The linguistic study of Egyptian, fully deciphered only about 150 years ago, is a young discipline: modern Egyptian linguistics, dating more or less from the work of Hans-Jakob Polotsky, is much younger still: no more than about half a century old. Coptic, the final stage of Egyptian, dead as a spoken language at some point after the XIIIth century AD, had been scientifically known in the West from around the XVIIth century. It is a curious and somehow sobering thought that Champollion le Jeune probably got the brainwave and forward push to the final decipherment of the hieroglyphic script by a wholly and deeply erroneous idea about diachronic word order correspondence. He believed (or took for granted) that Coptic f-sôtm “he is hearing” (roughly, “he + hear”) was the inversion of a ‘pan-Egyptian’ sdm.f (“hear-he”), which, he thought, had the same tense form, but which - we now know - is in fact a cluster of homographs, drastically differing, formally and functionally, in tense form and syntactical status from one phase of Egyptian to another and within one and the same phase. The idea was wholly misguided, yet the confidence it gave him, and his conviction that Coptic and Egyptian were two phases of the same language were not unjustified, and led him to eventual success. Today we have a reasonably good synchronic resolution - and, paradoxically, a sometimes seemingly sharper diachronic resolution - of nearly four millennia of uninterrupted evolution of a language (or rather an ensemble of dialects and language varieties), made visible to us in the written documentation of five or six distinct broad linguistic systems (in the sense of la langue as well as norme and usage). Roughly, with some arbitrariness and considerable overlapping, Old Egyptian (“OE”, 2800-2200 BC), Middle Egyptian (“ME”, 2200-1500 BC), Late Egyptian (or Neo-Egyptian) (“LE”, 1500-700 BC); Demotic, from the VIIth-VIIIth century BC to the Vth century AD, and finally Coptic, ‘Christian Egyptian’, written in customized graphemic systems based on the Greek graphemes and several Egyptian ones, from the IVth century AD on, until its death as a spoken language: Arabic entered Egypt in the VIIth century AD, but Coptic probably lingered on until the XVIIth century. (Incidentally, Coptic is formally differentiated as ‘Egypto-Coptic’ in the current International Linguistic Bibliography. Roughly since the Fifties, Coptic Studies have moved away from Egyptology, a separation unfortunate for both Egyptology and Coptic studies, which has all but wiped out Coptic linguistics as a discipline). Most phases, as we conveniently and simplistically delimit them (ignoring here the relationships, complicated in Egyptian, between language phase and script phase, as well as the religious-political implications of traditional archaizing use of earlier phases) have considerable overlapping or ‘mutual leaking’ with preceding ones, as well as transitory stages, and of course numerous diasystems of registers and other linguistic varieties which become clearer as detailed description progresses. Some phases extend up to a thousand years, which makes the need for a finer sub-periodization obvious (Junge 1985). Generally speaking, we witness the uninterrupted evolution of a language on one and the same terrain, in its first attestation cradled in a Neolithic culture, before the end of its life-span a para-classical language, part of a pious and totally Christian civilization: very little secular literature is attested in Coptic.
We demonstrate experimentally that, in a paraelectric, nonstationary boundary conditions can dynamically halt the intrinsic instability of quasi-steady-state photorefractive self-trapping, driving beam evolution into a stable oscillating two-soliton-state configuration. (C) 2000 Optical Society of America OCIS codes: 190.5330, 230.3090.
Objective-To compare the stiffness and pin stresses of three sizes of external fixator systems with stainless-steel and acrylic connecting bars.
Study Design-Finite element analysis.
Methods-Small, medium, and large external fixator systems of type I and type II configurations were modeled for finite element analysis. Each model was evaluated with a standard stainless-steel and three different diameters of acrylic connecting bar. Displacements and stresses were calculated for the loading modes of axial compression, medio-lateral bending, cranio-caudal bending, and torsion. The location of the pin experiencing maximum stress was determined for all configurations and loading modes.
Results-Acrylic column diameters of 9.53 mm for the small external fixator system and 15.9 mm for the medium external fixator system provide equivalent stiffness and maximum pin stresses to those provided by the standard stainless-steel connecting bars (3.2- and 4.8-mm diameter, respectively). The largest diameter acrylic column tested (31.75-mm) produced lower stiffness and higher maximum pin stresses than the standard stainless-steel connecting bar (11.1-mm diameter).
Conclusions-When applying a small or medium external fixator, an acrylic column of 9.53-mm or 15.9-mm diameter, respectively, can be used. For a large external fixator system, an acrylic column of diameter >31.75 mm is required.
Clinical Relevance-The sizes of acrylic connecting bars for use in small and medium external fixator systems have been determined. Large systems should incorporate the standard stainless-steel connecting bar. (C)Copyright 2000 by The American College of Veterinary Surgeons.
The dynamic structures of native and hydrophobized (by covalent attachment of palmitoyl chains) glucose oxidase were studied by time-domain dielec. spectroscopy (TDDS). Anal. of the dipole correlation function for both types of the enzyme showed that the decay of the correlation function of the macromol. motion can be presented as a sum of components corresponding to different kinds of protein motion: isotropic rotation of the protein mol. as a whole, anisotropic Brownian tumbling of subunits, and anisotropic intramol. motion of polar groups and substructures. The slowest relaxation time was found to be longer for the modified enzyme than for the native enzyme. The dielec. strengths for all relaxation processes, as well as the dipole moment and the mol. vol., were also larger for the modified glucose oxidase. The obsd. differences between various types of the dipole motion for the native and modified glucose oxidase are discussed. [on SciFinder(R)]
The present invention generally relates to safe and stable sunscreen compns. comprising at least one sunscreen active ingredient in the form of an inert sol-gel microcapsules encapsulating UV absorbing compds. in any acceptable cosmetic vehicle. The compn. according to the present invention can comprise several UV absorbers that may be encapsulated in the same sol-gel microcapsule or in different capsules. The encapsulation of the UV absorbers reduces or even prevents the contact between the sunscreen compds. and the human tissue, thus reducing various adverse effects that are assocd. with the use of sunscreens. The encapsulation also reduces or even prevents cross reactivity between the sunscreen compds. and the packaging material and between the sunscreen compds. and any other component present in the compn., thus enhancing the compns. stability. The hydrophobicity/hydrophilicity character of the sol-gel microcapsules can be controlled by selecting suitable sol-gel precursors and suitable reaction conditions and can be chosen to be compatible with the cosmetic vehicle to be used in the sunscreen compn. The sunscreen compns. of the present invention can comprise any acceptable UVA and/or UVB absorbing compds. at any desired ratio to obtain a desired accumulative UV screening spectrum. [on SciFinder(R)]
The promotion of small-scale tourism is intuitively perceived as a suitable form of economic development for rural areas. However, its impact is controversial and not always obvious. To examine these issues, this paper presents an empirical analysis of public support to small-scale tourism enterprises in rural areas in Israel. Using the tools of cost-effectiveness and cost–benefit analysis, public assistance for this type of activity is shown to be able to generate considerable returns. Methodological issues in this kind of analysis are also discussed and the policy implications arising with respect to the suitability of different forms of tourism activity in rural areas are presented.
The Caenorhabditis elegans Bcl-2-like protein CED-9 prevents programmed cell death by antagonizing the Apaf-1-like cell-death activator CED-4. Endogenous CED-9 and CED-4 proteins localized to mitochondria in wild-type embryos, in which most cells survive. By contrast, in embryos in which cells had been induced to die, CED-4 assumed a perinuclear localization. CED-4 translocation induced by the cell-death activator EGL-1 was blocked by a gain-of-function mutation in ced-9 but was not dependent on ced-3 function, suggesting that CED-4 translocation precedes caspase activation and the execution phase of programmed cell death. Thus, a change in the subcellular localization of CED-4 may drive programmed cell death.
3-Hydroxy-3-methylglutaryl-coenzyme A reductase (HMGR), the key regulatory enzyme in the mevalonate (MVA) pathway, is rapidly degraded in mammalian cells supplemented with sterols or MVA. This accelerated turnover was blocked by N-acetyl-leucyl-leucyl-norleucinal (ALLN), MG-132, and lactacystin, and to a lesser extent by N-acetyl-leucyl-leucyl-methional (ALLM), indicating the involvement of the 26 S proteasome. Proteasome inhibition led to enhanced accumulation of high molecular weight polyubiquitin conjugates of HMGR and of HMGal, a chimera between the membrane domain of HMGR and beta-galactosidase. Importantly, increased amounts of polyubiquitinated HMGR and HMGal were observed upon treating cells with sterols or MVA. Cycloheximide inhibited the sterol-stimulated degradation of HMGR concomitantly with a marked reduction in polyubiquitination of the enzyme. Inhibition of squalene synthase with zaragozic acid blocked the MVA- but not sterol-stimulated ubiquitination and degradation of HMGR. Thus, similar to yeast, the ubiquitin-proteasome pathway is involved in the metabolically regulated turnover of mammalian HMGR. Yet, the data indicate divergence between yeast and mammals and suggest distinct roles for sterol and nonsterol metabolic signals in the regulated ubiquitination and degradation of mammalian HMGR.
Phenyl-perisubstituted benzenes, tetraphenylbenzene (1) and hexaphenylbenzene (2), were reduced by lithium and sodium metal in THF-d(8) under high vacuum. The reduction process and the nature of the reduction products were studied by NMR. Tetraphenylbenzene was reduced by both metals to yield the corresponding dianionic salt. It was found that the addition of extra charge into the system, restricted the free rotation of the four phenyl substituents about the sigma bond connecting them to the central ring (G(181)(double dagger) = 7.8 +/- 0.2 kcal mol(-1)). The reaction of the alkali metals with 2 yielded four diamagnetic species: the first three were assigned to the dianion, tetraanion, and the surprising hexaanion of 2. These species were calculated using density functional theory (DFT) and were found to have central benzene rings with an unusual twist-boat geometry. Computational and experimental evidences show that each phenyl ring and its attached carbon of the central ring behave like a benzyl anion. We therefore view the hexaanion of 2 as a cyclohexa(benzylanion). The fourth diamagnetic species was a product of a double-sided cyclization, which yielded the dianion of dihydro-9, 18-diphenylphenanthro[9,10-b]triphenylene (9,18-diphenyltetrabenz[a,c,h,j] anthracene dianion, 3(2-)). Reaction of the dianion with oxygen gave 3 in improved yields compared to literature preparations.
Issues discussed concern the portrayal of nihilism in William Shakespeare's 'Macbeth,' focusing on the existential and psychological aspects of character motivation. Topics include Macbeth's anxiety over loss of control, his detached emotional state, and the relationship between literature and moral philosophy.
The authors described fast electrochem.-spectroscopic "writ- ing-reading-erasing" system based on a scanning probe technique. The fast "reading" and "erasing" processes are due to the fact that there is no phase transition between the two states and that the ingression and egression of ions is very fast. In principle, the resoln. of patterning depends on the size of the microelectrodes, which currently can be reduced to the nanometer range. The uniqueness of this system is that the propagation of the lateral charge inside the thin film can be detected independently of its formation. This allows the study of lateral charge transport and enables the development of better systems in terms of resoln. and information storage capabilities. [on SciFinder(R)]
