Chimera

Chimaeras are both monsters of the ancient imagination and a long-established research tool. Recent advances, particularly those dealing with the identification and generation of various kinds of stem cells, have broadened the repertoire and utility of mammalian interspecies chimaeras and carved out new paths towards understanding fundamental biology as well as potential clinical applications.

Artificial regeneration of forests through planting requires high quantities of quality seeds for growing vigorous seedlings. These seedlings are raised in nurseries, where germination capacity (GC) and speed are the most important germination parameters. Germination performance is enhanced by prescribing species-specific dormancy-breaking treatments to individual seedlots in bare-root and container nurseries. For most conifer species in British Columbia, the dormancy-breaking treatments and germination conditions have been worked out, but fine-tuning and optimization could improve germination capacity and speed of germination. Implications of inter- and intra-species variations in germination behaviour and seed quality and their influence on the development of unintentional directional selection of specific genotypes are discussed. The potential of molecular and genomics approaches to understand the underlying biology of seed germination-related problems is also discussed.

Chocolate production suffered a vast impact with the emergence of the "witches' broom" disease in cocoa plants. To recover cocoa production, many disease-resistant hybrid plants have been developed. However, some different cocoa hybrids produce cocoa beans that generate chocolate with variable quality. Fermentation of cocoa beans is a microbiological process that can be applied for the production of chocolate flavor precursors, leading to overcoming the problem of variable chocolate quality. The aim of this work was to use a cocktail of microorganisms as a starter culture on the fermentation of the ripe cocoa pods from PH15 cocoa hybrid, and evaluate its influence on the microbial communities present on the fermentative process on the compounds involved during the fermentation, and to perform the chocolate sensorial characterization. According to the results obtained, different volatile compounds were identified in fermented beans and in the chocolate produced. Bittern...

Chimerism in humans is usually found only because of discrepancies in unique blood group typing or sex chromosome complements. We describe a case found because of an inherited chromosomal translocation. A female carrier of the balanced reciprocal translocation t(14;20)(q31; q13.3) had a twin pregnancy. After birth the B-twin, a girl, was found to have the balanced translocation. The A-twin, a severely malformed and stillborn boy, had two different karyotypes; a normal 46,XY and an unbalanced translocation derivative 46,XY, – 14, + der(14)t(14;20)(q31;q13.3). He was a dispermic chimera, formed by two fertilized oocytes.

Chimère est emblématique des créatures hybrides : véritable assemblage de trois animaux réels,  « lion par devant, dragon par derrière et chèvre par le milieu»  pour reprendre la description d’Hésiode dans sa Théogonie, elle est un hapax, il n’y a qu’une seule Chimère qui a une histoire particulière et c’est donc de cette créature spécifiquement dont il sera question dans cette étude.

One major challenge in nanomedicine is the selective delivery of nanoparticles to diseased tissues. Nanoparticle delivery systems require targeting for specific delivery to pathogenic sites when enhanced permeability and retention (EPR) is not suitable or inefficient. Nanoparticle functionalization is a widely-used technique for targeting ligand conjugation; these ligands possess inherent abilities to direct nanoparticle selective binding. This review illustrates methods of ligand-nanoparticle functionalization, provides a cross-section of various ligand classes, including small molecules, peptides, antibodies, engineered proteins, or nucleic acid aptamers, and discusses some unconventional approaches currently under investigation.

Many of the most recognizable monsters in Western culture, such as Medusa, Cerberus, and the Cyclopes, started to appear in literature and art nearly three thousand years ago. Other, more generic types of monstrous or uncanny entities, such as dragons and ghosts, are even older and appear in art and literature across the globe. This chapter covers such creatures in the earliest folk and fairy tales of the ancient Near East and Mediterranean areas, keeping in mind that much of our information comes from tales, or, in most cases, prototypes for tales, embedded within the larger context of Near Eastern and Greek myths. The chapter first considers what the concept of "monster" might have meant for people in those geographical regions thousands of years ago. The chapter then examines what tales from antiquity survive that incorporated monsters, what kinds of monster predominate in these tales, and what the presence and roles of monsters in the tales might have meant.

Chimère est emblématique des créatures hybrides : véritable assemblage de trois animaux réels,  « lion par devant, dragon par derrière et chèvre par le milieu»  pour reprendre la description d’Hésiode dans sa Théogonie, elle est un hapax, il n’y a qu’une seule Chimère qui a une histoire particulière et c’est donc de cette créature spécifiquement dont il sera question dans cette étude.

Chimère, tire son nom d’une chevrette, donc de l’animal au centre de son hybridation, l’animal le plus familier des trois dont elle est constituée, inoffensif en apparence mais qui peut, comme nous le verrons, nous réserver des surprises. Nous allons donc nous intéresser à la naissance, la vie et la mort de Chimère et à sa descendance directe, mais, afin de bien cerner notre propos, nous allons tout d’abord ouvrir cette enquête par une exploration du phénomène de l’hybridation dans son ensemble.

Immunotherapy is receiving much attention as a means of treating cancer, but complete, durable responses remain rare for most malignancies. The natural immune system seems to have limitations and deficiencies that might affect its ability to control malignant disease. An alternative to relying on endogenous components in the immune repertoire is to generate lymphocytes with abilities that are greater than those of natural T cells, through genetic modification to produce 'supernatural' T cells. This Review describes how such T cells can circumvent many of the barriers that are inherent in the tumour microenvironment while optimizing T-cell specificity, activation, homing and antitumour function.

Автор останавливается на некоторых эпизодах из жизни архаической чудесной и чудовищной Химеры в традиционном и современном художественном сознании. Автор пытается пытается осмыслить мифологику установления соответствий / сродства Химеры с человеком. Особое внимание при этом уделяется проблеме воображения, а также динамике соотношений части и целого, природного и искусственного, вымыслов и истины.
The author dwells on some episodes from the life of the archaic wonderful and monstrous Chimera in the traditional and in the modern artistic consciousness. The author tries to comprehend the mythological correspondence / conformity / affinity of Chimera and humans. Particular attention is paid to the problem of imagination in the dynamic relations of part and total, of natural and artificial, of invention / fiction and truth.
Ключевые слова:
Химера, традиция, изобретение, вымысел, миф, логика
Keywords:
Chimera, tradition, invention, myth, logic

The hero factory
Why then, not content only with the world around them, have artists imagined hybrid creatures? How can a young man become a hero? These two questions find their answer in Epictetus who wonders what Hercules would have spent his days if he had not had monsters to fight. Fantastic creatures seem to be a very suitable ingredient for making heroes and this article looks at some of the battles between young people, both hunters and warriors, and monsters to bring out their convergences.
Thus we will be interested in the fight between Achilles and Penthesilea which is not a conventional fight between two human beings then in the mental fight between Oedipus and the Sphinx which reveals the differences between anthropomorphic and zoomorphic hybrids. The battles between Ulysses and Polyphemus, Heracles and the composite creatures with snake or fish tails, Perseus and Medusa, Theseus and the Minotaur will lead us to the battle between the Chimera and the assembly of Bellerophon riding Pegasus. In conclusion, this investigation will open with the reception of these subjects in Christian iconography where the theme of the fight against Evil is affirmed.

La fabrique des héros
Pourquoi donc, non content de s’intéresser uniquement au monde qui l’entoure, les artistes ? ont-ils imaginé des créatures hybrides ? Comment un jeune homme peut-il accéder au statut de héros ? Ces deux interrogations trouvent leur réponse chez Epictète qui se demande à quoi Hercule aurait passé ses journées s’il n’avait pas eu de monstres à combattre. Les créatures fantastiques semblent être un ingrédient très adapté à la fabrication des héros et cet article se penche sur quelques-uns des combats qui opposent des jeunes gens, tant chasseurs que guerriers, aux monstres afin d’en faire ressortir les convergences.
Ainsi nous nous intéresserons au combat entre Achille et Penthésilée qui n’est pas un combat conventionnel entre deux êtres humains puis au combat mental entre Œdipe et la Sphinge qui fait apparaître les différences entre les hybrides anthropomorphiques et zoomorphiques. Les combats entre Ulysse et Polyphème, Héraclès et les créatures composites à queue de serpent ou de poisson, Persée et Méduse, Thésée et le Minotaure nous mèneront vers le combat opposant la Chimère et l’assemblage de Bellérophon chevauchant Pégase. En conclusion, cette enquête s’ouvrira sur la réception de ces sujets dans l’iconographie chrétienne où s’affirme le thème du combat contre le Mal.

Developmental biology research has used various avian species as model organisms for studying morphogenesis, with the chick embryo being used by the majority of groups. The focus on the chick embryo led Hamburger and Hamilton to develop their definitive staging series nearly 60 years ago and this series is still the mainstay of all laboratories working with avian embryos. The focus on the chick embryo has somewhat overshadowed the importance of another avian embryo that has proved to be equally powerful, the Japanese quail. Since the late 1960s, chimeras have been produced using chick and quail embryos and this technique has revolutionized the approach taken to the investigation of the cellular and molecular interactions that occur during development. Reviews of the literature demonstrate that many research groups are using the quail embryo in a number of established and new ways, and this species has become a primary animal model in developmental biology. Some staging of quail has been performed but this has been incomplete and variations in descriptions, stages and incubation timings mean that comparisons with the chick are not always easily made. There appears to be general agreement that, at the early stages of embryogenesis, there is little developmental difference between chick and quail embryos, although the basis for this has not been established experimentally. The accelerated ontogeny of quail embryos at mid to late stages of development means that registration with the chick is lost. We have therefore developed a definitive developmental stage series for Japanese quail so that differences are fully characterized, misconceptions or assumptions are avoided, and the results of comparative studies are not distorted.

Platon dans sa République déclare: « Façonnons par la pensée une image de l’âme, pour que celui qui tient ces propos réalise ce qu’il dit. – Quelle image ? – Une image, comme celle de ces natures antiques dont les mythes rapportent la genèse : la Chimère, Scylla, Cerbère, et un certain nombre d’autres êtres constitués d’un ensemble de formes naturelles multiples réunies en un seul être». Force est donc de constater que cette volonté créatrice fait intrinsèquement partie de l’être humain.
Cette volonté créatrice est fruit de l’imagination, qui selon le Vocabulaire Européen des Philosophies de Barbara Cassin dérive d’imaginatio, terme découlant d’imago qui évoque l’effigie, le portrait. La racine grecque phantasia dont la traduction française est la lumière s’est, elle, développée dans le sens de fantaisie, fantasme. « La différence phantasia / imaginatio, dont témoignent les difficultés que les Latins ont éprouvées à traduire le grec, est celle entre la force créatrice des apparitions et la faculté reproductive des images, chacun des termes pouvant lui- même être travaillé du dedans par cette tension et les jugements de valeur qui s’y attachent.... Cette même tension détermine la place de l’imagination dans le jeu des facultés et des modalités d’être au monde. Est-ce une faculté nécessaire à l’exercice des autres facultés, entre passivité et activité, ou, comme dit Pascal, une maîtresse d’erreur et de fausseté?».
Créativité, imagination, fantaisie et fantasme, il y a un peu de tout ceci dans cette création humaine que sont les hybrides et dès lors s’intéresser à eux, à leur genèse, c’est s’intéresser aux tréfonds de l’âme humaine. D’où viennent donc les créatures hybrides ? Pourquoi les hommes ont-ils imaginé des individus nouveaux en agglomérant des parties de ceux qu’ils pouvaient voir autour d’eux? Comment leur est venue l’idée d’assembler des parties hétéroclites pour en faire un nouveau tout, une création inédite, créée non pas par la divinité mais par eux-mêmes ? Tant de questions qui vont bien plus loin que le simple motif décoratif qui ornera les palais de la Renaissance. Au-delà des Grottesches, des grotesques, dont le nom dérive précisément du fait que ces motifs sont des créations qui s’inspirent de ce que les artistes ont découvert en visitant les grottes romaines, des caves qui par effondrement des voûtes antiques donnaient un accès direct aux palais romains, dont la fameuse Domus Aurea, la Maison Dorée de Néron ornée de ces créatures monstrueuses, ces hybrides furent un des premiers indices des civilisations anciennes que virent les érudits du XVIe.