Enigmatic Form Research Articles

O sentido da maternidade e da infertilidade: um discurso singular

A infertilidade é definida como ausência da concepção após 12 meses de atividade sexual sem uso de contraceptivos. Sua prevalência na população varia entre os diferentes países: entre um mínimo de 5% e um máximo de 30% de todos os casais. As técnicas empregadas para o tratamento da infertilidade são conhecidas como "reprodução assistida". A realização do presente trabalho teve como objetivo principal investigar, nas mulheres entrevistadas, os aspectos inconscientes do desejo singular pela maternidade e a dificuldade do feminino em lidar com a impossibilidade de gerar um filho. A amostra foi composta por 200 mulheres que estavam sendo submetidas a tratamentos de reprodução humana assistida. Foram realizadas quatro entrevistas com cada participante, e os aspectos inconscientes foram analisados a partir de cada um dos discursos, que foram analisados e interpretados numa visão biopsicossocial, com ênfase, entretanto, no pensamento psicanalítico. A análise dos discursos foi realizada através da confrontação dos dados e supostos teóricos; a pesquisa segue, dessa maneira, uma metodologia quali-quantitativa.

From Disfigurement to Facial Transplant

The face embodies for the individual the sense of identity, that is to say, precisely the place where someone recognizes himself and where others recognize him. From the outset the face is meaning, translating in a living and enigmatic form the absoluteness yet minuteness of individual difference. Any alteration to the face puts at stake the sense of identity. Disfigurement destroys the sense of identity of an individual who can no longer recognize himself or be recognized by others. Disfigurement places a mask on the face. The goal of a facial transplant consists of restoring an individual’s place in the world and reviving his taste for life, returning to him his ‘human shape’. Facial transplants raise essential anthropological questions such as ‘Who am I?’ and ‘To whom belongs this face that henceforth is mine?’

Height: an enigmatic form of social inequality

Height: an enigmatic form of social inequality

Re-interpretation of the genus Parabunodon (Ypresian, Turkey): implications for the evolution and distribution of pleuraspidotheriid mammals

Early Paleogene mammal faunas from western Asia remain very poorly documented, and the few fossil data currently available raise more issues than they provide answers regarding the palaeobiogeography of the Peri-Tethys area during a key period for the diversification and dispersal of modern group of mammals. Parabunodon anatolicum is an ungulate mammal whose both age and taxonomic affinities are disputable. The holotype of this monotypic genus was collected from the early? Eocene Celtek Formation, Central Anatolia, Amasya Province, and described as a choeropotamid artiodactyl, making it the easternmost occurrence of the family which is mostly restricted to the middle–late Eocene of western Europe. Here, we revisit the relationships of Parabunodon anatolicum in the light of recent studies. The reassessment of dental features of this genus as well as of its phylogenetic relationships led us to reconsider the taxonomic assignment of this still enigmatic form. Cladistic analysis was undertaken to understand its relationships with the Pleuraspidotheriidae and the Choeropotamidae, in which Parabunodon had earlier been included. Our analysis supports the relationships of Parabunodon with other pleuraspidotheriids. It implies an early diversification and a vast geographic distribution from western Europe to Anatolia of pleuraspidotheriid ‘condylarths’ during the early Paleogene.

ABSENT CADENCES

ABSTRACTThe slow movement of Symphony No. 64 in A major, ‘Tempora mutantur’, has long intrigued Haydn scholars on account of its absent cadences and enigmatic form. The Latin title of the symphony is thought to be derived from the epigram by John Owen, a near-contemporary of Shakespeare, and it was used by Elaine Sisman to support her hypothesis that the slow movement formed part of Haydn's incidental music for Shakespeare'sHamlet. The enigma can be explained through an analysis informed by concepts native to eighteenth-century music theory. The absent cadences create instances of ellipsis, a rhetorical figure described by Johann Adolph Scheibe and Johann Nikolaus Forkel, and the form plays with a familiar template codified by Heinrich Christoph Koch. This analysis leads to a different interpretation. Rather than suggesting the protagonist of Shakespeare's tragedy, the movement stages a fictive composer in an act of musical comedy not dissimilar to that in Symphony No. 60, ‘Il Distratto’. The title comes not from Owen but from a Latin adage that was incorporated by Owen into his epigram. This adage had been popular in Germany since the Reformation and was then applied by one eighteenth-century music theorist to describe changes of musical conventions.

Imprinted genes and hypothalamic function

Genomic imprinting is an important and enigmatic form of gene regulation in mammals in which one copy of a gene is silenced in a manner determined by its parental history. Imprinted genes range from those with constitutive monoallelic silencing to those, typically more remote from imprinting control regions, that display developmentally regulated, tissue-specific or partial monoallelic expression. This diversity may make these genes, and the processes they control, more or less sensitive to factors that modify or disrupt epigenetic marks. Imprinted genes have important functions in development and physiology, including major endocrine/neuroendocrine axes. Owing to is central role in coordinating growth, metabolism and reproduction, as well as evidence from genetic and knockout studies, the hypothalamus may be a focus for imprinted gene action. Are there unifying principles that explain why a gene should be imprinted? Conflict between parental genomes over limiting maternal resources, but also co-adaptation between mothers and offspring, have been invoked to explain the evolution of imprinting. Recent reports suggest there may be many more genes imprinted in the hypothalamus than hitherto expected, and it will be important for these new candidates to be validated and to determine whether they conform to current notions of how imprinting is regulated. In fully evaluating the role of imprinted genes in the hypothalamus, much work needs to be done to identify the specific neuronal populations in which particular genes are expressed, establish whether there are pathways in common and whether imprinted genes are involved in long-term programming of hypothalamic functions.

Novel Approaches to Treatment of Leiomyosarcomas

Soft tissue sarcomas are rare tumors and include subtypes with variable clinical, pathological, and genetic characteristics, including leiomyosarcoma. Current chemotherapy options include the use of doxorubicin, ifosfamide, gemcitabine and docetaxel, and trabectedin, but these have poor response rates in the metastatic setting. While some targeted therapies with tyrosine kinase inhibitors have shown promise, there is a clear need for novel, targeted strategies for this enigmatic form of soft-tissue sarcoma. The genomic instability and multiple, complex karyotypic abnormalities of leiomyosarcomas is a potential for therapy with agents with proven activity in other cancers with genomic instability, such as BRCA-related breast or ovarian cancer. There are few pathways affected in leiomyosarcoma that suggest obvious opportunities, but poly ADP-ribose polymerase (PARP) inhibitors hold promise. This article outlines current therapeutic options available and undergoing study, as well as explores the rationale for the study of PARP inhibitors in leiomyosarcomas, with or without chemotherapy.

BioEssays 7/2009

Cover Photograph: (Left) top: Cricocosmia jinningensis, a nematomorph worm. This species is known from thousands of specimens. The anterior proboscis, armed with spines, and the dark‐coloured gut, are often clearly seen. It is known only from the Lower Cambrian of Yunnan Province. Middle: Hallucigenia fortis, a lobopodian, is envisaged to have had an epibenthic, crawling mode of life. The species is confined to the Lower Cambrian of Yunnan, but the genus is also known from the Middle Cambrian Burgess Shale of British Columbia, and may also be present in the Kaili Lagerstatte of Mid‐Cambrian age from Guizhou Province, China. Bottom: Yunnanozoon lividum, an enigmatic form. This animal may have been a deposit feeder. It has only been recorded from the Chengjiang biota. Right (background photo, lightened): Naraoia spinosa, an arthropod with an unmineralized cuticle, is often preserved with distinct traces of its alimentary system. The species has been unrecorded outside the Chengjiang fauna.The cover photos are used with the generous permission of Professor Derek Siveter, University of Oxford, from the book: The Cambrian Fossils of Chengjiang, China: The Flowering of Early Animal Life, by Xian‐guang Hou, Richard Aldridge, Jan Bergstrom, David Siveter, Derek Siveter, Xiang‐Hong Feng, Wiley‐Blackwell, ISBN: 978‐1‐4051‐0673‐3 and ISBN 978‐14051‐6719‐2 (pbk).

Agonistic behaviour in final-instar larvae of Episynlestes cristatus, Synlestes tropicus and Chorismagrion risi (Odonata : Synlestidae), and relationships within the 'Lestoidea'

Larval agonistic displays are reported from three sympatric synlestid damselflies: Episynlestes cristatus, Synlestes tropicus and Chorismagrion risi. There were strong similarities between the species in the observed displays. Repertoires of all three species contained elements otherwise known only from larval Lestidae (conventionally interpreted as a member of the sister group to the Synlestidae). In night-time observations under infrared illumination different displays, some similar to those of coenagrionids, occurred. On the basis of similarities in larval displays I conclude that Chorismagrion risi, regarded on adult characters as an enigmatic form, is a member of the Synlestidae and that the Synlestidae and Lestidae are closely allied.

Didymoconus (Mammalia: Didymoconidae) from Lanzhou Basin, China and its stratigraphic and ecological significance

ABSTRACT A partial skull and lower jaw with associated postcranial skeleton of Didymoconus berkeyi Matthew and Granger, 1924 was recently collected from the late Oligocene of Lanzhou Basin, Gansu Province, China. Besides being the first discovery of this genus in the Lanzhou Basin, the new material of Didymoconus represents the most complete individual of this species. The new specimen is paleomagnetically bracketed between 27–30 Ma in the Lanzhou section and helps to refine the biostratigraphy of this species elsewhere in eastern Asia. The postcranial skeleton provides valuable insight into its locomotion apparatus and offers possible characters for phylogenetic positioning of this enigmatic form. An enlarged hand and claws, along with a strong forelimb and robust skull, suggest fossorial adaptations.

The behavior of the doublet of Oxytricha bifaria (Ciliata, Hypotrichida): a contribution to the understanding of this enigmatic form.

The tracks of normal organisms of Oxytricha bifaria and of stage IA, IB, II, III, IV and V doublets were studied to test the hypothesis that the doublet might function as a dispersal form. Stage IA, the only stage to swim, swims straight with only rare interruptions; its rate of mobility (Rmo = 443 micro/s) is roughly twice that of singlets (Rmo = 218 micro/s). Stage IA doublets swim in three-dimensional movement which enables them to be carried away by water currents. The other stages seem to represent passage back towards the normal singlet form. The ethological evidence reported here together with other results already published supports the working hypothesis that the doublet of O. bifaria is a dispersal form suggests that the doublet might well represent a special fourth differentiation state of this species in addition to pairs, giants, and cysts.

Fossil damselflies and dragonflies (Insecta: Odonata) from the late Upper Eocene of southern England

Fossil dragonflies ( sensu lato ) from the Bembridge Marls are discussed and five additional species are described: Lestes aff. regina Theobald, 1937 (Zygoptera: Lestidae); two new coenagrionoids; a corduliid and an enigmatic form of uncertain affinity. The palaeoenvironmental implications are considered.

Omenn syndrome: a disorder of Rag1 and Rag2 genes.

In vertebrates, generation of the T- and B-cell repertoire relies on genomic rearrangement of T-cell receptor and immunoglobulin gene coding segments. This process, known as V(D)J recombination, is initiated by the lymphoid specific proteins Rag1 and Rag2. Both in humans and in animal models, mutations that abrogate expression of either the Rag1 or Rag2 proteins result in severe combined immune deficiency with a complete lack of circulating T and B cells due to an early block in lymphoid development. We have recently shown that mutations that impair, but do not completely abolish the function of Rag1 and Rag2 in humans result in Omenn syndrome, an enigmatic form of combined immune deficiency characterized by oligoclonal, activated T lymphocytes with a skewed Th2 profile.

Maastrichtian molluscan biostratigraphy and extinction patterns in a Cretaceous/Tertiary boundary section exposed at Zumaya, Spain

Ammonites and inoceramid bivalves were stratigraphically collected from lower and upper Maastrichtian units in continuous exposure along the seacoast near Zumaya, Spain. Three ammonite teilzones can be recognized: (1) a lower zone correlative with parts of the Globotruncana ganserri planktonic foram zone and characterized by numerous inoceramids among three different species as well as Pachydiscus neubergicus , a noded Baculites , Polyptychoceras sipho , and Hauericeras renbda ; (2) a middle zone that has no inoceramids but that has Pachydiscus fresvillensis and P. neubergicus and is correlative with the lower parts of the Abathomphalus mayaroensis Zone (planktonic foram); and (3) an upper zone that has P. colligatus and is correlative with the upper parts of the A. mayaroensis Zone. These three teilzones may be the basis for a Tethyan, facies-wide ammonite zonation of the Maastrichtian. The four main components of the fossil record at the Zumaya section show differing range characteristics with respect to the Cretaceous/Tertiary (K/T) boundary exposed in this section. The inoceramids disappear at the top of the lower Maastrichtian, except for the small enigmatic form Tenuipteria , which has a restricted range in the uppermost levels of the Cretaceous. Ammonites range upward to levels approximately 10 m below the boundary. Most larger planktonic forams and many nannofossil species disappear within several centimetres of the boundary. Echinoid fossils range up to, and possibly across, the K/T boundary. The Zumaya section is thus characterized by apparently nonsynchronous or graded extinctions of most of its fossil content.

Two Scarab Impressions from Tel Michal

Although frequently used as a seal, scarab had a number of other purposes. It was even more frequently an apotropaic talisman used to protect either dead or living by invoking one or another of gods of Egyptian pantheon. At first glance such scarabs bear scenes and inscriptions that, at.best, seem to be either simply ornamental or decorative or, at worst, meaningless or unintelligible. In actuality, however, such inscriptions or scenes, which are perfectly comprehensible to initiate are concealed by an enigmatic form of writing, usually a cryptograph, which served to enhance and increase potency of charm. (On complex subject of cryptography in general, see Schulman 1975:15-16; 18n. 11 and bibliography cited there). Cryptograms were effected in a number of ways, ranging from simple transposition of normal sequence in which individual signs or words were written (perturbation), to spelling of words with hieroglyphs that normally had completely different sound .values but received new values through acrophony, through substitution of signs of similar shape or nature (group or class equivalence), by material variation of a particular hieroglyph, by rebus, by pun, by direct figuration, or by any combination of foregoing. of most common types of cryptogram was so-called of Amiin wherein very name of god, which meant the Hidden One and which was written with three hieroglyphs having sound valuest, m, and n, was itself concealed by being written with three signs normally having completely different values. The trigram occured in several variants: mere naming of name Ami1n; syncretizing name with that of Sun-god, Re'; statements Imn nb Ami1n is lord and imn nb. It Amiln is my lord, and their expanded forms Amiinre' is lord and Ami1nre is my lord. Any variant of trigram could be written alone as a simple trigram or it could occur two or more times as a multiple trigram. (On trigram of and its variants, see Drioton 1957). That two scarab impressions from Tel Michal are not simply impressions of seals but are actually apotropaic talismen of type described above is immediately suggested by nature of objects upon which they have been impressed, two small balls of clay. Since nothing was being sealed, obviously imprint of scarab was not intended to serve as a seal. If we are to assume that act of sealing also automatically denoted ownership by transferal of that element or essence of seal's owner to object to which seal was being affixed, it is then clear that we are already dealing with some sort of magical act. Since, however, each of two impressions contains a royal name, in one case that of Amenerr$et III of XIIth Dynasty, and in other that of Tl:tutmose III of XVIIIth, we must then raise questions: (a) Did this mean that scarabs were actually owned by kings named on them? (b) What possible purpose could be achieved by impressing them onto small balls of clay? The answer to first of these questions, of course, is negative. However, inasmuch as ball of clay was, by impression ofthe scarab's underside