Pictures and the Presentation of Gender in Rob Lloyd Jones’s Beowulf

This paper analyzes Rob Lloyd Jones’s picture book Beowulf, illustrated by Victor Tavares, and explores how the relationship between text and pictures creates gendered expectations and understanding of monstrosity and heroism by focusing on the characters of Beowulf (the male hero), Grendel (the male antagonist), and Grendel’s Mother (the female antagonist who lacks a hero equivalent). This paper examines this Beowulf re-telling under the lens of children’s literature critic Perry Nodelman’s theory of the relationship between text and pictures; described as collaborative and supportive, the text makes the pictures more assertive while the pictures extend the details of the text. Together, pictures and text create a more specific narrative and experience for readers than either is capable of alone. Nodelman notes how one of the main functions of pictures books is to provide readers, namely young children, with greater understanding of how the world around them works, and this working of things includes understanding of the human body. Using this theory, this paper examines the expectations of gendered bodily experience in this children’s picture book, demonstrating how masculinity exists along a flexible border that allows the hero and male antagonist to cross over from hero to monster and vice versa through the physical similarities between them; in contrast, femininity exists within strict confines as either powerful and dangerous monster that must be destroyed, or silent and passive props in the background. This particular pictorial re-telling of Beowulf defines the expectations of gendered bodies, with men participating in more flexible roles including king, hero, and monster, whereas women’s roles are not as fluid and confined to wife, waitress, or monster

Peucedanum ostruthium (L.) Koch: Morphological and phytochemical variability of twelve accessions from the Swiss alpine region

Ostruthin, a natural bioactive compound mainly occurring in the roots of Peucedanum ostruthium, is the focus of this study. P. ostruthium was collected from twelve locations in the Swiss alpine region and reared in an experimental field, subdivided into twelve lots over two years. In the spring and fall, a portion of each of the twelve accessions was harvested and separated into above and below ground plant parts. The dried plants were then extracted with 60 % ethanol using accelerated solvent extraction (ASE) and analyzed using high pressure liquid chromatography (HPLC).The above and below ground plant parts were then analyzed concerning their dry matter yield (DMY), their ostruthin concentration and their ostruthin yield. Focusing on ostruthin, it was found that the below ground plant parts harvested in the fall rendered the highest ostruthin yield. Furthermore, a variability concerning ostruthin among the twelve accessions was found. This variability among the accessions is of interest with regards to a breeding program used to develop a cultivar with a high ostruthin yield

Purification and Characterization of Enterotoxigenic El Tor-Like Hemolysin Produced by Vibrio fluvialis

The halophilic bacterium Vibrio fluvialis is an enteric pathogen that produces an extracellular hemolysin. This hemolysin was purified to homogeneity by using sequential hydrophobic-interaction chromatography with phenyl-Sepharose CL-4B and gel filtration with Sephacryl S-200. It has a molecular weight of 63,000 and an isoelectric point of 4.6, and its hemolytic activity is sensitive to heat, proteases, and preincubation with zinc ions. The hemolysin lyses erythrocytes of the eight different animal species that we tested, is cytotoxic against Chinese hamster ovary cells in tissue culture, and elicits fluid accumulation in suckling mice. Lysis of erythrocytes occurs by a temperature-dependent binding step followed by a temperature- and pH-dependent lytic step. Fourteen of the first 20 N-terminal amino acid residues (Val-Ser-Gly-Gly-Glu-Ala-Asn-Thr-Leu-Pro-His-Val-Ala-Phe-Tyr-Ile-Asn-Val-Asn-Arg) are identical to those of the El Tor hemolysin of Vibrio cholerae and the heat-labile hemolysin of Vibrio mimicus. This homology was further confirmed by PCR analysis using a 5′ primer derived from the amino-terminal sequence of the hemolysin and a 3′ primer derived from the El Tor hemolysin structural gene. The hemolysin also reacts with antibodies to the El Tor-like hemolysin of non-O1 V. cholerae