Joyce's moraculous sindbook: a study of Ulysses

(print) xi, 267 p. ; 25 cmAcknowledgments ix -- Introduction 3 -- 1 "Telemachus" : Ghosts and Cannibals 15 -- 2 "Nestor" : The Nightmare of History 37 -- 3 "Proteus" : The Art of Perception "Scylla and Charybdis" : The Artist as God 53 -- 4 "Calypso" : The World of Sensuous Reality "Lotus-Eaters" : The Land of Dream 75 -- 5 "Hades" : The Hibernian Underworld "Aelous" and "Wandering Rocks" : The World as Machine 95 -- 6 "Lestrygonians" and "Sirens" : Food for Men and Gods 123 -- 7 "Cyclops" : Giant and Jew 137 -- 8 "Nausicaa" : Romantic Fantasy "Oxen of the Sun" : Procreative Reality 153 -- 9 "Circe" : Ulysses in Nighttown 181 -- 10 "Eumaeus" and "Ithaca" : Nostos 207 -- 11 "Penelope" : The Flesh Made Word 233 -- Bibliography 253 -- Index 26

Both helix topology and counterion distribution contribute to the more effective charge screening in dsRNA compared with dsDNA

The recent discovery of the RNA interference mechanism emphasizes the biological importance of short, isolated, double-stranded (ds) RNA helices and calls for a complete understanding of the biophysical properties of dsRNA. However, most previous studies of the electrostatics of nucleic acid duplexes have focused on DNA. Here, we present a comparative investigation of electrostatic effects in RNA and DNA. Using resonant (anomalous) and non-resonant small-angle X-ray scattering, we characterized the charge screening efficiency and counterion distribution around short (25 bp) dsDNA and RNA molecules of comparable sequence. Consistent with theoretical predictions, we find counterion mediated screening to be more efficient for dsRNA than dsDNA. Furthermore, the topology of the RNA A-form helix alters the spatial distribution of counterions relative to B-form DNA. The experimental results reported here agree well with ion-size-corrected non-linear Poisson–Boltzmann calculations. We propose that differences in electrostatic properties aid in selective recognition of different types of short nucleic acid helices by target binding partners

Genetic Epidemiology of Colon Cancer in the Cotton-Top Tamarin (Saguinus oedipus)

Colon cancer is known to be heritable in humans, but the opportunity to investigate the genetic epidemiology of cancer in nonhuman primates has been limited by the size of available populations. The cotton-top tamarin (Saguinus oedipus) colony at the Oak Ridege Associated Universities (ORAU) Marmoset Research Center is a large population with a high rate of spontaneous colon cancer that has been monitored over several years, thus allowing investigation of the genetic basis for colon cancer in this colony. The presence of colon cancer at death was scored in 392 necropsies at the colony. Genealogical and demographic data for these animals were obtained from colony records. The heritability of the liability to colon cancer was estimated using maximum-likelihood-based pedigree analyses after evaluating the effects of gender, origin (wild-born or laboratory born), and age at death on cancer experience. Cancer rates were not significantly different between males and females or between wild- and laboratory-born animals. Differences in age at death were also statistically insignificant for both laboratory- and wild-born animals. The heritability estimate for the liability to contract colon cancer is 17% for the ORAU cotton-top tamarins. This heritability estimate is not significantly different from zero, indicating no evidence for heritable variation in cancer experience in this population. If genetic factors affect cotton-top tamarin colon cancer, they are fixed or nearly fixed in this population

The polyphonic performance of testimony in Svetlana Aleksievich’s Voices from Utopia

This article claims that Svetlana Aleksievich’s Voices from Utopia should be read as testimony. Although based on eyewitnesses interviewed by Aleksievich, the voices represented in the five books are interpreted as the creation of an implied author. In contrast to a theoretical standpoint defining fact in a dichotomous relation to fiction, this study identifies the historical value of Aleksievich’s writing as intimately connected to the aesthetic composition. The article has two major aims. The first is to describe how the monologues and choirs in Voices from Utopia are represented. Using Mikhail Bakhtin’s concept of the polyphonic novel, the internal focalization of the testimonies, in combination with a significant reduction of the external perspective, both on the level of dialogue and narration, are described as together constituting a polyphonic composition. The second aim is to demonstrate how this polyphony is interrelated to trauma theory and the psychological hardships experienced by the witnesses in the act of representing a traumatic experience. The hypothesis is that the polyphonic structure could be interpreted as an ethical representation of the interviews: first, it reflects an empathy with the witnesses’ ambivalence when confessing their traumatic past; secondly, because it contributes to ethically engaging the implied reader