Blood on the Snow, Soot on the Carpet: Belief as Pedagogy in Terry Pratchett’s \u3ci\u3eHogfather\u3c/i\u3e

In Terry Pratchett’s Discworld novels, children largely refuse to conform to the ideas that adults form about them as a class. While the adults of the Discworld seem to regard childhood as a time of innocence and wonder, the children who inhabit Pratchett’s universe show themselves to be violent, cynical, manipulative, and naturally skeptical of any phenomena which they cannot directly sense. As such, when the beloved seasonal figure of the Hogfather, a former Winter Solstice deity transformed over time into a gift-giving fat man with a taste for sherry and pork-pies, is assaulted by entities who want to make human beings less fanciful, the Discworld’s anthropomorphic representation of Death takes it upon himself to keep up the pretense that the Hogfather is alive, well, and making his usual rounds. This is necessary because, as the novel argues, belief in fantasies is necessary for children to grow into functional adults – the child must start by believing in something relatively concrete, like a jolly fat man who delivers toys to children who behave themselves all year, in order to believe in abstract concepts like ‘justice’ and ‘mercy.’ Belief in figures like the Hogfather tempers the natural cruelty of children, teaching them how to live in harmony with one another as adults, but this belief must be encouraged through empirical evidence, since the children’s natural skepticism leads them to see through the pleasant illusions conjured for them by adults

“Like the tombs of nameless kings”: Louis MacNeice’s Western Anti-Pastoral

Throughout his career as a poet, Louis MacNeice, born in Belfast but schooled and resident in England, looks at the western counties of Ireland, and indeed the island itself, as a repository of historical memory, including the western Irish roots of his own family. While the east – that is, continental Europe – is embroiled in the Spanish Civil War and the coming Second World War and is thus seen as a site of significant contemporary action in MacNeice’s work, what action takes place in western Ireland tends to be in the past; both celebratory poems like the “Sligo and Mayo” and “Galway” parts of “The Closing Album”, parts 06 and more ambivalent pieces like “Valediction” and “Neutrality” stress an attachment to the past bred by insularity. Ireland’s concerns, to the expatriate MacNeice, are exclusively local and rooted in ancient history. The Irish Sea separates the island from the broader currents of European history, and it becomes an attraction for tourists from across the water, as noted in “Valediction”. Ireland – particularly the cultural nationalist ideal promoted by the Revival – is a kind of archive, but it is one which has become obscure, as indicated by “the tombs of nameless kings” (CP 181) in “Sligo and Mayo”. The holiday visitors who come to look into the past can no longer comprehend it, as the rest of the world has moved on. The pastoral modes that Yeats and his immediate successors applied to the west of Ireland obscure the violence of the present in favor of an idealized past that MacNeice cannot endorse.Le poète Louis MacNeice est né à Belfast, mais il fut éduqué et vécut en Angleterre. Tout au long de sa carrière, il insiste sur le fait que les comtés de l’ouest de l’Irlande – et l’île toute entière – sont imprégnés d’une histoire qui embrasse ses propres racines familiales dans l’Ouest. Alors que l’Est, c’est-à-dire l’Europe continentale, doit composer avec la Guerre civile en Espagne et les tourments de la Deuxième Guerre mondiale, MacNeice ancre cette Europe dans une réalité contemporaine où se déroulent d’intenses débats. À l’inverse, le travail de MacNeice évoque l’Ouest de l’Irlande par le recours au passé. Les poèmes “Sligo and Mayo”, “Galway”, qui font partie de “The Closing Album”, ainsi que “Valediction” et “Neutrality”, racontent tous l’histoire d’une Irlande insulaire et révolue. Les préoccupations de cette Irlande, selon MacNeice l’expatrié, sont de nature locale et font référence à des temps anciens. La mer d’Irlande qui isole l’île de l’histoire européenne est prisée par les touristes, comme l’auteur le note dans “Valediction”. L’Irlande – particulièrement l’idéal du nationalisme culturel au temps du Revival - est une archive obscure qui est devenue aussi illisible que “the tombs of nameless kings” (CP 181) de son poème “Sligo and Mayo”. Les touristes qui veulent découvrir son passé n’arriveront pas à la comprendre puisque le reste du monde est déjà passé à autre chose. Il en résulte que les représentations bucoliques de l’Ouest de l’Irlande que cultivèrent Yeats et ses successeurs immédiats obscurcissent les violences contemporaines au profit d’une version idéalisée du passé que MacNeice ne peut partager

Comparison of compression properties and swelling of beryllium irradiated at various temperatures

A beryllium cylinder irradiated in Experimental Breeder Reactor (EBR-II) for four years at 700 to 760 K to a neutron fluence of 8.13 x 10/sup 22/ n/cm/sup 2/ (total) or 1 x 10/sup 22/ n/cm/sup 2/ (E > 1 MeV) was cut into samples and tested. Yield strength and plastic strain was determined in compression tests at 300, 723, 823 K and after annealing at 1173 K for one hour. The immersion density and helium content were measured on samples. An equation for swelling was derived from the data by regression analysis. The microstructure showed agglomeration of helium in voids or bubbles at the grain boundaries

Non-Conjugated Small Molecule FRET for Differentiating Monomers from Higher Molecular Weight Amyloid Beta Species

Background: Systematic differentiation of amyloid (Aβ) species could be important for diagnosis of Alzheimer's disease (AD). In spite of significant progress, controversies remain regarding which species are the primary contributors to the AD pathology, and which species could be used as the best biomarkers for its diagnosis. These controversies are partially caused by the lack of reliable methods to differentiate the complicated subtypes of Aβ species. Particularly, differentiation of Aβ monomers from toxic higher molecular weight species (HrMW) would be beneficial for drug screening, diagnosis, and molecular mechanism studies. However, fast and cheap methods for these specific aims are still lacking. Principal Findings: We demonstrated the feasibility of a non-conjugated FRET (Förster resonance energy transfer) technique that utilized amyloid beta (Aβ) species as intrinsic platforms for the FRET pair assembly. Mixing two structurally similar curcumin derivatives that served as the small molecule FRET pair with Aβ40 aggregates resulted in a FRET signal, while no signal was detected when using Aβ40 monomer solution. Lastly, this FRET technique enabled us to quantify the concentrations of Aβ monomers and high molecular weight species in solution. Significance: We believe that this FRET technique could potentially be used as a tool for screening for inhibitors of Aβ aggregation. We also suggest that this concept could be generalized to other misfolded proteins/peptides implicated in various pathologies including amyloid in diabetes, prion in bovine spongiform encephalopathy, tau protein in AD, and α-synuclein in Parkinson disease.National Institute on Aging (K25AG036760

IL-7 Promotes CD95-Induced Apoptosis in B Cells via the IFN-γ/STAT1 Pathway

Interleukin-7 (IL-7) concentrations are increased in the blood of CD4+ T cell depleted individuals, including HIV-1 infected patients. High IL-7 levels might stimulate T cell activation and, as we have shown earlier, IL-7 can prime resting T cell to CD95 induced apoptosis as well. HIV-1 infection leads to B cell abnormalities including increased apoptosis via the CD95 (Fas) death receptor pathway and loss of memory B cells. Peripheral B cells are not sensitive for IL-7, due to the lack of IL-7Ra expression on their surface; however, here we demonstrate that high IL-7 concentration can prime resting B cells to CD95-mediated apoptosis via an indirect mechanism. T cells cultured with IL-7 induced high CD95 expression on resting B cells together with an increased sensitivity to CD95 mediated apoptosis. As the mediator molecule responsible for B cell priming to CD95 mediated apoptosis we identified the cytokine IFN-γ that T cells secreted in high amounts in response to IL-7. These results suggest that the lymphopenia induced cytokine IL-7 can contribute to the increased B cell apoptosis observed in HIV-1 infected individuals

Combination of contrast with stress echocardiography: A practical guide to methods and interpretation

Contrast echocardiography has an established role for enhancement of the right heart Doppler signals, the detection of intra-cardiac shunts, and most recently for left ventricular cavity opacification (LVO). The use of intravenously administered micro-bubbles to traverse the myocardial microcirculation in order to outline myocardial viability and perfusion has been the source of research studies for a number of years. Despite the enthusiasm of investigators, myocardial contrast echocardiography (MCE) has not attained routine clinical use and LV opacification during stress has been less widely adopted than the data would support. The purpose of this review is to facilitate an understanding of the involved imaging technologies that have made this technique more feasible for clinical practice, and to guide its introduction into the practice of the non-expert user

Delegation and coordination with multiple threshold public goods: experimental evidence

When multiple charities, social programs and community projects simultaneously vie for funding, donors risk mis-coordinating their contributions leading to an inefficient distribution of funding across projects. Community chests and other intermediary organizations facilitate coordination among donors and reduce such risks. To study this, we extend a threshold public goods framework to allow donors to contribute through an intermediary rather than directly to the public goods. Through a series of experiments, we show that the presence of an intermediary increases public good success and subjects’ earnings only when the intermediary is formally committed to direct donations to socially beneficial goods. Without such a restriction, the presence of an intermediary has a negative impact, complicating the donation environment, decreasing contributions and public good success.When multiple charities, social programs and community projects simultaneously vie for funding, donors risk mis-coordinating their contributions leading to an inefficient distribution of funding across projects. Community chests and other intermediary organizations facilitate coordination among donors and reduce such risks. To study this, we extend a threshold public goods framework to allow donors to contribute through an intermediary rather than directly to the public goods. Through a series of experiments, we show that the presence of an intermediary increases public good success and subjects’ earnings only when the intermediary is formally committed to direct donations to socially beneficial goods. Without such a restriction, the presence of an intermediary has a negative impact, complicating the donation environment, decreasing contributions and public good success