Tacitus on Titus? Visit to the Temple of Venus at Paphos

This article deals with Titus? visit to the temple of Venus at Paphos in the second book of Tacitus? Historiae. I argue that apart from its other literary intentions already mentioned by scholars, this digression implicitly connects Titus not only with Aeneas but also with Julius Caesar. Titus? affair with Berenice that recalls Caesar?s affair with Cleopatra, Tacitus? allusions to Lucan?s De Bello Civili where Caesar?s visit to the tomb of Alexander the Great is described, the ?????Motiv and fortuna?s favour that characterise both Roman generals, all contribute to connect Titus with Caesar and allow the reader to view a parallel between the Flavian and the Julio-Claudian dynasty. Furthermore, the particular digression allows the historian to present certain aspects of his work and his historiographic practices and to reinforce his credibility

The dialogue between the Mytileneans and Pompey in Lucan's "De Bello Civili" (8,109-158)

This article comments upon the episode of the dialogue between the Mytileneans and Pompey in Lucan's De Bello Civili (8,109-158) and its multiple poetic purposes are investigated. I argue that the episode in question has a significant structural value, since Lucan's emphasis on the islanders' loyalty and Pompey's reaction should be connected not only with the similar stance of the Lariseans in the previous book or the perfidy of the Egyptians later in the work, but also with many other passages and themes of the epic (as e.g. Caesar's greed, his presence at Amyclas' hut, the virtues of vetus Roma, the absence of an important tomb for Pompey). In this way the particular episode allows the poet to highlight tragic elements in Pompey's portrayal and more generally traits of his image that are in contrast with those of Caesar's, while at the same time facilitates Lucan's attempt to hint at his poetic immortality

The Dialogue Betweenthe Mytileneans and Pompey in Lucan’s De Bello Civili (8,109-158)

This article comments upon the episode of the dialogue between the Mytileneans and Pompey in Lucan’s De Bello Civili (8,109-158) and its multiple poetic purposes are investigated. I argue that the episode in question has a significant structural value, since Lucan’s emphasis on the islanders’ loyalty and Pompey’s reaction should be connected not only with the similar stance of the Lariseans in the previous book or the perfidy of the Egyptians later in the work, but also with many other passages and themes of the epic (as e.g. Caesar’s greed, his presence at Amyclas’ hut, the virtues of vetus Roma, the absence of an important tomb for Pompey). In this way the particular episode allows the poet to highlight tragic elements in Pompey’s portrayal and more generally traits of his image that are in contrast with those of Caesar’s, while at the same time facilitates Lucan’s attempt to hint at his poetic immortality.This article comments upon the episode of the dialogue between the Mytileneans and Pompey in Lucan’s De Bello Civili (8,109-158) and its multiple poetic purposes are investigated. I argue that the episode in question has a significant structural value, since Lucan’s emphasis on the islanders’ loyalty and Pompey’s reaction should be connected not only with the similar stance of the Lariseans in the previous book or the perfidy of the Egyptians later in the work, but also with many other passages and themes of the epic (as e.g. Caesar’s greed, his presence at Amyclas’ hut, the virtues of vetus Roma, the absence of an important tomb for Pompey). In this way the particular episode allows the poet to highlight tragic elements in Pompey’s portrayal and more generally traits of his image that are in contrast with those of Caesar’s, while at the same time facilitates Lucan’s attempt to hint at his poetic immortality

The time-course linkage between hemolysis, redox, and metabolic parameters during red blood cell storage with or without uric acid and ascorbic acid supplementation

Oxidative phenomena are considered to lie at the root of the accelerated senescence observed in red blood cells (RBCs) stored under standard blood bank conditions. It was recently shown that the addition of uric (UA) and/or ascorbic acid (AA) to the preservative medium beneficially impacts the storability features of RBCs related to the handling of pro-oxidant triggers. This study constitutes the next step, aiming to examine the links between hemolysis, redox, and metabolic parameters in control and supplemented RBC units of different storage times. For this purpose, a paired correlation analysis of physiological and metabolism parameters was performed between early, middle, and late storage in each subgroup. Strong and repeated correlations were observed throughout storage in most hemolysis parameters, as well as in reactive oxygen species (ROS) and lipid peroxidation, suggesting that these features constitute donor-signatures, unaffected by the diverse storage solutions. Moreover, during storage, a general “dialogue” was observed between parameters of the same category (e.g., cell fragilities and hemolysis or lipid peroxidation and ROS), highlighting their interdependence. In all groups, extracellular antioxidant capacity, proteasomal activity, and glutathione precursors of preceding time points anticorrelated with oxidative stress lesions of upcoming ones. In the case of supplemented units, factors responsible for glutathione synthesis varied proportionally to the levels of glutathione itself. The current findings support that UA and AA addition reroutes the metabolism to induce glutathione production, and additionally provide mechanistic insight and footing to examine novel storage optimization strategies

Objective assessment of stored blood quality by deep learning

Stored red blood cells (RBCs) are needed for life-saving blood transfusions, but they undergo continuous degradation. RBC storage lesions are often assessed by microscopic examination or biochemical and biophysical assays, which are complex, time-consuming, and destructive to fragile cells. Here we demonstrate the use of label-free imaging flow cytometry and deep learning to characterize RBC lesions. Using brightfield images, a trained neural network achieved 76.7% agreement with experts in classifying seven clinically relevant RBC morphologies associated with storage lesions, comparable to 82.5% agreement between different experts. Given that human observation and classification may not optimally discern RBC quality, we went further and eliminated subjective human annotation in the training step by training a weakly supervised neural network using only storage duration times. The feature space extracted by this network revealed a chronological progression of morphological changes that better predicted blood quality, as measured by physiological hemolytic assay readouts, than the conventional expert-assessed morphology classification system. With further training and clinical testing across multiple sites, protocols, and instruments, deep learning and label-free imaging flow cytometry might be used to routinely and objectively assess RBC storage lesions. This would automate a complex protocol, minimize laboratory sample handling and preparation, and reduce the impact of procedural errors and discrepancies between facilities and blood donors. The chronology-based machine-learning approach may also improve upon humans’ assessment of morphological changes in other biomedically important progressions, such as differentiation and metastasis

The Reference to Archaic Roman Tragedy in Persius’ First Satire

The parody of Accius and Pacuvius in Persius’ first satire (1, 76-78) is spoken by the satirist’s interlocutor, who attacks the roughness of the archaic diction in favour of the smoothness that dominates the neoteric poetry of Persius’ day. However, the poet does not defend archaic tragedy. Besides, frequent targets of Persius’ literary criticism, such as the high style, the search for divine and artificial inspiration, the motif of the deplorable heroine, the adherence to mythological themes and the slavish mimesis of Greek models, do exist even in archaic tragedy. Consequently, despite its stylistic differences, the particular genre shares remarkable similarities with the neo-Callimachean poetry of the Neronian period. Persius formulates the question of his aduersarius in such a way that these similarities are revealed implicitly and thus the satirist’s condemnation of the poetic model of Accius and Pacuvius appears in harmony with the rest of his literary programme.La parodie d’Accius et de Pacuvius dans la première satire de Perse (1, 76-78) est énoncée par l’interlocuteur du satiriste qui attaque l’aridité de la diction archaïque au profit de la douceur qui domine la nouvelle poésie du temps de Perse. Toutefois, le poète ne défend pas la tragédie archaïque. Ainsi, de fréquentes cibles de la critique littéraire de Perse, tels que le style élevé, la recherche de l’inspiration divine et artificielle, le motif de la pauvre héroïne, l’adoption de thèmes mythologiques et la mimesis servile de modèles grecs, existent déjà dans la tragédie archaïque. En conséquence, en dépit de différences stylistiques, le genre particulier partage des traits remarquables avec la poésie inspirée de Callimaque à la période néronienne. Perse formule la question de son adversaire de telle manière que ces similitudes apparaissent implicitement et, dès lors, la condamnation par le satiriste du modèle poétique d’Accius et de Pacuvius se trouve en harmonie avec le reste de son programme littéraire.Tzounakas Spyridon. The Reference to Archaic Roman Tragedy in Persius’ First Satire. In: L'antiquité classique, Tome 77, 2008. pp. 91-105