\u27La Maggior Porcheria Del Mondo\u27: Documents for Ammannati\u27s Neptune Fountain

The story of the creation of the Neptune Fountain on the Piazza della Signoria in Florence is long and tortuous. Scholars have drawn on a wealth of documentary material regarding the competition for the commission, the various phases of the fountain\u27s construction, and the critical reception of its colossus, both political and aesthetic. A collection of unpublished letters at the Getty Research Center in Los Angeles offers a new perspective on the making of this major public monument. Sent by Bartolomeo Ammannati to the prvveditore of Pisa, they chronicle the artist\u27s involvement in the procurement and transportation of marble from Carrara and Seravezza for the chariot and basin of the fountain during the years 1565-73. The correspondence, excerpts from which are published here, shows that Ammannati faced numerous delays and mishaps, and continual pressure from his patrons during this second phase of the fountain\u27s construction. The letters provide further insight into the personality of one of the most important artists at the court of Duke Cosimo I, whose role required the skills of a project manager and negotiator. The commission for a grandiose fountain in Florence\u27s main square took much longer to complete than had been expected and taxed the artist\u27s patience, persistence and resourcefulness. [excerpt

The Plains of Mars, European War Prints, 1500-1825

Over fifty original prints by renowned artists from the sixteenth through the early nineteenth century, including Albrecht Dürer, Lucas Cranach, Théodore Géricault, and Francisco de Goya, among many others, are featured inThe Plains of Mars: European War Prints, 1500-1825. On loan from the Sarah Campbell Blaffer Foundation at the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, the works of art included in this exhibition examine the topics of war and peace, propaganda, heroism, brutal conflicts, and the harrowing aftermath of battle. Spanning from the Renaissance to the Romantic periods and encompassing a wide geographic scope including Italy, Germany, France, Spain, the Low Countries, England, and North America, the prints depict triumphant Renaissance soldiers, devastating scenes of violence, and satirical caricatures of political figures. Also on display is Goya’s compelling “Disasters of War” series, completed in response to the brutality of the Spanish War of Independence. Goya’s prints serve as a powerful testament to the horrors faced by both soldiers and civilians. Under the direction of Professor Felicia Else and Shannon Egan, Melissa Casale ‘19 and Bailey Harper ‘19 have researched and written didactic labels, catalogue essays, and created an interactive digital interface to complement the exhibition. Together, Melissa and Bailey will lead public tours of the exhibition. A Gallery Talk by Prof. Peter Carmichael will draw connections between the depictions of warfare on view in the Gallery with representations of the American Civil War. James Clifton, Director of the Sarah Campbell Blaffer Foundation at the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, will be delivering a lecture in conjunction with the exhibition. Dr. Clifton, who also serves as curator of Renaissance and Baroque painting at MFAH, curated the exhibition in its first iteration and wrote the exhibition catalogue (published by Yale University Press). Dr. Clifton’s lecture not only will provide an overview of the exhibition, but also will focus on the concept of “mediated war.” A full-color catalogue with images and essays by Bailey Harper ’19 and Melissa Casale ’19, under the supervision of Profs. Felicia Else and Shannon Egan, is planned to accompany the exhibition.https://cupola.gettysburg.edu/artcatalogs/1028/thumbnail.jp

Spectacles of Fire and Water: Performing the Destructive Forces of Early Modern Naval Battles

J. R. Mulryne’s study of the naval battle, or naumachia, staged in the Palazzo Pitti courtyard in Florence for the 1589 wedding of Ferdinando I de’ Medici and Christine of Lorraine points out the vivid, borderline unpleasant experience that audiences would have felt in such an enclosed space. This study takes inspiration from Mulryne’s work by looking at the pairing of water and fire in 16th century representations and performances of naval battles. An astounding level of manipulation and choreography was needed to bring together these two unpredictable and dangerous elements of nature. Contemporaries were struck by the wondrous but terrifying displays of fire on water, conveying an impression of destructive power, altogether fitting given the terrifying experience of real maritime warfare

Bartolomeo Ammannati: Moving Stones, Managing Waterways, and Building an Empire for Duke Cosimo I de\u27 Medici

This study, drawing on new information from unpublished documents, reconsiders the working methods and responsibilities of sculptor and architect Bartolomeo Ammannati in the context of Cosimo I de\u27 Medici\u27s creation of a grand ducal Tuscan empire. Ammannati was an indispensable part of the broader enterprise of ducal and grand ducal building activity, urban development, and court bureaucracy. His success was reliant on skills different than those emphasized by Giorgio Vasari. Instead of divinely inspired disegno or rampant terribilità, Ammannati showed his technical, organizational, and supervisory skills to move stones, build bridges, manage waterways, and keep track of expenses - the very stuff behind Cosimo\u27s empire building. Specific projects include many that are well know; others are entirely new to scholars. This essay emphasizes the importance of labor management, transportation networks, account keeping, engineering, and water management as aspects vital to civic governing and empire building in this dynamic though unstable phase of the early modern period

Remeasuring Poverty

publishedVersio

Studying the effect of chloroquine on sporozoite-induced protection and immune responses in Plasmodium berghei malaria

BACKGROUND Sporozoite immunization of animals and humans under a chemo-prophylactic cover of chloroquine (CPS-CQ) efficiently induces sterile protection against malaria. In humans, CPS-CQ is strikingly more efficient than immunization with radiation attenuated sporozoites (RAS), raising the hypothesis that this might be partially due to CQ. Chloroquine, an established anti-malarial drug, is also well known for its immune modulating properties including improvement of cross-presentation. The aim of this study was to investigate whether co-administration of CQ during sporozoite immunization improves cellular responses and protective efficacy in Plasmodium berghei models. METHODS A number of experiments in selected complimentary P. berghei murine models in Balb/cByJ and C57BL/6j mice was performed. First, the effect of CQ administration on the induction of protection and immune responses by RAS immunization was studied. Next, the effect of CQ on the induction of circumsporozoite (CS) protein-specific CD8(+) T cells by immunization with P. berghei parasites expressing a mutant CS protein was investigated. Finally, a direct comparison of CPS-CQ to CPS with mefloquine (MQ), an anti-malarial with little known immune modulating effects, was performed. RESULTS When CQ was co-administered during immunization with graded numbers of RAS, this did not lead to an increase in frequencies of total memory CD8(+) T cells or CS protein-specific CD8(+) T cells. Also parasite-specific cytokine production and protection remained unaltered. Replacement of CQ by MQ for CPS immunization resulted in significantly reduced percentages of IFNγ producing memory T cells in the liver (p = 0.01), but similar protection. CONCLUSIONS This study does not provide evidence for a direct beneficial effect of CQ on the induction of sporozoite-induced immune responses and protection in P. berghei malaria models. Alternatively, the higher efficiency of CPS compared to RAS might be explained by an indirect effect of CQ through limiting blood-stage exposure after immunization or to increased antigen exposure and, therefore, improved breadth of the immune response.EMB was supported by Top Institute Pharma (grant T4-102) and KN was supported by the NWO Mozaiek (grant no. 017.005.011)

Whole-blood transcriptomic signatures induced during immunization by chloroquine prophylaxis and Plasmodium falciparum sporozoites

A highly effective vaccine that confers sterile protection to malaria is urgently needed. Immunization under chemoprophylaxis with sporozoites (CPS) consistently confers high levels of protection in the Controlled Human Malaria infection (CHMI) model. To provide a broad, unbiased assessment of the composition and kinetics of direct ex vivo human immune responses to CPS, we profiled whole-blood transcriptomes by RNA-seq before and during CPS immunization and following CHMI challenge. Differential expression of genes enriched in modules related to T cells, NK cells, protein synthesis, and mitochondrial processes were detected in fully protected individuals four weeks after the first immunization. Non-protected individuals demonstrated transcriptomic changes after the third immunization and the day of treatment, with upregulation of interferon and innate inflammatory genes and downregulation of B-cell signatures. Protected individuals demonstrated more significant interactions between blood transcription modules compared to non-protected individuals several weeks after the second and third immunizations. These data provide insight into the molecular and cellular basis of CPS-induced immune protection from P. falciparum infection

Anti-transpirant activity in xylem sap from flooded tomato (Lycopersicon esculentum Mill.) plants is not due to pH-mediated redistributions of root- or shoot-sourced ABA

In flooded soils, the rapid effects of decreasing oxygen availability on root metabolic activity are likely to generate many potential chemical signals that may impact on stomatal apertures. Detached leaf transpiration tests showed that filtered xylem sap, collected at realistic flow rates from plants flooded for 2 h and 4 h, contained one or more factors that reduced stomatal apertures. The closure could not be attributed to increased root output of the glucose ester of abscisic acid (ABA-GE), since concentrations and deliveries of ABA conjugates were unaffected by soil flooding. Although xylem sap collected from the shoot base of detopped flooded plants became more alkaline within 2 h of flooding, this rapid pH change of 0.5 units did not alter partitioning of root-sourced ABA sufficiently to prompt a transient increase in xylem ABA delivery. More shoot-sourced ABA was detected in the xylem when excised petiole sections were perfused with pH 7 buffer, compared with pH 6 buffer. Sap collected from the fifth oldest leaf of 'intact' well-drained plants and plants flooded for 3 h was more alkaline, by ~0.4 pH units, than sap collected from the shoot base. Accordingly, xylem [ABA] was increased 2-fold in sap collected from the fifth oldest petiole compared with the shoot base of flooded plants. However, water loss from transpiring, detached leaves was not reduced when the pH of the feeding solution containing 3-h-flooded [ABA] was increased from 6.7 to 7.1 Thus, the extent of the pH-mediated, shoot-sourced ABA redistribution was not sufficient to raise xylem [ABA] to physiologically active levels. Using a detached epidermis bioassay, significant non-ABA anti-transpirant activity was also detected in xylem sap collected at intervals during the first 24 h of soil flooding

The MaTE Tool—Enabling Engaged Scholars at a Regional University

Providing institutionally recognized evidence of community engaged scholarship has long been problematic for engaged scholars when applying for recognition through promotion or probation pathways. To combat this, the University of Wollongong [in New South Wales, Australia] developed an online tool for use by engaged scholars to track and measure their engagement activities in a consistent and institutionally recognized form. This article outlines the process that was undertaken to develop the online system for measuring and tracking engagement (the MaTE tool). It outlines the initial recognition of the key issues arising from a comprehensive review of the literature; the drafting process undertaken to develop a prototype for the tool; and the interview stage and subsequent re-drafting process and finalization of the tool. The article concludes with a consideration of future directions for the tool and its further implementation at the university