THE SOPRANO VOICE TYPE AND IT’S IMPORTANCE WITHIN THE OPERETTA GENRE

This hereby study has two main parts, uneven in length. In the first part we have attempted to classify the types of voices within the genre of operetta, while detailing their functional aspects, focusing on the analysis of the use of the soprano voice for the roles of prima donna and grande dame. In our second part, we have presented the main female roles of the 14 operettas that we will analyze within our doctoral research, classified from the standpoint of their authors. We have also added some interesting facts concerning the great Hungarian operetta composers, as well as mentioned famous performers who portrayed the main roles of these operettas during the time they were performed

Production of recombinant antibody fragments in Bacillus megaterium

Rekombinante Antikörper und Antikörperfragmente sind wichtige Hilfsmittel für die Forschung, Diagnostik und Therapie. Seit zwanzig Jahren wird E. coli für die Produktion rekombinanter Antikörperfragmente eingesetzt. Als gramnegatives Bakterium mit einer äußeren Membran weist es jedoch nur eine eingeschränkte Sekretionskapazität für heterologe Proteine auf. Alternative Produktionssysteme, wie grampositive Bakterien, versprechen aufgrund der fehlenden äußeren Membran Vorteile bei der sekretorischen Produktion von Antikörperfragmenten. In dieser Arbeit wurde das grampositive Bakterium B. megaterium für die Produktion und Sekretion von Antikörperfragmenten untersucht. Hierfür wurde der Einfluss von Parametern wie Temperatur, Medium und Produktionsdauer auf die Produktion des anti-Lysozym D1.3 scFv überprüft. Eine Produktionstemperatur von 37 °C – 43 °C, eine Produktionsdauer von 24 h und die Verwendung des reichhaltigen TB-Mediums waren optimal für die scFv-Produktion. Mit den optimierten Produktionsparametern konnten der D1.3 scFv und der anti-CRP LA13-IIE3 scFv in B. megaterium produziert und anschließend aufgereinigt werden. Die Ausbeuten aus den B. megaterium- und E. coli-Produktionen waren vergleichbar. Die in B. megaterium produzierten scFvs zeigten jedoch eine höhere spezifische Aktivität. Der Antikörper D1.3 konnte auch im neuartigen scFabDeltaC-Format in B. megaterium produziert werden. Die aus der B. megaterium-Produktion erzielte Ausbeute war nur wenig geringer als die Ausbeute aus der E. coli-Produktion. Die spezifische Aktivität der aufgereinigten scFabDeltaC-Fragmente war jedoch identisch. In B. megaterium konnte erstmals neben scFv-Fragmenten auch ein scFabDeltaC-Fragment erfolgreich sekretorisch produziert werden. Damit stellt B. megaterium ein alternatives, prokaryotisches Produktionssystem für Antikörperfragmente mit viel Entwicklungspotential dar.Recombinant antibodies and antibody fragments are important tools for research, diagnostic and therapy. Since twenty years E. coli have been used for the production of recombinant antibody fragments. As a Gram-negative bacterium with an outer membrane it possesses a limited secretory capacity for heterologous proteins. Alternative production systems like Gram-positive bacteria have advantages concerning the secretory production of antibody fragments, because they are lacking an outer membrane. In this work the Gram-positive bacterium B. megaterium was tested for the production and secretion of antibody fragments. For this purpose the influence of the parameters temperature, medium and production time on the production of the anti-lysozyme D1.3 scFv were investigated. A production temperature of 37 °C – 43 °C, a production time of 24 h and the usage of the rich TB medium were optimal for scFv production. Using these optimized production parameters the D1.3 scFv and the anti-CRP LA13-IIE3 scFv were produced in B. megaterium and purified afterwards. The yields of the B. megaterium and E. coli productions were comparable, but the scFvs produced in B. megaterium showed a higher specific activity. The antibody D1.3 was also produced in the novel scFabDeltaC format in B. megaterium. The yield of the B. megaterium production was little lower than the yield of the E. coli production. The specific activity of the purified scFabDeltaC fragments was identical. For the first time scFv fragments and a scFabDeltaC fragment were successfully produced and secreted in B. megaterium. For this reason B. megaterium is an alternative, prokaryotic production system for antibody fragments with a great potential for further improvement

OPERETTA AS A GENRE FROM ITS BEGINNINGS TO ITS FAMOUS HUNGARIAN REPRESENTATIVES

This work comprises three uneven parts. In the first part we have attempted to offer an abbreviated history of the operetta genre, from the beginning of the 17th century to its Hungarian composers at the end of the 19th and the beginning of the 20th centuries. Instead of an exhaustive historical presentation, we focused on pursuing a line of argumentation that would explain the emergence of the Hungarian composers from Budapest and Vienna, whose operettas successfully entertain audiences until this day. In the second part, we reviewed the specific topics approached by the Hungarian operetta composers, exemplifying these by briefly presenting the contents of the 14 operettas that we will analyze during our doctoral research. In the third part we compared the genres of opera and operetta, in terms of their elements. We considered this to be necessary in order to be able to demonstrate the specific features of the operetta genre and also emphasize the fact that they are very elaborate works created by talented and well-trained composers, and their staging required just as much talent, work and dedication throughout history, as their great operatic counterparts

Assessing the effectiveness of direct gesture interaction for a safety critical maritime application

Multi-touch interaction, in particular multi-touch gesture interaction, is widely believed to give a more natural interaction style. We investigated the utility of multi-touch interaction in the safety critical domain of maritime dynamic positioning (DP) vessels. We conducted initial paper prototyping with domain experts to gain an insight into natural gestures; we then conducted observational studies aboard a DP vessel during operational duties and two rounds of formal evaluation of prototypes - the second on a motion platform ship simulator. Despite following a careful user-centred design process, the final results show that traditional touch-screen button and menu interaction was quicker and less erroneous than gestures. Furthermore, the moving environment accentuated this difference and we observed initial use problems and handedness asymmetries on some multi-touch gestures. On the positive side, our results showed that users were able to suspend gestural interaction more naturally, thus improving situational awareness

Morphological Characterization of Indoor Airborne Particles in Seven Primary Schools

This paper focuses on a study of fine (less than 2.5 µm) airborne particles collected inside seven primary schools located on a coastal Mediterranean area which has a significant industrial hub for the processing of clays and other minerals as raw materials. Of the seven schools, three are located in an urban area 20 km away from the main industrial hub, three are in a town located next to the industrial estate, and one is in a rural location, 30 km from the industrial area. The objective of this study is to identify the main types of particles found in the three examined environments. The particle matter identified in the fine particle samples is grouped into three main groups: mineral compounds, particles from combustion processes and phases emitted in high-temperature industrial processes. The mineral particles, which can come from natural or anthropogenic emissions, have been classified depending on their morphology as isometric allotriomorphs or subidiomorphs, with a tabular habit; acicular forms; or pure crystalline forms. Compounds from combustion processes have two types of morphologies: spheroid and dendritic soot particles. Additionally, in smaller quantities, spherical particles associated with high-temperature industrial processes, such as the emissions of ceramic tile-firing and frit-melting processes, are identified. A summary table is shown, which lists the characteristics, as well as the most significant origin of the main particles identified in the fine (<2.5 μm) airborne particles collected inside primary schools located in three different environments (urban, industrial and rural). A visual scale has been established based on the number of particles observed in the samples of the atmospheric particulate fraction between the sizes of 2.5 and 10 µm collected inside the schools. The ratios Ca/Si, S/Si, S/Ca and (Si+Ca)/S have been established. Results obtained may be useful in epidemiological studies in the ceramic cluster area in order to estimate children’s exposure to different indoor primary school microenvironments. Effective policies and mitigation measurements for the protection of children’s health should be carried out in this highly industrialized area

Production of single chain Fab (scFab) fragments in Bacillus megaterium

© 2007 Jordan et al; licensee BioMed Central Ltd. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Licens

Ipl1/Aurora B kinase coordinates synaptonemal complex disassembly with cell cycle progression and crossover formation in budding yeast meiosis

Several protein kinases collaborate to orchestrate and integrate cellular and chromosomal events at the G2/M transition in both mitotic and meiotic cells. During the G2/M transition in meiosis, this includes the completion of crossover recombination, spindle formation, and synaptonemal complex (SC) breakdown. We identified Ipl1/Aurora B kinase as the main regulator of SC disassembly. Mutants lacking Ipl1 or its kinase activity assemble SCs with normal timing, but fail to dissociate the central element component Zip1, as well as its binding partner, Smt3/SUMO, from chromosomes in a timely fashion. Moreover, lack of Ipl1 activity causes delayed SC disassembly in a cdc5 as well as a CDC5-inducible ndt80 mutant. Crossover levels in the ipl1 mutant are similar to those observed in wild type, indicating that full SC disassembly is not a prerequisite for joint molecule resolution and subsequent crossover formation. Moreover, expression of meiosis I and meiosis II-specific B-type cyclins occur normally in ipl1 mutants, despite delayed formation of anaphase I spindles. These observations suggest that Ipl1 coordinates changes to meiotic chromosome structure with resolution of crossovers and cell cycle progression at the end of meiotic prophase

Cine cardiac MRI reconstruction using a convolutional recurrent network with refinement

Cine Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) allows for understanding of the heart's function and condition in a non-invasive manner. Undersampling of the $k$-space is employed to reduce the scan duration, thus increasing patient comfort and reducing the risk of motion artefacts, at the cost of reduced image quality. In this challenge paper, we investigate the use of a convolutional recurrent neural network (CRNN) architecture to exploit temporal correlations in supervised cine cardiac MRI reconstruction. This is combined with a single-image super-resolution refinement module to improve single coil reconstruction by 4.4\% in structural similarity and 3.9\% in normalised mean square error compared to a plain CRNN implementation. We deploy a high-pass filter to our $\ell_1$ loss to allow greater emphasis on high-frequency details which are missing in the original data. The proposed model demonstrates considerable enhancements compared to the baseline case and holds promising potential for further improving cardiac MRI reconstruction.Comment: MICCAI STACOM workshop 202