The early modern transmission of the ancient Greek romances : a bibliographic survey

This contribution offers a new, critical bibliography of translations and editions of the five extant Greek romances in the early modern era, from the beginning of printing to the eighteenth century. By consulting catalogues of libraries, digitalised copies, and secondary literature, I expand, update and correct earlier bibliographies. I identify alleged editions and include creative treatments of the texts as well as incomplete versions. As an interpretation of my survey, I give an overview of broad, changing tendencies throughout the era and filter the dispersion over Europe in a wider area and period than was available so far, in order to get a more complete picture of their distribution. Furthermore, I point to some peculiar (tendencies in) combinations, among the lemmata themselves, as well as with other stories

Maladies héréditaires du métabolisme et apports de la métabolomique

Les maladies héréditaires du métabolisme ou erreurs innées du métabolisme sont des maladies rares, mais très diverses, puisqu’on estime leur nombre à 500. Ce chiffre explique les difficultés rencontrées dans les diagnostics et les traitements. Ces maladies sont dues à des mutations de gènes codant pour des protéines impliquées dans les voies métaboliques. Les maladies héréditaires du métabolisme les plus fréquentes sont dues à l’accumulation de certains intermédiaires ou métabolites, ou correspondent à des déficits énergétiques, par exemple les déficits de la chaîne respiratoire, de l’oxydation des acides gras ou du métabolisme glucidique, ou encore à des perturbations du métabolisme de molécules complexes. Les biochimistes apportent une aide souvent essentielle au diagnostic et au suivi du traitement nutritionnel ou médicamenteux. Les diagnostics biochimiques reposent principalement sur des dosages de métabolites et des mesures d’activités enzymatiques, plus rarement sur la recherche de mutations. Une meilleure prise en charge des patients concernés impose une amélioration du dépistage néonatal et l’accroissement de l’efficacité de laboratoires de biochimie spécialisée. C’est pour cela que se développe la métabolomique, qui regroupe l’ensemble des approches technologiques permettant de doser un très grand nombre de métabolites. Parmi ces approches, la spectrométrie de masse en tandem constitue une méthode de choix.Both hope and illusion, the recent progress in biology has raised our expectations that one day it will be possible to introduce a biological sample into an apparatus which will then deliver in a few minutes thousands of qualitative and quantitative data concerning the genome, transcriptome, proteome and metabolome, thereby contributing to diagnosis and follow-up of diseases which are now difficult to identify. Such machines do not exist yet and, in any case, should be associated with the appropriate and adequate clinical work on the disease and with the patient. This « total » approach is of course being pushed by the recent decoding of the genomes of several species (genomics), the development of high throughput analysis of mRNAs (transcriptomics), and the efforts to identify the protein products on a large scale (proteomics). Wide sectors of medicine are waiting for the results of these new medium and high throughput technological approaches, for example, in order to identify early markers of diseases. The object of this article is to present a biochemist’s point of view on hereditary metabolic diseases (also referred to as inborn errors of metabolism), a field of medicine and research covering very diverse clinical and biochemical aspects. Significant advances will be made possible by improving the present methods of analysis of the metabolome which establishes a link between genotypes and phenotypes, an area now called metabolomics. The contribution of proteomics will be important as well but will still require some time

Schijndood in de romans van Henry Fielding : de 18e-eeuwse nawerking van een motief uit de antieke romans

The eighteenth-century novels of Henry Fielding show striking resemblances with the ancient romances. This article focuses on one such similarity: the motif of apparant death. it explores instances where not only the motif itself but also a number of narrative details (plot lines, situations, results and/or goals) recall passages from specific Greek romances. Fielding's use of ancient fiction is contextualized by comparison/contrast with his famous rival Samuel Richardson, who uses the motif in a significantly different way. Fielding uses the motif to direct the plot or create a certain atmosphere of a scene. He adapts it to his own style and his theme of the human passions

Uncoupling Protein 1 of Brown Adipocytes, the Only Uncoupler: A Historical Perspective

Uncoupling protein 1 (UCP1), is a unique mitochondrial membranous protein devoted to adaptive thermogenesis, a specialized function performed by brown adipocytes. Whereas the family of mitochondrial metabolite carriers comprises ∼40 members, UCP1 is the only memberable to translocate protons through the inner membrane of brown adipocyte mitochondria. By this process, UCP1 uncouples respiration from ATP synthesis and therefore provokes energy dissipation in the form of heat while, also stimulating high levels of fatty acid oxidation. UCP1 homologs were identified but they are biochemically and physiologically different from UCP1. Thirty five years after its identification, UCP1 still appears as a fascinating component. The recent renewal of the interest in human brown adipose tissue makes UCP1 as a potential target for strategies of treatment of metabolic disorders

Fundamental mechanisms of thermogenesis

Thermogenesis is an obligatory consequence of cellular metabolism and is identified as a unique property of homeotherms which have to maintain constant their body temperature in a cold environment. Physiologically, thermogenesis is made of basal metabolism, post-prandial thermogenesis, exercise-induced thermogenesis and adaptive thermogenesis induced by changes in the environmental temperature. Biochemically, thermogenesis comes from exergonic reactions from a loose coupling between endergonic and exergonic reactions. In cells, respiration and oxidations occur in mitochondria which ensure the coupling of oxidative energy to ATP synthesis. Identification of mitochondrial uncoupling proteins UCP allowed further understanding of the mechanism of coupling or uncoupling of respiration to ADP phosphorylation. Such data maybe of help in the understanding, or possible treatment, of certain types of obesity

Were the first Bantu speakers south of the rainforest farmers? A first assessment of the linguistic evidence

Popular belief has it that the Bantu Expansion was a farming/language dispersal. However, there is neither conclusive archaeological nor linguistic evidence to substantiate this hypothesis, especially not for the initial spread in West-Central Africa. In this chapter we consider lexical reconstructions for both domesticated and wild plants in Proto-West-Coastal Bantu associated with the first Bantu speech communities south of the rainforest about 2500 years ago. The possibility to reconstruct terms for five different crops, i.e. pearl millet (Pennisetum glaucum), okra (Hibiscus/Abelmoschus esculentus), cowpea (Vigna unguiculata), Bambara groundnut (Vigna subterranea) and plantain (Musa spp.), indicates that by that time Bantu speakers did know how to cultivate plants. At the same time, they still strongly depended on the plant resources that could be collected in their natural environment, as is evidenced by a preliminary assessment of reconstructible names for wild plants. Agriculture in Central Africa was indeed “a slow revolution”, as the late Jan Vansina once proposed, and certainly not the principal motor behind the early Bantu Expansion

White-to-brown transdifferentiation of omental adipocytes in patients affected by pheochromocytoma

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