Tracing Inspiration in Proverbial Material: From 'The Royal Dictionary' (1699 & 1729) of Abel Boyer to 'The English-Irish Dictionary' (1732) of Begley-McCurtin.

This metalexicographic study examines the relationship between the proverbial material in The English-Irish Dictionary (1732) of Begley and McCurtin, Abel Boyer’s The Royal Dictionary (First edition 1699, second edition 1729), and Nathaniel Bailey’s An Universal Etymological English Dictionary (1721). It will show, for the first time, that both the English macrostructure and microstructure of the proverbial entries in Begley and McCurtin (1732) were reproduced directly from Boyer’s dictionary and, in spite of claims to the contrary, the impact of Bailey’s (1721) dictionary was negligible. Furthermore, empirical data gleaned from a comparative linguistic analysis of the various editions of The Royal Dictionary prior to 1732, will prove that it was the second official edition (1729) that was used as the framework for The English-Irish Dictionary. A quantitative and qualitative analysis of the nature of the proverbial entries will also outline the various translation strategies that were used to compose the Irish material— particularly literal translation—and show that there are extremely high-levels of borrowings from Boyer (1729), both in terms of the English entries under the lemma, and the French entries in the comment.

Between Sound and Sight: Framing the Exotic in Roysten Abel's The Manganiyar Seduction

Roysten Abel’s The Manganiyar Seduction is perhaps the most popular performance of Indian folk music on the global festival market today. This performance of Rajasthani folk music is an apt exemplification of an auto-exoticism framed as cultural commodity. Its mise en scéne of musicians framed, literally, by illuminated red square boxes ‘theatricalises’ Rajasthan’s folk culture of orality and renders such a tradition the quality of strangeness that borders on theatre and music, contemporary and traditional. The ‘dazzling’ union of the Manganiyar’s music and scenography of Amsterdam’s red light district engendered an exotic seduction that garnered raving reviews on its global tour. This paper then examines the production’s performative interstices: the in betweenness of sound and sight where aural tradition is ‘spectacularised’, and the shifting convergences of tradition and cultural consumption. It further interrogates the role of reception in the construction of such ‘exotic’ spectacles.

A statistical analysis of circumstellar material in Type Ia supernovae

A key tracer of the elusive progenitor systems of Type Ia supernovae (SNe Ia) is the detection of narrow blueshifted time-varying Na I D absorption lines, interpreted as evidence of circumstellar material surrounding the progenitor system. The origin of this material is controversial, but the simplest explanation is that it results from previous mass-loss in a system containing a white dwarf and a non-degenerate companion star. We present new single-epoch intermediate-resolution spectra of 17 low-redshift SNe Ia taken with XShooter on the European Southern Observatory Very Large Telescope. Combining this sample with events from the literature, we confirm an excess (∼20 per cent) of SNe Ia displaying blueshifted narrow Na I D absorption features compared to redshifted Na I D features. The host galaxies of SNe Ia displaying blueshifted absorption profiles are skewed towards later-type galaxies, compared to SNe Ia that show no Na I D absorption and SNe Ia displaying blueshifted narrow Na I D absorption features have broader light curves. The strength of the Na I D absorption is stronger in SNe Ia displaying blueshifted Na I D absorption features than those without blueshifted features, and the strength of the blueshifted Na I D is correlated with the B − V colour of the SN at maximum light. This strongly suggests the absorbing material is local to the SN. In the context of the progenitor systems of SNe Ia, we discuss the significance of these findings and other recent observational evidence on the nature of SN Ia progenitors. We present a summary that suggests that there are at least two distinct populations of normal, cosmologically useful SNe Ia.

Functional Genomic Screen Identifies Klebsiella pneumoniae Factors Implicated in Blocking Nuclear Factor κB (NF-κB) Signaling

Klebsiella pneumoniae is etiologic agent of community-acquired and nosocomial pneumonia. It has been shown that K. pneumoniae infections are characterized by reduced early inflammatory response. Recently our group have shown that K. pneumoniae dampens the activation of inflammatory responses by antagonizing the activation of the NF-κB canonical pathway. Our results revealed that K. pneumoniae capsule (CPS) was necessary but not sufficient to attenuate inflammation. To identify additional Klebsiella factors required to dampen inflammation, we standardized and applied a high-throughput gain-on-function screen to examine a Klebsiella transposon mutant library. We identified 114 mutants that triggered the activation of NF-κB. Two gene ontology categories accounted for half of the loci identified in the screening, that of metabolism and transport (32% of the mutants), and of enveloperelated genes (17%). Characterization of the mutants revealed that the lack of the enterobactin siderophore was linked to a reduced CPS expression which in turn underlined the NF- κB activation induced by the mutant. The lipopolysaccharide (LPS) O-polysaccharide and the pullulanase (PulA) type 2 secretion system (T2SS) are required for full effectiveness of immune evasion. Importantly, these factors do not play a redundant role. The fact that LPS Opolysaccharide and T2SS mutants-induced responses were dependent on TLR2-TLR4- MyD88 activation suggested that LPS Opolysaccharide and PulA perturbed TLRdependent recognition of K. pneumoniae. Finally, we demonstrate that LPS O-polysaccharide and pulA mutants are attenuated in the pneumonia mouse model. We propose that LPS Opolysaccharide and PulA T2SS could be new targets for designing new antimicrobials. Increasing TLR-governed defence responses might provide also selective alternatives for the management of K. pneumoniae pneumonia.