Enwau ac Anryfeddodau Ynys Prydain and a Tradition of Topographical Wonders in Medieval Britain

This paper attempts to determine the possible use of the Wonders tradition in later medieval Britain. Enwau ac Anryfeddodau Ynys Prydain and various English chronicles appropriate a marvelous landscape from a partially shared, circulating tradition of British Wonders.  I will argue that for both the Welsh and English writers, the Wonders of the Island of Britain are a significant aspect of their nationalist agenda and an important component of the ‘Matter of Britain’. Additionally, I will note that the manuscript context of Enwau ac Anryfeddodau Ynys Prydain convincingly suggests that it was thought of less as a translation (from potential Latin sources) or a geographical treatise and more as cyfarwyddyd (the traditional narrative material or lore of medieval Wales).  By upholding the Wonders as Welsh tradition, the Welsh establish themselves as the rightful custodians of the mythos of Prydain (Britain) and its mythological geography that was once theirs

Reading Boethius in Medieval England: The Consolation of Philosophy from Alfred to Ashby

This chapter provides a holistic overview of the reception of Boethius's Consolation of Philosophy in medieval England, from the Old English Boethius to George Ashby’s A Prisoner’s Reflections, as well as chapter summaries for the essays in The Legacy of Boethius in Medieval England: The Consolation and its Afterlives

Locating Place and Landscape in Early Insular Literature

No abstract

Subcutaneous Neurotophin 4 Infusion Using Osmotic Pumps or Direct Muscular Injection Enhances Aging Rat Laryngeal Muscles

Laryngeal dysfunction in the elderly is a major cause of disability, from voice disorders to dysphagia and loss of airway protective reflexes. Few, if any, therapies exist that target age-related laryngeal muscle dysfunction. Neurotrophins are involved in muscle innervation and differentiation of neuromuscular junctions (NMJs). It is thought that neurotrophins enhance neuromuscular transmission by increasing neurotransmitter release. The neuromuscular junctions (NMJs) become smaller and less abundant in aging rat laryngeal muscles, with evidence of functional denervation. We explored the effects of NTF4 for future clinical use as a therapeutic to improve function in aging human laryngeal muscles. Here, we provide the detailed protocol for systemic application and direct injection of NTF4 to investigate the ability of aging rat laryngeal muscle to remodel in response to NTF4 application. In this method, rats either received NTF4 either systemically via osmotic pump or by direct injection through the vocal folds. Laryngeal muscles were then dissected and used for histological examination of morphology and age-related denervation

Enhancement of Aging Rat Laryngeal Muscles with Endogenous Growth Factor Treatment

Clinical evidence suggests that laryngeal muscle dysfunction is associated with human aging. Studies in animal models have reported morphological changes consistent with denervation in laryngeal muscles with age. Life‐long laryngeal muscle activity relies on cytoskeletal integrity and nerve–muscle communication at the neuromuscular junction (NMJ). It is thought that neurotrophins enhance neuromuscular transmission by increasing neurotransmitter release. We hypothesized that treatment with neurotrophin 4 (NTF4) would modify the morphology and functional innervation of aging rat laryngeal muscles. Fifty‐six Fischer 344xBrown Norway rats (6‐ and 30‐mo age groups) were used to evaluate to determine if NTF4, given systemically (n = 32) or directly (n = 24), would improve the morphology and functional innervation of aging rat thyroarytenoid muscles. Results demonstrate the ability of rat laryngeal muscles to remodel in response to neurotrophin application. Changes were demonstrated in fiber size, glycolytic capacity, mitochondrial, tyrosine kinase receptors (Trk), NMJ content, and denervation in aging rat thyroarytenoid muscles. This study suggests that growth factors may have therapeutic potential to ameliorate aging‐related laryngeal muscle dysfunction

Unimodality Problems in Ehrhart Theory

Ehrhart theory is the study of sequences recording the number of integer points in non-negative integral dilates of rational polytopes. For a given lattice polytope, this sequence is encoded in a finite vector called the Ehrhart $h^*$-vector. Ehrhart $h^*$-vectors have connections to many areas of mathematics, including commutative algebra and enumerative combinatorics. In this survey we discuss what is known about unimodality for Ehrhart $h^*$-vectors and highlight open questions and problems.Comment: Published in Recent Trends in Combinatorics, Beveridge, A., et al. (eds), Springer, 2016, pp 687-711, doi 10.1007/978-3-319-24298-9_27. This version updated October 2017 to correct an error in the original versio

Radiation therapy generates platelet-activating factor agonists

Pro-oxidative stressors can suppress host immunity due to their ability to generate oxidized lipid agonists of the platelet-activating factor-receptor (PAF-R). As radiation therapy also induces reactive oxygen species, the present studies were designed to define whether ionizing radiation could generate PAF-R agonists and if these lipids could subvert host immunity. We demonstrate that radiation exposure of multiple tumor cell lines in-vitro, tumors in-vivo, and human subjects undergoing radiation therapy for skin tumors all generate PAF-R agonists. Structural characterization of radiation-induced PAF-R agonistic activity revealed PAF and multiple oxidized glycerophosphocholines that are produced non-enzymatically. In a murine melanoma tumor model, irradiation of one tumor augmented the growth of the other (non-treated) tumor in a PAF-R-dependent process blocked by a cyclooxygenase-2 inhibitor. These results indicate a novel pathway by which PAF-R agonists produced as a byproduct of radiation therapy could result in tumor treatment failure, and offer important insights into potential therapeutic strategies that could improve the overall antitumor effectiveness of radiation therapy regimens

Physical and Genetic Structure of the Maize Genome Reflects Its Complex Evolutionary History

Maize (Zea mays L.) is one of the most important cereal crops and a model for the study of genetics, evolution, and domestication. To better understand maize genome organization and to build a framework for genome sequencing, we constructed a sequence-ready fingerprinted contig-based physical map that covers 93.5% of the genome, of which 86.1% is aligned to the genetic map. The fingerprinted contig map contains 25,908 genic markers that enabled us to align nearly 73% of the anchored maize genome to the rice genome. The distribution pattern of expressed sequence tags correlates to that of recombination. In collinear regions, 1 kb in rice corresponds to an average of 3.2 kb in maize, yet maize has a 6-fold genome size expansion. This can be explained by the fact that most rice regions correspond to two regions in maize as a result of its recent polyploid origin. Inversions account for the majority of chromosome structural variations during subsequent maize diploidization. We also find clear evidence of ancient genome duplication predating the divergence of the progenitors of maize and rice. Reconstructing the paleoethnobotany of the maize genome indicates that the progenitors of modern maize contained ten chromosomes