Mapping the towns of Europe: The European towns in Braun & Hogenberg’s Town Atlas, 1572-1617

The Civitates orbis terrarum or the “Braun & Hogenberg”, published in six volumes in Cologne between 1572 and 1617, is the most famous of the early town atlases. Although it had no comparable precedent, it immediately answered a great public demand, because social, political and economic life at that time was concentrated in the cities. Apart from that, the pictorial style of the plans and views appealed very much to the uneducated public.Each of the six volumes is a distinct entity, containing plans of towns of the whole of Europe (and sometimes also of towns outside Europe). When a more recent plan of a town was acquired, it was included in one of the later volumes without changing the contents of the earlier volume. In fact, the contents of a volume has never been changed at all. The authors of the work are Georg Braun (Bruin), Frans Hogenberg and Simon van den Neuvel (Novellanus). This paperdiscusses the choice of towns depicted and the distribution of these towns in Europe, the way the towns were depicted (plan, bird’s-eye view, profile, landscape) and the information text given on the towns.Le Civitates orbis terrarum ou “Braun & Hogenberg”, publié en six volumes entre 1572 et 1617 à Cologne, est le plus connu des premiers atlas des villes. Bien que sans précédent comparable, il répondait d’emblée à une large demande du fait qu’à cette époque la vie sociale, politique et économique se trouvait concentrée dans les villes. En outre, le style imagé des plans et des illustrations plaisait beaucoup au grand public.Chacun des six volumes est une entité distincte présentant des plans de villes situées dans l’ensemble de l’Europe (et parfois même hors d’Europe). Lorsqu’un plan plus récent d’une ville était réalisé, il était inclus dans un des volumes ultérieurs sans changement du contenu du volume précédent. En fait, le contenu d’un volume n’a jamais été modifié d’aucune façon. Les auteurs en sont Georg Braun (Bruin), Frans Hogenberg et Simon van den Neuvel (Novellanus). Cet article étudie le choix des villes décrites ainsi que la répartition de ces villes en Europe, la façon dont les villes ont été décrites (plans, vue d’ensemble, profil, paysage), ainsi que les informations données à leur sujet

A Comparison of Donor-Acceptor Pairs for Genetically Encoded FRET Sensors: Application to the Epac cAMP Sensor as an Example

We recently reported on CFP-Epac-YFP, an Epac-based single polypeptide FRET reporter to resolve cAMP levels in living cells. In this study, we compared and optimized the fluorescent protein donor/acceptor pairs for use in biosensors such as CFP-Epac-YFP. Our strategy was to prepare a wide range of constructs consisting of different donor and acceptor fluorescent proteins separated by a short linker. Constructs were expressed in HEK293 cells and tested for FRET and other relevant properties. The most promising pairs were subsequently used in an attempt to improve the FRET span of the Epac-based cAMP sensor. The results show significant albeit not perfect correlation between performance in the spacer construct and in the Epac sensor. Finally, this strategy enabled us to identify improved sensors both for detection by sensitized emission and by fluorescent lifetime imaging. The present overview should be helpful in guiding development of future FRET sensors

Wereldsteden uit de zestiende eeuw: de Civitates orbis terrarum van Braun en Hogenberg (t fol 212 Rar)

‘De Civitates is een van de grote boeken van de wereld [...] een fantastisch compendium over het Europese leven in de zestiende eeuw, [...] het geeft een visuele gedrukte getuigenis van middeleeuws Europa, en is een van de meest waardevolle bronnen voor de student en onderzoeker van deze tijdperken’, aldus R.V. Tooley in zijn woord vooraf bij de facsimile-editie uit 1966

Non-IG Aberrations of FOXP1 in B-Cell Malignancies Lead to an Aberrant Expression of N-Truncated Isoforms of FOXP1

The transcription factor FOXP1 is implicated in the pathogenesis of B-cell lymphomas through chromosomal translocations involving either immunoglobulin heavy chain (IGH) locus or non-IG sequences. The former translocation, t(3;14)(p13;q32), results in dysregulated expression of FOXP1 juxtaposed with strong regulatory elements of IGH. Thus far, molecular consequences of rare non-IG aberrations of FOXP1 remain undetermined. Here, using molecular cytogenetics and molecular biology studies, we comprehensively analyzed four lymphoma cases with non-IG rearrangements of FOXP1 and compared these with cases harboring t(3;14)(p13;q32)/IGH-FOXP1 and FOXP1-expressing lymphomas with no apparent structural aberrations of the gene. Our study revealed that non-IG rearrangements of FOXP1 are usually acquired during clinical course of various lymphoma subtypes, including diffuse large B cell lymphoma, marginal zone lymphoma and chronic lymphocytic leukemia, and correlate with a poor prognosis. Importantly, these aberrations constantly target the coding region of FOXP1, promiscuously fusing with coding and non-coding gene sequences at various reciprocal breakpoints (2q36, 10q24 and 3q11). The non-IG rearrangements of FOXP1, however, do not generate functional chimeric genes but commonly disrupt the full-length FOXP1 transcript leading to an aberrant expression of N-truncated FOXP1 isoforms (FOXP1NT), as shown by QRT-PCR and Western blot analysis. In contrast, t(3;14)(p13;q32)/IGH-FOXP1 affects the 5' untranslated region of FOXP1 and results in overexpress the full-length FOXP1 protein (FOXP1FL). RNA-sequencing of a few lymphoma cases expressing FOXP1NT and FOXP1FL detected neither FOXP1-related fusions nor FOXP1 mutations. Further bioinformatic analysis of RNA-sequencing data retrieved a set of genes, which may comprise direct or non-direct targets of FOXP1NT, potentially implicated in disease progression. In summary, our findings point to a dual mechanism through which FOXP1 is implicated in B-cell lymphomagenesis. We hypothesize that the primary t(3;14)(p13;q32)/IGH-FOXP1 activates expression of the FOXP1FL protein with potent oncogenic activity, whereas the secondary non-IG rearrangements of FOXP1 promote expression of the FOXP1NT proteins, likely driving progression of disease.status: publishe

FER and FES tyrosine kinase fusions in follicular T-cell lymphoma

status: publishe