This article traces the place of the Book of Esther in George Eliot’s Daniel Deronda, and argues that the biblical work can be seen as Eliot’s primary “map” in her own project of literal and metaphorical remapping. Historical and cultural contexts, as well as close readings of the texts, suggest that the Book of Esther is especially relevant because it engages with the “Jewish Question” and the “Woman Question” in tandem; it offers a terrain for the novel’s ideas on both issues, while precipitating a revised hermeneutic of the biblical text. Remapping the Book of Esther serves Eliot in advocating for a Jewish return and to the Land of Israel and in spurring discourse towards the depolarization of gendered traits, roles, and relations. However, while Eliot answers the Jewish Question with proto-Zionism, she leaves the Woman Question chillingly unanswered — as does the Book of Esther itself.
March 2021: Channah Damatov is a PhD candidate and Kaete Klausner Fellow in the Department of General and Comparative Literature at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. Her dissertation explores the Book of Esther in Victorian Literature, with a focus on its reception in three novels, Mary Barton by Elizabeth Gaskell, Villette by Charlotte Brontë, and Daniel Deronda by George Eliot. Her wider research interests include the Bible as literature, immigrant literature (especially as regards homeland and exile, displacement, assimilation, and cultural identity), and gender in literature. Channah lives in Giv’at Shmuel, Israel, with her husband, daughter, and two dogs.
Ultraconfined block copolymer films present non-bulk structures that are highly sensitive to film thickness and are strongly influenced by the wetting properties of the substrate. Here we describe the self-assembly of bottlebrush block copolymers with varying side-chain lengths on different types of substrates. Our results show a pronounced influence of the nature of the substrate on the self-assembled morphology and the surface patterns that evolve during solvent-vapor annealing. In particular, we observe by experiments and simulations a transient, substrate-driven morphology of cylinder-like structures obtained in films of doubly symmetric (i.e., backbone and side-chains) bottlebrush block copolymer despite the general tendency of these polymers to form lamellar structures. The insights gained from this study highlight the ability to use the substrate chemistry for inducing the formation of unique morphologies in bottlebrush block copolymer films.
Nicole Mercer Lindsay, Chen, Chong , Gilam, Gadi , Mackey, Sean , ו Scherrer, Grégory . 2021. “Brain Circuits For Pain And Its Treatment”. Sci Transl Med, 13, 619, Pp. eabj7360. doi:10.1126/scitranslmed.abj7360. תקציר
Pain is a multidimensional experience with sensory-discriminative, affective-motivational, and cognitive-evaluative components. Pain aversiveness is one principal cause of suffering for patients with chronic pain, motivating research and drug development efforts to investigate and modulate neural activity in the brain’s circuits encoding pain unpleasantness. Here, we review progress in understanding the organization of emotion, motivation, cognition, and descending modulation circuits for pain perception. We describe the molecularly defined neuron types that collectively shape pain multidimensionality and its aversive quality. We also review how pharmacological, stimulation, neurofeedback, surgical, and cognitive-behavioral interventions alter activity in these circuits to relieve chronic pain.
The understanding that systemic context and tissue crosstalk are essential keys for bridging the gap between in vitro models and in vivo conditions led to a growing effort in the last decade to develop advanced multi-organ-on-a-chip devices. However, many of the proposed devices have failed to implement the means to allow for conditions tailored to each organ individually, a crucial aspect in cell functionality. Here, we present two 3D-print-based fabrication methods for a generic multi-organ-on-a-chip device: One with a PDMS microfluidic core unit and one based on 3D-printed units. The device was designed for culturing different tissues in separate compartments by integrating individual pairs of inlets and outlets, thus enabling tissue-specific perfusion rates that facilitate the generation of individual tissue-adapted perfusion profiles. The device allowed tissue crosstalk using microchannel configuration and permeable membranes used as barriers between individual cell culture compartments. Computational fluid dynamics (CFD) simulation confirmed the capability to generate significant differences in shear stress between the two individual culture compartments, each with a selective shear force. In addition, we provide preliminary findings that indicate the feasibility for biological compatibility for cell culture and long-term incubation in 3D-printed wells. Finally, we offer a cost-effective, accessible protocol enabling the design and fabrication of advanced multi-organ-on-a-chip devices.
The understanding that systemic context and tissue crosstalk are essential keys for bridg-ing the gap between in vitro models and in vivo conditions led to a growing effort in the last decade to develop advanced multi-organ-on-a-chip devices. However, many of the proposed devices have failed to implement the means to allow for conditions tailored to each organ individually, a crucial aspect in cell functionality. Here, we present two 3D-print-based fabrication methods for a generic multi-organ-on-a-chip device: One with a PDMS microfluidic core unit and one based on 3D-printed units. The device was designed for culturing different tissues in separate compartments by integrating individual pairs of inlets and outlets, thus enabling tissue-specific perfusion rates that facilitate the generation of individual tissue-adapted perfusion profiles. The device allowed tissue crosstalk using microchannel configuration and permeable membranes used as barriers between individual cell culture compartments. Computational fluid dynamics (CFD) simulation confirmed the capability to generate significant differences in shear stress between the two individual culture compartments, each with a selective shear force. In addition, we provide preliminary findings that indicate the feasibility for biological compatibility for cell culture and long-term incubation in 3D-printed wells. Finally, we offer a cost-effective, accessible protocol enabling the design and fabrication of advanced multi-organ-on-a-chip devices.
This project seeks to reveal the nature of graffiti prohibition as content-based speech regulation. It will unearth the practice of favoring messages conforming to prevailing narratives and aesthetic standards. This research is very timely given the role of graffiti in the recent “Black Lives Matter” uprisings. The authors’ groundbreaking proposal to introduce a right to free expression on city surfaces promises to open an avenue for non-violent, yet powerful protests, fostering social change.
Tags: Diversity, Social Cohesion, Right to the city, Public spaces, Active Citizenship, Graffiti, Street art
This project seeks to reveal the nature of graffiti prohibition as content-based speech regulation. It will unearth the practice of favoring messages conforming to prevailing narratives and aesthetic standards. This research is very timely given the role of graffiti in the recent “Black Lives Matter” uprisings. The authors’ groundbreaking proposal to introduce a right to free expression on city surfaces promises to open an avenue for non-violent, yet powerful protests, fostering social change.
Tags: Diversity, Social Cohesion, Right to the city, Public spaces, Active Citizenship, Graffiti, Street art
Bring the periphery to the center of the stage A new venture called 'Local Voice' tries to encourage creativity in the periphery, and to provide a platform for those who live far from the clubs and the Tel Aviv aura
Background: Nonalcoholic fatty-liver disease (NAFLD) is a global health problem associated with gut dys-biosis and intestinal permeability. Broccoli is a natural source of bioactive phytochemicals, characterized by health-promoting properties. Objective: This study evaluated the effect of broccoli florets and stalks on liver fat accumulation, inflamma-tion, gut microbiome, and intestinal barrier integrity. Design: Male C57BL/6J mice (n = 32, 8-week-old) were fed with a high-fat high-cholesterol diet (HFCD) with/without 15% broccoli (florets or stalks) for 7 weeks. Liver damage was evaluated by changes in glucose response and histological and biochemical parameters. Protein and gene expressions related to liver inflam-mation were examined. The effect of broccoli on microbiota population together with genes related to barrier integrity in the gut was investigated. Results: Dietary broccoli improved the glycemic response assessed by oral glucose tolerance test (OGTT). Histological evaluation showed no change in hepatic steatosis. Broccoli consumption also attenuated inflam-mation as revealed by lower inducible nitric oxide synthase (iNOS) and serum amyloid A1 (SAA1) expression levels in broccoli-supplemented groups. Gut microbiota analysis demonstrated elevated Acidifaciens and re-duced Mucispirillum schaedleri abundance in the stalks group, whereas Proteobacteria strains abundance was increased in the florets group. Gut integrity remained unchanged. Conclusion: Broccoli supplementation improves glucose tolerance, attenuates liver inflammation, and alters microbial composition, but does not affect gut integrity. This research provides new evidence on the effects of dietary broccoli under HFCD.
Nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) is linked to obesity, type 2 diabetes, hyperlipidemia, and gut dysbiosis. Gut microbiota profoundly affects the host energy homeostasis, which, in turn, is affected by a high-fat diet (HFD) through the liver-gut axis, among others. Broccoli contains beneficial bioactive compounds and may protect against several diseases. This study aimed to determine the effects of broccoli supplementation to an HFD on metabolic parameters and gut microbiome in mice. Male (7-8 weeks old) C57BL/J6 mice were divided into four groups: normal diet (ND), high-fat diet (HFD), high-fat diet+10% broccoli florets (HFD + F), and high-fat diet + 10% broccoli stalks (HFD + S). Liver histology and serum biochemical factors were evaluated. Alterations in protein and gene expression of the key players in lipid and carbohydrate metabolism as well as in gut microbiota alterations were also investigated. Broccoli florets addition to the HFD significantly reduced serum insulin levels, HOMA-IR index, and upregulated adiponectin receptor expression. Conversely, no significant difference was found in the group supplemented with broccoli stalks. Both broccoli stalks and florets did not affect fat accumulation, carbohydrate, or lipid metabolism-related parameters. Modifications in diversity and in microbial structure of proteobacteria strains, Akermansia muciniphila and Mucispirillum schaedleri were observed in the broccoli-supplemented HFD-fed mice. The present study suggests that dietary broccoli alters parameters related to insulin sensitivity and modulates the intestinal environment. More studies are needed to confirm the results of this study and to investigate the mechanisms underlying these beneficial effects.
The play Elijah (1963), written by the philosopher Martin Buber in his twilight days, represents his diagnosis of the state of humanity at his time. I discuss this play as an allegorical drama, examining it against the background of Buber’s rejection of allegory, and demonstrating its implementation of the specific sense Buber gave to the allegoric in "Symbolic and Sacramental Existence in Judaism" (1934). Dramatic, allegorical multilayered agon enables Buber to express the idea of crisis and struggle between the principles of form and formlessness and between decisiveness and hesitation as enabling decision, that is, creation; it enables a simultaneous exploration of the political and the existential, the individual and the collective, as well as the validation of the affinity that Buber identifies between the individual inner struggle and the struggle embodied in history. In the frame of a Biblical play, Buber thus expressed his thoughts about Jewish society in the nascent State of Israel and about post-war Germany, his interpretation of the Cold War. The play renders his philosophical and theological concerns and his interpretation of history, including his own role in it.
October 2020: Einat Davidi, author of Paradiso as Pardes: A Contrapuntal Reading of José Lezama Limas’ Poetology and the Cabalistic Theory of Language and History (Wilhelm Fink Verlag, 2012) and of several articles on Cuban Literature (José Lezama Lima, Guillermo Rosales) and Spanish Baroque literature (Calderón de la Barca, Antonio Enríquez Gómez) is faculty member at the department of Hebrew and comparative literature at the University of Haifa.
A formal write-up of the simple proof (1995) of the existence of calibrated forecasts by the minimax theorem, which moreover shows that N^3 periods suffice to guarantee a 1/N calibration error.
In Mediterranean grasslands, the composition of vegetation and its nutritional quality for animals are strongly affected by the climatic conditions prevailing during winter and spring. Therefore, these seasonal ecosystems provide an opportunity to examine how variability in climatic conditions affects the regeneration and quality of pasture vegetation. The intensity of grazing in this seasonal system can moderate, or alternatively exacerbate, climatic effects on the nutritional quality of the vegetation. Herein, we analyzed the interactive effects of climate variables, grazing intensity, and grazing exclusion on herbage quality parameters using long-term vegetation and climate data collected during 2005-2018 from an extensive experiment in Galilee, Israel. We evaluated the contribution of different climate variables to the prediction of herbage quality parameters. Our results showed that climate variables have a dramatic effect on herbage quality and that this effect interacts with grazing intensity. Herbage quality improved in temperate rainy years compared to warm and dry years. High grazing intensity improved herbage quality under temperate climate conditions, but this effect was moderated or completely disappeared as winter conditions become warmer and drier. The results of the study foresee negative effects of warming and drying on the carrying capacity of natural pastures.
Background While research has focused on understanding teachers' attitudes towards the inclusion of children with special educational needs into general education classrooms, there are lacunae that have yet to be addressed. This study examined the association between perceived self-efficacy and attitudes towards inclusion among elementary school teachers. The study also examined the role of teachers' self-efficacy as a mediating variable between knowledge of inclusion policy, perception of school support and teachers' attitudes towards inclusion. Methods Teachers (N = 352) working in general or special education schools completed questionnaires assessing attitudes towards inclusion, sense of self-efficacy, knowledge of current policy, and perception of support for inclusive practices. Results Higher perceived knowledge of inclusion policy and higher perceived school support of inclusion were both related to higher self-efficacy regarding inclusion, which, in turn, was related to more positive attitudes about inclusion. Conclusion Our results suggest that point to being knowledgeable regarding local and national policy is important in order to increase feelings of self-efficacy regarding the implementation of effective educational practice. To enhance inclusion, local and national policy must be clearly communicated to teachers. Furthermore, leadership and a supportive school environment are conducive to successful inclusive education.
