review of existing literature, interpretations of remotely sensed data and reconnaissance field survey of the Volta Basin. These strata thicken eastwards, to a maximum of between 5 and 6 km adjacent to the Pan-African Dahomeyide orogen. They began to accumulate some time after about 1000 Ma, along the margin of an epicontinental sea. Initial sedimentation, comprising the age-equivalent Kwahu and Bombouaka Groups, shows a cyclical mode of deposition controlled by eustatic changes in sea-level that produced a range of nearshore marine, littoral and terrestrial environments. A major erosional interval was followed by deposition of the 3–4 km thick Oti-Pendjari Group. Basal tillites and associated sandy diamictons are correlated with the Marinoan (end-Cryogenian) glaciation, indicating a maximum depositional age of about 635 Ma. The overlying cap carbonates and tuffs were deposited within a shallow epeiric sea bordered by a volcanically active rift system. The main part of the group records the transition from a rifted passive margin to a fully developed foreland basin receiving marine flysch in the form of argillaceous strata interbedded with highly immature wacke-type sandstones and conglomerates. Maximum accommodation space was developed within a foredeep adjacent to the Dahomeyide belt. Towards the end of the orogenic phase, the foredeep succession became partially inverted and then was buried under coarse terrestrial, red-bed molasse of the Obosum Group

Geodynamic setting and origin of the Oman/UAE ophiolite

The ~500km-long mid-Cretaceous Semail nappe of the Sultanate of Oman and UAE (henceforth referred to as the Oman ophiolite) is the largest and best-preserved ophiolite complex known. It is of particular importance because it is generally believed to have an internal structure and composition closely comparable to that of crust formed at the present-day East Pacific Rise (EPR), making it our only known on-land analogue for ocean lithosphere formed at a fast spreading rate. On the basis of this assumption Oman has long played a pivotal role in guiding our conceptual understanding of fast-spreading ridge processes, as modern fast-spread ocean crust is largely inaccessible

A Radio Spectral Line Study of the 2-Jy IRAS-NVSS Sample: Part I

We present results from an on-going survey for the HI 21 cm line and the OH 18 cm lines in IR galaxies with the Arecibo 305 m Radio Telescope. The observations of 85 galaxies extracted from the 2 Jy IRAS-NVSS sample in the R.A. (B1950) range 20 h-00 h are reported in this paper. We detected the HI 21 cm line in 82 of these galaxies, with 18 being new detections, and the OH 18 cm lines in 7 galaxies, with 4 being new detections. In some cases, the HI spectra show the classic double-horned or single-peaked emission profiles. However, the majority exhibit distorted HI spectral features indicating that the galaxies are in interacting and/or merging systems. From these HI and OH observations, various properties of the sample are derived and reported.Comment: 38 pages, 7 figures, 9 tables. Accepted for publication in A

Stroke penumbra defined by an MRI-based oxygen challenge technique: 2. Validation based on the consequences of reperfusion

Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) with oxygen challenge (T2* OC) uses oxygen as a metabolic biotracer to define penumbral tissue based on CMRO2 and oxygen extraction fraction. Penumbra displays a greater T2* signal change during OC than surrounding tissue. Since timely restoration of cerebral blood flow (CBF) should salvage penumbra, T2* OC was tested by examining the consequences of reperfusion on T2* OC-defined penumbra. Transient ischemia (109±20 minutes) was induced in male Sprague-Dawley rats (n=8). Penumbra was identified on T2*-weighted MRI during OC. Ischemia and ischemic injury were identified on CBF and apparent diffusion coefficient maps, respectively. Reperfusion was induced and scans repeated. T2 for final infarct and T2* OC were run on day 7. T2* signal increase to OC was 3.4% in contralateral cortex and caudate nucleus and was unaffected by reperfusion. In OC-defined penumbra, T2* signal increased by 8.4%±4.1% during ischemia and returned to 3.25%±0.8% following reperfusion. Ischemic core T2* signal increase was 0.39%±0.47% during ischemia and 0.84%±1.8% on reperfusion. Penumbral CBF increased from 41.94±13 to 116.5±25 mL per 100 g per minute on reperfusion. On day 7, OC-defined penumbra gave a normal OC response and was located outside the infarct. T2* OC-defined penumbra recovered when CBF was restored, providing further validation of the utility of T2* OC for acute stroke management

Stroke penumbra defined by an MRI-based oxygen challenge technique: 1. validation using [14C]2-deoxyglucose autoradiography

Accurate identification of ischemic penumbra will improve stroke patient selection for reperfusion therapies and clinical trials. Current magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) techniques have limitations and lack validation. Oxygen challenge T2* MRI (T2* OC) uses oxygen as a biotracer to detect tissue metabolism, with penumbra displaying the greatest T2* signal change during OC. [14C]2-deoxyglucose (2-DG) autoradiography was combined with T2* OC to determine metabolic status of T2*-defined penumbra. Permanent middle cerebral artery occlusion was induced in anesthetized male Sprague-Dawley rats (n=6). Ischemic injury and perfusion deficit were determined by diffusion- and perfusion-weighted imaging, respectively. At 147±32 minutes after stroke, T2* signal change was measured during a 5-minute 100% OC, immediately followed by 125 μCi/kg 2-DG, intravenously. Magnetic resonance images were coregistered with the corresponding autoradiograms. Regions of interest were located within ischemic core, T2*-defined penumbra, equivalent contralateral structures, and a region of hyperglycolysis. A T2* signal increase of 9.22%±3.9% (mean±s.d.) was recorded in presumed penumbra, which displayed local cerebral glucose utilization values equivalent to contralateral cortex. T2* signal change was negligible in ischemic core, 3.2%±0.78% in contralateral regions, and 1.41%±0.62% in hyperglycolytic tissue, located outside OC-defined penumbra and within the diffusion abnormality. The results support the utility of OC-MRI to detect viable penumbral tissue follow