Ant-lore in Anglo-Saxon England

Two Old English versions of a sunshine prognostication survive in the mid-eleventh century Cambridge, Corpus Christi College 391, p. 713, and in a twelfth-century addition to Oxford, Bodleian Library, Hatton 115, 149v–150r. Among standard predictions promising joy, peace, blossom, abundance of milk and fruit, and a great baptism sent by God, one encounters an enigmatic prophecy which involves camels stealing gold from the ants. These gold-digging ants have a long pedigree, one which links Old English with much earlier literature and indicates the extent to which Anglo-Saxon culture had assimilated traditions of European learning. It remains difficult to say what is being prophesied, however, or to explain the presence of the passage among conventional predictions. Whether the prediction was merely a literary exercise or carried a symbolic implication, it must have originated in an ecclesiastical context. Its mixture of classical learning and vernacular tradition, Greek and Latin, folklore and Christian, implies an author with some knowledge of literary and scholarly traditions.

Desmoplastic Small Round Cell Tumor of Major Salivary Glands: Report of 1 Case and a Review of the Literature

Desmoplastic small round cell tumor is a rare malignant neoplasm mostly occurring in the vicinity of or within the peritoneal cavity, and is uncommon in the head and neck region. Tumor location within a major salivary gland is exceptional. We report a case of a 41-year-old Chinese man with a history of diabetes mellitus and end-stage renal failure on peritoneal dialysis with a desmoplastic small round cell tumor occurring in the left submandibular gland. Fine-needle aspiration cytology showed variably cohesive clusters of small cells with hyperchromatic nuclei and fine granular chromatin. On histology the neoplasm displayed classic features of a desmoplastic small round cell tumor with angulated nests of small round blue cells in a fibromyxoid/desmoplastic stroma. Neoplastic cells were immunoreactive for cytokeratins (AE1/3), desmin (paranuclear dot-like), WT-1 (nuclear), epithelial membrane antigen, and CD56. EWS gene translocation and EWS-WT1 gene fusion were detected by fluorescence in situ hybridization and reverse transcriptase polymerase chain reaction, respectively. The case presented is the sixth case of and the oldest reported patient with a desmoplastic small round cell tumor occurring in a major salivary gland to date. Desmoplastic small round cell tumor should be considered in the differential diagnosis of a salivary gland neoplasm with a basaloid or small cell pattern on fine-needle aspiration cytology.

AA and the Redeployment of Temperance Literature

This essay is an examination that, primarily comparativist in its approach, links publication materials from the temperance and Prohibition periods with the Big Book to show how AA's narrative antidotes to the traumas of modernity (sited in alcohol abuse) were as much the product of premodernist and turn-of-the-century hysteria as they were an attempt to write a new chapter in America's relationship with alcohol based on contemporary medical and social research.

Cement-in-cement revision hip arthroplasty: an analysis of clinical and biomechanical literature

Introduction The number of revision hip arthroplasties is increasing but several aspects of this procedure could be improved. One method of reducing intra-operative complications is the cement-in-cement technique. This procedure entails cementing a smaller femoral prosthesis into the existing stable cement mantle. The aim of this systematic review is to provide a concise overview of the existing historical, operative, biomechanical and clinical literature on the cement-in-cement construct.

River definitions in Roman technical literature

Definitions of rivers and their use by Roman land surveyors and lawyers.