פרסומים

Today, people who still have some knowledge of Judaeo-Spanish are scattered around the world with virtually no social ties among them, and Judaeo-Spanish itself lacks any official status. The speaking population of all countries barely exceeds one hundred thousand, most of them being speakers with limited competence. Prior to World War I, however, Judaeo-Spanish played a major role in defining Sephardic identity. Developed in different cities of the Ottoman Empire and Northern Africa during the
two centuries following the settlement of the expellees from the Iberian Peninsula in the late 15th century, Judaeo-Spanish arose as a pluricentric language, due to the different mix of contributing dialects in each community. Behind its apparent polymorphism, a dialect continuum – one that integrates three major regional dialects – and a range of social variation can be discerned.

Today, people who still have some knowledge of Judaeo-Spanish are scattered around the world with virtually no social ties amongst them, and Judaeo-Spanish itself lacks any official status. The speaking population of all countries barely exceeds one hundred thousand, most of them being speakers with limited competence. Prior to World War I, however, Judaeo-Spanish played a major role in defining Sephardic identity. Developed in different cities of the Ottoman Empire and North Africa during the two centuries following the settlement of the expellees from the Iberian Peninsula in the late 15th century, Judaeo-Spanish arose as a pluricentric language, due to the different mix of contributing dialects in each community. Behind its apparent polymorphism, a dialect continuum – one that integrates three major regional dialects – and a range of social variation can be discerned. This chapter describes the geographic distribution and variation of Judaeo-Spanish.

The theoretical and computational description of materials properties is a task of utmost scientific and technological importance. A first-principles description of electron-electron interactions poses an immense challenge that is usually approached by converting the many-electron problem to an effective one-electron problem. There are different ways to obtain an exact one-electron theory for a many-electron system. An emergent method is the exact electron factorization (EEF) – one of the branches of the exact factorization approach to many-body systems. In the EEF, the Schrödinger equation for one electron, in the environment of all other electrons, is formulated. The influence of the environment is reflected in the potential vH, which represents the energy of the environment, and in a potential vG, which has a geometrical meaning. In this paper, we focus on vG and study its properties in detail. We investigate the geometric origin of vG as a metric measuring the change of the environment, exemplify how translation and scaling of the state of the environment are reflected in vG, and explain its shape for homo- and heteronuclear diatomic model systems. Based on the close connection between the EEF and density functional theory, we also use vG to provide an alternative interpretation to the Pauli potential in orbital-free density functional theory.

Publisher's Version                                                                       arXiv version

Objective Gestational diabetes mellitus (GDM) is a condition in which women without diabetes are diagnosed with glucose intolerance during pregnancy, typically in the second or third trimester. Early diagnosis, along with a better understanding of its pathophysiology during the first trimester of pregnancy, may be effective in reducing incidence and associated short-term and long-term morbidities.Design We comprehensively profiled the gut microbiome, metabolome, inflammatory cytokines, nutrition and clinical records of 394 women during the first trimester of pregnancy, before GDM diagnosis. We then built a model that can predict GDM onset weeks before it is typically diagnosed. Further, we demonstrated the role of the microbiome in disease using faecal microbiota transplant (FMT) of first trimester samples from pregnant women across three unique cohorts.Results We found elevated levels of proinflammatory cytokines in women who later developed GDM, decreased faecal short-chain fatty acids and altered microbiome. We next confirmed that differences in GDM-associated microbial composition during the first trimester drove inflammation and insulin resistance more than 10 weeks prior to GDM diagnosis using FMT experiments. Following these observations, we used a machine learning approach to predict GDM based on first trimester clinical, microbial and inflammatory markers with high accuracy.Conclusion GDM onset can be identified in the first trimester of pregnancy, earlier than currently accepted. Furthermore, the gut microbiome appears to play a role in inflammation-induced GDM pathogenesis, with interleukin-6 as a potential contributor to pathogenesis. Potential GDM markers, including microbiota, can serve as targets for early diagnostics and therapeutic intervention leading to prevention.Data are available in a public, open access repositories. All sequencing data were submitted to EBI (project accession number ERP143097). Metabolomics data were deposited at 10.5281/zenodo.6581068.

Mycobacterium abscessus is an emerging pathogen causing severe pulmonary infections. Within chronically infected patients, M. abscessus isolates undergo molecular changes leading to increased virulence and antibiotic resistance. Specifically, mutations in glycopeptidolipid (GPL) synthesis genes, leading to the rough phenotype, are associated with invasive, nonremitting infections and a severe clinical course. It has been unclear whether GPL defects confer antibiotic resistance independently of other molecular changes. We used transposon technology to isolate a rough (GPL-defective; Tn MABS_4099cZeoR) mutant and compare it to a fully isogenic parent strain (ATCC 19977) bearing wild-type zeocin resistance (WTZeoR). Antibiotic susceptibility profiles of Tn_4099cZeoR and WTZeoR were tested and compared using the Sensititre RAPMYCOI antimicrobial susceptibility test plate. MICs were evaluated within clinically relevant values according to the Clinical and Laboratory Standards Institute (CLSI) standards. We found that M. abscessus with rough colony morphotype (Tn_4009c) had comparable antibiotic susceptibility to its smooth isogenic WT counterpart. Small differences (a 1:2 dilution) in MICs were found for imipenem, cefoxitin, and tigecycline, yet those small differences did not change the clinical susceptibility report for these antibiotics, as they fell within the same CLSI cutoffs for resistance. While small alternations in susceptibility to imipenem, cefoxitin, and tigecycline were noted, we conclude that the GPL mutations in M. abscessus did not confer clinically significant antibiotic resistance. Increased antibiotic resistance in the clinical setting may occur in an unrelated and parallel manner to GPL mutations. IMPORTANCE Mycobacterium abscessus chronically infects patients with preexisting lung diseases, leading to progressive deterioration in pulmonary function. The common perception among clinicians is that the rough phenotype is associated with progressive disease and severe clinical course, manifested as a widespread inflammatory response and resistance to antibacterials. However, as clinical isolates accumulate hundreds of mutations over the prolonged course of infection, it is unclear whether the rough phenotype per se is responsible for the antibiotic resistance seen in late-stage infections, or whether the resistance is related to other genetic changes in the bacteria. Previous studies mostly compared rough and smooth clinical isolates. Here, for the first time, we compared WT smooth bacteria to a specific rough, GPL-associated, otherwise-isogenic mutant. We determined that the rough morphotype had essentially identical antibiotic susceptibilities as the parent strain. The mechanistic basis for the antibiotic resistance observed in rough clinical isolates is therefore most probably related to other genetic determinants.

GNE myopathy is caused by bi allelic recessive mutations in the GNE gene. The largest identified cohort of GNE myopathy patients carries a homozygous mutation- M743T (the "Middle Eastern" mutation). More than 160 such patients in 67 families have been identified by us. Mean onset in this cohort is 30 years (range 17-48) with variable disease severity. However, we have identified two asymptomatic females, homozygous for M743T in two different families, both with affected siblings. The first showed no myopathy when examined at age 76 years. The second has no sign of disease at age 60 years. Since both agreed only for testing of blood, we performed exome and RNA sequencing of their blood and that of their affected siblings. Various filtering layers resulted in 2723 variant loci between symptomatic and asymptomatic individuals, representing 1364 genes. Among those, 39 genes are known to be involved in neuromuscular diseases, and only in two of them the variant is located in the proper exon coding region, resulting in a missense change. Surprisingly, only 27 genes were significantly differentially expressed between the asymptomatic and the GNE myopathy affected individuals, with three overexpressed genes overlapping between exome and RNA sequencing. Although unable to unravel robust candidate genes, mostly because of the very low number of asymptomatic individuals analyzed, and because of the tissue analyzed (blood and not muscle), this study resulted in relatively restricted potential candidate protective genes, emphasizing the power of using polarized phenotypes (completely asymptomatic vs clearly affected individuals) with the same genotype to unmask those genes which could be used as targets for disease course modifiers.

Five issues stand out in the Book of Esther: political feasting, inter-sex conflicts, intra-sex competition, genocidal threats, and the absence of God. Central to these problems is the basic tenet of Persian imperialism, for imperial governmentality is linked to the techniques of judicial, disciplinary, and panoptic power as well as the patriarchal power of (ab)using women to ensure the smooth functioning of family and empire. To rule a multiracial regime, the king’s policies can quickly change from racial assimilation to persecution and later strategic integration. From the point of view of the Jews, multiracial encounters often lead to the birth of hybrid identities, ambivalent mimicry, and racial anxiety or pride. Esther’s survival has much to do with her tactful negotiation with her abused state: she adopts a deracialized profile, becomes a beauty queen, and devises a drama-queen persona to save her people because Haman’s intercessory act is deemed by King Ahasuerus to be a case of sexual assault. The ending highlights three responses: the king accumulates more resources, the Jews celebrate their survival, and Esther positions herself as the queen of vigilance and self-governance. The post-traumatic ethos is not about a descent into cognitive chaos but the resolution to organize the grief-stricken collective memory and broker truthful relationships with neighbors, the self, and God.

March 2023: Magdalen Wing-chi Ki (Ph.D., University of Edinburgh) is Associate Professor of English at Hong Kong Baptist University. She has published papers in Philosophy and Literature, Brontë Studies, Poe Studies, English Studies, Journal of Dramatic Theory and Criticism, Literature Compass, Mississippi Quarterly, Renascence, Dalhousie Review, Renascence, and Theological Studies. Her books include Jane Austen and the Dialectic of Misrecognition (Peter Lang, 2005) and Jane Austen and Altruism (Routledge, 2020).

Das völlig neu bearbeitete und aktualisierte Lehrbuch von Anton Pelinka und Johannes Varwick führt in das Fach Politikwissenschaft ein. Es bietet einen Überblick über die verschiedenen Zugänge zur Politikwissenschaft und Teilbereiche des Faches. Die großen Abschnitte darin sind: Politikwissenschaft und Politik, Merkmale politischer Systeme, Politische Prozesse, Internationale Politik, Politische Theorie- und Ideengeschichte. Der Band „Grundzüge der Politikwissenschaft`` baut auf einer langjährigen Erfahrung in der universitären und außeruniversitären Lehre auf, ist klar und gut verständlich verfasst, sodass alle an Politik Interessierten dieses Buch als Lehrbuch nützen können.

Research on the global diffusion of South Korean popular culture, or Hallyu, is generally characterized by a strong focus on the consumption and practice of Hallyu in different parts of the world and its discursive and cultural meaning. Very few studies, however, have examined the possible geopolitical consequences of the massive transfer of Hallyu-related commodities and practices. Focusing on the circulation of Hallyu in the Middle East, this paper analyzes the mechanisms for cultural spread and its intended and unintended consequences, with particular emphasis on the role of fans and fandom in this process. This paper suggests that the transnational circulation of Hallyu has an impact not only on the institutional aspect of transnational relationships, e.g., the creation of transnational cultural markets and the consequential collaboration between all pertinent parties involved in this process (companies, agents, promoters, distributors, retailers, fans, and others) but also on the dissemination of lifestyle commonalities and concepts, which are based on the experience of consuming the same cultural products by different people in different countries.