Riten, Gesten, Zeremonien. Gesellschaftliche Symbolik in Mittelalter und Früher Neuzeit

Ritualisiertes Handeln, der Gebrauch von Gesten und zeremonielle Vorgänge bildeten insbesondere in vormodernen Gesellschaften zentrale Mittel für die Herstellung und den Ausdruck sozialer Ordnung. Gegliedert nach den drei Kernbereichen Liturgie, Recht und Politik präsentiert der vorliegende Band in interdisziplinärem Zugriff ausgewählte Aspekte der Anlage und Wirkung von Ritualen. Einleitend werden methodische Grundsatzfragen an exemplarischen Gegenständen aus der Sicht der Kunstgeschichte, der Theaterwissenschaft und der Geschichtswissenschaft dargestellt.

Whole genome methylation array analysis reveals new aspects in Balkan endemic nephropathy etiology

Background Balkan endemic nephropathy (BEN) represents a chronic progressive interstitial nephritis in striking correlation with uroepithelial tumours of the upper urinary tract. The disease has endemic distribution in the Danube river regions in several Balkan countries. DNA methylation is a primary epigenetic modification that is involved in major processes such as cancer, genomic imprinting, gene silencing, etc. The significance of CpG island methylation status in normal development, cell differentiation and gene expression is widely recognized, although still stays poorly understood. Methods We performed whole genome DNA methylation array analysis on DNA pool samples from peripheral blood from 159 affected individuals and 170 healthy individuals. This technique allowed us to determine the methylation status of 27 627 CpG islands throughout the whole genome in healthy controls and BEN patients. Thus we obtained the methylation profile of BEN patients from Bulgarian and Serbian endemic regions. Results Using specifically developed software we compared the methylation profiles of BEN patients and corresponding controls and revealed the differently methylated regions. We then compared the DMRs between all patient-control pairs to determine common changes in the epigenetic profiles. SEC61G, IL17RA, HDAC11 proved to be differently methylated throughout all patient-control pairs. The CpG islands of all 3 genes were hypomethylated compared to controls. This suggests that dysregulation of these genes involved in immunological response could be a common mechanism in BEN pathogenesis in both endemic regions and in both genders. Conclusion Our data propose a new hypothesis that immunologic dysregulation has a place in BEN etiopathogenesis. Keywords: Epigenetics; Whole genome array analysis; Balkan endemic nephropathy

Die Chrétien- und Wolfram-Überlieferung des Perceval-/Parzival-Romans und ihre textkritische Erschließung

This paper discusses the manuscript transmission of Chrétien’s Roman de Perceval ou le Conte du Graal and Wolfram’s Parzival in terms of their textual tradition and editorial criticism. It shows that the most recent edition of the Old French Perceval (K. Busby 1993) can be viewed as a landmark of the art of conventional editing that appeared at the peak of the discussion of ‘New Philology’ and took its own position in this context. At the same time, the Perceval was subject of critical studies based on the principle of ‘unrooted trees’ that questioned the genealogical concept of traditional ‘Lachmannian’ stemmatology. Conversely, a new edition of Wolfram’s Parzival, based on all known manuscripts, remained a desideratum for decades in German studies. Specific research on the textual tradition played a rather marginal role for a long time, but has been reinforced in the recent years in the context of a new critical edition presenting the totality of manuscripts as well as different textual versions in electronic form. The concept of ‘unrooted trees’ visualizing relationships of manuscript readings can be integrated in this concept. The article gives an overview of these methods, presents examples of editorial techniques, and develops ideas on how to combine the research on the manuscript tradition of both the German text and its French counterpart.