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This article focuses on the first three fragments attributed to the Melampodia in the canonical edition of Merkelbach and West (frr. 270–272). It initially explores the possibility that fr. 270 issued from a context narrating how Melampus became a seer and subsequently examines the hypothesis that the poem began with a narration of the seer's deeds, including the cattle theft at Phylace and the cure of prince Iphiclus (frr. 271–272). The analysis of fragments 270–272 allows us to question if the presence of Melampus defines the poem, as the title suggests. The article presents some new suggestions regarding the poem's plot and narrative organization. Moreover, it proposes to consider the Melampodia as an "independent" epic whose broader scope seems to have a specific cultural value: to sing the history of the seers through time and space, their social impact, and their religious significance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Myeloid sarcoma (MS) is a rare hematological tumor that presents with extramedullary tumor masses comprising myeloid blasts. A controversial issue is whether MS involving normal hematopoietic sites (liver, spleen, and lymph nodes) should be excluded in future studies. We aimed to compare MS characteristics and outcomes involving hematopoietic and non-hematopoietic sites and construct a prognostic nomogram exclusively for the latter. Methods: Data from patients diagnosed with MS between 2000 and 2018 were collected from the Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results (SEER) database. According to the primary site, patients were classified as having MS involving hematopoietic sites (hMS) or non-hematopoietic sites (eMS). Clinical characteristics and survival outcomes were compared between the two groups using Wilcoxon, chi-square, and log-rank tests. Cox regression analysis was used to identify eMS prognostic factors to establish prognostic nomograms. The models' efficiency and value were assessed using receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curves, calibration curves, and decision curve analysis (DCA). Results: In total, 694 patients were enrolled, including 86 with hMS and 608 with eMS. There were no sex, race or marital status distribution differences between the two groups. Patients with eMS had better overall and cancerspecific survival rates than those with hMS. Additionally, prognostic factor effects differed between the two groups. Patients with eMS were randomly divided into the training (number of patiens, n=425) and validation cohorts (n=183). Age, first primary tumor, primary site, and chemotherapy were used to establish nomograms. The C-index values of overall survival (OS) and cancerspecific survival (CSS) nomograms were 0.733 (validation: 0.728) and 0.722 (validation: 0.717), respectively. Moreover, ROC, calibration curves, and DCA confirmed our models' good discrimination and calibration ability and potential clinical utility value. Conclusion: Our study described the differences between patients with eMS and those with hMS. Moreover, we developed novel nomograms based on clinical and therapeutic factors to predict patients with eMS' 1-, 3-and 5-year survival rates. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article examines a wave of divine interventions on four Cycladic Islands (Tinos, Naxos, Syros, and Santorini) in the 1820s and 1830s. The aim is to understand the social dynamics that created a specific atmosphere of religious fervour in the Aegean during that period and to build an idea of lay practice and lay reaction to the arrival of a Catholic sovereign and Protestant missionaries. Missionaries provided islanders with a new lens for looking at and questioning their own traditional religious practices. However, instead of rejection, their intervention brought about renewed commitment and zeal. In an attempt to prove the superiority of their own religion, Orthodox from the Cyclades started to unearth icons, crosses, and bones at the very moment that they were accused by Protestants of superstition. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the works of anthropologists, ethnologists and sociologists of the 19th and 20th centuries, we may notice their efforts to distinguish magic, on the one hand, from religion, and on the other, from science. One of the criteria, which set the boundaries between these field was the way, in which a community understood god/divinity. This, among others, enabled the identification of the three ‘ideal stages’ in the development of human culture: magical, religious and metaphysical-philosophical. This article is an attempt to analyse to what extent modern definitions of religion and magic can be applied in regard of ancient Greek culture. The surviving literary sources and other artefacts, which provide us with information on this culture, suggest that these stages, distinguished by modern researchers, never seemed to exist in ‘pure form’ in ancient Greek culture, but rather they intermingled and, at times barely noticeably, switched from one stage to another. Religion, magic and science not only functioned side-by-side, but they permeated and complemented each other.

Childhood papillary thyroid cancer is more aggressive than carcinomas in adults. Current American Thyroid Association pediatric guidelines recommend a total or near-total thyroidectomy for all pediatric patients without gross evidence of lymph node metastases. Our objective is to analyze trends in the surgical management of pediatric papillary thyroid cancer and assess how well the guidelines are implemented. A retrospective cohort study of pediatric patients (ages 19 y and under) who underwent a thyroidectomy was conducted using the Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results database 2006-2017. Procedure type was classified as lobectomy or less and subtotal or total thyroidectomy. Descriptive statistics to illustrate patient and tumor characteristics as well as chi-square analysis to evaluate frequency of treatment with total thyroidectomies versus lobectomy or less were performed. Logistic regression analysis controlling for age, sex, size of tumor, rural versus urban institutions, and surgery year was conducted to identify factors predictive of procedure type. A total of 2271 children underwent surgical management of papillary thyroid cancer between 2006 and 2017. Most patients received a subtotal or total thyroidectomy as surgical management (n = 2,085, 91.8%). One hundred eighty-six patients (8.2%) received a lobectomy or less. The number of lobectomies or less increased with time, with 41 (6.6%) patients between 2006 and 2009, 98 (8.0%) between 2009 and 2015, and 47 (11.1%) between 2016 and 2017 (P = 0.03). Mortality rates were low (n = 15, 0.7%). On logistic regression analysis, later stages, larger sizes, and earlier operative years were predictive of a near-total or total thyroidectomy. Despite the American Thyroid Association Guidelines recommending a total thyroidectomy for pediatric well-differentiated thyroid cancer, the results of this study demonstrate that thyroid lobectomies are being performed in increasing frequency for smaller tumors in earlier stages of disease. Further investigation of whether this trend actually affects the outcomes in this patient cohort is needed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The many scholars who have supposed that there were persons known as iatromanteis (healing-seers) who offered medical assistance in archaic and classical Greece have been in error—there was no such occupation. But manteis (seers) did sometimes offer medical advice in classical Greece, in addition to their other roles, especially—so it seems—during epidemics and to chronic patients, and notwithstanding the rise of Hippocratic medicine. The evidence to this effect is more extensive than is commonly realized. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the works of anthropologists, ethnologists and sociologists of the 19th and 20th centuries, we may notice their efforts to distinguish magic, on the one hand, from religion, and on the other, from science. One of the criteria, which set the boundaries between these field was the way, in which a community understood god/divinity. This, among others, enabled the identification of the three 'ideal stages' in the development of human culture: magical, religious and metaphysical-philosophical. This article is an attempt to analyse to what extent modern definitions of religion and magic can be applied in regard of ancient Greek culture. The surviving literary sources and other artefacts, which provide us with information on this culture, suggest that these stages, distinguished by modern researchers, never seemed to exist in 'pure form' in ancient Greek culture, but rather they intermingled and, at times barely noticeably, switched from one stage to another. Religion, magic and science not only functioned side-by-side, but they permeated and complemented each other. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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This study aimed to analyze the learning strategies most often used by blind students (study 1) and compare the learning strategies used by blind and sighted students (study 2). The first study involved the participation of 25 blind students, of both sexes, aged between 9 and 16 years, enrolled from 3rd to 9th grade of elementary school. The instruments used were a sociodemographic questionnaire and a semistructured interview. The data indicated that blind students use both cognitive and metacognitive strategies, but the repertoire variety is little. In study 2, 25 blind and 25 sighted students, of both sexes, aged between 9 and 16 years, enrolled from 3rd to 8th grade of elementary school, completed a sociodemographic questionnaire and a measure of learning strategies. The results showed homogeneity in the responses, indicating that both the blind and the sighted students reported using the same type of learning strategies. We conclude that blind and sighted students use cognitive and metacognitive strategies to study, but this repertoire is rather complex, indicating that they use the same strategies regardless of the content studied or the task to be performed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Lycophron’s Alexandra is often quoted as a literary source in the modern scholarship on the mythical origins of Etruria. The poem indeed refers to several mythological traditions that testify the curiosity that Lycophron had for Etruscan history. Moreover, certain visual images found in Etruscan sites provide unexpected parallels for the poem. The purpose of this paper is to explore the possible causes and meaning of these similitudes between poem and images. One of the possible answers may be sought in a close examination of the ideological use of images by the Etruscan elites of the Early Hellenistic period. A case study will be provided by the confrontation between the poem and a complex monument: the François Tomb in Vulci, which is one of the foremost examples of an elite and learned use of iconographical traditions.

Abstract: In this work, tetramethylsilane-based plasma-enhanced chemical vapor deposition (PECVD) processes were studied, and the deposited silicon-containing diamond-like carbon (DLC) films were analyzed. The main goal was to identify correlations between plasma parameters and the film structure and properties. The electron temperature, gas temperature, and hydrogen and silicon particle densities in these plasmas were calculated using optical emission spectroscopy measurements; the electron density and elastic electron collision rate were determined using self-excited electron resonance spectroscopy. The elemental composition of the films was determined by glow discharge optical emission spectroscopy, and the hardness and Young's modulus were characterized using nanoindentation. The plasma parameters of the gas temperature and electron temperature revealed stringent correlations with the film composition and properties and thus can already monitor the resulting properties during the deposition process. Increasing the gas temperature using power variation leads to reduced incorporation of silicon and hydrogen in the diamond-like carbon films with a simultaneous increase of the film hardness. However, a gas temperature increase using a higher gas flow rate results in a decrease in the film hardness and an increase in the silicon and hydrogen contents. These results are promising concerning the use of plasma parameters for process control of CVD processes. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

When searching for the "Indo-European" vision of fatherhood, following the advice of Georges Dumézil, one can turn to India and the oldest surviving religious text of this culture: the Rigveda. Rigveda is the fi rst of the Vedas, the most authoritative scriptures of Hinduism. Fatherhood in the hymns of Rigveda has numerous connotations, and is evoked in various situations. There are references to fatherhood among Gods, Seers, Ancestors as well as to the earthly fatherhood. Fatherhood among Gods is evoked in the description of genealogical relationship among Gods and other supernatural beings or phenomena and also as metaphorical idealisation of the Gods. Fatherhood is also evoked in the defining of the relationship between humans and Gods: particular Gods or their whole community. The Seers are also described as the fathers of mankind. Fatherhood appears in the references to the Ancestors - the creators of tradition, worthy of imitation. Human, earthly fatherhood is also evoked. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Ancient Greek seers (manteis) and Ancient Near Eastern prophets have often been compared with each other. Although in rare cases Greek seers communicate a divine message to a wider audience and are thus comparable to Ancient Near Eastern prophets and Israelite-Jewish prophets in particular, Greek seers are distinctly different from Ancient Near Eastern prophets. In most cases Greek seers employ forms of deductive divination while the use of deductive divination is the exception with Israelite-Jewish prophets. If Greek seers use intuitive divination they do not rely on divine revelations but have special ability to perceive more than normal human beings. Although Ancient Near Eastern prophets and Greek manteis do thus not equate, the comparison of the two sheds better light on the characteristics of both. On the one hand, the Ancient Near Eastern understanding of the prophet emphasizes heavily his reliance on divine revelation. This is especially true for Israelite and Jewish prophets. On the other hand, the Greek mantis acts mostly as a diviner in his own right. His special insights and knowledge go back to his abilities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In order to quantitatively interpret the previous experimental single electron emission rates (SEERS) obtained by Guile et al (1997), the Richardson/Dushman-Schottky (1914) expression is extended by invoking the concept of multiple images of the emitted electron in the naturally occurring or grown oxide layer covering the metal cathode, first proposed by Silvester (1968) in another application. This leads to a new expression for the Schottky barrier lowering term being obtained, involving a converging infinite series of terms, solvable on a computer, and enables the SEERS to be computed for cathodes covered with varying thicknesses of oxide. Numerical agreement between applied theory and experiment is excellent and requires the postulated presence of electron multiplication-avalanching-in the oxide layer. This method can be further applied to the presence of liquid and/or solid dielectric insulation between oxide covered metal electrodes and can take into account the presence of the anode for small electrode spacings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]