"Powabny wdzięk ciał" a kreacja nowej sztuki religijnej w epoce wielkiej reformy trydenckiej

The internal reform of the Catholic Church, which was smoothly changing the image of this institution at the turn of the 16th and 17th centuries, occasioned a significant transformation in the religious art of that period. Apart from purely legislative changes and reforms improving morals of congregations and their clergy, members of the Church hierarchy dynamically participated in a very ambitious project of renovation of religious art, whose use and moral sense were weakened by Protestant thinkers. Particular objection raised by Protestant and Catholic reformers concerned the presence of excessive nudity in religious art. The Renaissance cult of the body quickly became a target of attacks of theologians, art theorists and sometimes artists too. This period was marked by an urgent necessity to perform artistic actions under close scrutiny of the Church. Religious art thus quickly evolved into an effective instrument in the struggle with the progression of Protestantism. The moral influence of religious art that had eliminated the "shameless" nudity was supposed to be reinforced by close cooperation between artists with theologians. It was evident that some themes which used nudity as a very important, inseparable and most eloquent element were not possible to be excluded. The iconography of Saint Mary Magdalene or nudity of the tortured body of Saint Sebastian became problematic. Doubts were also raised by the manner in which Saint John the Baptist’s clothing or the nudity of the little Child Christ were presented. The way in which the body of the Man of Sorrow was presented was also controlled. Nothing was allowed to arouse any kind of improper thoughts. Numerous works of art created before the Council of Trident also prompted criticism. The "Last Judgement" fresco by Michelangelo was furiously attacked and finally censored by means of painting over some fragments of the textile in order to cover the shocking naked body parts. Other works of art were modified in a similar way; some were destroyed, having been labelled as sacrilegious and kindling impure thoughts. Special treatises were written to define the manner in which the nudity of saints could be exposed. All these requirements beared on the late works of Titian, naturalistic paintings by Caravaggionists or aestheticizing pictures by the Carracci family. It is well known that controlling art is utopian and harmful in the long run. Literal application of the obligation introduced by the Council of Trident, going as far as to describe punishments for dissenting artists, could cause impoverishment of the iconography. Some artists were well adapted to the rules that began to reign in art in the period of Counterreformation; for another group of artists this new situation became unbearable. Therefore, it was necessary to achieve balance and restore common sense and a possibility to draw on creative achievements of previous generations. Total removal of nudity from religious art was not possible. In the wider context, disappearance of nudity would be tantamount to rejecting the heritage of anti-quity and the Renaissance, which inspired secular and clergy thinkers alike. It would also be necessary to limit the Christian tradition, whose continuity and importance were the subject of discussions during the Council of Trident itself

Neuroendocrine neoplasms and somatostatin receptor subtypes expression

Neuroendocrine neoplasms (NENs) show wide spectrum of clinical course — from benign biological potential to recurrences and rapidly progressive disease. Somatostatin analogs that bind to somatostatin receptor are part of the therapy; detection and evaluation of activation of somatostatin receptor subtypes are part of the process of new therapy induction. When using RT-PCR method and immunohistochemistry, it is possible to detect more than two SSTR subtypes in majority or all neuroendo­crine neoplasms regardless tumor origin. Generally with some exceptions, from the viewpoint of tumor grade — apart the site of origin, there is a tendency to decrease the percentage of SSTRs expression; 100% (G1, 2)–85.7% (G3) for SSTR 1; 81.8% (G1, 2)–61.9% (G3) for SSTR 2; 54.5% (G1, 2)–52.4% (G3) for SSTR 3; 9% (G1, 2)–4.8% (G3) for SSTR 5. Different studies indi­cate significant differences in the expression of SSTR 1 and 2A and 2B between NEC G3 small cell type and non-small cell type. Further research on SSTRs expression in NEN could serve as base to development and improvement of somatostatin analogs’ pharmacotherapy in patients with unsatisfactory course

LATEX – system składu dokumentów

Publikacja bezpłatna - „Matematyka. Materiały metodyczne”, red. R. J. Pawlak, Z. Walczak, Wydawnictwo Uniwersytetu Łódzkiego, Łódź 2014Publikacja przygotowana w ramach realizacji projektu „Nowoczesny nauczyciel Matematyki. Wzmocnienie kompetencji nauczycieli matematyki z województwa łódzkiego”, współfinansowanego ze środków Unii Europejskiej w ramach Europejskiego Funduszu Społecznego

"Europa Tysiąca Liechtensteinów” Hansa-Hermanna Hoppego. Krytyczna analiza

The aim of this article is a thorough examination of one of the most popular and widely discussed Hans-Hermann Hoppe-’s concepts on how to implement libertarian order of private law societies, based on the absolute private property laws. After a brief introduction to theoretical background, including the definition of libertarianism and secessionism (as well as its libertarian case for secession from deontological, utilitarian, pragmatic and cultural points of view), the paper examines advantages and disadvantages of Hoppean model of the world consisting of hundreds of thousands of (very) small States. It analyses ideas which in a gradualist scenario can constitute several steps on a path towards establishing natural order, by the likes of small-scale secession, total privatization program, separatism and irredentism and so forth. Crucial flaws and doubts concerning the implementation of the Hoppean model are raised as well. In the conclusion strengths and weaknesses of the Hoppean model are juxtaposed. Furthermore it is shown – regarding selected examples – how Hoppe’s analyses can be useful as a tool to scrutinize European secessionist processes

Libertarianizm nie jest utopizmem. Dlaczego twierdzenia o utopijności libertarianizmu są fałszywe?

The article presents the basic principles, rules and assumptions on which the libertarianvision of a stateless society (libertarian anarchy) where all goods and services would be produced and delivered by private entities could work. Throughout the paper the main counterarguments against the most common doubts and objections towards the libertarian order have been delivered. Furthermore, the fallacies and sophisms frequently used in debates and discussions on libertarianism by its opponents have been identified, answered and refuted

Annotation, submission and screening of repetitive elements in Repbase: RepbaseSubmitter and Censor

BACKGROUND: Repbase is a reference database of eukaryotic repetitive DNA, which includes prototypic sequences of repeats and basic information described in annotations. Updating and maintenance of the database requires specialized tools, which we have created and made available for use with Repbase, and which may be useful as a template for other curated databases. RESULTS: We describe the software tools RepbaseSubmitter and Censor, which are designed to facilitate updating and screening the content of Repbase. RepbaseSubmitter is a java-based interface for formatting and annotating Repbase entries. It eliminates many common formatting errors, and automates actions such as calculation of sequence lengths and composition, thus facilitating curation of Repbase sequences. In addition, it has several features for predicting protein coding regions in sequences; searching and including Pubmed references in Repbase entries; and searching the NCBI taxonomy database for correct inclusion of species information and taxonomic position. Censor is a tool to rapidly identify repetitive elements by comparison to known repeats. It uses WU-BLAST for speed and sensitivity, and can conduct DNA-DNA, DNA-protein, or translated DNA-translated DNA searches of genomic sequence. Defragmented output includes a map of repeats present in the query sequence, with the options to report masked query sequence(s), repeat sequences found in the query, and alignments. CONCLUSION: Censor and RepbaseSubmitter are available as both web-based services and downloadable versions. They can be found at (RepbaseSubmitter) and (Censor)

Anarchia międzynarodowa jako przykład funkcjonalnego systemu

The article presents international relations (or relations among nations) as based on a voluntarily accepted and previously negotiated agreements and treaties which form ground for a quite efficient and mostly peaceful anarchic system (order). Based on a libertarian political philosophy, supported by selected international relations theories, the article shows that even between the agencies of territorial monopoly on the use of force and decision making who are in possession of a military forces or weaponry of mass destruction there can exist peaceful and beneficial bilateral and multilateral contacts and relations based on the norms of the international law (characterized as norms and rules of behavior for governments with respect to relations with other governments), despite the fact that war is still one of the possible scenarios of a governmental action on the international arena. Furthermore it has been shown that, contrary to the arguments of some libertarian thinkers, weaponry of mass destruction even in the hands of governments can contribute to stabilizing the international system which proves that - from the libertarian point of view immoral and unethical entities - the States are capable of operating in the anarchic system in a very different manner than the authors like Thomas Hobbes would like to think, wrongly depicting anarchy as a permanent conflict of everyone against everyone, belli omnia conta omnes. In the conclusion main flaws and drawbacks of the anarchic international system are pointed out, however major advantages from the libertarian perspective of the system in question are raised as well

A Nanosensor for TNT Detection Based on Molecularly Imprinted Polymers and Surface Enhanced Raman Scattering

We report on a new sensor strategy that integrates molecularly imprinted polymers (MIPs) with surface enhanced Raman scattering (SERS). The sensor was developed to detect the explosive, 2,4,6-trinitrotoluene (TNT). Micron thick films of sol gel-derived xerogels were deposited on a SERS-active surface as the sensing layer. Xerogels were molecularly imprinted for TNT using non-covalent interactions with the polymer matrix. Binding of the TNT within the polymer matrix results in unique SERS bands, which allow for detection and identification of the molecule in the MIP. This MIP-SERS sensor exhibits an apparent dissociation constant of (2.3 ± 0.3) × 10−5 M for TNT and a 3 μM detection limit. The response to TNT is reversible and the sensor is stable for at least 6 months. Key challenges, including developing a MIP formulation that is stable and integrated with the SERS substrate, and ensuring the MIP does not mask the spectral features of the target analyte through SERS polymer background, were successfully met. The results also suggest the MIP-SERS protocol can be extended to other target analytes of interest