49 research outputs found
From Reformation Wittenberg to Civil War Oxford:A Humanist Bible in the Fellows’ Library of Jesus College, Oxford
Get PDFA Greek folio bible published in 1545, containing both Old and New Testaments, is testimony to the collaboration of two important figures: Philipp Melanchthon, author of the preface, and the Basel printer Johannes Herwagen. The volume’s interest for the historian of the book is enhanced by inscriptions on its endpapers from Melanchthon and other humanists and reformers (Georg Major, Joachim Camerarius, Caspar Cruciger, Johannes Stigel, Georg Sabinus, Paul Eber, and Hubert Languet). This article traces the history of the volume from its origins in Basel through its stay in Wittenberg to its current resting place in Jesus College Fellow’s Library, Oxford. It places it in the context of the upheavals of both the Schmalkaldic Wars and the English Civil Wars, considering the various networks in which the volume participates, and reproduces for the first time the inscriptions with translations
Cello techniques and performing practices in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries
Get PDFThis thesis comprises a study of cello performance practices throughout the nineteenth century and into the early decades of the twentieth. It is organised in terms of the increasing complexity of the concepts which it examines, as they are to be found in printed and manuscript music, instrumental methods and larger treatises, early recordings, concert reviews and pictures. Basic posture is considered along with different ways of holding the
bow. The development of the tail-pin shows that even when it was widely used, the older posture was still referred to as a model. Some implications for tone quality and tonal
projection are considered in the light of the shape of the arms. Some connections between the cellist's posture and that recommended by etiquette books are explored. The
functionality of the left hand and arm, and the development of modem scale fingerings, show that there was a considerable period of overlap between newer and older practices, with modern scale fingerings evolving over a long period of time. Similarly, views on the function of the right wrist in bowing are shown to change gradually, moving towards a more active upper arm movement with less extreme flexibility of the wrist. Two central expressive techniques especially associated with string playing arc considered in the context of the cello, namely vibrato and portamento. These topics are examined in the light of written indications in music, recommendations in cello treatises, and the practices evidenced in early recordings. The sources for this study can be brought into an overall
framework of a constant dialogue between `theory', as expressed in verbal instructions to the learner, or general a priori reflections about the cello, and `practice', manifested in performing editions and early recordings, or in individual acts of reception. A wide divergence is noted, both between theory and practice in general, and in terms of different styles of playing observable at any one time. It is suggested that tensions between practice
and critical disapproval can be resolved in terms of Lacanian discourse. Several test cases are used in order to compare several different recordings of the same works. The question of the musical character of the cello is discussed in terms of widespread assumptions about its gendered identity. A wide range of sources suggest that this moved from a straightforwardly `masculine' identity expressed through a controlling, elevated eloquence to a less clearly defined one, incorporating the 'feminine', with a greater stress on uninhibited emotional expression. Some performance implications for this change of view are pursued with respect to specific repertoires. Broad conclusions stress the importance of the diversity of performance practices as opposed to unifying generalisations
Ecto-ATPase CD39 Inactivates Isoprenoid-Derived Vγ9Vδ2 T Cell Phosphoantigens
Get PDFSummaryIn humans, Vγ9Vδ2 T cells respond to self and pathogen-associated, diphosphate-containing isoprenoids, also known as phosphoantigens (pAgs). However, activation and homeostasis of Vγ9Vδ2 T cells remain incompletely understood. Here, we show that pAgs induced expression of the ecto-ATPase CD39, which, however, not only hydrolyzed ATP but also abrogated the γδ T cell receptor (TCR) agonistic activity of self and microbial pAgs (C5 to C15). Only mevalonate-derived geranylgeranyl diphosphate (GGPP, C20) resisted CD39-mediated hydrolysis and acted as a regulator of CD39 expression and activity. GGPP enhanced macrophage differentiation in response to the tissue stress cytokine interleukin-15. In addition, GGPP-imprinted macrophage-like cells displayed increased capacity to produce IL-1β as well as the chemokine CCL2 and preferentially activated CD161-expressing CD4+ T cells in an innate-like manner. Our studies reveal a previously unrecognized immunoregulatory function of CD39 and highlight a particular role of GGPP among pAgs
The sense of a beginning : Bakhtinian dialogic criticism on 'the gospel' in Mark.
Get PDFContemporary literary approaches have caused paradigm shifts in Biblical Studies in the last two decades as it appears in a great deal of Markan studies using narrative, reader-response, deconstructive, feminist, and new historicist approaches. However, literary studies on the Gospel of Mark have not taken into account theoretical questions underlying those approaches. As a result biblical critics are driven by new trends without ever having a chance to examine the critical baggage of the approaches. Consequently, there is a gap of communication between the old and the new one. Therefore this thesis is an attempt to meet the need of enhancing the quality of critical endeavour in biblical studies. In the light of most recent competing critical theories of literature, the first contribution of this thesis is the methodological finding that Bakhtinian dialogic criticism contains the most profound philosophical and practical foundations for solving some crucial theoretical problems in contemporary literary theories. It is a critique to a Saussurian linguistic system of language which becomes the very foundation of modern and postmodern literary criticism. Bakhtinian literary theory shifts the foundation of literary criticism on linguistic signs into the creative activity of the socio-cultural production of human communication. The shift into socio-cultural reality of language communication makes the notion of 'genre' very important to unlock the problem of text and context in literary studies. Since the Gospel of Mark has fascinated most literary critics in Biblical Studies, the problem of 'genre' of this gospel is chosen as the focus of this study. Secondly, as no agreement is reached as to what 'genre' the Gospel of Mark belongs, this thesis makes its contribution to the discussion by locating the problem of 'genre' of Mark in the context of genre theories and argues that the Bakhtinian suggestion to find genre in the socio-cultural sphere by analysing artistic intercourse between narrative agents in Mark has freed the competing analysis from the unresolved problem between the kerygmatic (content oriented) approach and the analogical (form oriented) approach. To achieve finding 'genre' in the socio-cultural sphere, this thesis focuses on Bakhtinian analysis of the process of artistic intercourse between narrative agents. The narrative communicative interrelationships between narrative agents is constructed in this thesis as a 'stereophonic' Bakhtinian model of dialogic communication. This model is an original contribution of this thesis for revising the traditional two dimensional model of narrative communication. Based on this dialogical model of communication, a special role is given to the Bakhtinian 'author-creator' in the realization process of genre through the interaction of polyphonic voices. Through the interaction of voices of the author-artist and the hero we are led to discover a relatively stable type of portraying and controlling reality in Mark, known as the genre of Roman 'satire'. The closest literary affinity is Satyrica by Petronius. This narrative strategy of 'satire' in Mark has its root in the prophetic discourse of the Old Testament which is saturating the speech of the narrator, John the Immerser, the centurion, the people, and even Jesus. Finally, the whole search for Markan 'genre' culminates in the analysis of the realization of genre through the analysis of Bakhtinian chronotope. The reality of the genre of Mark is its social reality that is in its role as dpxrj/ 'beginning'. As the Gospel of Mark proclaims itself as 'a beginning', it defines its claim of socio-cultural 'authority' in early Christianity. It is this 'sense of beginning' which enables the narrating and the narrated world of Mark to interact dialogically
Contribution to the topics and discussions in the Conference on Frontiers in Research and Practice in Plain Concrete. University of Illinois, September 8 - 11, 1970
No full textThe Conference on Frontiers in Research and Practice in Plain Conerete was held at the University of Illinois Conference Center. Robert Allerton Park. Monticello., Illinois, USA, from September 8 through 11, 1970. The program consisted of a series of introductory lectures and discussion on topics pertinent to conerete research. The topics and the discussion leaders were as follows: 1) The Engineering Challenge to Conerete Georg Verbeck, Portland Cement Association 2) Recent Developments in Understanding the Matrix of Conerete Brady Williamson, University of California 3) Mechanics of Conerete (stress and strain of multiphase materials). The Strength of Conerete as a Multiphase Material Joseph Glucklich, Israel Institute of Technology 4) Effeet of Extreme Environments on Concrete (wetting and drying; low and high temperature), Peter Smith, Ontario Department of Highways 5) Moisture Migration in Conerete Hubert Hilsdorf, University of Illinois 6) Recent Developments in Cements, Paul Klieger, Portland Cement Association The Conference was concerned with plain conerete - as opposed to reinforced concrete, and with research - as opposed to structural design or construction practice. The aim of the presentations and discussions in the conference were to contribute to the understanding of the fundamental nature of plain concrete. The presentation of new developments and new concepts was emphasized without undue review of previously published observations and analyses. The purpose of the conference was to bring together scientists and engineers, engaged in basic research and use of plain conerete and in allied fields, to exehange ideas in a free and informal atmosphere. The list of the participants has been influded as an appendix. The papers of this publication are the contributions distributed by the author to the participants in the above mentioned conference. Report on the Conference will be published by the University of Illinois in due time, probably during the first half of 1971
Writing from the shadowlands: how cross-cultural literature negotiates the legacy of Edward Said
Get PDFThis thesis examines the impact of Edward Said's influential work Orientalism and its legacy in respect of contemporary reading and writing across cultures. It also questions the legitimacy of Said's retrospective stereotyping of early examples of cross-cultural representation in literature as uncompromisingly 'orientalist'.
It is well known that the release of Edward Said's Orientalism in 1978 was responsible for the rise of a range of cultural and critical theories from multiculturalism to postcolonialism. It was a study that not only polarized critics and forced scholars to re-examine orientalist archives, but persuaded creative writers to re-think their ethnographic positions when it came to the literary representations of cultures other than their own. Without detracting from the enormous impact of Said, this thesis isolates gaps and silences in Said that need correcting. Furthermore, there is an element of intransigence, an uncompromising refusal to fine-tune what is essentially a binary discourse of the West and its other in Said's work, that encourages the continued interrogation of power relations but which, because of its very boldness, paradoxically disallows the extent to which the conflict of cultures indeed produced new, hybrid social and cultural formations.
In an attempt to challenge the severity of Said's claim that 'every European, in what he could say about the Orient, was consequently a racist, an imperialist, and almost totally ethnocentric', the thesis examines a number of different discursive contexts in which such a presumption is challenged. Thus while the second chapter discusses the 'traditional' profession-based orientalism of nineteenth-century E. G. Browne, the third considers the anti-imperialism of colonial administrator Leonard Woolf. The fourth chapter provides a reflection on the difficulties of diasporic 'orientalism' through the works of Michael Ondaatje while chapter five demonstrates the effects of the dialogism used by Amitav Ghosh as a defence against 'orientalism'. The thesis concludes with an examination of contemporary writing by Andrea Levy that appositely illustrates the legacy of Said's influence.
While the restrictive parameters of Said's work make it difficult to mount a thorough-going critique of Said, this thesis shows that, indeed, it is within the restraints of these parameters and in the very discourse that Said employs that he traps himself. This study claims that even Said is susceptible to 'orientalist' criticism in that he is as much an 'orientalist' as those at whom he directs his polemic
HERMES: an open-source mining tool for open-access literature
No full textMotivation: The exponential growth of open-access scientific literature presents researchers with unprecedented opportunities but also poses a significant challenge: how to efficiently identify and prioritize relevant publications in a transparent and customizable manner. Existing search engines index large volumes of biomedical literature but rarely provide user-defined ranking options, reproducibility, or integration of domain-specific criteria. This gap is particularly limiting for specialized fields, where nuanced keyword combinations, literature recency, and contextual interpretation are critical.
Results: We present HERMES, an open-source literature mining tool for targeted retrieval and ranking of full-text open-access publications from PubMed Central (PMC). HERMES employs a composite scoring algorithm that integrates keyword frequency, citation counts, and publication age to prioritize publications. It further supports summarization, biomedical entity recognition, and PDF report generation. An intuitive graphical user interface (GUI) allows researchers without programming expertise to perform complex literature mining tasks, while multithreaded processing ensures efficiency for large-scale queries. HERMES provides a reproducible and adaptable framework for literature discovery, empowering researchers to rapidly identify relevant literature and promoting transparency and community-driven extension.
Availability and implementation: HERMES (version 1.2) is implemented in Python (3.11). The source code is freely available on GitHub at https://github.com/julien-charest/hermes and is distributed under the GPL-3 license
Autonomic management in a distributed storage system
No full textThis thesis investigates the application of autonomic management to a distributed storage
system. Effects on performance and resource consumption were measured in experiments,
which were carried out in a local area test-bed. The experiments were conducted with
components of one specific distributed storage system, but seek to be applicable to a wide range of such systems, in particular those exposed to varying conditions.
The perceived characteristics of distributed storage systems depend on their configuration
parameters and on various dynamic conditions. For a given set of conditions, one specific configuration may be better than another with respect to measures such as resource
consumption and performance. Here, configuration parameter values were set dynamically
and the results compared with a static configuration. It was hypothesised that under non-changing conditions this would allow the system to converge on a configuration that was
more suitable than any that could be set a priori. Furthermore, the system could react to
a change in conditions by adopting a more appropriate configuration. Autonomic management was applied to the peer-to-peer (P2P) and data retrieval components of ASA, a
distributed storage system. The effects were measured experimentally for various workload and churn patterns. The management policies and mechanisms were implemented
using a generic autonomic management framework developed during this work.
The motivation for both groups of experiments was to test management policies with the objective to avoid unsatisfactory situations with respect to resource consumption and performance. Such unsatisfactory situations occur when either the P2P layer or the data retrieval mechanism is configured statically. In a statically configured P2P system two unsatisfactory situations can be identified. The first arises when the frequency with which P2P node states are verified is low and membership churn is high. The P2P node state becomes inaccurate due to a high membership churn, leading to errors during the routing process and a reduction in performance. In this situation it is desirable to increase the frequency to increase P2P state accuracy. The converse situation arises when the frequency is high and churn is low. In this situation network resources are used unnecessarily, which may also reduce performance, making it desirable to decrease the frequency.
In ASA’s data retrieval mechanism similar unsatisfactory situations can be identified with respect to the degree of concurrency (DOC). The DOC controls the eagerness with which multiple redundant replicas are retrieved. An unsatisfactory situation arises when the DOC is low and there is a large variation in the times taken to retrieve replicas. In this situation it is desirable to increase the DOC, because by retrieving more replicas in parallel a
result can be returned to the user sooner. The converse situation arises when the DOC is
high, there is little variation in retrieval time and there is a network bottleneck close to the requesting client. In this situation it is desirable to decrease the DOC, since the low variation removes any benefit in parallel retrieval, and the bottleneck means that decreasing parallelism reduces both bandwidth consumption and elapsed time for the user.
The experimental evaluations of autonomic management show promising results, and suggest several future research topics. These include optimisations of the managed mechanisms, alternative management policies, different evaluation methods, and the application of developed management mechanisms to other facets of a distributed storage system. The findings of this thesis could be exploited in building other distributed storage systems that focus on harnessing storage on user workstations, since these are particularly likely to be exposed to varying, unpredictable conditions
A workflow for benchmarking isothermal amplification methods for environmental and clinical molecular diagnostics
No full textMatthew’s Emmanuel Messiah: a paradigm of presence for god's people
Get PDFThe motif of divine presence is a clear phenomenon within the Gospel of Matthew. The modern critical means for assessing the ancient biblical text have multiplied to the point, some claim, of disparity. This study employs both narrative and redaction criticism in an attempt to respond authentically to the structural, historical and theological dimensions of Matthew's Gospel. This study begins with the presumption of the wholeness and integrity of Matthew's narrative, and assumes the gospel story to have an inherently dramatic structure which invites readers to inhabit imaginatively its narrative world and respond to its call. But since we are concerned with the role of both reader and author, this study also assumes a text with an historical author and context. The introduction focuses on the meta-critical dilemma facing New Testament students - what is the text and how do we read it? - and seeks some balance in terms of Krieger's analogy of the text as both window and mirror. Proposed is a narrative reading of Matthew's presence motif alongside a redaction critical assessment of it. In Chapter 2 the elements of narrative theory are introduced and relevant terms defined: the structure of narrative, the function of the narrator, points of view. Chapter 3 becomes an exercise in narrative reading, with Matthew's presence motif providing the focus, and the implied reader’s interaction with the story being predominant in interpretation. Characters, rhetorical devices, and points of view are discussed, to understand the motif's development throughout the story's progress. The thrust of Chapter 4 is thereafter to examine divine presence as a dominant motif within Matthew's most important literary context: the Jewish scriptures. Here the primary paradigms of divine presence provided by the Patriarchs, the Sinai experience, and the Davidic-Zion traditions are assessed. Chapter 5 follows with a more detailed examination of the OT "I am with you/God is with us" formula and its µeo' vµwv/ηuwv language, so strongly connected to Matthew's presence motif. Chapters 6-8 build on these investigations with a closer analysis of the three critical "presence passages" of Mt 1:23. 18:20 and 28:20. The passages and their contexts are probed from a redaction critical perspective, guided by the narrative investigation of Chapter 3, and the background from Chapters 4 and 5.The three major "presence passages" examined in Chapters 6-8 are also complimented by a number of secondary issues: worship, wisdom, the Spirit and the poor in Matthew, and their relation to Jesus' divine presence. These are discussed in Chapter 9. Chapter 10 summarizes and looks briefly at some implications. Matthew' presence motif proves to be an important element of the Gospel’s rhetorical design, redactional strategy and Christology. The presence of Jesus, the Emmanuel Messiah, exhibited in his risen authority, becomes the focus of his people's hopes and experiences in the post-Easter world. What the presence of Yahweh was to his people. Jesus now provides in a new paradigm for his people - his followers, the little ones, the poor and the marginalized, from all nations
