Publications

Devoted to the ways in which Holocaust literature and Gulag literature provide contexts for each other, the book shows how the prominent features of one shed light on the veiled features and methods of the other. The narratives are discussed against the background of historical information about the Soviet and the Nazi regimes of repression. Writers at the center of this work include Varlam Shalamov, Primo Levi, Elie Wiesel, and Ka-Tzetnik, and others including Alexandr Solzhenitsyn, Evgeniya Ginzburg, and Jorge Semprun illuminate the discussion. The twofold analysis concentrates on the narrative qualities of the works as well as on the ways in which each text documents the writer’s experience and on the ways in which fictionalized narrative can double as historical testimony. The analysis also comments on references to events that might have become obscure owing to the passage of time and the cultural diversity of readers.

podcast: https://newbooksnetwork.com/gulag-literature-and-the-literature-of-nazi-camps

In the scholarship, the discussions of the semantics of Aramaic אלמלי/אלמלא אילולי/אילולא throughout the history of Hebrew have focused on the function of these expressions as sometimes simply marking the head of a counterfactual con

In the scholarship, the discussions of the semantics of Aramaic אלמלי/אלמלא אילולי/אילולא  throughout the history of Hebrew have focused on the function of these expressions as sometimes simply marking the head of a counterfactual condition, but at other times denoting "if not." This paper is divided into two, separately published parts. The first part follows the tradition that the answer to this puzzle lies in historical changes and dialectal variations. The second part  examines various alterations that occurred during the transmission of the texts in which these forms appear. This type of study has the ability to shed light on the semantic interpretations of these expressions and, at the same time, on the linguistic knowledge of those who transmitted these texts. Thus, this paper aims to contribute to the linguistic analysis of these expressions and to our understanding of the ways in which talmudic texts were transmitted, namely, the phenomena that could affect their content.

The aggregation of drugs and nutraceuticals in aqueous media is an outstanding problem for their efficacy and bioavailability. A common solution is to add excipients or hydrotropes that increase solubility and limit aggregation. Here we study caffeine, a widely consumed drug that undergoes oligomerization and aggregation in aqueous solutions. Combining partition and solubility experiments with molecular dynamics simulations, we determined the effect of sugars (mono- and disaccharides) on caffeine self-association and solubility. We find that sugars selectively increase the concentration of caffeine in its monomeric state, but decrease its solubility in all oligomeric forms. Thus we determine that, in contrast to common hydrotropes, sugars act as selective hydrotropes toward caffeine, since they differentially act on specific solvated forms of the drug. We furthermore unravel the molecular mechanism for this selectivity, and comment on the general design principles that should help develop targeted excipients for bioavailability and taste modification in drugs and foods.

Since the discovery of ubiquitin conjugation as a cellular mechanism that triggers proteasomal degradation, the mode of substrate recognition by the ubiquitin-ligation system has been the holy grail of research in the field. This entails the discovery of recognition determinants within protein substrates, which are part of a degron, and explicit E3 ubiquitin (Ub)-protein ligases that trigger their degradation. Indeed, many protein substrates and their cognate E3′s have been discovered in the past 40 years. In the course of these studies, various degrons have been randomly identified, most of which are acquired through post-translational modification, typically, but not exclusively, protein phosphorylation. Nevertheless, acquired degrons cannot account for the vast diversity in cellular protein half-life times. Obviously, regulation of the proteome is largely determined by inherent degrons, that is, determinants integral to the protein structure. Inherent degrons are difficult to predict since they consist of diverse sequence and secondary structure features. Therefore, unbiased methods have been employed for their discovery. This review describes the history of degron discovery methods, including the development of high throughput screening methods, state of the art data acquisition and data analysis. Additionally, it summarizes major discoveries that led to the identification of cognate E3 ligases and hitherto unrecognized complexities of degron function. Finally, we discuss future perspectives and what still needs to be accomplished towards achieving the goal of understanding how the eukaryotic proteome is regulated via coordinated action of components of the ubiquitin-proteasome system.

Based on a close reading of the adult coloring book and listening party kit published to accompany NPR’s podcast Invisibilia, this article examines the ideal listener of, and the ideal mode of listening to, audio storytelling podcasts. We argue that these texts prompt the notion of childlike listening, a mode of listening that harnesses the innocence and curiosity of the child for the sake of deep discussion and interpersonal connection. This ideal listening mode is achieved through performative unplugging, whereby listening party attendees show their ability to delay gratification by turning off their phones. By unpacking the ideals constructed by the coloring book and listening party kit, we argue that the cultural values they seek to convey align with wider views about the power of podcasts to bring us together.

Based on a close reading of the adult coloring book and listening party kit published to accompany NPR’s podcast Invisibilia, this article examines the ideal listener of, and the ideal mode of listening to, audio storytelling podcasts. We argue that these texts prompt the notion of childlike listening, a mode of listening that harnesses the innocence and curiosity of the child for the sake of deep discussion and interpersonal connection. This ideal listening mode is achieved through performative unplugging, whereby listening party attendees show their ability to delay gratification by turning off their phones. By unpacking the ideals constructed by the coloring book and listening party kit, we argue that the cultural values they seek to convey align with wider views about the power of podcasts to bring us together.

The biblical corpus features a number of verses in which interrogative pronouns appear in non-interrogative contexts. The same phenomenon is observed in many other languages and gives rise to the question known in the linguistic literature as “the interrogative-indefinite puzzle,” namely, what is the natural connection between the interrogative and indefinite functions. This paper seeks to explore how this question should be examined in the context of the Biblical Hebrew data. It will be argued that a consideration of typological observations can yield important insights into this question. Subsequently, it proposes a formal semantic analysis of the indefinite pronouns in question and shows how the proposed approach can help explain their distribution.