Fiktionaliseringens forskellige former. Reference, relation og relevans

af Leif Søndergaar

Syv fantastiske analyser af Karen Blixens >>Ringen

- og diverse overvejelser om teori og metod

Spil, leg og idræt i nordisk middelalder

Beskrivelse af de sociale klassers sportsdyrkelse og bevægelseskulturer i middelalderen i de nordiske lande.Games and Sports in the Middle Ages in the NorthFrom Saxo’s Gesta Danorum (ce. 1200), the Icelandic Sagas and the Norwegian King’s Mirror (ce. 1250), we obtain the clear impression that games and sports in the early Middle Ages served two main functions: 1) to display physical strength and 2) to train in the proper use of weapons. These abilities were needed at all levels of Viking and early medieval society. Even kings had to distinguish themselves in sports. Later in the Middle Ages sports and games were socially differentiated. The peasantry continued with trials of strength, – wrestling, boxing, tug-of-war, running and jumping games, ball games, throwing the javelin, shooting with longbow or crossbow, stone lifting etc. The nobility however developed new games. The chivalric virtues, values and norms were transmuted into tournaments. A full scale tournament comprised three sections: 1) riding at the ring, 2) fights between riding knights armed with lances and, 3) standing fights with swords. The nobles also played skittles and other games. The burghers in the towns invented their own games during the Later Middle Ages. Their guilds organised festive sports at Shrovetide, pulling the head off a goose, sword dancing, riding summer and winter, – and at Pentecost, shooting popinjays (a wooden figure on the end of a pole). During the Middle Ages sports and games lost most of their original function of displaying power. Instead they aspired to a place among the rituals of representative courtly display. The games were often integrated into annual festivities, and contributed to giving a distinct cultural identity to each of the social groups who performed them

Spil, leg og idræt i nordisk middelalder

Beskrivelse af de sociale klassers sportsdyrkelse og bevægelseskulturer i middelalderen i de nordiske lande.Games and Sports in the Middle Ages in the NorthFrom Saxo’s Gesta Danorum (ce. 1200), the Icelandic Sagas and the Norwegian King’s Mirror (ce. 1250), we obtain the clear impression that games and sports in the early Middle Ages served two main functions: 1) to display physical strength and 2) to train in the proper use of weapons. These abilities were needed at all levels of Viking and early medieval society. Even kings had to distinguish themselves in sports. Later in the Middle Ages sports and games were socially differentiated. The peasantry continued with trials of strength, – wrestling, boxing, tug-of-war, running and jumping games, ball games, throwing the javelin, shooting with longbow or crossbow, stone lifting etc. The nobility however developed new games. The chivalric virtues, values and norms were transmuted into tournaments. A full scale tournament comprised three sections: 1) riding at the ring, 2) fights between riding knights armed with lances and, 3) standing fights with swords. The nobles also played skittles and other games. The burghers in the towns invented their own games during the Later Middle Ages. Their guilds organised festive sports at Shrovetide, pulling the head off a goose, sword dancing, riding summer and winter, – and at Pentecost, shooting popinjays (a wooden figure on the end of a pole). During the Middle Ages sports and games lost most of their original function of displaying power. Instead they aspired to a place among the rituals of representative courtly display. The games were often integrated into annual festivities, and contributed to giving a distinct cultural identity to each of the social groups who performed them

Sentinel surveillance and epidemiology of Clostridioides difficile in Denmark, 2016 to 2019

BACKGROUND: Since 2008, Danish national surveillance of Clostridioides difficile has focused on binary toxin-positive strains in order to monitor epidemic types such as PCR ribotype (RT) 027 and 078. Additional surveillance is needed to provide a more unbiased representation of all strains from the clinical reservoir. AIM: Setting up a new sentinel surveillance scheme for an improved understanding of type distribution relative to time, geography and epidemiology, here presenting data from 2016 to 2019. METHODS: For 2─4 weeks in spring and autumn each year between 2016 and 2019, all 10 Danish Departments of Clinical Microbiology collected faecal samples containing toxigenic C. difficile. Isolates were typed at the national reference laboratory at Statens Serum Institut. The typing method in 2016–17 used tandem-repeat-sequence typing, while the typing method in 2018–19 was whole genome sequencing. RESULTS: During the study period, the sentinel surveillance scheme included ca 14–15% of all Danish cases of C. difficile infections. Binary toxin-negative strains accounted for 75% and 16 of the 20 most prevalent types. The most common sequence types (ST) were ST2/13 (RT014/020) (19.5%), ST1 (RT027) (10.8%), ST11 (RT078) (6.7%), ST8 (RT002) (6.6%) and ST6 (RT005/117) (5.1%). The data also highlighted geographical differences, mostly related to ST1 and temporal decline of ST1 (p = 0.0008) and the increase of ST103 (p = 0.002), ST17 (p = 0.004) and ST37 (p = 0.003), the latter three binary toxin-negative. CONCLUSION: Sentinel surveillance allowed nationwide monitoring of geographical differences and temporal changes in C. difficile infections in Denmark, including emerging types, regardless of binary toxin status

Vitamin D Status and Bone and Connective Tissue Turnover in Brown Bears (Ursus arctos) during Hibernation and the Active State

BACKGROUND: Extended physical inactivity causes disuse osteoporosis in humans. In contrast, brown bears (Ursus arctos) are highly immobilised for half of the year during hibernation without signs of bone loss and therefore may serve as a model for prevention of osteoporosis. AIM: To study 25-hydroxy-vitamin D (25OHD) levels and bone turnover markers in brown bears during the hibernating state in winter and during the active state in summer. We measured vitamin D subtypes (D₂ and D₃), calcitropic hormones (parathyroid hormone [PTH], 1,25-dihydroxy-vitamin D [1,25(OH)₂D]) and bone turnover parameters (osteocalcin, ICTP, CTX-I), PTH, serum calcium and PIIINP. MATERIAL AND METHODS: We drew blood from seven immobilised wild brown bears during hibernation in February and in the same bears while active in June. RESULTS: Serum 25-hydroxy-cholecalciferol (25OHD₃) was significantly higher in the summer than in the winter (22.8±4.6 vs. 8.8±2.1 nmol/l, two tailed p-2p = 0.02), whereas 25-hydroxy-ergocalciferol (25OHD₂) was higher in winter (54.2±8.3 vs. 18.7±1.7 nmol/l, 2p<0.01). Total serum calcium and PTH levels did not differ between winter and summer. Activated 1,25(OH)₂D demonstrated a statistically insignificant trend towards higher summer levels. Osteocalcin levels were higher in summer than winter, whereas other markers of bone turnover (ICTP and CTX-I) were unchanged. Serum PIIINP, which is a marker of connective tissue and to some degree muscle turnover, was significantly higher during summer than during winter. CONCLUSIONS: Dramatic changes were documented in the vitamin D₃/D₂ ratio and in markers of bone and connective tissue turnover in brown bears between hibernation and the active state. Because hibernating brown bears do not develop disuse osteoporosis, despite extensive physical inactivity we suggest that they may serve as a model for the prevention of this disease