The Graceful Prince of a Trivial Comedy: Symbolism and Aesthetics in the Picture of Dorian Gray and De Profundis

Oscar Wilde was a renowned dandy and prominent spokesman of the Aesthetic Movement in the late 1800s who strove to live his life like a work of art. However, Wilde\u27s life took a drastic turn after he was imprisoned for acts of sodomy. Thus, The Picture of Dorian Gray, written by Oscar Wilde in the heyday of his academic career, can be contrasted against Wilde\u27s De Profundis, a letter written during his imprisonment, to provide a portrait of the author\u27s transformed philosophy of a beautiful life. Following his loss of face, status and position in society, Wilde rages from his jail cell at his former lover and eventually changes his entire worldview. My paper discusses the impmtance of symbols to generate meaning, compares the semiotics and aesthetics in both works and considers how Wilde\u27s transformed view of aesthetics is relevant in today\u27s appearance obsessed society

Coalbed Gas Owndership in Pennsylvania - A Tenuous First Step with \u3cem\u3eU.S Steel v. Hoge\u3c/em\u3e

The controversy over ownership of coalbed methane gas has come to the forefront due to its newfound value as an energy source. In the first case directly on point in the nation, U.S. Steel v. Hoge, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court quieted title exclusively in the coalowner based on an interpretation of the coal severance grant using standard legal construction principles. The author examines the background of the controversy and the criticisms leveled against the lower court dispositions of the case, and concludes that this first step towards resolution of the controversy is a tenuous one. This comment concludes that further clarification of the coalowner\u27s exclusive ownership rights is needed to promote the development of coalbed gas

Fibrinolysis or Primary PCI in ST-Segment Elevation Myocardial Infarction

BACKGROUNDIt is not known whether prehospital fibrinolysis, coupled with timely coronary angiography, provides a clinical outcome similar to that with primary percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) early after acute ST-segment elevation myocardial infarction (STEMI).METHODSAmong 1892 patients with STEMI who presented within 3 hours after symptom onset and who were unable to undergo primary PCI within 1 hour, patients were randomly assigned to undergo either primary PCI or fibrinolytic therapy with bolus tenecteplase (amended to half dose in patients >= 75 years of age), clopidogrel, and enoxaparin before transport to a PCI-capable hospital. Emergency coronary angiography was performed if fibrinolysis failed; otherwise, angiography was performed 6 to 24 hours after randomization. the primary end point was a composite of death, shock, congestive heart failure, or reinfarction up to 30 days.RESULTSThe primary end point occurred in 116 of 939 patients (12.4%) in the fibrinolysis group and in 135 of 943 patients (14.3%) in the primary PCI group (relative risk in the fibrinolysis group, 0.86; 95% confidence interval, 0.68 to 1.09; P = 0.21). Emergency angiography was required in 36.3% of patients in the fibrinolysis group, whereas the remainder of patients underwent angiography at a median of 17 hours after randomization. More intracranial hemorrhages occurred in the fibrinolysis group than in the primary PCI group (1.0% vs. 0.2%, P = 0.04; after protocol amendment, 0.5% vs. 0.3%, P = 0.45). the rates of nonintracranial bleeding were similar in the two groups.CONCLUSIONSPrehospital fibrinolysis with timely coronary angiography resulted in effective reperfusion in patients with early STEMI who could not undergo primary PCI within 1 hour after the first medical contact. However, fibrinolysis was associated with a slightly increased risk of intracranial bleeding. (Funded by Boehringer Ingelheim; ClinicalTrials.gov number, NCT00623623.)Boehringer IngelheimEli LillyMerckRocheDaiichi SankyoMedicines CompanyAstraZenecaSanofiBayerSchering-PloughSanofi-AventisBristol-Myers SquibbAbbottMedtronicEdwards LifesciencesServierPfizerUniv Alberta, Canadian Virtual Coordinating Ctr Global Collabor, Edmonton, AB, CanadaUniv Alberta, Mazankowski Alberta Heart Inst, Edmonton, AB, CanadaUniv Hosp Leicester Trust, Leicester Cardiovasc Biomed Res Unit, Natl Inst Hlth Res, Leicester, Leics, EnglandUniv Nottingham, Dept Cardiovasc Med, Nottingham NG7 2RD, EnglandLille Univ Hosp, Emergency Dept, Lille, FranceLille Univ Hosp, SAMU, Lille, FranceBoehringer Ingelheim GmbH & Co KG, Reims, FranceCtr Hosp Versailles, SAMU 78, Versailles, FranceMobile Intens Care Unit, Versailles, FranceFirst Moscow State Med Univ, Dept Internal Dis, Moscow, RussiaEmpresa Publ Emergencias Sanitarias, Almeria, SpainUniv Belgrade, Sch Med, Belgrade, SerbiaUniversidade Federal de São Paulo, Dept Med, Div Cardiol, São Paulo, BrazilUniv Athens, Dept Cardiol 3, GR-10679 Athens, GreeceBenjamin Franklin Med Ctr, Charite, Berlin, GermanyUniv Oslo, Ulleval Hosp, Dept Cardiol, Oslo, NorwayWilhelminenhosp, Dept Med Cardiol & Emergency Med 3, Vienna, AustriaPoznan Univ Med Sci, Dept Cardiol, Poznan, PolandAzienda Osped Univ Udine, Dept Cardiothorac Sci, Udine, ItalyBoehringer Ingelheim GmbH & Co KG, Biberach, GermanyBoehringer Ingelheim GmbH & Co KG, Basel, SwitzerlandKatholieke Univ Leuven, Dept Cardiovasc Sci, B-3000 Louvain, BelgiumKatholieke Univ Leuven, Interuniv Inst Biostat & Stat Bioinformat, B-3000 Louvain, BelgiumUniv Hasselt, Hasselt, BelgiumUniversidade Federal de São Paulo, Dept Med, Div Cardiol, São Paulo, BrazilWeb of Scienc

The atmospheric chemistry box model CAABA/MECCA-3.0

We present version 3.0 of the atmospheric chemistry box model CAABA/MECCA. In addition to a complete update of the rate coefficients to the most recent recommendations, a number of new features have been added: chemistry in multiple aerosol size bins; automatic multiple simulations reaching steady-state conditions; Monte-Carlo simulations with randomly varied rate coefficients within their experimental uncertainties; calculations along Lagrangian trajectories; mercury chemistry; more detailed isoprene chemistry; tagging of isotopically labeled species. Further changes have been implemented to make the code more user-friendly and to facilitate the analysis of the model results. Like earlier versions, CAABA/MECCA-3.0 is a community model published under the GNU General Public License

Constraints on instantaneous ozone production rates and regimes during DOMINO derived using in-situ OH reactivity measurements

In this study air masses are characterized in terms of their total OH reactivity which is a robust measure of the reactive air pollutant loading . The measurements were performed during the DOMINO campaign (Diel Oxidant Mechanisms In relation to Nitrogen Oxides) held from 21/11/2008 to 08/12/2008 at the Atmospheric Sounding Station - El Arenosillo (37.1° N-6.7° W, 40 m a.s.l.). The site was frequently impacted by marine air masses (arriving at the site from the southerly sector) and air masses from the cities of Huelva (located NW of the site), Seville and Madrid (located NNE of the site). OH reactivity values showed strong wind sector dependence. North eastern continental air masses were characterized by the highest OH reactivities (average: 31.4 ± 4.5 s−1; range of average diel values: 21.3-40.5 s−1), followed by north western industrial air masses (average: 13.8 ± 4.4 s−1; range of average diel values: 7-23.4 s−1) and marine air masses (average: 6.3 ± 6.6 s−1; range of average diel values: below detection limit −21.7 s−1), respectively. The average OH reactivity for the entire campaign period was ~18 s−1 and no pronounced variation was discernible in the diel profiles with the exception of relatively high values from 09:00 to 11:00 UTC on occasions when air masses arrived from the north western and southern wind sectors. The measured OH reactivity was used to constrain both diel instantaneous ozone production potential rates and regimes. Gross ozone production rates at the site were generally limited by the availability of NOx with peak values of around 20 ppbV O3 h−1. Using the OH reactivity based approach, derived ozone production rates indicate that if NOx would no longer be the limiting factor in air masses arriving from the continental north eastern sector, peak ozone production rates could double. We suggest that the new combined approach of in-situ fast measurements of OH reactivity, nitrogen oxides and peroxy radicals for constraining instantaneous ozone production rates, could significantly improve analyses of upwind point sources and their impact on regional ozone levels

Extra-Thymic Physiological T Lineage Progenitor Activity Is Exclusively Confined to Cells Expressing either CD127, CD90, or High Levels of CD117

T cell development depends on continuous recruitment of progenitors from bone marrow (BM) to the thymus via peripheral blood. However, both phenotype and functional characteristics of physiological T cell precursors remain ill-defined. Here, we characterized a putative CD135+CD27+ T cell progenitor population, which lacked expression of CD127, CD90, and high levels of CD117 and was therefore termed triple negative precursor (TNP). TNPs were present in both BM and blood and displayed robust T lineage potential, but virtually no myeloid or B lineage potential, in vitro. However, TNPs did not efficiently generate T lineage progeny after intravenous or intrathymic transfer, suggesting that a physiological thymic microenvironment does not optimally support T cell differentiation from TNPs. Thus, we propose that physiological T cell precursors are confined to populations expressing either CD127, CD90, or high levels of CD117 in addition to CD135 and CD27 and that TNPs may have other physiological functions