Jonathan Harris

Induction of rat liver GSH transferases by 1,2-dithiole-3-thione illustrates both anticarcinogenic and tumor-promoting properties.

1,2-Dithiole-3-thione is an antioxidant showing protective effects in rodents against carcinogens such as aflatoxin B 1 (1,2,13,37). It increases hepatic GSH and several GSH-dependent enzymes including GSH transferases (GSTs) (2,14) that catalyze the detoxification of aflatoxin B 1 -8,9-oxide, the ultimate carcinogen. We had previously concluded (5) that in phenobarbitol-induced rat liver, GSTs 1-1 and 1-2 are most important among soluble GSTs in this reaction. We have since shown that these fractions contain not only two forms of GST subunit 1, namely la(Ya1) and 1b(Ya2) (25), which are distinct gene products (9) corresponding, respectively, to the cDNAs pGTR 261 (16) and pGTB 38 (28) but also present is a small amount of GST subunit 10 (23). It has been shown by Hayes et al. (9) that feeding aflatoxin-induced subunit lb more than la suggsting that lb may be more active in detoxication of the oxide. In the present report, the induction of GST subunits in rat liver by 1,2-dithiole-3-thione is quantitated and the relative activity of GST subunits la, lb, 2, and 10 toward aflatoxin B 1 -8,9-oxide is determined.

Distortion, divine providence and genre in Nicetas Choniates's account of the collapse of Byzantium 1180–1204

Historians have differed widely in their assessments of the Byzantine historian, Nicetas Choniates, and his account of the collapse of the Byzantine empire during the years 1180–1204. Some have seen him as blaming the Latins in general and as doggedly believing that they were planning to conquer Constantinople from the outset. Others have presented him as a balanced commentator who could see wrong on both sides, and have suggested that his real explanation for the downfall of the empire lies in divine providence. This paper argues that neither assessment does justice to Choniatess skill as an historian, and that the only way to understand his explanations is to appreciate the literary genre in which he wrote. It was a genre which, although superficially dependent on classical models, based its conception of historical causation on a very Byzantine preoccupation, the character and deeds of individual emperors. For Choniates, the main reason for the collapse of the empire was the weaknesses of the emperors ruling at the time, and their failure to live up to the divinely ordained ideal.

Byzantium: The Surprising Life of a Medieval Empire – By Judith Herrin

The German welfare system ultimately proved repeatedly unable to provide an equivalent structure that could have overcome the individual state’s interests. Such broader aspects may have come out in the analysis more clearly if Hennock had been able to expand his study beyond England and Prussia. The author relies on secondary literature and printed primary sources, and therefore little could be expected in original research. Rather, the strength of his book lies in his comparative approach. The largest contribution of this book, so Hennock says himself, lies in the highlighting of issues that beg further archival research (5). His style of prose is fluent and he succeeds in presenting his arguments not only succinctly but also convincingly.

The Goudelis family in Italy after the Fall of Constantinople

Abstract Two letters from the Vatican Registers for 1461–2, regarding funds lodged in the Bank of St George in Genoa by George Goudelis, are presented. The investment was originally intended to provide an income for the convent of St Nicholas in Constantinople but Goudelis made a proviso that if the city were to fall to the Turks, it should be used to sustain the poor. His son Manuel and granddaughter, Maria, were now petitioning the pope to have the money released to support their families. The differences between the two letters are discussed as is their significance for late Byzantine prosopography.

Wars and rumours of wars: England and the Byzantine world in the eighth and ninth centuries

Recent scholarship has tended to react against generalizations about Byzantine cultural influence in early medieval Europe, especially the supposition that the level of such influence remained constant over several centuries. This paper argues that while caution is indeed necessary, generalizations can sometimes be made. Taking the attitude of the English between 600 and 1000 as an example, it is argued that openness to Byzantine influence remained constant, even in periods of no apparent contact, like the eighth and ninth centuries. This conclusion is based on two points: first, an investigation of the psychological response to the Viking invasions, a response conditioned by the English perception of their isolation; and, secondly, a close examination of the question of the authenticity and significance of the correspondence between Alfred the Great and the Patriarch Elias of Jerusalem.

Jeremy Bentham, Official Aptitude Maximized; Expense Minimized (ed. Philip Schofield) , Oxford: The Clarendon Press, 1993. Pp. li, 504.

Extract from constitutional code defence of economy against Burke defence of economy against Rose observations on Peels speech indications respecting Lord Eldon on public account keeping.

75.00 (ISBN 0-19-820403-5).

It is generally thought, largely on the basis of a letter of Cardinal Bessarion, that, by the 1440s, the Byzantine Empire had been completely overtaken by the West in all spheres of technical expertise. This idea is challenged the evidence of some documents the Public Record Office in London which show that, between at least 1441 and 1483, two gold wire drawers from Constantinople, named Andronicus and Alexius Effomatos, lived and worked in the English capital. It is argued that these craftsmen were welcomed because they specialised in making gold thread of a type which had long been manufactured in Byzantium but was superior in strength and economy to that produced in England. Indeed, since the earliest evidence for native English production of this type of gold thread dates from the period of their residence in London, there is at least the possibility that they actually introduced their craft into England, reversing the relative balance of technology as it is usually portrayed.