Truth and Terror: a Text-Oriented Analysis of Daniel 8:9-14

Daniel 8:9-14 constitutes the climax of the vision report in Dan 8, and is arguably one of the most difficult Danielic passages. This dissertation investigates the Masoretic Text of Dan 8:9-14 by means of a detailed and comprehensive text-oriented analysis that utilizes linguistic, literary, and intertextual procedures. In chapter 1, an overview of modern text-oriented approaches and the review of recent literature on Dan 8 pave the way for a description of this study\u27s methodology, which consists of a combination of linguistic (syntax, semantics, and text-grammar), literary (style and structure), and intertextual approaches (textual relations within the book of Daniel), using them as a threefold avenue to the understanding of the text, while at the same time demonstrating their interdependence. The linguistic analysis in chapter 2 analyzes the syntactic and semantic features of each clause, as well as significant terms and expressions in Dan 8:9-14. A text-grammatical analysis identifies the interclausal relations in the passage. The literary analysis in chapter 3 examines the rhetorical and stylistic devices and their function in Dan 8:9-14, and describes the literary structure and dynamics of the passage. Stylistic and structural devices include poetic-like language in vs. 11, verbal gender shifts in vss. 9-12, the use of the key word gadel in a hubris-fall pattern, and spatial imagery. The investigation of terminological fields and their distribution observes the interplay of military, royal, cultic, creation, and judgment terminology, showing how these themes characterize the role of the horn figure and convey the text\u27s theological message. The intertextual analysis in chapter 4 explores the lexical and thematic links of Dan 8:9-14 with other texts in the book of Daniel---particularly with 8:23-25 and chaps. 7, 9, and 10--12---and how these texts contribute to the interpretation of Dan 8:9-14. The summary and conclusions in chapter 5 highlight the results of each of the three avenues of the text-oriented approach to Dan 8:9-14. The climax of the vision report with its accompanying audition, against the general opinion, is linguistically well-composed and an extremely artistic literary piece that combines significant theological themes. The Day of Atonement serves as a macrotheme and typifies the divine reaction to the cosmic challenge created by the cultic war of the horn. By its complex textual relations, Dan 8:9-14 constitutes a central passage in the book of Daniel

The different use dependences of tocainide and benzocaine are correlated with different effects on sodium channel inactivation

To study the mechanism of use dependence, we investigated the influence of 0.5 mM tocainide on the amplitude of sodium currents elicited by membrane depolarizations with standard test pulses in voltage-clamped human myoballs. For comparison, the experiments were also conducted with 1 mM benzocaine, a drug with almost no use dependence. These concentrations were so chosen that without stimulation and at a holding potential of -135 mV, either drug blocked about 50% of the channels (tonic block). With repetitive stimulation at 1 Hz, tocainide blocked about 75% of the channels that had remained open in the rested state (phasic block), while benzocaine had little such effect. The potential dependence of steady-state inactivation (h∞ curves) of the sodium channels in these myoballs depended on the duration of the prepotential indicating that they possess at least two states of inactivation: fast and intermediate. The two drugs differed in their effects on these two states. Benzocaine always produced a left-shift of the h∞ curve, no matter whether the duration of the conditioning pulse was short (8 ms) or long (512 ms) indicating that it can bind when the channel is in the state of fast inactivation. Tocainide shifted the h∞ curve only with long prepulses, i.e. when the sodium channels were in the state of intermediate inactivation. The recovery from inactivation, a process governed by two time constants in the absence of drugs, was also differently influenced by the two drugs. In the presence of tocainide, the channels mainly recovered with the slow time constant and this time constant was significantly increased, whereas benzocaine did not substantially modify this biphasic process. The results are in agreement with the hypothesis that drug binding depends on the state of the channel. The different use dependences of tocainide and benzocainide are explained by the fact that they bind favourably to the sodium channels when they are in the states of intermediate and fast inactivation, respectively