scholarly journals Promethean Rebellion in Ray Bradbury's "Fahrenheit 451": The Protagonist's Quest

2012 ◽  
Vol 4 ◽  
pp. 1-20
Author(s):  
Fernanda Luísa Feneja
Keyword(s):  
Science Fiction ◽  
Personal Development ◽  
Symbolic Power ◽  
The Novel ◽  
Main Character ◽  
Dystopian Fiction ◽  
Ray Bradbury ◽  
Fahrenheit 451 ◽  
Insight Into

The article aims to reflect on the role of the myth in science fiction narrative, namely on the specific forms it may take in utopian/dystopian fiction, such as Fahrenheit 451 (1953) by Ray Bradbury. The personal development of the main character, Guy Montag, constitutes the focus of this analysis, by which we aim to shed some light on the relation between the meaning of the novel and the Promethean features he evinces in the context of a dystropian novel. The symbolic power of fire and of books is also of core relevance to this study, not only because the highlight the hero's inheritance of the Promethean myth, but also because the provide a deeper insight into exegetic possibilities of dystopsian fiction

scholarly journals De wereld als sciencefictionroman. Over De goede zoon van Rob van Essen

2021 ◽  
Vol 59 (3) ◽  
pp. 227-242
Author(s):  
Erica van Boven
Keyword(s):  
Science Fiction ◽  
Central Place ◽  
The Novel ◽  
Reading Experience ◽  
Award Winning ◽  
The Rich ◽  
Everyday Reality ◽  
Insight Into

Abstract Rob van Essen’s award-winning novel The good son (2018) offers its readers a puzzling reading experience. It contains a tangle of storylines and seems to lack head or tail. This contribution aims to discover composition and meaning by analyzing various aspects provided by the novel itself: timeline, plot, science fiction, ideas, poetica. This approach provides insight into the rich reservoir of meanings, whereby the importance of imagination and creation appears to have a central place. The novel, which can be labelled as a dystopian science fiction novel, as well as a novel of ideas or a novel of poetics, wants us to become aware of the mysteriousness of everyday reality. Nederlandstalig abstract Rob van Essens bekroonde roman De goede zoon (2018) biedt de lezers een verwarrende leeservaring. De roman bevat een wirwar aan verhaallijnen en heeft op het eerste gezicht nauwelijks samenhang. In deze bijdrage wordt geprobeerd compositie en betekenis te ontdekken door middel van een analyse van verschillende aspecten die uit de roman zelf naar voren komen: tijdsverloop, plot, sciencefiction, ideeën, poëtica. Daarmee ontstaat inzicht in een rijk reservoir aan betekenissen waarin het belang van scheppen en verbeelden een centrale plaats heeft. De roman, die beschouwd kan worden als een dystopische sciencefictionroman maar ook als een ideeënroman of een poëticale roman, lijkt ons te willen doordringen van de raadselachtigheid van de alledaagse werkelijkheid.

scholarly journals Investigation of the genetic variation in ACE2 on the structural recognition by the novel coronavirus (SARS-CoV-2)

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Xingyi Guo ◽  
Zhishan Chen ◽  
Yumin Xia ◽  
Weiqiang Lin ◽  
Hongzhi Li
Keyword(s):  
Genetic Variation ◽  
The Novel ◽  
S Protein ◽  
Angiotensin Converting Enzyme 2 ◽  
Missense Variants ◽  
Catalytic Metal ◽  
Using Data ◽  
Novel Coronavirus ◽  
Insight Into

Abstract Background: The outbreak of coronavirus disease (COVID-19) was caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), through its surface spike glycoprotein (S-protein) recognition on the receptor Angiotensin-converting enzyme 2 (ACE2) in humans. However, it remains unclear how genetic variations in ACE2 may affect its function and structure, and consequently alter the recognition by SARS-CoV-2. Methods: We have systemically characterized missense variants in the gene ACE2 using data from the Genome Aggregation Database (gnomAD; N = 141,456). To investigate the putative deleterious role of missense variants, six existing functional prediction tools were applied to evaluate their impact. We further analyzed the structural flexibility of ACE2 and its protein-protein interface with the S-protein of SARS-CoV-2 using our developed Legion Interfaces Analysis (LiAn) program.Results: Here, we characterized a total of 12 ACE2 putative deleterious missense variants. Of those 12 variants, we further showed that p.His378Arg could directly weaken the binding of catalytic metal atom to decrease ACE2 activity and p.Ser19Pro could distort the most important helix to the S-protein. Another seven missense variants may affect secondary structures (i.e. p.Gly211Arg; p.Asp206Gly; p.Arg219Cys; p.Arg219His, p.Lys341Arg, p.Ile468Val, and p.Ser547Cys), whereas p.Ile468Val with AF = 0.01 is only present in Asian.Conclusions: We provide strong evidence of putative deleterious missense variants in ACE2 that are present in specific populations, which could disrupt the function and structure of ACE2. These findings provide novel insight into the genetic variation in ACE2 which may affect the SARS-CoV-2 recognition and infection, and COVID-19 susceptibility and treatment.

scholarly journals The Concept of “Thrownness” in Algis Budrys's Short Story “Wall of Crystal, Eye of Night”

2021 ◽  
Vol 40 (45) ◽  
pp. 111-121
Author(s):  
Svetozar Poštič
Keyword(s):  
Science Fiction ◽  
Short Story ◽  
Meaning Of Life ◽  
Literary Analysis ◽  
Being And Time ◽  
The Novel ◽  
Main Character ◽  
Physical Frailty ◽  
New Horizons ◽  
German Philosopher

This paper analyses the concept of thrownness and the related notions of immediacy and actuality in a 1961 short science fiction story “Wall of Crystal, Eye of Night” by Algis Budrys. It first defines the concept of thrownness (Geworfenheit), created and coined by the German philosopher Martin Heidegger in his classic book Being and Time, and it explains how this notion can be employed in literary analysis in general and applied to this work in particular. The article then analyses how certain stylistic devices in the short story, namely similes, change of pace and the presentation of an inner conflict in the main character, contribute to the feeling of authenticity. In other words, it attempts to exhibit the means used in a prose work to make it seem more realistic and immediate. Finally, the work also argues that science fiction is in many ways more real than other fictional works. Although it belongs to the genre that has traditionally been denied serious literary merit, the novel view and interpretation of this story aims to disclose new horizons of artistic expression that illuminate human mental and physical frailty and stimulate a valuable inquiry into the meaning of life.

scholarly journals Role of Short-wavelength Blue Light in the Formation of Cataract and Expression of Caspase-1, -11 and Gasdermin D in rat Lens Epithelium Cells: Insight into the Novel Pathogenesis of Cataract.

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yamin Wang ◽  
Min Zhang ◽  
Ying Sun ◽  
Xiaohui Wang ◽  
Zhaowei Song ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Blue Light ◽  
Short Wavelength ◽  
Light Exposure ◽  
The Novel ◽  
Blue Led ◽  
Caspase 1 ◽  
Epithelium Cells ◽  
Experimental Group ◽  
Insight Into

Abstract Background Cataracts have been verified to be associated with a number of risk factors. The sun and artificial light sources, including light-emitting diode (LED) and fluorescent light tubes, are the primary sources of short-wavelength blue light. With the increasing popularity of blue-rich LED-backlit display devices, our eyes are now exposed to more short-wavelength blue light than they were in the past. The goal of this study was to evaluate the role of short-wavelength blue light in the formation of cataract. Additionally, the pathogenesis of cataracts after short-wavelength light exposure was investigated.Methods SD rats were randomly divided into 2 main groups: a control group (10 rats each for the 4-, 8-, and 12-week groups) and an experimental group (10 rats each for the 4-, 8-, and 12-week groups). The rats in the experimental group were exposed to a short-wavelength blue LED lamp for 12 hours per day. After exposure to the blue LED lamp, the rats were maintained in total darkness for 12 hours, after which a 12-hour light/dark cycle was resumed. The intensity of the lamp was 3000 lux. At the end of the short-wavelength blue LED lamp exposure (for 4, 8, and 12 weeks), the expression levels of caspase-1, caspase-11 and gasdermin D (GSDMD) in rat epithelium cells (LECs) were examined in rat epithelial cells (LECs) using qRT-PCR and Western blotting analyses. Results After 6 weeks, cataracts had developed in the experimental rats (4/20 eyes). The clarity of the lens then gradually worsened with the duration of exposure. Twelve weeks later, all of the rat eyes had developed cataracts. Then the expression levels of caspase-1, caspase-11 and GSDMD at 4, 8, and 12 weeks were significantly higher in samples from rats exposed to a short-wavelength blue LED lamp than samples from control rat (p˂0.05). Conclusion The data indicate that pyroptosis play a key role of in cataracts induced by short-wavelength blue light exposure, highlighting caspase-1, caspase-11 and GSDMD as possible therapeutic targets for cataract treatment. This study might provide new insight into the novel pathogenesis of cataracts.

Cultivating Flow and Happiness in Children

2020 ◽  
pp. 1-27
Author(s):  
Tatiana Camila Valencia ◽  
Stephanie Johan Valencia
Keyword(s):  
Positive Psychology ◽  
Role Models ◽  
Personal Development ◽  
Creative Expression ◽  
Amount Of Information ◽  
Vast Amount ◽  
Everyday Lives ◽  
Insight Into

This chapter emphasizes the interrelatedness of three important concepts: flow, creativity, and happiness. In positive psychology, “flow” is identified as a state of consciousness that involves an energized focus as one presently engages in an enjoyed activity. This chapter will help readers understand how to cultivate flow and creativity in their everyday lives and explain why doing so can lead to an enhancement in wellbeing and personal development. The important role of parenting in a child's life will also be addressed as children absorb a vast amount of information from their parents who innately are their first mirroring role models. The authors will also provide insight into personal and societal barriers that may hinder creative expression and the sustainment of happiness.

scholarly journals Linguistic markers of represented speech in science fiction novels: a polyphonic approach

2021 ◽  
pp. 88-92
Author(s):  
Elena Anatolyevna Demina ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Science Fiction ◽  
The Novel ◽  
Linguistic Markers ◽  
Ray Bradbury ◽  
Linguistic Aspect

This paper aims to investigate the linguistic aspect of represented speech in the novel “The Martian Chronicles” by Ray Bradbury within the framework of M. Bakhtin’s concept of polyphony. The article provides a classification of linguistic signals of voices, determines their frequency, types of represented speech, the number of voices. The results of the study show that fragments with represented speech in the novel are few; as a rule, there are two voices in them. In other passages, despite the presence of several voices, the dialogical perspective is not expressed. Moreover, one linguistic marker can be simultaneously a lexical, syntactic and graphic signal; ideological markers creating a slight polyphonic effect. Syntactic means, being the most frequent ones, convey the perception of the character and form Bradbury’s special narration style.

scholarly journals STUDYING THE ARTISTIC DETAIL (based on Donna Tartt’s novel «The Goldfinch»)

2021 ◽  
Vol 1 (192) ◽  
pp. 80-84
Author(s):  
Olha Kozii ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Adult Male ◽  
Defense Mechanisms ◽  
The Other ◽  
The Novel ◽  
Main Character ◽  
Time And Space ◽  
Part D ◽  
Life And Death ◽  
Critical Situation

«The Goldfinch» is a story of a boy and later an adult male Theodore Decker who accidentally obtains a masterpiece. The writer, as a surgeon, separates one second of expectation from the other, detail from detail. The reader is presented not just a frightened child but deep sorrow of the loss of the whole world. In the second chapter of the first part D. Tartt reveals herself as a skillful psychologist, skillfully accustoms herself to the inner state of the main character, with him she travels through the memories, tracks associative relationships he makes. The writer brilliantly follows all defense mechanisms of a man who is faced with the inevitability. The author uses gradation way of describing while stringing visual and auditory details, retards artistic time. The writing of D. Tartt is characterized by the unique skill in the detail describing. The role of artistic detail in the process of inner state depicting is investigated. The author touches upon the problem of the depicting of critical situation in the novel. The attention is paid to the writer’s skills in showing main character’s feelings, memoirs, thoughts, associative relations and human nocifensor in critical situations. It is admitted that in case of such temporal and space detail the most suitable way of analysis is «in succession to the author». Thus, in the novel The Goldfinch D.Tartt declares herself a talented master of words, subtle psychologist and philosopher. As a surgeon, the writer separates one second of expectation from the other, detail from detail. Therefore, the reader can observe not just a frightened child but deep sorrow of the loss of the whole world. This is achieved by the skillful combination of visual and auditory details that create convex emotionally saturated images filled with heartbeat of life. The author dowers the main character – both a teenager and an adult man – with the ability to see deep philosophical maxims in small details, to decipher the message from the artist, to understand the dialectical interpenetration of life and death. Because of such careful author's treatment to the artistic time and space the most appropriate way to study seems to be the analysis «in succession to the author».

scholarly journals Phraseological motifs for Distinguishing Between Literary Genres. A Case Study on the Motifs of Verbal and Non-Verbal Communication

Kalbotyra ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 74 ◽  
pp. 160-181
Author(s):  
Iva Novakova
Keyword(s):  
Science Fiction ◽  
Verbal Communication ◽  
Crime Fiction ◽  
Historical Novels ◽  
The Novel ◽  
Literary Genres ◽  
Micro Level ◽  
Linguistic Units

The present paper is based on the assumption that the language of the novel is characterized by a statistically relevant overrepresentation of certain linguistic units (e.g. lexemes, key words, collocations and colligations, Siepmann 2015). First steps towards checking the validity of this hypothesis had been undertaken in pioneering works in the 1990s/2000s (e.g. Stubbs & Barth 2003). These studies were however limited by the small size of their (exclusively English) corpora. The present study explores the role of some patterns (phraseological motifs) in distinguishing French literary subgenres. It also proposes a case study of some motifs related to the verbal (dire avec sourire ‘to say with a smile’) and non-verbal communication (adresser un sourire ‘to send a smile’). Unlike traditional corpus-stylistic analyses, which frequently focus on the style of a single author, our corpus-driven approach identifies lexico-syntactic constructions in literary genres which are automatically extracted from the corpora.The main purpose is to show the relevance of the notion of phraseological motif (Legallois 2012; Longrée & Mellet 2013; Novakova & Siepmann 2020) for the distinction of literary subgenres. Linking form and meaning, these ‘multidimensional units’ fulfil pragmatic as well as discursive functions.The data has been extracted from large French corpora of the PhraseoRom research project https://phraseorom.univ-grenoble-alpes.fr. They are accessible on http://phraseotext.univ-grenoble-alpes.fr/phraseobase/index.html and contain 1000 novels (published from the 1950s to the present), partitioned into six sub-corpora: general literature (GEN), crime fiction (CRIM), romances (ROM), historical novels (HIST), science fiction (SF) and fantasy (FY).The results of our study reveal some unexpected differences between the literary subgenres: e.g. the motif dire d’une voix ‘to say in a voice’ in HIST compared to GEN. In FY, expressions of verbal communication are related to shouting and screaming. Expressions related to the non-verbal communication (prendre dans ses bras ‘to take in one’s arms’) are specific to ROM, where body language is overrepresented. In SF, there is a very limited number of these types of expressions. More generally, the motifs provide the link between the micro level (phraseological recurrences) and the macro level (the fictional script).

scholarly journals “The End of Human Exceptionality”: The Shift of the Anthropological Dominant in Science Fiction

2021 ◽  
pp. 163-181
Author(s):  
Dan Paranyuk
Keyword(s):  
Science Fiction ◽  
Nature Of Science ◽  
Literary Text ◽  
Previous Experience ◽  
Human Being ◽  
The Novel ◽  
Fictional World ◽  
Human Culture ◽  
American Science

Based on the methodological proposals of literary anthropology, in particular on the conceptual ideas of C. Levi-Strauss (structural anthropology), J. Ortega y Gasset (“dehumanization of arts”), J.-M. Schaeffer (“the end of human exceptionality”), M. Foucault (the fall of a human being from the humanistic pedestal of culture), the article under studies emphasizes the violation of the anthropological dominant in science fiction, which is very typical of the fantasy genre. Consequently, there arise new principles of constructing personosphere of a literary text. On the example of the novel “City” (1953) by an American science fiction writer Clifford Simak, the article traces the way a human being shifts from the center of personosphere to the “outskirts” of narration, whereas its image acquires fictional parameters. This all happens due to the phenomenon of “anthropocene” (the term by G. Canavan), which implies the harmful consequences of the human reigning over the nature. In addition, the author of the article introduces the notion of “phantasoid’ – a character of the fictional world of fantasy (outlined by the narrator) that functions exceptionally in the imagination of a certain fantastic character and is somehow related to his previous experience. The novel by C. Simak outlines a gradual shift of the anthropological vector: the heterogeneous image of a human turns into a counter-image, whereby particular significance is attached to the change in the attitude towards mankind. In the text, human culture is perceived as something alien, while Simak’s image of a human being ruins the so called imagological stereotype, along with the reader’s receptive expectations. The role of the attractor in the novel is assigned to “antromorphized” and “humanized” creatures (plants, animals, objects, robots, mutants), which indicates the drastic breach with the previous genre tradition, as well as higlights a peculiar polemic connection with classical literary science fiction. This all proves the metamorphic nature of science fiction and its transition into the hyperreal dimensions of fantasy, where different artificial forms of life and mentality can peacefully coexist with each other.

scholarly journals miR-539 activates the SAPK/JNK signaling pathway to promote ferropotosis in colorectal cancer by directly targeting TIPE

2021 ◽  
Vol 7 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Yan Yang ◽  
Zeyang Lin ◽  
Zhaopu Han ◽  
Zhengxin Wu ◽  
Jianyu Hua ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Colorectal Cancer ◽  
High Recurrence Rate ◽  
The Novel ◽  
Potential Therapeutic Target ◽  
Tnf Α ◽  
Jnk Signaling Pathway ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
Insight Into ◽  
Necrosis Factor

AbstractColorectal cancer (CRC) is a common tumor that harms human health with a high recurrence rate. It has been reported that the expression of microRNA-539 (miR-539) is low in several types of cancer, including CRC. Tumor necrosis factor (TNF)-α-induced protein 8 (TNFAIP8/TIPE) is highly expressed in CRC and promotes the proliferation, migration and angiogenesis of CRC. However, the relationship between miR-539 and TIPE and the mechanisms by which they regulate the proliferation of CRC remain to be explored. We aimed to investigate the functions and mechanisms of miR-539 in CRC proliferation. Functionally, miR-539 can bind to and regulate the expression of TIPE, and miR-539 activates SAPK/JNK to downregulate the expression of glutathione peroxidase 4 (GPX4) and promote ferroptosis. Our data reveal the novel role of miR-539 in regulating ferroptosis in CRC via activation of the SAPK/JNK axis, providing new insight into the mechanism of abnormal proliferation in CRC and a novel potential therapeutic target for advanced CRC.

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