Greek Antiquity in Schiller's "Wallenstein"

An exploration of the poetic function of Greek archetypes in Schiller's "Wallenstein", this study claims Homer's "Iliad" and Euripides's "Iphigenia in Aulis", the first epic and the last tragic poem about the Trojan War in the Greek tradition, as archetypal sources for Schiller's modern historical drama about the Thirty Years War. In close comparison with Voss's translation of the "Iliad" and Schiller's own translation of "Iphigenia in Aulis", Berns shows how "Wallenstein" compounds echoes of Homeric and Euripidean characters and plots to create a rich horizon of mythical overtones above and beyond the historical world

Greek Antiquity in Schiller's "Wallenstein"

An exploration of the poetic function of Greek archetypes in Schiller's "Wallenstein", this study claims Homer's "Iliad" and Euripides's "Iphigenia in Aulis", the first epic and the last tragic poem about the Trojan War in the Greek tradition, as archetypal sources for Schiller's modern historical drama about the Thirty Years War. In close comparison with Voss's translation of the "Iliad" and Schiller's own translation of "Iphigenia in Aulis", Berns shows how "Wallenstein" compounds echoes of Homeric and Euripidean characters and plots to create a rich horizon of mythical overtones above and beyond the historical world

Protective effect of CV247 against cisplatin nephrotoxicity in rats

CV247 (CV), an aqueous mixture of copper (Cu) and manganese (Mn) gluconates, vitamin C and sodium salicylate increased the antitumour effects of cisplatin (CDPP; cis-diamminedichloroplatinum) in vitro. We hypothesized that the antioxidant and cyclooxygenase-2 (COX-2; prostaglandin-endoperoxide synthase 2) inhibitory components of CV can protect the kidneys from CDPP nephrotoxicity in rats. CDPP (6.5 mg/kg, intraperitoneally) slightly elevated serum creatinine (Crea) and blood urea nitrogen (BUN) 12 days after treatment. Kidney histology demonstrated extensive tubular epithelial damage and COX-2 immunoreactivity increased 14 days after treatment. A large amount of platinum (Pt) accumulated in the kidney of CDPP-treated rats. Furthermore, CDPP decreased renal iron (Fe), molybdenum (Mo), zinc (Zn), Cu and Mn concentrations and increased plasma Fe and Cu concentrations. CDPP elevated plasma free radical concentration. Treatment with CV alone for 14 days (twice 3 ml/kg/day orally) did not influence these parameters. Chronic CV administration after CDPP reduced renal histological damage and slightly decreased COX-2 immunoreactivity, while failed to prevent the increase in Crea and BUN levels. Blood free radical concentration was reduced, that is, CV improved redox homeostasis. CV restored plasma Fe and renal Fe, Mo and Zn, while decreased Pt and elevated Cu and Mn concentrations in the kidney. Besides the known synergistic antitumour effects with CDPP, CV partially protected the kidneys from CDPP nephrotoxicity probably through its antioxidant effect

Neural correlates of cognitive dissonance and choice-induced preference change

According to many modern economic theories, actions simply reflect an individual's preferences, whereas a psychological phenomenon called “cognitive dissonance” claims that actions can also create preference. Cognitive dissonance theory states that after making a difficult choice between two equally preferred items, the act of rejecting a favorite item induces an uncomfortable feeling (cognitive dissonance), which in turn motivates individuals to change their preferences to match their prior decision (i.e., reducing preference for rejected items). Recently, however, Chen and Risen [Chen K, Risen J (2010) J Pers Soc Psychol 99:573–594] pointed out a serious methodological problem, which casts a doubt on the very existence of this choice-induced preference change as studied over the past 50 y. Here, using a proper control condition and two measures of preferences (self-report and brain activity), we found that the mere act of making a choice can change self-report preference as well as its neural representation (i.e., striatum activity), thus providing strong evidence for choice-induced preference change. Furthermore, our data indicate that the anterior cingulate cortex and dorsolateral prefrontal cortex tracked the degree of cognitive dissonance on a trial-by-trial basis. Our findings provide important insights into the neural basis of how actions can alter an individual's preferences

Representation of Africa online: sourcing practice and frames of reference

The dominant perspective on the representation of Africa in the western media claims that western media coverage is bias and crisis orientated and the liberal perspective claims that the coverage of Africa is not as negative as is often assumed. However, there is a paucity of literature on the representation of Africa online. This research enquiry is relevant because literature claims that the Internet has the potential to resolve the journalistic predicament of representing other culture through political participation and deliberation. But this requires a re-orientation of the sourcing practice of news organization to embrace sensitivity to and knowledge of African cultures. Moreover, the journalistic predicament can be resolved or not depending on the news gathering approach adopted by the news organization. Literature has identified two approaches, that is, ‘gatekeeping’ used mainly by dominant traditional media and ‘gatewatching’ used by alternative media in their quest to counter mainstream ideology. This study examines the impacts of the ‘gatewatching’ approach adopted by Africa Have Your Say (AHYS) website on its representation and frames of reference of Africa. It uses on-site observation, in-depth interviews and textual analysis to gather data. The study found that although the sourcing practice at the AHYS is elaborate and complex, the ‘gatewatching’ approach makes its susceptible to second level agenda setting. Hence, its frame repeats the attributes and tone used by the mainstream traditional media. However, a minority of users did not use repeat this frame in their comments

SOX2 is the determining oncogenic switch in promoting lung squamous cell carcinoma from different cells of origin

Lung squamous cell carcinoma (LSCC) is a devastating malignancy with no effective treatments, due to its complex genomic profile. Therefore, preclinical models mimicking its salient features are urgently needed. Here we describe mouse models bearing various combinations of genetic lesions predominantly found in human LSCC. We show that SOX2 but not FGFR1 overexpression in tracheobronchial basal cells combined with Cdkn2ab and Pten loss results in LSCC closely resembling the human counterpart. Interestingly, Sox2;Pten;Cdkn2ab mice develop LSCC with a more peripheral location when Club or Alveolar type 2 (AT2) cells are targeted. Our model highlights the essential role of SOX2 in commanding the squamous cell fate from different cells of origin and represents an invaluable tool for developing better intervention strategies

On Convergence of the Inexact Rayleigh Quotient Iteration with the Lanczos Method Used for Solving Linear Systems

For the Hermitian inexact Rayleigh quotient iteration (RQI), the author has established new local general convergence results, independent of iterative solvers for inner linear systems. The theory shows that the method locally converges quadratically under a new condition, called the uniform positiveness condition. In this paper we first consider the local convergence of the inexact RQI with the unpreconditioned Lanczos method for the linear systems. Some attractive properties are derived for the residuals, whose norms are $\xi_{k+1}$'s, of the linear systems obtained by the Lanczos method. Based on them and the new general convergence results, we make a refined analysis and establish new local convergence results. It is proved that the inexact RQI with Lanczos converges quadratically provided that $\xi_{k+1}\leq\xi$ with a constant $\xi\geq 1$. The method is guaranteed to converge linearly provided that $\xi_{k+1}$ is bounded by a small multiple of the reciprocal of the residual norm $\|r_k\|$ of the current approximate eigenpair. The results are fundamentally different from the existing convergence results that always require $\xi_{k+1}<1$, and they have a strong impact on effective implementations of the method. We extend the new theory to the inexact RQI with a tuned preconditioned Lanczos for the linear systems. Based on the new theory, we can design practical criteria to control $\xi_{k+1}$ to achieve quadratic convergence and implement the method more effectively than ever before. Numerical experiments confirm our theory.Comment: 20 pages, 8 figures. arXiv admin note: text overlap with arXiv:0906.223

Advances in multispectral and hyperspectral imaging for archaeology and art conservation

Multispectral imaging has been applied to the field of art conservation and art history since the early 1990s. It is attractive as a noninvasive imaging technique because it is fast and hence capable of imaging large areas of an object giving both spatial and spectral information. This paper gives an overview of the different instrumental designs, image processing techniques and various applications of multispectral and hyperspectral imaging to art conservation, art history and archaeology. Recent advances in the development of remote and versatile multispectral and hyperspectral imaging as well as techniques in pigment identification will be presented. Future prospects including combination of spectral imaging with other noninvasive imaging and analytical techniques will be discussed