Myelin Peptide–Mannan Conjugate Multiple Sclerosis Vaccines: Conjugation Efficacy and Stability of Vaccine Ingredient

Myelin peptide–mannan conjugates have been shown to be potential vaccines in the immunotherapy of multiple sclerosis. The conjugates are comprised from the epitope peptide and the polysaccharide mannan which transfers as a carrier the antigenic peptide to dendritic cells that process and present antigenic peptides at their surface in complex with MHC class I or class II resulting in T-cell stimulation. The conjugation of antigenic peptide with mannan occurs through the linker (Lys–Gly)5, which connects the peptide with the oxidized mannose units of mannan. This study describes novel methods for the quantification of the vaccine ingredient peptide within the conjugate, a prerequisite for approval of clinical trials in the pursuit of multiple sclerosis therapeutics. Myelin peptides, such as MOG35–55, MBP83–99, and PLP131–145 in linear or cyclic form, as altered peptide ligands or conjugated to appropriate carriers, possess immunomodulatory properties in experimental models and are potential candidates for clinical trials.

EVOLUTION OF APPROACHES IN THE STUDY OF SOCIETY

В статье рассматривается эволюция методологических взглядов, концепций и подходов в развитии общества на исторических периодах его развития. Раскрыта сущность и структура основных подсистем общества, их взаимосвязь, взаимовлияние и взаимодействие. На основе этапов развития ценностей / потребностей общества изучено и раскрыто социально-экономическое, политическое и духовно-нравственное содержание состояний общества и его динамика в определённые периоды до настоящего времени. Автором предложена к линейной, цикличной и спиральной формам развития общества симбиозная форма его развития, а именно – спирально-циклическая форма. The article examines the evolution of methodological views, concepts and approaches in the development of society in the historical periods of its development. The essence and structure of the main subsystems of society, their interrelation, mutual influence and interaction are revealed. On the basis of the stages of development of values / needs of society, the socio-economic, political, spiritual and moral content of the state of society and its dynamics in certain periods up to the present time are studied and disclosed. The author suggests a symbiotic form of society's development, namely, a spiral - cyclic form, for linear, cyclic and spiral forms of society's development.

Shaping Form: Performances as Analyses of Cyclic Macroform in Arnold Schoenberg’s Sechs kleine Klavierstücke, op. 19 (1911), in the Recordings of Eduard Steuermann and Other Pianists

Arnold Schoenberg’s Sechs kleine Klavierstücke (Six Little Piano Pieces), op. 19 (1911), offer a fruitful case study to examine and categorize performers’ strategies in regard to their form-shaping characteristics. A thorough quantitative and qualitative analysis of 46 recordings from 41 pianists (recorded between 1925 to 2018), including six recordings from Eduard Steuermann, the leading pianist of the Second Viennese School, scrutinizes the interdependency between macro- and microformal pianistic approaches to this cycle. In thus tracing varying conceptions of a performance-shaped cyclic form and their historical contexts, the continuous unfurling of the potential of Schoenberg’s musical ideas in both “structuralist” and “rhetorical” performance styles is systematically explored, offering a fresh approach to the controversial discussion on how analysis and performance might relate to one another.

Saint-Saëns's First String Quartet, Cyclic Form and the Aesthetics of Charm

From the 1850s, Saint-Saëns regularly employed cyclic form: the practice of establishing large-scale relationships (especially in symphonies, chamber works, etc.) by reintroducing materials from earlier movements in later ones. Nonetheless, he became weary of such procedures following the Third Symphony (1886) for cultural-political reasons: Franck's most important cyclic works date from the 1880s, d'Indy declared la forme cyclique a historically determined canon, and period writers considered cyclic form a franckiste hallmark – all while Saint-Saëns's relationship with Franck's followers deteriorated.In this essay, I argue that Saint-Saëns's First String Quartet (1899) ‘misreads’ his rivals’ approaches to cyclic form as exemplified by d'Indy's Second Quartet of 1897 (in which a four-note cell suffuses most themes) and Franck's Quartet (in which themes from previous movements climactically accumulate in the final coda). Saint-Saëns's themes abound with miniscule motivic connections, which catch listeners’ ears but seem too fleeting and insubstantial to register as binding elements comparable to d'Indy's pellucid cell. Such relationships straddle the threshold of apprehensibility, and they produce a distinctive affective quality: where d'Indy fosters perceptions of genetic relationships, Saint-Saëns elicits a sensation of déjà entendu. The final coda similarly teases by reintroducing fragments from the slow introduction, encouraging anticipation of a Franck-like apotheosis. What follows is a mirage of one: timbres and textures of previous movements return, but incipient citations of themes dissolve. Where Franck delivers a full-blooded synthesis, Saint-Saëns follows through with trompe l'oreille.Saint-Saëns's misreadings of franckiste technique point to broader aesthetic conflicts. D'Indy enlisted cyclic form as a means to monumentality, which served the enseignement he esteemed as art's purpose. Déjà entendu and trompe l'oreille, on the other hand, register as classicising attributes which diverge from d'Indy's didactic objectives and which Saint-Saëns grouped under the rubric of ‘charm’, a conduit to what he considered an ideologically neutral ‘aesthetic sense’.