Opera as hypermedium:Meaning-making, immediacy, and the politics of perception

In this study, the concept of hypermediacy (Bolter and Grusin 1999) serves as a starting point for a theoretical enquiry into contemporary encounters between opera and the media. The discussion is guided by an interest in how opera participates in the larger artistic and theoretical discourse on the politics of representation and perception. Havelková examines several critical claims that have been made with respect to multimedia, theatre and opera, and analyzes various effects of immediacy that opera is able to produce within the multiplicity and heterogeneity of representations and media typical of hypermediacy, including the effects of liveness and presence. She approaches these effects, which are understood as inextricably bound up with opera’s processes of meaning-making, in terms of how the relationship between opera as an audio-visual event and its spectator-auditors is established and shaped. As case studies, Havelková selected the operas of Louis Andriessen and Peter Greenaway, which epitomize the characteristics of hypermediacy within the operatic context

Genetics of Host Response to Leishmania tropica in Mice – Different Control of Skin Pathology, Chemokine Reaction, and Invasion into Spleen and Liver

Several hundred million people are exposed to the risk of leishmaniasis, a disease caused by intracellular protozoan parasites of several Leishmania species and transmitted by phlebotomine sand flies. In humans, L. tropica causes cutaneous form of leishmaniasis with painful and long-persisting lesions in the site of the insect bite, but the parasites can also penetrate to internal organs. The relationship between the host genes and development of the disease was demonstrated for numerous infectious diseases. However, the search for susceptibility genes in the human population could be a difficult task. In such cases, animal models may help to discover the role of different genes in interactions between the parasite and the host. Unfortunately, the literature contains only a few publications about the use of animals for L. tropica studies. Here, we report an animal model suitable for genetic, pathological and drug studies in L. tropica infection. We show how the host genotype influences different disease symptoms: skin lesions, parasite dissemination to the lymph nodes, spleen and liver, and increase of levels of chemokines CCL2, CCL3 and CCL5 in serum

Genetic Control of Resistance to Trypanosoma brucei brucei Infection in Mice

Trypanosoma brucei are extracellular protozoa transmitted to mammalian host by the tsetse fly. They developed several mechanisms that subvert host's immune defenses. Therefore analysis of genes affecting host's resistance to infection can reveal critical aspects of host-parasite interactions. Trypanosoma brucei brucei infects many animal species including livestock, with particularly severe effects in horses and dogs. Mouse strains differ greatly in susceptibility to T. b. brucei. However, genes controlling susceptibility to this parasite have not been mapped. We analyzed the genetic control of survival after T. b. brucei infection using CcS/Dem recombinant congenic (RC) strains, each of which contains a different random set of 12.5% genes of their donor parental strain STS/A on the BALB/c genetic background. The RC strain CcS-11 is even more susceptible to parasites than BALB/c or STS/A. In F2 hybrids between BALB/c and CcS-11 we detected and mapped four loci, Tbbr1-4 (Trypanosoma brucei brucei response 1–4), that control survival after T. b. brucei infection. Tbbr1 (chromosome 3) and Tbbr2 (chromosome 12) have independent effects, Tbbr3 (chromosome 7) and Tbbr4 (chromosome 19) were detected by their mutual inter-genic interaction. Tbbr2 was precision mapped to a segment of 2.15 Mb that contains 26 genes

Opera as hypermedium:Meaning-making, immediacy, and the politics of perception

In this study, the concept of hypermediacy (Bolter and Grusin 1999) serves as a starting point for a theoretical enquiry into contemporary encounters between opera and the media. The discussion is guided by an interest in how opera participates in the larger artistic and theoretical discourse on the politics of representation and perception. Havelková examines several critical claims that have been made with respect to multimedia, theatre and opera, and analyzes various effects of immediacy that opera is able to produce within the multiplicity and heterogeneity of representations and media typical of hypermediacy, including the effects of liveness and presence. She approaches these effects, which are understood as inextricably bound up with opera’s processes of meaning-making, in terms of how the relationship between opera as an audio-visual event and its spectator-auditors is established and shaped. As case studies, Havelková selected the operas of Louis Andriessen and Peter Greenaway, which epitomize the characteristics of hypermediacy within the operatic context

Geometrical model of muscle attachment sites in hand

This work was supported by the project n. 182 Obstetrics 2.0 Virtual models for the prevention of injuries during childbirth realised within the frame of the Program INTERREG V-A: Crossborder cooperation between the Czech Republic and the Federal State of Germany Bavaria, Aim European Cross-border cooperation 2014-2020. The realisation is supported by financial means of the European Regional Development Fund (85 % of the costs) and the state budget of the Czech Republic (5 %). The next thanks belong to internal grant of UWB: SGS-2016-059.Our study provides novel approach to acquiring data used in biomechanical models along with dataset of hand muscle data. It also provides a tool for generating these data, relieving researchers of some tedious labor and possibly allowing for greater reproducibility of research

Development of a personalized musculoskeletal human shoulder

This work was supported by the project n. 38 Virtual human body model for prevention, therapy and rehabilitation of shoulder disease realised within the frame of the Program INTERREG V-A: Cross-border cooperation between the Czech Republic and the Federal State of Germany Bavaria, Aim European Cross-border cooperation 2014-2020. The realisation is supported by financial means of the European Regional Development Fund (85% of the costs) and the state budget of the Czech Republic (5%).The aim of this study is to contribute to the development of personalized musculoskeletal human shoulder model for the prevention, therapy and rehabilitation strategies. Namely, we participate in the development of the virtual shoulder model in the AnyBody Modeling System (AMS). This model consists of bones that are interconnected via kinematic joints, muscles with corresponding tendons and ligaments. The bones are considered as rigid bodies. Each muscle with corresponding tendon is represented with several virtual elements in the model that are usually referred to as lines of action. These lines are considered as hill-type models and allows for the active motion of the model as a whole. An important task in the model development is setting realistic muscle paths in order to predict accurate acting forces and moments. To achieve that, artificial obstacles are used in the AMS model to avoid unreal muscle shapes and excessive sliding. Namely, the torus obstacle method is used. It means that for each muscle line, tori obstacles are defined. The path is then given as a shortest connection of muscle attachments, closely wrapping the torus surface. Hence, the key issue of the model development is to define proper position and radii of each torus obstacle. These parameters differ in general for different individuals. The aim of this study is to develop methodology for setting the parameters of tori obstacles based on magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) of a particular shoulder. That is, patient-specific approach is adopted

Torus obstacle method as a wrapping approach of the deltoid muscle group for humeral abduction in musculoskeletal simulation

Musculoskeletal models of the shoulder complex yield the possibility to aid in clinically relevant research questions e.g. tears of the supraspinatus and the resulting mechanical impact during abduction of the humerus. One of the major contributors to this motion is the deltoid muscle group, where an accurate modelling of the lines of action is indispensable. The aim of this work is to utilize a torus obstacle wrapping approach for the deltoids of an existing shoulder model and assess their feasibility during humeral abduction. The shoulder model from the AnyBodyTM modelling system is employed as platform for utilizing the torus obstacles for the deltoid wrapping. The size of the tori is based on an MRI approach and several kinematic couplings are implemented to determine the trajectories of the tori during abduction. For the validation, the moment arms of the virtual muscle elements and the resultant glenohumeral joint reaction force are compared to reference data from literature during abduction of the humerus in the range 20-120°. The root mean square error for the anterior, lateral and posterior part between the simulated muscle elements and reference data from literature is at 3.9, 1.7 and 5.8 mm, respectively. The largest deviation occurs on the outer elements of the muscle groups with 12.6, 10.4 and 20.5 mm. The glenohumeral joint reaction force is in accordance with in-vivo measured data from literature in terms of progression and amplitude, where the three element Hill model possesses a better fit. During the abduction, the muscle elements show no overlapping and are in continuous contact with the torus obstacles. The torus obstacle approach as a wrapping method for the deltoid muscles has the advantage of providing a guided muscle pathing by simultaneously approximating the curvature of the deltoid. The results from the comparison of the simulated moment arms and the resultant glenohumeral joint reaction force are in accordance to literature in the range between 20-120° of abduction. These results indicate that the torus approach is a suitable solution for representing the lines of action of the deltoid muscle group. However, for a kinematic scheme which also enables an accurate motion of the tori for humeral flexion more research is neede