Dante in Mogadishu: <em>The</em> <em>Divine Comedy</em> in Nuruddin Farah’s <em>Links</em>

This article aims to explore the complex network of intra-textual and intertextual references to Dante\u27s The Divine Comedy in Nuruddin Farah\u27s novel Links (2005). By analyzing the quotations from the poem, this essay wishes to show how the Comedy informs the novel at various levels, from the paratext (since Dante\u27s tercets from Inferno are chosen as an epigraph) to the text itself (since Inferno appears to be deeply constitutive of Links). The analysis then suggests that, on the one hand, Farah employs Dante\u27s poem to address, represent and understand the civil-war context of Somalia from the protagonist\u27s point of view. On the other, he subverts and re-contextualizes Inferno to create new meanings and to distance his novel from Dante\u27s literary antecedent. Therefore, by analyzing the practices of intertextuality between the two texts, this essay aims to investigate both the converging and conflicting strategies enabled in the novel

Participatory Design and ICT for Fostering ADHD Students&#8217; Inclusion

This paper illustrates a project proposal focused on adopting participatory design of ICT-based educational activities for improving the inclusion of ADHD students in classrooms

Floating formulation for Bacillus thuringiensis var. israelensis obtained from semi-solid rice medium.

A loopful of Bti mantained on Luria-Bertani agar medium was transferred to Bacto-Peptona agar medium. After 3 days at 30oC, the petri-disheswere washed with sterilized water (100ml/petri-dish). The suspension obtained represented the inoculum for the semi-solid rice-based fermentation medium. The growth units were incubated until complete sporulation of Bti. The resulting biomass was dried at 60oC in an oven for 24h, sieved through 60 tyler. The retained powder did not show any larvicidal activity. In parallel, colloidal bentonite was treated with organic macromolecules dissolved in toluene, after sedimentation, the botton phase was dried at 120oC for 4h. This treatment led to a spreading and floating clay which resulted in a good carrier for Bti. Then, the the two powders were mixed in the proportion of 1(Bti):150(clay). The bioassays were performed under laboratory conditions utilizing 2nd instar Culex sp. larvae, with 3 repetitions (20 larvae each) being observed during 96 hours. The data were treated with Abbott method. A complete methodology was developed to get floating units of Bti with 143 mg/m2 of biological activity

Intermediate Phenotypes Identify Divergent Pathways to Alzheimer's Disease

Background: Recent genetic studies have identified a growing number of loci with suggestive evidence of association with susceptibility to Alzheimer's disease (AD). However, little is known of the role of these candidate genes in influencing intermediate phenotypes associated with a diagnosis of AD, including cognitive decline or AD neuropathologic burden. Methods/Principal Findings: Thirty-two single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) previously implicated in AD susceptibility were genotyped in 414 subjects with both annual clinical evaluation and completed brain autopsies from the Religious Orders Study and the Rush Memory and Aging Project. Regression analyses evaluated the relation of SNP genotypes to continuous measures of AD neuropathology and cognitive function proximate to death. A SNP in the zinc finger protein 224 gene (ZNF224, rs3746319) was associated with both global AD neuropathology (p = 0.009) and global cognition (p = 0.002); whereas, a SNP at the phosphoenolpyruvate carboxykinase locus (PCK1, rs8192708) was selectively associated with global cognition (p = 3.57×10−4). The association of ZNF224 with cognitive impairment was mediated by neurofibrillary tangles, whereas PCK1 largely influenced cognition independent of AD pathology, as well as Lewy bodies and infarcts. Conclusions/Significance: The findings support the association of several loci with AD, and suggest how intermediate phenotypes can enhance analysis of susceptibility loci in this complex genetic disorder

Adaptive Evolution in Zinc Finger Transcription Factors

The majority of human genes are conserved among mammals, but some gene families have undergone extensive expansion in particular lineages. Here, we present an evolutionary analysis of one such gene family, the poly–zinc-finger (poly-ZF) genes. The human genome encodes approximately 700 members of the poly-ZF family of putative transcriptional repressors, many of which have associated KRAB, SCAN, or BTB domains. Analysis of the gene family across the tree of life indicates that the gene family arose from a small ancestral group of eukaryotic zinc-finger transcription factors through many repeated gene duplications accompanied by functional divergence. The ancestral gene family has probably expanded independently in several lineages, including mammals and some fishes. Investigation of adaptive evolution among recent paralogs using dN/dS analysis indicates that a major component of the selective pressure acting on these genes has been positive selection to change their DNA-binding specificity. These results suggest that the poly-ZF genes are a major source of new transcriptional repression activity in humans and other primates