O primado da ambivalência corpórea: Eraserhead como dupla alegoria

Considering the film Eraserhead (David Lynch, 1977) an ode to the body in both its outward and inward manifestations, this article compares the body as it is represented in the film, through the physical and psychical depiction of characters, with the cinematic medium and its conventions. The article presents Eraserhead as having three levels of meaning, all of them connected to the corporeal: one literal and two figurative. These latter two are clearly allegorical and, ultimately, one of them is literal and the other two are figural. In the most complex of them all, which presents the film in general as an artistic body, Eraserhead can be understood as an allegory of spectatorship.

DNA interaction and cytotoxicity studies of new ruthenium(II) cyclopentadienyl derivative complexescontaining heteroaromatic ligands

Four ruthenium(II) complexes with the formula [Ru(eta(5)-C(5)H(5))(PP)L][CF(3)SO(3)], being (PP = two triphenylphosphine molecules), L = 1-benzylimidazole, 1; (PP = two triphenylphosphine molecules), L = 2,2'bipyridine, 2; (PP = two triphenylphosphine molecules), L = 4-Methylpyridine, 3; (PP = 1,2-bis(diphenylphosphine) ethane), L = 4-Methylpyridine, 4, were prepared, in view to evaluate their potentialities as antitumor agents. The compounds were completely characterized by NMR spectroscopy and their crystal and molecular structures were determined by X-ray diffraction. Electrochemical studies were carried out giving for all the compounds quasi-reversible processes. The images obtained by atomic force microscopy (AFM) suggest interaction with pBR322 plasmid DNA. Measurements of the viscosity of solutions of free DNA and DNA incubated with different concentrations of the compounds confirmed this interaction. The cytotoxicity of compounds 1234 was much higher than that of cisplatin against human leukemia cancer cells (HL-60 cells). IC(50) values for all the compounds are in the range of submicromolar amounts. Apoptotic death percentage was also studied resulting similar than that of cisplatin. (C) 2010 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.