Resituating the Untranslatable: Modernism from Moscow to Rio to Berlin

What is untranslatability, who can prove it and how can it be found? As argued in the following work, it is not definable through a unitary theory but rather provides us with a novel lens through which to read literary texts anew. As elaborated in more detail in a recent publication, the methodology offered in the following work is applicable both inside and outside the University. Putting this methodology into practice, my project takes three untranslatable terms and uses them as literary theories to analyse six allegedly untranslatable authors. It allows the breadth of my project to include Russian, Brazilian and German modernism, while being vigilant of the dramatic historical events that characterised this period. Between revolution, war, colonialism and exile, what was it that led so many authors of this period to aspire to an untranslatable style of writing? Is this a conscious aesthetic, or is it a judgement levelled at the authors from their contemporaries? I will address the University context first, the external context second. Institutionally then, I suggest that using The Dictionary of Untranslatables (2014) as a source-text for teaching literary theory, allows the educator and the student alike a more global form of dialogue, interpretation and critique. From the perspective of the educator, I suggest that it better suits the global promise with which Universities advertise themselves, in new, challenging, and counter-intuitive ways. From the perspective of the student, I suggest that pursuing untranslatability pedagogically forces students to grasp and understand language, much as a translator would, and the conditions in which it originates, while using similar teaching strategies as that employed in the teaching of literary theory. I gesture to the fact that this methodology would accommodate both the words within The Dictionary itself, but also the strategies employed by Translation Studies. Outside the academy, I argue that untranslatability can counter-intuitively also be a means by which to rescue authors whose work has subsequently fallen into obscurity or has been left untranslated into English. Two of the authors in my study – the Brazilian surrealist Murilo Mendes and the German poet Mascha Kaléko – certainly fit this category. The former remains almost entirely untranslated into English, and thus I hope this project can, in some modest way, help rectify this, and encourage others to do the same. Untranslatability, interpreted in this sense, can also be a way to re-historicise and recover many of the brilliant authors who have been lost due to their language of composition or geographical site of origin. From that perspective, untranslatability offers a more globally informed way of teaching and research, while also carrying a reparative possibility for authors whose work has not received the adulation and attention they deserve

The Improvement of Multi-Satellite Orbit Determination Through the Incorporation of Intersatellite Ranging Observations

For many satellite remote sensing and communications missions, particularly those involving a formation or constellation of satellites, having precise knowledge of the satellites’ positions in both an absolute and relative sense is essential. However, the capabilities of Global Navigation Satellite Systems (GNSS)-based precise orbit determination (POD) alone may not be enough to fulfill the mission’s requirements. This thesis examines potential gains to POD when additional Intersatellite Range (ISR) observations (range magnitude only, not range direction or rate) are combined with standard GNSS observables. These ISR observations can be obtained from simple radio frequency (RF) or optical sensors. The methodology behind the combination approach is described and illustrated through a series of simulated case studies involving multiple satellites in low Earth orbit (LEO) using realistic hardware-derived (where possible) measurement noise. The results demonstrate that substantial improvements (factor of two or better) in the POD of the constellation satellites can be obtained with even intermittent ranging measurements, and with only millimeter-level ranging precision. This improved positioning capability enables new mission concepts for small-satellite constellations and formations, and makes these multi-satellite systems resilient to disruptions in GNSS signal availability. This GNSS-denial could be due to a variety of factors, such as intermittent or total hardware failure, power-related duty cycling, or ground-based jamming. Results show that under appropriate phasing of periodic GNSS-denial, combined with the new information from the ISR observations, POD levels approaching the non-GNSS-denied case can be achieved. For the cases of region-specific or single-satellite total GNSS-denial, constellations with ISR capability can be designed to completely compensate for the loss of GNSS observations and perform at levels better than with GNSS alone. Furthermore, the GNSS-denied case has an extended application for providing ISR-only POD for constellations around planetary bodies through the inversion of the invariant non-spherical gravity fields. Case studies are presented using high resolution invariant Earth and lunar gravity fields. In these example cases, ISR-only POD is demonstrated at the sub-meter level with the same millimeter precision of ISR. This research provides opportunities for new mission concepts that require precise positioning, improvements to mission operations, and enables new paradigms for orbit determination without access to GNSS.Ph.D

Susceptibility of House Fly (Diptera: Muscidae) Larvae to Entomopathogenic Nematodes (Rhabditida: Heterorhabditidae, Steinernematidae)

The potential for entomopathogenic nematodes to control flies in cattle feedlots was determined by screening 40 strains representing 8 species of Heterorhabditis Poinar and 5 species of Steinemema Travassos for virulence toward 3rd-instar house flies (maggots), Musca domestica L. None of the 22 strains of Heterorhabditis infecting maggots caused significant levels of mortality in a filter paper assay. Ten strains of Steinemema infected maggots, of which 7 strains (4 S. carpocapsae (Weiser), 2 S.feltiae (Filipjev), and 1 S. scapterisci Nguyen & Smart) caused significant mortality. Ten Heterorhabditis strains and 10 Steinemema strains successfully reproduced for ≥ 2 generations in maggots. No difference was observed between 72-h survival of maggots and adult emergence. Six strains of Steinemema were selected for 10 generations on maggots and then compared with unselected lines. No difference in pathogenicity between selected and unselected lines was observed. Two strains of S. feltiae, SN and UNK-36, and 2 of the best Heterorhabditis strains, H. bacteriophora Poinar OSWEGO and H. megidis Poinar, Jackson & Klein HF -85 were tested in a fresh bovine manure substrate. All 4 strains produced significant fly mortality in the manure substrate, although the S. feltiae strains had significantly lower LC50 values than did the Heterorhabditis spp. The most promising strain, S. feltiae SN, gave LC50 and LC99 values of 4 and 82 infective juveniles per maggot, respectively. These doses were equivalent to 2.7 and 55 infective juveniles per gram of manure and 5.1 and 104 infective juveniles per square centimeter of surface area. Infective juveniles capable of infecting greater wax moth larvae, Galleria mellonella (L.), survived in manure for up to 10 wk without hosts

The texts of the cantos and theories of literature

The textual history of Pound’s Cantos is among the most complex of any work commonly (or indeed uncommonly) associated with Anglo-American modernism. Notwithstanding the intricate problems facing any scholar keen on tracing the development of Pound’s poem through its stages of composition and revision, the record of published texts alone presents serious obstacles. As Lawrence Rainey notes, written over a period of almost fifty years, published discretely in more than twenty-five magazines and at least as many different collected volumes across seven countries, ‘no reader other than Pound could ever have traced all the parts of The Cantos’, nor even does any library in world contain copies of every published version. For numerous reasons owing both to the poet’s personal temperament and to the social nature of literary production, non-identical changes were made to different in-print versions

Identification of a Small Molecule Inhibitor of Bacterial AraC Family Activators

Protein members of the AraC family of bacterial transcriptional activators have great promise as targets for the development of novel antibacterial agents. Here, we describe an in vivo high throughput screen to identify inhibitors of the AraC family activator protein RhaS. The screen used two E. coli reporter fusions; one to identify potential RhaS inhibitors, and a second to eliminate non-specific inhibitors from consideration. One compound with excellent selectivity, OSSL_051168, was chosen for further study. OSSL_051168 inhibited in vivo transcription activation by the RhaS DNA-binding domain to the same extent as the full-length protein, indicating that this domain was the target of its inhibition. Growth curves showed that OSSL_051168 did not impact bacterial cell growth at the concentrations used in this study. In vitro DNA binding assays with purified protein suggest that OSSL_051168 inhibits DNA binding by RhaS. In addition, we found that it inhibits DNA binding by a second AraC family protein, RhaR, which shares 30% amino acid identity with RhaS. OSSL_051168 did not have a significant impact on DNA binding by the non-AraC family proteins CRP and LacI, suggesting that the inhibition is likely specific for RhaS, RhaR, and possibly additional AraC family activator proteins

Regular Dimpled Nickel Surfaces for Improved Efficiency of the Oxygen Evolution Reaction

Persistent bubble accumulation during the oxygen evolution reaction (OER) can effectively block catalytically active surface sites and reduce overall system performance. The OER is an essential half-reaction with relevance to metal–air batteries, fuel cells, and water electrolysis for power to gas applications. The renewable energy sector could benefit from the identification of surface morphologies that can effectively reduce the accumulation of bubbles on electrocatalytic surfaces. In this work, regular dimpled nickel (Ni) features were prepared to investigate how electrode morphology and therefore its roughness and wetting properties may affect the efficiency of the OER. The dimpled Ni features were prepared using spherical poly(styrene) (PS) templates with a diameter of 1 μm. The electrodeposition against regular, self-assembled arrays of PS templates was tuned to produce four types of dimpled features each with a different depth. Enhancements to the OER efficiency were observed for some types of dimpled Ni features when compared to a planar electrodeposited Ni electrode, while the dimpled features that were the most recessed demonstrated reduced efficiencies for the OER. The findings from this study emphasize the influences of electrode surface morphology on processes involving electrocatalytic gas evolution

Expanding the results of a high throughput screen against an isochorismate-pyruvate lyase to enzymes of a similar scaffold or mechanism

Antibiotic resistance is a growing health concern, and new avenues of antimicrobial drug design are being actively sought. One suggested pathway to be targeted for inhibitor design is that of iron scavenging through siderophores. Here we present a high throughput screen to the isochorismatepyruvate lyase of Pseudomonas aeruginosa, an enzyme required for the production of the siderophore pyochelin. Compounds identified in the screen are high nanomolar to low micromolar inhibitors of the enzyme and produce growth inhibition in PAO1 P. aeruginosa in the millimolar range under iron-limiting conditions. The identified compounds were also tested for enzymatic inhibition of E. coli chorismate mutase, a protein of similar fold and similar chemistry, and of Y. enterocolitica salicylate synthase, a protein of differing fold but catalyzing the same lyase reaction. In both cases, subsets of the inhibitors from the screen were found to be inhibitory to enzymatic activity (mutase or synthase) in the micromolar range and capable of growth inhibition in their respective organisms (E. coli or Y. enterocolitica)

Compound Ranking Based on a New Mathematical Measure of Effectiveness Using Time Course Data from Cell-Based Assays

The half maximal inhibitory concentration (IC50) has several limitations that make it unsuitable for examining a large number of compounds in cytotoxicity studies, particularly when multiple exposure periods are tested. This article proposes a new approach to measure drug effectiveness, which allows ranking compounds according to their toxic effects on live cells. This effectiveness measure, which combines all exposure times tested, compares the growth rates of a particular cell line in the presence of the compound with its growth rate in the presence of DMSO alone. Our approach allows measuring a wider spectrum of toxicity than the IC50 approach, and allows automatic analyses of a large number of compounds. It can be easily implemented in linear regression software, provides a comparable measure of effectiveness for each investigated compound (both toxic and non-toxic), and allows statistically testing the null hypothesis that a compound is non-toxic versus the alternative that it is toxic. Importantly, our approach allows defining an automated decision rule for deciding whether a compound is significantly toxic. As an illustration, we describe the results of a cell-based study of the cytotoxicity of 24 analogs of novobiocin, a C-terminal inhibitor of heat shock protein 90 (Hsp90); the compounds were ranked in order of cytotoxicity to a panel of 18 cancer cell lines and 1 normal cell line. Our approach may also be a good alternative to computing the half maximal effective concentration (EC50) in studies searching for compounds that promote cell growth

Drug target optimization in chronic myeloid leukemia using innovative computational platform.

Chronic Myeloid Leukemia (CML) represents a paradigm for the wider cancer field. Despite the fact that tyrosine kinase inhibitors have established targeted molecular therapy in CML, patients often face the risk of developing drug resistance, caused by mutations and/or activation of alternative cellular pathways. To optimize drug development, one needs to systematically test all possible combinations of drug targets within the genetic network that regulates the disease. The BioModelAnalyzer (BMA) is a user-friendly computational tool that allows us to do exactly that. We used BMA to build a CML network-model composed of 54 nodes linked by 104 interactions that encapsulates experimental data collected from 160 publications. While previous studies were limited by their focus on a single pathway or cellular process, our executable model allowed us to probe dynamic interactions between multiple pathways and cellular outcomes, suggest new combinatorial therapeutic targets, and highlight previously unexplored sensitivities to Interleukin-3.We would like to thank the members of the Fisher laboratory, in particular to Gavin Smyth and Caroline Dahl for their help with the BMA development, and Alex Hajnal for valuable comments on the manuscript and insightful discussions. Research in BG laboratory is supported by the Medical Research Council, Leukaemia and Lymphoma Research, The Leukemia and Lymphoma Society, Microsoft Research and core support grants by the Wellcome Trust to the Cambridge Institute for Medical Research and Wellcome Trust-MRC Cambridge Stem Cell Institute.This is the final published version. It was originally published in Scientific Reports 5: 8190. DOI: 10.1038/srep08190