(Un)-damning subplots : the principate of Domitian between literary sources and fresh material evidence

Moving beyond the methodological issues of a literary-based reassessment of the reign of the last Flavian emperor, this article re-reads the principate of Domitian in light of fresh epigraphic and numismatic evidence that has only been discovered or fully understood in recent years. This exploration documents the progressive ingraining into second-century literature of an unfavorable vulgate on Domitian's architectural, moral, and religious policies, the positive impact of which is, however, documented by material sources. In addition to contributing to the ongoing revaluation of Domitian, this article displays the benefits of a cross-fertilizing and interdiscursive reading of literary and material sources.Publisher PDFPeer reviewe

The Argos narrative in Statius' Thebaid : a new Ovidian Perseid?

Moving beyond traditionally Virgil-centric readings of the Thebaid, I argue that Statius programmatically acknowledges the role that the Metamorphoses plays in his poem, by opening the Thebaid with an Argive narrative (Theb. 1.312–2.743) entirely modelled on the Ovidian Perseid (Met. 4.610–5.249). By exploring how a "conflictive" Virgilian-Ovidian intertextuality informs the Thebaid's Argos narrative, I show how Statius develops Ovid's intertextual technique both to competitively renegotiate his relationship with his Augustan models and to respond to the new socio-political issues of Flavian Rome, chiefly the dangers of the Flavians' family-based reorganisation of the imperial institution under the guise of a return to an idealised Augustan past.PostprintPeer reviewe

Understanding cardiopulmonary interactions through esophageal pressure monitoring

Esophageal pressure is the closest estimate of pleural pressure. Changes in esophageal pressure reflect changes in intrathoracic pressure and affect transpulmonary pressure, both of which have multiple effects on right and left ventricular performance. During passive breathing, increasing esophageal pressure is associated with lower venous return and higher right ventricular afterload and lower left ventricular afterload and oxygen consumption. In spontaneously breathing patients, negative pleural pressure swings increase venous return, while right heart afterload increases as in passive conditions; for the left ventricle, end-diastolic pressure is increased potentially favoring lung edema. Esophageal pressure monitoring represents a simple bedside method to estimate changes in pleural pressure and can advance our understanding of the cardiovascular performance of critically ill patients undergoing passive or assisted ventilation and guide physiologically personalized treatments

Through-and-through nasal reconstruction with the bi-pedicled forehead flap

BackgroundNasal reconstruction is one of the most difficult challenges for the head and neck surgeon, especially in the case of complex full thickness defects following malignant skin tumor resection. Full-thickness defects require demanding multi-step reconstruction.MethodsSeven patients underwent surgical reconstruction of full-thickness nasal defects with a bi-pedicled forehead flap shaped appropriately to the defect. Patients were aged between 58 and 86 years, with a mean age of 63.4 years. All of the tumors were excised using traditional surgery, and in 4 of the patients, reconstruction was performed simultaneously following negativity of fresh frozen sections of the margins under general anesthesia.ResultsNasal reconstruction was well accepted by all of the patients suffering non-melanoma skin tumors with acceptable cosmetic outcomes. The heart-shaped forehead flap was harvested in cases of subtotal involvement of the nasal pyramid, while smaller defects were reconstructed with a wing-shaped flap. No cartilaginous or osseous support was necessary.ConclusionsThis bi-pedicled forehead flap was a valid, versatile, and easy-to-implement alternative to microsurgery or multi-step reconstruction. The flap is the best indication for full-thickness nasal defects but can also be indicated for other complex facial defects in the orbital (exenteratio orbitae), zygomatic, and cheek area, for which the availability of a flap equipped with two thick and hairless lobes can be a valuable resource

Spatio-temporal dynamics in semiconductor microresonators with thermal effects.

In this paper we study the dynamics of the intracavity field, carriers and lattice temperature in externally driven semiconductor microcavities. The combination/competition of the different time-scales of the dynamical variables together with diffraction and carrier/thermal diffusions are responsible for new dynamical behaviors. We report here the occurrence of a spatio-temporal instability of the Hopf type giving rise to Regenerative Oscillations and travelling patterns and cavity solitons

Hydrophilic interaction and reversed phase mixed-mode liquid chromatography coupled to high resolution tandem mass spectrometry for polar lipids analysis

A hydrophilic interaction liquid chromatography (HILIC) fused-core column (150 × 2.1 mm ID, 2.7 μm particle size) and a short reversed-phase liquid chromatography (RPLC) column (20 mm × 2.1 mm ID, 1.9 μm) were serially coupled to perform mixed-mode chromatography (MMC) on complex mixtures of phospholipids (PL). Mobile phase composition and gradient elution program were, preliminarily, optimized using a mixture of phosphatidylcholines (PC), phosphatidylethanolamines (PE), their corresponding lyso-forms (LPC and LPE), and sphingomyelins (SM). Thus a mixture of PC extracted from soybean was characterized by MMC coupled to electrospray ionization (ESI) high-resolution Fourier-transform mass spectrometry (FTMS) using an orbital trap analyzer. Several previously undiscovered PC, including positional isomers (i.e. 16:0/19:1 and 19:1/16:0) of PC 35:1 and skeletal isomers (i.e. 18:1/18:2 and 18:0/18:3) of PC 36:3 were identified. Therefore, high-resolution MS/MS spectra unveiled the occurrence of isomers for several overall side chain compositions. The proposed MMC-ESI-FTMS/MS approach revealed an unprecedented capability in disclosing complexity of an actual lipid extract, thus representing a very promising approach to lipidomics