The development and structure of the mesentery

The position of abdominal organs, and mechanisms by which these are centrally connected, are currently described in peritoneal terms. As part of the peritoneal model of abdominal anatomy, there are multiple mesenteries. Recent findings point to an alternative model in which digestive organs are connected to a single mesentery. Given that direct evidence of this is currently lacking, we investigated the development and shape of the entire mesentery. Here we confirm that, within the abdomen, there is one mesentery in which all abdominal digestive organs develop and remain connected to. We show that all abdominopelvic organs are organised into two, discrete anatomical domains, the mesenteric and non-mesenteric domain. A similar organisation occurs across a range of animal species. The findings clarify the anatomical foundation of the abdomen; at the foundation level, the abdomen comprises a visceral (i.e. mesenteric) and somatic (i.e. musculoskeletal) frame. The organisation at that level is a fundamental order that explains the positional anatomy of all abdominopelvic organs, vasculature and peritoneum. Collectively, the findings provide a novel start point from which to systemically characterise the abdomen and its contents.

ART IN WORDS: EKPHRASTIC REPRESENTATIONS OF PAINTINGS IN THE NOVELS BY D. RUBINA AND M. ATWOOD

Введение. Рассматривается литературная фигура экфрасиса и ее реализация посредством интертекстуальных референций в художественном произведении. Несмотря на относительную «исследовательность» феномена экфрасиса, подавляющее большинство существующих работ фокусируется на передаче значения между вербальным и визуальным медиумом, оставляя в стороне возможную читательскую интерпретацию экфрастического описания и его стилистическое выражение в тексте. Цель – провести лингвистический анализ экфрастических интертекстуальных референций и их возможное влияние на восприятие читателем художественного текста. Материал и методы. Материалом исследования послужили экфрастические отрывки из романа Дины Рубиной «На солнечной стороне улицы» и Маргарет Этвуд «Кошачий глаз» (‘Cat’s Eye’). В основе методологической базы исследования лежат следующие приемы когнитивной поэтики: дихотомия отношений «фигура – фон», модель литературного резонанса, теория нарративного взаимодействия. Результаты и обсуждение. Когнитивно-поэтический анализ экфрастической репрезентации персонажей в художественном тексте показал, что интертекстуальные референции связывают между собой сцены внутри нарратива, придают дополнительное символическое и метафорическое значение произведению искусства, на синтаксическом, семантическом и текстовом уровне имитируют визуальную организацию объекта искусства. Заключение. С помощью приемов когнитивно-поэтического анализа было рассмотрено стилистическое выражение литературной фигуры экфрасиса в художественном тексте. Занимая роль фигуры, персонаж, изображенный на картине, выступает как ярко выраженный аттрактор при воздействии на читательское восприятие. Данное перцептивное воздействие подтверждается типичными семантическими, синтаксическими и стилистическими характеристиками аттракторов, присутствующими в анализируемых отрывках. Сравнение экфрастического описания и соответствующего ему контекста показало параллелизм использованных конструкций, что свидетельствует о схожей организации их фигуро-фоновых отношений. Параллельные конструкции также являются признаком частных интертекстуальных референций, посредством которых объект искусства актуализируется в сознании читателя. Помимо контекстного окружения, интертекстуальные референции способствуют символической реализации персонажа в художественном тексте, дополняя его репрезентацию метафорическими и концептуальными смыслами. Introduction. The present paper examines a literary figure of ekphrasis and its implementation through intertextual references in fiction. Despite how relatively ‘researched’ the phenomenon of ekphrasis is, the overwhelming majority of existing works focuses on the transfer of meaning between the verbal and visual mediums. This approach omits the reader’s possible interpretation of ekphrastic descriptions and their stylistic expression in texts. The aim of the research is to carry out a linguistic analysis of ekphrastic intertextual references and their possible impact on the reader’s perception of a fictional text. Material and methods. The study is based on ekphrastic abstracts from the novels by Dina Rubina ‘On the Sunny Side of the Street’ and Margaret Atwood’s ‘Cat’s Eye’. The research methodology uses the following techniques of cognitive poetics: the figure-ground dichotomy, the model of literary resonance, the theory of narrative interrelation. Results and discussion. The cognitive poetic analysis of the ekphrastic representations of characters has shown: • intertextual references link scenes within a narrative; • intertextual references supply additional symbolic and metaphorical meanings to an artwork; • intertextual references imitate the visual organisation of an art object at the syntactic, semantic and textual levels. Conclusion. Using cognitive poetic methods of linguistic analysis, we examined stylistic expression of ekphrasis in a literary text. Taking the role of a figure, the character depicted in the painting acts as a pronounced attractor when influencing the reader’s perception. This perceptual influence is confirmed by the typical semantic, syntactic and stylistic characteristics of attractors presented in the analysed passages. Comparison of the ekphrastic descriptions and the corresponding context revealed the parallelism of the used constructions, which indicates a similar organisation of their figure-background relations. Parallelism can be also marked as specific intertextual references, through which an art object is actualised in the reader’s mind. In addition to the contextual environment, intertextual references contribute to the symbolic realisation of a character in a literary text, complementing their representation with metaphorical and conceptual meanings.

Activity/rest rhythms of Drosophila populations selected for divergent eclosion timing under temperature cues

Despite the fact that the rhythm in adult emergence and rhythm in locomotor activity are two different rhythmic phenomena that occur at distinct life-stages of the fly life cycle, previous studies have hinted at similarities in certain aspects of the organisation of the circadian clock driving these two rhythms. In an earlier study, we have shown that selection on timing of adult emergence behaviour in populations of Drosophila melanogaster leads to the co-evolution of temperature sensitivity of circadian clocks driving eclosion. In this study, we were interested in asking if temperature sensitivity of the locomotor activity rhythm has evolved in our populations with divergent timing of adult emergence rhythm, with the goal of understanding the extent of similarity (or lack of it) in circadian organisation between the two rhythms. We found that in response to simulated jetlag with temperature cycles, late chronotypes (populations selected for predominant emergence during dusk) indeed re-entrain faster than early chronotypes (populations selected for predominant emergence during dawn), thereby indicating enhanced sensitivity of the activity/rest clock to temperature cues in these stocks (entrainment is the synchronisation of internal rhythms to cyclic environmental time-cues). Additionally, we found that late chronotypes show higher plasticity of phases across regimes, day-to-day stability in phases and amplitude of entrainment, all indicative of enhanced temperature sensitive activity/rest rhythms. Our results highlight remarkably similar organisation principles between emergence and activity/rest rhythms.

Structural Integrity of Dissimilar Welds: ADIMEW Project Overview

The objective of the ADIMEW project, that follows BIMET program finished in 2000, is to contribute to the development and verification of analysis methods which describe the behaviour of an external circumferential defect at the surface of a Dissimilar Metal Weld (DMW). The complexity of the problem results from the prevailing mixed-mode loading conditions, the variation in material constitutive equations across the weld zone, and the presence of large residual stress field. Under these circumstances, classic fracture mechanics concepts are difficult to apply. Recently different cracks has been discovered in different US and European plants (VC SUMMER, RINGHALS, BIBLIS). The problem of integrity of aged (cracked) DMW’s remains an important safety issue. This paper presents the new on-going program ADIMEW, with similar organisation than BIMET and complementary objectives. Within the framework of this project, one large test has been successfully done on July 2003. The paper presents a general overview of the program and the major recommendations and conclusions.

Isolation and characterisation of the ovine gastrin-releasing peptide gene; abundant expression in the pregnant uterus and selective expression in fetal tissues

High concentrations of a peptide related to gastrin-releasing peptide (GRP) are produced in the utero-placental unit of the human and sheep and secreted into the general circulation. This suggests an endocrine role in addition to its role as a neurotransmitter/neuromodulator. The GRP is larger than the previously described form GRP(1-27) but it is not known whether the larger form is the product of a related GRP-like gene or differences in post-translational processing. We have therefore cloned the gene for the sheep homologue of the GRP gene and determined its distribution. Only a single GRP gene was found in the sheep. This had a similar organisation to the human GRP gene with three exons and two introns. The larger form of GRP in the pregnant endometrium therefore appears to be the result of an alteration in processing of the GRP prohormone. The expression of GRP mRNA in the pregnant uterus was extraordinarily high comprising one-third of all mRNA synthesised by the pregnant endometrium. As the endometrial GRP mRNA arises solely from the glandular epithelium, the localised synthesis of GRP mRNA would be far higher. GRP mRNA was expressed in a wide variety of fetal tissues (fundus, colon, jejunum, ileum, duodenum, kidney, adrenal, lung, heart and pancreas) with a corresponding presence of GRP immunoreactivity. The expression of GRP in the fetal lung was biphasic with peaks at mid-term and near parturition but none in the adult supporting the concept of a specific developmental role of GRP in the lung.

Polarized light detection in spiders

SUMMARYWe describe here the detection of polarized light by the simple eyes of spiders. Using behavioural, morphological, electrophysiological and optical studies, we show that spiders have evolved two different mechanisms to resolve the e-vector of light. Wolf spiders (Lycosidae), are able to turn in response to rotation of a polarized pattern at the zenith of their visual fields, and we also describe a strip in the ventral retina of the principal (anterio-median) eyes that views this location and has receptors tiered into two layers. This provides each pair of receptors with a similar optical solution to that provided by the ‘dorsal rim area’ of the insect compound eye. In contrast, gnaphosid spiders have evolved a pair of lensless secondary eyes for the detection of polarized light. These two eyes, each sensitive to orthogonal directions of polarization, are perfectly designed to integrate signals from the larger part of the sky and cooperate to analyse the polarization of light. Built-in polarizers help to improve signal purity. Similar organisation in the eyes of several other spider families suggests that these two mechanisms are not restricted to only a few families.

African Biochemists Plan More Collaboration

The Federation of European Biochemical Societies (FEBS) was the first regional organisation of biochemists, holding its first congress in London in 1964. There followed the creation of the Pan American Association of Biochemical Societies (PAABS) and then the Federation of Asian and Oceanian Biochemists (FAOB). An obvious development was the formation of a similar organisation to take care of Africa, but this proved impossible so long as apartheid survived in South Africa. With the removal of the latter, the way was clear for the foundation of the Federation of African Societies of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology (FASBMB). The first congress of the new federation was held in Nairobi in September 1996 under the Presidency of Prof. Dominic Makawiti of Nairobi University. Among the 300 participants were representatives from 19 countries in Africa. The second congress was held at Potchefstroom in South Africa in 1998 and the third was just held in Cairo.