Differences in melanin type and content among color variations in American mink (Neovison vison)

Coat colour is one of the most important qualitative traits of fur animals. Determining melanin pigments forming the basics of visible coat colour may contribute to a better understanding of the process of creating different coat colour variations in fur-bearing animals. This study aimed to (i) isolate pigment cells from the hair of American mink of 11 colour variations (standard brown, silverblue, palomino, black, wild type, sapphire, black cross, pearl, palomino cross, glow, and amber) using acid and alkali; and (ii) characterise the melanin pigments obtained. The purified pigment cells were observed under a light microscope and verified by spectrophotometry scanning and nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy. The method allowed for obtaining pure melanin specimens. Using acid and alkali to extract eumelanosomes did not affect their shape and structure; it also allowed for obtaining pheomelanin from the hair. The results have proven that the hair colour of the American mink is based on all types of melanin, and that its variations differ in terms of how much eumelanin and pheomelanin the hair contains.

Memorial Crosses of Veliky Novgorod: The Cross of Venerable Savva Vishersky and the Wander or the Black Cross

В статье исследуются деревянные поклонные кресты работы новгородских мастеров, которые устанавливались для поклонения и в память каких-либо значимых событий. На основании изучения истории бытования, типологии, стилистических и технико-технологических особенностей сохранившегося в Новгородском музее креста Саввы Вишерского и утраченного Чудного (Чёрного) креста выявлены разновременные части этих памятников и сделана их атрибуция. В результате исследования деревянного креста Саввы Вишерского установлено, что памятник является сложным и разновременным, в основе которого сохранилась древняя массивная часть креста, сделанная в 1417 г. при основании монастыря самим преподобным Саввой Вишерским. А рельефные изображения и надписи вырезаны в конце XV - начале XVI в. после кончины преподобного. Вероятно, разновременным памятником был также и Чудный (Чёрный) крест. Его более тонкая лицевая поверхность, вероятно, изготовлена во время «поновления» или «реставрации» в 1547 г. Она была надставлена из липовых досок, и затем на этой плоскости вырезаны рельефные изображения Распятия, предстоящих и надписи. Скорее всего, при таком «поновлении» форма и пропорции древнего особо почитаемого восьмиконечного креста не были изменены. The article explores two wooden memorial crosses, the work of Novgorod masters, which were erected for worshiping and in memory of a certain significant events. Based on the history study, typology, stylistics and technological features of the Savva Vishersky cross, which is currently preserved in the Novgorod Museum, and now lost The Wonder (or The Black) Cross a different part of these objects were studied and attribution was made. As a result of the study of the Savva Vishersky wooden cross it was established that the object is complex and multi-temporal. There is an ancient massive part in the core of the cross, which was originally made by venerable Savva Vishersky himself in 1417 at the time of the monastery foundation. Relief images and inscriptions were carved in the late 15th or early 16th centuries already after the death of the reverend. Quite possible that the Wonder (or Black) Cross was also a multi-temporal as a finer frontal surface was probably made during a renovation in 1547. The frontal surface was created with Linden wood boards and then Crucifixion images, Saints and the inscriptions were carved out. Most likely this renovation did not influence the form and proportions of the ancient and highly revered eight-pointed cross.

Updated distribution of Osmoderma eremita in Abruzzo (Italy) and agro-pastoral practices affecting its conservation (Coleoptera: Scarabaeidae)

New records of <em>Osmoderma</em> <em>eremita</em> (Scopoli, 1763) (Coleoptera: Scarabaeidae: Cetoniinae) are reported for Abruzzo (Italy), together with a review of its distribution in this region. <em>O</em>. <em>eremita</em> is a saproxylic beetle dependent on the presence of hollow deciduous trees with abundant wood mould in their cavities. The major threats for the species are habitat loss and fragmentation. EU Habitats Directive requests to the member States its protection and the monitoring of its conservation status. Detection of its occurrence is the first step to protect the species. The surveys have been carried out in ten sites of Abruzzo by using black cross-windows traps baited with specific pheromone. The species has been recorded for the first time in the Sant’Antonio forest and its presence is confirmed in the Peligna Valley, after a decade. The populations seem to be confined to small patches of suitable habitats. At local level, the abandonment of the pollarding practice (willow and beech forests) and the use of pollarded trees as biomass for fuel are the major threats for this species. Indeed some key actions, such as the protection of old hollow trees and the continuation of pollarding practice in rural landscape, could be key factors for the conservation strategies of the species in the study area.

Grounds of Engagement

Part literary history, part cultural study, this book examines the relationships and exchanges between black South African and African American writers who sought to create common ground throughout the antiapartheid era. The book argues that the authors' geographic imaginations crucially defined their individual interactions and, ultimately, the literary traditions on both sides of the Atlantic. Subject to the tyranny of segregation, authors such as Richard Wright, Bessie Head, Langston Hughes, Gwendolyn Brooks, Keorapetse Kgositsile, Michelle Cliff, and Richard Rive charted their racialized landscapes and invented freer alternative geographies. They crafted rich representations of place to challenge the stark social and spatial arrangements that framed their lives. Those representations, the book contends, also articulated their desires for black transnational belonging and political solidarity. The first book to examine U.S. and South African literary exchanges in spatial terms, it identifies key moments in this understudied history of black cross-cultural exchange, exposing how geography serves as an indispensable means of shaping and reshaping modern racial meaning.

Review ofEuthera(Diptera: Tachinidae) in North America with the description of a new species

EutheraLoew is a small but cosmopolitan genus of Tachinidae with distinctive smoky black cross bands on the wings. There are three described species in North America,Euthera bicolorCoquillett,Euthera setifaciesBrooks, andEuthera tentatrixLoew. A new species from California and New Mexico is described asEuthera woodisp. nov.in honour of dipterist D. Monty Wood. A key and digital images are provided for the identification of the four species, and the three previously described species are diagnosed.Oebalus mexicana(Sailer) andNezara viridula(L.) (Heteroptera: Pentatomidae) are new host records forE. bicolorandE. tentatrix, respectively.

Kontrast und Wissen

Kasimir Malewitschs suprematistische Hauptwerke ›Schwarzes Quadrat‹, ›Schwarzer Kreis‹ und ›Schwarzes Kreuz‹ von 1915 setzen sich aus schwarzen Formen auf weißem Grund zusammen. Der Typus des Schwarzweißbildes weist überraschende Parallelen zu den bildlichen Wahrnehmungsinstrumenten auf, die vom ausgehenden 18. bis Anfang des 20. Jahrhunderts in den Experimenten der Farbenlehre, physiologischen Optik und Psychologie verwendet worden sind. Die vorliegende Studie untersucht diese Parallelen in drei Schritten: Zunächst erfolgt eine allgemeine Charakterisierung des Schwarzweißbildes mit Hilfe des Kontrastbegriffs von Edmund Husserl. Des weiteren wird die Entstehung und Funktion des schwarzweißen Kontrastbildes in den Wissenschaften des 19. Jahrhunderts typologisch herausgearbeitet. Unter Berücksichtigung des Wissensbegriffs von Max Scheler wird abschließend die Spezifik des Wissens eruiert, das die Schwarzweißbilder sowohl in der Malerei Malewitschs als auch in den genannten Wissenschaften generieren. Malevich’s main Suprematist works, such as ›Black Square‹, ›Black Circle‹, and ›Black Cross‹ from 1915, consist of black shapes on white ground. Surprisingly this series of shapes strongly resembles scientific black-and-white images used for research on colour theory, physiological optics, and psychology throughout the 19th century. This paper examines the parallels between Malevich’s paintings and the scientific drawings in three steps: It first characterizes black-and-white images in general, using Edmund Husserl’s definition of the term ›contrast‹. Secondly, the paper investigates the development and function of black-and-white images as tools of perception in the sciences. It finally discusses the specific knowledge generated through Malevich’s art and through scientific black-and-white images, following Max Scheler’s phenomenological identification of knowledge.