bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Alterated integrin expression in lichen planopilaris
Authors: d'Ovidio Roberto , Sgarra Concetta , Conserva Anna , Angelotti Umberto Filippo , Erriquez Roberta , Foti Caterina
Published: February 2007

Background

Lichen planopilaris (LPP) is an inflammatory disease characterized by a lymphomononuclear infiltrate surrounding the isthmus and infundibulum of the hair follicle of the scalp, that evolves into atrophic/scarring alopecia. In the active phase of the disease hairs are easily plucked with anagen-like hair-roots. In this study we focused on the expression of integrins and basement membrane components of the hair follicle in active LPP lesions.

Methods

Scalp biopsies were taken in 10 patients with LPP and in 5 normal controls. Using monoclonal antibodies against α3β1 and α6β4 integrins we showed the expression of these integrins and of the basement membrane components of the hair follicle in active LPP lesions and in healthy scalp skin.

Results

In the LPP involved areas, α3β1 was distributed in a pericellular pattern, the α6 subunit was present with a basolateral distribution while the β4 subunit showed discontinuous expression at the basal pole and occasionally, basolateral staining of the hair follicle. Conclusion: An altered distribution of the integrins in active LPP lesions can explain the phenomenon of easy pulling-out of the hair with a "gelatinous" root-sheath.
Dual roles of the transmembrane protein p23/TMP21 in the modulation of amyloid precursor protein metabolism
Authors: Vetrivel Kulandaivelu S , Gong Ping , Bowen James W , Cheng Haipeng , Chen Ying , Carter Meghan , Nguyen Phuong D , Placanica Lisa , Wieland Felix T , Li Yue-Ming , Kounnas Maria Z , Thinakaran Gopal
Published: February 2007

Background

Alzheimer's disease (AD) is characterized by cerebral deposition of β-amyloid (Aβ) peptides. Aβ is released from ectodomain cleaved amyloid precursor protein (APP) via intramembranous proteolysis by γ-secretase, a complex consisting of presenilin and a few other proteins. p23/TMP21, a member of the p24 family type I transmembrane proteins, was recently identified as a presenilin complex component capable of modulating γ-secretase cleavage. The p24 family proteins form oligomeric complexes and regulate vesicular trafficking in the early secretory pathway, but their role in APP trafficking has not been investigated.

Results

Here, we report that siRNA-mediated depletion of p23 in N2a neuroblastoma and HeLa cells produces concomitant knockdown of additional p24 family proteins and increases secretion of sAPP. Furthermore, intact cell and cell-free Aβ production increases following p23 knockdown, similar to data reported earlier using HEK293 cells. However, we find that p23 is not present in mature γ-secretase complexes isolated using an active-site γ-secretase inhibitor. Depletion of p23 and expression of a familial AD-linked PS1 mutant have additive effects on Aβ42 production. Knockdown of p23 expression confers biosynthetic stability to nascent APP, allowing its efficient maturation and surface accumulation. Moreover, immunoisolation analyses show decrease in co-residence of APP and the APP adaptor Mint3. Thus, multiple lines of evidence indicate that p23 function influences APP trafficking and sAPP release independent of its reported role in γ-secretase modulation.

Conclusion

These data assign significance to p24 family proteins in regulating APP trafficking in the continuum of bidirectional transport between the ER and Golgi, and ascribe new relevance to the regulation of early trafficking in AD pathogenesis.
Protein, iron, and meat consumption and risk for rheumatoid arthritis: a prospective cohort study
Authors: Benito-Garcia Elizabeth , Feskanich Diane , Hu Frank B , Mandl Lisa A , Karlson Elizabeth W
Published: February 2007

A recent prospective study showed that higher consumption of red meat and total protein was associated with increased risk for inflammatory polyarthritis. We therefore prospectively examined the relationship between diet (in particular, protein, iron, and corresponding food sources) and incident rheumatoid arthritis (RA) among 82,063 women in the Nurses' Health Study. From 1980 to 2002, 546 incident cases of RA were confirmed by a connective tissue disease screening questionnaire and medical record review for American College of Rheumatology criteria for RA. Diet was assessed at baseline in 1980 and five additional times during follow up. We conducted Cox proportional hazards analyses to calculate the rate ratio of RA associated with intakes of protein (total, animal, and vegetable) and iron (total, dietary, from supplements, and heme iron) and their primary food sources, adjusting for age, smoking, body mass index, and reproductive factors. The multivariate models revealed no association between RA and any measure of protein or iron intake. In comparisons of highest with lowest quintiles of intake, the rate ratio for total protein was 1.17 (95% confidence interval 0.89–1.54; P for trend = 0.11) and for total iron it was 1.04 (95% confidence interval 0.77–1.41; P for trend = 0.82). Red meat, poultry, and fish were also not associated with RA risk. We were unable to confirm that there is an association between protein or meat and risk for RA in this large female cohort. Iron was also not associated with RA in this cohort.
Dipeptidyl peptidase 8/9-like activity in human leukocytes
Authors: Maes Marie-Berthe , Dubois Véronique , Brandt Inger , Lambeir Anne-Marie , Van der Veken Pieter , Augustyns Koen , Cheng Jonathan D , Chen Xin , Scharpé Simon , De Meester Ingrid
Published: February 2007

The proline-specific dipeptidyl peptidases (DPPs) are emerging as a protease family with important roles in the regulation of signaling by peptide hormones. Inhibitors of DPPs have an intriguing, therapeutic potential, with clinical efficacy seen in patients with diabetes. Until now, only recombinant forms of DPP8 and DPP9 have been characterized. Their enzymatic activities have not been demonstrated in or purified from any natural source. Using several selective DPP inhibitors, we show that DPP activity, attributable to DPP8/9 is present in human PBMC. All leukocyte types tested (lymphocytes, monocytes, Jurkat, and U937 cells) were shown to contain similar DPP8/9-specific activities, and DPPII- and DPPIV-specific activities varied considerably. The results were confirmed by DPPIV/CD26 immunocapture experiments. Subcellular fractionation localized the preponderance of DPP8/9 activity to the cytosol and DPPIV in the membrane fractions. Using Jurkat cell cytosol as a source, a 30-fold, enriched DPP preparation was obtained, which had enzymatic characteristics closely related to the ones of DPP8 and/or -9, including inhibition by allo-Ile-isoindoline and affinity for immobilized Lys-isoindoline.
Circulating 25-Hydroxyvitamin D Levels Predict Survival in Early-Stage Non–Small-Cell Lung Cancer Patients
Authors: Zhou Wei , Heist Rebecca S. , Liu Geoffrey , Asomaning Kofi , Neuberg Donna S. , Hollis Bruce W. , Wain John C. , Lynch Thomas J. , Giovannucci Edward , Su Li , Christiani David C.
Published: February 2007

Purpose

Our previous analyses suggested that surgery in the summertime with higher vitamin D intake is associated with improved survival in patients with early-stage non–small-cell lung cancer (NSCLC). We further investigated the results of circulating 25-hydroxyvitamin D (25[OH]D) levels on overall survival (OS) and recurrence-free survival (RFS) in NSCLC patients.

Patients and Methods

Among 447 patients with early-stage NSCLC, data were analyzed using Cox proportional hazards models, adjusting for age, sex, stage, smoking, and treatment.

Results

The median follow-up time was 72 months (range, 0.2 to 141), with 161 recurrences and 234 deaths. For OS, the adjusted hazard ratio (AHR) was 0.74 (95% CI, 0.50 to 1.10; Ptrend = .07) for the highest versus lowest quartile of 25(OH)D levels. Stratified by stage, a strong association was observed among stage IB-IIB patients (AHR, 0.45; 95% CI, 0.24 to 0.82; Ptrend = .002), but not among stage IA patients (AHR, 1.10; 95% CI, 0.62 to 1.96; Ptrend = .53). Similar effects of 25(OH)D levels were observed among the 309 patients with dietary information (AHR, 0.74; 95% CI, 0.46 to 1.17; Ptrend = .19). For the joint effects of 25(OH)D level and vitamin D intake, the combined high 25(OH)D levels and high vitamin D intake (by median) were associated with better survival than the combined low 25(OH)D levels and low vitamin D intake (AHR, 0.64; 95% CI, 0.42 to 0.98; Ptrend = .06). Again, stronger associations were observed among stage IB-IIB than IA patients. Similar effects of 25(OH)D levels and vitamin D intake were observed for RFS.

Conclusion

Vitamin D may be associated with improved survival of patients with early-stage NSCLC, particularly among stage IB-IIB patients.
Nodal signaling: developmental roles and regulation
Authors: Shen Michael M.
Published: February 2007

Nodal-related ligands of the transforming growth factor-beta (TGFβ)superfamily play central roles in patterning the early embryo during the induction of mesoderm and endoderm and the specification of left-right asymmetry. Additional roles for this pathway in the maintenance of embryonic stem cell pluripotency and in carcinogenesis have been uncovered more recently. Consistent with its crucial developmental functions, Nodal signaling is tightly regulated by diverse mechanisms including the control of ligand processing, utilization of co-receptors, expression of soluble antagonists, as well as positive- and negative-feedback activities.
R1R2R3-Myb proteins positively regulate cytokinesis through activation of KNOLLE transcription in Arabidopsis thaliana
Authors: Haga Nozomi , Kato Kiichi , Murase Masatake , Araki Satoshi , Kubo Minoru , Demura Taku , Suzuki Kaoru , Müller Isabel , Voß Ute , Jürgens Gerd , Ito Masaki
Published: February 2007

G2/M phase-specific gene transcription in tobacco cells is mediated by R1R2R3-Myb transcriptional activators, NtmybA1 and NtmybA2, which bind to mitosis-specific activator (MSA) elements. We show here that two structurally related genes, MYB3R1 and MYB3R4, which encode homologs of NtmybA1 and NtmybA2, play a partially redundant role in positively regulating cytokinesis in Arabidopsis thaliana. The myb3r1 myb3r4double mutant often fails to complete cytokinesis, resulting in multinucleate cells with gapped walls and cell wall stubs in diverse tissues. These defects correlate with the selective reduction of transcript levels of several G2/M phase-specific genes, which include B2-type cyclin (CYCB2), CDC20.1 and KNOLLE (KN). These genes contain MSA-like motifs in their promoters and were activated by MYB3R4 in transient expression assays in tobacco cells. The KN gene encodes a cytokinesis-specific syntaxin that is essential for cell plate formation. The cytokinesis defects of myb3r1 myb3r4 double mutants were partially rescued by KN gene expression from heterologous promoters. In addition, a kn heterozygous mutation enhanced cytokinesis defects resulting from heterozygous or homozygous mutations in the MYB3R1 and MYB3R4 genes. Our results suggest that a pair of structurally related R1R2R3-Myb transcription factors may positively regulate cytokinesis mainly through transcriptional activation of the KN gene.
Notch signaling controls the differentiation of transporting epithelia and multiciliated cells in the zebrafish pronephros
Authors: Liu Yan , Pathak Narendra , Kramer-Zucker Albrecht , Drummond Iain A.
Published: February 2007

Epithelial tubules consist of multiple cell types that are specialized for specific aspects of organ function. In the zebrafish pronephros, multiciliated cells (MCCs) are specialized for fluid propulsion, whereas transporting epithelial cells recover filtered-blood solutes. These cell types are distributed in a `salt-and-pepper' fashion in the pronephros, suggesting that a lateral inhibition mechanism may play a role in their differentiation. We find that the Notch ligand Jagged 2 is expressed in MCCs and that notch3 is expressed in pronephric epithelial cells. Morpholino knockdown of either jagged 2 or notch3, or mutation in mind bomb (in which Notch signaling is impaired), dramatically expands ciliogenic gene expression, whereas ion transporter expression is lost, indicating that pronephric cells are transfated to MCCs. Conversely,ectopic expression of the Notch1a intracellular domain represses MCC differentiation. Gamma-secretase inhibition using DAPT demonstrated a requirement for Notch signaling early in pronephric development, before the pattern of MCC differentiation is apparent. Strikingly, we find that jagged 2 knockdown generates extra cilia and is sufficient to rescue the kidney cilia mutant double bubble. Our results indicate that Jagged 2/Notch signaling modulates the number of multiciliated versus transporting epithelial cells in the pronephros by way of a genetic pathway involving repression of rfx2, a key transcriptional regulator of the ciliogenesis program.
Components in Evaluation of cOmplex Interior Truck Sounds
Authors: Genell Anders , Västfjäll Daniel , Kleiner Mendel , Hedlund Anders
Published: February 2007

In order to investigate influences on assessment of interior truck sounds two experiments have been carried out with emphasis on the low frequency content. In the first experiment the participants were presented with recorded sound from the interior of a truck cabin, with different alterations of the low frequency content. In the second experiment the balance between low and high frequency content was altered for the recorded sounds. Three main dimensions important for the assessment of truck sounds were found: an Annoyance factor, a Wakefulness factor and a Quality factor. Additionally it was found that a well-suited spectral balance could improve positive impressions of truck sound.
An Investigation on Time-Interval Optimisation of Traffic Noise Measurement
Authors: Abbaspour Madjid , Golmohammadi Rostam , Nassiri Parvin , Mahjub Hossien
Published: February 2007

Noise is one of the most important sources of pollution in metropolitan areas, it causes discomfort for urban residents and hampers the efficiency of the work force. Currently, there is an urgent need to conduct basic studies on this issue in order to attain a mathematical model for prediction of traffic noise levels in the major cities of Iran. This article is the result of research conducted in the city of Hamadan in 2005 with the ultimate objective of setting up a traffic noise model based on the traffic conditions of Iranian cities.

For this study, main access roads of Hamadan city were divided in 64 segments and after careful considerations, 94 measuring stations were assigned to them. For the optimisation of noise measurement intervals in each station and the determination of background noise impact on the main traffic noise, 30 stations with the specifications of the target stations were randomly selected at the pilot stage. In all the pilot stations, the background sound pressure level (SPLb), Leq, SPLmax, L10 were measured simultaneously in 10, 30 and 60 minute intervals (in random non-holiday days at random hours). The measurements were made 3 meters away from the road side.

Pilot results indicated that the mean equivalent sound pressure levels at the measuring stations in 10, 30 and 60 minute intervals were 70.76±2.11 dBA, 30 minutes 70.88±2.19 dBA, and 60 minutes 70.93±2.13dBA respectively. The mean background sound pressure level at the stations was 60.77±5.04 dBA. The results of the traffic noise measurements at the research stations through the comparison of mean values (Variance Analysis) indicated that there is no meaningful deviation between the Leq in the above-mentioned time intervals (10, 30 and 60 minutes) in the hourly measurements (P= 0.998). In the pilot phase, it was determined that the background noise level did not impose a considerable impact on the main traffic noise and it was possible to make 10-minute interval measurements to forecast the 30-minute and 60-minute interval equivalent levels. Therefore in the main phase of study with the utilisation of the 10-minute interval results collected from each of the 94 stations, a total of 282 measurements including 2 daily-hour and one nightly-hour measurements were conducted. The final results revealed that the average Leq in all stations was 69.04±4.25 dBA, the average speed of vehicles was 44.57±11.46 km/hr and average traffic load was 1231.9±910.2 V/hr.

Moreover, the results indicated that the Leq in the studied roads were exceeding the allowable levels of urban noise pollution and there was a meaningful deviation between equivalent levels during a 24-hour period, traffic load and various vehicle speeds (P= 0.003).
Editorial
Authors: Spranger Tade M
Published: February 2007

Biomedical research raises manifold ethical and legal questions. Matthew Rimmer's article considers whether the granting of patents in respect of biomedical genetic research should be conditional upon the informed consent of research participants. He focuses upon several case studies like
Cloning: National and International Law
Authors: Kuppuswamy Chamundeeswari
Published: February 2007

Governance of cloning is a controversial national and international issue. It has occupied the time of legislatures across different countries and even the United Nations General Assembly. Despite attempts at obtaining clarity and coherence in rules governing human reproductive and therapeutic cloning, many countries have adopted a vague and uncertain policy. This is in the nature of the issue under consideration, given that rapid advancements in science and technology can quickly make laws redundant. As law increasingly moves in to regulate private matters of citizens, it takes a big risk, in terms of becoming outdated soon and being poorly enforced. This article delves into the laws and policies of a cross section of countries in an attempt to succinctly present the state of the law in cloning research and other allied areas. This is followed by an international public law approach to governance of cloning, in the light of the 2005 declaration on human cloning.
Editorial
Authors: Spranger Tade M
Published: February 2007

Inter- and supranational law knows many examples of specific biotech regulations. The Convention on Biological Diversity with its so-called Biosafety Protocol deals with the access to and use of genetic resources as well as security issues like labelling of living modified organisms. The Council of Europe's Convention on Human Rights and Biomedicine, which is also completed by several Additional Protocols, aims at setting basic standards for biomedical research, especially in the field of patient's rights. The UNESCO contributed (legally non binding) Declarations on the Human Genome and Human Genetic Data. The European Union and the Andean Community established legal frameworks for selected areas of biomedicine and gene technology. However, despite the need for uniform standards in this field, international law does not form a coherent set of norms. According to
From ethical advice to legal regulation: History and practise of Research Ethics Committees in Germany
Authors: Fuchs Michael , Heyer Martin , Berbuir Alexander
Published: February 2007

Since many years the Federal Republic of Germany has an extensive system of ethics committees responsible for reviewing research projects on human subjects. The legal context of their work is complex and can only be understood from a perspective that takes into account the federalism enshrined in the German Constitution, with its division of functions between the federal government (
The Sex-Determining Locus in the Tiger Pufferfish,Takifugu rubripes
Authors: Kikuchi Kiyoshi , Kai Wataru , Hosokawa Ayumi , Mizuno Naoki , Suetake Hiroaki , Asahina Kiyoshi , Suzuki Yuzuru
Published: February 2007

The tiger pufferfish (fugu), Takifugu rubripes, is a model fish that has had its genome entirely sequenced. By performing genomewide linkage analyses, we show that the sex of fugu is determined by a single chromosomal region on linkage group 19 in an XX–XY system.
Ssh4, Rcr2 and Rcr1 Affect Plasma Membrane Transporter Activity in Saccharomyces cerevisiae
Authors: Kota Jhansi , Melin-Larsson Monika , Ljungdahl Per O , Forsberg Hanna
Published: February 2007

Nutrient uptake in the yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae is a highly regulated process. Cells adjust levels of nutrient transporters within the plasma membrane at multiple stages of the secretory and endosomal pathways. In the absence of the ER-membrane-localized chaperone Shr3, amino acid permeases (AAP) inefficiently fold and are largely retained in the ER. Consequently, shr3 null mutants exhibit greatly reduced rates of amino acid uptake due to lower levels of AAPs in their plasma membranes. To further our understanding of mechanisms affecting AAP localization, we identified SSH4 and RCR2 as high-copy suppressors of shr3 null mutations. The overexpression of SSH4, RCR2, or the RCR2 homolog RCR1 increases steady-state AAP levels, whereas the genetic inactivation of these genes reduces steady-state AAP levels. Additionally, the overexpression of any of these suppressor genes exerts a positive effect on phosphate and uracil uptake systems. Ssh4 and Rcr2 primarily localize to structures associated with the vacuole; however, Rcr2 also localizes to endosome-like vesicles. Our findings are consistent with a model in which Ssh4, Rcr2, and presumably Rcr1, function within the endosome–vacuole trafficking pathway, where they affect events that determine whether plasma membrane proteins are degraded or routed to the plasma membrane.
Highly Variable Patterns of Linkage Disequilibrium in Multiple Soybean Populations
Authors: Hyten David L , Choi Ik-Young , Song Qijian , Shoemaker Randy C , Nelson Randall L , Costa Jose M , Specht James E , Cregan Perry B
Published: February 2007

Prospects for utilizing whole-genome association analysis in autogamous plant populations appear promising due to the reported high levels of linkage disequilibrium (LD). To determine the optimal strategies for implementing association analysis in soybean (Glycine max L. Merr.), we analyzed the structure of LD in three regions of the genome varying in length from 336 to 574 kb. This analysis was conducted in four distinct groups of soybean germplasm: 26 accessions of the wild ancestor of soybean (Glycine soja Seib. et Zucc.); 52 Asian G. max Landraces, the immediate results of domestication from G. soja; 17 Asian Landrace introductions that became the ancestors of North American (N. Am.) cultivars, and 25 Elite Cultivars from N. Am. In G. soja, LD did not extend past 100 kb; however, in the three cultivated G. max groups, LD extended from 90 to 574 kb, likely due to the impacts of domestication and increased self-fertilization. The three genomic regions were highly variable relative to the extent of LD within the three cultivated soybean populations. G. soja appears to be ideal for fine mapping of genes, but due to the highly variable levels of LD in the Landraces and the Elite Cultivars, whole-genome association analysis in soybean may be more difficult than first anticipated.
“Plain” and “Ornate” Styles and The Structure of Paradise Lost
Authors: Berek Peter
Published: February 2007

Milton uses the contrast between “plain” or “unpoetic” speech and “ornate” or “obviously poetic” speech as an important resource for presenting to the reader of Paradise Lost the difference between perfection and imper fection, innocence and corruption. The poem associates rhetoric, oratory, and most ornamental verbal contrivances with Satan and the fallen angels, and the contrast between their style and the bare and unemotional dialogue in Heaven is intended to make the reader suspect the arts of language as devices for concealing or manipulating the truth instead of stating or revealing it. The speeches of the unfallen Adam and Eve treat words as a set of counters for the truths of the created universe, but after the fall they, like the fallen angels, use language in ways which imply that its correspondence to the “truths” of the universe is a matter for speculation. When Adam and Eve are reconciled with each other and to God, their speeches contain striking reminders of the style of the Son in Book in. Of course, all the effects of Paradise Lost, both plain and ornate, are artful, but the criticism of reliance on persuasive and immediately appealing styles implied by the structure of the poem may help to explain Milton's deliberate forgoing of such effects in Books xi and xii and in Paradise Regain'd.
An Analysis of The Manuscripts of A Passage to India
Authors: Levine June Perry
Published: February 2007

An analysis of the multiple versions of many of the novel's events contained in E. M. Forster's manuscript of A Passage to India increases our understanding of the published work. Examining his changes in the “Caves” and “Temple” material supports the notion that the novel is a philosophic one, whose themes were in Forster's mind from the beginning–largely as a result of his Indian experiences–but whose dramatic structure was developed slowly as he sought to create characters who would animate his ideas. Thus, the nihilistic message of the Marabar Caves–that “everything exists, nothing has value”–is substantially the same in even the earliest version, only there it is the schoolmaster Fielding, rather than Mrs. Moore, who encounters this bleak pronouncement. Since such a vision could never alter Fielding's admirable yet limited humanism in any significant respect, Forster decided to have Mrs. Moore enter the cave instead. In the published work, Mrs. Moore emerges in a dominant role as a disillusioned mystic after her earlier MS beginnings as a conventional, God-fearing Christian lady.
“Wanna Go Home, Baby?”: Sweeney Agonistes As Drama of the Absurd
Authors: Spanos William V.
Published: February 2007

Shifting our critical perspective on Sweeney to encounter it temporally rather than spatially (New Critically), we discover an existential content embodied in an Anti-Aristotelian form remarkably similar to the drama of the absurd. Its thematic pattern is that which finds its paradigm in the myth of the Furies and its most articulate phenomenological description in Heidegger: the paradoxical flight from death and, ultimately, Nothingness (the Erinyes) that ends in the saving recognition that death is a benign agent (the Eumenides). The flight, characterized in existential philosophy as the self-deceptive “domestication” of death, is epitomized in the wastelanders effort to transform Sweeney's tale of murder into a well-made detective story. But this impulse is thwarted by Sweeney's refusal to draw a distancing conclusion. This becomes Eliot's formal strategy. Like the Anti-Aristotelian absurdists, he “decomposes” the “time-shape” of his microcosm to prevent the audience from objectifying the dreadful contingency of the world of his play. Eliot's Anti-Aristotelianism, however, is ultimately different from that of the “humanistic” absurdists. Whereas the latter project an absolutely discontinuous “time-shape” grounded in a vision of a radically discontinuous universe, Eliot, who sees the macrocosm as a Nothingness that may be the obverse of Somethingness, projects a discontinuous (circular) “time-shape” that contains the possibility of linear direction.
Revenge, Honor, and Conscience in Hamlet
Authors: Skulsky Harold
Published: February 2007

By the vagueness of his injunction, the ghost in effect leaves up to Hamlet a choice among available sanctions for revenge. Two such alternatives—unlimited ill will and the code of honor—are eventually discredited in the eyes of the audience, the one by being repellently embodied in Pyrrhus, the other by being set in opposition to the law of nature and (through a parallel with suicide) to conscience and Christian doctrine. Though Hamlet never abandons his commitment to unlimited retribution, he manages to palliate it by appealing from conscience and charity, first to the code of honor, and then, having come to think of himself as a doomed scourge of God, to divine command as a fiat superseding moral reason. These appeals lead up to Hamlet's ultimate reconciliation of conscience with divine fiat, and mark a steady spiritual decline from which he is rescued, through no merit of his own, by the brief madness of his final burst of anger.
Stations of the Breath: End Rhyme in the Verse of Dylan Thomas
Authors: Astley Russell
Published: February 2007

Starting where Yeats and Owen left off, Dylan Thomas developed a system of consonantal correspondences which moved rhyme from the matching of same to the matching of similar sounds. His early verse abounded in such devices as zero consonance (rhyming, in a context of consonance, all syllables ending in an open vowel), partial consonance (rhyming two consonant clusters one of which is deficient in one or two members), close consonance (rhyming consonants which are phonetically similar rather than identical), and frame rhyme (rhyming words marked by both alliteration and consonance). In “Then was my neophyte” Thomas built an elaborate stanza by systematically associating and contrasting rhyming syllables according to the degrees of likeness among them. During the later thirties, however, he began to exercise increasing restraint in his use of the more unconventional of these consonantal devices; and although an unprecedented system of rhymes, founded upon assonance, began to take shape throughout the forties, it never quite attained the hierarchical articulation of the earlier consonant-based system. Instead, Thomas' latest work (his unfinished “Elegy”, for example) shows him preoccupied, just before his untimely death, with the exploration of simple, even quite traditional, stanzas based almost entirely upon conventional true rhyme.
A Prosody for Whitman?
Authors: Mitchell Roger
Published: February 2007

A prosody has four characteristics: predictability, continuity or wholeness, basis in a prominent feature of the language, and flexibility. Given such a definition, Whitman took significant steps toward developing a prosody that vies with accentual and accentual-syllabic prosodies in its subtlety and in its relative freedom from arbitrariness. Based on the rhythms of grammar, Whitman's poetry is constructed of groups rather than stresses, though stresses are here used to measure the size of groups. He is skillful both in arranging these groups and in controlling their relative size so as to reinforce his meaning. Whether measured in groups/line or stresses/line, his most consistent rhythmic form is the parabola. His use of it occasionally shows a formality and intricacy which are never attributed to him.
Hamlet as a Memento Mori Poem
Authors: Morris Harry
Published: February 2007

The five-act structure of Hamlet is modeled on the memento mori- timor mortis lyric as it is practiced in the English tradition from 1483 to 1600. Furthermore, the crucial fifth act opens with a set piece in the genre, taking as its point of departure Thomas Lord Vaux's “I Loathe That I Did Love.” But, as in other matters, Shakespeare's wide reading in the genre is evident in the set piece since it incorporates elements not found in Vaux's poem. Recognition of the eschatological concerns that are an inescapable part of the memento mori tradition helps us to see Hamlet's delays as an overwhelming concern for the plight of his soul.
Henry Reynolds' Mythomystes and the Continuity of Ancient Modes of Allegoresis in Seventeenth-Century England
Authors: Cinquemani A. M.
Published: February 2007

Henry Reynolds' Mythomystes revives the ancient Greek notion that myth is the allegorical expression of natural philosophy. While Reynolds acknowledges the common Renaissance practice of moral and psychological al-legoresis, he insists that the truth-seeking exegete must read the ancient myths as “meere matter of Nature.” Most of the examples of allegoresis in Mythomystes reflect the interpretations of the pre-Socratic philosophers, while the divine sense of the Narcissus commentary recalls the eschatology implied in some of Plato's myths. In method Reynolds' allegoreses are syncretic, like those of Philo and Origen, and etymological, like those of the Stoics. Involved in the syncretism is a sort of Euhemerism that ascribes Hebraic mortality to otherwise pagan gods. A spatial, rather than a temporal, typology is also part of Reynolds' method. The etymologies in Mythomystes resemble those in Cicero's De Natura Deorum. Though Reynolds' theory, practice, and method of allegoresis are ancient, his concern with knowledge of the secrets of nature, like Bacon's, is modern. However, Reynolds' instrument, mythological allegoresis, seeks to recover: Bacon's, induction, to discover.
Samson Agonistes and the “Tragedy” of the Apocalypse
Authors: Lewalski Barbara K.
Published: February 2007

Milton's references in the preface to Samson Agonistes and in The Reason of Church Government to the Book of Revelation as tragedy have great significance for his drama. His cited authority, David Pareus, and several other Protestant commentators identified the Book of Revelation as tragedy on the basis of form (the alternation of dramatic episodes and Choruses) and subject—the spiritual combat of the Elect with Antichrist and their torment and suffering at his hands throughout all time, reversed only at the end of history when they share Christ's Apocalyptic victory over him. Protestant exegates often linked the Samson story typologically with the Book of Revelation, presenting Samson as type of the suffering Elect and the exercise of Samson's vocation as Judge (deliverer of God's people and executor of the wrath of God upon His enemies) as type of the Elect judging the world with Christ at the last day. This context assists the interpretation of Milton's Samson, bringing into focus its treatment of Samson's judgeship. The Samson Apocalypse link also brings a new perspective to certain moot questions: the date of the play, the interpretation of Samson's character, the presence of contemporary political reference, the nature of the drama's tragic effect.
The Dark Truth of the Piazza Tales
Authors: Donaldson Scott
Published: February 2007

Although a collection of stories, The Piazza Tales achieve unity by revealing Herman Melville's pessimistic state of mind during the early 1850's. Three persistent concerns of the author run through the six stories that make up the book: the difficulty of human perception, artistic and otherwise; the dangers of human isolation; and the catastrophic effects of human servitude.
What's Past is Prologue
Authors: Parker William R.
Published: February 2007

I may as well begin by confessing that I make this report somewhat selfconsciously. For one thing, I am pensively aware that it is my last report to you as Director of the Foreign Language Program. But in addition I seem to have acquired some notoriety as a scolder of language teachers, and it's a nice question whether I should stay in character or make my valedictory a flattering if slightly insincere performance. Some of my good friends have warned me that language teachers, like professional educators, are unusually sensitive to criticism, and they have advised that, while honesty is supposed to be the best policy, I need not be too generous with it. Beyond this wellmeant counsel my own natural impulses are to close four years of work for the advancement of language study in America by having all foreign language teachers as my friends. I put only one thing ahead of such advice and such impulses, and that is the good of the cause for which I shall continue to work until next summer, and on which it is now my duty to report candidly.
The Purdue Language Program
Authors: Hocking Elton
Published: February 2007

The Forgotten Man in the Purdue undergraduate language program was, as in most such programs, the non-major. Required to “pass off” four semesters of a foreign language, he endured (and we endured him) for two years of grammar and translation, usually interlinear, of the classics. Meanwhile our attention was primarily devoted to the dwindling minority of majors and minors. But the forgotten man did not forget us. Every June, as seniors became graduates, there was an increase in the ranks of the more or less influential citizens who remembered without enthusiasm their deadening experience with a presumably living language. It seems likely that a considerable portion of American isolationism and apathy to the national need for foreign languages can be traced to this experience on the part of our former students.
The MLA College Language Manual Project: History and Present Status
Authors: Mildenberger Kenneth W.
Published: February 2007

On 19–20 May 1956 the Foreign Language Program sponsored a Conference on Criteria for a College Textbook in Beginning Spanish, held at MLA headquarters. Nearly all of the seventeen participants had considerable experience in teaching the Spanish language to beginners at the college level, and most were authors of beginning texts. They represented in their theory and practice of language teaching a wide variety of views in both the academic field and the field of linguistic science.
Foreign Language Enrollments in Adult Education: Fall 1956
Authors: Mousolite Peter S.
Published: February 2007

Adult education is a very complex phase of American education, ranging from organized evening colleges to informal classes held at a YMCA or public library. This survey is restricted to the quantitative evaluation of foreign language teaching during the fall term of 1956 in adult education and correspondence programs sponsored by institutions of higher education. The results of the survey are based on 1,127 usable replies.
Language and Communication
Authors: Meyer Agnes E.
Published: February 2007

My Sense of gratitude—of indebtedness—has often propelled me into difficult situations but none more difficult than the one in which I find myself tonight. I accepted the invitation of your Executive Secretary, Mr. George Winchester Stone, Jr., to address this formidable assemblage because such knowledge of foreign languages as I possess has been and still is one of the most formative influences on my whole life and my concept of the meaning of life.
The Role of Languages in the Development of National Consciousness in India
Authors: Hingorani D. K.
Published: February 2007

It is, Indeed, a privilege for me to discuss before this gathering of distinguished scholars the subject of “The Role of Languages in the Development of National Consciousness in India.” It is a subject of the greatest importance for the stability and progress of our country. It is also one of the toughest subjects ever confronted by a new nation. Efforts to resolve it constitute a most significant case history and experiment in democratic ideology. In fact, on the result of this experiment may well depend the success of democracy in India and other Asian countries which have similar language problems.
The Role of Modern Hebrew in the Development of Jewish-Israeli National Consciousness
Authors: Kutscher Edward Yeheskeel
Published: February 2007

In the discussion we must start with two really striking facts, both very little known even among scholars close to Modern Hebrew; at least these scholars are not aware of their importance. In the first place you may have heard that Hebrew is a revived language, the language of the Bible come to life again in Israel. This is only partly true. Modern Hebrew—I know of no parallel in this respect—is a recreated language, a new Hebrew dialect, made of several ingredients. Most of them go back to the various layers of Hebrew in the past. Still, it is—and I am exaggerating deliberately—a kind of invented language, a kind of Hebrew Esperanto.
Editions of American Writers, 1963: A Preliminary Survey
Authors: Gibson William M. , Cady Edwin H.
Published: February 2007

That this has become an age of criticism is a commonplace. But that the very fact of our critical concern has also produced in the United States a generation of sensitive and, for historical and technical reasons, uniquely competent editors of literary texts is far less generally known. Critical concentration on the verbal subtlety of novelists as well as poets has strengthened the desire to read “clear text.” Attention paid to textual revisions has sharpened critical insight just as regard for the whole effects of whole works has enriched response. The need to know all a writer wrote in order to interpret truly any part of it is once more recognized as essential by the serious critic. New editions of letters and collections of criticism appear. Critics compile bibliographies. Biography and literary history flourish.
Who is to Speak for English?
Authors: Keppel Francis
Published: February 2007

Men create institutions to do those things together which they cannot do satisfactorily alone. This of course is why there are learned societies. It must be a matter of particular pride to President Nicolson that the Modern Language Association of America, from its beginnings in a group of forty scholars on the Columbia campus more than eighty years ago, has grown to approximately 15,000 members. In its growth, it has performed a service for scholarship and education in foreign languages and in English which leaves the Nation in its debt.
Designing Foreign Language Education for World Understanding—A Shared Responsibility
Authors: Johnston Marjorie C.
Published: February 2007

In the short span of years since Kipling wrote that “East is East and West is West,/And never the twain shall meet” we have witnessed the meeting of East and West. We have become enmeshed in the resulting tangle of dissident philosophies, and who can predict the eventual outcome?
The Teaching of English in France
Authors: Aggeler William F.
Published: February 2007

The methods used to teach foreign languages in France were chosen to suit the French school system. They cannot be properly appreciated unless one has some idea of the organization of that system. The following brief description is intended to give a general idea of the educational system in France.
XI.—Notes on Spanish Sources of Molière
Authors: Morley S. Griswold
Published: February 2007

The object of this article is to call attention to certain cases of close resemblance between passages in Molière's plays and others taken from Spanish literature or connected with it. Except in details where credit is duly given to the discoverer, none of these cases has ever before been noted, to my knowledge.

It is seldom possible to decide categorically whether or no these parallels are genuine instances of borrowing by Molière, or merely coincidences of thought and expression. Therefore I am content usually to leave the judgment to the reader, after putting the facts before him.
XIII.— Scriptural Names in Early Middle English
Authors: McKnight G. H.
Published: February 2007

The paramount influence of French learning in England after the Conquest is well known. Under Edward the Confessor many of the most important church positions in England had been filled by foreigners. Although most of the foreign prelates were expelled by Earl Godwin, after the accession of William there was an immediate and general occupation by the invaders of all high offices of church and state. Freeman (Norman Conquest, vol. III.) remarks that when, near the end of his reign, “William gathered his Witan to his great Gemot at Salisbury, there was not a single English earl and only one English bishop to answer his summons.” That under these circumstances French culture and French learning must have dominated in England, is obvious.
XII.—Indico Legno.
Authors: Cook Mabel Priscilla
Published: February 2007

“Oro ed argento fino, cocco e biacca, Indico legno lucido e sereno, Fresco smeraldo in l'ora che si fiacca“ are the substances Dante cites in Purgatorio, vii, 73–75, as being surpassed in color by the flowers and grass of the Valley of the Princes. The criticism on verse seventy-four divides into two schools according to the punctuation assigned to the passage by commentators. One section, and perhaps the greater, holds that Dante meant the whole line to refer to one substance, some word from India; the other, putting a comma after the first word, has it that the poet had two colors in mind when he wrote the words: the color of indigo and that of some “wood shining and clear,” which latter is however rather dull and obscure of interpretation. Among the substances guessed at by the commentators there is none that fits well the sense of the passage, neither ebony nor “quercia marcia” having colors appropriate to a description of bright flowers. Philalethes joined those who hold that “indico” should be interpreted as meaning indigo rather than Indian, feeling a need of blue among the flower colors. In the meadows of Saxony corn flower, speedwell, lungwort and borage are common on every hand and make generous gift of pure blue to the kaleidoscope of nature; but did Dante have any such association with the color? What place does blue hold in the Divina Commedia? It is surprising to find that there are only five references in the whole poem that surely can be interpreted “blue.” In the Inferno we have two of the purses worn by the usurers described with azure in the blazon (Inf., xvii, 59 and 64). In Purgatory the noonday light turns the heavenly blue to white (Purg., xxvi, 6) and in two passages the heavens have the color of saphire (Purg., i, 13, and Par., xxiii, 101). In one passage we cannot be quite sure that “smalto” may not mean blue—the doubt hinging on an ambiguity of reference to the earthly or the heavenly paradise; the frequent use Dante makes of the word to describe greensward is rather a strong argument for the former interpretation. This scarcity of blue in the coloring of the Divina Commedia is the more striking when we remember how rich in cobalt, ultramarine, and smalt were the illuminations and frescoes that made up the art of Dante's contemporaries, and how strong the visualistic power of the artist was in Dante.
On the Date of King Lear
Authors: Law Robert Adger
Published: February 2007

Within certain limits the date of composition of Shakspere's tragedy of King Lear is well defined. It must have been written no earlier than 1603, when Harsnet's Declaration of Egregious Popish Impostures was published, and no later than December, 1606, when the play was presented before “the kinges maiestie at Whitehall.”
Antoine Heroët's Parfaite Amye
Authors: Kerr W. A. R.
Published: February 2007

Perhaps the most significant phenomenon of modern history is the emancipation of woman—the rise of the submerged half. No more interesting and no more complex problem can be dealt with, and it is well worthy of the attention which scholars have of late years been devoting to it.
Unpublished Manuscripts of Italian Bestiaries
Authors: McKenzie Kenneth
Published: February 2007

Before the history of Italian bestiary literature can be satisfactorily written, considerable preliminary work remains to be done. When Lauchert published his Geschichte des Physiologus (Strassburg, 1889), although he devoted a certain amount of space to the poets from the Sicilian school to Ariosto, he was not aware that any bestiaries earlier than that of Leonardo da Vinci existed in Italian prose. Three years later, Goldstaub and Wendriner, Ein Tosco-Venezianischer Bestiarius (Halle, 1892), published the text of a manuscript belonging to the Biblioteca Comunale at Padua, and also an account of seven other manuscripts, all of which are in Florentine libraries. This book (cited hereafter as G-W) is the most comprehensive study of the Italian bestiaries now available, and may safely be taken as the basis for further investigation. The present paper, based in large part on work done in the libraries of Florence, Naples and Paris, is offered as a contribution to the study of the subject, and will, it is hoped, be of value in indicating a large amount of material, including several important manuscripts, which was entirely unknown to Goldstaub and Wendriner. An important phase of the subject, namely, the use of bestiary material by the Italian poets of the thirteenth century, has been investigated by Dr. M. S. Garver, of Yale University, in a dissertation which he hopes to publish soon.