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Ana Plácido (1831-1895) foi uma autora portuguesa que viveu e escreveu na sombra do seu amante, e posterior marido, Camilo Castelo Branco. Sendo hoje praticamente esquecida pela crítica literária, a sua obra é, ainda assim, de extrema importância para o estudo do romance oitocentista e do Romantismo português. No texto “Às Portas da Eternidade”, incluído na sua obra Luz coada por ferros, a autora faz das conturbações psicológicas de uma mulher abandonada pelo amante toda a tessitura do seu texto. A atmosfera sombria e gótica composta pelo ambiente que a circunda e pela iminência da morte transformam este conto numa história de fantasmas, em que a protagonista está prestes a transpor a barreira entre a vida e a morte. O suicídio por amor é neste conto desenhado como um fim desesperado para uma alma sem salvação. A consciência feminina é, aqui como noutros textos deste volume, o lugar por excelência da expressão do terror e angústia psicológicos femininos.

In the novel As Visitas do Dr. Valdez, by João Paulo Borges COELHO, role-playing and masks (literal or figurative) are central topics, connected to power or submission within social relationships, during the transition between the colonial regime and independence in Mozambique. They serve several purposes in the story, such as to invoke the past and insert it into the rapidly changing present – through the mask of Dr. Valdez concocted by Vicente -; to momentarily extend a political and social order that is progressively wearing away – through the authoritative mask of Sá Caetana - ; or to introduce without violence the essence of change into former colonial relationships, which predicts the end of the colonial way of living. Sá Caetana, coming from a colonizing family, uses a traditional authoritative attitude towards Vicente that she does not wish to see subverted; a mask which she cannot forgo. Vicente, on the other hand, is divided between the submissive and obedient memory of his father, Cosme Paulino, who was a servant to the family, and the new callings of independence and decolonization. This role-playing and these masks lead the characters into a dead-lock without solution: the simultaneous impossibility of keeping up the role-playing or of dismantling it entirely. In this proposal, we aim to analyse how, in the story, wearing a certain social mask is both part of the colonial past and of the decolonized present and future, and how these masks represent an impediment to the creation of real and emotional connections.

Esta Newsletter (NL) resulta de uma parceria entre o Instituto de Saúde Baseada na Evidência e a Cochrane Portugal, e tem como objectivo disponibilizar informação sobre áreas interessantes para a prática clínica, com base na melhor evidência científica. São incluídos estudos relevantes, criticamente avaliados pela sua validade, importância dos resultados e aplicabilidade prática, resumidos numa óptica de suporte à decisão. É dada prioridade a estudos de causalidade incluindo-se ainda, quando justificado, estudos qualitativos e metodológicos, assim como revisões científicas. O conteúdo da NL é da exclusiva responsabilidade do(s) seu(s) autor(es).

Background: Hansen’s disease (leprosy), widespread in medieval Europe, is today mainly prevalent in tropical and subtropical regions with around 200,000 new cases reported annually. Despite its long history and appearance in historical records, its origins and past dissemination patterns are still widely unknown. Applying ancient DNA approaches to its major causative agent, Mycobacterium leprae, can significantly improve our understanding of the disease’s complex history. Previous studies have identified a high genetic continuity of the pathogen over the last 1500 years and the existence of at least four M. leprae lineages in some parts of Europe since the Early Medieval period. Results: Here, we reconstructed 19 ancient M. leprae genomes to further investigate M. leprae’s genetic variation in Europe, with a dedicated focus on bacterial genomes from previously unstudied regions (Belarus, Iberia, Russia, Scotland), from multiple sites in a single region (Cambridgeshire, England), and from two Iberian leprosaria. Overall, our data confirm the existence of similar phylogeographic patterns across Europe, including high diversity in leprosaria. Further, we identified a new genotype in Belarus. By doubling the number of complete ancient M. leprae genomes, our results improve our knowledge of the past phylogeography of M. leprae and reveal a particularly high M. leprae diversity in European medieval leprosaria. Conclusions: Our findings allow us to detect similar patterns of strain diversity across Europe with branch 3 as the most common branch and the leprosaria as centers for high diversity. The higher resolution of our phylogeny tree also refined our understanding of the interspecies transfer between red squirrels and humans pointing to a late antique/early medieval transmission. Furthermore, with our new estimates on the past population diversity of M. leprae, we gained first insights into the disease’s global history in relation to major historic events such as the Roman expansion or the beginning of the regular transatlantic long distance trade. In summary, our findings highlight how studying ancient M. leprae genomes worldwide improves our understanding of leprosy’s global history and can contribute to current models of M. leprae’s worldwide dissemination, including interspecies transmissions.

This etymology-in-context textbook focuses on modern words, their ancient roots, and the ancient concepts that lie behind these words that aid in the understanding of their meanings. It is designed to make classical antiquity available and attractive to a non-specialist audience. Chapters 1–3 provides a general background to the system and rules of word-building. This book examines the influence of Latin and ancient Greek on the modern English language and explains how a knowledge of this influence can aid in the understanding of English. The rest of this textbook examines selected groups of words and concepts that have their origin in the ancient Greek and Roman worlds. Chapters 4–9 focus on the social, historical and political origins of these words and phrases and contextualises them in ancient Greek and Roman society.

This exceptional volume edited by Grant Parker on the role of Classics and its heritage in South Africa has been in preparation for a number of years. Whatever time was necessary to produce South Africa, Greece, Rome: Classical Confrontations has shown to be well worth the wait for scholars of the classical reception and tradition.1 Parker declares that the aims of his edited volume are to examine South Africa’s past in relation to classical antiquity (p. xxi), to extract specifically South African contexts of this antiquity, and to examine the ‘afterlives’ of classical culture in the country (p. 6).

Littlewood’s commentary on Punica 10 is commendably accessible to postgraduate and even undergraduate students of Latin and Classical Studies, but it will find many appreciative readers among scholars of Silius Italicus. In addition to providing mini-essays and notes involving literary criticism and historical analysis, the commentary discusses philological and stylistic matters. While the treatment of philological issues is not Littlewood’s principal focus, the discussion of literary and historical questions makes her commentary more useful for the type of reader that is increasingly likely to consult it in the years ahead. Littlewood’s commentary therefore continues the laudable trend evident in recent Oxford Flavian commentaries of focussing on both literary and philological issues. As in her commentary on Punica 7, Littlewood’s literary approach reveals a heightened appreciation of Silius Italicus as a poet and therefore surpasses the standard commentary that is devoted mainly to philological and textual issues. Littlewood’s commentary on Punica 10 will be utilized by all serious scholars and students of the epic.

In his introductory survey of ancient Roman rhetoric that opens Part II of the Handbook, William J. Dominik (ch. 12: “The Development of Roman Rhetoric”) argues that while Roman rhetoric is often treated as an adumbration of Greek models and doctrines, another useful method is to analyze the uniquely Roman “cultural dynamic” that shaped Latin rhetorical theory and practice. In addition to Romanizing Greek terms and employing Latin literary and legal examples, theorists strove to develop a native Latin rhetoric that reflected its agrarian roots and reinforced elite male Roman attitudes toward national, class, and gender identity. This attention to the singularities of the Roman social context also leads Dominik to contest the view that rhetoric degenerated under the Empire: law courts remained arenas of rhetorical activity, genres such as epic, lyric, historiography, and the novel flourished, and declamation—often criticized for its lurid, improbable, and artificial themes—emerged as a vital cultural practice intimately connected to the “social and political realities” of Roman life. Taken together, the chapters that comprise The Oxford Handbook of Rhetorical Studies show that rhetoric is not only a body of precepts for stylish, effective communication in speech, writing, and other media but also a social process embedded in manifold areas of culture, a process that both mirrors and engenders the society in which it operates. “Rhetoric, like any other field of activity,” observes William J. Dominik, “is constructed socially, politically and cognitively in ways that reflect, express and extend—through its rules, structures, processes and values—the culture that produces it” (1997: 11).

Recent scholarship on Quintilian, though it has much improved in attitude toward and coverage of the rhetorician, still remains prone to uninformed bias. While discussion of Quintilian in reference works such as the Oxford Classical Dictionary and the Ancient World Encyclopedia are more factual and generally discuss briefly his role in the history of rhetoric, criticism of Quintilian and his theories and approaches tends to be confined to discussions by critics or students who have not re-evaluated his critical role in Roman rhetoric and depend on some of the scholarly judgements made by past scholars. This is evident, for example, especially in the Wikipedia article on the ‘Institutio Oratoria’ in English (modified 26 May 2013). While scholars may be generally dismissive of Wikipedia scholarship, it holds an enormous influence over students and the general public and is often the first source for students and even scholars confronting an ancient figure such as Quintilian. The section entitled ‘Limitations’ in the anonymous, (presumably) collectively produced and unreferenced Wikipedia article in English is extremely unhelpful to serious students of Quintilian. He is damned for being so heavily immersed in the culture of rhetoric so as to have lost perspective on its shortcomings, for being a victim of the education he advocates, for being compelled to adopt the unnatural language of his age, and for promoting the idea of an ideal orator whose existence was unrealisable. Fortunately, though, modern assessments are generally positive in their approach toward Quintilian, as is evident by the comments on his achievements as a rhetorician and his important role in the history of education. But the greatest indication of the growing esteem in which Quintilian is held is the enormous number and breadth of topics that have been undertaken on his rhetorical theories and techniques, which serve to provide the basis for an informed critical judgement of him as a rhetorician and educator. Ultimately the modern scholarship on Quintilian not only provides a positive appraisal and reassessment of his place in the history of rhetoric and education but also of his important role in the modern resurgence of scholarly interest in rhetoric.

One approach to the reading of Pliny’s Panegyricus is to examine later iterations and discussions of panegyric in Late Antiquity and the Early Modern Period for loci and passages that recall and discuss this earliest extant imperial panegyric. Although a surface reading of imperial panegyric, whether it is in the judicial or political context, is indisputably laudatory, the ambiguous undertones of a text like the Panegyricus will always be the subject of contestation among critics. Inevitably scholars who read imperial panegyric literally will not like an interpretation that opens up possibilities for a multivalent reading of Pliny’s panegyric on Trajan. The Panegyricus can be read firstly and most obviously as praise and flattery, even if such a reading includes the potential for the instability or slippage of flattery. But the hybrid nature of the genre it represents suggests that the Panegyricus can also be read in at least four other ways: as ceremony and celebration; as authorial self-positioning, self-fashioning, and self-representation; as exhortation, admonition, and advice, that is, as protreptic and didactic; and as potential admonishment and criticism. As later panegyric evidently was multi-dimensional and allowed for ambiguity and even criticism, it seems natural that the Panegyricus, which sometimes served as a model for the composition of subsequent panegyrics, would possess a similar capacity to function on a number of levels. The reception of Pliny’s Panegyricus by writers of Late Antiquity and the Early Modern Period not only provides evidence of its important role in the history of the genre of panegyric, but it also serves to illustrate the potential functions of the Panegyricus’ own narrative. The modern criticism levelled against the Panegyricus is largely attributable to its effusive flattery of the emperor, but the focus on this feature of the work has partly blinded readers to its more nuanced aspects. An examination of Pliny’s narrative techniques in the Panegyricus and its reception (and that of Graeco-Roman panegyric generally) during Late Antiquity and the Early Modern Period demonstrates that the oration had a number of potential functions that transcend the mere purpose of praising the emperor.

Os sistemas de informação da Época Moderna baseiam-se no registo de actos. Discutem-se neste artigo os sistemas de informação civis, como aqueles das Câmaras Municipais ou das Misericórdias, ou de uma grande instituição como a Inquisição, e a sua materialização em unidades de informação. A análise consistirá na relação entre a produção de informação e o contexto histórico em que a mesma ocorreu, o que significa não só apresentar uma relação directa entre legislação e informação produzida, e, especialmente, problematizar a história custodial da informação acumulada e do contexto histórico da sua produção. O enfoque encontra-se na produção da informação em estreita relação com o seu contexto de produção e com as formas da sua materialização. A história administrativa e custodial dos sistemas de informação permite compreender o contexto de produção.

Levosimendan is a drug developed and approved in the EU to treat severe heart failure by intravenous administration. Its principal pharmacological effect is to increase cardiac contractility by calcium sensitisation of troponin C. Because of the positive action of the drug on the neuromechanical efficiency and contractile function of the diaphragm in healthy controls, levosimendan was considered potentially useful for treating amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, a disease characterised by progressive upper and lower motor neuron deficits. This hypothesis was tested in the phase LEVALS 2 trial, in which the drug was given orally.

With a diverse set of neuronal and glial cell populations, Central Nervous System (CNS) has one of the most complex structures in the body. Intercellular communication is therefore highly important to coordinate cell-to-cell interactions. Besides electrical and chemical messengers, CNS cells also benefit from another communication route, what is known as extracellular vesicles, to harmonize their interactions. Extracellular Vesicles (EVs) and their subtype exosomes are membranous particles secreted by cells and contain information packaged in the form of biomolecules such as small fragments of DNA, lipids, miRNAs, mRNAs, and proteins. They are able to efficiently drive changes upon their arrival to recipient cells. EVs actively participate in all stages of CNS development by stimulating neural cell proliferation, differentiation, synaptic formation, and mediating reciprocal interactions between neurons and oligodendrocyte for myelination process. The aim of the present review is to enlighten the presence and contribution of EVs at each CNS developmental milestone.

Os acidentes rodoviários podem estar associados à sintomatologia da Perturbação Pós- Stress Traumático (PPST), que por sua vez, pode estar associada ao risco de desenvolvimento de depressão, suicídio, consumo excessivo de álcool, ansiedade e problemas psicossomáticos. Cada caso traduz o sofrimento de um ser humano que vê comprometida a sua saúde física e mental. A Saúde Mental é a base do bem-estar individual e do funcionamento eficiente de uma comunidade. A promoção do bem-estar tem destaque na promoção da saúde mental, e o Bem-Estar-Subjectivo (BES) é o foco central deste estudo. Esta investigação consiste num estudo de caso exploratório, com o objectivo de registar as possíveis variações nos níveis de BES, observadas ao longo de um processo terapêutico de 25 sessões de terapia Eye Moviment and Dessensitisation Reprocessing (EMDR). A participante no caso foi diagnosticada com PPST crónico após um acidente de viação. Procedeu-se à avaliação do impacto utilizando os instrumentos de avaliação: PCL-C Checklist, na avaliação da severidade dos sintomas de PPST; escala de Satisfação com a Vida (ESCV), no registo dos níveis de satisfação com a vida; e a Positive and Negative Affect Schedule (PANAS), no registo dos níveis de afecto positivo e negativo; e a Escala Sobre a Felicidade (ESF), no registo dos níveis de felicidade. Os resultados são indicativos de variações nos níveis de BES e grau de severidade do quadro sintomático, sugerindo um possível impacto do EMDR no BES. A inquestionável importância da saúde mental merece a formulação de hipóteses para futura investigação empírica, de modo a contribuir e ajudar a lidar com os impactos devastadores do PPST, e restituir níveis de BES, que por sua vez se vão reflectir na qualidade de vida pessoal e comunitária.

Sutherland et al. recently reported the in vitro inhibition of Helicobacter hepaticus cytochrome c (cyt c) synthase, which may inactivate c-type cytochromes in this and in other pathogenic bacteria. Here, I discuss the impact of this work, which identifies this conserved synthase as a potential antibacterial target.

Introduction: Speech intelligibility, how well a listener comprehends the speaker's message, is related to the listener' expertise and type of the message conveyed. There is no evidence about speech intelligibility in different groups of healthcare professionals and naïve listeners. Objectives: This study is the first to understand if there were differences in the speech intelligibility of Parkinson's Disease (PD) patients by different experienced and naïve listeners, according to the speech stimuli and dysarthria severity. Materials and methods: Randomly digitised audio-files (50 words and 50 sentences) of 10 PD patients, one without dysarthria and 9 with different dysarthria severities (3 each: mild, moderate and severe dysarthria), were collected from a database of 60 PD patients' audio-files. A jury panel was formed by five different listeners groups including 10 speech and language therapists, 10 neurologists, 10 PD relatives, 12 PD patients, and 10 people from the general population. The jury panel transcribed single words and sentences from the audio recordings, the percentage correctly understood was calculated and the results were compared between the groups. Results: Multiple comparisons showed significant speech intelligibility differences between healthcare professionals and naïve listerners in words (highest effect size, η2 = 0.7) and sentences (the highest effect size: η2 = 0.6). Pairwise comparisons revealed that those significant differences were specifically in words with moderate and severe dysarthria and sentences with all severity levels of dysarthria. Conclusion: The groups of healthcare professionals who work with dysarthria are more likely to understand the PD patients' speech than the groups of naïve listeners.

COVID-19 vaccinations have started. They will stop the pandemic. Citing recent data that are in line with immunological knowledge and predictions, combined with insights of common cold coronaviruses, we here set out the case that the maintenance of population immunity will not depend on continued vaccinations but on the endemic presence of SARS-CoV-2.

Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) is a rare and progressive neurodegenerative disease mainly affecting upper and lower motor neurons but also causing multisystem involvement, in particular, associated with cognitive changes. Minor sensory fibre dysfunction has been described in the past and confirmed in recent studies. In a multicentre study investigating a population of 88 patients with ALS, the ESTEEM group (a European Telematic Project for quality assurance within Clinical Neurophysiology) reported sensory polyneuropathy (PNP) in 12.5% of the patients, not influenced by age, disease duration and onset region. In this study, we aimed to readdress prevalence of and risk factors for PNP in a larger population of patients with ALS. A large number of variables, including gene mutations, were assessed.

DNA double-strand breaks (DSB) are the most severe type of DNA damage. Despite the catastrophic consequences on genome integrity, it remains so far elusive how DSBs affect transcription. A reason for this was the lack of suitable tools to simultaneously monitor transcription and the induction of a genic DSB with sufficient temporal and spatial resolution. This work describes a set of new reporters that directly visualize transcription in live cells immediately after the induction of a DSB in the DNA template. Bacteriophage RNA stem-loops are employed to monitor the transcription with single-molecule sensitivity. For targetting the DSB to a specific gene region, the reporter genes are engineered to contain a single recognition sequence of the homing endonuclease I-SceI, otherwise absent from the human genome. A single copy of each reporter gene was integrated into the genome of human cell lines. This experimental system allows the detection of single RNA molecules generated by the canonical gene transcription or by DNA break-induced transcription initiation. These reporters provide an unprecedented opportunity for interpreting the reciprocal interactions between transcription and DNA damage and to disclose hitherto unappreciated aspects of DNA break-induced transcription.