Rhetorical Questioning: Oracles and Oratory in Fourth Century Athens

The oracles of the ancient Greek world are renowned for not offering easy answers to easy questions. The oracles from ancient myths, poetry and even historiography forced their inquirers to interpret enigmatic utterances and reflect on the relationship between humans and the divine sphere. The role of these oracles in Greek culture, religion, politics, literature and even cognition has been subject to increased scrutiny in the past decades. This study extends scholarship on the use of oracles into a key intersection of these areas, the surviving public speeches of Athenian politics. This thesis collects and examines the 14 oracular responses that are preserved in the surviving speeches from Athens in the fourth century BCE. Rather than seeking to determine whether orators are quoting accurately, or whether the consultations ever occurred at all, the study analyses the function of oracular authority within their rhetorical context. Contrary to previous approaches to isolated examples from the speeches, the collection demonstrates that orators employed oracular authority in a distinctive but consistent way. Unlike the enigmatic oracles of orators used oracles to stress the clarity of divine goodwill to the polis

Quadratic behavior of fiber Bragg grating temperature coefficients

We describe the characterization of the temperature and strain responses of fiber Bragg grating sensors by use of an interferometric interrogation technique to provide an absolute measurement of the grating wavelength. The fiber Bragg grating temperature response was found to be nonlinear over the temperature range -70 degreesC to 80 degreesC. The nonlinearity was observed to be a quadratic function of temperature, arising from the linear dependence on temperature of the thermo-optic coefficient of silica glass over this range, and is in good agreement with a theoretical model. (C) 2004 Optical Society of America

Exposure to holoendemic malaria results in suppression of Epstein-Barr virus-specific T cell immunosurveillance in Kenyan children

BACKGROUND: Malaria and Epstein-Barr virus (EBV) infection are cofactors in the pathogenesis of endemic Burkitt lymphoma (eBL). The mechanisms by which these pathogens predispose to eBL are not known. METHODS: Healthy Kenyan children with divergent malaria exposure were measured for responses to EBV latent and lytic antigens by interferon (IFN)- gamma enzyme-linked immunospot (ELISPOT) assay and interleukin (IL)-10 ELISA. Phytohemagglutinin (PHA), purified protein derivative (PPD), and T cell epitope peptides derived from merozoite surface protein (MSP)-1, a malaria blood-stage antigen, were also evaluated. RESULTS: Children 5-9 years old living in an area holoendemic for malaria had significantly fewer EBV-specific IFN- gamma responses than did children of the same age living in an area with unstable malaria transmission. This effect was not observed for children \u3c5 years old or those \u3e9 years old. In contrast, IFN- gamma responses to PHA, PPD, and Plasmodium falciparum MSP-1 peptides did not significantly differ by age. IL-10 responses to EBV lytic antigens, PPD, and PHA correlated inversely with malaria exposure regardless of age. CONCLUSIONS: Children living in malaria-holoendemic areas have diminished EBV-specific T cell immunosurveillance between the ages of 5 and 9 years, which coincides with the peak age incidence of eBL

Integration of biological effects, fish histopathology and contaminant measurements for the assessment of fish health: A pilot application in Irish marine waters

This study investigates the use of a weight of evidence (WOE) approach to evaluate fish health status and biological effects (BEs) of contaminants for assessment of ecosystem health and discusses its potential application in support of the Marine Strategy Framework Directive (MSFD). External fish disease, liver histopathology and several BEs of contaminant exposure including 7-ethoxy resorufin O-de-ethylase (EROD), acetylcholinesterase (AChE), bile metabolites, vitellogenin (VTG) and alkali labile phosphates (ALP) were measured in two flatfish species from four locations in Ireland. Contaminant levels in fish were generally low with PCBs in fish liver below OSPAR environmental assessment criteria (EAC). There were consistencies with low PCB levels, EROD and PAH bile metabolite levels detected in fish. Dab from Cork, Dublin and Shannon had the highest relative prevalence of liver lesions associated with the carcinogenic pathway. An integrated biomarker response (IBR) showed promise to be useful for evaluation of environmental risk, although more contaminant parameters in liver are required for a full assessment with the present study

Exposure to holoendemic malaria results in elevated Epstein-Barr virus loads in children

Perennial and intense malaria transmission (holoendemic malaria) and Epstein-Barr virus (EBV) infection are 2 cofactors in the pathogenesis of endemic Burkitt lymphoma (eBL). In the present study, we compared EBV loads in children living in 2 regions of Kenya with differing malaria transmission intensities: Kisumu District, where malaria transmission is holoendemic, and Nandi District, where malaria transmission is sporadic. For comparison, blood samples were also obtained from US adults, Kenyan adults, and patients with eBL. Extraction of DNA from blood and quantification by polymerase chain reaction give an EBV load estimate that reflects the number of EBV-infected B cells. We observed a significant linear trend in mean EBV load, with the lowest EBV load detected in US adults and increasing EBV loads detected in Kenyan adults, Nandi children, Kisumu children, and patients with eBL, respectively. In addition, EBV loads were significantly higher in Kisumu children 1-4 years of age than in Nandi children of the same age. Our results support the hypothesis that repeated malaria infections in very young children modulate the persistence of EBV and increase the risk for the development of eBL

Direct experimental evidence for substrate adatom incorporation into a molecular overlayer

While the phenomenon of metal substrate adatom incorporation into molecular overlayers is generally believed to occur in several systems, the experimental evidence for this relies on the interpretation of scanning tunnelling microscopy (STM) images, which can be ambiguous and provides no quantitative structural information. We show that surface X- ray diffraction (SXRD) uniquely provides unambiguous identification of these metal adatoms. We present the results of a detailed structural study of the Au(111)-F4TCNQ system, combining surface characterisation by STM, low energy electron diffraction and soft X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy with quantitative experimental structural information from normal incidence X-ray standing waves (NIXSW) and SXRD, together with dispersion corrected density functional theory (DFT) calculations. Excellent agreement is found between the NIXSW data and the DFT calculations regarding the height and conformation of the adsorbed molecule, which has a twisted geometry rather than the previously supposed inverted bowl shape. SXRD measurements provide unequivocal evidence for the presence and location of Au adatoms, while the DFT calculations show this reconstruction to be strongly energetically favoured.Comment: 38 pages, 10 figure