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The epic as an imperial genre or the genre of the powerful has a long tradition in the Western literature since Homer. To Western literary critics the epic always means reminiscence of the great past and praises of the tribal/national heroes. With the arrival of post-imperial age, however, some post-colonial writers of multi-cultural, unconfirmed identities, who have long lived in a rootless situation, try to use the old narrative form of epic to represent their indigenous history and to identify themselves. Thus, Derek Walcott uses successfully a double narrative strategy to create Omeros, his post-colonial epic, rich in connotation and multicultural color of the Anglophone-Caribbean area. The St. Lucia poet, on the one hand, digs into his childhood memory for initial scenes, upgrades his individual experiences and memories to a collective memory and transforms little stories into a grand narrative: on the other hand he exploits cultural sources from the Mediterranean Sea along with the Caribbean, borrowing images, plots and archetypes from the Western canon, such as the Homeric epics, the Bible and La Divina Comedia. These heterogeneous fragments are then knitted and woven together so elaborately that they form an intertextuality full of correlations, derivations, reflections and allusions. Under Walcott's pen commonplace local happenings go through a poetic transformation by means of such cultural codes as war, trauma, recollection and root-seeking, and are referred to analogous elements in the Western canon, thereby they are generalized, given historical significance and freed from parochial localism. Making use of the dominating power of speech and communication of the Western canon, Walcott utters a long depressed voice and makes it heard to the whole world, and rewriting and subverting the Western canon at the same time. The double-narrative strategy and the deconstruction of the Western canon also mean an active step toward dialogs between the ex-colonizer and the colonized, ex-oppressor and oppressed in the post-colonial age, which require equality, tolerance and mutual incorporation. It is by means of the double-narrative strategy that the poet-islander succeeds in building up a hybrid cultural identity with a broad outlook and in revealing the value of dialogic co-existence and cultural pluralism in the age of globalization. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Nitric oxide (NO)-mediated neurotoxicity may be an appropriate pathophysiological model with which to explain a variety of inner ear diseases characterized by acute or progressive hearing loss, tinnitus and vertigo. The localization of NO synthase (NOS) isoforms was examined in the inner ear of the pigmented guinea pig after intratympanic injection of 1 mg lipopolysaccharide (LPS) or 5 mg gentamicin (GM) using an immunohistochemical method, revealing the expression of NOS II in the inner ear. Production of NO in the isolated organ of Corti and utricle or in the isolated vestibular and cochlear hair cells after stimulation with L-arginine, glutamate, GM and LPS was investigated using the fluorescence indicator 4,5-diaminofluorescein diacetate. The fluorescence intensity of the sensory cells was augmented by stimulation with L-arginine, glutamate, GM and LPS. A significant increase in NO production was also noted in the LPS-treated animals. These findings imply that NO from constitutive NOS may mediate ototoxicity in the early phase, whereas NO from NOS II may contribute to the late phase of tissue damage in the inner ear. Based on this hypothesis, reduction of glutamatergic excitotoxicity and inhibition of NOS, scavenging superoxide and scavenging peroxynitrite are thought to attenuate NO-mediated otoneurotoxicity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of this study was to characterize the nitric oxide (NO) receptor soluble guanylate cyclase (sGC), to determine the cells targeted by NO and to elucidate the function of the NO/cGMP pathway in the inner ear. sGC activity in the inner ear was localized by immunohistochemical detection of NO-stimulated cGMP. Soluble guanylate cyclase activity in the cochlea was detected in the nerve endings underneath the outer and inner hair cells, supporting cells, stria vascularis and vessels. In the vestibular organs, sGC activity was detected in the cytoplasm of sensory cells, nerve fibres, dark cells and transitional cells and vessels. These findings suggest that the NO/cGMP pathway may be involved in regulatory processes in neurotransmission, blood flow and inner ear fluid homeostasis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The lutetium tantalate compounds obtained from Lu2O3–Ta2O5 with a molar ratio of 0.515:0.485 were studied by Raman scattering and x-ray diffraction. The results of the room temperature Raman scattering indicate that the sample has a phase transition between 1830 °C and 1872 °C, the polycrystalline is a mixture of M′-LuTaO4 and when it is prepared at 1830 °C, and a mixture of M-LuTaO4(B112/b) and when it is prepared at above 1872 °C. The sample melts at a temperature of 2050 °C. The phase transition of the sample prepared at 2050 °C was also investigated by the high-temperature Raman spectra, and the result indicates that no phase transition occurs between room temperature and 1400 °C, which is consistent with the results from the x-ray diffraction. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As a type of fiction, novels about growing up originated and developed in modern Europe in close relation to the process of Western modernization and the wakening and developing of the modern Western subject consciousness. One of the characteristics of the growing up novels is its foresightness, which means active participation in molding a new reality and new subjectivity, instead of passive representation of reality. It is necessary to note that in contemporary Caribbean literature, "growing up" is both a type of novel and a general motif that exceeds the bounds of novel and permeates through texts of different genres such as fiction, poetry and epic. In most cases, the growing up motif in Caribbean literature is tightly linked with collective memory, cultural roots and ethnic identification. Unlike their European colleagues, most Caribbean authors are exiles from former colonies to former suzerains. Being brought up under the colonial education system and immigrating to Western metropolises, they fall into an identity crisis and keenly realize the loss of their childhood and cultural roots. Besides the "growing pains" general to all teenagers, the young protagonists of Caribbean literature have their particular pains and troubles with their cultural identity. To many Caribbean writers, the exploration of the growing up motif is a way of self identification and a solution to the enigma of their existence both as individuals and as ethnics. Therefore, the exploration of the fate of their individual growth becomes an exploration of the fate of their ethnic group, and their individual history becomes a national allegory. The absence of the father image and the intensified mother image in the Caribbean "growing up" literature are conspicuous. If the former shows the vacancy of cultural memory, then the latter may be interpreted as a mixed and puzzled attitude of Caribbean writers towards their former suzerains. The mother image has a dual aspect in Caribbean literature: she protects her children and controls them at the same time, just as suzerain empires did to their colonies. Finally, seine favorite images as builders, architects and surveyors are frequently used by Caribbean writers to show their ambition to shake off the colonialist control, to build up an independent personality and to create values of their own. which echoes Martin Heidegger's belief that man as an existent shoulders the threefold task to build, to create and to dedicate. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Presents information on the Anglophone-Caribbean literature in China. Role of language in imperialism; Task of post-colonial writers to subvert the imperialist power; Information on the process underwent by Anglophone-Caribbean writers in choosing between the language imposed by imperialists and native tongues.

Objective: To explore the change of expression of Toll-like receptor 4 (TLR(4)) related to the tolerance to lipopolysaccharide (LPS) in rat alveolar macrophages., Methods: Alveolar macrophages obtained from 30 Wistar male rats were randomly divided into a control group, a LPS single-dose stimulation group and a LPS double-dose stimulation group. IL-10 and IL-18 mRNA in alveolar macrophages and the level of TNF-alpha, as indexes of LPS tolerance, were measured by semi-quantitative reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) and enzyme linked immunoads orbeen assay (ELISA), respectively. The expression of TLR(4) was detected by Western Blot., Results: The level of TNF-alpha, and the mRNA for IL-10 and IL-18, and the protein of TLR(4) in the alveolar macrophages stimulated with single-dose LPS (100 ng/ml) were highly increased as compared with the control group [(0.760 +/- 0.030) micro g/L, 2.18 +/- 0.09, 1.83 +/- 0.07, 2.060 +/- 0.060, 148.3 +/- 1.4 vs (0.450 +/- 0.010) micro g/L, 1.16 +/- 0.04, 0.97 +/- 0.03, 1.320 +/- 0.020, 58.1 +/- 0.4 (P < 0.01)], while they were significantly decreased in the alveolar macrophages after re-stimulation with double-dose LPS (100 ng/ml and 500 ng/ml)., Conclusions: (1) The tolerance to LPS in alveolar macrophages can be induced by re-stimulation with LPS. (2) The down-regulated expression of TLR(4) is related to tolerance to LPS.