Supernatural or Material: Haunted Places in H.P. Lovecraft’s, M.R. James’s, A. Machen’s and A. Blackwood’s Horror Fiction

The horror story writers of the early 20th century presented various views on the surrounding reality. Howard P. Lovecraft and Montague R. James, for their part, rejected the mere possibility of phenomena regarded as supernatural, contrary to other writers, such as Arthur C. Doyle, Arthur Machen or Algernon Blackwood, who were members of theosophical or occultist societies. The writers differed also in the level of their education. Lovecraft was an erudite interested in science, notwithstanding the fact that he did not receive formal education. James was a respected medievalist, a specialist in the history of Christianity. Blackwood, educated abroad (in Germany), explicitly differed in his artistic output from Machen, a Welshman, who left the United Kingdom only to pursue his journalistic career. The aim of the article is to present the haunted places in the literary works of the chosen authors and to juxtapose their narratives with their scholarly achievements and their views on the surrounding reality. Based on the New Historicist approach, the study shows that the roots of horror in the haunted places presented by the authors in their works were more “material” than “supernatural”—what accounted for their choices of haunted places, story characters and haunting horrors were personal attitudes and life experience of each of the writers

Supernatural or Material: Haunted Places in H.P. Lovecraft’s, M.R. James’s, A. Machen’s and A. Blackwood’s Horror Fiction

The horror story writers of the early 20th century presented various views on the surrounding reality. Howard P. Lovecraft and Montague R. James, for their part, rejected the mere possibility of phenomena regarded as supernatural, contrary to other writers, such as Arthur C. Doyle, Arthur Machen or Algernon Blackwood, who were members of theosophical or occultist societies. The writers differed also in the level of their education. Lovecraft was an erudite interested in science, notwithstanding the fact that he did not receive formal education. James was a respected medievalist, a specialist in the history of Christianity. Blackwood, educated abroad (in Germany), explicitly differed in his artistic output from Machen, a Welshman, who left the United Kingdom only to pursue his journalistic career. The aim of the article is to present the haunted places in the literary works of the chosen authors and to juxtapose their narratives with their scholarly achievements and their views on the surrounding reality. Based on the New Historicist approach, the study shows that the roots of horror in the haunted places presented by the authors in their works were more “material” than “supernatural”—what accounted for their choices of haunted places, story characters and haunting horrors were personal attitudes and life experience of each of the writers

Environment, Colonization, and the Baltic Crusader States. Terra Sacra I, and Ecologies of Crusading, Colonization, and Religious Conversion in the Medieval Baltic. Terra Sacra II

Environment, Colonization, and the Baltic Crusader States. Terra Sacra I, and Ecologies of Crusading, Colonization, and Religious Conversion in the Medieval Baltic. Terra Sacra II. Edited by Aleksander Pluskowski. Turnhout: Brepols Publishers n.v., 2019.Environment, Colonization, and the Baltic Crusader States. Terra Sacra I, and Ecologies of Crusading, Colonization, and Religious Conversion in the Medieval Baltic. Terra Sacra II. Edited by Aleksander Pluskowski. Turnhout: Brepols Publishers n.v., 2019.   Author’s studies funded by the National Science Centre, Poland’s (NCN) PRELUDIUM grant no. 2016/23/N/HS3/00660.Environment, Colonization, and the Baltic Crusader States. Terra Sacra I, and Ecologies of Crusading, Colonization, and Religious Conversion in the Medieval Baltic. Terra Sacra II. Edited by Aleksander Pluskowski. Turnhout: Brepols Publishers n.v., 2019.   Author’s studies funded by the National Science Centre, Poland’s (NCN) PRELUDIUM grant no. 2016/23/N/HS3/00660

The Military Orders. Vol. 6.1, Culture and Conflict in the Mediterranean World, and Vol. 6.2, Culture and Conflict in Western and Northern Europe

The Military Orders. Vol. 6.1, Culture and Conflict in the Mediterranean World, and Vol. 6.2, Culture and Conflict in Western and Northern Europe Edited by Jochen Schenk and Mike Carr. London–New York: Routledge/Taylor & Francis, 2017. 228 and 241 pp. ISBN: 978-1-4724-7635-7 and 978-1-4724-7638-8

Expression of adiponectin receptors 1 and 2 in the ovary and concentration of plasma adiponectin during the oestrous cycle of the pig

The aim of this study was to compare the expression levels of adiponectin receptor 1 and adiponectin receptor 2 mRNAs and proteins in porcine ovaries during four stages (days 2 to 3, 10 to 12, 14 to 16, 17 to 19) of the oestrous cycle and to measure adiponectin plasma concentrations during the same phases of the cycle. Higher mRNA expression of adiponectin receptor 1 was detected in porcine granulosa cells than in corpora lutea and theca cells (P < 0.01). In contrast, higher gene expression of adiponectin receptor 2 occurred in newly developed and mature corpora lutea (P < 0.01). The adiponectin receptor 1 protein content was the highest in corpora lutea isolated on days 2 to 3 of the cycle and was the lowest in theca interna cells (P < 0.01). The profile of adiponectin receptor 2 protein was similar to that of adiponectin receptor 1. Adiponectin plasma concentrations were significantly higher throughout the luteal phase than in the follicular phase (P < 0.01). In conclusion, the presence of adiponectin receptor 1 and adiponectin receptor 2 mRNAs and proteins in the porcine ovary suggests that adiponectin may directly affect ovarian functions through its own specific receptors. The expression of both receptors and adiponectin plasma concentration were dependent on hormonal status related to the stage of the cycle

Finding the missing honey bee genes: lessons learned from a genome upgrade

BACKGROUND: The first generation of genome sequence assemblies and annotations have had a significant impact upon our understanding of the biology of the sequenced species, the phylogenetic relationships among species, the study of populations within and across species, and have informed the biology of humans. As only a few Metazoan genomes are approaching finished quality (human, mouse, fly and worm), there is room for improvement of most genome assemblies. The honey bee (Apis mellifera) genome, published in 2006, was noted for its bimodal GC content distribution that affected the quality of the assembly in some regions and for fewer genes in the initial gene set (OGSv1.0) compared to what would be expected based on other sequenced insect genomes. RESULTS: Here, we report an improved honey bee genome assembly (Amel_4.5) with a new gene annotation set (OGSv3.2), and show that the honey bee genome contains a number of genes similar to that of other insect genomes, contrary to what was suggested in OGSv1.0. The new genome assembly is more contiguous and complete and the new gene set includes ~5000 more protein-coding genes, 50% more than previously reported. About 1/6 of the additional genes were due to improvements to the assembly, and the remaining were inferred based on new RNAseq and protein data. CONCLUSIONS: Lessons learned from this genome upgrade have important implications for future genome sequencing projects. Furthermore, the improvements significantly enhance genomic resources for the honey bee, a key model for social behavior and essential to global ecology through pollination.Funding for the project was provided by a grant to RG from the National Human Genome Research Institute, National Institutes of Health (NHGRI, NIH) U54 HG003273. Contributions from members of the CGE lab were supported by Agriculture and Food Research Initiative Competitive grant no. 2010- 65205-20407 from the USDA National Institute of Food Agriculture. AKB was supported by a Clare Luce Booth Fellowship at Georgetown University