Variant Versions Research Articles

Antoine Forqueray, Jean-Baptiste Forqueray, Michel Forqueray, Nicolas-Gilles Forqueray ed. by Mary Cyr, and: Antoine Forqueray, Jean-Baptiste Forqueray, Michel Forqueray, Nicolas-Gilles Forqueray. ed. by Mary Cyr

Antoine Forqueray, Jean-Baptiste Forqueray, Michel Forqueray, Nicolas-Gilles Forqueray. The Works. Edited by Mary Cyr. Part One. New York: The Broude Trust, 2012. [Acknowledgements, p. vii; table of contents, p. ix-xi; list of illustrations, p. xii; introd., p. xv-lxxix; editorial policies, p. lxxxi-lxxxv; score, p. 2-129. ISBN 0-8450-7250-1. $300 (inclusive of both volumes).]Antoine Forqueray, Jean-Baptiste Forqueray, Michel Forqueray, NicolasGilles Forqueray. The Works. Edited by Mary Cyr. Part Two. New York: The Broude Trust, 2012. [Table of contents, p. vii-ix; list of illustrations, p. x; score, p. 2-119; crit. apparatus, p. 123-69; appendices, p. 173-219; bibliog., p. 223-35. ISBN 0-8450-7250-1. $300 (inclusive of both volumes).]Of the many influential musical dynasties in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, the Forquerays hold the unique honor of simultaneously embodying the pinnacle of virtuosic achievement on their instrument, the viola da gamba, while also witnessing the transition from that instrument's artistic height to its fall into obsolescence within only two generations. The family's two most famous members, Antoine Forqueray (1672-1745) and his son Jean-Baptiste (1699-1782), were both celebrated from childhood as virtuoso viol players, and both went on to hold positions as musicians in the Chambre du roy. Antoine was a younger contemporary of Marin Marais, his colleague and rival, and the Italianate characteristics of his playing have often been contrasted against the utterly French sensibilities of Marais. Jean-Baptiste enjoyed a successful career as a performer, teacher, and composer, during a period when the viol had begun to decline in popularity as the cello overtook it; he was among the musicians who premiered Telemann's Paris Quartets, and was highly regarded by Johann Joachim Quantz and Michel Blavet. Jean-Baptiste also obtained a royal privilege to publish his father's and his own pieces for viol, regarded by modern viol players as some of the most technically and harmonically challenging works in the instrument's period repertoire.This complete-works edition, published by Broude and edited by Mary Cyr, marks the first modern publication in score format of the Forquerays' thirty-two Pieces de violes avec la basse continue (originally published in one volume in 1747), which have previously been republished only in facsimile editions by Minkoff (1976), Performers' Facsimiles (1985), and J. M. Fuzeau (1995), though a few excerpted movements have found their way into modern performing editions as arrangements for orchestra or solo cello. In addition to the five published suites of pieces for solo viol with basso continuo, the first volume of the set also comprises Antoine Forqueray's pieces for three viols, and various solo instrumental works that exist only in manuscript sources. This latter group includes interesting variant versions of several works from manuscript sources in the Bibliotheque nationale de France and the Library of Congress, as well as two lute transcriptions by Robert de Visee (presented in facsimile and modern scores) from manuscripts in the Bibliotheque municipale in Besancon. Volume 2 in the complete-works edition contains primarily works not for viol: the harpsichord transcriptions of the five suites of viol pieces also originally published in 1747 by Jean-Baptiste Forqueray; and six vocal airs attributed to a lesser-known relative, Forcroy le Neveu.The critical commentary that opens the first volume provides a detailed and comprehensive history of the Forqueray family of musicians, from Antoine's father Michel to the youngest nephew Nicolas-Gilles. Although interest in performing the Forquerays' music was revived by members of the Dolmetsch family in the early years of the historically-informed performance movement, the landscape of scholarship relating to the Forquerays remains sparse. Only two historical monographs have been published since the start of the twentieth century: Louis Forqueray's Musiciens d'autrefois: Les Forquerays et leur descendants (Paris: L. …

Phya pa Chos kyi seng ge and His Successors on the Classification of Arguments by Consequence (thal ʾgyur) Based on the Type of the Logical Reason

The Tibetan Buddhist logician Phya pa Chos kyi seng ge (1109–1169) devoted a large part of his discussion on argumentation to arguments by consequence (thal ʾgyur/thal ba). Phya pa distinguishes in his analysis arguments by consequence that merely refute the opponent and arguments by consequence that qualify as probative. The latter induce a correct direct proof which corresponds to the reverse form of the argument by consequence. This paper deals with Phya pa’s classification of probative consequences based on the type of the logical reason involved. I first establish the basis of Phya pa’s classification—the typology of logical reasons in inference-for-oneself—with a special attention to logical reasons consisting in the ‘apprehension of something incompatible [with the negandum]’ (ʾgal ba dmigs pa) and among them the specific case of the ‘apprehension of the cause of something incompatible [with the negandum]’ (ʾgal baʾirgyu dmigs pa). The treatment of the latter is shown to be instrumental in Phya pa’s classification, as well as in explaining the divergences that occur in the models adopted by his successors, such as gTsang nag pa brTson ʾgrus seng ge (?–after 1195) and mTshur ston gZhon nu seng ge (ca. 1150–1210). Turning to Phya pa’s effective application of this typology when he resorts himself to arguments by consequence, I examine Phya pa’s rephrasing, in the form of four arguments by consequence, of the discussion on the relation between the two realities found in the Saṃdhinirmocanasūtra and relate it to a parallel discussion in an earlier Madhyamaka work by rGya dmar ba Byang chub grags. I compare the variant (at times divergent) versions of these four arguments in three Madhyamaka works of Phya pa and show that the differences pertaining to the identification of the type of the logical reason result from apparently insignificant variations in the formulation of each of the arguments. In the conclusion, I discuss the potential philosophical or practical interest of such a classification.

Background-oriented schlieren (BOS) techniques

This article gives an overview of the background-oriented schlieren (BOS) technique, typical applications and literature in the field. BOS is an optical density visualization technique, belonging to the same family as schlieren photography, shadowgraphy or interferometry. In contrast to these older techniques, BOS uses correlation techniques on a background dot pattern to quantitatively characterize compressible and thermal flows with good spatial and temporal resolution. The main advantages of this technique, the experimental simplicity and the robustness of correlation-based digital analysis, mean that it is widely used, and variant versions are reviewed in the article. The advantages of each variant are reviewed, and further literature is provided for the reader.

Further evidences on the quality of meta-GGA linearly scaled one-parameter double-hybrids for frontier orbital energies

This letter dissects the role of kinetic energy density and scaling relations of the correlation functionals for double-hybrid (DH) computations of frontier orbital energies. More specifically, a comparison is made between the one-parameter DH (1DH) and linearly scaled 1DH (LS1DH) schemes containing generalized gradient approximations (GGAs) and meta-GGAs for predicting the ionization potential, electron affinity, and fundamental gap in atomic and molecular systems. Benchmarking several variant versions of DH models, we propose a novel LS1DH approximation based on the Tao-Perdew-Staroverov-Scuseria (TPSS) meta-GGA for evaluating the frontier orbital energies, improving over other tested DHs and Møller-Plesset perturbation calculations.

How reliable is online diffusion of medical information targeting patients and families?

To determine whether online diffusion of the "Ten Warning Signs of Primary Immunodeficiency Diseases (PID)'' adheres to accepted scientific standards. We analyzed how reproducible is online diffusion of a unique instrument, the "Ten Warning Signs of PID", created by the Jeffrey Modell Foundation (JMF), by Google-assisted searches among highly visited sites from professional, academic and scientific organizations; governmental agencies; and patient support/advocacy organizations. We examined the diffusion, consistency of use and adequate referencing of this instrument. Where applicable, variant versions of the instrument were examined for changes in factual content that would have practical impact on physicians or on patients and their families. Among the first 100 sites identified by Google search, 85 faithfully reproduced the JMF model, and correctly referenced to its source. By contrast, the other 15 also referenced the JMF source but presented one or more changes in content relative to their purported model and therefore represent uncontrolled variants, of unknown origin. Discrepancies identified in the latter included changes in factual content of the original JMF list (C), as well as removal (R) and introduction (I) of novel signs (Table 2), all made without reference to any scientific publications that might account for the drastic changes in factual content. Factual changes include changes in the number of infectious episodes considered necessary to raise suspicion of PID, as well as the inclusion of various medical conditions not mentioned in the original. Together, these changes will affect the way physicians use the instrument to consult or to inform patients, and the way patients and families think about the need for specialist consultation in view of a possible PID diagnosis. The retrieved adaptations and variants, which significantly depart from the original instrument, raise concerns about standards for scientific information provided online to physicians, patients and families.

LEACH inspired hierarchical routing protocols for wireless sensor networks

A wireless sensor network is a collection of various sensor nodes which are organised into a complex and cooperative network. These sensor nodes, which are used not only for monitoring but also for capturing the required data from the environment. Most of the research work on WSNs is done keeping in view the energy efficiency, scalability and efficient routing. In WSNs, the most of energy efficient and scalable routing protocols are hierarchical (cluster-based) routing protocols. Among all the clustering techniques low energy adaptive clustering hierarchy (LEACH) is one of the fundamental protocols. We have surveyed and analysed different hierarchical routing protocols that are being modified from LEACH. The main focus of our research is to study how these variant routing protocols work in order to enhance the network life time and how the quality of routing protocols are improved for the wireless sensor network. This paper explains some of the major issues faced by LEACH and suggest the way how these are tackled by variant versions of LEACH. A comprehensive discussion is provided in the table highlighting the relative advantages and disadvantages of some of the prominent protocols.

Predicate logic as a modeling language: modeling and solving some machine learning and data mining problems withIDP3

AbstractThis paper provides a gentle introduction to problem-solving with the IDP3 system. The core of IDP3 is a finite model generator that supports first-order logic enriched with types, inductive definitions, aggregates and partial functions. It offers its users a modeling language that is a slight extension of predicate logic and allows them to solve a wide range of search problems. Apart from a small introductory example, applications are selected from problems that arose within machine learning and data mining research. These research areas have recently shown a strong interest in declarative modeling and constraint-solving as opposed to algorithmic approaches. The paper illustrates that the IDP3 system can be a valuable tool for researchers with such an interest. The first problem is in the domain of stemmatology, a domain of philology concerned with the relationship between surviving variant versions of text. The second problem is about a somewhat related problem within biology where phylogenetic trees are used to represent the evolution of species. The third and final problem concerns the classical problem of learning a minimal automaton consistent with a given set of strings. For this last problem, we show that the performance of our solution comes very close to that of the state-of-the art solution. For each of these applications, we analyze the problem, illustrate the development of a logic-based model and explore how alternatives can affect the performance.

Decision-making impairment predicts 3-month hair-indexed cocaine relapse.

One of the key outstanding challenges in cocaine dependence research is determining who is at risk of relapsing during treatment. We examined whether cognitive decision-making profiles predict objectively (hair) indexed cocaine relapse at 3-month follow-up. Thirty-three cocaine-dependent patients commencing outpatient treatment in a public clinic performed baseline decision-making assessments with the original and variant versions of the Iowa Gambling Task, and provided a 3-cm hair sample 3 months afterwards. Based on Iowa Gambling Tasks' performance cut-offs, 5 patients had intact decision-making skills, 17 patients showed impaired sensitivity to reward or punishment (impairment in one of the tasks), and 9 patients showed insensitivity to future consequences (impairment in both tasks). Based on a 0.3 ng/mg cocaine cut-off, 23 patients were classified as relapsers and 10 as non-relapsers at the 3-month follow-up. Eighty percent of patients with intact decision-making were abstinent at follow-up, whereas 90% of patients with insensitivity to future consequences had relapsed. The two subgroups (relapsers and non-relapsers) showed no significant differences on drug use, comorbidities, or psychosocial function, and significantly differed on verbal but not performance IQ. A regression model including decision-making scores and verbal IQ predicted abstinence status with high sensitivity (95%) and moderately high specificity (81%). These preliminary findings demonstrate that decision-making profiles are associated with cocaine relapse. Moreover, combined decision-making and IQ assessments provide optimal predictive values over stimulant relapse, yielding significant opportunities for clinical translation.

Verses Attributed to Bṛhaspati in the Sarvadarśanasaṃgraha: A Critical Appraisal

Sāyaṇa-Mādhava closed his exposition of the Cārvāka philosophy in his Sarva-darśana-saṃgraha, Chap. 1 by quoting 11 and a half verses, the authorship of all of which was attributed to Bṛhaspati, the eponymous founder of materialism in India. One of these verses is presumably taken from the Viṣṇupurāṇa. However, it is not Bṛhaspati but some demons, deluded by a Jain and a Buddhist monk, who say this. Bṛhaspati does not appear at all in this Purāṇa. Variant versions of the same story are found in other Purāṇas but Bṛhaspti is not invariably present in all of them. The origin of the story may be traced back to the Maitrāyaṇīya Upaniṣad. Although Bṛhaspati plays a leading part in that story, the background is quite different. By comparing all the versions found in the Purāṇas and the subject matter of the epigrams attributed to Bṛhaspati the paper proposes to show that the Viṣṇupurāṇa story has nothing to do with the materialists, whether the Pre-Cārvākas or the Cārvākas; the Jains and the Buddhists are the target of attack. Sāyaṇa-mādhava, by placing these satirical epigrams either in their original or in altered forms, and attributing them to Bṛhaspati, has mixed up the views of all sorts of nāstikas, particularly the Jains and the Buddhists, with the Cārvākas and thereby succeeded in deceiving several generations of readers and misleading even the best of scholars.

Alkyl Hydroperoxide Reductase Repair by Helicobacter pylori Methionine Sulfoxide Reductase

Protein exposure to oxidants such as HOCl leads to formation of methionine sulfoxide (MetSO) residues, which can be repaired by methionine sulfoxide reductase (Msr). A Helicobacter pylori msr strain was more sensitive to HOCl-mediated killing than the parent. Because of its abundance in H. pylori and its high methionine content, alkyl hydroperoxide reductase C (AhpC) was hypothesized to be prone to methionine oxidation. AhpC was expressed as a recombinant protein in Escherichia coli. AhpC activity was abolished by HOCl, while all six methionine residues of the enzyme were fully to partially oxidized. Upon incubation with a Msr repair mixture, AhpC activity was restored to nonoxidized levels and the MetSO residues were repaired to methionine, albeit to different degrees. The two most highly oxidized and then Msr-repaired methionine residues in AhpC, Met101 and Met133, were replaced with isoleucine residues by site-directed mutagenesis, either individually or together. E. coli cells expressing variant versions were more sensitive to t-butyl hydroperoxide than cells expressing native protein, and purified AhpC variant proteins had 5% to 39% of the native enzyme activity. Variant proteins were still able to oligomerize like the native version, and circular dichroism (CD) spectra of variant proteins revealed no significant change in AhpC conformation, indicating that the loss of activity in these variants was not related to major structural alterations. Our results suggest that both Met101 and Met133 residues are important for AhpC catalytic activity and that their integrity relies on the presence of a functional Msr.

Lack of Evidence from Studies of Soluble Protein Fragments that Knops Blood Group Polymorphisms in Complement Receptor-Type 1 Are Driven by Malaria

Complement receptor-type 1 (CR1, CD35) is the immune-adherence receptor, a complement regulator, and an erythroid receptor for Plasmodium falciparum during merozoite invasion and subsequent rosette formation involving parasitized and non-infected erythrocytes. The non-uniform geographical distribution of Knops blood group CR1 alleles Sl1/2 and McCa/b may result from selective pressures exerted by differential exposure to infectious hazards. Here, four variant short recombinant versions of CR1 were produced and analyzed, focusing on complement control protein modules (CCPs) 15–25 of its ectodomain. These eleven modules encompass a region (CCPs 15–17) key to rosetting, opsonin recognition and complement regulation, as well as the Knops blood group polymorphisms in CCPs 24–25. All four CR1 15–25 variants were monomeric and had similar axial ratios. Modules 21 and 22, despite their double-length inter-modular linker, did not lie side-by-side so as to stabilize a bent-back architecture that would facilitate cooperation between key functional modules and Knops blood group antigens. Indeed, the four CR1 15–25 variants had virtually indistinguishable affinities for immobilized complement fragments C3b (K D = 0.8–1.1 µM) and C4b (K D = 5.0–5.3 µM). They were all equally good co-factors for factor I-catalysed cleavage of C3b and C4b, and they bound equally within a narrow affinity range, to immobilized C1q. No differences between the variants were observed in assays for inhibition of erythrocyte invasion by P. falciparum or for rosette disruption. Neither differences in complement-regulatory functionality, nor interactions with P. falciparum proteins tested here, appear to have driven the non-uniform geographic distribution of these alleles.

Experimenting with Paper Instruments in Fifteenth-and Sixteenth-Century Astronomy: Computing Syzygies with Isotemporal Lines and Salt Dishes

(ProQuest: ... denotes formulae omitted.)This a story of an astronomical or figure - both names appear in the accompanying texts - that lived from about 1430 until 1550. Exemplars can be found on paper, parchment and thin cardboard, always bound in codices; I do not know whether the device ever appeared in brass. Although the conceptual structure of the remained largely stable over its lifetime, its mathematical and graphical features refused to solidify into a standard form. In its variant versions, the exemplifies, I will suggest, a spirit of innovation and experimentation in practical astronomy in a century not especially known for such virtues. The also exemplifies the attempt, not uncommon in this time, to replace astronomical tables and the tedium of interpolation with instruments of circles, lines, threads and rules. Yet despite the gestures of experimentation and efficiency exemplified by this it would not survive into the second half of the sixteenth After 1550, printed tables and ephemerides and new requirements of precision apparently rendered the superfluous.Unlike such well-known astronomical instruments as the astrolabe, quadrant, Ptolemaic ruler and torquetum, our would never achieve a fixed nomenclature. Most texts refer to it simply as an instrument ... for finding the true conjunction and opposition of the Sun and Moon. Its peculiar shape, early on, evoked several names. A Latin text from the 1440s names the device a Rauchfudalium, a strangely composite German-Latin term perhaps referring to a censer (Rauchturabuluml) with chains forming a trapezoid shape similar to our instrument. Another text in this same manuscript reports that the commonly called a dish [salzuas]. A German manuscript, originating in Nuremberg around 1460, describes the as a dish or measure [saltzuas oder kuffel]. Peculiarly shaped salt dishes, combining triangular and circular forms not unlike our produced by Nuremberg goldsmiths may have prompted this name. Early printed texts call the an instrumentum astrologicum, emphasizing its clientele, or an equatoria, linking it to the long-established tradition of using rotating disks or vovelles to represent geometrical models of planetary theory.1 Although in this article I shall simply call the device a syzygy instrument, accentuating function rather than shape, we must not forget the visual appeal apparently exerted by its unique physical design during its early years.The Context: Computing in Mathematical AstronomyMedieval and early modern astronomers computed. They calculated positions of the planets, dates and times of eclipses and new and full moons (syzygies), changing lengths of day and night throughout the year, the direction of Mecca, dates of Easter and other moveable feasts in the Christian calendar, divisions of the Zodiac into the twelve houses of the horoscope, and much more. Following procedures established by Ptolemy, including his practice of working to a precision of arc minutes, many of these astronomers devised elaborate tables - rows and columns of numbers - to enable such computations to be done with minimal recourse to sexagesimal multiplication or spherical trigonometry. Casting a horoscope might require literally hundreds of individual computational steps, and astronomers tried to keep the labour limited to sexagesimal addition and subtraction and interpolation of tabular values. Tablemaking was thus essential in this computational culture, and tables soon circulated widely, ranging from Ptolemy's Handy Tables and more than 100 Arabic zijes to the Alfonsine Tables by the 1270s. As J. D. North has aptly noted, the history of the dissemination and use of these latter tables is almost coextensive with the history of European astronomy as a whole, at least until the sixteenth century. …

Memory and Minority: Making Muslim Indians

In Malerkotla, the only Muslim majority town in Indian Punjab, citizens are involved in a mnemotechnical project that produces a collective identity based on inclusiveness and interreligious peace. This memory work connects the emotional resonance of love and unity to what Jan Assmann terms memory sites (the dargahs , stories of the saints, the physical territory of Malerkotla). The process involves erasures and coercive practices that discipline the collective recollection of the past into a version that serves the present interest. Yet this does not wholly obscure the variant versions of history that coexist within the perpetually shifting terrain of Malerkotla’s stable collective memory system. The production of memory sites fixes in certain places and popular narratives the dominant interpretation of the past, which is most conducive to Muslim integration into the contemporary Indian state. In particular this essay explores the creation of written and oral versions of the collective history that account for and justify the continued existence of a Muslim population in post-Partition Punjab.

A Note on Faulkner and The Stagolee/Faust Legends

NOTES AND DOCUMENTS JANE ISBELL HAYNES Independent Scholar, Irvine, CA A Note on Faulkner and The Stagolee/Faust Legends TO CREATE V. K. RATLIFF’S VISION/FANTASY IN THE HAMLET ABOUT FLEM Snopes’s victory over the Devil, Faulkner may have drawn on a bad-man-blues-ballad titled “Stagolee,”1 known also as Stackolee, Stackerlee, Stackalee, Stack O’ Lee, Stacker Lee, and Staggerlee (Levine 413). In Ratliff.’s imagination, Flem is in Hell bullying and tormenting the Prince of Darkness to redeem his soul, which the assistant devils cannot find: ‘We done looked everywhere. It wasn’t no big one to begin with nohow, and we was specially careful in handling it. We sealed it up in a asbestos matchbox and put the box in a separate compartment to itself. . . . The matchbox was there and the seal wasn’t broke. But there wasn’t nothing in the matchbox but a little kind of dried-up smear under one edge. . . . ‘Damn it,’ the Prince hollers. ‘Give him one of the extra ones. Aint there souls turning up here everyday . . . even bringing letters from Congressmen, that we never even heard of? Give him one of them.’ ‘We tried that,’ they says. ‘He wont do it. He says he don’t want no more and no less than his legal interest according to what the banking and the civil laws states in black and white is hisn.’ (870) Flem, still chewing tobacco and clutching his straw suitcase, had been brought to the Prince who accused him of offering as security for their contract a soul which he did not possess; when Flem simply agrees that he has no soul or that since the Prince created him, he has “belonged to 1 Bad man Stagolee was one of many Negroes with that name, all named after Stacker Lee, a riverboat Captain and roustabout and son of the great old River Captain Jim Lee, of Memphis, head of the Lee Line of river steamboats on the Mississippi River in the 1870s. There were fourteen steamships in the Lee Line, most of which were named for Captain James Lee Jr.’s ten children; one steamship was named Stacker Lee after the son of Captain Lee Sr., who lived at 680 Adams Street, Memphis, in a Victorian mansion still extant. At various times the Lee family operated thirty-six boats out of Memphis. The family business began just after the Civil War and continued until 1926 (Coppock 11-14). 440 Jane Isbell Haynes the Prince all the time,” the Prince is flummoxed. He leans forward and “feels that ere hot floor under his knees and he can feel his-self grabbing and hauling at his throat to get the words out like he was digging potatoes outen hard ground ” (873). Flem with his legalism has harassed, out-deviled, and outwitted the Prince of Darkness and reigns now on the Throne himself as Stagolee does in many variant versions of this song: When de devil wife see Stack comin’ she got up in a quirl, — “Here come dat bad nigger an’ he’s jus’ from de udder worl’.” All de devil’ little chillun went sc’amblin’ up de wall, Say, “Catch him, pappa, befo’ he kill us all.” Stack he tol’ de devil, “Come on, le’s have a lil fun, You stick me wid yo’ pitchfork an’ I’ll shoot you wid my 41.” Stagolee say, “Now, now, Mister Devil, ef me an’ you gonna have some fun, You play de cornet, Black Betty beat de drum.” Stagolee took de pitchfork an’ he laid it on de shelf — “Stand back, Tom Devil, I’m gonna rule Hell by myself.” (Lomax 99) Faulkner’s likely familiarity with Stagolee, the Blues, W. C. Handy, and Bessie Smith is established in several compelling ways. Thadious M. Davis explains that Faulkner was completely familiar with both Blues and Jazz. Evidence is strong that she is right: W.C. Handy and his band came to Old Miss in the teens and early 1920s to play for college parties and dances (Blotner I:175; Jimmy Faulkner int. October 15, 1989; Brodsky and Hamblin I:29). Faulkner sketched W. C. Handy and his...

Kabīr reconstructed

On the example of some texts attributed to the 15th-century poet-saint Kabīr, the paper contests the postmodern claim that each received version is a poetically beautiful, polished text. In all probability all received versions have undergone a long phase of oral transmission before being committed to writing and they are sometimes the outcome of textual corruption resulting in inconsistent reading or in poetic looseness and redundancy. On the basis of prosody and a comparison of variant versions, reconstruction of some earlier text is possible. It is argued that the poems may have been composed for a metrically correct recitation and when they became songs set to musical moods and rhythms they have lost their strict metrical frame under the licenses used by the singers. Amplification can also be detected on a higher level since sometimes entire lines were invented or borrowed. By detecting instances of amplification a more concise and more powerful early text can be reconstructed. The reconstruction of the early text in turn can open up a way to posit the later variants into a relationship with each other and to see ideological motivating forces behind changes such as ‘bhaktification’.

"Europe Ain't Gonna See This Scene!": Working with Variant Versions in Photoplay Productions' Restoration of <i>The Cat and the Canary</i>

"Europe Ain't Gonna See This Scene!": Working with Variant Versions in Photoplay Productions' Restoration of <i>The Cat and the Canary</i>

Difference in virulence between Staphylococcus aureus isolates causing gangrenous mastitis versus subclinical mastitis in a dairy sheep flock.

Staphylococcus aureus mastitis in dairy sheep ranges from subclinical mastitis to lethal gangrenous mastitis. Neither the S. aureus virulence factors nor the host-factors or the epidemiological events contributing to the different outcomes are known. In a field study in a dairy sheep farm over 21 months, 16 natural isolates of S. aureus were collected from six subclinical mastitis cases, one lethal gangrenous mastitis case, nasal carriage from eight ewes and one isolate from ambient air in the milking room. A genomic comparison of two strains, one responsible for subclinical mastitis and one for lethal gangrenous mastitis, was performed using multi-strain DNA microarrays. Multiple typing techniques (pulsed-field-gel-electrophoresis, multiple-locus variable-number, single-nucleotide polymorphisms, randomly amplified polymorphic DNA, spa typing and sas typing) were used to characterise the remaining isolates and to follow the persistence of the gangrenous isolate in ewes’ nares. Our results showed that the two strains were genetically closely related and they shared 3 615 identical predicted open reading frames. However, the gangrenous mastitis isolate carried variant versions of several genes (sdrD, clfA-B, sasA, sasB, sasD, sasI and splE) and was missing fibrinogen binding protein B (fnbB) and a prophage. The typing results showed that this gangrenous strain emerged after the initial subclinical mastitis screening, but then persisted in the flock in the nares of four ewes. Although we cannot dismiss the role of host susceptibility in the clinical events in this flock, our data support the hypothesis that S. aureus populations had evolved in the sheep flock and that S. aureus genetic variations could have contributed to enhanced virulence.

Crystal Structures of Brain Group-VIII Phospholipase A2 in Nonaged Complexes with the Organophosphorus Nerve Agents Soman and Sarin,

Insecticide and nerve agent organophosphorus (OP) compounds are potent inhibitors of the serine hydrolase superfamily of enzymes. Nerve agents, such as sarin, soman, tabun, and VX exert their toxicity by inhibiting human acetycholinesterase at nerve synapses. Following the initial phosphonylation of the active site serine, the enzyme may reactivate spontaneously or through reaction with an appropriate nucleophilic oxime. Alternatively, the enzyme-nerve agent complex can undergo a secondary process, called "aging", which dealkylates the nerve agent adduct and results in a product that is highly resistant to reactivation by any known means. Here we report the structures of paraoxon, soman, and sarin complexes of group-VIII phospholipase A2 from bovine brain. In each case, the crystal structures indicate a nonaged adduct; a stereoselective preference for binding of the P(S)C(S) isomer of soman and the P(S) isomer of sarin was also noted. The stability of the nonaged complexes was corroborated by trypsin digest and electrospray ionization mass spectrometry, which indicates nonaged complexes are formed with diisopropylfluorophosphate, soman, and sarin. The P(S) stereoselectivity for reaction with sarin was confirmed by reaction of racemic sarin, followed by gas chromatography/mass spectrometry using a chiral column to separate and quantitate each stereoisomer. The P(S) stereoisomers of soman and sarin are known to be the more toxic stereoisomers, as they react preferentially to inhibit human acetylcholinesterase. The results obtained for nonaged complexes of group-VIII phospholipase A2 are compared to those obtained for other serine hydrolases and discussed to partly explain determinants of OP aging. Furthermore, structural insights can now be exploited to engineer variant versions of this enzyme with enhanced nerve agent binding and hydrolysis functions.

Executive Function and Decision-Making in Women with Fibromyalgia

Patients with fibromyalgia (FM) typically report cognitive problems, and they state that these deficits are disturbing in everyday life. Despite these substantial subjective complaints by FM patients, very few studies have addressed objectively the effect of such aversive states on neuropsychological performance. In this study we aimed to examine possible impairment of executive function and decision-making in a sample of 36 women diagnosed with FM and 36 healthy women matched in age, education, and socio-economic status. We contrasted performance of both groups on two measures of executive functioning: the Wisconsin Card Sorting Test (WCST), which assesses cognitive flexibility skills, and the Iowa Gambling Tasks (IGT; original and variant versions), which assess emotion-based decision-making. We also examined the relationship between executive function performance and pain experience, and between executive function and personality traits of novelty-seeking, harm avoidance, reward dependence, and persistence (measured by the Temperament and Character Inventory-Revised). Results showed that on the WCST, FM women showed poorer performance than healthy comparison women on the number of categories and non-perseverative errors, but not on perseverative errors. FM patients also showed altered learning curve in the original IGT (where reward is immediate and punishment is delayed), suggesting compromised emotion-based decision-making; but not in the variant IGT (where punishment is immediate but reward is delayed), suggesting hypersensitivity to reward. Personality variables were very mildly associated with cognitive performance in FM women.

De-composition in Popular Elizabethan Playtexts: A Revalidation of the Multiple Versions of Romeo and Juliet and Hamlet

De-composition in Popular Elizabethan Playtexts:A Revalidation of the Multiple Versions of Romeo and Juliet and Hamlet Lene Petersen (bio) Recomposition and De-composition in Playtexts and Folk Texts When Grimm's folktales returned to the folk, they tended to become purified and in many ways have again approached the abstract style that was weakened by Wilhelm Grimm. According to the Swiss folklorist Max Lüthi (1986:110-11), a rendition of the Cinderella tale narrated by a North German farm worker "restores the sort of progression of clearly defined elements (Steigerung) that strives for clear and simple visibility and that had become effaced in Grimm's mistier, more poetical phrasing . . . in oral tradition it corrects itself." The aim of this article is to establish some premises for comparing the transmission of playtexts of the early modern stage with the transmission of folk material. My central question is whether playtexts and ballad and tale texts "de-compose" in similar ways, and, if they do, whether we may then predict a similar "goal product" that can only be achieved through transmission. The detailed comparison of traditionalized ballads and Elizabethan playtexts is still a relatively uncharted field of inquiry, and this article thus simultaneously revisits and supplements the few observations published in this field so far. In the quotation above, referring to the traditional folktale Cinderella, Lüthi stresses the power of oral tradition to correct, simplify, and make visible the narrative aspects that aesthetic/authorial composition complicates or obscures in a recorded text. The final product of transmission Lüthi called the Zielform,1 meaning "goal form." He saw the notion of the Zielform as relating both to the transmission and form of folk tales and folk epic, and his research, most of which was carried out in the 1960s and 1970s, assumes that under the right auspices a given story will transform according to certain expected (and hence predictable) corrective "laws" as it evolves and multiplies into different versions. During this process the tale may be zurechterzählt, "told into shape," or possibly zerzählt, meaning "dis-told," or "told out of shape." Either way, the mutation process that a given story undergoes in tradition is seen to be positive and necessary to the formal survival of that story. Cecil Sharp's view of the evolutionary adaptability of the traditional folk ballad was similar (1923:38): In the evolution of species of the animal and vegetable worlds, those variations will be preserved which are of advantage to their possessors in the competition for existence. In the evolution of folk [songs] . . . the corresponding principle of selection is the taste of the community. Those . . . variations, which appeal to the community, will be perpetuated, as against those which attract the individual only. By using examples of variant versions of traditionalized English broadside ballads alongside the multiple-text Shakespearean plays Romeo and Juliet and Hamlet, I hope to illustrate how a similar selective mechanism can be detected in the transmission of early modern playtexts. I also want to illustrate how the formative importance of transmission is made apparent in such texts through the generation of certain identifiable stylo-structural features. Given that I shall be referring recurrently to the terms "transmission" and "tradition" in this article I should like clarify from the start what I mean by those terms in relation to popular stage plays. By the transmission of playtexts, I mean the long-term interaction between stage-performance and print distribution over time, in the sense described by Adam Fox (2000:5). Tradition, then, is defined as the equally time-dependent accumulation of identifiable textual witnesses (extant and lost) produced by transmission. Thus recordings of the Hamlet story in various playtexts formats (octavo, quarto, folio), along with related forms such as plots, parts, and play summaries in table books and diaries, all belong to the tradition of Hamlet, as do ballads of the kind referred to as "residuals" by Bruce R. Smith. In "Shakespeare's Residuals," published recently in a collection of essays on Shakespeare and Elizabethan Popular Culture, Smith argues that there is a sustained relationship of cultural residuality between Elizabethan stage plays and ballads, suggesting that plays and ballads enter...