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The bronze candelabrum found in 1896 during the Austrian excavations in the ›Marble Hall‹ of the Harbour Gymnasium in Ephesus, which shows a group with two persons--Herakles fighting with a Centaur--in front of a tree, has been part of the collection of antiquities of the Kunsthistorisches Museum Vienna since the end of the 19th century. In the course of recent research, questions concerning the history of the find and the object, technical aspects and modern restoration measures, as well as the dating and the original context of the installation were addressed. Scientific analyses were carried out, which helped to identify one of three other fragments present, a horse's front hoof, as belonging to the group. A second human foot and a horse hind leg indicate that there was a second group of the same size. This one, however, was not quite identical as assumed in previous research, but probably showed a similar motif--maybe the hero kneeling on the centaur. Stylistic and technical aspects point to a dating in late Hellenistic times, in the middle of the 1st century BC, and eventually to a workshop in Alexandria. It is therefore possible that this is the oldest preserved bronze candelabrum of this form. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Debris-generating events in orbit pose a significant threat to all space-faring activities. In order to mitigate such events, it is essential to uncover their causes. This paper examines the fragmentations of three Atlas V Centaur upper stages (2009-047B, 2014-55B, 2018-079B) which occured in 2018 and 2019. Three different data sources—data from the Astronomical Institute of the University of Bern (AIUB), the Vimpel catalog, and the Spacetrack catalog—are used for this investigation and the outcomes are compared. Ephemerides and two-line elements (TLEs) from these sources are first propagated to obtain breakup epoch estimates. Subsequently, techniques developed by Tan and Reynolds to obtain Gabbard plots, velocity and angular distributions of fragments, and event intensities, are applied. This work finds that these events stray from existing fragmentation models and patterns exhibited by past events, such as those of the explosive Delta upper stages in the 1970s. Only one of the three events, 2018-079B, may have exploded due to leftover propellant combustion. 2009-047B appears to have endured a structural failure—inferred from clustered fragments with low velocities. A torus-shaped fragment distribution is observed for the 2014-055B event, suggesting it may have been pierced by a small piece of debris. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Journal of Art History / Sanat Tarihi Dergisi is the property of Ege University and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

An orally administered, fixed-dose coformulation of sodium phenylbutyrate-taurursodiol (PB-TURSO) significantly slowed functional decline in a randomized, placebo-controlled, phase 2 trial in ALS (CENTAUR). Herein we report results of a long-term survival analysis of participants in CENTAUR. In CENTAUR, adults with ALS were randomized 2:1 to PB-TURSO or placebo. Participants completing the 6-month (24-week) randomized phase were eligible to receive PB-TURSO in the open-label extension. An all-cause mortality analysis (35-month maximum follow-up post-randomization) incorporated all randomized participants. Participants and site investigators were blinded to treatment assignments through the duration of follow-up of this analysis. Vital status was obtained for 135 of 137 participants originally randomized in CENTAUR. Median overall survival was 25.0 months among participants originally randomized to PB-TURSO and 18.5 months among those originally randomized to placebo (hazard ratio, 0.56; 95% confidence interval, 0.34-0.92; P = .023). Initiation of PB-TURSO treatment at baseline resulted in a 6.5-month longer median survival as compared with placebo. Combined with results from CENTAUR, these results suggest that PB-TURSO has both functional and survival benefits in ALS. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article examines, in its first part, the symbolic aspects of the relation between horses and men, and the mythical figure of the centaur, most often assimilated to virility and male sexual drive, but also to women and their sexuality. In its second and central part, it focuses on Bartabas and Ko Murobushi's performance, The Centaur and the Animal (2012) while raising ethical issues relating to performing animals. The essay analyzes how this play deconstructs the opposition between masculinity and femininity, as well as between animal and human, among other oppositional pairs such as reason vs. instinct, activity vs. passivity, verticality vs. horizontality or "inclination," immunity vs. vulnerability, life vs. death, animate vs. inanimate, among others. It posits that Bartabas's performance opens the possibility of a posthuman and postanimal perspective on the relation between human and nonhuman animals. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

While Machiavelli is usually viewed as the founder of sober political realism, consumed by concerns of acquiring and maintaining power, his thought is also notably masculine, replete with themes concerning male sex and gender. He condemns all manifestations of effeminacy and proclaims what could be called a centaurial ideal of masculinity. Gładziuk argues, however, that contained in Machiavelli’s concept of the masculinum is a male desire to be unmanly. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Gillian Mears' Foal's Bread (2011) is an award-winning Australian novel that broadens ways of conceptualising the relationship between humans and horses through metaphor, with attention to the nurturing or abuse of both humans and horses. 'Therapeutic metaphors' in Equine Facilitated Psychotherapy (EFP) suggest how the horse-human bond can act as a catalyst to promote healing from sexual abuse and domestic violence. Little research has identified this rhetorical link. Concepts such as hybridity, or the melding of identities, embodied in the mythical Centaur, a primary trope in Mears' novel, reflects upon the sense of union discussed in horse-human bond research. This essay explores metaphoric structures in Foal's Bread and correspondences in EFP metaphors, arguing that EFP provides an evidentiary basis for Mears' figurative language, which demonstrates the rethinking of horse-human relationships in the context of the horse's role in human recovery or amelioration from sexual or domestic abuse. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Adalya is the property of Koc University and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of Confluenze. Rivista di Studi Iberoamericani is the property of Universita di Bologna, Dipartimento di Lingue, Letterature e Culture Moderne and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Tracking the ancient centaur as myth and metaphor through cultural history to the twenty-first century reveals how humans have begun to reconceive animal-human relations. Its origins are open to question, but at least date from pre-classical and early Greek history, when nomadic tribes with superior horsemanship skills appeared. Associated with the astronomical constellation Centaurus, the centaur metaphor was initially gendered. The hybrid embodied human and equine qualities, both negative and positive (for example, the bestial classical centaur and the supra-human Spanish conquistador). After examining the history of the centaur metaphor as well as relationships between horses and humans in the pre-twentieth century Western literary tradition, this research focuses on five texts: Monty Roberts' The Man Who Listens to Horses (2009); Tom McGuane's Some Horses (2013); John Steinbeck's The Red Pony (1945); Jane Smiley's Horse Heaven (2000); and Gillian Mears' Foal's Bread (2011). It argues that contemporary nonfiction and fiction demonstrate a change in the way in which the metaphor has been used, reflecting a will to reshape relationships between species, grounded in empathy as well as respect for alternative communication strategies. The centaur metaphor as non-gendered hybrid appears when riders feel one with their horses through harmonious partnerships inherent in teamwork. They feel as if they have become the centaur, literalizing the metaphor within themselves. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The forms of all extant animals and plants agree with a small number of main architectural schemes emerged through the history of life, which function as largely invariant patterns of body syntax. To a considerable extent, these 'rules of forms' are obeyed by the products of imagination developed in myth and represented in art, such as chimeras, centaurs, mermaids, angels and dragons. The main exception to this rule is the frequent occurrence of additional sets of paired appendages, such as two wings added onto a human figure or a four-legged beast. However, Turpin's Urpflanze is totally at variance with respect to the body syntax of existing plants. Generalized familiarity with animals' body syntax provides a scope for perceptual manipulations experienced by humans but also by other animals. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]