Interview with Jim Crace

Jim Crace was born in Hertfordshire in 1946 and is the author of 11 novels. This interview took place on 10 July 2013. Before becoming a novelist, he worked as a freelance journalist, and wrote educational plays and a number of short stories between 1968 and 1986. He has won numerous awards and became a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature in 1999. His success began when his first book, Continent (1986), won the Whitbread First Novel Award, the Guardian Fiction Prize and the David Higham Prize for Fiction. His most recent novel, Harvest, won him the James Tait Black Prize for fiction. Crace also won a Windham Campbell literature prize in 2014 for his career in fiction writing. Among British contemporary novelists, Jim Crace has made a space for himself which is uniquely his. It is known as ‘Craceland’, a term which describes his gift for setting his novels in mythically oriented landscapes. Crace is not holding a mirror to our real world but rather he is inventing his continent from the real world’s dark corners, worlds of his own making. These worlds are as simple as his description of them, but approaching them will uncover how they conceal universal moral issues of nowhere and everywhere. His fiction is a product of a man who knows the facts; Crace describes his fiction as dealing ‘with big issues, big moral issues, rather than smaller domestic issues’. His inventions ask readers to respond to crucial universal issues rather than simple facts. His interest in natural history is obvious in his fiction, as his interest in walking and travelling inspires him to invent mythical worlds and communities. In this interview, Crace highlights inventions as the core of his fiction, but indicates that he starts with landscapes which he considers the basis for his unlimited re-shaping of his inventions. His Craceland is rendered in a multitude of forms but with the same key words and contents. Indeed, elements of themes, tropes and means of exploring them (archetypes, ambiguity and universal big issues) are present effectively in almost all of his novels. The prototype Craceland can be found in his debut, which marks the starting point for approaching Crace’s first form of mythification, Craceland

Influence of Combination Between Fertilizer Treatments and Nipping on Growth, Yield and Quality of Sesame (Sesamum indicum L.)

A field experiment was undertaken during the summer growing season of 2021 at two locations (Grdmala and Grdarasha) - Erbil Governorate to study the influence of five fertilizer types [Control, recommended fertilizer (NPK), Nano-NPK, Humic acid and Nano-NPK+ Humic acid] and two Nipping practice [Without Nipping and with Nipping] on some growth, yield and quality parameters of sesame crop (Somar genotype), using factorial RCBD with three replicates. The results indicated to significant effect of the studied factors and their interactions on the studied characteristics. The maximum seed yield (3.23 and 2.45) t ha-1 was recorded from sprayed with Nano-NPK+ Humic acid and Nano-NPK, while the lowest values (2.41 and 1.43) t ha-1 was recorded from control in both locations respectively. While the highest seed yield value (3.09 and 2.13) t ha-1 were obtained from Nipping practice. On the other hand, the interaction treatment of (Nano-NPK+ Humic acid * Nipping) and (Nano-NPK * Nipping) were recorded the highest seed yield per plant which were (3.77 and 2.61) t ha-1 respectively. The highest oil values (57.71 and 59.49) % was observed from Nano-NPK+ Humic acid and treatment combination of (Nano-NPK+ Humic acid* Nipping) respectively. Furthermore, the results shows that Grdmala surprised Grdarasha in most of the studied parameters

TGFβ1-Induced Differentiation of Human Bone Marrow-Derived MSCs Is Mediated by Changes to the Actin Cytoskeleton

TGFβ is a potent regulator of several biological functions in many cell types, but its role in the differentiation of human bone marrow-derived skeletal stem cells (hMSCs) is currently poorly understood. In the present study, we demonstrate that a single dose of TGFβ1 prior to induction of osteogenic or adipogenic differentiation results in increased mineralized matrix or increased numbers of lipid-filled mature adipocytes, respectively. To identify the mechanisms underlying this TGFβ-mediated enhancement of lineage commitment, we compared the gene expression profiles of TGFβ1-treated hMSC cultures using DNA microarrays. In total, 1932 genes were upregulated, and 1298 genes were downregulated. Bioinformatics analysis revealed that TGFβl treatment was associated with an enrichment of genes in the skeletal and extracellular matrix categories and the regulation of the actin cytoskeleton. To investigate further, we examined the actin cytoskeleton following treatment with TGFβ1 and/or cytochalasin D. Interestingly, cytochalasin D treatment of hMSCs enhanced adipogenic differentiation but inhibited osteogenic differentiation. Global gene expression profiling revealed a significant enrichment of pathways related to osteogenesis and adipogenesis and of genes regulated by both TGFβ1 and cytochalasin D. Our study demonstrates that TGFβ1 enhances hMSC commitment to either the osteogenic or adipogenic lineages by reorganizing the actin cytoskeleton