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This essay surveys the reception of Herodotus's Histories from the later eighteenth to the mid-nineteenth centuries, showing how the increasingly vigorous critique of his first four "oriental" books made the continued practice of older forms of universal history embarrassing. Drawing a line between Herodotus's opening and later books did not begin in the German states, but the distinction was fully developed there in the 1820s in the wake of a major debate over Friedrich Creuzer's Symbolik und Mythologie der alten Völker, besonders der Griechen. Creuzer's work relied heavily on information in Herodotus's first books to demonstrate its claims about the migration of ideas and symbols from ancient India and Egypt to Greece. The result of this debate, I argue, was not only to label Creuzerian universal histories speculative and reactionary but also to turn Herodotus—who in the eighteenth century had been treated as an essential, if ever problematic, interlocutor—into a naive and untrustworthy child. Those who wanted to be counted as "scientific" scholars were taught to avoid him, or simply to read his Histories as a heroic story of Greece's defeat of the "slavish" Orient. Thucydides was to be preferred as the model for objective, "mature" historical writing. It is rare that we consider carefully the contributions of ancient historiography to our profession's methods and norms. This essay, thus, seeks to break new ground by demonstrating just how critical this field has been in the making of what we regard today as modern historical scholarship. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

How did European attempts to imitate the beauty of East Asian porcelain generate competitions to find marketable forms of whiteness? This essay describes the adoption of aluminum-rich kaolin clay for the making of "gallantry wares" for courtly elites—and then the process of seeking ever-cheaper substitutes as more and more consumers set their hearts on acquiring their own porcelain trinkets and tableware. It shows how, in the search for cost savings and aided especially by professional chemists, the porcelain industry helped to democratize whiteness and to reinforce its associations with cleanliness, purity, and timeless beauty. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This essay argues that the history of knowledge, especially when applied to humanistic knowledge making, ought not to study practices of knowing to the exclusion of the peculiarities of individuals and the specifics of the wider contexts in which they operate. It uses the life and work of the Roman historian Theodor Mommsen as a case study, sketching first his qualities as a writer and political actor formed by the particularities of the post‐Romantic era. Showing that Mommsen belongs to the world of realist writers and liberal nationalist reformers, this essay then demonstrates how much these aspects of his thought‐world resonated with and informed the ways in which he practiced as a scholar. This essay aims to remind historians of the humanities that a focus on practices of knowing might bring us into exciting conversations with historians of science, but we ought not to lose touch with our colleagues in general and intellectual history. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In barley, it is possible to induce embryogenesis in the haploid and uninucleate microspore to obtain a diploid plant that is perfectly homozygous. To change developmental fates in this fashion, microspores need to engage in cellular de-differentiation, interrupting the pollen formation, and restore totipotency prior to engaging in embryogenesis. In this work, we used the barley cultivar Gobernadora to characterize the transcriptome of microspores prior to (day 0) and immediately after (days 2 and 5) the application of a stress pretreatment. A deep RNA-seq analysis revealed that microspores at these three time points exhibit a transcriptome of ~14k genes, ~90% of which were shared. An expression analysis identified a total of 3,382 differentially expressed genes (DEGs); of these, 2,155 and 2,281 DEGs were respectively identified when contrasting expression at days 0 and 2 and at days 2 and 5. These define 8 expression profiles in which DEGs share a common up- or down-regulation at these time points. Up-regulation of numerous glutathione S-transferase and heat shock protein genes as well as down-regulation of ribosomal subunit protein genes was observed between days 0 and 2. The transition from microspores to developing embryos (days 2 vs. 5) was marked by the induction of transcription factor genes known to play important roles in early embryogenesis, numerous genes involved in hormone biosynthesis and plant hormonal signal transduction in addition to genes involved in secondary metabolism. This work sheds light on transcriptional changes accompanying an important developmental shift and provides candidate biomarkers for embryogenesis in barley. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This essay discusses Hans Aarsleff's long battle to demonstrate the importance of the French and British thinkers of the mid-eighteenth century to the development of modern linguistic thought. Contesting claims that German scholars were the first to develop historicised theories of language, Aarsleff, along with his Princeton colleagues Lionel Gossman and Anthony Grafton, helped pioneer longue durée studies of the history of philology and of historiography that cross national boundaries as well as the so-called Sattelzeit (stretching from about 1780 until 1820). Although the importance of his work was, for a long time, little appreciated by modern intellectual historians, this essay argues that it is time that we fully learned Aarsleff's lessons. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A speech by Suzanne Marchand, given as the German Studies Association Presidential Address in Kansas City in 2014, entitled "The Great War and the Classical World" is presented. Topics include early 20th century academic study of the ancient world, Latin and Greek, and archeology as well as references to the classical period in nineteenth century popular culture and references in World War I writings to ancient texts.

An essay is presented concerning the role of 18th century Lutheran pastor J.G. Herder in the question of the study of the beginning of history and Near Eastern chronology during the Enlightenment. It discusses Herder's essay "The Oldest Document of the Human Race," the study of chronology, and the significance of the Biblical Old Testament in establishing chronology, particularly the history of the Biblical figure Moses.

El artículo analiza las consecuencias del proceso por lo cual millones de hallazgos arqueológicos se mandaron de los países del sur y este a los países del norte y oeste. Se esbozan las reacciones nacionalistas a dicho proceso, así como las perspectivas de figuras como Edward W. Said y Michel Foucault.

The article presents the author's views on her career with German Studies Association (GSA) where she started as a scholar and now became its executive president. Various topics she discussed include brief description of the process of receiving education in GSA, quasi-Rousseauian educational instructions followed in GSA and leadership in the association.

Diversity Array Technology (DArT) markers were used to investigate the genetic diversity, population structure, and extent of linkage disequilibrium (LD) on a genome-wide level in Canadian barley ( Hordeum vulgare L.). Approximately 1,000 DArT markers were polymorphic and scored with high confidence among a collection of 170 barley lines composed mostly of Canadian cultivars and breeding lines. The reproducibility of DArT markers proved very high, as 99.9% of allele calls were identical among seven replicated samples. The polymorphism information content (PIC) of DArT markers ranged between 0.04 and 0.50 with an average of 0.38. Using principal coordinate analysis (PCoA), most lines fell into one of two major groups reflecting inflorescence type (two-row versus six-row). Within these two large groups, evidence of geographic clustering of genotypes was also observed. A cluster analysis Unweighted Pair Group Method with Algorithmic Mean suggested the existence of three subgroups within the two-row group and four subgroups within the six-row group. An analysis of molecular variance (AMOVA) revealed highly significant ( P < 0.001) genetic variance within subgroups, among subgroups, and among groups. Values of LD, expressed as r2, declined with increasing genetic distance, and mean values of r2 fell below 0.2 for markers located 2.6 cM apart. Approximately 8% of marker pairs located on the same chromosome and 3.4% of pairs located on different chromosomes were in LD ( r 2 > 0.2). Within both the subsets of two-row and six-row lines, LD extended slightly further (3.5 cM) than for the entire set, while 7.5% of intra-chromosomal locus pairs and <2% of inter-chromosomal pairs were in LD. We discuss the implications of these findings with regard to the prospects of association mapping of complex traits in barley. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses the depiction of orientalism in the German literature. According to the author, German orientalism was distributed by a set of hegemonic producers and consumed by the population as a whole. The author adds that the younger generation of Germany is emancipating from the intellectual ascendancy of science and from the universities.

The article discusses the prevalence and diversity of Fusarium species from barley fields in Quebec. A study is conducted about Fusarium head blight (FHB) that causes reduced quality and yields in barley (Hordeum vulgare) to devise future management strategies. The study involved identification of 20 species of Fusarium. The morphological characteristics and infection levels of fungal isolates were examined. Findings revealed that geography affects the species of Fusarium that predominated.

Discusses the assault on the autonomy, unity, and tenacity of the classical world underway in Europe after 1880. Importance of historiographical reorientation; Description of the revolution in humanistic scholarship; Views about educated elite in Europe; Views of historian Josef Strzygowski on the dependence of Europe on the Oriental forms of classical materials.

Focuses on the problems encountered by German intellectual historians in the light of the specialization of scholarship. Irrelevance of the debate on external referentiality of texts; Problem created by the proliferation of sources; Importance of the fascination with ancient Greece in German cultural history.

Discusses the important contributions of Leo Frobenius as a cultural anthropologist in tracing the origin of African culture. Importance of culture over race; Attack on Western historiography; Discovery of the highly developed culture of Yoruba; Role of colonialism in the study of primitive cultures; Process of negrification; Neo-romantic search for unspoiled Black Atlantis.

Key message: Two alternative cytokinins, thidiazuron and meta-topoline, were tested in isolated microspore culture on recalcitrant barley genotypes (six-row, spring), and green plant regeneration was improved substantially. Abstract: Doubled-haploid (DH) plants are coveted in plant breeding and in genetic studies, since they are rapidly obtained and perfectly homozygous. In barley, DHs are produced mainly via androgenesis, and isolated microspore culture (IMC) constitutes the method offering the greatest potential efficiency. However, IMC can often be challenging in some genotypes because of low yield of microspores, low regeneration and high incidence of albinism. Six-row spring-type barleys, the predominant type grown in Eastern Canada, are considered recalcitrant in this regard. Our general objective was to optimize an IMC protocol for DH production in six-row spring barley. In particular, we explored the use of alternative hormones in the induction medium (thidiazuron and dicamba), and in the regeneration medium (meta-topoline). This optimization was performed on two typical six-row spring (ACCA and Léger), a two-row spring (Gobernadora) and a two-row winter (Igri) barley cultivar. When 6-benzyl-aminopurine (BAP) was replaced by a combination of thidiazuron and dicamba in the induction medium, a 5.1-fold increase ( P < 0.01) in the production of green plants resulted. This increase was mainly achieved by a reduction of albinism. Moreover, a 2.9-fold increase ( P < 0.01) in embryo differentiation into green plants was obtained using meta-topoline instead of BAP in the regeneration medium. Together, these innovations allowed us to achieve a substantial improvement in the efficiency of IMC in this recalcitrant type of barley. These results were later successfully validated using sets of F1s from a six-row spring barley breeding program. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of this study was to measure genetic diversity and population structure among 92 Canadian barley cultivars using two types of molecular markers (SSRs and DArTs) and pedigree data. A total of 368 alleles were identified at 50 SSR loci. The number of alleles per locus ranged between 2 and 13 ( = 7.36) and PIC values ranged from 0.34 to 0.86 ( = 0.69). For the biallelic DArT markers, the genetic distance matrix was based on 971 markers whose PIC values ranged between 0.06 and 0.50 ( = 0.39). A third distance matrix was computed based on the kinship coefficient. Clustering of genotypes was performed based on the genetic distance matrix and the three dendrograms obtained showed the genetic relationships among barley cultivars. The topological similarity of the three dendrograms was estimated using a congruence index and showed the three dendrograms to be in very good agreement. Statistical analysis also showed a highly significant correlation between the SSR and DArT matrices ( r = 0.80, p < 0.002) compared with lower yet significant correlations of the pedigree data with both marker types ( r = 0.46, p < 0.002; r = 0.52, p < 0.002). Finally, we assessed linkage disequilibrium in this germplasm and found it to be quite extensive, as the mean distance between marker pairs with significant ( P < 0.001) r2 values >0.5 was 3.8 cM. Information obtained from comparing results of different genetic diversity estimation methods should be useful for the improvement and conservation of barley genetic resources. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]